Liaison changes part 1

Riluo

ANNOUNCE NEWS #2314
Date: 9/29/2014 at 7:06
From: Razmael, the Synthesist
To : Everyone
Subj: Liaison changes part 1

Battlefury
----------
(1711) [Fitness] balance penalty has been removed. This applies to all skillsets that have the Fitness ability.
(1720) Weapon mastery effects have been divorced from specific weapons and now attached to a weapon class. Refer to AB BATTLEFURY MASTERY.

Bladefire
---------
(1715) The mental_disruption affliction is now focusable. Both mental_disruption and physical_disruption are now above sunlight_allergy on the ginseng/ovary curing tree.

Corpus
------
(1705) [Deathlink] defence now persists across class changes.

Crystalism
----------
(1702) [Tone] balance is now fixed at 2.5 seconds.
(1776) Folding multiple pearls at once is now supported.
(1787) [Cataclysm] will allow indoor targets in a line of sight.

Desiccation and Naturalism
--------------------------
All these comes from report 1739:
* Overgrowth and sand can now exist in the same location.
* [Emergence] and [Desiccate] will now have a delay if there is a Teradrim or Shaman in the room, respectively.
* Ranged sand and overgrowth placement (including greenfoot) will still not work if the opposing effect is in that location already. You need to walk into the room to place your domain.
* [Naturalism: Roots, Pull] and [Desiccation: Trap, Blast, Meld and all projection abilities] can be used regardless of overgrowth, sand and pllar ownership.

Devotion
--------
(1699) [Bliss]'s ticks now consistently restore willpower and endurance each time, to the exclusion of all other benefits. Fitness, Toughness, and Resistance are now all abilities in Spirituality. The cooldown has been removed and devotion cost lowered.
(1704) Convocation now has a 1 second channel, during which any movement by the target will interrupt the attempt.

Dhuriv
------
(1703) [Slice] now exclusively targets the torso.
(1774) [Reave] will use Slash's balance time if it strips shield or rebounding. The balance time will be as it is currently when a different defence is stripped, or the ability fails.

Domination
----------
(1721) The stun on Chimera Roar has been shortened to 1.5 seconds.
(1759) With the removal of hunger as a combat tactic, the demonic worm (Palpatar) now allows you to WORM REPORT , where target is the player to which your worm is attached. At an equilibrium cost, this command shows you vital information as well as class-specific stats such as Kai and Essence.
(1783) Pathfinder travel will now involve a 2-second channel, interruptable only through caster movement. Conditions will be re-checked at the end of the channel, so impales and such will prevent the pathfinder from working. Additionally, pathfinders will now display their owners in INFO HERE.
(1592) Chaos orb's function has been changed. Instead of parrying an attack, it will now soften the blow, causing it to deal 50% less health damage (but still same limb damage). Cooldown on summoning has been removed.

Enchantment
-----------
(1803) The Gem of Negation is now stopped by paresis and being prone in addition to the existing restrictions. There is also a 60 minute cooldown on its use.

Ferality
--------
(1719) [Destroy] and [Mangle] can no longer be dodged.
(1749) Increased bodypart damage of these Ferality attacks: [Slashing], [Spinalcrack], [BodyPunch], [Skullwhack], [Jugular], [Faceslash], [GroinRip], [SpleenRip], [ThroatRip]. They were mistakenly lowered during the Shapeshifter changes.

Hematurgy
---------
(1685) New ability: [Umbrage]
(1734) Those in the Bloodborn class will naturally deal more damage against NPCs when using a scythe attack.
(1778) The damage stat on scythes has been lowered and the speed raised. This should bring scythe attacks roughly in line with dwhisper time at neutral balance/equilibrium.

Hypnosis
--------
(1706) Hypochondria now blocks diagnose's output instead of scrambling it.
(1765) The shadow balance on dissipate, void, and bedazzle have all been increased by 1.0 seconds.

Illumination
------------
(1298) EVOKE SHADOW will now cost 3s true equilibrium (down from 5s modifiable equilibrium) and provide messages to the caster and target when the effect ends.

Kaido
-----
(1708) New ability: [Recursion].

