Report 610

Report #610
Skillset: Crow Skill: New
 Org: Blacktalon Status: Rejected May 2011
Furies' Decision:
We are intrigued by the idea of paths but don't have the resources at the moment
to implement.
Problem: As compared to the cities, commune guilds have not experienced the
feeling of something largely new for quite some time. As it seems that with new
guilds come more complex and flavourful abilities, the older organizations
become somewhat boring - thus a proposition is made to address the Crow-using
guilds and give them something to deepen their tie to Crow and their
organization. A play on the aspects of Crow, a skill called Aspects could be
made that would be the catalyst for some flavourful change throughout Crow.
Solution #1: Enable users to mechanically choose a closer alignment to an
 aspect of Crow that would be reflected by the dark spirit they
 gain from DarkRebirth. With some flavourful process involved (and
 appropriate cost), the dark spirit defense will be modified to
 afflict as normal, but with an additive depending on the choice
 made. Of course, no choice made means just a normal dark spirit
 hit. With Blood Thirst, a burst of 125 - 150 bleeding will
 accompany the dark spirit hit. With Black Sorrow, a percent of
 damage incurred will be reflected to accompany the affliction
 hit. With False Memory, a mental affliction will accompany the
 hit, while Dark Spirit will truly prone the attacker with its
 usual afflicting hit.
Solution #2: A cosmetic route to alter the line seen when LOOKing at a person
 with Crowform up. With no Aspect chosen to be aligned with, they
 will have the usual: 'He is an ordinary human covered in black
 feathers and..', while a choice will alter the line minutely.
 Appropriate suggestions can be made if desired.
Solution #3: Instead of compounding the DarkRebirth hit, have the ability
 instead affect the damage dealt by Druidry Cudgels and Warrior
 weapons with a new defense. Much as elemental runes convert 33%
 of warrior damage to whichever element they choose, have this
 skill convert 10% of the damage they do to an element depending
 on the Aspect chosen. Blood Thirst can convert to Fire, Black
 Sorrow into Poison, False Memory into Psychic, and Dark Spirit
 into Magic. Whether these stack on top of the artifact runes will
 be left to the Admin. -NOTE: if made into a 10p defense, kindly
 ensure that it doesn't drop on death like other 10p defenses.
Player Comments:
---[Tandrin on 5/12 @ 17:09 writes]:
While I agree with the premise that commune guilds largely have received nothing
new, I believe Solutions 1 and 2 are unnecessary. With Solution 1, you are
advocating a buff to the dark spirit as it exists which I think is unneeded.
Solution 2 essentially advocates giving a buff equivalent to part of artifact
runes on weapons at an extremely low cost. Solution 2 however seems reasonable.
Perhaps other changes could be made to reflect the alignment with a particular
aspect of Crow.
---[Viynain on 5/13 @ 02:18 writes]:
Considering the vastly unimpressive effects of dark spirit currently, altering
it to not only be flavourful but worthwhile would be a good move for
Crowoverall. Solution three is not an equivalent considering the particular note
that it would be a smaller effect than the artifact comparison, so I disagree
with that comment. Laslty, cosmetic changes are nice and all, but with the range
of not only utility but combative effects new additions give to other
organizations (think Holy Light), I would like to see this idea go through with
more than just new looks in mind.
---[Ixion on 5/25 @ 02:43 writes]:
'As compared to the cities, commune guilds have not experienced the feeling of
something largely new for quite some time' That comment bothers me in that it
sounds like a sibling envious of the other's shiny new bauble, which has nothing
to do with needing said shiny new bauble (or skill). Anyway, bleeding backlash
in rend range and better than bleed runes, just no. Also, converting 10% may not
seem like a lot but that's hard to visualize unless you see what a bonus the
actual elemental runes give at 33% (considerable, needed to force sips
nowadays). That said, why not ask for slight buffs to the black nest construct
in crowform? How about buffs to existing skills that are never used?
---[Talan on 5/25 @ 07:55 writes]:
Both solutions 1 and 3 look interesting to me. I love more flavor for Crow. The
sentiment of the old-guard guilds feeling they're not keeping up with the game's
newer skillsets either in terms of avenues for RP or mechanics has been
expressed before, both in other envoys' reports and on forums - I feel like that
preface was only to say that he's going for something big, rather than some less
flattering connotation. Overall I prefer solution 1. Lehki attempted something
similar to try to specialize ecology familiars, but I think the overall concept
is even better placed in the Crow skillset, and I would love to see a similar
report for Stag, providing the admin are amenable to a change like this.
---[Ixion on 5/25 @ 09:35 writes]:
I'd be fine with solution 1 if it was toned down. Bleeding more than bleed runes
as well as in the rend bleed range is too much (cloak of thorns is a very
expensive auction artifact to compare to, which is a low backlash chance of low
bleeding), free prone is too much, and mental aff sounds fine- all of which
should be a somewhat low chance to afflict to begin with. Another similar
comparison is deathweapon affs, which is very low chance of a plague aff and
even at full mark the rate is maybe 20%.