Report 236

Report #236
Skillset: Skill: Pox
 Org: Cacophony Status: Completed Aug 2009
Furies' Decision:
Pox will have a small chance of displaying secondary line now.
Problem: Pox is a very minor affliction. It gives a small drain to health/mana
each time it tics, which is fairly random. However, each time it drains there is
a secondary message that makes this insignificant affliction very easy to detect
and cure with liniment. It is also one of the five plague afflictions that
Necroscream is based upon and complicates efforts to either build afflictions or
stick helpful afflictions
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #1: Remove the secondary message from pox. Given it
 drains very little health/mana (we're talking 100-200
 sometimes 10+ seconds apart), we think the best route
 to improving this plague affliction would be to make
 it harder to detect more so than a stronger
 affliction. There is precedence for this as seen with
 the powersink affliction that can be given by
 Guardian pacts
Player Comments:
---[Nienla on 8/5 @ 15:49 writes]:
Pox is a terrible affliction across the board. I'm in favour for some sort of
buff on it. I'd also be in favour if it did not wake the individual as well. All
too often I find a good sleeplock broken because my Slaugh decides to afflict
with Pox and wake my target up.
---[Llandros on 8/5 @ 22:23 writes]:
The trouble with modifying pox is that it is given in numerous ways through many
skill sets. It often takes the role of the weakest affliction in a set and seems
to purposely play that function. This is a minor enough tweak for it to still be
simply a nuisance affliction in the various sets it is in. Also, I believe this
will be just enough of a boost that the Cacophony needs in building plague
afflictions without being too powerful since pox shares the same cure as
scabies, another plague affliction given by SickeningPlague, and will likely be
inadvertently cured whenever scabies tics.
---[Alban on 8/12 @ 23:29 writes]:
The secondary message does make pox worthless. It isn't worth the time to give
it to someone when they can recognize and cure it so quickly, and the only thing
you gain from it is a very very slight drain. I think removing the message, or
just making the message only have a small chance of appearing each time pox
ticks, is a good route to take.
---[Ceren on 8/23 @ 11:17 writes]:
Seems sound. Will make the affliction easier to stick without actually giving it
a bigger punch.