Curse

Kool Kirby · Feb 18, 2008, 02:58 PM // 14:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ensign

Read the skill description. Read it again. Tease can barely hold a candle to that thing.

Let's say you really wanted to maximize the usage of this thing. To do that you use it as often as the exhaustion wears off. That's also a convenient time-frame because at 14 ES, this thing has an effective energy cost of 69. Using GLE for 10 energy a minute lets you cast 4 other spells while leaving you with 70 energy to power this thing; those 4 spells per minute will represent the entire output of this character otherwise.

So you can cast this thing once per minute, every time you hit 70 energy. You cast it for 25 energy, leaving you with 45, which is just enough to get both triggers. Let's say you want to hit your entire team with this. You cast it and redistribute 140% of 45 energy, which is 63 energy, amongst 7 people which comes out cleanly to distribute 9 energy per person. Since you got the secondary trigger, they all also get +2 energy regeneration for 15 seconds, which translates into another 10 energy per person.

So, running at full power, this proposed elite gives your entire team just shy of 1 pip of energy regeneration - at a cost of what is essentially an entire character. What could you possibly be doing with +1 energy regeneration on your whole team that is worth sacrificing an entire character slot for? If you just want to get +1 on a few characters, a single casting of 8 spec Blood is Power is worth 20 energy to the target; Peace and Harmony can give +1 energy regeneration to your Monks. Neither of which, I might add, cost you an entire character.

The only builds that would even think about using something like this are horribly degenerate 'combo' builds (not that I can imagine one that would sacrifice a character for +1 regen to the team but work with me here). Nothing resembling an interactive team build with remotely engaging gameplay would use this; it is a skill with aspirations to appear in a healing ball or equivalent. Those builds, to put it kindly, are awful for the game, and taking a functional skill and turning it into a needlessly complicated gimmick engine is mind-blowingly bad.

Here is a much more reasonable change to Second Wind to make it playable:

Second Wind: 2c -> 1c.

Well, since quite a few people don't like it, then I will make this change...I'll keep my old change but put a revised version. I respect you quite a bit Ensign, so I'll honor this. LouAI gave a decent response as well, as did some others. I have a NEW CHANGE listed under each skill now.

Sir Pandra Pierva · Feb 19, 2008, 06:04 PM // 18:04

yay my changes were liked

Kool Kirby · Feb 20, 2008, 02:36 AM // 02:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sir Pandra Pierva

yay my changes were liked

I'm willing to accept any changes if they provide a decent explanation (LouAI, Ensign).

LouAl · Feb 20, 2008, 10:14 PM // 22:14

I still like that you want to improve these (and potentially other unused elites), but the conditions are probably not the way to get it done. Just my opinion obviously...

Gale: your new change would give you KD+dmg every 10 seconds on someone, however if you make them even more useless (weakness or cracked armor) they also take damage and get KD'd. That seems a little much to me.

I really don't see anything wrong with leaving it the way it is with the modification of "elemental hex" to weakness (not weakness or cracked armor), and possibly giving it a 50% failure at 4 or less. Seems like an easy way to fix it.

Second Wind: Simple change ftw. Reduce to 1 sec cast...usable.

Stone Sheath: Wow, your newly proposed function would basically make it an AoE uber-empathy. Your new change would be just fine if it was minus the damage clause. As is, it is worthless and with your new change it would be crazy. You could slap it on a group of warriors and cover it with any number of AoE hexes to completely shutdown all of them for 37 seconds.

Mirror of Ice: At 3-5 recharge, you could cover too much of the team (for 60 seconds each) in too short a time period. I guess what I was thinking by "play with the recharge" was to increase it until it is workable (or possibly decrease duration). So, if it were at the 3-5 second recharge, it would only be able to last 8-12 seconds. If it is at 30-60 sec duration, you need to have the recharge significantly higher. I would like to see it something like 10e .25c 3-8r and doing basically what you said in your new description except that it only lasts for 8-20 seconds (depending on recharge, obviously).

Double Dragon: Who knows what to do with this...it would be a really easy fix to just make it target a foes location, but the summon idea gets better the more I think about it. Summon would add a different dimension to fire, but does fire really need it? I'm not sure.

While we're on this though...

Thunderclap: I really love this skill, but it will absolutely RAPE your energy if anyone else uses lighting on the hexed target. The worst part is that if you hit someone with it and just stand their wanding them, they get KD'd once every three attacks. That totally sucks because you KD them once every 5 seconds or so at the cost of approximately 12 energy per KD (not counting the original cost). Obviously, it is easy to get around this - wait until the are almost standing, then wand them. I would really love to see something done to this skill to make it more viable without being overpowered. Maybe all it needs is decreasing the cost of the KD to 5 at the top end. Any thoughts?

Ether Prodigy: For crap's sake, this just needs to go back a little toward the way it was back in the day and it would be good. I don't really understand why it has stayed how it is for so long. I mean honestly, they made a mesmer skill that does the same to you! It fills you up with energy and does 3 damage per energy (you can easily make it hit for 200). It seems like all it would take to make this workable would be to make the damage 2 instead of 3. It might work to make the damage scale from 8...3...2 or something.

Ether Renewal: This one just takes way too much setup to be worth it and then way to much flare-spam to take advantage of your setup for a measly 8 seconds (assuming +20% enchant). You need at least two enchants to make it worth it (a minimum of 10 energy, ok 5 if you GoLE), then the cost of the skill (another 10 energy), and then you flare spam for 8 seconds to gain a massive 6 energy and 180 health (can you get more than 6 flare casts in 8 seconds?). That sounds fine except it only is available 8 out of every 30 seconds AND flare spam sucks. Why not change it so it has a max xx clause like half the dervish stuff?

Mist Form: Why would anyone ever take this over Obs Flesh? At least now both can be maintained, but Mist is stay way underpowered when compared to Obs. Any thoughts on a fix? It would be lame to make it a Obs copy, but maybe do an approximate opposite - You cannot take or deal damage from attacks and all hostile spells cast on your last half as long and do half damage. It would need to halve the damage from things like Spiteful as well (I just made that up, but it is approximately the opposite of Obs).

Tyla · Feb 20, 2008, 10:21 PM // 22:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kool Kirby

8 Energy storage means you won't get the +2 energy regen for your teammaates...I said TOP priority...you never run 12 energy storage in pvp usually.

And you still don't understand...if you lose all your energy, you will have to switch to a high energy set to cast otherwise you will be useless for a while...you get more exhaustion if you use the skill with a high energy set...please read the description more carefully...

/Sigh...
You won't be using the skill under a high energy set though, will you?
Switch to a high energy set, cast, switch back.
And besides - 8+1=9 on e-storage.
Also - I doubt the +2 regen is the bit they would want, it would be the actual energy.

I'm doubting you're not understanding, I'm reading, you tell me to read it more carefully, but you wouldn't use it in a high energy set out of common sense.