Report 99

Report #99
Skillset: Necromancy Skill: Ectoplasm
 Org: Spiritsingers Status: Completed Dec 2008
Furies' Decision:
We are going to change room-wide ectoplasm to instead affect three enemies with
ectoplasm. We'll also provide an increased power mode for full room-wide enemy
ectoplasm.
Problem: Room ectoplasm provides far too much of an imbalancing factor in group
combat, due to the fact that its effects can (and is) be spammed repeatedly for
only 2p each time, which conveniently only hits enemies and ignores non-liches
altogether. This needs a solution. As a sidenote, single target ectoplasm is
fine and is not involved in this discussion.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #1: Increase the cost of room ectoplasm from 2p to 4-5p a
 shot.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #2: Give room ectoplasm another cure - calamus (like
 slickness). The rationale can be because the
 ectoplasm hits a wider range of victims, its effects
 are more diluted and is therefore cured more easily.
 An alternate diagnose line would be appreciated for
 systems as well.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #3: .
Player Comments:
---[Synl on 12/12 @ 21:44 writes]:
Solution 1 looks good, or solution 3 if ectoplasm scales dependant on number of
enemies in the room.
---[Desitrus on 12/13 @ 19:01 writes]:
I prefer solution 2. Leave the cost effective at 2p, but add a cure that doesn't
require 8+ people to spend LONGER cleansing than it takes to actually use the
skill ectoplasm. It can and does effectively shut down any balance classes on
the opposite side, especially when it is hammered 5x by one guy, 5x by the next,
etc.
---[Xenthos on 12/13 @ 21:52 writes]:
I'm in favour of the slightly increased power cost, and the chance of hitting
enemies decreases as there are more enemies of yours in the room.
---[Talkan on 12/14 @ 00:59 writes]:
I favor solution 1 or 2. 1 would discontinue the spamming of a single person and
would add a pricey enough cost so that a group could continue it, but at a
balanced level. 2 would be equally as good. It not only makes sense in an RP
sense (the ectoplasm is spread thin over a larger area making it easier to cure)
but it doesn't cripple necromancer users if they choose to use it more than once
in a time. Solution 3 doesn't address the problem as it still allows 1 person to
repeatedly ectoplasm effecting the entire group since, as Desitrus pointed out,
you can ectoplasm faster than you can cleanse
---[Shuyin on 12/16 @ 05:33 writes]:
I'd rather it scale in a way that the more people you ecto all at once, the more
power it takes instead of the less people it actually hits.
---[Ceren on 12/19 @ 23:22 writes]:
I don't see any way, including the solutions presented here, to address the
problem as you describe it without creating a cripple skill of room ectoplasm.
What if we just removed room ectoplasm altogether and, as a replacement, added a
timed instakill to Necromancy similar to judgement?
---[Nejii on 12/20 @ 10:18 writes]:
5p per room ecto attack is still not actually worthless, though it is a major
downgrade (as it should be.) Deleting the room version works ok too, but adding
in unnecessary clones doesn't.
---[Talkan on 12/21 @ 22:45 writes]:
I agree with Shuyin. I took that to be the agreed form when we were discussing
it, rather than people effected
---[Steingrim on 12/31 @ 16:02 writes]:
Solution 1 seems reasonable.