Duskruin Teaser August 2020

[Taernath]

Avaluka's: "Tame the Spirit"

Gazing intently, the warrior let his hand hover over the line of shields on display, his skin tinged an eerie blue from the flickering candles arrayed nearby. A subtle power seemed to emanate from them, indistinct but noticeable despite their mundane appearance. Eventually he let his hand fall on a tower shield with its surface dyed in ripples of alternating colors, making his decision at long last. As soon as his skin made contact with the metal of the shield, he felt the strange power even more. A flicker of misty green light played over the shield's surface as the warrior lifted it from its resting place and settled it on his arm, testing the heft of it.

It felt much like any other shield he had wielded in his years in the profession, yet different as well. Something seemed to be just beneath the surface, its power tantalizingly out of reach.

Then, without warning, a feeling of pure rage seemed to erupt through the shield, sending an echoing roar through the air. Untamed wildness rippled through the shield's metal, spreading up through his arm and rendering him unable to even bring the shield back into position. Rage. All he felt was rage.

Then, as quickly as it had started, the wildness ebbed away, draining back into the shield and falling dormant once more. It was there, though - the warrior could feel the brewing wildness barely contained, but at least he could use his shield arm again.

"You must be careful," said a creaky voice from behind him, "The spirits within are wild and untamed. They are full of rage. Powerful, yes .... but a wild animal is dangerous, even in this form."

The warrior spun around, shield automatically coming up in a defensive posture at the sudden voice. But he soon relaxed upon seeing the slightly hunched man before him. The shopkeeper? He must be.

"What use is the power if it will be unleashed upon me, as well?" the warrior asked tentatively.

"Tame the spirit," croaked the old man, grinning and displaying several missing teeth. "Tame it and partner with it. It will hurt you no more and the power it will unleash will grow."

As though to demonstrate, the old man tapped the tip of his runestaff on the ground and bowed low. A ripple of light played over the wood of the staff, resolving into a brief visage of a wolf's face overlaying his own. As quickly as it appeared, the illusion disappeared into motes of misty green light with a fading howl.

Reaching out, the old shopkeeper held out a gleaming bastard sword to the burly warrior, "You will not regret it."

Taking the hilt of the sword, the warrior noted the same burst of wild energy emanating from it. Gripping both sword and shield tightly, his expression resolved into grim determination, "Tame the spirit .... yes. I think I will. Thank you." He, too, bowed clumsily toward the old man, causing a brief image of a lion to overlay his face.

Grinning, the warrior strode out, ready to try to tame the spirits within these new acquisitions and test their power first hand.

-------------------------------

AvalukaToday at 8:07 AM
Not really like Warrior bonding or anything - not stealing that kind of power from a profession. But it is kind of like affinity.

AvalukaToday at 8:10 AM
None of them are sancted off the shelf, no.

AvalukaToday at 8:12 AM
Well, you'll have to wait til the next teaser post, which will haev the full info, to get all the deets. But they do have a new offensive script flare OTS that I'm calling Animalistic Fury flares. How tame the spirit is just determines the ceiling of the flare's power.
Default damage type is Grapple.

AvalukaToday at 8:14 AM
Well, if it's more tame, it trusts you more and is willing to use more of its power for you.

AvalukaToday at 8:18 AM
And yeah, nothing to do with Spirit Beasts, despite being ethereal animal spirits sort of.

AvalukaToday at 8:21 AM
Just OTS shields or weapons this run.

AvalukaToday at 8:39 AM
Not currently. I'll probably post part 2 of the vignette, and all the various unlockable features. I can't very well tease pricing until you guys know all the perks you can get.
Er. I'll post part 2 of the vignette in a couple days I mean.

Source: http://forums.play.net/forums/GemSto...et_newest=true

[Alashir]

Kenstroms: "Essencetials" teaser

Just going to leave this right here.