Misc
----
(1717) Silence, cloak of the hunt will no longer hide the global message when a lesser is extracted. It instead has two new functions: 1) it will hide entry into the Iernian fracture from the ylembic resonators, and (2) When farseeing someone in an unstable area that is wearing it, you will no longer be able to tell that the area is unstable.
(1722) Player corpses/husks will now show who killed them when probed.
(1751) You can now BREATHE FIRE to attempt to destroy an icewall.
(1771) Paralysis will now prevent Shamanism Tranquility Oath, Numerology Oneness and Righteousness Cleansing to not proc if the user has full paralysis.
(1763) Abilities that heal health/mana now have a cooldown that adds diminishing returns. Each time you use a healing skill within 15 seconds, it will heal for 33% cumulatively and reset the timer back to 15 seconds. Affects these skills: Necromancy Vigour/Sapience, Tarot Priestess/Magician, Deathlore Consume, Devotion Hands, Illumination Infusion.
(1768) The negative move speed aspect of monuments will now only affect order enemies.
(1788) New config: CONFIG ENEMYLIST
(1709) Added basic support for affliction_view messages on secondary aff messages. Doesn't work for all of them since there's a lack of code unification in that respect. We'll add those as they get bugged. That said, I think I've covered all the common ones people use for checking - let me know if I missed any of the common ones.

Necromancy
----------
(1689) [Extermination] now respects a 5 minute cooldown and an increased channel time. However, a successful extermination now grants 20% more essence.
(1712) [Soulcage] is now treated like rebirth, in that it provides the killer experience and shows a proper deathsight.
(1746) [Vivisect] now requires a shriveled chest. Shriveling a chest will expose the target's ribcage after 15 seconds, for a period of 60 seconds after the last aggressive action or until death. You may only shrivel one chest at a time, and only you may take advantage of the chest you have shriveled. However, multiple Necromancers may shrivel the same target's chest for their own use. Shriveling chests does not require or consume balance or equilibrium.

Primality
---------
(1755) [Equivalence] will now show a discernment line and give its affs unhidden.

Righteousness
-------------
(1756) Accuracy aura has been decreased from +50% hit chance to +35%, and Accuracy blessing has been decreased from +25% to +15%.
(1770) Spellbane will no longer increases mana drained from mana draining attacks.

Sanguis
-------
(1742) If target has both shield and rebounding up, devastate will only strip rebounding and halt, costing only 2 seconds of bal/eq.

Shamanism
---------
(1695) Songline Travel (self-only) will no longer be prevented by a monolith at the destination if the room is in a city, and the Shaman isn't enemied to it.

Subterfuge
----------
(1754) You can now wear a wielded bow if you have bowstance.

Survival
--------
(1760) New ability: [Relaxing].

Tarot
-----
(1744) [Fool] tarot's cooldown has been reduced to 25s.
(1779) [Adder]'s strike is now able to be dodged.

Tekura
------
(1707) [Vault] has been removed. In its place in Tekura is now [Dash].

Telepathy
---------
(1671) [Crush] no longer has a diminishing return to its damage.
(1761) [Blackout] now causes a 15 second immunity in the target.
(1789) [Push] now causes a 10 second immunity in the target.

Terramancy
----------
(1395) [Furor] will now count as two seperate attakcs in one turn.

Tracking
--------
(1762) New skill: Meteorshot.

Vision
------
(1725) [Discernment] will proc a generic line whenever someone resists an affliction, e.g. fitness blocking asthma

Vocalizing
----------
(1802) New ability: [Convergence]

Weaponry
--------
(1731) New ability: [Quickwield]
(1792) [Shatter] channel time increased from 3.00 to 4.00 seconds.

Woodlore
--------
(1646) Wildmarks will now properly decay.
(1727) Camouflaged nightingales will no longer show room messages.
(1775) Tents and campsites may now be constructed in jungles.
(1784) Elk, bear, and raloth will now perform their attacks as intended.

Penned by my hand on the 16th of Slyphian, in the year 430 MA.

Riluo

Some nice changes, however. The scythe speed change is a bit buggy. I did twenty test hits to see if it was an error or not.

Standard scythe speed and damage:
[5740(105%)|4446(100%)|0|105%|99%|98%|27.6%|R:80|Md:0%] [HMcsdb eb] -a shrine of Ivoln-
Raising a gruesome crescent scythe over your shoulder, you viciously slice at yourself.
Balanced Used: 3.49 seconds
[4770(87%)|4446(100%)|0|105%|99%|98%|27.6%|R:80|Md:0%] [HMcsdb e-] (-970h (cutting), -40e


With my level 3 rune on it:
[5133(94%)|4446(100%)|33|103%|100%|98%|27.6%|R:80|Md:0%] [HMcsdb eb]
Raising an ethereal scythe drenched in shadow over your shoulder, you viciously slice at
yourself.
Balanced Used: 3.09 seconds
[4494(82%)|4446(100%)|0|103%|100%|99%|27.6%|R:80|Md:0%] [HMcsdb e-] (-639h (cutting)



@Oleis It appears there is a negative reduction in damage from using runes. No changes in stats or defences in both tests. Perhaps this is an oversight as runes seems pointless now. I honestly thought they were going to be used to add back the damage loss back for those of us who bought them. So is there a secret plan or something. Otherwise runes just become worthless especially level 3!

