It's not a particularly good ikon, either. I was going to participate in the event, saw that the reward was an ikon and decided it wasn't worth the time.
IIRC, that means it has slightly more weight for influence than a regular ikon, so it is similar to an Eternal ikon in that regard. A full gestalt of legendary Eternals will have slightly more effect than a full gestalt of non-Eternal ikons for this reason. So, this one is good for influence gestalts, but not really for use in play.
An empowered ikon means that it has a reduced power cost and cooldown in a Psychodrama game compared to an ikon with the same initiative and strength that isn't empowered. It isn't related to gestalt strength, afaik.
If Zvoltz is correct, you wouldn't notice the difference in a battle... There is a formula used to automatically balance ikons, that decides what the power/cooldown/initiative of an ikon is relative to its strength/effect. I believe Zvoltz is saying that being 'empowered' means that that ikon is generated using a different (better) formula.
If anyone has suggestions on small tweaks that would make this ikon more useful in play without losing its legendary status, I'm willing to look into changing it to be more useful.
I don't know how the formulae work, but a slightly lower power cost or shorter cooldown would go a long way for me. Comparing these two, I don't think the extra two power is worth the one extra point of healing and slightly faster initiative. I guess the fact that it has no group restrictions is worth something.
Dumaliel of the Glittering Clouds
Initiative: 3 Cooldown: 5 turn(s) Power: 6
He restores 10 point(s) of life.
Jilai Clarramore, Soul of the Nation
Initiative: 4 Cooldown: 3 turn(s) Power: 4
She restores 9 point(s) of life.
EDIT: Full disclosure, I am terrible at Psychodrama.
I'm pretty sure the problem is that the way psychodrama is built, legendary ikons are pretty much universally useless. They are designed linearly, without respect to the fact that if a card does 5 damage and can be played every turn, it is inherently more useful than a card that can do 8 damage but can only be played once every 3 turns. As such, once you get it to Legendary level, either the power cost / cooldown / both will be prohibitively high in regards to what it can actually do.
Legendaries are mostly only good for the influencing buff; you can't expect them to really be useful in a psychodrama battle. That's just the underlying design.
* Note that if you lower the cooldown, the power cost will automatically go up. In order to lower the post cost, you need to lower one of the other things as well. Lowering the restored health will bring it down from Legendary status, so that isn't really an option.
I do think the whole game could use some tweaking: 1) Raise the hitpoints to 50 from 25. - This will lengthen the game out and make it more feasible to actually use the high-cost high-cooldown ikons. 2) Make the formula a little more encouraging for the Epic / Legendary ikons; epic should have an effect something like 50% higher than it currently does, Legendary more like 100% more (so Dumaliel would do a restore of 20 health base). At that point, it would actually be something you could pull out and turn things around a bit; right now you're better off just having a lower level healer for 6 points that you can use once every 3 turns instead. - This helps make epics and legendaries more desired, especially when the game is longer and you'll be able to use them in the match.
I do think the whole game could use some tweaking: 1) Raise the hitpoints to 50 from 25. - This will lengthen the game out and make it more feasible to actually use the high-cost high-cooldown ikons. 2) Make the formula a little more encouraging for the Epic / Legendary ikons; epic should have an effect something like 50% higher than it currently does, Legendary more like 100% more (so Dumaliel would do a restore of 20 health base). At that point, it would actually be something you could pull out and turn things around a bit; right now you're better off just having a lower level healer for 6 points that you can use once every 3 turns instead. - This helps make epics and legendaries more desired, especially when the game is longer and you'll be able to use them in the match.
This seems like a sound course for making Dumaliel, and all other legendary/epics more useful, yeah.
I love Psychodrama, it's a neat idea and can be great fun. My favourite games are ones where you get a bit of back and forth rather than stun, 15 damage, 10 damage, dead.
Legendary characters are fine, just don't expect to use them more than once and fill your other two slots with cheaper, faster ikons. Most people aim for a turn 2 or 3 win so that's not a big deal. I often use Kethuru as a finisher for 10 points of hard to counter damage.
