CL: Champion trainer messages - wtf? GM explanation needed.

On Fri, 28 Nov 2003, Fist of Fluff wrote:

 > In article
 > <Pine.SGI.4.40.0311271705070.191359-100000.RemoveThis@helix2.caltech.edu>,
 > Ian Ollmann <iano.RemoveThis@cco.caltech.edu> wrote:
 >
  > >
  > > If I can't store ranks, it seems like my best choice long term is to
  > > simply not play until the trainers are available.
 >
 > If the requirements to become a Champion are any indication, it may be
 > several weeks or months after the Bloodmage is implemented before we see
 > the first of their kind in the lands. This is unfortunate, but perhaps
 > a good time to start storing ranks would be once the Bloodmage is
 > introduced. Could be a long wait anyway.

The delay was a surprise to everyone, I think, including DT. I don't know
if we can bank on it, unless they decide to turn us all into prospectors
in order to get the right stones, like the Champions. That's the real
problem. Those things are rare. The other problem was the tracking skill
didn't work right, as we just found out, so even those that were Champions
couldn't do much.

The irony here is that I /could/ save up ranks in BB and let them decay
into other bloodmagery skills, but I hear that the decay stops when you
enter the sub-class. :-) *sigh* I guess all I really need is:

  /useitem bloodblade /decay (off|on)

I'm sure the other specialty blades would enjoy that too. I don't know why
we have the system we do. That seems so much better. It can't possibly be
hard to do.

I'm hoping that the bloodmage gets more moon oriented skills. Bloodmages
already have an edge in combat. Defense is irrelevant. The whole point is
not to get swung at. You don't need defense. You need a low latency
internet connection. Atkus is also pretty irrelevant after a certain point
with BB, except for a few very rare critters. Darkus is already big. If
you have enough atkus, you have enough darkus. You don't need more of that.
Instead bloodmages should specialize more into the realms of the healer
rather than combat skills. Leave combat for the champions.

Maybe health is the bloodmage's mana? The point here is that you
frequently find yourself with too much health and end up falling trying to
get yourself down to the point where you are useful, as counterintuitive
as that may sound. (The balance tax, brick survival time and high swing
cost figure into this. If you don't BB, you probably wouldn't understand.)
Anyway... The fact is I don't want to stop health loss. I want to make it
faster! Its too damn slow. The combat would be over by the time I get to
red normally, even if I start on yellow. It would be nice to be able to
have more control over the health loss process and maybe do something with
the lost health, rather than have to stand stupidly in front of a AMS
waiting for her to bang you down to red. Ideas include the ability to heal
others (not yourself, and only while wearing bloodring) at the cost of
your own health might be nice. It would be better if it was really fast so
that your health went to red very quickly. What about using health to
provide horus or Faustus boosts? An alternative would be a way to transfer
my health into darkus/histia/Rodnus boosts for my friends. While I am
delighted by the idea of Faustus boosts for my healer friends (I can hear
them complain now!) I'd even train faustus myself if I thought it would
make my health loss faster. Along these lines, I am starting to suspect
that Rodnus influences the rate of normal health loss with BB. If so, a
uncapped Rodnus trainer for bloodmages would be pretty keen, too.

Those are just ideas. I'm looking forward to whatever does arrive!

Ian

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Ian Ollmann, Ph.D. iano.RemoveThis@cco.caltech.edu
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While I'm on the subject of making feature requests for subclasses, let me
make one more.

Practitioners of the other subclasses may beg to differ, but from my
perspective, the key thing about bloodmagery that unlike the other two sub
classes is that it actually IS a different fighting style. A significant
amount of player retraining is required to learn the dance. You master the
poise, timing, and strategy of attacking when you enemy defenses are low.
Since defense itself is irrelevant to a well ranked bloodmage, I speak
here primarily of the monster's attack being low. The monster attack is
the only defense that worries the bloodmage.

The trouble with this is that there is a certain class of critter that has
no inherent attack weak point. These are the ones that seem to have
infinite regia and attack non-stop, lashing out continuously and
unpredictably. An example might be a sun wyrm. Attacking these with a
bloodblade is suicide. What the bloodmage needs is need is a way to slow
down the monster attacks to open up an attack window. This could either be
done by sapping critter Balthus, Regia or just how many ticks it takes
between swings, or just robbing swings somehow.

The thing is, that kind of balance magic is not the proper realm of the
bloodmage. That is something a Ranger might more properly learn. I'd be
thrilled if Rangers got such a skill. That would bring a real utility to
the goss in combat against critters that are actually a threat.

Ian

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Ian Ollmann, Ph.D. iano DeleteThis @cco.caltech.edu
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