[Iron]

Maybe it is constrict in combination with terrify that is overwhelming. Because there have been many a fight with you where I have gone from hitting you consistently for 250-300 to hitting you for sub 100 and you have gone from hitting for ~150 to hitting for 250-300 and all of that has lasted more than 20 seconds.... Ive counted rounds and 20 rounds of it is far greater than 19 seconds. You and I had a discussion about it after one of those fights because I was asking what in the world it was.

I agree with you on some of the points you made. Spartan grapple for example should not be one of those skills, it is just another impairment. I don't think riposte should be as it is far from being overwhelming. Maybe Nojohr Fate and the Defensive Noj parries should be added to the list. I am not against current or future Noj skills costing % pools. Maybe some things I listed should not be there at all. There are probably some other things that should be there. That is why I originally did not include a list, I was trying to avoid it beyond the super obvious. I think all of the most powerful skills should be evaluated.

The point is that there are some skills that completely turn the tide of a battle with the use of the single skill one time. Its not, spam out all your skills, or who has the better tactics, its one class has the better skill, or one class doesn't have one, or whoever happens to get lucky and get it off first.

Yes, those skills may have long prevent, but it doesn't change the fact that 1v1, the person with one of those skills can generally walk in and go "bang, I win". Most, but not all, of the skills listed, leave your opponent standing there with their thumb up their a$$ for extended periods of time waiting to die and in pretty much every case, there is 0 chance to avoid the affect.

I do not consider all of the "OP" skills to be equal in power. I do not think that they should all be treated equally as far as costing a % pool. If you look at a skill and think if used properly, it increases the odds of winning by 60-70%, then maybe it should cost 10-20%. If you look at a skill and think if used properly, it increases the odds of winning by 99%, then yeah, maybe it should cost 50+% of a pool to use regardless of the prevent time. I think there should also be a minimum cost for any % skill (1000 endurance or 5-50% whichever is greater).

Lets face it, a barb using forge against a caster (e.g. using properly).... that's pretty much in the 99% category. What if Forge and Fade both cost 51% of spirit? At least people would stand a chance to live long enough for battle lock to wear off. The barb can still Fade someone the very next tick (instead of having them on the same prevent), but after that, he isn't casting for a few ticks.

I also think it should be considered in relation to the power of the class and how the change would affect the class. Would it break the class entirely (e.g. is it their only survival method)? Is it needed to bring the class down to reality (e.g. full heal to give the possibility of a healer running out of mana/spirit)? Maybe some classes/skills don't need it or maybe they don't need it right now but will when future skills are implemented (including retrofitting existing skills when those future skills are implemented). If done, this should be avery careful process. Particularly when you consider skills since you encounter the endurance penalties (there is no equivalent for mana/spirit afaik).

Why should any class be given what is essentially a free PK, even if it is every 40 minutes? I mean the cost of some of these skills is almost laughable in comparison to the power (e.g. Battle Learning costs ~400 endurance). All I am saying is give them a real cost. Look at Antei of Formation, ~5k endurance. Now that's a real cost to use in comparison with the power. I didn't use it much as a Lernen because of the endurance penalties, it hurt. If there were a penalty to go with mana/spirit like there is for endurance, and really powerful spells came with big costs, people would pick and choose to use them a little more.

It's an idea for discussion. By adding a real cost to use them, it brings some of the "OP" skills down a little without entirely nerfing them into oblivion. It could in turn allow for lower prevention times too. This could also mean that more skills could be added in the future that are strong without the usual big cries of the skill being totally OP.

Slight tangent, but maybe mana/spirit could affect quick/nr like endurance does hit/dam where casters can get the bonus and hitters cannot and everybody gets the penalty. Since casters get more bonuses to quick/nr than hitters in general, the downside would affect them more just like the endurance penalty affects hitters more.

Another tangent, but once the code was in place for % cost skills, it could open up the possibility for new types of skills/spells for Whim to play with. For example 1-shot skills that drains 100% of a pool and does something proportionate or skills that that drain like 1% but goes off automatically each round, like a mini-kick/fireball or super dodge/evasion/parry that costs 1% per avoid. Things like that.