Ziggurat Zagger
Posts: 5382
Joined: Friday, 25th November 2011, 07:36
Monday, 31st March 2014, 01:06
Chaos spawns, and their chaotic reflection abililty
I suppose I'm already too late to get this discussed in time for .14, but hey, maybe in .15.
Chaos reflection is highly random, intentionally, but I think giving a powerful monster chaos brand style magic is poor design. Some of the effects are extremely debilitating, while most are harmless, and could be a beneficial heal. But what made me write this up is that I fell victim to what is probably the worst debuff in the entire game: berserk. More specifically, berserked while I was wielding a ranged weapon. You now have no potions, no scrolls, no god abilities, no ability to melee aside from clumsily bash, unable to remove your weapon, unable to flee (demonspawn come in packs, and even if you're faster, you will be slowed after a few steps, and that slow lasts much longer than berserk's haste), and to top it all off, you pass out from exhaustion when it ends! While this could be prevented by wearing clarity or stasis, you need to put it on ahead of time, and we are not talking about a mob with a clear berserk ability like the moth of wrath (which generally only berserks other mobs, anyways), but rather a mob with a chaos attack that could do anything. Actual berserks are rare, and players aren't likely to consider the need for clarity/stasis. And Pan is an area which generally requires resist Mutation, so there is a lot of tedious amulet switching, which is supposed to be a strategic slot, not tactical. It is slightly less of a 100% lockout if you're wearing a melee weapon, of course, but I don't think ranged weapons should work 99% of the time against demonspawn and then one bad roll will outright kill you with zero escape options. No potions, scrolls, gods, weapon changing, etc.
The monster doesn't have to be scraped entirely; the simplest solution is to just remove berserk from chaotic mirror.
And yes, like most complaints, this did arise from the death of one of my characters: http://dobrazupa.org/morgue/tasonir/mor ... 011257.txt I was absolutely dead from the turn I was berserked with a sling in hand, and having ~5 or so turns to flail at demonspawn helplessly doesn't feel like a fair way to go out.
I could be wrong, but I believe that berserk bypasses MR - I had +++.. MR on the character screen, which is generally enough for everything. If it was resistable berserk, that might be more fair. Lately a lot of things seem to bypass MR - sirens, draconian shifters can still blink you, etc...
Chaos reflection is highly random, intentionally, but I think giving a powerful monster chaos brand style magic is poor design. Some of the effects are extremely debilitating, while most are harmless, and could be a beneficial heal. But what made me write this up is that I fell victim to what is probably the worst debuff in the entire game: berserk. More specifically, berserked while I was wielding a ranged weapon. You now have no potions, no scrolls, no god abilities, no ability to melee aside from clumsily bash, unable to remove your weapon, unable to flee (demonspawn come in packs, and even if you're faster, you will be slowed after a few steps, and that slow lasts much longer than berserk's haste), and to top it all off, you pass out from exhaustion when it ends! While this could be prevented by wearing clarity or stasis, you need to put it on ahead of time, and we are not talking about a mob with a clear berserk ability like the moth of wrath (which generally only berserks other mobs, anyways), but rather a mob with a chaos attack that could do anything. Actual berserks are rare, and players aren't likely to consider the need for clarity/stasis. And Pan is an area which generally requires resist Mutation, so there is a lot of tedious amulet switching, which is supposed to be a strategic slot, not tactical. It is slightly less of a 100% lockout if you're wearing a melee weapon, of course, but I don't think ranged weapons should work 99% of the time against demonspawn and then one bad roll will outright kill you with zero escape options. No potions, scrolls, gods, weapon changing, etc.
The monster doesn't have to be scraped entirely; the simplest solution is to just remove berserk from chaotic mirror.
And yes, like most complaints, this did arise from the death of one of my characters: http://dobrazupa.org/morgue/tasonir/mor ... 011257.txt I was absolutely dead from the turn I was berserked with a sling in hand, and having ~5 or so turns to flail at demonspawn helplessly doesn't feel like a fair way to go out.
I could be wrong, but I believe that berserk bypasses MR - I had +++.. MR on the character screen, which is generally enough for everything. If it was resistable berserk, that might be more fair. Lately a lot of things seem to bypass MR - sirens, draconian shifters can still blink you, etc...
http://crawl.akrasiac.org/scoring/players/tasonir.html
Officially ruining greatplayer statistics since Jan 18th, 2015.
I wrote the Melee Naga Guide.
Recording of my 15 rune 40k turn VSMo^Chei speedrun!
Officially ruining greatplayer statistics since Jan 18th, 2015.
I wrote the Melee Naga Guide.
Recording of my 15 rune 40k turn VSMo^Chei speedrun!
