Announce 2149 & 2150

Haven

ANNOUNCE NEWS #2149
Date: 7/2/2013 at 1:09
From: Oleis
To  : Everyone
Subj: June Liaison Cycle - Round 2

Howdy ho, vamps and tramps! Round 2 of the June Liaison cycle is here
for your entertainment. This batch contains the majority of the tweaks
and improvements from the June cycle. The reports left for round 3
include the tougher general reports which require the most balancing and
code changes, including the Teradrim reports and some HUGE(!) changes to
Carnifex.

First, a couple changes not directly taken from Liaison reports:
- The chance to prone yourself due to Stupidity has been dramatically
reduced.
 - COMBATMESSAGES has been added to CONFIG COLOR.
 
Now for the juicy goodness!

General
-------
- The aeon-style effect of the retardation vibe now gives a different
secondary message: "A movement-retarding vibe slows your actions." It is

important to note that the standard Aeon message takes precedence over
this one, to ensure that you are aware of being afflicted with Aeon in a
room affected by Retardation. [1319]
- Fitness will now have a 'penalty' balance associated with multiple
uses in the span of 90 seconds. Each use extends the next use's balance
time by a quarter-second and refreshes the 90 second cooldown. You will
be notified of the added balance and the end of the cooldown. [1293]
- Additionally, Fitness will now consume 1.5s of equilibrium in addition
to any balance cost. [1341]
- Berserking is now guaranteed to strip shield and rebounding on its
ticks. We will monitor the tick rate closely. I have raised the curing
priority of berserking slightly. [1301]
- Loneliness should now properly prevent all active movement commands
(except tumble) when there is no one in the target room. [1356]
- Previously, in order to apprentice someone in a class, it was
necessary for one to be active in a class and a member of a guild which
claims that class as its primary. Those restrictions have been lifted.
[1376]
- Anything summoned by CALL ELEMENTALS, CALL ENTITIES or CALL ANIMALS is
now callable singularly by name under the typical restrictions with a
short equilibrium cost. [1375]

Bladefire
---------
- I've tweaked the damage and bleeding formulas for Rupture. Ruptures on

a Level 2 bruise will do equivalent or slightly lower damage as compared
to now, but Level 3 bruises will see an increase in damage and bleeding.
I also lowered the neutral balance by half a second. [1354]
 
Crystalism
----------
- Changes to the way Retardation affects a few channeled skills: [1332]
     + Shatter windup time increased by 2 seconds.
+ Each tick of Stonebrand, Shadowbrand, Mistbrand, Emberbrand and
Windbrand and Spiritbrand will take 1 second longer.
+ Each tick of Behead, Cleave and Brainsmash will take half a second
longer.

Enchantment
-----------
- A cube sigil in the room will now prevent Lightform, Blackwind, Phase
and Mistform. [1343]
- You may now enchant artifacts of the appropriate item type(s). [1346]
 
Hematurgy
---------
- Bloodshield now fires on active damage with a 10% proc rate rather
than 33%. [1362]
- Bloodborn Novice Aides, Secretaries and the Guildmaster are now able
to PERFORM REBIRTH <person>. This has the same effect as the Blood

Rebirth ritual (and also requires the shard). [1468]
- The bleeding bonus for painted scythes has been removed and the
general, unpainted bonus halved. Hilariously enough, artifact scythes
didn't benefit from this bonus at all previously. That has been
rectified. [1385]
- Bloodborn will be required to wield a scythe to make use of the Mentis
modifier rituals. [1386]

Naturalism
----------
- I've dramatically improved the frequency of Overgrowth checks when
Greenfoot is active. [1212]
- GROVE FLOW has been split into its own skill (Naturalism GroveFlow),
tentatively placed at Skilled 15%. [1294]
 
Primality
---------
- Strangle's writhe time will now be increased by the presence of Thorns
in the target. I've also tweaked the base formula slightly for
Strangle's writhe to reduce the (highly) random nature of it. [1363]