Reux

Whats swing time when youre not +bal? I'm actually kinda scared of BB now if you can +eq +eqarti +lv3statboost and match speeds.

Kinda. Prae have been capable of that fast a combo since the stone age. And I don't think you can get scythe down to 3.2 with kust runes.

Still. WOOT. 

FERALITY ISN'T CONFUSING NOW.

LUMIES CAN MANAGE THAT RETARDED BLISS BUFF NOW.

The rest of it is kinda flying over my head right now.

Alissandra

(1768) The negative move speed aspect of monuments will now only affect order enemies.

Single. Greatest. Liason. EVER

Areka

This mastery change going through makes me so incredibly happy, I'm fangirling all over the place. +12341239487125987151451059175098

Lim

General feedback:

1. Quickwield needs to be made to work with shield, as well as non-weapons. This is especially pertinent when it comes to sigils or shields.

2. The discernment message for fitness/hierophant, etc. needs to replace the venom application message, or at least be placed below it. Right now, it sits above the venom application message, making it a bit awkward to code in for tracking.

3. Bliss also gave Constitution (like kaido), on top of the other defences listed in report 1699. That needs to be given a separate ability as well.

All in all though, VERY WELCOME CHANGES. Thank you, and we'll probably be having fun over the next few days trying them out. Looking forward to subsequent updates!

@Razmael‌ , @Oleis‌ , @Valdus‌ , @Keroc‌

Nalor

Lim said:

General feedback:
2. The discernment message for fitness/hierophant, etc. needs to replace the venom application message, or at least be placed below it. Right now, it sits above the venom application message, making it a bit awkward to code in for tracking.

This really needs to be done.. at moment if You hit someone with asthma (kalmia) it tracks person has not cured because of fitness but the You discern a layer of .. under that line makes people think he also has asthma..

Toz

Alissandra said:

(1768) The negative move speed aspect of monuments will now only affect order enemies. Single. Greatest. Liason. EVER

You're welcome.

Ashmer

Love the quality of life stuff. Seconding @Lim's post on all counts, especially for Quickwield.

I'll be interested to see what happens now with the Shapeshifter, Templar, Syssin, and Indorani changes. Adder dodge and mental_disruption being focusable, along with the Accuracy aura nerfs in particular.

Riluo

Mental_disruption being focusable seems odd. Anyone really tested it yet?

Aishia

/enemy toz to every lifer order

Nalor

Riluo said:

Mental_disruption being focusable seems odd. Anyone really tested it yet?

the Odd part is it being the first thing in the focus-tree.. but then it let people use pestilence affs to stick for longer.

Also WHO uses Accuracy aura? It was all down to 1 person not able to kill a Templar.. not that the Accuracy was an issue.. it was fact Clumsiness wasnt sticking as good.

Ashmer

Nalor said:

Riluo said:

Mental_disruption being focusable seems odd. Anyone really tested it yet?

the Odd part is it being the first thing in the focus-tree.. but then it let people use pestilence affs to stick for longer.

Also WHO uses Accuracy aura? It was all down to 1 person not able to kill a Templar.. not that the Accuracy was an issue.. it was fact Clumsiness wasnt sticking as good.

Nalor said:

Riluo said:

Mental_disruption being focusable seems odd. Anyone really tested it yet?

the Odd part is it being the first thing in the focus-tree.. but then it let people use pestilence affs to stick for longer.

Also WHO uses Accuracy aura? It was all down to 1 person not able to kill a Templar.. not that the Accuracy was an issue.. it was fact Clumsiness wasnt sticking as good.

Is it above stupidity/anorexia in the focus tree? If so, that makes Templar locking even more attractive.

Also, to answer your second question: I sure do! Accuracy aura is (was?) the best. Hardly ever miss, clumsiness not withstanding.

Serrice

I used accuracy blessing, personally, and reserved my aura for cleansing.

Serrice

Mental_disruption is in fact at the top of the focus tree. This makes brute force retribution, combined with the accuracy downgrade, a less attractive option, but I seemingly makes locking more viable. Locking however, is subject to lockbreakers. This is what I came up with after a couple of test spars.

Ashmer

Oh, I think I missed that @Nalor was referring specifically to Accuracy Aura. I usually use it as a blessing, too - that always seemed to be enough. I haven't had a chance to test as Templar yet since liaisons.

