Report 1446

Special Report #1446
Skillset: Knighthood Skill: Skewer
 Org: Serenguard Status: Completed Feb 2016
Furies' Decision:
Solution 2.
Problem: Skewer currently requires critical gut and chest wounds, as well as the
target to be impaled. This is one of the more viable warrior kills, however it
suffers from one small issue. Writhing impales takes less time than the average
warrior balance time, which makes it difficult to follow up with a skewer. The
only thing that delays writhing impales is knocking the target off-balance
before hand. This is not viable to force as a Cavalier, though if fighting a
class that uses balance, you may theoretically hit impale at a lucky time after
their attack that might delay the initiation of a writhe. Either way, either
warrior balance times or impale writhe times would need to be changed to make
this kill method more reliable overall, which is a sticky issue since impales
arguably don't need that sort of buff and warrior strike times really shouldn't
be made faster. Some solutions are proposed below.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #1: This solution is conditional on report 1447 solution
 1 being accepted, raising the ice affliction cure
 delay at critical wounds. Add CrushedChest to
 Cavalier at heavy or critical wounds. Replace
 impaledgut with this as the new affliction
 requirement for skewer. This solution avoids messing
 with writhe times or warrior balance times.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #2: Raise impaledgut writhing time with gut wounds, to a
 limit of 4 seconds at critical wounds.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #3: Change skewer to a 2-step command and reduce its
 power to 2p each time. If the target has critical
 chest and gut but NOT impaled, the first SKEWER will
 perform the equivalent of STRIKE TARGET GUT IMPALE,
 as well as apply a 2-3 second balance loss. If the
 target is impaled, the second SKEWER will perform the
 kill as it currently does, assuming the target still
 has critical chest and gut wounds. The first instance
 of SKEWER (the impale) should be parryable, the
 second instance (the kill) should not.
Player Comments:
---[Shuyin on 2/15 @ 19:18 writes]:
Solution 2 is simpler IMO.
---[Xenthos on 2/15 @ 20:54 writes]:
I was able to get a Skewer kill by leveraging Steed Pincharge & Skewer. That's
the only way I can see of getting it work though. I don't particularly like
solution 1 though. It's not thematically appropriate, and it's still just
another aff you need to land & stick. Why not make skewer a 2-step process?
You can SKEWER TARGET if both chest & gut are critical. If the target is not
impaled, the first usage of it will apply the impaled affliction and a 2-3s stun
(assuming not parried). If the target IS impaled, it will do the instakill
(second stage does not check parry, as per current usage). This way you do not
buff gut impale for everyone and you make it practical to use. The AB doesn't
say anything about power costs right now, but when I used it in combat it cost
me 4p, so split it up (2p on the initial activation, and 2p on the finisher).
Someone can try to save your target by gusting you out of the room and/or
webbing you so that your target can writhe out before you are able to pull off
the final blow. It is slightly more complicated, but I think easier to work
with instead of replacing the aff entirely OR buffing all gut impales.
---[Shuyin on 2/15 @ 21:24 writes]:
Impale gut from Cavs is currently (?) the only gut impale left in the game.
Raising the writhe time to 4s is way simpler than any other solution presented
here
---[Xenthos on 2/15 @ 21:37 writes]:
But also means that just using standard gut impale (normal usage, not skewer
usage) will keep a target locked down longer. If it is the only gut impale then
I guess there is no balance with other specs / classes that needs to be
considered, then it has potential, but I'm a little skeptical about keeping
people impaled for longer by default.
---[Tredian on 2/16 @ 00:42 writes]:
Trying to compare with other Knighthood kills, I think Impale could be changed
with a prone/bleeding/another aff requirement. Lengthening Impale would
definitely seal the kill, but would also open target to escape or torture.
---[Rivius on 2/16 @ 00:56 writes]:
Xenthos' solution sounds very good to me too. I'll include it as solution 3.
---[Wobou on 2/18 @ 07:10 writes]:
Solution 2 or 3 both sound fine to me. It's true that sol. 2 would be a general
buff to cavalier hindering but I think you should be rewarded for reaching
critical. I don't think the writhe time should necessarily scale linearly on the
wound amount though. Light wounding should be the same writhe time as now, with
a jump at heavy and a jump to 4s at critical. Although that being said I don't
actually know what the current writhe time is so maybe going linearly would be
equivalent.