Afflictions and their sway

SozaSoza Member Posts: 140 ✭✭✭
I'll start out by saying I decided to place this here in the combat section as it really mostly only affects PVP combat, with some small effect on PVE combat.

Let me start with my opinion: I believe there is a harsh discrepancy between afflictions in different subsystems, namely: the MUSUCLAR subsystem has afflictions that are quite better than every other subsystem's afflictions. I also want it to be known that, given that opinion, I don't want MUSCULAR afflictions nerfed. I'd just like other subsys aff trees to be on par.

Lets first break down each subsystem's afflictions:

As MUSCULAR is the subsystem I'll be comparing the others to, we will start with MUSCULAR.

Name                      Subsys                Description
Atrophy                       Muscular     +25% balance costs
Broken Ribs                 Muscular     +10% internal damage
Crippled Movement     Muscular     slowed down movement
Damaged Left Arm      Muscular     +5% balance, -5% damage
Damaged Left Leg       Muscular     +5% balance, -5% damage
Damaged Right Arm    Muscular     +5% balance, -5% damage
Damaged Right Leg     Muscular     +5% balance, -5% damage
Haemophilia                Muscular     inability to cure bleeding
Mangled Head             Muscular     block some abilities
Mangled Left Arm        Muscular     block some abilities
Mangled Left Leg         Muscular     block some abilities
Mangled Right Arm      Muscular     block some abilities
Mangled Right Leg       Muscular     block some abilities
Mangled Torso             Muscular     block some abilities
Myopathy                     Muscular     randomly unwield items
Scorched                      Muscular     damage over time
Spasms                        Muscular     muscular damage over time
Structure Collapse (L1) Muscular     muscular damage L1
Structure Collapse (L2) Muscular     muscular damage L2
Structure Collapse (L3) Muscular     muscular damage L3
Structure Failure           Muscular     muscular damage L4
Tender                         Muscular     +10%/stack muscular damage
Weak Knees                  Muscular     damage to legs prones
Weakened Arms            Muscular     -10% melee damage
Weakened Legs             Muscular     -10% melee damage

Here we can see quite a bit of interaction between afflictions I can point out some things very quickly:
1.) Even without Mangled limbs, as they are currently disabled from being way too strong in the beginning, many muscular afflictions lower damage output while increasing time to regain balance, or increase the amount of damage that you take.
2.) All of these afflictions seem to pair very well with each other.
3.) The subsystem effect at 75% (Crippled movement) is quite honestly the most make-or-break affliction in the game, easily turning fights and making it impossible to run against a competent opponent, or impossible to chase them if they try to create space.
4.) The subsystem effect (Myopathy) Is even more make or break against most classes, and also tends to not have an effect if the enemy that you are fighting doesnt WIELD weapons, but actually wears them, making it useless against Nanoseer.
5.) The sheer amount of balance hinder inside of just four broken limbs is enough to stop affliction stacking, and damage strats by itself against any single-aff class.
6.) In the current damage meta, if you do not focus on giving muscular afflictions, damage is a real issue. It forces your priorities to be HEALTH, AFFLICTION, SUBSYSTEM or else you will die. None of the damaged limbs actually have a duration, so they are affs that just stick forever while your wetwiring heals your HEALTH.

Lets move on to our first subsystem that we are comparing and by far in my opinion the worst subsystem in game: SENSORY

Blind                     Sensory      can't LOOK, can't see people entering/leaving
Blurry Vision         Sensory      -10% inflicted damage
Comm Blackouts   Sensory      chance to miss comm
Dazed                   Sensory      +10% sensory damage
Deaf                      Sensory      can't hear says
Delirium (L1)         Sensory      sensory damage L1
Delirium (L2)         Sensory      sensory damage L2
Delirium (L3)         Sensory      sensory damage L3
Demented Vision   Sensory      wrong vision
Dizzy                     Sensory      +10%/stack sensory damage
Double Vision        Sensory      can mistarget
Echoing                 Sensory      Sensory damage causes echoes
Nearsighted           Sensory      can't target enemies outside current room
Painspike               Sensory      sensory damage over time
Sensory Shutdown Sensory      sensory damage L4

1.)Right off the bat we can easily see that sensory has way less available afflictions in general (5[6 if you include Dazed] compared to Musculars 10 [11 if you count tender])
2.)Disregarding the sheer lack of afflictions, only one of the sensory afflictions actually affects combat, and its -10% damage which could be comparable to a damaged limb except it has a duration.
3.)Echoing is pretty decent, but with a hard requirement of them having the other 3 applicable afflictions its near impossible to land, especially when you can't stack afflictions while having damaged limbs.
4.)Lack of afflictions means lack of things to talk about. Sensory is a joke.

Ill push WETWIRING out of the way really quick as im hitting character limit for first post.