Also, mental_disruption being at the top of the focus tree opens up some other cool things I think you can do now. All niche tactics, but niche tactics can be super amusing. I'll have to test a straight Retri route after I'm done with my current project.

I'll have to spar a few Indorani, too, to see how much the Adder and chimera changes affect the affliction uptime.

Nalor

personally Ive NEVER EVER used accuracy blessing and never had an issue.. normally do pestilence, cleansing healing spellbane or something

Moirean

I want to talk about the reversions Carnifex suffered with the revamp....but fucking hell, Xiuh was banned for posting a single thread.

STUFF IS GREAT YAY.

Oleis

Moirean said:

I want to talk about the reversions Carnifex suffered with the revamp....but fucking hell, Xiuh was banned for posting a single thread.

STUFF IS GREAT YAY.

Xiuh was banned for suggesting that volunteers literally kill themselves out of shame.

I'm happy to talk about balance with anyone who isn't a reprehensible human being.

Moirean

Erk, I missed that part of it. That's uncool, agreed.

Oleis

Moirean said:

Erk, I missed that part of it. That's uncool, agreed.

Thanks for understanding. I really don't want to shut down conversations. I'm looking forward to the liaison round coming up soon (which will be smaller yet, so we can have a quicker turnaround, I swear) for that exact reason. I'm just not even going to play ball if I can't build mutual respect with the other people involved.

Lim

@Razmael‌ :

Thanks so much for the quickwield fix. Just a bit more feedback- could quickwield be made to implicitly use "wear shield" too?

Right now, using quickwield to wield over a shield causes it to be unwielded, rather than worn. This causes a balance cost when you wield the shield once more.

Thanks!

Moirean

Re Carnifex stuff - there's currently a bug/oversight (#2634) making venom tracking very problematic:

SSL: If the target dodges or parries the first half of a SSL, the SECOND envenomed venom will go off, instead of the one currently on top. Ie, if I envenom curare and xentio, the target should get paresis first and then clumsiness. If they dodge, that paresis should then be delivered by the 2nd swing. Instead, xentio is. This is counter to how other 2-h classes operate (sentinels) and to how carnifex SSL used to work.

If this is intended, I'll code around it, but atm sitting and waiting to see if that's supposed to be working like this.

Also re Carnifex:

Can deathlore be made eq-free? There's already a soul limiter in place to prevent every skill ever from being spammed at once - and being able to put a deathlore attack BEFORE the main ssl/dbash would be incredibly useful. Right now, especially for limb route, you have to decide if you're going to raze or do extra damage with your NEXT attack (not the one you're currently doing) which is an extra coding hurdle that seems unnecessary. Deathlore skills aren't really designed to be things that necessitate the target reacting in that window between the effect and the execution, so I don't think there will be any big balance concerns for being able to plug in a distort or frailty with your combo, but having to set these up a combo in advance adds an extra level of difficulty to the basic offense.

Ishin

Could give'em a similar mechanic to shadow balance or something too. Would keep them from spamming 10 of them before ssl and you could just make it so you regain that bal whenever you regain balance from your attack? Dunno, haven't played around with Carnifex too much to know what other ideas to offer.

Valdus

Moirean said:

Re Carnifex stuff - there's currently a bug/oversight (#2634) making venom tracking very problematic:

SSL: If the target dodges or parries the first half of a SSL, the SECOND envenomed venom will go off, instead of the one currently on top. Ie, if I envenom curare and xentio, the target should get paresis first and then clumsiness. If they dodge, that paresis should then be delivered by the 2nd swing. Instead, xentio is. This is counter to how other 2-h classes operate (sentinels) and to how carnifex SSL used to work.

If this is intended, I'll code around it, but atm sitting and waiting to see if that's supposed to be working like this.

Also re Carnifex:

Can deathlore be made eq-free? There's already a soul limiter in place to prevent every skill ever from being spammed at once - and being able to put a deathlore attack BEFORE the main ssl/dbash would be incredibly useful. Right now, especially for limb route, you have to decide if you're going to raze or do extra damage with your NEXT attack (not the one you're currently doing) which is an extra coding hurdle that seems unnecessary. Deathlore skills aren't really designed to be things that necessitate the target reacting in that window between the effect and the execution, so I don't think there will be any big balance concerns for being able to plug in a distort or frailty with your combo, but having to set these up a combo in advance adds an extra level of difficulty to the basic offense.

The SSL part is definitely a bug and will be fixed.

Picking the off-balance deathlore effects in advance of the actual attack is an intentional part of the skill, so we will not be removing the equilibrium costs.

