New Skills/Spells Ideas

[Marvel]

I was thinking that since this is now a 8 class mud, it might make some sense to open up a pool of like 10/12 new skills/spells that everybody can pick only 2 from (this is purely conceptual in nature, so feel free to bash, flame, suggest, or actually implement). That way, everybody can actually semi-customize their character a bit more than what we already have. The issue Splork raised is that you'll have to come up with new equally balanced skills/spells. I'll propose some ideas here - bear in mind that you could only have 2 of those and they're permanent selections, can't be changed once chosen for your character although upon second look, it might be just 1 skill if the suggestions I have are that unbalanced:

Evade - Physical skill - adds 1 damage reduction point to your character.
Fade - Combat skill - combines disengage with invisibility spell.
Morph - Semi shapeshift skill - new form. Skills/spells to be determined.
Blackjack - Backstab skill using hammer-type weapons only.
Spiritual Armor - Spell shield for melee attacks.
Runic - Combat skill - chance to absorb mob's proc for 0 damage and gain some mana from it.
Spectral Mount - Special mount is summoned that can double as pet with very weak attack and has special bonus for charge skill. Pet is wraithformed.
Flashfire - Sets room onto fire that will damage mobs (room proc, must be outdoors)...
Acidweb - Combines web spell with weak version of poison.
Flashstroke - Combines blindness spell (like stun) with broadside skill
Mimic - Mimics the last action taken (can be very good or very bad), especially in groups.
Accuracy - Increases natural hitroll
Pummel - 2x strike, or improved critical hit... something...
Dance - set of 5 effects at random (almost like fortune, but costs mvs)
Lore - learn a limited subset of mob procs that you can then use later - honestly, who wouldn't want to be able to use certain mob procs themselves? You'd have to go get hit by the proc x amount of times before you completed learning it. - *** This could be made into a bard spell/skill instead of this... sounds like it could HELP them a lot!
Holy Fire - combination spell of curse/faerie fire/flamestrike damage in 1
Sinkhole - combination spell of disint damage with quicksand (like brambles)

That's just a start... any feedback or flames?

[Marvel]

No comments whatsoever?

The more I think about it, it might be nice to have something pickable at level 20 prime and/or level 40 prime, something to attract more new players and get them a easily reachable (and achievable goal that they can tangibly see and use).

Thoughts?

[jezer]

It's not that your ideas are bad, there is just a lot on at the moment in the way of improvements, tweakings and changes. I think things probably need to settle down a bit before something NEW like this gets a look in.

My biggest fear, as a player is that I don't want to reach avatar and start being nerfed because they put something in early that tipped the balances of player power / time. It's always fantastic when we get something new in this game, we are blown away when something broken finally gets fixed after years and years... but people often quit when they get nerfed... And nerfs are the worst thing that can happen as it short changes players.

So in short, I'd rather not have something, than to have it and see it nerfed... and things are still kind of sorting themselves out at the moment. There is still a settling going on.

I like your ideas, but is this the right time? Is it not better to fix some of the issues we already got?

[Marvel]

I understand your concerns - but wouldn't it be better to get those ideas out on the table so people can consider them? It's not like this concept could be implemented immediately. Although we all know bards still need a bit more help, and maybe if they took something from the new ideas to just give to bards alone, it could be something that would help push more people into trying bards. Lore as I've described it sounds like it would be a perfect thematic bard prime skill/song. Sing to find out about procs you can learn about (like wealth/glory), learn the proc, and then they'll be able to semi-blast with the new procs available to them.

Please note I'm referring to unique procs, not straight firewinds, etc. I'm not sure how many unique procs are out there that would be useful, but it's something to think about. One proc I can think of right away would be sexy troll (VK)'s fire whip proc.