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If you don't have a breaker, then it isn't fair to be vlocked unless seriously outclassed, because being vlocked without a breaker is death, right there and then.
With RNG playing a role in vlocks for some classes, not to mention lag, then if these vlocks = death, it's OP. The balancing factor then, is that it is harder to vlock these classes to begin with.
The classes that actively cure a vlock, have to be truelocked. There is no need to bother truelocking a shaman. Every need to bother truelocking a syssin. A truelock is difficult. Simple locking a shaman is difficult. Both are difficult. See where I'm going with that?
Disclaimer:
I'm not claiming that the 10% isn't too much, or that shrug, shed, rage, cleansing, whatever etc isn't too much. I'm pointing out the logic behind the attempted balance, because too many people judge it without recognising that the end goal when fighting classA is different to classB
Elder Shaman is actually a really cool idea, and a great example of a defensive ability that isn't overbalanced/broken. RNG sure, but it's like a 10% chance and it tells you when it procs. Annoying when it lets them out of a lock? Sure. But it doesn't make them un-killable like Panacea/Luminary Cleanse/Syssin Shrug/Shapeshifter Shed spam does.
The really annoying thing is Primality Equivalence, which cures two afflictions to transfer them to the target when boosted, but doesn't show on discernment, essentially resetting the fight unless it grabbed locking afflictions you can see were cured. It's the only ability in the game that I've seen that bypasses it and it annoys the hell out of me. (I could be wrong about it curing afflictions, but when I asked @Valingar he said it did, and the AB seems to indicate that it does.)
the way she tells me I'm hers and she is mine
open hand or closed fist would be fine
blood as rare and sweet as cherry wine
Prae get hindered by a lot of things, Prae suffer from rebounding confusion and clumsiness / lethargy.
Additionally you're using one venom every 3.2 seconds. The rest of it is mental and doesn't actually kill, it's just annoying.
Damage is the only thing that saves the class as it puts out next to no physical afflictions yet relies on kelp to lock and any decent system will handle that. Damage as a route is viable but easy to mitigate and only really viable if you're artifacted and they're not or they're not seriously hindering you which most classes do.
Overall Prae is a fairly weak class 1 v 1, it's just strong in team fights due to it's innate tankiness and front heavy offense.
No single affliction, save voyria and/or sunlightallergy will kill a player. Ever. However, they are far more than just annoying. Take Impatience for example.
Do you not realize that you HAVE to give your target impatience to lock them beyond a simple venom lock? This is a 'mental' affliction. A very important one which praenomen can pair with Stupidity, another important hindering/mana draining affliction. And that's just using their 'annoying' Mentis whispers. They also have the option of hitting you like a truck and giving you a THIRD affliction. All active. No other class can do this except Bloodborn.
Edit: Forgot about Indifference. Yes, you read that right. You have an 'annoying' anorexia which you can pair with Stupidity and bury with Indifference, further preventing your target from healing and requiring them to use up their mana even faster trying to cure this devastating mental stack and deal with the bleeding your ridiculous truck attacks are doing.
As is a Praenomen cannot achieve a lock at all; they can stack a whole bunch of Mentis affs to no avail. Doesn't help them lock you. A Prae can stick every single herb-cured Mentis aff on you and as long as you are eating kelp before paresis they won't ever lock you. Which leaves damage as the only route viable to them, although Prae do have a ridiculous amount of damage (might just be the most damaging class in the game if you build it for that).
It's the reason why Luminary was also a garbage class before they added hypochondria and lethargy to Chasten. Mental affs don't help you achieve a lock. Impatience helps hold a lock but it won't actually get you to one.
I remember, involve me and I
learn.
-Benjamin Franklin
Yes, Sensitivity and Vomiting can achieve kills outside of locks but Prae have nothing to stack over either them, so you can eat out of it every 3.2 seconds. If you're going to rely on having either of them stuck you might as well use Asthma and follow up with Slickness / Anorexia like a knight.
The problem is Asthma on it's own at 3.2 can just be prioritized and cured straight off. The reliance on Asthma but only single afflicting Kelp at a relatively slow rate why Prae pretty much need to bash you to death. Having Fitness makes the Prae lock route a joke.
If a Prae is killing you one vs. one it's because your system has bad curing priorities or they're artied to the teeth and you're not. In that case you might as well do what Dourif did and play Bloodborn instead and beatdown into Annihilate.
You put a lot of time and energy into Aetolian combat, a lot of time and energy into winning. Much more than I do. I can understand having some pride about it. I know you don't want that messed up.
Anyway, we're derailing this thread.
