Report 521

Report #521
Skillset: Moon Skill: Dark
 Org: Moondancers Status: Rejected Dec 2010
Furies' Decision:
We do not find this to be necessary.
Problem: Dark's prohibitive power cost (8p untargetted, 5p targetted) makes it
rarely used due to MD's heavy power use including 8p for Toadcurse. Comparable
skills are ColourMaelstrom, AncestralCurse (see Report 116), Lich Contagion and
Crow Spew for the untargetted form. Dark's def-stripping capabilities is quite
powerful and annoying given that it can (silently) strip most non-power
defences, including those that consume bal or eq to put up.
Solution #1: Reduce untargetted form to 6p and targetted form to 3p, and nerf
 the range of strippable defs to that of AlterAura
 (waterbreathing, waterwalking, quicksilver, fire, frost, kafe,
 insomnia, levitation, constitution, galvanism, or sixthsense)
Solution #2: Reduce untargetted form to 6p and targetted form to 3p, and nerf
 the range of strippable defs to fire, frost, galvanism, kafe,
 insomnia, quicksilver, sixthsense, truehearing, thirdeye
Solution #3: In addition to either of the solutions above, make Dark visible
 on LOOK as per other similar skills.
Player Comments:
---[Synl on 12/10 @ 20:13 writes]:
Is Dark not unique in its ability to strip defenses invisibly? I would be ok
with 3/5 if it only gave afflictions. Or maybe if the single-target only gave
afflictions.
---[Solanis on 12/11 @ 00:15 writes]:
Yeah, it is. Dark tics every 10 seconds with either 1 mental aff or 1 def
stripped. The def-stripping isn't altogether that useful (annoying, I admit)
with stripping quicksilver and kafe being useful for MD but on the whole much
too chancey to be relied upon since the caster doesn't know what def has been
stripped. The other comparable skills have unique features too, ColourMaelstrom
(5p) giving 2 affs when not blind, AncestralCurse (8p) with a chance of 2 affs
and working on two elevations. Contagion is only 3p, and Crow Spew is 2p
(although kinda weak).
---[Xenthos on 12/11 @ 01:42 writes]:
Dark's room effect is quite powerful with the passive def-stripping that affects
multiple people at once. There's absolutely no reason to lower the power cost
on this unless that part of the skill is also removed. While that exists it is
not comparable to the other room-effect skills that you have mentioned here (not
one of them touches defenses). I will note that the targeted version is
cureable by Focus Spirit, but that has a chance to fail and costs a whole heck
of a lot of mana against a class that can take full advantage of that. I will
further note that 116's solution did not involve a lowering of the cost.
---[Xenthos on 12/11 @ 02:19 writes]:
And as the list of afflictions was not included above: It can do the following
afflictions. Amnesia, paranoia, confusion, dementia and stupidity. If it ticks
affliction, it does one of these (confusion and stupidity being the most
powerful in general, paranoia being an issue to certain classes more than
others). It can hit many enemies at once (though the more enemies, the lower
the chance it will tick on any individual because of how powerful it is).
Otherwise it ticks defense stripping, again, group-wide. It's definitely not a
'weak' skill by any sense, and it does get used more often than the report makes
it sound, at least from the end of the people who actually get to see it ticking
on us. Perhaps part of the reason for the 'rarely being used' claim is the lack
of ability to see it in the room, so only those getting hit by it really get to
see that it has been used when group spam is flying.
---[Solanis on 12/11 @ 03:08 writes]:
My bad, I didn't realise the range of defences that Dark could strip (which is
huge). I've changed the solutions somewhat. As for focus spirit, if an MD uses
Dark they don't have enough power for toadcurse, and if you were actually in a
dangerous situation then if you were competent at all they'd have had to have
spend more power getting you there in the first place. Refresh Power was brought
up but even if we were to balance around a once-a-day power, 5 seconds is a huge
amount of time to cure up in.
---[Solanis on 12/14 @ 20:32 writes]:
Report is finalised. Just want to add that the range of strippable defs for Sol
1 already existed for another skill which was why it was chosen, and for Sol 2,
the range was basic defences that are common among all and do not require or
consume bal or eq to put up.
---[Fillin on 12/26 @ 14:58 writes]:
I expect future moondancers may curse you for nerfing this aspect of dark, but
if this is the direction you want to go, the proposed exchange itself is more
than fair. Solution 1.
---[Solanis on 12/27 @ 00:10 writes]:
Even though this makes Dark weaker, it'll be used more frequently in more
situations which makes it a decent trade in my opinion.