CRIME
Shield Spellblock & Shield Mind
02/25/2017 07:47 PM CST
Shield Spellblock
seems a reasonable skill, and I'm sure has a niche that it works well for...
That said as a rogue with very high end gear, high DS, 2x+ dodge, I'm wondering if there are any scenarios which this will ever be useful.
Invasions?
Anything in current content?
In game design I'd think there should be a situation where a skill system gets used, bottom end to top. This leaves me wondering about this skill.
It's not a critical issue of course, there are plenty of other ways to train, but what's it's top end viability?
Shield Mind
OK not reactive, yeah too bad, but I was thinking having a 10 second warding discipline would be nice to have for running through invasions.
The wording reads:
Description: You have learned how to lure warding spells into passing through the unnatural energy of your shield, where they can be disrupted before even reaching you.
Mechanics: Upon activation, you are placed in stance defensive and given a 10 second period where any warding spell cast upon you by another is automatically blocked (provided that you still are in stance defensive).
This lead me to believe I'd have 10 seconds of invulnerability to warding spells... Nope, 10 seconds of invulnerability which dissipates if a single spell lands.
Bad wording, and makes the discipline nearly useless, but I could imagine a situation that would make it useful.... I've got a good imagination, regrettably in this case.
Hoping it's a game bug and 10 seconds to any warding spell is the intended duration.
If it isn't, perhaps up the duration to something useful but not OP, 10 minute duration with a 10 minute cool down, for one warding check as it is presently?
It would be useful to be immune to the first warding spell cast at you and not have to "guess" when to "shield mind" for a 10 second warding of the first spell that might hit...
Perhaps there's something a developer sees in this skill they could explain?, with respect to as it is today.
I'm sure I'm not the only one to think this...
CRIME
Re: Shield Spellblock & Shield Mind
03/04/2017 09:17 AM CST
So I've been evaluating possible ways to make shield mind useful.
What came to mind in discussion with Hand of the Akarti was a possible reactive script, but this isn't looking promising.
I spent time parsing the recent Elven Nations Vathor spell preps to see if perhaps a key phrase might be reacted to for purposes of blocking weapon fire as example, but not seeing this as standard enough to put in place, nor testable given the rarity of this demon, and frankly there doesn't appear to be one to use. If there were such phrases, one would have to have knowledge of many creatures, and their prep phrases, to code in a reactive shield mind and make it viable in game.
So I'll restate what I think might be a good course of action to suggest:
1. Fix the wording on the skill description. It's not 10 seconds of warding invulnerability in defensive, as is it's 10 seconds of invulnerability which dissipates after 1 spell. If item 2 is accepted below, fix the wording appropriately of course.
2. Up the duration of the skill, 5, 10, 20 minutes? whatever, it's 1 spell it's going to ward which appears to react even if the person would have warded it anyway? This doesn't seem OP (and takes a lot of points to train to rank 3, so perhaps the cool down is good as is).
It seems like adjusting timers is low hanging fruit, easy fix, so wouldn't involve a lot of game play QC, yet would bring a degree of usefulness that seems to not exist today.
I'd really love to hear Simutronic's perspective on the skill as is too, perhaps that would help the community to understand the dev perspective.
Thank you,
Crime Roy'al
