Solution to Spam CCs

MrAwol

Aloha everyone,

Everything in this wall of text is my opinion, i don't think or expect to talk for everyone out there but hopefully i am not alone. Maybe you agree maybe not either way maybe you should write about it...
You can skip to TL;DR (but rather u didn't)
That said please try to 'view' everything i write with a 'broad/wide' perspective and not just 'per case specific'.
Thanks

So I came up with this idea in order to "mitigate" the ' I got all the cc+arcane power+power infusion+ other similar powerful abilities+ an easy way to deal decent damage = ggwp u dead before you blink(literally )'.

Step 1: The source of the Issue (in my opinion obviously)

As most ppl that have played pvp in either arenas or bgs or even open world know, one of the most powerful set ups to have is along of the above described lines.

If the season/league/server is FREE pick, the idea that it should be allowed to have such a "powerful" build because the "authorities" (server gameplay/rules) allow it is generally (in my perspective at least) viewed from some as OK/liked and from others as bleh/"insert_curse_here".
If the season/league/server is DRAFT (not the latest masqueraded Legendary RE classes, as 'draft' mode where u don't even select talents) then it feels that either one is a "sweat" no life person that got the perfect build or that either one is noob/dreamer/unlucky depending if one wins/loses.

In both cases the "authority" allows or makes possible almost everything. Obviously people spending more time (actual not a percentage of their free time) will get 'better' results(as per their perspective). In free pick u can copy someone else's build, in draft the more you roll "eventually" the "better" build you get.

That is because there are two ideologies (there are more than that but at least these two can be sort of opposite while some times also aligned) in ascension (and not only in ascension).

One ideology is " I enjoy wining so i want to maximize that cause that's what I enjoy" (like my main source of reward is competition/show of strength/climb the ladder with and/or without friends ).

The other is " I enjoy discovering new things so i want to try things out until i find something i enjoy. Usually once i find that i may get bored and would like to continue searching or i may invest more time with and it may even end up being a favorite but i will 'always' be open for something new. In general tho a victory(or even defeat) with something i like is more rewarding than with something that could ensure victory but which i don't like as much"

(There are/maybe more ideologies than 2 the above that i describe an example would be i prefer doing everything with friends rather than solo but if these other ideologies are relevant or not is up to you and your perspective.)

(In the above described ideologies it may seem that I favor the second one because i used more wards to describe it and while it is kinda true it does not mean i believe the game should 'change' more towards it so to make it "fair" a summation for the 2nd ideology would be
" Discovering new things excites me more than competition unless i am using something i like/enjoy")

The key difference between the ideologies described i would say is:
The 1st cares for victory no matter the means.(Victory is the reward not the challenge)
The 2nd cares for victory but cares for the means as well.(Victory can feel "hollow" if not "challenging/using favorite tools")

Neither is bad/wrong/good/correct or otherwise, they can coexist but they define whether someone playing/living A game /scenario/life gets the mental reward they seek or not(assuming someone wins they will get physical rewards in either case).

I also need to add here that ascension maybe a game for us, but for some people they have to pay bills/lives from it. If they do it on their spare time or as an extra side project cool, but still if even a single person is supporting their lives on it (either direct or indirect(say youtubers/streamers)) then it means that ascension like any other modern "product" it needs customers/consumers and in this "modern" world making money from "few" is not easy hence eventually(if not already) ascension will need to attract every "customer/consumer" available regardless of ideology/age/whatnot. That means they will probably try to please everyone and eventually fail or "do a decent job of it" but never be "perfect". Besides perfect sucks and guess what... perfect cannot be prefect if it is combined with imperfect (aka you puny human ). So don't expect perfect Also probably add the fact that people who prefer "high speed" are more likely to spend money than "slow speed" people, so i guess it makes them "high value" customers compared to "slow ones".

So in my wall of text assuming Step 1 clarified the source of peoples 'complains/disdain' for pvp/competition "unfairness" we can move to Step 2: A Compromise/Solution (of sorts)

(if not let me try again. Look nobody want's to fight a healer in the arena for better half of an hour only to loose against thorns+fire armor+retri aura+heals+inf mana or get 3 shored by frost mage who pops all cds and fires 3 frostbolts or x shoted by ambush+ambush+backstab+destroy_target_player.exe with charge+blink+shadowstep+ whatever.We all wanna play and all of us win or AT LEAST feel like we had a chance (in our bracket/power lvl not against everyone(some maybe against everyone )) and if we everyone simply wanted to win everyone would simply play the above and while at that why bother with ascension go retail press 123 and be done with it)

Step 2: A Compromise/Solution (of sorts)
So there have been some efforts from ascension to reduce broken things/builds one is with the assign of rarity in skills/spells/blah the other is combined cooldowns in addition to the existing diminishing returns but apparently (in my opinion/perspective ) not enough. If you find the above enough then probably u would not care for what i have to write next.