You give the pylon a whirl around your finger. Motes of white hot light trail behind it spinning three times before you catch it with a firm grip.

You steady your hand-held pylon and take aim at a Taladorian knight!

It sparks with a pale light before firing a blast of white hot energy, which snakes through the air and strikes a Taladorian knight! **

... 20 points of damage!
Flames engulf head searing hair and scalp. Sickening!
The Taladorian knight is stunned!

Immediately, another blast of light green energy hurls from the pylon and slams into a Taladorian knight! **

... 20 points of damage!
Good blow to head!


-GM Kenstrom-
Waylayer of Wehnimer's Landing

[Tgo01]

It's also racist against halflings because low HP. I thought GS turned over a new leaf of inclusiveness?

It's racist to point out that halflings have low HP. Racist.

[Alashir]

Thandiwe's "Mechanical Crossbow Teaser 3: Net flares"

Thandiwe loads her light repeating crossbow with an umber light crossbow bolt.
Thandiwe fires an umber light crossbow bolt at a massive troll king!
AS: +240 vs DS: +249 with AvD: +19 + d100 roll: +36 = +46
A clean miss.

* A small bundle of woven hemp is discharged from her light repeating crossbow. It expands as it sails through the air and then coils about a massive troll king's legs!

... 15 points of damage!
Shot to hand spins the troll king in circles.
The bolt streaks off into the distance!

Struggling against the netting that is keeping it pinned to the ground, a massive troll king finally breaks enough of the hemp to pull it completely off.

~*~ Thandiwe ~*~
ASGM of Events

[Archigeek]

Thandiwe's "Mechanical Crossbow Teaser 3: Net flares"

Thandiwe loads her light repeating crossbow with an umber light crossbow bolt.
Thandiwe fires an umber light crossbow bolt at a massive troll king!
AS: +240 vs DS: +249 with AvD: +19 + d100 roll: +36 = +46
A clean miss.

* A small bundle of woven hemp is discharged from her light repeating crossbow. It expands as it sails through the air and then coils about a massive troll king's legs!

... 15 points of damage!
Shot to hand spins the troll king in circles.
The bolt streaks off into the distance!

Struggling against the netting that is keeping it pinned to the ground, a massive troll king finally breaks enough of the hemp to pull it completely off.

~*~ Thandiwe ~*~
ASGM of Events

They put in the effort to finally change entanglement flares... without changing entanglement flares. Yay?

This is 15 years overdue and should be standard for any entanglement critical.

[Alashir]

Avaluka's "Tame the spirit part 2"

Clang! The blow reverberated through the bastard sword as the warrior parried the orc's blow aside with a casual flick. He could feel the wildness slowly ebbing away with each successful hit and parry, the spirit within yielding inch by inch.

With a yell, the warrior suddenly charged forward, his tower shield held aloft. As he collided with the unwary orc, a riotous stream of misty green light erupted across his shield, coalescing into the form of an ethereal lion. As the shield charge drove home, a stampede of many lions erupted forth, adding their damage to what was already inflicted. The orc flipped over and landed in a heap, dazed.

Grinning with triumph, the warrior spun around, catching another orc's blow on the face of his shield. An angry roar erupted from the shield in response to the block, causing another eruption of a stampede of ethereal lions to pour over the orc in revenge.

Spinning around to face the initial orc, the warrior charged forward with his sword raised. The orc staggered back to his feet, though appeared even more dazed due to a flicker of misty green light still playing over his body and sapping his defenses. Gritting his teeth, the warrior brought the sword down in a killing blow, feeling the hilt shudder in his hand as the spirit within's wildness continued to ebb away.

Without warning, rage suddenly burst from the bastard sword in the warrior's hand, a feeling of untamed wildness seeming to seize the muscles in his weapon arm. Momentarily unable to bring his weapon up to parry, he grit his teeth and brought his shield up to bear against another incoming blow. Just as quickly as the rage appeared, it again receded into the weapon, allowing him to raise the sword up to swipe aside another foe's slash.