Righteousness
-------------
- Unity Aura will now cure a random affliction from both parties on a 15
second timer for the duration of the Unity effect. Additionally, the

cooldown has been reworked to provide a message at its conclusion.
[1316]
 
Sanguis
-------
- Ghast health has been more than doubled and Ghasts are now immune to
bashing artifacts. [1278]
  - Blood Beckon now has conditions for a successful summoning: [1336]
    + Neither caster nor target may have been aggressive recently.
+ There must not be a monolith (or monolith-like effect) on either side
of the summoning.
+ If the caster and target are members of the same city and are both
within their city's limits, these restrictions are nullified.
   
Shamanism
---------
- Omen will now indicate to the giver how many stacks it had when it
fires its damage and stun. (falls lightly/settles heavily/falls
forcefully/drops devastatingly). This should allow the Shaman to infer
damage numbers and stun duration to better tailor their offense. [1211]
- The oaths of Elder Shaman and Rhythm now have room messages to
indicate which affliction was lifted from the Shaman (including Combat
Messages). [1288]
 
Spirituality

------------
- You may now SMITE <target> SECRET to avoid revealing your chosen God
in the message. [1339]
 
Subterfuge
----------
- The math behind Shadowing success was pretty bizarre so I just kinda
rewrote it. If the shadower is phased and the target isn't, the shadower
is safe from detection. Otherwise, at Trans Subterfuge for the shadower
and Trans Vision for the target, there is a 15% chance of detection.
This is dramatically improved from the ~40% chance previously. However,
it is now impossible to shadow someone into their Haven, a change
unrelated to the Liaison report. [1352]
 
Tarot
-----
- Lust now includes a modified message to indicate that the card was
thrown through the Indorani's doppleganger. Also converted that message
to be a Combat Message. [1328]
- Fool is no longer an aggressive action if self-cast. Additionally, I
shortened the self-use cooldown by five seconds. The targeted Fool
cooldown remains unchanged. [1374]

Tekura
------

- The prone from Guard has been removed and the stun reduced from 2
seconds raw to 1 second raw. Additionally, a successful Guard will strip
all parries from the attacker. [1186]
- Any attempt to stand will instead make you KIPUP, if you have the
skill and were previously in a stance. If this causes problems, we'll
look at making it configurable. [1263]
- I have shortened the balance time of Cometkick and increased the
duration of its effect. [1264]
- There is now a three second per-target cooldown on the Backbreaker
attack. Unsuccessful attempts will not consume balance. [1340]
- Stances are now persistent through movement and endurance costs have
been removed from the stancing commands. Please BUG or message me with
any unintended consequences of these changes. [1371]

Telepathy
---------
- Instead of giving the previous pre-set trio of epilepsy, stupidity,
and dizziness, MIND BATTER is now a freeform command for giving three of
the following afflictions: "hallucinations", "paralysis", "confusion",
"recklessness", "epilepsy", "stupidity", "indifference", "dizziness".
[1372]
    + New syntax: MIND BATTER <target> [aff] [aff] [aff]
   
Vision
------

  - Moved tunnelvision to "Inept" Vision. [1366]
 
Of course, please be sure to BUG any oddities you discover. Round 3 will
take a while to appear due to the breadth and scope of the changes, but
it'll be here before you know it. Thanks, Aetolia!

Oleis
 
Penned by my hand on the 2nd of Lanosian, in the year 394 MA.

ANNOUNCE NEWS #2150
Date: 7/2/2013 at 1:18
From: Oleis
To  : Everyone
Subj: Apprenticing

The mention in the previous post of CLASS APPRENTICE no longer requiring
membership in the appropriate guild was erroneous. That change has been
reverted, as a further review of the report revealed it was not
intended.
 
Penned by my hand on the 3rd of Lanosian, in the year 394 MA.

 

Haven

I like the changes so far all around. The ghast one I'm a little unsure on...but whatevs, I haven't really tinkered with the class much. I wish the apprenticeship change remained though.

