Yeah, we actually went through the effort of nerfing the thing but WHATEVER.
This is honestly my only concern with the skillset. I think the iffy afflicting illusions will work out okay because they are so slow, but the it's frustrating to fix something and then have it tweaked and changed months down the line. Dodging was fixed.It just really didn't need to be touched.
The idea behind the skillset is very nice, and it will surely be attractive to many people who don't even want to use it in combat at all.
The 'fillers' between the actual affliction skills are unnecessary since bards already have dodge, damage boost and a skill to prevent the next attack.
They are basically either illusions that afflict with a different aff or affs, OR gibberish lines that you can't trigger.
Luckily they are all slow at 3.8 seconds so not all that effective.
They have to be sensible and actual sentences.
If you do "Red blue pink argle blargel Malarious Eritheyl ^target blue blue red dog yellow on the pasture yawn Celina", you'll find things going very poorly for you.
Up to and possibly including the loss of your ability to actually write Scenes, etc.
(Now wouldn't that stink.)
So in other words there will be no post-modern theater.
Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.
Post-modern theatre isn't neccesarily defined by nonsensical sentence structure, nor even a nonsensical story or content. Not that this is very relevant here, of course, just wanted to point that out.
Whether or not bards will eventually get a non acro secondary is also not very relevant to whether or not the skillset has dodge or not, since we shouldn't be balancing with future maybes and would-bes in mind. More dodge stacking with what acro currently provides is a deliberate step away from the entire movement to limit dodge effectiveness, as Rivius and others have pointed out. As it is, it undermines the rationale behind those changes in the past - why did we bother looking at, evaluating and eventually concluding that old dodge was not acceptable and had to be changed if we're, right now, re-instating more dodge?
Glamour bards with their reflection plus dodge is pretty solid a stalling tactic. Dramaturgy users haven't changed much about that, between mendacity and improved dodge, basically. It would've been nice to see something new for a defensive mechanic, and that is certainly something I see as a missed opportunity to add something deeper to the choice between glamours and dramaturge. What do you tell a newbie who asks you "what's different about the two skills defensively?" - you say, "Nothing. You do the same thing with both skills for the same effect, basically." A pity, really.
Apparently Foppery stacks with dodging like this: let's say dodging has a 10% chance to work on any given attack. With foppery, apparently dodging is now a 12% chance to work on any given attack. That's how I took it from Estarra's explanation last night over envoys anyway.
These numbers are made up and actual values may be bigger or smaller than they are.
The dodging stacks to some degree, but my understanding is that it 'piggy-backs' off Acrobatics dodging.
And while you might find them unnecessary, who knows - maybe someday bards will have an alternate secondary skillset.
You, sir, are evil for mentioning that, because I've been wanting something besides acrobatics for a long time (mainly for RP, acrobatics is nice for combat and such).
Apparently Foppery stacks with dodging like this: let's say dodging has a 10% chance to work on any given attack. With foppery, apparently dodging is now a 12% chance to work on any given attack. That's how I took it from Estarra's explanation last night over envoys anyway.
These numbers are made up and actual values may be bigger or smaller than they are.
Yeah, I think that's right - and, iirc, if you don't have Acrobatics for whatever reason, your dodging is a whopping 2% or something. IE, they use the same dodge system/functions/etc. It doesn't 'stack' per se, or compound, but it's additive. It isn't very much, either - a boost, for sure, but not a massive crazy big one.
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Cyndarinused Flamethrower! It was super effective.
Apparently Foppery stacks with dodging like this: let's say dodging has a 10% chance to work on any given attack. With foppery, apparently dodging is now a 12% chance to work on any given attack. That's how I took it from Estarra's explanation last night over envoys anyway.
These numbers are made up and actual values may be bigger or smaller than they are.
Yeah, I think that's right - and, iirc, if you don't have Acrobatics for whatever reason, your dodging is a whopping 2% or something. IE, they use the same dodge system/functions/etc. It doesn't 'stack' per se, or compound, but it's additive. It isn't very much, either - a boost, for sure, but not a massive crazy big one.
A small boost they don't need is still a boost they don't need. Just as a note.
