Report 663

Report #663
Skillset: Druidry Skill: Sap
 Org: Blacktalon Status: Rejected Aug 2011
Furies' Decision:
We are sympathetic to the problem presented; however, we dislike the solutions.
We note that solution #1 would make sap easy to maintain with minimal help
(perhaps even solo) as it renders sap incurable if a druid is dedicated to hills
smudging while the demesne eats away at them--Crow demesnes esp, where they can
build ailments through mactans (chill levels), blacklung, throwing off balance,
etc, as well as passive bleeding through Crow.
Problem: Even with ideal timing, a well-made system cures out of sap+demesne
tick before a druid, regardless of race, gets equilibrium back to vines or
otherwise compound the afflictions to make sap stick for a lock. As a mugwump
with level 3 equilibrium, a druid can cast sap at 3.2s. A target sapped and
subsequently hit with a meld cures out without lag in 2s (.5s delay to enter
focus body, 1s focus body, .5s delay to enter rub cleanse), a full 1.2s faster
than the fastest race a druid can be.
Solution #1: Have Ecology HillsSmudge's mud affliction take priority over sap
 curing with cleanse/scrub/hyperhydrosis to help Ecologist druids
 with the problem outlined above.
Solution #2: Add a DELAY option (the duration of which is either specified by
 the caster or set as a general time like smudges have an
 automatic delay, I'll leave to the Administration to decide) to
 be added to single (not super) sling runes and dreamcast motes.
 This should help Runist and Dreamweaver druids with the above
 problem.
Solution #3: Drop casting Sap to a 2s equilibrium loss instead of 4s, unless
 some other more brilliant idea dawns on me or is generated by
 this report.
Player Comments:
---[Enyalida on 8/7 @ 07:22 writes]:
Solution 2 would mean that you can time a sling/dreamcast to hit at any time
after you cast? None of the more sap-sticking dreamweaving motes (daydreams,
epilepsy, narcolepy) have immediate effect, so I'm not sure how much that would
aid the dreamweaver. Solution 1 sounds good, but seems... abuseable. Speeding up
sap cast time would be fine as far as I can tell, it would give the druid a
fighting chance at sticking sap, though they'd still have to race to outpace
curing on all their other actions.
---[Viynain on 8/7 @ 21:50 writes]:
I imagine that a Hallucination mote properly delayed and timed could very well
hinder sap curing when set to hit with the right illusion. Runes is pretty
obvious with timing Ger before the meld.
---[Enyalida on 8/10 @ 18:29 writes]:
Unfortunatly, hallucination motes have a delay before their activation, to avoid
triggering off the flick message to disregard the illusion. I like the delay
idea, but it only has application for runes users.
---[Viynain on 8/10 @ 21:13 writes]:
I'd suggest making a mote that would indeed help Dreamweavers then, since the
delay option would give them the opportunity to actually time the effect,
whatever it eventually is, with the problem outlined above rather than having to
rely on spamming deepsleep.
---[Talan on 8/11 @ 14:41 writes]:
I wouldn't support a delay or a faster eq time on solution sap. Solution 1 seems
the best route to take
---[Morbo on 8/13 @ 14:56 writes]:
I can't find myself supporting either solution 1 or 2. Just having sludge
overwrite ectoplasm on cleanse was a huge ordeal that needed to be fixed and I
imagine if this first solution went through it'd need to be fixed in a few
months also. I do recognize that there is a problem, and ideally I'd find a
middle ground on solution 3, probably 2.5 or 3 seconds, but that is the option
that has my support
---[Viynain on 8/13 @ 18:55 writes]:
I disagree that mud prioritised over sap would be a problem to the same extent
as gunk prioritised over ectoplasm on the basis alone that ectoplasm is 1p and
thus easily spammable. Sap's 5p cost ensures that the proposed change won't just
be done willy nilly and require proper timing for the power-heavy class to
address the existing issue. Solution two addresses the problem for non-
Ecologists. The proposed middle-ground for the third, as suggested by Morbo,
still would leave them depending on lag to follow up, therefore making it
unviable still, so I disagree with it.