Legendary props are more questionable as it's easy to blow a lot of power for no effect.
Healing ikons aren't worth it. It's always better to use your precious character action to get yourself closer to victory. This applies to vampiric scenes too. You're going to lose ground on a round you heal. I'd suggest knocking a point or two off the initiative and power costs of the healing and vamp scene formula as a start. Possibly add a point or two of effect. Cooldowns are fine as you don't want to be continually healing.
Xenthos's suggestion for more health for longer games is interesting. That'd give a little more chance to strategise since you'd have more time to learn your opponent's gestalt before the game ends.
The problem Dumaliel has is that it's a healing icon on middling initiative. From what I can see, the psychodrama calculations value points of offense, healing and defense equally, when in gameplay they do not have an equal value. Defense is given through props and scenes, which do not cause an opportunity cost in having one less attacking icon, unlike healing. Healing has the advantage that it can throw a big wrench into strategies that focus upon an offense to quickly deal 25 points of damage. In this case, an Init 1, Healing 1 Icon can be really useful, since only the last hitpoint matters. But this surprise value is diminished if you have to burn the icon earlier, hence the necessity for an Init of 1. Healing also enjoys a high initiative, since it can there enjoy power without cost. And while defensive props seem to be rarely used in favour of character neutralizing props, the fact that healing ikons ignore defense props makes their low initiative far more tolerable.
So in short, give this specific Ikon an Initiative of 1 or 5. Tweak the formula for healing Ikons slightly.
And nerf Character neutralizer props. *halo*
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.
Yah, character neutralisers are a bit too good compared to other prop types. They stop all attack types, heals and stuns and often waste the oppenent's scene. Maybe increase power and cooldown rather than decrease effect, so they're useful but need more commitment.
Edit: Dumaliel now has the same stats as Elfenehoala (10 HEAL 5I 3C 3P) and is uncommon. More useful, thank you. I wonder what magnitude heal it would need at 5I to be legendary. 15? 20? That might get used as a panic button for 10 power or so.
Was anyone able to put together last month's ballad into something intelligible? I've been wondering if people were attempting to organize the lines into the correct order.
There is a project in Hallifax that has a somewhat intelligible love song out of it. That said, with how the verses for this month pan out, I'm wondering if it wouldn't be more prudent to see it as alternating call and answer. Either way, what I'm making this out to be is some kind of love song from Dumaliel to Grimbach, and vice versa. Which leaves me scratching my head as to which "he" that is being referred to. Granted, I may be missing some lines, but it seems that Dumaliel is at once speaking to Grimbach, but also seems concerned with a "he".
Honestly, reading the two, I get the distinct feeling that it's a story about Grimbach, the Golden Prince of Shallamar, seduced by Dumaliel, the Golden Muse of Celestia. That... would make for quite a scandal. And it would give reason as to why it seems Celest would want to cover this up. Especially the manner in which their existence seems to be hidden, with the words snatched away before one can speak them. It would be *really* cool... but maybe it's just me who really wants an ambiguious opponent for this years Ascension challenge.
Or maybe I'm completely wrong and we'll be seeing kiddie zombie Eventru and kiddie zombie Lyreth. That'll be cool as well.
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.
Was anyone able to put together last month's ballad into something intelligible? I've been wondering if people were attempting to organize the lines into the correct order.
I tried, but the rhyme scheme didn't really present itself. Either that or there were some heavily slanted end rhymes. Also, I didn't feel like putting them in the 'right' order was going to reveal anything earthshattering.
That's kind of the thought I had. I don't think anyone in Seren is participating in this event in a big/public way, I haven't seen enough of the lines to try making anything of them.
Was anyone able to put together last month's ballad into something intelligible? I've been wondering if people were attempting to organize the lines into the correct order.
Some of the lines seemed to go together, but there didn't seem to be a clear correct order for the verses overall.
"Chairwoman," Princess Setisoki states, holding up a hand in a gesture for her to stop and returning the cup. "That would be quite inappropriate. One of the males will serve me."
