Report 188

Report #188
Skillset: Ascendance Skill: Fearaura
 Org: Cacophony Status: Completed May 2009
Furies' Decision:
Skill will be adjusted in upcoming review of the Ascendance skillset.
Problem: Fearaura is currently too powerful in that, short of walling every
exit, it makes it impossible to keep a group together in a room, and does so
passively, without a powercost, and is a 100% mobile effect. Furthermore, it
creates an imbalance in that half the game's orgs are much more affected than
the other half by this skill that is available to every org and radically
changes the dyamic of combat (yes I said it, wolf totem). Such an imbalance is
like if only one org or one faction was able to make undissolvable protection
scrolls (not to imply that fearaura has become quite as central to combat as
demesnes, but the imbalance is along those lines).
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #1: Change the effect of fearaura to have a chance of
 stopping people (20% or so) from leaving the room in
 the same fashion as carcer, whirlpool, and that
 spiritsinger thing. Could be something like, "You
 falter in your tracks as shadowy nightmares swarm
 over your field of vision."
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #2: Change the effect of fearaura to slow people from
 leaving the room (by 1 second or so) in the same
 fashion as shrine gravity and sobbingdread. Could be
 something like, "You slowly move to the north,
 stumbling in awe of x's overwhelming power." Another
 interesting thing we could do with this is also make
 it slow movement -into- the ascendant's room.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #3: At least nerf wolf totem to 50% or so resistance to
 fear to mitigate (rather, make apply to everyone) the
 significant advantage this skill that everyone gets
 currently gives to only 2 orgs.
Player Comments:
---[Xenthos on 5/25 @ 00:13 writes]:
Note that there is a Harmony skill which gives full immunity to fear. And
further note that the only "issue" with 100% fear-resistance is FearAura itself
because it has no delay on the movement-- skills that give a % resistance to
fear are pointless. You have to compose every time either way, unless there is
a further line that says you were "successfully feared". Rubeus itself is a
100% immunity until it is removed. Nerfing Wolf is a red herring-- the issue is
not Wolf, but the mechanics of Fearaura itself. As such, I think the first
solution is a slightly more interesting one-- delaying movement is, well,
already plentiful. Gravity, rubble, etc. But this would be more of a mobile
carcer. Hmm.
---[Gregori on 5/25 @ 00:18 writes]:
I feel that sneaking this report in at nearly the end of the month so that
decent discussion cannot be had, when it was obvious they intended to report on
it, as it was sitting as a nerf to wolf originally, is unfair to the envoys who
would like to discuss this change properly and should be taken into account.
---[Xenthos on 5/25 @ 00:20 writes]:
It is true that I did not even know this was here until it was mentioned on the
forums-- this thing just sat here for 25 days commented out with a different
subject, and is suddenly finalized with a full set of solutions and no
discussion. Some discussion would have been nice prior to the entry /
finalization.
---[Ceren on 5/25 @ 00:36 writes]:
Discuss it now then; nobody's stopping you and surely 6 days is enough to go
over 1 skill. Skills that give % resistance to fear are far from useless as when
they fire, they'll stop you from being moved by instant fear (such as from the
skill in question), and you can compose every time for the recurring fear either
way since it doesn't take a cure balance (similar to how people use stand checks
even when they're not for sure sprawled). Frankly, I'm a little confused how you
came to the conclusion it was pointless. As for the harmony skill, that's not as
much of a concern in my opinion as it requires you to lock a mantra slot whereas
wolf is a basic defense.
---[Ceren on 5/25 @ 00:41 writes]:
I'd also like to note that the replacements presented were admittedly somewhat
hastily formulated and are not guaranteed to end world hunger/disarm nuclear
warfare/stop global warming/etc. If anyone can come up with some better
replacement skills that we can talk about and refine (this is a little short
notice, I'm aware, but I have faith in us), that would be ideal. New ideas
probably have to be based on the death domoth though.
---[Gregori on 5/25 @ 01:04 writes]:
Yes it can be discussed now, however no matter what is discussed the solutions
presented are the ones that will be sent. It is apparent from past reports that
the comments are not read thoroughly as things are often missed and by the
admins own admissin they never noticed statements in a slew of comments. They
mostly seem to look for agreement or disagreement. Discussion prior to
finalizing leads to solutions being changeable based on that discussion and that
is not possible here.
---[Xenthos on 5/25 @ 01:06 writes]:
As far as I am aware, the only "instant" fear is Fearaura itself. Everything
else is the standard fear delay, which means that a % chance is, in fact,
pointless if you're having to compose every time anyways, since the compose will
cure it. And I am discussing it now (note my first comment!). It would just be
nice if this had actually been given the full time for discussion, instead of
arriving at the last minute. It would also have helped prevent the "hastily
formed" solutions from being the finalized submission, because there would have
been the time to put together better solutions...
---[Gregori on 5/25 @ 01:06 writes]:
As it stands both on the solutions presented, and the manner in which this
report was seemingly slipped in, I am in disagreement to all the presented
solutions. I don't feel any of them are sutiable.
