MP Wishlist: Interrupt Increase Debuff

[Xtremtech]

Here's something of a proposal. A debuff for MPs that increases the interrupt chances on its target. Here's the top and the bottom of the line of 5 nanos (echoing the interrupt buff):

• Fractured Purpose
  
  Defocuses the thoughts and actions of the target so that they are more likely to be interrupted when running nano formulas. It is rated at increasing the chance of an interrupt by 57%.
  
  QL: 162
  NCU: 50
  Nanocost: 448
  School: psionic
  Duration: 10 minutes
  Attack time: 3.34 s
  Recharge time: 4.35 s
  Range 20 m
  
  Nano Resist: 100
  
  Attack skills
  time and space 36
  psycho mod 32
  sensory imp 32
  
  Effect:
  
  modify target nano interrupt chance -57
  
  
  Internal Conflict
  
  Defocuses the thoughts and actions of the target so that they are more likely to be interrupted when running nano formulas. It is rated at increasing the chance of an interrupt by 27%.
  
  
  QL: 14
  NCU: 5
  Nanocost: 44
  School: psionic
  Duration: 5 minutes
  Attack time: 3.02 s
  Recharge time: 3.1 s
  Range: 20 m
  
  Nano Resist: 100
  
  Attack skills:
  
  time and space 38
  sensory imp 31
  psycho mod 31
  
  Effects
  
  On Use modify target nano interrupt chance -27

Thoughts extensions ideas?

[Bionitrous]

Small cut-n-paste error there. Should be 'more' likely.

Comments:

The durations are too long if you take PvP into consideration .... unless, you work with the 'chance of break on debuff' that roots and snares have. A 0% chance to break on a nano attack and a 5-20% chance to break on a physical hit would make these palatable. The chance of breaking could decrease as the line improves similarly to how snares are much more sticky in the higher quality levels.

This line ties in extremely well with the Attack Pet. Our Attack pets do melee damage and giving them a smidge of a chance to interrupt a Rage or Mongo or Nullity or CH is a good situational add.

You could consider a short duration (10s??) 100% interrupt special line that has a 'cool down' effect like the Agent's Sureshot line. Once every 10 minutes or so. Could be incredibly strategic. And it's my opinion that the MP could use more 'tools' that actually work and yet aren't so overpowered that they will become nerfed to uselessness in PvP as is the case with NanoShutdown.

Having this debuff would actually make our (supposed) interrupt reduction buff have value. Imagine that.

In short:

- I think it's a fantastic idea that's not overpowering and would actually be used if given enough balls to be powerful.
- I find it meshes well with how our attack pets work.
- I think the initial proposal has durations that players may find unpalatable.
- It's an idea that can be permutated several ways for variety.
- It would add value to our counter buff.

[Xtremtech]

I hadn't thought of it adding value to the buff actually. Nice thought.

Duration was hard actually... I originally had 5 minutes tops and 3 minutes bottom. It has to be of a certain length because the chances of interruption aren't exactly very high as things stand right now as Dave Dread points out. If you make it too short it'll not have the 'balls' as you so succinctly put it. I wouldn't want it to be breakable though. Seems to me that there's relatively little point in having a debuff that makes something happen when you hit - but it breaks when you get hit,... if you see what I mean.

How does 5 mins top and 3 mins bottom sound then?

X

[Xtremtech]

How about adding a single "Absolute Top of the line" debuff that does the 100% for 10 seconds rather than another line of them?

X

[Ampz]

i dont think that mobs cast nanos enough for this to make a big difference

[Bionitrous]

3 and 5 sounds acceptable.

My fears regarding it always lasting the full duration are the inevitable Nerf! cries. I read that an insta-cast nano was interrupted. I got no problem with that ... unless the poor guy has to endure this for 5 minutes.

I've also seen how effective low chance-of-break nanos can be. Oppressive Weight of the Guilty is the Snare I use with my Bureaucrat. I'm actually surprised whenever I see it break even with my droid and 2 charms spamming damage on the affected MOB. Roots are another story altogether and break in 3 or 4 hits. I was thinking of something somewhere in the middle.

Countering your point that this is a debuff that does something when you get hit, but breaks if you get hit, I'd reply that assuming you got hit enough to actually have it break, then there's a good chance that it had the intended effect. If you have the chance-of-break in there and it was somewhere between a snare and a root, it would be accepted by the community. Let's say it takes on average 10-15 whacks from a Demon to trigger a break on the debuff. Assuming the reports of almost everything getting interrupted while the bugged One Mind One Purpose was running, don't you think that you'd have at least one or two nanoformulas on your opponent interrupted? An almost guaranteed one interrupt is enough in many battles to sway the direction of battle. Any more and people are going to cry to high heavens.

Imagine a root that never broke. Imagine a snare that never broke. It's the kind of thing that makes people just type /quit out of frustration and fire up some other diversion.

Your other option is to greatly reduce the effects of the debuff and let them run full term. That's also acceptable, but not nearly as interesting and strategic an option during battle. More like attrition vs. situation.