So one of the reasons we may not feel we had a chance in an fight is that it ends way too fast for some(for whoever is not an adrenaline junkie i guess ) and one of the other sources of frustration is that it lasts too long(making it a turn off). So how would one(from design perspective, not involved parties) control the duration of an engagement ?

At the current status i think it's tilted towards fast rather than slow. The fastest would be you die in about 6-15+"bubbles" duration seconds if u don't/cant react (talking about 1v1 assuming similar levels of gear+pilot skill+char skills). A pool of 7-8k hp getting pummeled by 1k ambushes/stabs/shots/Xbolts is done cleanly in 7 seconds (with anything but bubbles).

For some people out there this is too long... and i get it. For others too short...and i get it.

Enter Battle Fury.
The idea:
Battle Fury will be a resource like rage to be used/enable "powerful flow-changing" abilities such as Hammer of justice, Arcane power, Lolcoil, CCs, getting out of CCs, power ups and so forth.
It can be gained by receiving or dealing damage (i think healing should not give u bf or at least only effective healing).

In addition to their regular costs most (not all) "special abilities" will need battle fury to be casted/used and may further used by some abilities for more damage/healing/cc or powerup duration/cc immunity duration (but damge dealt by bf consumed should be separate from regular damage else (dmg+bf dmg)crit= too much instead (dmgcrit)+bf dmg = should be okish)

All classes will have 100 BF base max and out of combat 0. Exiting combat it should decay faster than rage in like say 5 seconds, and through talents the max base, minimum resting and decay rate should/can be modified.
Maybe tank/defensive talents reduce max BF but allow higher minimum and offensive increase capacity. Maybe specific talent caps allow to reduce costs of certain skills or enable extra skill that uses additional bf to deal additional effect.

So you may be wondering how adding another resource makes the game better when we have 3 if not more when/if dk comes out? How will bf make the game "better"?

In order to solve a problem by reducing complexity instead of increasing it one must first identify common factors. This is done with diminishing returns to an extend. But if you end up having all CCs in a single diminish timer it will make the game stale and if nothing else we all know silencing a hunter won't do much compared to other ccs and will also turn the game stale as everyone will try to have stun/fear/horror ignore rest. Why? cause these are global rest is circumstantial. Also as i mentioned CC is not the only problem but powerups are as well. Uninterruptible mage firing Fbolts/Hfires/Cbolts is from "some" considered "insert_curse_here.com"

So simplifying won't do it. Also I don't think people play ascension for it's "Simplicity" and you did not add WREs and Lumbering to "keep things simple".

(Below is also TL;DR)
Adding BF as resource and ways for pilots to "affect" and use it as they see fit makes it a versatile resource to be used depending the situation and it works as an additional "tuning" point when it comes to power in general. How can you tune it (as a developer)?

Abilities MAY or MAY NOT have a BF cost.
Each ability can have different BF cost (tunable like other resource costs).
Players won't be able to just 'pop' everything and 1 shot you, as combat progress it allows for a build up and payoff.
People get new toys/ways to try things up, diversity.
It can work on top of existing "balancing systems" (Dim. returns, duration,shared cds)
By slowing down the pace of combat it allows for players to identify and even adapt to an opponent.
All of the above will allow for a more refined control (from both player and developer perspectives ) of combat.
You can just disable it in a new season.

Look there will never be a "perfect solution" and even if there will be, personally, I hate rock, scissors, paper and tick tack toe. In one you can never "create" and in the other you can "never" win/loose... what's the point?

I don't know if BF (another resource)(i mean the name change it or what not) is the solution and yes it will add some complexity but in vanilla most classes had some sort of extra resource. In ascension we have the hero class and yes this may make things more complex but i don't think ppl complain about having all resources. If nothing you guys created corrupted bear form that fires aoe shadowbolts and healers that use energy to heal among other things...

I'm full of ideas/brainstorming for ascension, another would be the deeper you go in a tree the stronger the effects of said tree abilities but that is limiting options rather than opening them up.

As i said in another post and here previously "draft build" is very limiting in my opinion but i can see some of the reasons why doing it (or so i think)...

I Hope that ascension or even you who reads this (if you read it) will at least... dunno if not consider it at least use it to get inspired for the next great thing or that his wall of text is somehow inspiring to you... If not oh welp

Everything above is my opinion and obviously I don't speak for everyone, so as i said use a "wide perspective" when u read this...
Either way, thank you for your time and has fun
For the Horde!!