Report 1155

Special Report #1155
Skillset: Wyrdenwood Skill: Noose
 Org: Hartstone Status: Rejected Apr 2013
Furies' Decision:
We do not think this is necessary.
Problem: Noose is currently the only long range (Line of Sight) 'sniping' skill
in the game that has any effect besides damage. In the past, changes have been
made to cut down on the number of abilities that can be used on a victim at
range with relative impunity, changes like the sweeping demesne nerfs and
ethereal geography changes. The only skills I'm aware of that allow complex
maneuvers without presenting yourself **in the room of your victim or in a room
adjacent to your victim** are the Moon/Night long distance coven abilities, Rage
and Terror. Both of them require several appropriate players to convene, are
time sensitive, and give ample warning to all those in the range of their
effects. Adding an ability to the game that allows users to not only participate
in "sniping" - the use of triggers to combine staff/cudgel/zap ranged attacks to
deliver damgage to opponents during a standoff without needing to engage them -
but to participate in dealing damage while also dealing the only ranged entangle
in the game - which prevents raising shields to block the sniping!
Solution #1: When used on a target at range, disable the entangling portion of
 noose.
Solution #2: Limit the noose special damage attack to room only, bringing it
 in line with other ranged damage dealers. Allow vine flail to be
 performed at range bringing this specialization in line with
 other specializations.
Solution #3: As solution 1, but with slightly increased bleeding as the noose
 rips off instead of becoming embedded/entangling.
Player Comments:
---[Synkarin on 4/23 @ 04:51 writes]:
I don't feel this is really a big deal, range entangle isn't really going to
cause an overabundance of problems. 1) shielding prevents it in the first place.
2) entangles don't stack on top of each other, so you'll only ever have one
entangle at a time. 3) entangles don't prevent allies from salting you to
protect you from damage.
---[Vadi on 4/23 @ 04:59 writes]:
I disagree. Ranged vines isn't *that* amazing with summer and shield, and you're
already putting yourself in danger by being adjacent - it is in imputiny. You
can be radded, tackled in, maybe beckoned. I don't see a need to remove this
perk of the skillset, as it is the only one really (there's no aeon and so
forth).
---[Shuyin on 4/23 @ 05:05 writes]:
If the issue is groups, salting really is a great counter to this, IMO. If
you're getting focused, a decent group would be mashing the salt alias as soon
as they see that. Even then, you can always summer/tipheret.
---[Ushaara on 4/25 @ 20:37 writes]:
I don't particularly like the idea of ranged entangle, but if it is to stay, I'd
hope that like the decision on pull-type abilities, attempting to noose from an
adjacent room takes balance even if it fails.
---[Enyalida on 5/3 @ 16:36 writes]:
I'm going to reiterate that the core problem is going back on years of balancing
and introducing more ranged afflictions instead of fewer. We're already having
to reinvent the wheel with these skillsets in a lot of frustrating ways, let's
not stack this one on when there is such an easy fix to it.