Report 1687

Special Report #1687
Skillset: Kata Skill: Sprongma
 Org: Nekotai Status: Rejected Dec 2007
Furies' Decision:
No longer relevant
Problem: As explained in #1640, sprongma needs a little bit more extra tweaking
to ensure that it functions within its purpose - a vitals pressure ability,
without actually creating large bursts of bleed that render the point of
hemorrhaging useless. As it is, it already meets that requirement in 1v1, with
its flat bleed output halved. Furthermore, with mantekarr slated to be nerfed
further, I think the problem will not be seen 1v1... but group combat is a
problem, as group mechanics ensure sprongma will always hit its max tier. Yes,
groups should make kills easier, but not to the point that a 2-hit combo (plus a
queued finalsting) will always kill a target that is being group-beaten on. Just
lowering the flat bleed given by sprongma won't really solve this problem,
unless you delete sprongma. This report aims to avoid that scenario, where
sprongma is a group-oneshot (or two-shot, as case may be) all the time.
Solution #1: Add an additional portion to sprongma: "cure" all bleed on the
 target that is ABOVE the current hemorrhaging level, and deal 2x
 the amount "cured" to the target's mana. This should only fire
 BEFORE sprongma's current effects, so that it doesn't boost
 itself in the same form, and will only really fire on double,
 back-to-back sprongma forms. So if the target has 1000
 hemorrhaging, and has 1300 bleed, sprongma will cure 300 bleed
 first, before dealing its own bleed, preventing sprongma from
 building substantial amounts of bleed above hemorrhaging across
 two or more forms. This ensures that sprongma continues to do the
 vitals pressure it was meant to do (2 mana per bleed is also less
 than the usual 2.4 per bleed when clotted), and at the same time,
 preventing a Nekotai using sprongma to circumvent the need to
 build hemorrhaging - a single sprongma will not give enough bleed
 to instakill from.
Solution #2: Make the portion in solution 1 happen after the sprongma bleed?
 This will make sprongma prevent instakilling completely, since
 solution 1 will otherwise still have sprongma bleed sitting on
 top of hemorrhaging - but this version will completely prevent
 sprongma bleed from contributing to instakill. This is also
 effectively making sprongma deal direct mana damage instead of
 bleed, if you think about it, while "curing" the bleed.
Solution #3: In addition to either Solution 1 or 2, also rescale sprongma's
 bleed to be: 1aff=50, 2=100, 3=150, 4=200, 5=300, 6=400, 7+=500.
 This, combined with the mantekarr nerf, combined with the 2 mana
 per bleed (instead of 2.4 mana per bleed), should also serve to
 pull down sprongma's vitals pressure. I'm not convinced this is
 needed, but given its performance based on logs, I think tweaking
 it this way will help temper its effect a little - further
 observation and tweaks down the road should also be considered
 whoever takes over.