Edit: This most likely has no impact on PvM (ie. vs MOB's). MP's do well enough vs the environment. We're looking at having a purpose in PvP other than standing in 75% or at the reclaim and handing out Mochams. Negating a Mongo or CH can be useful to disrupt the rythm of battle. In a 1 on 1 situation. Dropping a 100% interrupt, 10s duration debuff on your enemy at the exact crucial moment would be a sign of a skilled PvP'er. There's not much 'skill' in PvP right now (as in the person behind the keyboard mattering more than dice rolls and items) and there really can't be much added with the exception of including more options for timing and evaluating the flow of battle.

[Xtremtech]

Torunsku,

As Bio points out - this would be more of a PvP thing.

Having said that certain mobs, such as The Pest and the mobs in some of the static dungeons would be susceptible to it. There's plenty of mobs in Temple of the Three Winds who cast very, very regularly indeed.... and given the hinted at Mission Redesign coming somewhere in the near future, there's a reasonable chance that we may see more of that sort of behaviour.

Bio: I see your point about making it breakable.

The chance of breaking could decrease as the line improves similarly to how snares are much more sticky in the higher quality levels.

Could you elaborate a little more on how this is done games mechanically? I'm guessing there would be a reducing chance of breaking on hit as the QL of the nano went up... was that what you were thinking of? We could perhaps have a check against the nanoskill of the caster included in the calculation? Something like chance of breaking checked against amount of skill above requirement for the nano being cast.... just thinking off the top of my head.

If we were to include the reduced chance of breaking with QL, would the original 5 and 10 mins seem OK? Or should they be longer or shorter?

X

[Bionitrous]

OK, gonna grab some links for some Crat nanos:

Oppressive Weight of the Guilty
That's the Snare I noted that almost always runs full term (basically 'till the MOB is dead) and that I'm surprised when a hit breaks it. Look at ChanceOfBreakOnSpellAttack and ChanceOfBreakOnDebuff. Those are the chances for the debuff to break from a nuke or other hostile nano and a physical attack. With those particular numbers, you can bash/nuke away at the guy with impugnity. Every so often, the debuff will break. That's the exception rather than the rule.

Restrict Movement
That's a lower level Crat root. Note that you would be lucky to get maybe two nukes and two hits from your droid before it broke. Real lucky.

Detain Suspect
Bottom of the barrel Agent Root. Good luck getting even two hits of any kind without breaking this one.

So, you got numbers to play with. You see how the 'punishment' of being debuffed can be tempered? If our enforcer or NT enemy is being pummeled repeatedly as they are trying desperately to layer or mongo or Nullity, there is an increasing chance that they'll get a reprieve by the debuff breaking. On the flip side, if they are being subject to this series of successful melee attacks, then there is very high likelyhood that they've missed out on one or two nano executions due to being interrupted while being debuffed.

It's a very interesting concept that FunCom already has the hooks in-game for. Hell, with the bugged MP nano line, they already got the nanos in the game. Just have to temper them properly and label them as debuffs.

[Alpherah]

If its a debuff, shouldit it be
On Use modify target nano interrupt chance +27 instead of -27?
As i assume the intention is to make the target get interupted more.

Personally i think it should be a fumble chance increase, as..
a) from what i have seen, only melee can cause an interupt
b) Most MP's are ranged
c) Nukes dont cause interupts
d) pets dont hit fast enough, or often enough to make casting the nano viable (if pet dont hit, it cant interupt anything)

[on a side note..]
Pet AR still totally blows, "testing" with a GA fixer in LC last night, Landed NSD, so totally OE Grid armor, i cast the best evocation i could cast (the lvl 144(?) one).. and counted, out of 20 hit attempts, a fully buffed Caco with Evocation running hit an amazing 5 times...

[Bionitrous]

If the pets can't hit, that's another issue completely. Fixer probably had all his evades maxed and triple implanted. Their best runspeed buff has a nice Evade buff as well. Non-Grid Armor Fixers have been known to tank the Mercenaries well enough. I think one did it in a g-string.

They got real good evades.

[_______________Hypos]

On the game mechanics side of this, I remember back when they fixed roots in order to get people to use a root other than the lowest QL. If I recall correctly, they said the new game mechanic would take into account the QL of the nano and the amount of damage taken in determining the chance of breaking. I don't recall any discussion that included actual numbers, though.

[__________THEDEACON!]

ooooh that debuff sounds NASTY!

Can I suggest a hostile speech-like version? The crats have something like that, ten thumbs or somthing close.

To be honest, I don't understand why MPs don't have speeches. Blessings and curses. In terms of powers, Crats are the true priests of AO. They have blessings and curses (speeches) and can 'convert' (charm) the enemy.

If you look throughout history, priests went into battle alongside warriors to bless the battle or curse the enemy. In history, the warriors would protect their priest at all cost, in game we can't even get a team

hehe.

We're great one on one, but we need to think in terms of keeping people away from us.

Nanoskills buff and debuff auras and fumble increase and decrease auras are important for a couple of reasons.