Praenomen can deliver a venom every 3.22 seconds. Herb balance is ~2 seconds. Salve balance is ~1 second. Smoke balance is ~1.5 seconds. First off, this is why it's unfeasible to use anything other than herb affs; there is no class in the game fast enough to outpace smoke/salve balance through affs. They are all on different cure balances so you don't want to use affs of another balance until you can stop them from curing that balance. Otherwise you just waste it. For example, if I did like you suggested and slashed gecko dwhisper impatience indifference, all that happens is they smoke valerian, eat goldenseal, apply epidermal. They cured all of that at once. They are now off herb balance for 2 seconds, off salve balance for 1 second, and off smoke balance for 1.5 seconds. I am off balance for 3.22 seconds, which means if I try this I go nowhere at all. So it's not feasible to use anything but herb affs until asthma is stuck. Praenomen have the ability to deliver asthma every 3.22 seconds. Herb balance is 2 seconds. It is mathematically impossible for asthma to stick. Even if you stretch it out as far as possible, for example you eat goldenseal for impatience right when I regain balance, I hit you with asthma. This is the longest possible time asthma is going to be stuck on you. You regain herb balance in 2s, I can't slash for 3.22s. This means you will always cure asthma before I can lock even though it is the absolute longest asthma will be stuck on you. Every single kelp aff is delivered by venoms and thus it is impossible to stick any of them. So Praenomen have no way to stick asthma through their slash. So let's look at Mentis.
Temptation - doesn't help lock
Seduction - doesn't help lock
Confusion - helps finish a lock, doesn't help lock. Argument could be made that confusion is a "must cure" since if you leave it low in your order it is possible to disrupt lock you. However, all you have to do is shoot confusion to #1 when you are afflicted with disrupted. This puts you 2s behind on herb balance in which you have to delay curing asthma. However, disrupt takes 3s of eq for the vampire. Net win for you, you gain 1s curing momentum over them.
Impatience - helps hold the lock, doesn't help lock. Still a great aff. No reason you have to cure it above asthma since the only situation in which you'd really want to cure it vs a lock requires asthma to be stuck already.
Paranoia - useless
Stupidity - pretty much useless now, just serves as a masking aff for impatience
Agoraphobia - useless
Masochism - good aff for damage, however contributes nothing at all to a lock
Epilepsy - good aff for hindering, contributes nothing to a lock other than curing above impatience
Anorexia - lock aff, cures by salve, wasting a balance if you use it without slickness stuck, to stick slickness you need asthma, back to original problem
Amnesia - useless
Peace - selectively useful, contributes nothing to a lock
Dementia - contributes nothing to a lock
Berserk - contributes nothing to a lock
Indifference - same as anorexia
Vertigo - useless
Recklessness - contributes nothing to a lock
Going down the list, there is absolutely nothing in Mentis that delays the curing of asthma. So if you can't lock through the slash, and you can't lock through Mentis, you can't lock period. Theoretically it's possible to delay the curing of asthma for 1s by whispering indifference and anorexia together. However this will only delay by that much if they are on herb balance at the exact moment you whisper. And if they are on herb balance the exact moment you whisper then the aforementioned best case scenario is impossible to achieve (and even if somehow they both aligned it still wouldn't be a long enough delay to allow a lock) so there is no possible way Mentis can secure a lock.
The ghast used to serve as the solution to this problem, however that was entirely a cure order thing. If your cure priority went all kelp > paralysis then the ghast also doesn't help at all to lock (although it would've kept you paralyzed for a long long time. Now it gives paresis so it's even better to prioritize all kelp > paralysis).
Bloodborn suffer the same locking woes problem with their combo being at 3.44, however Bloodmeld opens the door to locking (which it shouldn't and which will be addressed in a liaison round) by throwing on a passive kelp aff that, if timed correctly around, will allow asthma to go uncured for 3.44 seconds. Without Bloodmeld it's not possible for Bloodborn to lock, however Mentis affs are a LOT more useful to them than they are to Praenomen due to Mindburrow dealing mana damage based on affs. Plus Bloodborn revolve around mana kills, not lock kills, so they don't need the ability to lock. Praenomen lack the mana pressure that Bloodborn have and thus must either go for lock kills (not feasible) or damage kills (kinda lame). All that said, again, Prae damage is HUGE and would easily overwhelm anyone unartied and very likely would damage kill anyone fully artied too. But that's just a meh artibash spot for the class to be in right now.
So, there you go. A math-y analysis for why Mentis does not help lock and why I keep saying that.
I remember, involve me and I
learn.
-Benjamin Franklin
You just grab the stick and start whackin'. Feller'll die or they won't.
There's a lot of counters to this ofc.