Report 874

Report #874
Skillset: Psychometabolism Skill: CellAdjustment
 Org: Nekotai Status: Rejected Jan 2013
Furies' Decision:
Rejected. We are concerned about the potential for excessive regenerative
capabilities with harmony monks here; We also do not like the idea of creating
an indepedent balance - psionic skills should use psionic balances.
Problem: Cell Adjustment (CA) transmutes 1,100 ego into 1,000 health through the
Substratus. CA requires eq/bal to be performed, and will prevent eq/bal actions
while in a 4s channel recovery. As such, CA is suboptimal for either
hunting/combat. Its current application is to mitigate the health cost of
BodyFuel. By comparison, Athletics Transmute converts over 1k mana into 1,000
health, requires but does not consume eq/bal, and can be spammed. Transmute does
not carry the risk of ego burnout. It's also worth noting that Beastmastery
Healing is far superior to CA. This report seeks to bring some parity between
these skills by tweaking CA (while giving careful consideration to also balance
against the ego bloat of illithoids due to their inner worm).
Solution #1: Change CA from open action to locked channel defense with
 separate syntaxes for def up and ability use (i.e. see
 PortraitReading for a parallel mechanic). CA should work an
 independent balance timer of 4s - 8s. Additional consideration to
 also consume some willpower.
Solution #2: Significantly raise the healing cap from 1k to 3k (maintaining
 the current health:ego cost ratio) since CA is seriously
 constrained by substratus recovery and cannot be spammed like
 Transmute during active hunting/combat.
Player Comments:
---[Janalon on 1/16 @ 21:17 writes]:
I wanted to pre-empt the comments by posting two counter-arguments. First, CA
use under illithoid ego bloat should be balanced with skill cool down. In no way
should CA surpass Transmute. Secondly, there is a general need for the skill,
especially for Stealth monks. Harmony regen stack, combined w/Psymet & racial
regen, imbalances this need. However, it is not the current etiquette to nerfs
others, and the lack of active/productive Harmony monk envoys leaves this
concern unaddressed. I don't believe this should constitute an argument against
this report.
---[Kaikazu on 1/22 @ 10:42 writes]:
Given all the points raised, esp. the no-nerf etiquette, I agree a solution is
required. That said, I'm concerned what you're doing in order to balance Stealth
monks, in comparison with Harmony, will backfire considering Harmony monks can
take this too and be doubly happy for it. I can't offer any other solutions,
though, so for now either solution has my tentative support.
---[Celina on 1/24 @ 15:27 writes]:
This does kind of open the door for some massive healing capabilities for
harmony monks, beyond even the most defensive of guilds, namely healers. I feel
like we would need to address the triple regen mantras first before we could
push this through, though I do support it. I just have a hard time supporting it
with the existence of particular balance issues.
---[Janalon on 1/25 @ 11:50 writes]:
I was able to reach out to both Harmony monk Envoys (YAY!), and have encouraged
them to review and comment. It will be valuable to get their insight given the
concerns raise about CellAdjust + Harmony triple Regen.
---[Naralis on 1/26 @ 00:05 writes]:
I support this, but yeah... something needs to be done with the Harmony triple
regen because both together would just be ridiculous.
---[Steingrim on 1/26 @ 03:26 writes]:
Seems that either we 1) make it work more like transmute, 2) make it some
heartstone knockoff, 3) make it more resist dmp [less likely], 4) make it a
short-term out of phase ability (interesting possibilities and various ways this
could be done), 5) phantom max health bonus, 6) passive grapple (see following
comment), 7) same ability, but as a consumable defence (see following).
---[Steingrim on 1/26 @ 03:33 writes]:
Passive grapple: Make it a locked channel ability that has a certain chance that
physical attacks passively afflict with entangle or additional offbal. Think as
blow from attacker's hits the pysmet users bodydensity shifts and gives then
traps.
---[Steingrim on 1/26 @ 03:45 writes]:
Celladjustment as a defense: Perhaps the smallest change which would still make
the skill useful, would be to make it a defense. Put it up and then when you
need it, you would consume the defence. Perhaps psi celladjust or just
celladjust). This still keeps it a subpar transmute and as you need 1) bal/eq,
2) an open channel to put it back up, 3) PLUS it consumes the channel balance
when redeffed, and 4) would need to wait until you recovered channel balance
after putting the def back up, it should have little impact on game balance.
Given all those restrictions it would not need to seem to need any additional
timers added.
---[Vadi on 1/26 @ 04:02 writes]:
I support solution 1.
---[Enyalida on 1/26 @ 07:29 writes]:
Solution 1 makes sense, but I second (or whatever) the concerns on harmony
monks.
---[Steingrim on 1/26 @ 08:24 writes]:
Solution 1 supported, but if felt to be too much I think the tweak
'celladjustment as a defense comment' makes it slightly better than it is
currently currently.
---[Enyalida on 1/26 @ 18:05 writes]:
As a side note, I don't support any of the 'solution 4s' suggested in the
comments. A passive reactive grapple on monks is hiliarously overpowered.
Solution 1 achieves the 'consume focus' style is solution 1 but less
elegant/more clunky.
---[Enyalida on 1/26 @ 18:06 writes]:
Oops, remove the second 'solution 1' in my above comment
---[Steingrim on 1/26 @ 22:54 writes]:
Enyalida It wasn't my intent that any passive grapple would be on every hit,
that would of course be too much. My thought was that it woould be a chance -- I
do think it is an interesting mechanic.