Report 1546

Report #1546
Skillset: Shamanism Skill: QoL
 Org: Hartstone Status: Completed Apr 2017
Furies' Decision:
Solution 1, 2 power
Problem: Shamanism overall has among the most involved, if not THE most
involved, mandatory setup of any skillset. This makes shamans very slow to
respond to changing battle conditions, as they need to spend power and time
shifting weather patterns or trances. In exchange for this inflexibility and
cost, the Shaman recieves abilities that rival... basic elementalism effects
like freeze (dealing a single hit of the frozen stacked affliction), often with
restrictions on top of the cost like needing to be outdoors, AND missing
functionality. The cost to benefit ratio is out of tune with the realistic
utility of the majority of Shaman effects. This report seeks to tackle part of
this problem by changing the cost side of that equation, as ongoing issues with
the Druid class make direct power increases questionable. These solutions are
diverse and touch different parts of the skillset, but all with the goal of
addressing this central problem in the various places it rears its head.
[A:11 R: 0] Solution #1: Remove the doubling of trance time when using
 walkingtrance. In addition, the shaman may pay 1p to
 immediatly resolve their new trance.
[A:13 R: 0] Solution #2: Allow the Shaman to imprint more than one weather
 pattern at a time, selecting them as usual for 5p
 with a MANIFEST IMPRINT [#] syntax.
[A:11 R: 0] Solution #3: In their own demesne or as a -wood using the enhanced
 imprint ability, allow the shaman to use weather
 effects indoors.
Player Comments:
---[Falaeron on 4/2 @ 22:10 writes]:
Ok. All of this sounds good.
---[Wobou on 4/3 @ 13:10 writes]:
Solution 2 and 3 sound fine, solution 1 does too I just don't know enough about
Shamanism to properly evaluate it.
---[Enyalida on 4/4 @ 20:31 writes]:
I'll explain more details on how trances work. There are three trance slots,
also referred to as "tenses": past, present, and future. The shaman fills these
slots with the six trance abilities (claw, bloom, bone, root, sky, or land not
in that order), with no repeats allowed. These are their "active trances". Each
trance ability has three different benefits, corresponding to the tenses. As
long as a trance is active, the shaman receives all three benefits of each
active trance, BUT the benefit of the trance that corresponds to the tense that
trance is currently occupying is in some way boosted or enhanced. In other
words, if your past/present/future setup is say... Root/Bone/Claw (a good
recommendation) you receive Bone trance's past effect (blunt resist), future
effect (funky breaks healing), and present effect (offensive bone breaking
ability) , with that present effect buffed as it corresponds to the placement
of Bone in the present tense slot. So, you get nine benefits, three of which are
buffed.
---[Enyalida on 4/4 @ 20:35 writes]:
You fill the slots using ceremonial fires OR walkingtrance. The shaman can build
a ceremonial fire in a room and then use a channeled command TRANCE. While
channeling the command, the shaman gets periodic "visions", and increased h/m/e
regen. They also can (while in trance) use a TRANCE <trance> <tense> to begin
resolving one of the trance abilities. If that trance is already being used or
the tense is occupied, you immediatly lose the benefits of the trance/tense and
begin locking in the new trance/tense comno. You get some cool flavor messages
and after 15s you can use that trance. Walkingtrance allows you to constantly be
"in trance", gaining h/e regen and losing mana regen. You can also use the
TRANCE <trance> <tense> syntax on the fly without needing to channel a command
or be at a ceremonial fire, but there is a 30s period before you get the new
trance effect, and therefore also a 30s period during which you have less than
the full 9 benefits.
---[Enyalida on 4/4 @ 21:19 writes]:
Note: Trances and ceremonialfires do not drop on death or logout, only at the
change of month. Walkingtrance does die on death or logout, and requires being
at a fire to start.
---[Aeldra on 4/6 @ 09:20 writes]:
Sure. I feel #3 especially may negate some of the general hassle of shamanism as
it improves it's general usablility
---[Wobou on 4/8 @ 12:39 writes]:
After reading Enyalida's explanation in the comments and talking to her on the
envoys I'm on board for solution 1 too. I do think that the fires should at some
point be upgraded to have more of a use outside of RP/low-level shamans but this
is a good first step.
---[Demartel on 4/16 @ 16:27 writes]:
Sure
---[Demartel on 4/16 @ 16:27 writes]:
Vote approve 1 approve 2 approve 3