Talk to the Team: Stances
The system of Stances and Styles in Istaria can be confusing. What impacts what, a style conflicts with a stance, or vice versa. Some abilities improve when used with certain stances, others don't. Monsters don't use them. And so on. The thought here is to streamline and make a bit more logical sense out of the system. This change would replace all existing Stances and Styles:
Red Stance "A" (1) = Rename to Offensive (Give +Bonus to Damage)
Yellow Stance "B" (2) = Rename to Defensive (Give +Bonus to Armor)
Green Stance "C" (3) = Rename to Focused (Give +Bonus to Melee/Ranged ToHit)
Blue Stance "D" (4) = Rename to Attuned (Give +Bonus to Spell ToHit)
LightBlue Stance "E" (5) = Rename to Shielded (Give +Bonus to Block)
Orange Stance = Use "F" and 6, Rename to Enraged (Give +Bonus to Str/Pow)
Purple Stance = Use "G" and 7, Rename to Passive (Give +Bonus to Evasion/MagDef)
This is an idea, not concrete implementation.
Re: Talk to the Team: Stances
I very much like this idea. I don't use stances at all, right now, simply because I could never figure out what each does (as mentioned in the OP) and I seem to do fine, without them. Also, because naming them 'red', or 'green', or 'blue', etc, is simply too vague. Every other game I have ever played used more descriptive, player-friendly descriptions....i.e. 'Defensive Style', 'Aggressive Style', 'Berserk Style', etc. Those, at least, give you a certain intuitive indication what each stance/style does...
I really hope you do implement this suggested change, eventually!
/signed
Re: Talk to the Team: Stances
Really a nice idea, I like it and the stances getting a lot more useful.
Re: Talk to the Team: Stances
Re: Talk to the Team: Stances
Re: Talk to the Team: Stances
I really like this idea as well.
Re: Talk to the Team: Stances
Two questions.
Block Stance... will this conflict with Employ Shield, or stack? Will that ability be removed entirely then or will it be changed again? I currently enjoy Employ Shield as it currently is. If it would stack, that'd be fantastic, if it would conflict and overwrite with a lesser bonus... I'd not be to keen on such a change.
Focused Stance.... will this conflict with Precision Style or other abilities that increase to-hit chance, or would it stack as well? Much with Shielded Stance, I'd not want something that is less effective and would overwrite a key ability to a class.
Re: Talk to the Team: Stances
I like this idea as well. I do agree that it would need to be undertaken along with a review of how the various styles work in the new system as well. Maybe split the system up, so that "stances" are generalized across all schools, and then make the "styles" school-specific buffs that could not be mastered (although the same style might belong to more than one school). So then you could have a maximum of one (general) stance and one (school-specific) style up at the same time.
Re: Talk to the Team: Stances
re: some of the questions. Refer to part of my post: "This change would replace all existing Stances and Styles"
Re: Talk to the Team: Stances
What about Ranger's Rapid Fire stance though? I kinda don't see a similar stance in there. :o
Would be kinda sad to see it dissapear. :l
Re: Talk to the Team: Stances
great idea- Flame and me like it!
Re: Talk to the Team: Stances
Let's see if I understand this:
Red Stance "A" (1) = Rename to Offensive (Give +Bonus to Damage) [currently called Power Style]
Yellow Stance "B" (2) = Rename to Defensive (Give +Bonus to Armor) [currently called Defensive Style]
Green Stance "C" (3) = Rename to Focused (Give +Bonus to Melee/Ranged ToHit)
Blue Stance "D" (4) = Rename to Attuned (Give +Bonus to Spell ToHit)
LightBlue Stance "E" (5) = Rename to Shielded (Give +Bonus to Block) [currently called Shield Stance]
Orange Stance = Use "F" and 6, Rename to Enraged (Give +Bonus to Str/Pow)
Purple Stance = Use "G" and 7, Rename to Passive (Give +Bonus to Evasion/MagDef) [Currently called Evasive Style]
Rapid Fire Stance goes away, and Shield Stance can no longer be used at the same time as a Style, and all the confusing and mostly ignored Red/Green/Blue stances and their bonuses go away.
If that's essentially correct, sounds good. I'd prefer a range bonus or +attack/firing rate stance to a +Str/Pow stance, since there are many ways to get +Str/Pow
Re: Talk to the Team: Stances
Some revisions and more thoughts.
- Rename "Enraged" (Orange) stance in the previous post to "Alerted" and instead of a bonus to str/pow make it a bonus to recycle/delay.
- Change Shielded (LightBlue) to give a bonus to Parry as well as Block
- Change Passive (Purple) to give a bonus to Dodge as well as Evasion and Magic Defense.
I also had some thoughts about how the basic abilities could interact with certain stances. The idea here being that an ability might have different secondary effects if you are in different stances.
