Report 977

Report #977
Skillset: Stealth Skill: Blowgun/Aim/Obscure
 Org: Nekotai Status: Completed Nov 2012
Furies' Decision:
Slightly modified solution 1.
Problem: Stealth Blowgun is the currently mental and mechanic inferior to
Beastmastery Spit. A monk can SHOOT one dart on a 3s balance. AIM from an
adjacent room for 3.6s and OBSCURE the attacker's actions for 4s. Unlike BM
Spit, this loss of balance prevents a monk from initiating a kata or any other
eq/bal/psi action. Darts require considerably more balance, and deliver far less
afflictions to a 1mo kata making this skill tree morbidly under powered. REPORT
938 offered to scrap the skill for plain utility. However, the Furies prefer
solutions to improve darts.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #1: Change the core mechanic of blowguns to shoot
 multiple enemy list targets in the same room. This
 should work nicely with Aim / Obscure, and give monks
 a secondary objective in group combat. NOTE: one dart
 & poison "sip" per target.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #2: A 0mo kata combo delivers 2 spec affs & 2 poisons
 pending transfer / resistance. Therefore allow
 Blowdarts also give multiple poisons via BLOWGUN AIM
 <target> <poison> <poison> <poison> <poison> <poison>
 [OBSCURE] to account for lack of damage/wounds.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #3: Blowgun & Aim / Obscure variants will deliver one
 shrugable poison. Additionally, that aff will be
 subject to a one minute, incurable "relapse" at the
 30s & 6s marks. Additional dart will replace previous
 dart timer & tic. Consider a slight power cost.
Player Comments:
---[Asmodea on 10/15 @ 15:26 writes]:
I can maybe go with solution 1 if it hit a random amount of enemies, maybe a
minimum of 3 and a max of 5 but not hitting all enemies. Heavily OPPOSED to
solution 2, that's just obscene. OPPOSED to solution 3 as I think it sounds
overly complicated.
---[Enyalida on 10/15 @ 15:38 writes]:
I'm with Asmodea on this. Firm no to 2 and 3. 1 seems fine.
---[Janalon on 10/15 @ 20:52 writes]:
Darts have 100% transfer, but can be shrugged.
---[Celina on 10/16 @ 14:32 writes]:
I think Asmodea's comments on solution 1 make it equally useless as it is now.
One poison to 3 enemies? Really? The point is to make the skull useful. I think
solution 3 is the most interesting, and with some tweaks it could be valuable
without being over the top. Maybe every 10 seconds for a minute, or have some
slight variation like every 8 to 12 seconds so monks can't easily time it with
katas. I also think solution two will be fine if you tone the number of poisons
down from 6. Maybe 3 or 4.
---[Janalon on 10/17 @ 10:09 writes]:
I have faith that the admin can take the core of solution and implement it in a
balanced way. For example, introduce a miss rate or diminishing returns for
either Sol 1 or 2 to introduce some risk, but potentially have the a reward
outweigh a 0mo form when used in the proper context.
---[Enyalida on 10/19 @ 00:41 writes]:
Looks like 3 was amended to not be stackable. It's also fine, then.
---[Enyalida on 10/19 @ 00:42 writes]:
As a note, comparing this to the poisons delivered in a 0mo form as the main
problem sounds like a request to nerf 0mo kata forms to me.
---[Janalon on 10/19 @ 03:22 writes]:
@Enya Sol 3 unchanged since the inception of this report. Sol 2 isn't a request
to nerf 0mo kata forms as much as it is to demonstrate how much dart's ability
to aff would need to be buffed against a single target without introducing
another mechanic (hence Sol 1 & 3).
---[Rivius on 11/9 @ 12:35 writes]:
In all honesty, I feel like darts should have some utility/group combat use
rather than a straight buff to monk poison affliction output. For this reason, I
really don't think solution 2. Solution 3 sounds interesting and I could support
it if it has a small power cost, is not stackable (as the solution describes)
and has a clear relapsing message that is distinct from the anerod poison line
for relapsing.
---[Rivius on 11/9 @ 12:37 writes]:
Pardon that, I meant 'I don't think solution 2 is a good idea'. Solution 1
sounds fine to me as well.
---[Shuyin on 11/9 @ 22:45 writes]:
Solution 1 is fine.
---[Tacita on 11/12 @ 15:06 writes]:
Solution 1.
---[Janalon on 11/20 @ 10:50 writes]:
I also agree that I'd rather see darts offer monks some utility/group combat
options. However, I'm not entirely about the usefulness of Solution 1. For what
it's worth, Malarious is quite against this idea as "rooom
---[Janalon on 11/20 @ 10:50 writes]:
I also agree that I'd rather see darts offer monks some utility/group combat
options. However, I'm not entirely about the usefulness of Solution 1. For what
it's worth, Malarious is quite against this idea as "room venom is not really
useful, everyone in the room just does 1 cure and its fixed." This sums up the
current problem, as cure time / options outweigh balance loss. The accepted
solution shouldn't mimic Beastmastery Spit by adding poison between rounds of
kata. I'd rather see a Solution 2/3 serve more as a backstab-like action of
initiating combat on an unsuspecting target. Therefore I'm not opposed to the
idea of Solution 2 & 3 getting a slight power cost, and would be curious if
there are other ideas for balancing mechanics.