Make Terrify, Shiver, and Fearsome Stare (Possibly Others) Not Require a Target

[oedipus_tex]

There are a handful of cone powers introduced very late in the game's original development that are cones that require no target. 

• Nature Affinity: Regrowth
• Martial Assault: Spinning Kick

 

I love how these powers feel in comparison to the older cone powers. You just aim your character's body in the right direction and launch the power. It's glorious and results in far fewer mistakes.

 

I'd love to see this mechanic applied to some older powers that have large cone widths. Specifically:

• Dark Miasma/Dark Control: Fearsome Stare
• Mind Control: Terrify
• Ice Control: Shiver
• Storm Summoning: Gale

 

There are probably other cones that could qualify, but these 4 stand out due to a combo of huge size and/or the amount of strategizing that goes into calculating their direction.  Gale is the smallest radius (80 degree arc) while Shiver is especially huge (135 degree arc). 

 

I probably wouldn't want this as much for cones with a width less than 80. Do others feel differently? 

[MunkiLord]

I'm not sure how I feel about the suggestion to be honest. At this point I'm very used to how I need to position myself to get the most from Fearsome Stare, so this would be an adjustment. I really can't say if it would be a good or bad adjustment for me, so I don't have an opinion either way. But I do find the idea interesting and I'd be all down for trying it out.

[oedipus_tex]

3 minutes ago, MunkiLord said:

I'm not sure how I feel about the suggestion to be honest. At this point I'm very used to how I need to position myself to get the most from Fearsome Stare, so this would be an adjustment. I really can't say if it would be a good or bad adjustment for me, so I don't have an opinion either way. But I do find the idea interesting and I'd be all down for trying it out.

 

 

I am... not. After 15 years. LOL. With Gale especially. The dead worst is decidingto actually use Gale (which happens incredibly rarely to begin with) only for the enemy to get knocked back, causing my character to cast Gale in the wrong direction and blow enemies everywhere.

 

Perhaps just that power, and Shiver, deserve the treatment. I admit I have fewer problems with Fearsome Stare and Terrify.

[Razor Cure]

I am not sure about this. Is there really any advantage to these powers not needing a target selected? They are all combat openers, as I see it, and as such, your just need to hit Tab once on approach, and bam. A much much better addition would be a cone range marker of some kind.

Also..

2 hours ago, oedipus_tex said:

I love how these powers feel in comparison to the older cone powers. You just aim your character's body in the right direction and launch the power. It's glorious and results in far fewer mistakes.

I MUCH prefer cones with a target. Any power that needs a target, as soon as you are in range, you hit the power, and it will go off, hitting that target 100% of the time (unless you miss, naturally). On teh other hand, the nature heal, I find it quite easy to 'miss' healing a team mate with, because they may move, I may move, lag, etc etc. As you sat Oed, all these cones have huge radii...so is it really that much of a hassle to target one guy and hit the entire mob, WITHOUT having to worry about lag or toon facing?

[oedipus_tex]

1 minute ago, Razor Cure said:

I MUCH prefer cones with a target. Any power that needs a target, as soon as you are in range, you hit the power, and it will go off, hitting that target 100% of the time (unless you miss, naturally). On teh other hand, the nature heal, I find it quite easy to 'miss' healing a team mate with, because they may move, I may move, lag, etc etc. As you sat Oed, all these cones have huge radii...so is it really that much of a hassle to target one guy and hit the entire mob, WITHOUT having to worry about lag or toon facing?

 

 

There are two main hassles. The first is you are facing foward and the enemy either moves, teleports, or gets knocked back, causing your character to spin around rapidly and fire the cone in the wrong direction. Sometimes it's just annoying. With Gale, it so infuriating that I don't cast it. 

 

But more than anything it's just a convenience thing. Often the target I want to hit with single target mezz is different from the one at the center point. If the cone simply fired forward, you could target the intended victim in preparation and launch your cones without changing targets.

[Solarverse]

KB to KD in Gale works wonders. I get the pain of mobs getting knocked everywhere and your target getting moved right as you cast, knock back is a major pain for me when players use KB recklessly. However, changing these powers IMO is simply not needed, especially with Fearsome Stare since it has a WIDE cone, big enough to allow for some screw ups. If these powers were target location instead of target, you would still have the same issue when mobs get knocked back. I can't tell you how many time I drop a target location power and somebody knocks them all back out of it. If Fearsome Stare were changed to targeted AoE, then when the mobs leave that AoE the fear would also stop. I'm just not for that, since Fearsome Stare comes with one hell of a To Hit Debuff.

[srmalloy]

10 minutes ago, Solarverse said:

KB to KD in Gale works wonders. I get the pain of mobs getting knocked everywhere and your target getting moved right as you cast, knock back is a major pain for me when players use KB recklessly. However, changing these powers IMO is simply not needed, especially with Fearsome Stare since it has a WIDE cone, big enough to allow for some screw ups. If these powers were target location instead of target, you would still have the same issue when mobs get knocked back.

The problem is, it's not the knockback from Gale itself that's the issue; it's the knockback from your teammates' powers that's the problem. And you can't arbitrarily make all your teammates slot a KB->KD IO in every one of their attacks, just to make it convenient for you.

 

And no, we wouldn't have the same problem if the powers were target location or target facing -- you line up on your target, trigger Gale, and your intended target goes flying behind you, so you miss them -- but you don't miss his two buddies standing behind him. A well-angled Gale can blow back three or four mobs if you aim the cone right, but if it's targeted on an individual mob, and that mob is knocked away before the power goes off, it doesn't matter how carefully you lined things up to get the maximum number of targets in your affect area -- they go flying past you, you spin to keep targeting them, and any chance you had of hitting all the targets you lined up carefully is wasted.

[Trickshooter]

I would not be a fan of a change like this. I like these cones the way they are, and I'm not a fan of the cones that can activate without a target. My main gripe with them is that you have no idea if the targets you want to affect are within range before you activate one of them. I prefer being able to select a target in the back of a group so I know I'm affecting everything between them and me.