Report 306

Report #306
Skillset: Night Skill: Lash
 Org: Shadowdancers Status: Completed Jan 2010
Furies' Decision:
Solution 1
Problem: After the ability swap with Night and Moon, Night has acquired Lash
which, on it's own, is a fairly lack lustre ability compared to Necromancy Leech
and now Moon Succumb. Lash is an ability that drains a portion of mana and
restores a paltry, unnoticeable amount of health to the caster. As such, the
following solutions are in line to encourage synergy between Lash and the rest
of the Night skillset.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #1: Solution #1: Allow Steal to work with Lash in the
 means of: When a target's shadow has been stolen and
 they get lashed by the Wiccan, the shadow dances with
 them and steals more mana as a result.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #2: Solution #2: Allow Steal to work with Lash in the
 manner above, but have it restore more health as a
 result of the shadow having been stolen instead of
 stealing more mana.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #3: Solution #3: Allow Steal to work with Lash in the
 same manner as Solution #1, but instead of curing the
 health of the Shadowdancer, it will damage both the
 health and mana of the target when lashed and shadow
 stolen.
Player Comments:
---[Nienla on 1/19 @ 17:38 writes]:
Ultimately, Solution #1 would be more acceptable for me, but the others are up
for peer review.
---[Ethelon on 1/20 @ 13:58 writes]:
Solution 2 would be acceptable since you say the health gain is barely
noticable. With the passive mana drains available to ShadowDancers through their
Fae, not to mention no regeneration for your victims, there is no need to
increase lash's mana drain aspect.
---[Nienla on 1/20 @ 18:06 writes]:
Fair point, considering that Banshee does take 10% of max mana, I would be in
favour of Lash giving us more health. I would hope, however, that this gain
becomes much more noticable to what it currently is.
---[Ceren on 1/20 @ 21:02 writes]:
Both solutions 1 and 2 look good to me. I'm assuming the amount steal would buff
lash's mana drain is the same amount it buffs damage? True enough SD's get
passive mana drain from several fae, but if that's the case it doesn't strike me
as unbalancing, especially since only one person can steal at a time (like
deathmark).
---[Xenthos on 1/20 @ 22:22 writes]:
That's pretty much the only reason I'd consider solution 1, is that it only
buffs lash for one person (and yes, I would expect it to increase the mana drain
by the same amount that health damage is increased). The healing part is more
of a cosmetic thing, I think. I also think 3 is just a bit too much. So,
solution 1 would be the best of this list IMO for a reasonably useful
modification.
---[Xenthos on 1/22 @ 02:37 writes]:
Oh, and I missed Ethelon's comment about "no regeneration for your victims"--
despite the AB mentioning that, it's not true. Was removed a while back.
---[Krellan on 1/22 @ 20:45 writes]:
What Xenthos said about regeneration. Everyone regenerates in shadows. This
effect was removed. Anyways, I'd like solution one. There is no point to the
healing. The healing was flavor and healed like 60 health. Literally. Plus it
was originally a Moon skill. Moon was meant to be defensive with Night more
offensive. Solution two is essentially a worthless change unless it healed as
much as puella or Moon Waxing. Support solution 1.
---[Sarrasri on 1/23 @ 18:39 writes]:
I can't support solution 1 or 3. Shadowdancers get enough things that help with
mana drain that they -don't- need this. Redcap with bleeding, pixie for
sleep/insomnia, banshee. In choke, the fae do enough to make the passive mana
drain more than enough so along with the active drain, they shouldn't be having
problems. Moondancers managed with lash with an active aeon, and any considering
of buffing it then was met with hesitation by the envoy world. I fail to see how
it needs buffing now because it didn't get worse with the switch to Night.
---[Romero on 1/24 @ 21:54 writes]:
I agree with Rika here. The passives alone from fae allow for a sleeplock with
aeon using any of the tertiaries or even just a sleep enchant or beast from
beastmastery. Sleeplocking is the only viable tactic that MD had for quite some
time. Amplify this with choke and the increased mana drain that SD already have
over MD and you can see that there SD is still the most stronger class. As for
mana drain versus leech, leech is only stronger if deathmark is built which is
not viable for group combat in the slightest otherwise it is barely better than
lash and we don't have ents to drain mana for us. The combined drain from
redcap, pixie, pooka (if used properly to force focus mind or sip other
potions), and banshee in conjuction with the other offense of the night user is
already too much. MD meant it ages with lash alone, SD have stronger fae, choke,
and passive mana drain. I just don't see the need for this.
---[Romero on 1/24 @ 21:54 writes]:
MD made it ages*
---[Romero on 1/24 @ 23:20 writes]:
Sarrasri btw. Not Rika. Talnara mixup
---[Krellan on 1/25 @ 03:02 writes]:
Actually Moondancers didn't manage with it, not the current ones anyways. They
complained about it until lash and succumb got switched and now it's become
managable.
---[Nienla on 1/26 @ 17:43 writes]:
What Krellan said above. Moondancers didn't appear to manage with it at all it
seems.
---[Sarrasri on 1/27 @ 07:19 writes]:
Moondancers managed with it, regardless of what you say. It took set up and
knowing what you were doing, but if you did, as a Moondancer, you would get
toadcurses with lash. Since Shadowdancers have choke, the passive, uncurable
aeon, managing with lash and fae should not be any problem. Shadowdancers might
need to actually work more on having someone afflicted with something rather
than order fae attack, scourge, succumb, choke now. Personally, I see nothing
wrong with that.
---[Romero on 1/27 @ 13:11 writes]:
What Sarrasri said. The previous method with MD was hexes vapors blackout spam
with fae attack to metawake off and sleeplock. Or astrology and attempt the same
with a beast. Both of these methods are available to an SD and on top of choke
and yet neither is done because it is/was simply easier to let fae do the work
with shieldstun/scourge spam instead of actually fighting. Now that an active
means of mana loss is required of SD (with their already more powerful fae), it
seems more than extreme to ask for a lash buff after MD suffered with it so long
with their weaker offense. In fact, its like a slap in the face to even ask.