Glitching              Wetwiring    10% wetwiring failure
Hard Lock            Wetwiring    wetwiring damage L4
Malfunction (L1)   Wetwiring    wetwiring damage L1
Malfunction (L2)   Wetwiring    wetwiring damage L2
Malfunction (L3)   Wetwiring    wetwiring damage L3
Meltdown             Wetwiring    -15% mending amount
Overload              Wetwiring    +25% wetwiring time
Shortcircuit          Wetwiring    wetwiring damage over time
Vulnerable           Wetwiring    +10%/stack wetwiring damage

1.) None of these afflictions are applicable except for shortcircuit and vulnerable (as intended, by scoundrels) and that is a good thing. The subsys damage level afflictions are actually pretty good, but often redundant.
2.) The ones that tend to matter only really matter to the singular class that takes advantage of Wetwiring subsys, which is Nanoseer, and the enemy is dead from BREAKDOWN at 50% so they aren't able to be seen.
3.)I can state that so far from my tests WIREBLOCK seems to be very decent albeit with harsh requirements to get to I am not sure if it would just be faster to bash mind and mindmelt.

Continued in next post...

Comments

  • SozaSoza Member Posts: 140 ✭✭✭
    We've got two affliction trees left to hit.

    Lets start with INTERNAL here and save my favorite for last:

    Bleeding              Internal     damage over time
    Choking              Internal     internal damage over time
    Coughing Blood  Internal     randomly take longer to regain balance
    Frozen                Internal     vulnerable to fire
    Haemotoxin        Internal     healing effectiveness reduced by 50%
    Hypertension      Internal     more bleeding
    Internal Bleeding Internal     + health damage
    Rejection             Internal     10% chance to fail healing
    Sepsis (L1)           Internal     internal damage L1
    Sepsis (L2)           Internal     internal damage L2
    Sepsis (L3)           Internal     internal damage L3
    Sepsis Overload   Internal     internal damage L4
    Sickness              Internal     maximum health -10%
    Slowness             Internal     15% slower balance
    Staggering          Internal     attacks to arms send you spinning
    Trauma               Internal     +10%/stack internal damage
    Winded               Internal     damage when moving

    I don't actually have much experience with internal things, other than FREEZE which for some reason does internal, while nano limbdrain does muscular. I'm sure they should both be hitting the same subsystem to at least progress a insta. Anyhow:

    1.)Internal has 10 afflictions, one of which is unapplyable except by bosses(Haemotoxin), one only applyable by nano(Freeze). That aside this, tree is actually the one that I think competes the best with MUSCULAR.
    2.) Slowness 15% balance very good, expecially when paired with muscular afflictions which also slow balance.
    3.) Staggering is also very good, especially when combined with slowness, knocking balance by .57s per hit, which can help you get ahead.
    4.) Bleeding is generally good, pressing damage.
    5.) Sickness is pretty good, but it actually competes with bleeding, reducing its effectiveness.
    6.) All of these do a very average amount of damage, too, which means that someone focusing internal will outright lose to someone focusing muscular, due to not being able to compete with their hindering.


    And finally last but not least, MIND

    Acrophobia           Mind         unable to fly or climb
    Brain Swelling       Mind         halved resource gain
    Catatonia (L1)       Mind         mind damage L1
    Catatonia (L2)       Mind         mind damage L2
    Catatonia (L3)       Mind         mind damage L3
    Confusion             Mind         chance to hit a different target than intended
    Disorientation       Mind         chance to move in a different direction than intended
    Distraction            Mind         periodic balance loss
    Encroachment       Mind         unable to take cover
    Forgetfulness        Mind         - actions
    Hallucinations       Mind         Seeing periodic hallucinations
    Seizures                Mind         mind damage over time
    Sluggish                Mind         25% slower balance
    Stupefied               Mind         +10%/stack mind damage
    Stupidity                Mind         - actions
    Vegetative              Mind         mind damage L4
    Vertigo                   Mind         chance to re-prone when standing up

    My opinion on mind afflictions is very simple, they are mostly a bunch of "do something slightly noticeable without actually doing anything" afflictions, unless said affliction is heavily gated.

    1.) Acrophobia: Climbing doesn't exist and wouldn't affect the classes that use it. Stopping flying has the most effect in group combat. Otherwise, it's kind of useless.
    2.) Confusion: Just don't fight on top of mobs and it literally doesn't do anything.
    3.) Disorientation: Generally you don't really care which direction you run away so long as you run away. Still, it does hinder someone's ability to get far after the first move, and has some point.
    4.) Distraction: Our first good, but gated, affliction. Gives periodic balance loss comparable to staggering hits, but requires 3 mental afflictions already present to even apply, which as stated is harsh to get to when someone is slowing your balance time. Can also be mindswapped away and to.
    5.) Encroachment: Probably the most effect out of all mind afflictions, but is a dead affliction against any melee class as they dont care if they can't take cover most of the time.
    6.) Hallucinations: Actually a very good affliction that furies get. Fury also is able to give muscular afflictions, while putting out a high amount of damage, which means that this affliction is extremely effective for them.
    7.) Sluggish: Another good, but gated, affliction. Hard requirement of Distraction. It gives 25% slower balance which is very good, but a duration of only 10 seconds, and can be mindswapped away, which means it doesn't even last that long. (3 seconds is three balances).
    8.)Vertigo: Great if nano had any way to prone people. It's very strong on Scoundrel, who has a prone-on-demand ability.

    As always, feedback appreciated.

  • SozaSoza Member Posts: 140 ✭✭✭
    If anyone needs proof of the concept that muscular is the strongest affliction, here is a log of me using muscular as a Nanoseer to beat Necerursh a fury.
    https://ada-young.com/pastebin/ETBwIy0G

    I do want to reiterate though, I do not want muscular nerfed. Id just like other subsystem afflictions brought up to par.

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