Also, why was the Haven shadowing change necessary? Might as well have the Havens follow an 'invite/agreement' format if we're going to make them super safe. :-/

Ugh, why do we keep buffing these abominations!

Edit: Actually, can we see the Hunting Grounds fixed/upgraded as part of the next liaison change? I'm more concerned with that.

Moirean

It's true. Haven is an abomination. 

Illikaal

I just wanna know who apprenticed people in those 9 minutes!

Anyway, I absolutely love all the changes, except for a couple. This is how I feel about some of them

1. I'm not sure how Praenomen will play out from now, cause I just used to drop the ghast and be okay. If I left it alive, I ended up losing quite a bit. I suppose I'll have to see how this'll work nowadays (and try dealing with the ghast). 

2. - I have shortened the balance time of Cometkick and increased the

duration of its effect. [1264]

Yeah, I don't get this one. Cometkick is still trash. This really didn't help address the problem much at all, but okay. 

At the end of the day, I'm just really glad that Guard got removed in its current incarnation. Contrary to popular belief by the badcoms and noncoms, Monks are not loluseless. Guard was just an instant winbutton vs limb classes, but did nothing for non-limb classes. Now the bigger problems that Monks have can finally be addressed so they can get their long overdue and much needed buffs, such as their absurdly high mana costs.

Edit: MFW @Oleis called me a tramp!

Lin

You're gonna have to explain to me how turning off someone's parry is trash.

Ezalor

So, can we PLEASE get the 800 credit requirement NEEDED for Bloodborn to compete removed? Report 1296. As is, neutral Scythe balance is about 3.93 seconds, which makes it completely unusable. Having a L3 weapon rune reduces the speed to 3.44 seconds, which is where the class is balanced around. No other class requires a 800 credit arti just to be able to use it.

Ezalor

Oh, I'll go ahead and flag @Oleis to try to get attention to it, because it really shafts newcomers to the BB class.

@Slyphe too!

Aarbrok

I didn't see anything for Lycan, but I know those updates are coming soon(TM)

I think from my fight last month against Xenia, I was put off on the fact we went back and forth, and had shield stopping my offense on numerous occasions, she ran out of venoms and I had to eat two phoenix hearts and two bullseyes, and still nothing came of the fight.

Please Lycan changes

Moirean

Uhh, I don't think there were any, actually. >_>

Aarbrok

I know...there wasn't Im just eager for something to happen with Lycan.  

I know its probably being worked on though. Ill be patient.

Ezalor

No one consistently fights at a high level with the class, so no problems/changes needed come to light.

Mastema

I agree with the Bloodborn thing, I tried to make a BB alt and it sucked as I needed artifact runes to even make it worth while, and I know my brother had to invest in a level 3 rune to match his whispers and I think needed to use stillmind!! But yeah seems a bit meh that people are forced to invest in a artifact to make it worthwhile.

My mini bitch! I know as a Carnifex I felt forced to get a level 1-2 to balance out speed/damage with penetration. Although I think the penetration change was a meh move overall. As you are now required to select penetration or speed/damage a horriable choice at the best of times.

Aarbrok

Heres a problem/solution let one claw break a shield and the other one still slash. Or have a shield shattering howl that can be bayed, or something.  Hammer tattoo, not working for me. /endrant

Vharen

From my testing with a nearly trans scythe (1 point off a trans for stats), unmodded balance is at 4.23s, and I get down to 3.93 slashes with stillmind on as Typical. Which means, with L2 balance, I *should* match or slightly beat my dwhisper speed of 3.75s. I don't have a context for how that plays out at the top level, but those are the numbers for ye nub grinding his way slowly to the skills he needs.

Illikaal

Aarbrok said:

Heres a problem/solution let one claw break a shield and the other one still slash. Or have a shield shattering howl that can be bayed, or something.  Hammer tattoo, not working for me. /endrant

Honestly, standing there watching you - your offense was -bad-. I mean, godtier level of bad >_>. 

