Report 1073

Report #1073
Skillset: Hexes Skill: Various
 Org: Shadowdancers Status: Completed Apr 2013
Furies' Decision:
We will allow HexenPalms to take three hexes which can be used without being
drawn first. Whammy will allow you to fling two (unmasked) hexes at once for 0
power. Doublewhammy will allow you to fling two (masked) hexes for 1 power.
Problem: Hexes has become a dated offensive tertiary that has failed to keep
pace with new systems and curing as well as adapt to the guilds that have access
to it. Currently the kill methods that hexens have access to are too expensive
to be used in conjunction with hexes, such as toad and illuminate. The burst
style offense, in addition to losing effectiveness due to more sophisticated
curing, is too easily halted with a simple shield or web, among countless other
things, causing the hexen to lose all momentum and forcing them to redraw.
Should a hexen consume all their hexes, they will lose further momentum as they
need to redraw. To do this effectively requires a system specifically to track,
draw, and cast hexes that makes it overly complex and difficult to use for all
but the most savvy of coders or those that know one. To address all these
problem requires a larger report, to allow hexes to be a powerful affliction
tertiary with extremely limited defense and utility. This will allow hexens to
be more sustainable at the cost of no longer masking the afflictions. Nihilists
have also been brought up repeatedly in response to any hex buffs, so this
solution has also been tailored to limit how it will impact their offense.
Removing hexaura requires the masked hexes to be drawn more strategically, as
they will not follow the hexen around any longer. So use of masked hexes, which
can be powerful situationally such as scabies/epilepsy for Nihilists, will
require slightly more set up time than before. Together the solutions grant a
give and take style of play for hexens by decreasing the mobility of the masked
hexes but increasing the sustainability of the hexen.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #1: Replace HexenPalm with Doublehex. Doublehex works
 just like hex but for 2 hexes, in that it will be two
 unmasked afflictions. It will cost no power. If
 needed, slow hex and doublehex down a small amount
 and remove the ability to hex with the same hex much
 like astrology can not cast the same ray.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #2: Replace hexaura with a new skill: Instanthex. Instant
 hex allows hex and doublehex to be cast without
 drawing a hex or using a hex in the room.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #3: Both solution 1 and 2. This is the optimal solution
 as both 1 and 2 were designed to function together to
 address the hexen problems.
Player Comments:
---[Enyalida on 3/31 @ 01:17 writes]:
At first glance/thought, this report is fine.
---[Shuyin on 4/2 @ 03:26 writes]:
This is great. It adds more strategic/offensive value to outdated hexes while
reducing the instagank potential of dwhammy.
---[Veyrzhul on 4/6 @ 03:27 writes]:
Doublehex will have three charges like Hexenpalm? I'm still a bit leery of
solution 2's Instanthex (which, if I remember correctly, is pretty much the old
solution 1), mostly because of vapors, but we can give it a shot and see how it
works out. Solution 3 supported.
---[Vivet on 4/6 @ 15:20 writes]:
I will admit that I have never used hexes, ever, so my perspective may be
somwhat limited. Having said that, I don't see much issue with what's proposed
here and am willing to support it.
---[Celina on 4/6 @ 16:13 writes]:
The old solution kept the hexes masked and allowed the use of doublewhammy and
whammy without drawing hexes first. This report adds an unmasked doublewhammy.
So a hexen can use hexes more strategically and stack cures for an affliction
style offense, but none of the affects are masked. I am also willing to look
into vapors, and would even be willing to remove it from hexes entirely.
---[Kregarn on 4/6 @ 16:25 writes]:
Solution 3 supported. This isn't a bad way to help hexes become more viable for
the other guilds with access.
---[Ushaara on 4/11 @ 12:36 writes]:
If vapors can be ensured to be the last hex in pairing to hit so that unmasked
part is always true, sure.
---[Celina on 4/11 @ 13:40 writes]:
If they can code that, sure. I don't care.
---[Rivius on 4/14 @ 18:55 writes]:
I personally don't mind solution 1, but solution 2 makes me a bit wary. Hexes
gives access to some pretty strong afflictions on demand (impatience, anorexia,
vapors) and I'm not comfortable with it essentially removing that mechanical
limitation on them. I also share the same concerns about vapors as brought up by
both Ushaara and Veyrzhul. I'll tentatively go along with this report and we'll
see what happens. I do want to say though that the premise that hexes is not a
powerful and viable tertiary is something I disagree with. It's amazingly
powerful for illuminati, the best tertiary for moondancers (albeit, limited in
flexibility), it's been used to great effectiveness for Nihilists and
Shadowdancers only recently have found it less useful because of the new costs
of twist. I'm not saying it never had problems and doesn't need to be looked at,
but hexes has never been a bad choice for most of the guilds that have it at
all. In fact, it's always been one of the better choices.
---[Celina on 4/16 @ 02:19 writes]:
It's actually not that great for any of the guilds you just listed, and a
distant second for all of them save MDs. I'm not sure where you are getting your
info that it's the premier or "one of the better choices" for anyone, but it's
emphatically not. SDs are more successful with astrology, illuminati can't kill
with hexes and are much better off with tarot, nihilists can use it with a one
trick vapors pony though they remain much more viable as tarot. If you can find
me a hexen that uses more than doublewhammy sleep or vapors/scabies, and can
kill with it, I will eat my words.
---[Shuyin on 4/16 @ 02:53 writes]:
There's no way to maintain a sleeplock as an Illuminati without aeon or passive
sleep. Sleeplocks are necessary to get people behind in curing considering that
jinx is a bit unreliable, to say the least. You can't get people behind in
curing without sleep considering that tossing impatience hexes / focusable hexes
can only get you so far before you have to redraw. So if there is an amazing
strategy to illuminate someone while spammy 2p dwhammies and without sleeping,
I'm more than willing to hear it out and try it. So in short, yeah, not sure
where hexes is amazingly powerful for Illuminati 1v1. Still support solution 3.
---[Thoros on 4/20 @ 03:01 writes]:
Solution 3 supported.
---[Rivius on 4/21 @ 17:22 writes]:
Shuyin, you can soft lock with beast spit senso and asthma hex. It becomes a
soft lock and with the hindering, you could feasibly stop them from scrubbing
for a while. If you do your job well of maintaining the lock, it's very hard to
break out of it as temporaryinsanity eats focus mind.
---[Rivius on 4/21 @ 17:22 writes]:
I brought this up months ago when top tier fighters were dropping to an
experimental illuminati novice.
---[Shuyin on 4/21 @ 22:00 writes]:
I might be missing something here, but how do I kill someone then if I have them
locked up like that? If I'm spending all of my balances locking someone up,
there is no way I'm going to have the momentum -or- power necessary to
illuminate them. Sure, they're hindered to hell for a while, but I will
eventually run out of power, I will lose momentum by having to redraw, or a
variety of other things. Bottom line is, dwhammy costs 2p per shot. Illuminate
costs 8p. There is no way I can dwhammy someone and keep them hindered long
enough to regen 8p to Illuminate. I -have- to choose one or the other at the
moment. So again, if you can give me name of this top tier experimental
illuminati novice and/or logs of this in action, I can test and verify things
for myself. As it stands, I've actually tried hexes, so I'd like to think I have
more experience at point in time.