Straightening up, his chest heaving from exertion, the warrior drew his sword in close and closed his eyes, clenching his fist tightly around the hilt. Warmth spread through him from the weapon as a burst of power erupted from the spirit and into his body. Strength enhanced and body glowing misty green, the warrior leapt forward and finished off the last of the orcs easily.

As the last of the enhanced strength ebbed away from him with a burst of light, the warrior exhaled and glanced down at his sword and shield, pleased with his acquisitions. The old man was right - he could live with the brief outbursts of anger in exchange for the power he now held.


Debuting at the shop Untamed Spirit in Duskruin Arena this year are Animalistic Spirit weapons and shields (also known as Animalistic Fury weapons/shields). These are weapons and shields imbued with the spirit of a wild animal.

Off the shelf they are 4x (+20) and contain offensive script flares called Animalistic Fury flares, which are Grapple damage as a default. They can have regular flares added on, as well, but all the offerings currently do not have normal flares attached off the shelf.

As the spirits within them are wild and untamed, you must tame the spirit to prevent them from backlashing on you. The backlash happens if you are wielding the weapon/shield (IE, held in hand or worn in the case of UCS gloves/boots). The backlash is different depending on the weapon or shield type - melee weapons and runestaves will make it so you cannot parry, UCS gloves/boots and ranged will give you a DS/TD debuff, while shields will make it so you cannot block. NOTE: This is only a very short effect and does not happen all the time. The more tame the spirit is, the less chance it will backlash and the shorter the backlash will last. When fully tame, the spirit will not backlash on you at all.

To tame the spirit, you must successfully hit like-level foes with the weapon/shield, or successfully parry(melee/runestaves), evade (UCS/ranged), or block (shield) attacks from like-level foes while you are in a forward or greater stance and actively participating in combat.

The spirits will only trust one person at a time - if you want to pass this weapon/shield off to someone else, the new owner will have to work off the trust gained by the previous owner before gaining trust of their own.

The more tame the spirit is, the more powerful the Animalistic Fury flares will become. You can unlock the ceiling/potential top end of the flare strength by unlocking the flare tier. Off the shelf, the flares will max out at regular flare strength.


Unlockable Extra Features
* Animalistic Fury Flares
While these weapons/shields come with this grapple-based offensive script flare off-the-shelf, you can unlock the ceiling of the flare's potential power even more.
* Revenge flares
Unlock this to have a chance to unleash Animalistic Fury flares upon a successful parry (melee/runestaves), evade (UCS/ranged) or block (shields). NOTE: You must be in forward or greater stance and be an active participant in combat recently for the spirit to be roused into responding. IE, you can't just stand in defensive in front of a creature and let the flares kill things for you.
* Wild Backlash
Unlock this to add a DS/TD debuff to your target when Animalistic Fury flares hit. The stronger your Fury flares, the stronger this debuff becomes.
* Savage Power
Unlock this to be able to draw upon the strength of the spirit within your weapon/shield once every 60 minutes to increase your AS, CS and critical padding for 2 minutes. Each unlock adds equivalent to 1x accuity (+5 AS/+3 CS) up to +25 AS/+15 CS at Tier 5. You need to CLENCH the weapon/shield to activate this, and the effect does not stack.
* Damage Type Change
If you are unhappy with the default Grapple damage of the Animalistic Fury flares, you can change the damage type to something else (either a common damage type or uncommon damage type). Please be sure to READ the vouchers to see what types are available.
* Fluff Action unlocks
There are 2 unlocks available to add more verbs/actions to your weapons/shields that are pure fluff. These are completely separate from the flare tier unlocks to allow you to expand the fluff actions without having to pay a premium price if you do not want the extra power.
* Spirit Change
If you want to change the type of spirit in your weapon/shield (IE changing a feline to a canine), you can use this certificate. All GALD merchants should be able to change the color of the spirit, but only limited merchants can change how the spirit looks in general, while only certificates can change the overall "type" of the spirit. Each "type" of spirit has a limited list of pre-approved nouns/species that will work for that type in alterations.


