Report 1076

Report #1076
Skillset: Tracking Skill: Snakepit
 Org: Ur'Guard Status: Completed Mar 2013
Furies' Decision:
We do not like the idea of riftable snakes. Solution 1.
Problem: The transcendent skill in tracking, snake pit, is simply not effective
and as a result is rarely used. Changes are needed to make it more useful and
more representative of a transcendent skill. The two biggest issues are the
limited impact from the actual pit and the fact that the trap is difficult to
use in a combat situation other than a pre-setup pit. With regards to damage,
from testing with a range of snakes, the impact of 5 snakes is often less than
an envenomed spikepit. With regards to use, there is an issue with the snakes
coming into the main room when the person who triggered it climbs out, meaning
if they are aggressive they attack allies. You must also have 5 snakes to lay
and conceal the pit.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #1: Change mechanism to keep snakes in pit even after the
 trap has been triggered and make snakepit an
 extension to normal pits (ie you add the snakes to an
 existing active pit), where you can add a variable
 number of snakes up to the current limit of 5.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #2: Solution 1 plus increase the number of snakes allowed
 in the pits to 10 in order to increase the
 effectiveness of this skill.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #3: Refer to solution Ushaara's complimentary report 1098
 and http://pastebin.com/4WkJEH8j
Player Comments:
---[Celina on 2/26 @ 01:12 writes]:
Supported. Poor trackers. I always feel bad for them.
---[Shuyin on 2/26 @ 07:43 writes]:
Riftable snakes. Do it.
---[Dynami on 2/27 @ 20:16 writes]:
Solutions 1 and 2 supported. Solution 3 not supported in current form. I am not
sure how I feel about pit+concussion unless there is a heavy power cost
associated.
---[Dynami on 2/27 @ 20:17 writes]:
Oh, I forgot to mention that I like Shuyin's idea.
---[Morbo on 3/8 @ 16:03 writes]:
I would suggest a different solution. Make people in snake pits not targetable
by those above the pit, snakes in the pit are made to be level 80 mobs that you
must kill before you can climb out of the pit. Change snakepit to require a
riftable item instead of snakes, an item to summon powerful snakes to the pit
---[Ushaara on 3/10 @ 14:01 writes]:
My own thinking is that three choices of 'pits' in the Tracking skill is a bit
redundant, when as you say spikepits can have near the same effectiveness,
making Tracking's transcendent skill go largely unused. But of these solutions I
support #1.
---[Rivius on 3/11 @ 16:43 writes]:
I definitely do agree that tracking has legitimate problems in its overall
design, namely that there are many traps that are vitually useless in any
situation and that the reliance on traps alone leads to a very inflexible and
frustrating style of combat. Let's be realistic here, however. Pits (in hand
with spring traps) represent the most powerful tool in the tracker's arsenal.
They become costly to escape, are incredibly powerful hindering and give a
tracker so much area control that they can be nearly untouchable if they wanted
to be. A pre-pitted area can lock down an area completely. Spike pits and
vanilla pits alone are already incredibly strong and actually problematic in
some ways. So while I do believe that snakepit is a poor transcendant skill (for
its redundancy and awkwardness), I have to ask if we really need another more
powerful pit at all! I'd really rather just toss out the skill entirely and
replace it with a new mechanic that isn't even necessarily another trap. I do
not like Morbo's idea at all. Tracking is not hurting for player isolation in
the least. Solution 2 as you suggested is a huge no from me as well since it's
just another buff to something that doesn't need it. Of the solutions offered
here, solution 1 ONLY I'd support. ===== To clarify, I believe snake pit is not
a good transcendant skill not because it isn't strong, but rather because given
the extra requirements, people will almost always (and do, infact) just elect to
use vanilla pits or spike pits ===.
---[Shuyin on 3/12 @ 06:41 writes]:
Tbh I do kind of share Rivius' opinions. I can agree with a change to snakepits
insofar as to make it more useable (like that sweet riftable snake idea), but an
overall buff to tracking (pits especially) probably isn't warranted. I do kind
of enjoy the idea of traps that a tracker can fire whenever though.
---[Ushaara on 3/12 @ 14:24 writes]:
Not to hijack this report further, but since Shuyin mentioned similar idea to
mine, I have been playing with a very early draft of new transcendent ability,
Report #1098. Solution #1 still a nice improvement for Snakepit here though!
---[Eventru on 3/24 @ 18:55 writes]:
Making snakes level 80 makes zero sense, heh.
---[Eventru on 3/24 @ 19:03 writes]:
Riftable snakes isn't really possible, not like you want anyways.