arfindel wrote:
I do _not_ argue that stanzas are useless, I argue that stanzas are not reinforced by game play enough
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felt betrayed at the not used complexity that was there implemented.
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This is exactly my feelings.
Note:Chopped outmost of the post due to avoid the Humongous Wall Of Text, so I'm sorry if anyone feels that my quotes are taken out of context, but I don't think they are from having read Faa's post.
But I would like to see so much more than just damage types mattering more - although this would be nice - there are vast amounts of things that can be done with combat magic - why limit it to a few different types of damage and a few control spells?
Someone said that it didn't matter how much you added - there would always be an optimum. In my opinion this is such a limited view! give us stanza's that do all sorts of different things - so that instead of the basic roles we have now in combat - tank, healer, nuker and possibly an afflictionist, we can have people doing far, far more things, and in varied and interesting ways.
Lets see the healers not just restore hitpoints, but be able to make the nukers spells more powerful, or the tank more able to deflect blows. Lets see the afflictionist be able to exert so much control over a creature or creatures that the tank takes much less damage, and the healer can spend his or her time doing all the other options available.
Currently, if I'm nuking, I select a spell that matches the creatures weakness to damage types, and at a power level that fits with the amount of healing availiable then just spam it. I might throw a fear if an uninvited creature comes along to help, but basically its not that difficult.
If I'm healing I have a large and small HP heal, and likewise for sap and stamina heals. I have a combined HP and sap heal, and a combined hp and stamina heal. I have some AoE versions of the above. Thats not nearly as much flexibility as it sounds like, and consequently healing is useful but intensely boring.
I actually really like the affliction skills, but they are slow to level and not as useful as they should be - its not that easy to maintain a link and the induction times are long-ish. Even when they hold, they are single target and I cannot do anything else (even move) while they are in effect - so to make an enemy run away from me - even under ideal conditions - I cast the spell, by which time they have been able to run almost right up to me - and then the link is created, and they run away from me while I stay still until the link expires. In very short order the creature is back again.
I'm a master of elemental magic. Why is this the limit of what I am able to do?
Why can't I create an aura around myself, in which people regenerate much faster, or an aura around the tank which harms enemies? Why can't I do anything about incoming hostile spells (regardless of whether they are from a cratcha or a Karavan)? Why aren't there hundreds of options and possibilities?
The stanza system is criminally underused - I would love to see some of the complexity that could be there, but just isn't.