Report 118

Report #118
Skillset: Druidry Skill: Fury
 Org: Blacktalon Status: Completed Jan 2009
Furies' Decision:
Will review and adjust discrepencies as necessary.
Problem: Fury is pathetic when compared to Geomancy's Pollute and Aquamancy's
Maelstrom. Geomancy's Pollute also has the bonus skill synergy of raise staff,
which is 15% increased damage. There are a few problems with Fury. First, it has
no damage source, so there is no way to increase it's damage via stats.
Geomancy's Pollute is a magical damage source, so on top of synergistic skills
like raise staff, geomancers may seek intelligence buffs to up the damage of
Pollute. Second, Fury has the worst damage types of the three abilities, It is
100% cutting, this is one of the most easily resisted damage types and there are
abilities like putre that are outside of DMP to reduce it's damage
significantly. Not only that, but because it is 100% cutting (a physical damage
type) the Rune of Absorption can fully absorb the damage of this attack,
completely negating it. Pollute is 100% poison, a great damage type with plenty
of synergy. Maelstrom is 25% Electric, 25% Heat, 25% Asphyxiation, 25%
Unblockable. Electric and heat are the two most popular elemental runes to get
because they are great damage types to have. Unblockable damage type is the best
damage type out there. Also, Fury removes all runes and motes embedded in every
room of a demesne. This is significant as there is no way to embed a room for
your entire demesne like you can with demesne effects. Runes and motes must
personally be embedded in each room and so, by having a demesne prepared with
embedded rooms, this alone is enough to deter the use of Fury
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #1: Change fury's damage source to be magical because it
 has no damage source and is one of the most easily
 reduced damage types (cutting), it is far too weak to
 even consider using. Also, make it so that when
 casting fury, runes and motes are -not- removed from
 the demesne. These must be personally embedded in
 every room of a demesne that one wishes to have them
 in. Not only that, but multiple runes/motes may be
 embedded in each room. Having a 50 room demesne lose
 two runes/motes a room is enough to deter any use of
 Fury.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #2: Change fury's damage type to 100% electric or any
 kind of hybrid combination that doesn't involve
 cutting/blunt. Ex: 50% electric 50% magic. Including
 a portion that is cutting or blunt is acceptable if
 and only if an equal portion of its damage type is
 changed to be unblockable. Also, make it so that when
 casting fury, runes and motes are -not- removed from
 the demesne. These must be personally embedded in
 every room of a demesne that one wishes to have them
 in. Not only that, but multiple runes/motes may be
 embedded in each room. Having a 50 room demesne lose
 two runes/motes a room is enough to deter any use of
 Fury.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #3: Make it so that when casting fury, runes and motes
 are -not- removed from the demesne. These must be
 personally embedded in every room of a demesne that
 one wishes to have them in. Not only that, but
 multiple runes/motes may be embedded in each room.
 Having a 50 room demesne lose two runes/motes a room
 is enough to deter any use of Fury. Also, a
 combination of the the changes above could be
 appropriate, that is, changing the damage source and
 damage types.
Player Comments:
---[Xiel on 1/14 @ 07:52 writes]:
With the imbalance showed by the skills of Druidry Fury and Aquamancy Maelstorm
in contrast to Geomancy Pollute, the fact that neither Maelstorm nor Fury
possesses a damage source leaves them actually hitting weaker than the all
poison-type Pollute because intelligence buffs and any other damage boosting
buffs are unable to be applied to either of the first two skills whereas it can
be applied to Pollute for devastating effect. Either the imbalance was an
overlooked concept or Pollute is just a stand-alone mistaken case, it's up to
the admin, but I agree in that Fury's damage type -must- be changed because of
the altogether possibility for an RoA to negate the effects of this skill
completely because of its physical damage type when the rune doesn't block the
other two skills because of their non-physical types leaves this transcendent
skill fairly lacking.
---[Krellan on 1/14 @ 08:47 writes]:
It's still popular belief that Maelstrom is indeed magically sourced despite
what the AB's says. It has shown to do incredible damage compared to Fury as
well and granted it has great damage types, so that alone may be the reason.
However, it's a fairly common opinion that maelstrom and pollute have always
been strong. This leads me to believe that the AB is just wrong. I still need
time to do at least some rough testing of maelstrom. The way I'd like to do it
would be to do it twice to a neutral race with basic defences to make sure
damage is constant each use. Remove all magic runes, karma blessings of course.
Then, assuming that damage is the same both times, maelstrom again with a magic
damage rune.
---[Nejii on 1/16 @ 02:15 writes]:
100% electric is probably roughly comparable to 100% poison, given the various
resistances certain guilds have (except the difference in numbers between
merians and kephera, trill and loboshigaru); do maelstrom and pollute lose
motes/runes?; make ram able to destroy walls of text