FYI can't stack the same affs in a climax either. And jealousy does come at the cost of no songs, so it's a give and take. Rebuff functions off a similar give and take mechanic too.
And jealousy does come at the cost of no offensive, passive songs, so it's a give and take.
The bard can still use buff song effects for themselves and active (power-) songeffects on the target. Can someone confirm or rectify that Jealousy's buff is about 50% to damage? That's what I last heard.
The scenes are pretty limited in that they have to include your name and the name of the target and are only one line.
Also, they won't trigger the right affmessages if you have to set up to show them. It might trip people up every now and then but it won't be wrecking systems or anything.
To summarize the skillset
Improved influencing
You get some beckoning and lust protection via you'll wish you hadn't beckoned or lusted me.
An extra bit of dodge and super awesome dodge messages
A targeted ability to make it so the next attack that person uses on you misses.
One hidden aff and one unhidden aff for 1 p and ~4 seconds of eq, aff selection is preset and could take an hour or so of influencing to change
You can make the messages for the aff attacks to look like other things but mostly it's just crazy awesome to have custom attack messages!!
An ability to hit with 5 affs for 5 power. Will give an increasingly larger stun for each of the climax affs the target already has. aff selection is present and will take hours of influencing to change
Not sure if I'll stick with it but I'm having fun playing with it while I do.
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Cyndarinused Flamethrower! It was super effective.
The skillset has interesting flavour to build off of, though I wish it wasn't so "WACKY BARDS DO WACKY THINGS," a la three stooges.
The summon thing is great utility and perk.
The lack of DMP and damage absorption is a good balancing factor. Except they have a tradeskill/race combo that gives them the most dmp of any guild in the game.
Bards that dodge better due to submitting writing OOCly makes no sense.
Bard passives have always been minor (save a couple here and there like some of the SS stuff) so giving them up to shoot rocket launcher death beams from your violin seems like a win win scenario.
Affliction potential isn't all that hot and could probably use a buff...if they weren't shooting deathbeams from their violins.
Comments
Also: SCRIPT CLIMAX EMBED SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP STUPIDITY DEADENING.
^-- This is pretty unnecessary.
Other than that it looks very interesting, but seriously, dodge is already a really ugh-filled mechanic. It didn't need to be made even stronger.
The 'fillers' between the actual affliction skills are unnecessary since bards already have dodge, damage boost and a skill to prevent the next attack.
And while you might find them unnecessary, who knows - maybe someday bards will have an alternate secondary skillset.
Whether or not bards will eventually get a non acro secondary is also not very relevant to whether or not the skillset has dodge or not, since we shouldn't be balancing with future maybes and would-bes in mind. More dodge stacking with what acro currently provides is a deliberate step away from the entire movement to limit dodge effectiveness, as Rivius and others have pointed out. As it is, it undermines the rationale behind those changes in the past - why did we bother looking at, evaluating and eventually concluding that old dodge was not acceptable and had to be changed if we're, right now, re-instating more dodge?
Glamour bards with their reflection plus dodge is pretty solid a stalling tactic. Dramaturgy users haven't changed much about that, between mendacity and improved dodge, basically. It would've been nice to see something new for a defensive mechanic, and that is certainly something I see as a missed opportunity to add something deeper to the choice between glamours and dramaturge. What do you tell a newbie who asks you "what's different about the two skills defensively?" - you say, "Nothing. You do the same thing with both skills for the same effect, basically." A pity, really.
You, sir, are evil for mentioning that, because I've been wanting something besides acrobatics for a long time (mainly for RP, acrobatics is nice for combat and such).
A small boost they don't need is still a boost they don't need. Just as a note.
The skillset has interesting flavour to build off of, though I wish it wasn't so "WACKY BARDS DO WACKY THINGS," a la three stooges.
The summon thing is great utility and perk.
The lack of DMP and damage absorption is a good balancing factor. Except they have a tradeskill/race combo that gives them the most dmp of any guild in the game.
Bards that dodge better due to submitting writing OOCly makes no sense.
Bard passives have always been minor (save a couple here and there like some of the SS stuff) so giving them up to shoot rocket launcher death beams from your violin seems like a win win scenario.
Affliction potential isn't all that hot and could probably use a buff...if they weren't shooting deathbeams from their violins.