Available "Types" of spirits so far:
* Large Feline
* Small Feline
* Canine
* Avian (Predatory)
* Hooved Mammal (Horned)
* Equine
* Snake
* Aquatic Mammal
* Small Rodent
* Ursine
* Rabbit/Hare
* Porcine

Potential questions/Answers:
- Does this work with Ranged?
Yes, the flares do fire with Ranged, but they do NOT fire with every shot. The flare chance is equivalent to if you were swinging a weapon.

This also works with UCS, runestaves and all shields. Armor is not available at this time.

- Can I add this to an existing weapon/shield?
Not at this time unfortunately. There will be a small selection of some weapon bases this run, as well as all sizes of shields, but you will not find every single weapon base available off-the-shelf. I tried to cover the more popular bases this run to try to appeal to most.

- How long will it take to fully tame the spirit?
Hard to say - it depends on how much you use it. The spirit is tamed by successful hits with the weapon/shield, and successful parry/evade/block (depending on the weapon/shield you have- these must be done with a like-level foe that you can gain experience from. The amount needed to tame a shield is slightly less to balance for the fact shield maneuvers are somewhat less used than swinging a weapon/using spells with a runestaff. You do not need to kill the creatures to get credit for taming - they only care about whether you do damage, bloodthirsty spirits that they are.

~Avaluka

[Alashir]

Thandiwe's "Curved Cuts teaser 3"

> push chakram
Releasing your rolaren chakram, you feel it gently push into your side as it magically hooks itself onto your belt.

> snap chakram
You snap your fingers at your side, and your rolaren chakram flies into your waiting hand.

~*~ Thandiwe ~*~
ASGM of Events

[Alashir]

AvalukaToday at 5:12 PM
Random messaging teaser, I guess: Blue-green eyes alert for threats, you slowly draw forth your golvern falchion from your boarhide pack, body tensed into a defensive posture. A ripple of misty green light shimmers over the surface of the falchion as a faint growl vibrates through it.

[Zosimos Alchemista]

Available "Types" of spirits so far:
* Large Feline
* Small Feline
* Canine
* Avian (Predatory)
* Hooved Mammal (Horned)
* Equine
* Snake
* Aquatic Mammal
* Small Rodent
* Ursine
* Rabbit/Hare
* Porcine

Will I be able to purchase a shield that flares a cat that jumps out of my shield and attacks someone? If not, I'd like to speak to a manager.

[drumpel]

The things they're offering seem neat on paper, but none of them do anything about how things are progressing towards.... SMRv2.

We, as players, know what to expect when it comes to how AS/DS or CS/TD impact us. We see the numbers, know it's setup on a D100 roll. 1 being shit, especially for casting and you fumble to 100 being best. We can get proper equipment, spells, maximize stats and so on to mitigate the dangers. For SMRv2 - you can't.

We only know tidbits from folks testing with our limited availability and those willing to put in the time. We know so little about how it all goes together and some professions (namely pures) have the worst defense against these things due to lacking skills they can train in compared to semis and squares that can 2x or 3x some of the beneficial skills.

I don't see any items coming out that help bolster anyone's SMRv2, yet I see a constant flow of changes in the game to migrating new spells or updated spells or new creatures starting to utilize SMRv2 more. Spells that get changed over, corresponding creatures that cast these spells now have a shiny new SMRv2 spell to use against players.

I see lots of spells that boost AS/DS/CS/TD, but no added protection for SMRv2. At best, even if items were introduced to help defend against SMRv2, you could only mitigate the chance of getting hit by a small amount because you're still screwed on open rolls. You can't defend against a 300+ open roll. Bam. Splat. Instant death! All the fancy armors/items/weapons you spend so much time and money investing in, they're being bypassed with the shift of more and more things going to SMRv2.