---[Ceren on 5/25 @ 01:06 writes]:
I know where you're coming from with that, but that hasn't always been the case.
For example the decision to make protection scroll stop swarm instead of
treelife was not present in the solutions and instead came from the comments. I
think they pay attention.
---[Ceren on 5/25 @ 01:08 writes]:
No Xenthos, the fear enchant (the most common form of fear other than fearaura)
is in fact instant fear, and I believe crow caw is as well (but not for sure on
that).
---[Xenthos on 5/25 @ 01:15 writes]:
Hm. Interesting to know that about the fear enchant. Totems caw is "instant"
if you don't have Deafness, but if you have Deafness (or Truehearing), Caw does
nothing at all. You don't even see the message that someone is cawing. Which
would leave the instant at... fear enchantment (single target... a completely
different use) and Fearaura (group). Again, the issue is still Fearaura, not
Wolf.
---[Ceren on 5/25 @ 01:16 writes]:
Actually, fear enchant is enemy list.
---[Xenthos on 5/25 @ 01:19 writes]:
Heh, shows how often fear enchantments are used. By anyone. Which, I would
posit, still supports my claim that the issue is Fearaura itself, not Wolf. And
I still would have liked to actually be having this discussion *before* the
report was finalized and cannot be changed any further.
---[Ceren on 5/25 @ 01:28 writes]:
By all means, I agree, if fearaura is replaced there will be no problem with
wolf. I believe that's the intent of this report.
---[Gregori on 5/25 @ 01:28 writes]:
If you want to make it effective across the board with everyone having a chance
to resist it. Go with Malicia's earlier idea of making it 'rad rune aura'
---[Ceren on 5/25 @ 01:36 writes]:
Malicia's kinda nuts and I, for one, prefer the two replacements we have so far
to that
---[Ethelon on 5/25 @ 02:28 writes]:
I prefer solution 1, as Fearaura in it's current state, and as it was pointed
out the balance issue in those effected by it, has to much impact on combat for
a passive skill. The issue with the report being finalized late should be
nothing new as this happens every month almost with one of the envoys
---[Nejii on 5/25 @ 03:03 writes]:
Unnecessary. Claim in the problem field is untrue: does not by any means make it
impossible to hold a group together as any number of things will prevent fear
moving you out. You can walk in and fear enchant for a similar effect, but that
didn't see a lot of use - and it isn't like it's because of the passive thing.
Also for some reason solution 1 is -better- than the current one, which I'm not
sure we need. 2 is different provided that it's the first part because the
second part would be very rarely useful. Also, fear delay that isn't tied to a
cure-force affliction is almost worthless and it bewilders me why people keep
bringing it up, at least other solutions look like they're balance-orientated.
---[Viynain on 5/25 @ 05:01 writes]:
As I pointed out in report 195, adding altogether new fairly heavy changes so
close to the date is just funky when compared to those folk who have put up
their thoughts early on to give the chance for discussion appropriate for such
things. Suggesting things for other solutions gets hampered a bit when you can't
change the propositions anymore. Whatever happened to the suggestion of just
making FearAura's fearing afflicting, giving a chance to cure it, instead of
folk instantaneously succumbing to its effects when it initially tics?
---[Gregori on 5/25 @ 05:16 writes]:
On second thought I would like carcer/sap. Yesplz. I support solution 1. Team
combat with Glomdoring members will be fun too. I want carcer/choke too plz.
---[Gregori on 5/25 @ 05:17 writes]:
P.s the carcer should stack with other Ascendants
---[Ceren on 5/25 @ 14:33 writes]:
That's cool, but I just want it because I think it would be more balanced than
the current effect rather than for any selfish reason. And I don't think it
should stack, that's a little unreasonable. (Yes, I'm just messing with you, but
if for some reason you think a weaker mobile carcer is more ridiculous than
current fearaura, you've probable been using the ol' wolf a little too long ;) )
---[Ceren on 5/25 @ 14:35 writes]:
And, erm, if the timing of this report is really as big a deal as it's being
played up to be, we can just forget about it and get it done on our own time
through envoy consensus. We all agree that some sort of change is necessary, no?
---[Nienla on 5/25 @ 21:20 writes]:
Provided that it does not stack with other effects, I'm okay with Solution 1.
---[Nejii on 5/26 @ 03:25 writes]:
@Ceren: no
---[Ceren on 5/26 @ 19:58 writes]:
If that's so, then the only problem is wolf making things unfair. In which case,
carry on.
---[Llandros on 5/27 @ 15:19 writes]:
The timing issue is unfortunate but was not strategic, I moved away from a plain
wolf nerf to hopefully get at the more underlying issues, i had person al issues
going on that delayed the write up so i finalized the report in case i was not
able to return before the end of the month - if you want to shift it next month
to allow for additional discussion i have no objection
---[Zynna on 5/28 @ 05:03 writes]:
I prefer solution 1 to fearaura as it currently exists, as I think the skill
itself needs to be changed rather than changing/increasing who is subjected to
it.