Shattered Kingdoms

Last time I played a shaman, I went to a no summon but gatable room and tried to voodoo but it failed.

The no summon was added because other wise friends of the shaman could summon the helpless shaman away from the vision of the victim giving them no hope of running in and killing them.

I would like to see voodoo get a major change. Ive had a number of ideas on the topic.
First voodoo spirits similar to the lamp that summons a genie. The spirits power being based off the shamans stats in some way similar to an elemental. The spirits are flagged as ghosts until they reach the room of the victim where they open up with a set of maledictions dropping into normal sight. The spirit sight is to give religions a slightly better chance of living out the other side of them seeing as they lose spirit aura protection.
Or
From what A said. Make Voodoo the first spell to truly use the short time effects. Remove the paralyze restriction of voodoo and reduce the gate no resistance. Make it a DoT spell with each "short tick" a malediction being cast. The spell would draw a large chunk of ME and PE each malediction round.
Making the spell do double damage if in the same room, normal damage if in the same area (as summon) half damage if across the world. With spirit dolls being a modifier on it as well. This would improve shamans in a battle. Rather than just an attack from across the world.
Or
Just make it a vision and malediction spell. Minor damage. Making it every factions best friend.

What the hell is a no summon, but gateable room? You either have a transport room or you don't. You don't get one or the other.

Back to the point of the thread though:

Why is this spell (at least in its current form) in the game?



This is the issue here. Salandarin is suggesting that the game continue to move away from the constant state of paranoia (remember the old energy drain?). The only argument that has been given as to why voodoo should be kept in the game is usually along the lines of:



This alone speaks volumes for the mechanic.

But the sentiment several people have voiced is along the lines of:



So how about looking at changing the voodoo spell, or the shaman class itself if necessary, to make everything a bit more fun for everyone.

There have been penty of noteworthy ideas in this thread for modifying either the spell or the class. Or at least some that are worth further thought by the Imms.

Or maybe people coud develop a bit more responsibility and use the spell with caution instead of spamming it on whoever upsets them. I am not fond of hardcoded implementations. Especially not when this whole subject can be dealt with ICly.

Falls under the same category as final strike, more or less.



...

No. If one has to rely on voodoo to make a shaman worth playing, one is doing something seriously wrong. That being said, if someone does come up with a worthwhile idea about what to replace voodoo with, I'd be all up for it.

I don't really like final strike, either, but that's a different thread for a different day. The only final strike I ever found even remotely amusing was Tshotha's.

I think it stupid to blame a shaman for using voodoo over and over again when its just a feature of the game. If a skill or spell is overpowered people are allowed to use it as much as they want until its fixed. I don't think it makes sense to have overpowered spells in the game and put the responsibility on the shaman not to overuse it. Not that voodoo isn't overpowered when used once a year. Its not fair to the shaman or the enemies of the shaman.

Rial makes a great point. That's why final strike was nerfed, that's why energy drain was nerfed - as logical as it might seem to blame the players for the nerfs, the game enabled the necessity for such nerfs by giving unlimited access to unbalanced or more or less unamusing game mechanics. Players have always been playing in whatever way that's most effective, and they always will - fighting reality is a lost cause, and tempting it is just as foolish.

I'd still like to see voodoo broken up as I had suggested earlier in this thread. It shouldn't have to be attempted murder from far away every time it is cast, but maledictions based on the target of the area of the victim.

As a former shaman player, I'd LOVE to see voodoo weakened into a far-range malediction, and have shamans get that power back elsewhere. Shamans are poor in large groups, and that's where much of the game's fun is. Not sitting in a room waiting to be unparalyzed.

However, Dulrik has explained that he wants to keep voodoo to stop equipment hoarders. This is supposed to be a way to kill those who collect shinies and refuse to enter combat.

If you've another solution for that problem, I'd love to hear it. Otherwise, I'm afraid you're wasting your time.