Matter/Flame/Ice/Energy/Spirit/etc Bolt, Breath of Fire
- Red Stance - +Damage
- Yellow - % Chance to Ward vs Spell Damage
- Green - None
- Blue - Improved Recycle
- LightBlue - None
- Orange - % Chance to gain an Extra Attack/Hit
- Purple - % Chance to gain a bonus to the Abilities' Skill
Power Strike, Power Shot, Claw Strike
- Red - +Damage
- Yellow - Improved Recycle
- Green - % Chance to cause a Bleed
- Blue - None
- LightBlue - +Agro (Taunt)
- Orange - % Chance to avoid next incoming attack
- Purple - None
Thoughts?
Re: Talk to the Team: Stances
Bolts are repeating spells, this will add in average more power to spellcasters - Power Strike, Power Shot and Claw Strike are special abilities. If a boon is given to repeating spells, it should be given the same boon to those who use weapons on claws.
Re: Talk to the Team: Stances
Should have been clear, when I typed "Bolts" I was thinking of some abilities that you get from the school, not the scribed spells.
Re: Talk to the Team: Stances
Quote:
Originally Posted by
AmonGwareth
Some revisions and more thoughts.
- Rename "Enraged" (Orange) stance in the previous post to "Alerted" and instead of a bonus to str/pow make it a bonus to recycle/delay.
- Change Shielded (LightBlue) to give a bonus to Parry as well as Block
- Change Passive (Purple) to give a bonus to Dodge as well as Evasion and Magic Defense.
I also had some thoughts about how the basic abilities could interact with certain stances. The idea here being that an ability might have different secondary effects if you are in different stances.
Matter/Flame/Ice/Energy/Spirit/etc Bolt, Breath of Fire
- Red Stance - +Damage
- Yellow - % Chance to Ward vs Spell Damage
- Green - None
- Blue - Improved Recycle
- LightBlue - None
- Orange - % Chance to gain an Extra Attack/Hit
- Purple - % Chance to gain a bonus to the Abilities' Skill
Power Strike, Power Shot, Claw Strike
- Red - +Damage
- Yellow - Improved Recycle
- Green - % Chance to cause a Bleed
- Blue - None
- LightBlue - +Agro (Taunt)
- Orange - % Chance to avoid next incoming attack
- Purple - None
Thoughts?
Can't come up with any reason why I wouldn't like it haha, so:
Love the idea! :o
Re: Talk to the Team: Stances
Flame, I like the idea even if it might make things more complex. I just had a thought about this stance stuff.
When I play ELAR and use head shot, it changes automatically to blue stance. If I use power shot it changes auto
to red stance. However, when my goat plays Ranger, she has to manually pick red or blue stance just like
she has to pick the other stances Ranger has. I find this slows me down a lot.
Now if we get all these stance abilities, we are going to be
going rather nuts going from one to the next?
Re: Talk to the Team: Stances
I like this system as well, especially with the additions to parry, delay, and dodge. When it comes to affecting abilities in the individual schools, I'm thinking this should be coded in each ability as the schools are redone, and the benefits noted in the tool tips. Much like how now crit strike benefits from blue, power strike from red. Also, I'm wondering about abilities that act like some of the replaced stances or styles, and share timers with some of them-- like "flow like water" and "melee flurry". How will this change affect them, if at all? As part of the new system, I'm guessing that nothing that is not one of the new stances would share a timer with a change in the new stances? Evasive style shares a timer delay with "flows like water." Would that go away in the new system (i.e. activating purple stance would not suddenly cause a delay in the ability to activate "flow like water" right after)?
I'm thinking the stances could be changed all at once, and then changes to the abilities affected by stances could happen more slowly and in limited sets of schools per patch. This makes it much easier to keep balancing and bug-fixing to a small scale task. And coincidentally allow players to absorb the changes over time.
Re: Talk to the Team: Stances
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ming
Flame, I like the idea even if it might make things more complex. I just had a thought about this stance stuff.
When I play ELAR and use head shot, it changes automatically to blue stance. If I use power shot it changes auto
to red stance. However, when my goat plays Ranger, she has to manually pick red or blue stance just like
she has to pick the other stances Ranger has. I find this slows me down a lot.
Now if we get all these stance abilities, we are going to be
going rather nuts going from one to the next?
Huh, you hotkeyed them to automaticly switch stances with attacks?
And I think it would make things less complex actually, as you'd probably want to stick with one stance, or 2 at most, depending on the situation, atleast that's my guess, seeing the new stances. Instead of switching green-red-blue everytime an ability comes off cd.
Personally my 3 stances would be orange/yellow/green :P
For melee/ranged , sometimes switching not all times, as there's usually 1 stance, maybe 2 that jumps out for your playstyle.
Mages would probably be orange/blue/purple. For me that is.
Re: Talk to the Team: Stances
Quote:
Originally Posted by
AmonGwareth
Some revisions and more thoughts.
I also had some thoughts about how the basic abilities could interact with certain stances. The idea here being that an ability might have different secondary effects if you are in different stances.
Thoughts?
I like this idea of secondary effects. Also may make a stance you would normally not use interesting.