Moirean

To clarify, I'm not coming at this from a "buff the class" angle. I haven't really fought extensively as a limb fighter, so trying to build and remember settings and develop an offense felt really difficult due to all the stuff that needs to be mentally juggled by selecting the empowers a round in advance. Chaining them before the attacks was what I thought up to help simplify stuff, but I'm sure there are other ways.

--------

Regarding other changes:

You use Necromancy Shriveled Chest (activate) on Stridor.
Stridor's blackened chest quivers and sinks in on itself, leaving his ribcage weak and exposed.
Mana Lost: 150
You reach out and stroke the left arm of Stridor, and it withers away.
[Murdertime!]: deaf, fitness, sileris, speed, weakened_chest, rightarmcrippled, leftarmcrippled
H:7342/7342 M:5048/5370 E:100% W:99% S:100% XP:57.94% [cdb -b lr]
(Web): Stridor says, "System is paused."
H:7342/7342 M:5048/5370 E:100% W:99% S:100% XP:57.94% [cdb -b lr]
You have recovered equilibrium.
H:7342/7342 M:5048/5370 E:100% W:100% S:100% XP:57.94% [cdb eb lr]
Mana Lost: 150
You reach out and grasp Stridor's right leg in an iron grip, and it shrivels feebly under your necromantic might.
H:7342/7342 M:4898/5370 E:100% W:99% S:100% XP:57.94% [cdb -b lr]
Deepest Stygian night steals over the land as the symbolic hourglass empties and turns, ready to begin a new day.
It is now the 15th of Midsummer, year 431 of the Midnight Age.
-------------------------------------------------
New Month:.15 hours.
New Year:.6 days, 21 hours.
New Decade:.132 days.
-------------------------------------------------
H:7342/7342 M:4898/5370 E:100% W:99% S:100% XP:57.94% [cdb -b lr]
(Web): Stridor says, "Shrivel them all."
H:7342/7342 M:4898/5370 E:100% W:99% S:100% XP:57.94% [cdb -b lr]
Stridor's broken legs cause him to fall to the ground in a heap.

[Murdertime!]: deaf, fitness, sileris, speed, weakened_chest, rightarmcrippled, leftarmcrippled, rightlegcrippled, leftlegcrippled, prone
H:7342/7342 M:4898/5370 E:100% W:99% S:100% XP:57.94% [cdb -b lr]
[Murdertime!]: >>> Victim is PRONE! Hit em while they're down! <<<<

[Murdertime!]: >>> Victim is READY for a VIVISECTION, Ma'am! <<<<

[Murdertime!]: >>> EEEEEE DO IT DO IT DO IT GO GO GO EEEEEEE <<<<

[Murdertime!]: >>> Victim is READY for a VIVISECTION, Ma'am! <<<<
(Web): You say, "VIVISECT: Stridor."
H:7342/7342 M:4898/5370 E:100% W:99% S:100% XP:57.94% [cdb -b lr]
H:7257/7342 M:4898/5370 E:100% W:99% S:100% XP:57.94% [cdb -b lr]
H:7342/7342 M:4898/5370 E:100% W:99% S:100% XP:57.94% [cdb -b lr]
H:7342/7342 M:5005/5370 E:100% W:99% S:100% XP:57.94% [cdb -b lr]
You have recovered equilibrium.
H:7342/7342 M:5005/5370 E:100% W:99% S:100% XP:57.94% [cdb eb lr]
Mana Lost: 800
You use Necromancy Vivisect (failure) on Stridor.
You reach out for Stridor's chest but are unable to penetrate it.
[HINT]: You'll need to SHRIVEL CHEST <target> to prepare for a vivisection.

Shrivel chest, aside from the frustrating design (and its unfriendliness to the (albeit, waning with adder) core concept of Indorani capitalizing off RNG), seems to be bugged. Vivisect fails when it's on someone, and I get told I need to shrivel chest (despite it just being shriveled).

Associated bugginess:

- Does not visibly wear off after 60 seconds (but it's not really acting like it's "on" anyways). Does show as wearing off upon death or using it on SOME other targets.
- Doesn't always show as wearing off when switching targets, suggesting some sort of internal/hidden spot it's wearing off without a message
- Does not show on diagnose
- Attempting shrivel chest again AFTER the chest has been exposed resets the initial 15 second timer

-----------

CONFIG AFFLICTION_VIEW ON is either resetting to full all the time or isn't working for the old affliction view (ie, just when you got it). My system isn't so great and my computer's old and I'm locking up in PK very often due to how spammy the new aff view changes are, and I can't find a way to turn them off, except by disabling affliction view entirely.