A Nice Ability idea

[Vladamier]

This is just an idea and not a complaint. I know ideas are sent to dev's so I thought I'd share a nice ability idea.

One of the things that's always bothered me is shadow steps ability under certain circumstances. Believe me I love the ability more than anything, its hella fun and just looks damn cool. Besides the fact it does not work half the time its activated, when it does work often times it leaves you in an unwanted position. If your in a group bashing on target its fine cause your not going anywhere. I'm talking about when you stack it with Phantasmal blade or your harrowing a strangler. If my group is pulling a fairly difficult pull with adds, I'll have someone else pull while I Phantasmal one of the adds. Problem is after I do I a) Have to rotate my camera around (no I rather not do it 1st person) and b) have to run back to my group and by then I've lost precious seconds of gathering hate.

Thats when I came up with an idea of being able to warp back to your original starting point. Say for instance you Shadow step. The process works the same except you leave say a shadow or former image of yourself. Add a new ability called "Return Step" and Viola! This ability will warp you back to your orignal spot or shadow you left behind. Imagine if they made Phantasmal blade usuable in combat. You could warp out and Phantasmal blade an add 25m out and warp back to your spot in a matter of seconds. Even if Phantasmal blade isn't usuable in combat, its still useful at start or harrowing a strangler and returning to group.

Like I stated its just a cool idea I had and wanted to know what you guys think? Maybe Xaices could foward it if its a good idea. I don't see the ability as breaking or anything, more as a utility.

[necroking71]

the only problem i can see with that is,

if you warped behind a critter and did a move that can only be done behind, your hate is greatest and i turns to you, return step would give you another chance to warp behind the enemy, allowing for another flanking ability benefit.

[Zuul]

Well the only abilities we have (that I know of) that require us to be behind the mob is Phantasmal Blade and Harrow. Harrow's got a cool down of it's own so you couldn't do it twice, and PB is only usable out of combat.

I don't see this Return Step ability as overpowering, but I also don't really see it as necessary. It would be really helpful for making PB more useful though, as it is now it just confuses people in PUGs, my normal groupmates know about it and understand what's going on, but PUGs just don't get it. As for SS/Harrow changing the facing of the mob, i usually just run through it first, then SS, that way it's only facing the wrong way for a split second (same as it would be if we had a Return Step ability).

[Vladamier]

The main reason for the idea is if you were to use your flanking abilites from afar. Yes if the mob is close I'm going to run through it like you said but what about a mob coming in from afar? Your not going to run across the room just so you can ss/harrow from the angle you'd like. Same thing with Phantasmal Blade, hitting a mob from afar and returning instantly to your spot rather than treking back the distance.

[Terakado]

The answer to your problem of camera facing is to turn on Center Camera Behind, in the control settings. This will (unless you hold the righ mouse button which I sometimes do, but releasing it will make the camera center behind) make the camera automatically follow your character from behind. I had this problem at L12 when I was using SS, but quickly solved it with this check box, in the game settings.

Personally I don't have a problem with being away from my group, I don't SS into things i can't handle for a few seconds, I rarely use Phantasmal blade because of what Zuul said, noone knows about and they immediately assist when you go in. I guess the best anyone can do is to tell the groups ahead of time, "hey i have this ability, this is what it does, let me do my thing." A return step won't make people not assist your first target (the one you just PB'ed) and break it unless you tell them what you are doing.

Personally I think Phantasmal Blade is the most useless ability ever, I've propably only used it twice ever since I got it. I tried to use it a 3rd time and I couldn't because the mob was against a wall.

I petition that we lower the duration to 5 seconds flat. This way it's used more, but not overpowered. The 15 second timer should be enough. This would also increase our mitagation which is less than either of hte other 2 tanks. Warrior has an extra 5% mitigation on their defensive stance and more defensive abilities and taunts, throw us a bone.

Another useless ability is Vengeance. It's a counter attack, and supposedly these are supposed to give us an edge in combat, but what's the deal with 3 seconds or 3 hits? Come on, do the dev's even fight in groups? 3 hits maybe lasts all of .5 seconds when other people besides yourself are hitting the mob. For a grouping game this ability sure lacks in group orientedness.

[LadySirse]

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