Report 1372

Report #1372
Skillset: Ecology Skill: Rebirth
 Org: Harbingers Status: Completed Aug 2015
Furies' Decision:
Solution 1+2+3.
Problem: Ecology is bad, and commune bards have nothing that compares to tarot.
I'll describe the problem better later
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #1: Give an added unique effect for each familiar animal
 type for when the familiar attacks a target. On an 8
 second time. Bat = 150 bleeding. Widow = afflicts
 with whatever venom is present on BOND ENVENOM
 (basically free familiarsting). Viper = 300ish posion
 damage. Tarantula = covers you in the itchy hairs
 that cause off balance for 1 second.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #2: Badger = 150 bleeding. Fox = 300 cutting damage.
 vixen = 1 second off balance (runs between their legs
 and trips them). Owl = blindness (rakes their eyes).
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #3: In addition to 1 and 2: Remove the restrictions on
 gender. The male bonds (tarantula and badger) are far
 superior to their female counterparts
Player Comments:
---[Enyalida on 8/6 @ 18:35 writes]:
Solution 3 should be to open all bonds to all available sexes. I will brainstorm
some possibilities for the Serenwilde attacks.
---[Celina on 8/6 @ 23:51 writes]:
Agreed! Women get the shaft on the bonds, which is annoying
---[Enyalida on 8/11 @ 02:35 writes]:
Bonds currently attack every 12 seconds, dealing ~150 damage and ~15 bleeding.
---[Shuyin on 8/14 @ 01:08 writes]:
Sure
---[Synkarin on 8/14 @ 02:58 writes]:
3 is fine, not willing to support 2 without an actual solution presented
(reports finalize soon), 1 is fine.
---[Lerad on 8/14 @ 03:22 writes]:
If the Serenwilde envoys are fine with solution 2, I'm fine with all of the
solutions as proposed as well. The two solutions seem mostly equal. It would
really have been nice to get a more detailed problem statement describing the
problems for those of us not as familiar with the exact details of eco-versus-
tarot, though. Given that more experienced envoys who also have access to tarot
seem to agree with the problem, though, I don't have any objections.
---[Kaimanahi on 8/14 @ 04:17 writes]:
My ecology knowledge is pretty nonexistent so I can't comment very
intelligently, but the proposed effects seem reasonable.
---[Enyalida on 8/14 @ 20:27 writes]:
The free poison attack needs to either become a feature of all bonds
(preferred), or not be a feature of just one type that only Glomdoring has.
Besides that, cutting is not equitable with poison damage - the damage type
should either be different or be more for the fox than it is for the viper.
---[Celina on 8/15 @ 02:30 writes]:
Well it's been a week and it was crickets, so you get what you get.
---[Celina on 8/15 @ 04:18 writes]:
(that was tongue in cheek, please offer your own. I'll put them up)
---[Celina on 8/16 @ 17:52 writes]:
Sorry, I've been busy and I failed to put up a proper statement. The problem is
that commune bards do not have access to a sufficient tertiary. Glamours, which
is overlooked by city bards for tarot, is still considerably better for commune
bards that ecology because ecology offers only 1) smudges (which unlike
runes/tarot/etc. does not allow for prepared smudges, so to use more than one
requires the ecologist to prepare the smudge then light it followed by a burning
delay), 2) self rezz which is very useful, 3) a charm for dmp that can be useful
for PVE but because the charms are severely limited in how many types they can
cover, have only marginal use in pk, and 4) familiar powers of which only
famliar sting (3 power for a rapid application of passive venoms) is useful.
Ecology offers a wide array of utility that is all very situational, and commune
bards often choose glamours because the passive effects (off eq, passive room
wide affs, 50% damage mitigation with illusoryself, etc) of glamours far surpass
the active actions ecology requires. This generally means that among the bard
tertiaries, ecology is behind glamours, which is behind tarot. My solution
maintains the spirit of ecology and the bond ecologists create with their
familiars, while giving bards a passive effect that is flexible enough to
combine with their existing effects while not creating significant conflict with
druids and sap mechanics.
---[Synkarin on 8/17 @ 14:41 writes]:
I forgot to consider druids, and with that in mind, I'm not a fan of free poison
attack in combination with sap. Change that up to be something that doesn't
perpetuate a saplock, like sensitivity (that doesn't strip deafness, like hexes)
and should be ok.
---[Enyalida on 8/17 @ 17:48 writes]:
If the bond attack effect doesn't work while the bond is busy doing something
else (like stinging), it won't be a problem with druids. 1 shruggable poison
every 8 seconds when you aren't allowed to use active poisons (fetish would have
to be in armor mode for BOND ENVENOM to work, and therefore for that passive
effect) is nothing to write home about. The Druid will either be using familiar
sting or (more likely) have their familiar unarmored so that they can use their
fetish actively for more responsive and powerful poison afflicting.
---[Celina on 8/18 @ 00:39 writes]:
On this one I agree with Enyalida. If it turns off during familiarsting, I don't
see the issue. Passive embeded runes can accomplish the same thing, so if it's
not an issue with runes, not sure why it would be for ecology (espeically since
ecology will be weaker since it is shruggable)
---[Synkarin on 8/18 @ 18:23 writes]:
Are you ordering the familiar to sting? If you're ordering the familiar to sting
and it has a passive 8 second balance (like fae or angels), you can effectively
time when it's going to hit, adding it into a sap-burst. Sure, it's subject to
shrugging, but still too much in my opinion. Sap doesn't need that help.
---[Celina on 8/20 @ 00:14 writes]:
Yeah but again, you can time a fused rune. It's actually weaker than a fused
rune because you can shrug it. It's actually far slower than familiarsting which
would be much more successful (especially with snakebond with that one snake
that shrivels arms...viper?) at maintaining a saplack. I totally get the not
wanting to buff sap thing, I just don't think this does when you consider the
alternatives
---[Synkarin on 8/20 @ 02:02 writes]:
Testing with Crek just now, runes are firing between 9-11 seconds, sometimes
faster, sometimes slower, so you can't really time them as reliably as a burst
from passive bond envenom. Regardless, I'm not really in support of it still for
the reasons explained. I think a much better option can be found.
---[Enyalida on 8/25 @ 20:50 writes]:
Broken arms do not hinder curing sap.
---[Celina on 8/30 @ 00:28 writes]:
Well i'm open to suggestions and willing to change, but I also don't see it as a
significant issue with sap so I'm not going to change it without a better
suggestion.
---[Celina on 8/30 @ 00:29 writes]:
Well i'm open to suggestions and willing to change, but I also don't see it as a
significant issue with sap so I'm not going to change it without a better
suggestion.
---[Raeri on 8/31 @ 00:22 writes]:
Support Solution 3.