That goes without saying, the only problems lycans have are with shield whores (as do monks). Its just that lycans can deal with them a little better than monks can. Then, there's tumble whores. Lycans can't really stop tumblers unless there's that off-chance they meet the reqs for a jawlock. Oftentimes, that's not the case . 

@Lin. Cometkick requires both arms to be broken. 3xBBT requires the target to be prone for 6.88 seconds minimum (assuming dexterous) for a guranteed kill. If you can break both arms at the same time and cometkick them afterwards, then why not break both legs and just kill them instantly? That, good sir, is why its garbage. Unless you just want to pussy-foot around and troll them because they have no parry, there's no point in wasting time with it when you can just kill them. 

Lin

Illidan said:

@Lin. Cometkick requires both arms to be broken. 3xBBT requires the target to be prone for 6.88 seconds minimum (assuming dexterous) for a guranteed kill. If you can break both arms at the same time and cometkick them afterwards, then why not break both legs and just kill them instantly? That, good sir, is why its garbage. Unless you just want to pussy-foot around and troll them because they have no parry, there's no point in wasting time with it when you can just kill them. 

... Huh. Damn. That really does sound bad.

Riluo

Statpack Powerful: no blessing, amulet, artifact stat boosts on. 

Stats: 14/14/16/14

Level3 runes:
Spinning a gruesome crescent scythe around you, you gash open yourself.
You jerk your body to the side, lessening the blow.
Balance Used: 3.70 seconds
You lock your gaze to yourself's for the briefest moment and sharply whisper a word of command,
driving the imperative into your mind with the force of your supernatural will.
Yourself shuffles your feet in boredom.
Equilibrium Used: 3.75 seconds

Level3 runes and Stillmind:
Spinning a gruesome crescent scythe around you, you gash open yourself.
You jerk your body to the side, lessening the blow.
Balance Used: 3.44 seconds
You lock your gaze to yourself's for the briefest moment and sharply whisper a word of command,
driving the imperative into your mind with the force of your supernatural will.
Yourself shuffles your feet in boredom.
Equilibrium Used: 3.75 seconds

no runes:
Spinning a gruesome crescent scythe around you, you gash open yourself.
You jerk your body to the side, lessening the blow.
Balance Used: 4.13 seconds
You lock your gaze to yourself's for the briefest moment and sharply whisper a word of command,
driving the imperative into your mind with the force of your supernatural will.
Yourself shuffles your feet in boredom.
Equilibrium Used: 3.75 seconds

No runes and stillmind
Spinning a gruesome crescent scythe around you, you gash open yourself.
You jerk your body to the side, lessening the blow.
Balance Used: 3.84 seconds
You lock your gaze to yourself's for the briefest moment and sharply whisper a word of command,
driving the imperative into your mind with the force of your supernatural will.
Yourself shuffles your feet in boredom.
Equilibrium Used: 3.75 seconds

With the runes and still mind it matches pretty well, as the moment you gain bal and go to re-attack the eq is back.

Aarbrok

Godtier bad....

...that hurts just a little albeit not surprising

Ilyon

BB should always use stillmind, no reason to measure without it.

And uh @Oleis, arti scythes had no bonus because there aren't any arti scythes anymore :P

Great changes overall, sadface about those apprentice changes being reverted.

Illikaal

Aarbrok said:

Godtier bad....

...that hurts just a little albeit not surprising

Well it seemed that your offense was automatic, because it kept on repeating the same unnecessary pattern of attacks. If you goan auto, you gotta go balls to the wall with adaptation coding. 

But, anyhow. I was really just saying after watching your fight, you could have killed Xenia a hundred times if you knew what you were doing. You had one of her arms broken for about 80% of the fight, and didn't really do anything about it except unnecessarily break it again, even when you were catching on balance restos >_>. 

Haven

There a discussion going on about going ahead with the apprentice changes?