Guess this is just a PSA to those of you to be mindful of what almost feels like a bait and switch. Bait us in to getting more and more fancy things to help with AS/DS/CS/TD, then keep changing things over to SMRv2 so they can bypass all those fancy things we got to help aid us.


What do we really know about SMRv2 and how it works for casting power and defense?
For Defense, what we know:
1) Stats that help are AGI (primary) and DEX & INT (secondary)
2) Skills that help are PF/Perception/Dodging/CM, also Shield Use (for applicable skills) and Survival for some bandit traps. In my opinion from observation during testing, the higher level you are, the less of a return you get from your Skills that boost your SMRv2 defense.
3) Some spells help aid in defense, but no specifics on how exactly. My testing on a few spells leads me to believe they spells don't give much in terms of a bonus, maybe a few points at most.

For Offensive power, what we know:
1) We're told X lore helps with Y spell - but never told to what extent
2) We're told more ranks improves the spell, but never told to what extent

What we know that can impact SMRv2 defense, but no GM confirmed specifics:
1) Level (this appears, in my opinion, to be the biggest contributor)
2) Stance (defense gives best protection, offensive least - unsure how they're calculated)
3) Race/size (no other info given)
4) Injuries (this includes blood loss - this can be figured out with the proper classes and with enough time on the test server)
5) Encumbrance (in my testing it appears every 1% encumbered you are adds to your SMRv2 penalty and appears to cap at 15% encumbered)
6) Armor Penalty (any armor over full leather will have some sort of negative impact on your SMRv2 defense, even more so if you're not properly trained. You can overtrain in armor to mitigate a minor amount of SMRv2 penalty, but it's not much)
7) Low spirit (unknow how this impacts your SMRv2 defense)
8) Status conditions (these apply negative bonus to your SMRv2 defense): Prone = 20, Stunned = 35, Bind = 100. Prone and Stun conditions can stack, giving a 55 penalty. Bind does not stack with Prone or Stunned.

Extra tidbit I learned from testing SMRv2:
- Every character has a max penalty. It is unknown how it is calculated. My best guess would be: your stats +/- your race/size
- The max penalty is not the same as the BONUS you see in the SMRv2 equation on the screen. The BONUS comes from your Status Condition, wounds and blood loss. The max penalty is how much your base SMRv2 defense is adjusted down.
- Max penalty can be achieved through your armor you wear (anything over full leather will have some sort of negative penalty that cannot be trained away) and your encumbrance.
- Example: If your base SMRv2 defense is 150 and if your max penalty is -45, once you hit that max penalty your base SMRv2 will actually be 105 (150 - 45). On the plus side of things, you will never exceed that penalty regardless of what armor you wear or how much weight you're carrying. If you have no armor training and throw on some metal breastplate, you'll hit that -45 penalty. If you wear no armor and get your encumbrance over 15%, you'll hit that max penalty. If you wear the armor and are encumbered, you will not exceed that -45 penalty.

We know very little on how SMRv2 is calculated. We see more and more things changing over or being added to SMRv2. We keep getting new fancy items to aid us in AS/DS/CS/TD side of things and tiered gear folks spend lots of money on, only to have their expensive items get bypassed due to SMRv2 open roll RNG system is uses.

While I do like 917 and SMRv2 (I utilize the spell constantly with one of my wizards, there are hunts where I get shit for rolls (lots of negatives) and just overall low rolls and I have to cast the spell 2 or 3 times to kill one creature. Other times I walk into a room - spam 950 917 502 502 502 502 and all 5 creatures in there die on the first or second crit cycle of 917) I also hate it. The sight of new spells/updated spells and creature abilities making the shift to SMRv2 are just adding more ways to help creatures bypass the AS/DS/CS/TD system and drag us further into the cheap RNG death of open rolls you have no chance to defend from.