I remembered a thing! From around April! That explains one of the unanswered questions I'd had about things, if the romance between Grimbach and Dumaliel is accurate. ... You can ask in-game if you want to know what it is that I remembered, because reasons.
I'm Lucidian. If I don't get pedantic every so often, I might explode.
Couldn't (and still can't) find a stanza pattern in the first one to work off of, and while some of the lines go together and I think I found the beginning and end lines, there's a lot of confusion as to what order the middle goes in. Looks like it's going to be much the same with this second set.
...the lines are beautiful, though. I hope we'll get to see the compiled works at some point.
Comments
Estarra the Eternal says, "Give Shevat the floor please."
Legendaries are mostly only good for the influencing buff; you can't expect them to really be useful in a psychodrama battle. That's just the underlying design.
* Note that if you lower the cooldown, the power cost will automatically go up. In order to lower the post cost, you need to lower one of the other things as well. Lowering the restored health will bring it down from Legendary status, so that isn't really an option.
I do think the whole game could use some tweaking:
1) Raise the hitpoints to 50 from 25.
- This will lengthen the game out and make it more feasible to actually use the high-cost high-cooldown ikons.
2) Make the formula a little more encouraging for the Epic / Legendary ikons; epic should have an effect something like 50% higher than it currently does, Legendary more like 100% more (so Dumaliel would do a restore of 20 health base). At that point, it would actually be something you could pull out and turn things around a bit; right now you're better off just having a lower level healer for 6 points that you can use once every 3 turns instead.
- This helps make epics and legendaries more desired, especially when the game is longer and you'll be able to use them in the match.
Estarra the Eternal says, "Give Shevat the floor please."
Legendary characters are fine, just don't expect to use them more than once and fill your other two slots with cheaper, faster ikons. Most people aim for a turn 2 or 3 win so that's not a big deal. I often use Kethuru as a finisher for 10 points of hard to counter damage.
Legendary props are more questionable as it's easy to blow a lot of power for no effect.
Healing ikons aren't worth it. It's always better to use your precious character action to get yourself closer to victory. This applies to vampiric scenes too. You're going to lose ground on a round you heal. I'd suggest knocking a point or two off the initiative and power costs of the healing and vamp scene formula as a start. Possibly add a point or two of effect. Cooldowns are fine as you don't want to be continually healing.
Xenthos's suggestion for more health for longer games is interesting. That'd give a little more chance to strategise since you'd have more time to learn your opponent's gestalt before the game ends.
So in short, give this specific Ikon an Initiative of 1 or 5. Tweak the formula for healing Ikons slightly.
And nerf Character neutralizer props. *halo*
Edit: Dumaliel now has the same stats as Elfenehoala (10 HEAL 5I 3C 3P) and is uncommon. More useful, thank you. I wonder what magnitude heal it would need at 5I to be legendary. 15? 20? That might get used as a panic button for 10 power or so.
Honestly, reading the two, I get the distinct feeling that it's a story about Grimbach, the Golden Prince of Shallamar, seduced by Dumaliel, the Golden Muse of Celestia. That... would make for quite a scandal. And it would give reason as to why it seems Celest would want to cover this up. Especially the manner in which their existence seems to be hidden, with the words snatched away before one can speak them. It would be *really* cool... but maybe it's just me who really wants an ambiguious opponent for this years Ascension challenge.
Or maybe I'm completely wrong and we'll be seeing kiddie zombie Eventru and kiddie zombie Lyreth. That'll be cool as well.
Estarra the Eternal says, "Give Shevat the floor please."
I'm looking forward to this next month's "response." If it is a response.
Some of the lines seemed to go together, but there didn't seem to be a clear correct order for the verses overall.
Trying to piece the first month alone was difficult, but now the second month has come in, it seems like a duet.
As long as they don't suddenly break into Sonny and Cher's "I've got you babe" half way through, I'm really really liking this.
The divine voice of Avechna, the Avenger reverberates powerfully, "Congratulations, Morkarion, you are the Bringer of Death indeed."
You see Estarra the Eternal shout, "Morkarion is no more! Mourn the mortal! But welcome True Ascendant Karlach, of the Realm of Death!