I imagine it was reverted because they'd rather a new function for guilds first before giving players that kind of freedom (please, please, please be in the works.) otherwise we'd see quite a few people dropping from guilds they don't really care for since class would no longer be dependant of them. (Removing class dispensing from guilds is a really, really good thing in my opinion as it frees up the possibilities/avenues that guilds can take.)

Illikaal

@Oleis I'm a bit confused as to what this exactly did: 

Naturalism

----------

- I've dramatically improved the frequency of Overgrowth checks when

Greenfoot is active. [1212]

The report read:

Problem:

The willpower drain for Greenfoot, our transcendent ability in Naturalism, is too high to make it worthwhile to use. Shamans already have an extremely high Willpower drain, with oaths, multiple willpower draining Shamanism abilities (almost all of which are critical for survival) and relative high costs for basic attacks and boost/quicken. As Wise, Trans Philosophy, Owl Tattoo, and Circlet of Will, I generally can't run more than one oath alongside Greenfoot for any period of time. A number of oaths require overgrowth to be present, so it seems contradictory that a skill that makes Overgrowth easier to manage should force us to stop using them.

Decision:

2013/06/16 13:30:57

We'll take a look at the willpower costs across the board for overgrowth abilities.

So...what exactly happened?

Moirean

Haven said:

There a discussion going on about going ahead with the apprentice changes?

I imagine it was reverted because they'd rather a new function for guilds first before giving players that kind of freedom (please, please, please be in the works.) otherwise we'd see quite a few people dropping from guilds they don't really care for since class would no longer be dependant of them. (Removing class dispensing from guilds is a really, really good thing in my opinion as it frees up the possibilities/avenues that guilds can take.)

It was reverted because there was confusion over what the report was intended to do, and it wasn't meant to be implemented in the first place (still mega to Oleis). It could be something worth bringing up, but that's a bigger topic and outside of the scope of liaisons IMHO.

Ilyon

Yeah, no ongoing discussion to lift that restriction that I'm aware of. Still, it would be awesome.

Ezrax

oh look cabalists got no updates yet again what is this 2 years now?

Calipso

The change of making cube sigils block incorporeal people pretty much ruined any form of subterfuge (the concept, not the skill) for the future. Pretty much now no one will be able to sneak into a city, or sneak into an enemy group. Cube sigils are going to be found tossed at each entrance of a city now as well as most likely tossed at foci alongside a monolith.

Lightform and Blackwind may still have some sense of use to them since they are immediate casts and can be used as escape-tools, but Phase has just lost 50% of its usefulness.

Ezrax

Are you sure it's like that? I thought it meant you can't phase whilst standing on one, not that you become unphased when you walk onto one.

Barda

It's like @Ezrax said, it just stops in room phasing and other skills of that nature.

Mastema

Yeah I was worried at first too, but it is as Barda stated.

Calipso

Ah, from my interpretation I believed it meant prevent entry. Not unphases, unblackwinds etc.

Stathan

1.You will no longer see prone/bbt used excessively in group fights if at all. You may not even see monks in group fights in general other than banish/cripple spam. 

2. Comet kick isn't used to troll, contrary to what Illidan thinks. It's designed so you can roam combos around to stay ahead of parry, because there is no guarantee you will be able to break both legs in a timely fashion to get BBT kills. However if you can get the double break and pull off comet, you effectively can prone them easy enough in 2-3 combos, get off a single or double bbt, and repeat the action again before numb arms is gone.

3. Change to stancing I can see opening the door for pre-stanced combo set up. tiger/limb or dragon/head-torso for damage output. Given monks can just endlessly stance at the start of every combo now without it being a drain on endurance.

4. Guard change, while I'm not happy with, makes sense. 

5. Mind batter change is going to be interesting to see used, since we now have a list of afflictions we can stack with it rather than just snapping it out for a bit of a slowdown with the hopes of stupidity loop or the short stun it offered.

This is coming from someone who is 1. Maining Monk out of love of the class. 2. To broke to afford getting another class to work with.