I am not going to present complex math to illustrate anything in this post. I will attempt to write this so that anyone can follow the logic. I am not writing this as an attempt to defend this nano from nerfs, nor am Im writing this post to show that it is overpowered. The reality of it is a bit more complex. Please stay with me on this one.
Grand Theft Humidity (GTH) has almost no cast-time or recharge so it is possible to cast it over and over pretty rapidly until it lands. It can only be cast on 1 target every 60 seconds.
As it is right now it removes your nanopool rapidly. 5-10 sec depending on how big of a nanopool you got and if you are casting anything while you are suffering from it. On NT's the nanopool is drained even faster. The nanodrain will last for 60 sec. It cannot be removed with Virus Scanners.
I suspect that this nano is bugged atm and thus more powerful than FC intended. I am not sure about this though. In addition to giving you a nano DoT that takes away your nano, it is supposed to stop your nano regeneration. It has a -2000 nano-delta debuff and I think this is simply ment to stop all nano delta. As it is atm though, it makes your nano delta run in reverse, thus taking away nano even faster. If you have 200 nano delta and you get his by GTH then the -2000 nanodelta will make you lose 1800 more nano every regeneration-tick. I believe this is a mistake but I cannot be sure. I also believe that you are supposed to be able to remove GTH with Virus Scanners. I believe its a bug that you cannot remove it atm.
Anyway, thats how it works.
So, is this overpowered or not?
Well, lets start at the beginning. Traders have a tool set that is outdated or underpowered. Roots are very unreliable. Skill-drains mostly don't have enough affect anymore in PvP, now that everyone got so much more weapon and nanoskill. We use Health haggler to heal ourselves and 800-900 heal every 4 seconds is obviously not enough to survive most attacks. Borrow reflect is nice but only when there is a soldier with AMS nearby. Most of the time a trader is underpowered compared to those around him.
In an attempt to fix this, FC added GTH that works very well against NT's and docs. It works well against crats, MP's, enforcers. It works kinda ok vs advs, fixers, agents (but they dont lose much offensive power so its not an "I win" button vs them). It works badly vs shades and keepers. And so on. Good vs some, bad vs others and ok vs the rest.
But this is completely backwards. It works best vs the professions we needed the least amount of help with and helps the least vs the professions we did needed the most amount of help with. So right off the bat this nano is badly designed. It fits with the trader description that we can drain your nano pool and add it to our own but AO has changed a lot in the previous years and its about time FC stopped adding nanos to fit the profession description and started adding nanos that fit the gameplay as it is today. Thats why we have professionals. To give FC that insight. But this has very little success.
Ok, so now we have explored a little of what this nano does, who it has the most effect on and what I think of that effect.
Now, lets look at this from a trader point of view first. A trader's biggest problem in PvP is that big damage done to us is hard to recover from with our tiny heals and no absorb, evade-perks or non-situational or non-self-gimping nanos (Like borrow reflect or nanobot shielding). This means that the tools we have MUST work quickly so that our tools can have their full effect before we die. So that we at least have a chance at doing what we do and trying to win the fight.
GTH works fast and we traders like that. If it worked slower then we could be killed before the target even ran out of nano and thats no good. There is no point in a tool that works well AFTER the trader is dead. It also has to last a while seeing as we got a lot of things to cast and we have relative low damage after our initial attempt at an alpha. GTH lasts 1 minute and thats good. It gives us time to do a real fight versus professions like adventurer or enforcer. If GTH lasted 20 sec then the adventurer (for example) would run out of nano but if we didn't kill the adv in those 20 sec (and thats not exactly easy....) then he would regain nano, heal himself and now we are back at square one. However, we could recast GTH after those 20 sec to keep the nano drain going. But if we could just recast it, then there is not much point in making it last so short in the first place. Except maybe to make it less annoying to those that got GTH on them and then ran away from fight. As it is atm they gotta wait 1 min for GTH to vanish before they can refill their nanopool. But if FC makes it removable with Virus Scanners then that whole problem goes away. If you are in a fight with the trader then GTH wont go away no matter how short lasting it is because the trader can re cast it. If you get away from the trader then it doesnt matter how long it lasts because you can remove it with virus scanners.
So all in all, 60 sec duration is fine when you can use virus scanners to remove it.
And how fast it removes nanopool shouldn't be nerfed too much, if any at all, because if our tools work slower than they do then we are back at square one kinda. We don't have a lot of defense so the tools we have needs to work FAST.
Ok, now lets look at this from the other side of the fence. I will mention docs and NT's because they are the ones that are having most problems with this nano.
Against NT's GTH is a "I win" nano. I don't like it one bit. I don't understand what is so special about NT's that they deserve to stand there with no offense and no defense after 2 sec just because a trader happened to see them. PvP should not be like that for any profession in any mmorpg. Thats all I gotta say about that.
Against Docs this nano lets the doc heal for a little while until the nanopool is completely drained. But combined with roots the doc cant exactly expect to survive. So its very close to the effect is has on NT's.
Some professions are good versus other professions. And some are bad. This is because some are ranged, some are melee, some have roots, some have borrow reflect, some have absorbs, some have evades. Its a big mix of abilities that clash together in PvP and naturally, some are better vs you than others.
But FC has added a few nemesis nanos lately, especially to traders. Personally I dont like this way of balancing things. If anything, it makes it even more unbalanced. If this is taken to the extreme then PvP as we know it is over. Everyone will have an "I Win" button vs other professions and so even alphas become redundant. And I dont even like the alpha concept to start with.
So what is my conclusion to this whole GTH thing?
1. It can not be less powerful than it is, except against NT's and docs.
2. It helps traders.
3. I don't like it vs NT's and docs. It requires no skill to kill a NT or doc with this nano so I just feel cheap after I use it on them. Thats not PvP.
4. It is a badly designed nano because it helps vs the wrong professions.
If FC intend to keep this nano in the game then they gotta make it removable by Virus Scanners and find some way to make it less powerful vs NT's and maybe docs too. I know FC intended this to be an anti-NT-nano but thats not a trader issue, its not a NT issue, its a FC issue.
If FC decides to remove this nano then they gotta give traders what they always asked for. Better non-situational defense that can allow us to survive after we've been hit by big alphas. So that we dont have to sneak a lot or run away a lot to recover. And update our MAIN and ORIGINAL toolset so that its effective in todays PvP.
And if FC makes the -2000 nano-delta-debuff-part of GTH stop nano delta but not remove nano then GTH will be waaay less powerful and would leave traders needing an even bigger boost than we already need, even now when we have GTH the way it is.
That's all I got to say about that. And looking at the length of this post Id say its enough.
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Originally Posted by Wrangeline
