Report 1592

Report #1592
Skillset: Psychometabolism Skill: CellAdjustment
 Org: Nekotai Status: Completed Feb 2017
Furies' Decision:
Solution 2
Problem: In the previous CellAdjustment report (#875), the numbers suggested
were supposed to give a real risk of burning out in exchange for very strong
curing. However, the ego costs do not seem to be enough for that purpose. At the
same time, because of the way the skill is set up, there is a high chance of the
healing bursts to overheal (when the user is at high health already) and not
provide much benefit - especially for the choices that gives a bigger heals.
This combines to make it an ability where only the safer options are used, and
the risk-for-reward choice is rarely excercised. This report aims to address
both problems together, by adjusting the numbers and the way CellAdjustment
gives its benefit.
[A: 0 R: 1] Solution #1: Change CellAdjustment to only have two choices: PSI
 <CHANNEL> CELLADJUSTMENT <HIGH|LOW>. The "Low" option
 should correspond with current "1" option (1000
 health healed when triggered, 45s cooldown) - but
 incur a 25% max ego cost instead of a flat 1000 ego
 cost. This has still very little chance of burning
 out, with a low intensity cure. The "High" option
 should have its values adjusted as thus: (4500 health
 healed when triggered, 10s cooldown) - but incur a
 80% max ego cost instead. Both options should still
 be triggered only when their respective amounts of
 cumulative damage has been taken, as described in
 #875. The numbers for the "High" option puts it
 firmly within burnout levels. In return for this,
 allow CellAdjustment heals to put a Psymet's current
 health above his maxhealth. This means that if the
 "High" version heal triggers when the Psymet is at
 99% health, the leftover won't be wasted, and will
 become a health buffer. This ensures that
 CellAdjustment will always have an effect, especially
 the High intensity version. It removes the "safer"
 mid intensity version, so that a Psymet has to
 actually risk burnout if he wants a lock that heals
 him aggressively.
[A: 5 R: 1] Solution #2: As per Wobou's suggestion: Same as solution 1, except
 that instead of static health healed, to tie it with
 the amount of ego spent, so as to ensure that this
 ability won't be too over-the-top for players with
 lower maxhealth (like non demigods), and can be
 reasonably used by everyone. For the "Low" option, it
 should be 100% of the ego used. For the "High"
 option, it should be 50% of the ego used. Naturally,
 the ability should also only fire when enough
 cumulative damage equivalent to that (now variable)
 value is taken. So, as an example, I have 10000 max
 ego. When I use the "Low" option, I will heal 2500
 damage when I have taken a total of 2500 damage, and
 incur a 2500 ego cost, with a 45s cooldown. If I use
 the "High" option, I will heal for 4000 damage when I
 have taken a total of 4000 damage and incur a 8000
 ego cost, with a 10s cooldown. If my max ego changes,
 the numbers will all change along with it.
Player Comments:
---[Wobou on 1/3 @ 00:25 writes]:
I'm okay with both of these but I prefer solution 2. As Lerad mentions in the
solutions I worry that a static amount of health will cause weirdnesses with
folks who have low health pools. For example the proposed low on solution 1 used
on someone with 1000 health will cost 250 ego to heal 100% of max health. Since
many things in this game scale off of maximum health partially (and frankly all
things should) folks with lower health take less damage proportionately so being
able to heal such a large portion of max health is a big deal. The same is true
for the high version at 4500 health. Someone with 5k max health would then be
able to heal 90% of their max health in trade for 80% of their ego which is a
pretty good trade. I also think that solution 2 provides a neat synergy with
illithoid by rewarding having good vitals in the stat that tends to be ignored
the most even among psymets.
---[Lerad on 2/5 @ 03:12 writes]:
This report was pushed back from the January slot, and is now in the February
slot.
---[Aeldra on 2/8 @ 13:40 writes]:
Support for solution 2. I'd support solution 1 as well, but I feel solution 2 is
the better choice.
---[Demartel on 2/14 @ 16:25 writes]:
Solution 2
---[Shuyin on 2/16 @ 02:12 writes]:
2 is fine
---[Gero on 2/16 @ 05:28 writes]:
Support for solution 2
---[Malarious on 2/18 @ 01:28 writes]:
My concern is the same as before. Ego is not a cost if someone cannot do
anything to it. in almost every case, you'd rahter just lock hig since it is
fast and ego isnt important. I'd like to see the health numbers toned down if
this stays prepatory. You are saying "I will lose ego, which I know I dont care
about or I wouldnt use this ability" and can heal a crapton of health on a smal
timer. The amount should be much lower, or all the timers need to be 45s. No one
will use this if they'd burn out, much less kill them.
---[Lerad on 2/20 @ 12:15 writes]:
There are plenty of ego draining abilities in the game. Using this (and things
like bloodboil) against those classes would be similar to suicide, so yes, a
psymet user would need to look carefully before putting it up. On the other
hand, there certainly are situations where you want to tank a large amount of
damage, even at the risk of burning out - or if you're being focused. This
ability will give psymet a, indeed narrow, but very potent ability to tank that
is outside of what other traditional tanky classes can do. At the same time, it
has serious drawbacks. Just like how numbness can lead to death, so too can
celladjustment exact a painful cost. There are obvious differences - burnout is
not straight death, and a heal burst is not damage immunity. That said, I'm not
really going to make this a mirror of numbness. They certainly will have
differences in when/where they are used - and just as I don't see numbness as
useless, and I don't see celladjustment becoming useless either. The problem
that the previous (or current) iteration of celladjustment fails some of its
supposed goals, however, is valid. Addressing that failure to provide
tankability that comes with risk, is an important step now. Further changes, if
this report renders celladjustment something no one will use, as you say, can be
considered after we ensure that the previous goal of celladjustment is met.