Report 656

Report #656
Skillset: Druidry Skill: Roots
 Org: Hartstone Status: Rejected Aug 2011
Furies' Decision:
We believe burrower protection does have uses and thus disagree with the problem
presented. Furthermore, we did not like any of the proposed solutions.
Problem: As is, Roots is a nearly useless skill. Designed to prevent and punish
burrowers, it's irrelevant because burrowing is not a prevalent tactic, and I do
not predict it ever will be due to its slow nature, and the fact that distort
stops burrowing. Even assuming burrowing happened roots doesn't stop you from
moving away after you've been unearthed, and we have no way of doing so. As well
as that, roots stops working when you are burrowed to the third level of
underground terrain, which makes it even worse assuming someone is burrowing
around.
Solution #1: Make roots an active room damage attack on enemies, similar to
 tempest/hailstorm/boulderblast/pyromancy, in addition to its
 current effects
Solution #2: Have roots be a passive demesne effect that heals health on the
 demesne timer, as you absorb nutrients fromthe soil. This could
 additionally block burrowing in the druid's room.
Solution #3: In addition to Roots' current digging up effect, have roots prone
 personal enemies in the room when cast, possibly with a chance of
 breaking limbs.
Player Comments:
---[Enyalida on 7/14 @ 22:11 writes]:
I'm fishing for ideas here. I like the idea of a passive effect, but passive
offensive effects have been denied before. Hence, Solution 2. I think that a
healing ability wouldn't be too outrageous, and it gives us an effect that
visibly tics when there are not enemies in the room, so that we can time our
demesnes in the same manner as mages. Solutions 1 and 3 are intended to give us
a bit more group aid. Sol 1 would be a nice addition to bring our overall
utility closer up to that of mages, and solution 3 (which I'm not as keen on) is
intended to aide the group with things such as trample. If you have any other
ideas for what roots could do, please come forward, it needs something!
---[Enyalida on 7/14 @ 22:11 writes]:
Similarly, admins, I think someone mentioned that the prevaling opinion is that
roots shouldn't ever be a passive effect. Is this something I should keep in
mind?
---[Iytha on 7/19 @ 03:39 writes]:
I'm not in love with the idea of passive healing past max health, but I really
want to see druids get a demense tic they can time things off of. It's one of
those things that every demense user should have. I'd personally recomend
something like making roots visible on every tic regardless of the presence of
enemies and allow an active "dig in all 9 layers" ability similar to what
geomancers get with the taint wyrm.
---[Viynain on 8/7 @ 06:01 writes]:
I have no problem at all with introducing something to Druidry to help melders
time their casting better, so go for it with the second solution. In regards to
the first solution, I'd likewise adore bringing us on par with mages with a
room-wide on-demand damaging skill, though perhaps keep Roots stronger when used
on actual burrowed people and a bit weaker when applied to people above ground?
Also, please, asphyxiation damage or something. Choking roots to wrangle people
rather than more physical damage types. As for the third, prone with a chance
for a broken limb/balance loss would be grand since people just standing
immediately up again after casting would be meh.
---[Wobou on 8/11 @ 13:28 writes]:
I've always thought it was weird that druids didn't have the area attacks that
mages do. All three of these sound fine provided that the healing effect isn't
made too large.
---[Talan on 8/11 @ 14:12 writes]:
I would support solution 1 with the caveat that it only works on ground level.
It would be very nice to see druids get a room damage attack comparable to the
mages, basically agree with Wobou that any of these sound fine.
---[Nydekion on 8/12 @ 06:58 writes]:
Well, if it does become a room damage attack, that should be its only effect and
should only work at ground level, scaled down to the number of enemies in the
room. It should necessarily lose its ability to damage burrowers to put it on
the same level as the mage damage skills.
---[Iytha on 8/12 @ 21:31 writes]:
As I understood it, the proposed roots attack would be demense only, ie. you
could only cast it while melded with roots up. Which would be different, but not
unbalanced with the mage attacks, even if it kept the passive unrooting of
burrowers. That would be less useful in certain conflicts where melding is
difficult or movement across the area is frequent (ie. when on the offense on
elemental and ethereal raids) so I can also see wanting to make it seperate
from/replace the meld effect
---[Enyalida on 8/14 @ 22:20 writes]:
Unlike the mage's planes, where the maximum number of terrain levels that need
to be taken care of is three (air on all but catacombs, burrowing on fire and
earth, diving on water), druids need to stop enemies from moving around on four
levels of terrain (flying, burrowing, trees, ground). If roots dug up in
addition to a room attack, it would be a room only effect, and work in the same
manner as the current roots room skill: Only digging down to the second level,
not pulling anyone below that up at all. The mage attacks are in addition to
mage's superior passives. An addition of that ability simply makes sense, and
won't come into play much, as distort stops burrowing.