Targeted Towards TL7 Shades (Mostly PvP)
Serious concepts:
- TR life tap lines must ALWAYS heal the Shade regardless of the amount of damage done to the target. The amount healed should be a % of the Shade's HP + a % of the damage done to the target. Anything more than 40% of Shade's health restored (Before damage) from Devour Vitality alone would be a bit overpowered.
- TR must be broken into groups similarly to the way Piercing Mastery was. Currently it takes upwards of 6 - 7 seconds to fire off all of the TR perk lines to get an effective heal. The trade-off for quickly firing the last couple perks without the ones before should be a reduced effective healing, eg Devour Vitality healing for no more than 30% of the Shade's HP or so + a smaller % of damage done to the target.
- Defeat Righteousness in the form it exists today MUST be removed. It is nasty and game breaking for Keepers when landing on them. Nemesis Nanos in general were a bad idea.
- Backstab should always land: You have to be positioned behind a target AND the target has to be attacking something else. Currently it misses far more often than it should.
- Stun procs should be removed. Same goes for all of the LE procs (At least the way they exist now). They only represent an element of chance which is completely unwelcome in a game of thought, numbers, and time spent twinking. The SR 6 perk Disorientate is completely fine the way it is now, requiring 6 perks to use makes it a worthwhile sacrifice and it is removable with free movement stims, which prevents it from being a win button.
- Spirit Phylactery debuffs shouldn't be any longer than like 30 seconds. The buff to the Shade that uses them, however, should be about 2 minutes long.
- All other procs should be of a 30% or higher chance to proc on regular hits and specials only. Another fix would be having procs guaranteed to fire off after a certain amount of time in combat on a specific target, no more than 10 seconds.
- This one goes for a lot of professions: players in mechs or APTs MUST not be able to proc targets. Shades are still able to stun kill people while piloting an APT, which is absurd.
- Hitting a moving target must be possible within 10 meters of the target. Hitting a static target must be possible within 2 meters of the target.
- Cocoon tattoo's on use ability must be removed. It is only functioning as a bandaid to the hole in Shade's survivability toolset because our life taps do not work well. With evades popped and cocoon up, Shades can tank small groups of players too easily.
- Sneaking must be faster, and Shades must have slightly more concealment skill than they currently have. An extra 300 points or so at 220 would be appreciated.
Radical ideas:
- Shades could have an AoE version of SHD that has a slightly lower recharge time with much less damage, and a 5 meter or so range. Maximum heal possibility should be less than 1200 hp, with this nano functioning primarily as a damage dealing ability in PvM
- Shades could have a vanish ability that temporarily boosts concealment by a significant amount and allows the Shade to immediately sneak, regardless of whether it is under attack, rooted or not. Sneaking would also break any agg from mobs or players alike. Within 10 seconds or so, the Shade should suffer a concealment draining affect that lowers their concealment by upwards of a thousand points. The purpose of such a nano would be to get out of danger at least long enough for heal delta or SHD to heal the Shade a bit, and so the Shade can attempt to get out of the line of sight of their target.
Shades do not need more attack rating of evades. (At least not at 220) Our primary concerns in this department should be addressed with other professions; pistol wielders should have 100% checks on the Pistol Mastery line. Enforcer 2hb/1hb perks should all have 100% checks. Any well geared Shade (Even Opifex) can easily get 2700~ AR and 3300 - 3500~ defense/evade/dodge/duck compounded in a defense oriented setup without a set of alien armor. SP drains allow them to get over 3k AR and a significant amount of defense, allowing Shades to perk all non-evaders (Agents, Doctors, Enforcers, Engineers, Soldiers, NTs).
An entirely offensive setup (Or one that uses Mongo Rage) can gift a Shade without alien armor around 3500+ AR, which is more than enough to perk Traders, Adventurers/Bureaucrats/Other Shades with evades down, and even Shield MPs or Keepers who have less than phenomenal gear. Fixers in the same category as aforementioned MPs and Keepers can be defeated with regular hits, specials, and SHD. Even marginally well equipped MAs will always be a hassle, but that is not a game breaking problem at the moment since they are easy to escape.
Naysayers will claim that it is very difficult to gear a Shade. This is true in one area: spirits. Currently, farming alphas is very difficult and/or time consuming for even a 220 Shade. Right now only the top two QLs of Shadowlands spirits can be used in the alpha creation process. The trade skill process should be extended to encompass the top 4 QLs of spirits, allowing even the rare and prized slots to be farm-able without the currently mandatory pocket boss killing.
Many nanos available to 220 Shades should be extended to lower levels to help out the babies that are leveling. The concept of alpha spirits (as well as the CL brain) as no drop loot or quest rewards could possibly be extended to lower level spirits as well, at certain title levels.
Super radical idea:
- TR line could have a minor reflect piercing ability (After all, Shades use piercing weapons) that could temporarily decrease the amount of reflects a target has by no more than 15-20% or so. This would only occur on attacks where the Shade does all TR perks in order.
- Either the above or Shade DoTs of all types could ignore reflects or absorbs. This would primarily affect Soldiers, and effectively negate their heal delta ability. Would also be somewhat useful against Engineers and/or their pets which have significant amounts of survivability.