Defend, Intoxicate, Martyrism & Protect: Availability, Opportunity Value & Targets

[Azthor]

Disclaimer: I have not, in any way or fashion, checked the veracity of the data below, it being taken directly from http://magicduel.invisionzone.com/topic/15492-combat-talk/. Should you find any factual mistakes, inform me of such within this thread and this post will be edited accordingly. New suggestions, where pertinent to the topic, will likewise be added.

 

I - It has been claimed that creature abilities such as Defend and Martyrism/Protect are unable to keep up with their Attack-based counterparts, given the vastly divergent amounts of Power and Attack that can be gained in any given period, and the lack of competitive boosting options. More so, they would lack the Power efficiency of Energy Burn, or the potentially beneficial VE scaling of Life Steal.

 

II - Those creature abilities remain contextually useful in producing a number of outcomes that might be desired by a player - as an example, Martyrism's allegedly negative side effect retains a number of circumstantial uses.  Otherwise, in those scenarios where the creatures' base stats remain meaningful, or tokens are in use, they would suffer primarily due to the lack of competitive creature boosts, all factors considered. 

 

III - Concerning Intoxicate, refer to: http://magicduel.invisionzone.com/topic/15891-how-is-intoxicator-supposed-to-work/ for the moment.

 

Index:

 

http://magicduel.invisionzone.com/topic/15716-aurasbonuses-creature-boost-skill-drain-vitality-drain-freeze-antifreeze-tokens-availability-order-opportunity-value/

http://magicduel.invisionzone.com/topic/15721-target-all-creature-diversity-creature-upgrade-value/

Defend, Intoxicate, Martyrism & Protect: Availability, Opportunity Value & Targets

Heal & Regenerate: Opportunity Value, Targets & Upper Limit

http://magicduel.invisionzone.com/topic/15734-rustgold-drachorns-reindrachs-wind-dragons-mutual-creature-boost/

http://magicduel.invisionzone.com/topic/15733-unit-limits-angiens-drachorns-archers/

http://magicduel.invisionzone.com/topic/15748-weaken-defense-lower-limit/

Honor & Negative Stats: Lower Limit

Honor & Balance: Intended Function & Current Application

http://magicduel.invisionzone.com/topic/15763-reducing-the-power-of-freezes/

 

Discussion status: new.

 

Note: as this thread has been created on request, some of what is written herein may be incompatible with reality. If any of the topics are explicitly incorrect or inaccurate, please inform me of such for the due  correction. This note will be later edited out.

Edited November 20, 2014 by Azthor

[Ary Endleg]

I - Indeed so, the way the defend boost scales, it is almost never beneficial to use it for purpose of boosting the defense stat of creature inside the fight, in addition the fact that it costs vitality it makes it really unappealing thing to use for such purposes. It would be quite nice if scaling for Martyr and Defend were reworked (as well as bugs related to them fixed; defend; martyr). I was personally thinking on some sort of multiplicative buff of defense boost for those abilities while not making it too complex while still leaving the vitality cost intact.

 

Initially I was thinking to make it somehow scale by adding defense into the formula but then numbers would be super high. Then I was thinking maybe put a creature level into formula as multiplier, but even on lvl5 it still seems way too low concerning the amounts of power. I'm having trouble of finding the middle ground for this.

 

II - True, those abilities are used for their "negative" outcomes rather than for "positive" ones (positive being the purpose of boosting the def, negative being the purpose of burning of vitality) mainly to give heat to others effortlessly and since those abilities usually come packed on creatures with regen stat it allows for dummy defenses as well as acquisition of sheath balances. As already said, there is nothing wrong with this, problem is that "negative" parts of these abilities have became the main reason for using them, hence overshadowing the real purpose.

 

III - Yes, as said in that topic is mentioned how intoxic works. So far everything seems okay regarding it and that it's meant to work that way, any new findings will be posted in that topic.

 

In short, intoxicate doesn't do anything useful inside the fight it is being used in. It's sole purpose is to intoxicate the player and the change only happens after fight IF intoxication succeeded, combat logs are in .... desperate condition. That's why there is confusion with things people read in logs combined with lack of documentation and the real outcomes (because they conflict each other).