In history, priests represented the faith of an army. It was considered.....impolite to whack a priest first. We need some ability that would make folks deep away from us or diminish their power in our presence. Notum rejection should also have a speech version.

your idea is great and I LOVE that idea, but I think it should be a speech. If it's a direct, one target buff, it's going to get us killed. We have too many no damage debuffs already. In a fight, I'd rather not do

one nuke
2 dominates
fumble increase debuff
reclaim

I'd like to have my hands free to nuke and burst and if I absolutely have to, to stun.

There's another reason why I'd like speeches. They make your allies and teammates gather around you for the beneficial speeches. In a unique battle or mass pvp, I look for crats to boost my offense and defense. I'd like to see docs look for MPs to reduce nanocost (something like another 10% nanocost reduction that stacks with our 24% neural web, so the two don't cancel each otehr out), or maybe a speech that increases the intensity of heals or nukes. Maybe a refreshing 'layers' type aura?

Team nanos would be highly desired. Back when nobody wanted fixers on their teams, the NCU buff was introduced as a team nano and it's made fixers one of the most valued team members ever since. The same needs to be done for MPs. Is we're a support class, I'd like to see some more support thrown in there.

a +90 infuse-like team buff that takes 75 ncu and boosts all nanoskills?

Whatever we're given, it should be with a team or group focus in mind, instead of single player.

When I first started AO, I thought of crats as the 'necromancers' of AO and MPs as the priests. But now that we're raising dead skeletons and all that jazz, it's like a role reversal.

And for my final suggestion, I have an idea that would make MPs LOVED by everyone and fits in with our whole metaphysical priest bit.

"Born Again"

QL: 200
NCU: 50
Nanocost: 4000
School: psionic
Duration: 1 second
Attack time: .666 s
Recharge time: 5 s
Range 5 m

Arise, beloved. Calling from the depths of faith, the Metaphysicist reaches into the shadow world and revives a fallen comrade, pulling his or her soul back into a lifeless body. This program must be executed nearly instantaneously upon death, before a replacement clone has been formed.

All experience points are returned to the revived host, however the condition is only temporary. The target must be healed within 10 seconds of revival, or death will re-occur.

As an added bonus, the revived one is removed from the aggressor's hatelist.

This nanoprogram place a hostile nano in the Metaphysicist's NCU, preventing him from casting more than once every five minutes.


Hehe, just a suggestion. Might sound better for docs, but on the same token, a doc pulling a soul from the netherworld sounds more like our ball of wax :P

It'd be wonderful at uniques and mass pvp. Hard to cast in time, but the benefits are worthwhile. I wouldn't call it overpowered either :P

[Alpherah]

Still shouldnt it be +27 instead of -???
Thats the kinda mistake FC WOULD make however

[edit] Just read that post on interupt chance reducers.. seems FC borked up the game a little :P %-27 would actually be adding a 27% chance, and %27 would be reducing the chances...
X was right first time :P

[Peisinoe]

Just add a hostile tag to our current buff and I'll be happy.

[Xtremtech]

Completeh,

That's exactly the mistake that FC did make. See the thread about -% interrupt buff not working.

X

[_______________Hypos]

Deacon, the idea of resurrection has been batted around on the doc forum before. It got shot down by other docs because it turns out that it's an engie thing. So we dropped it to not infringe on them.

[__________THEDEACON!]

Originally posted by Hypos
Deacon, the idea of resurrection has been batted around on the doc forum before. It got shot down by other docs because it turns out that it's an engie thing. So we dropped it to not infringe on them.

omg....an ENGI thing?

[_______________Hypos]

posted by TheDeacon

omg....an ENGI thing?

Beacon Warp isn't exactly the same, but it's one of the pluses an engie brings to a team.

[Xtremtech]

Too tired to alter the proposal to include the changed chance on break over QLs tonight. I'll take a pass at it tomorrow.

Does anybody have any input on the top and bottom durations when the chance of break element is included?

X

[Xtremtech]

OK... final Proposal for entry. Let me know.

X

• Fractured Purpose
  
  Defocuses the thoughts and actions of the target so that they are more likely to be interrupted when running nano formulas. It is rated at increasing the chance of an interrupt by 57%.
  
  QL: 162
  NCU: 50
  Nanocost: 448
  School: combat
  Duration: 10 minutes
  Attack time: 3.34 s
  Recharge time: 4.35 s
  Range 20 m
  
  Nano Resist: 100
  
  Attack skills
  time and space 36
  psycho mod 32
  sensory imp 32
  
  ChanceOfBreak OnSpellAttack: 10
  ChanceOfBreak OnDebuff: 5
  
  Effect:
  
  modify target nano interrupt chance -57
  
  
  Internal Conflict
  
  Defocuses the thoughts and actions of the target so that they are more likely to be interrupted when running nano formulas. It is rated at increasing the chance of an interrupt by 27%.
  
  
  QL: 14
  NCU: 5
  Nanocost: 44
  School: combat
  Duration: 5 minutes
  Attack time: 3.02 s
  Recharge time: 3.1 s
  Range: 20 m
  
  Nano Resist: 100
  
  Attack skills:
  
  time and space 38
  sensory imp 31
  psycho mod 31
  
  ChanceOfBreak OnSpellAttack: 45
  ChanceOfBreak OnDebuff: 10
  
  Effects
  
  On Use modify target nano interrupt chance -27