Elemental Detection: Some expansion ideas
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 3:22 pm
Elemental Detection is a neat trick and useful when in specific situations, but those situations don't come up very often, and usually only have to be done once. Like once I detect a bog wight channeling hydromancy and get an idea of its skill over hydromancy compared to mine, I don't really need to detect on a bog wight ever again, unless maybe I've forgotten whether it's actually channeling or not and want to know if I should cast severance on it.
Anyway I was thinking of ways to expand its use. One idea was that we could simply cast this instead of using Survey for tasks. It would be quicker and therefore less dangerous than a survey. Of course survey would still work for the tasks for people who don't have this spell, this would just be a small bonus for those who pick up Detection.
You could cast it without a target specified and it would detect any open elemental channelers in the area. So say a bog wight hides to try and snipe me from the shadows with its spells. I could cast Elemental Detection and, if the wight is currently channeling any elemancy, it would be revealed to me and wouldn't be able to get stealth bonuses against me.
Another idea is what if when you use Detection on someone, it gives a short debuff on them, like you continue to detect them for a short while. Then if they try to use an elemental spell against you, you would have increased chances to dodge it, since you detect that they're going to cast it. So if I detect on a bog wight, let's say for the next 30 seconds if it casts an elemental spell at me, I would get a 20% increase to my dodge chance because I detect that it's forming a spell pattern aimed at me and can prepare in advance to avoid the spell.
Another idea for the 30 second debuff above could be that it increases your chance to successfully use Elemental Severance on them, since you are detecting their channels in greater detail so you can more easily tap into them and disrupt them.
A third idea for the 30 second debuff is that if the person you're detecting tries stealth actions against you, you would get a bonus to seeing them, since you are somewhat aware of their presence based on the detection spell.
If the person stopped all channels at any point while the debuff was on them, the debuff would be cleared. You can't detect someone if they aren't channeling anymore.
Anyway I was thinking of ways to expand its use. One idea was that we could simply cast this instead of using Survey for tasks. It would be quicker and therefore less dangerous than a survey. Of course survey would still work for the tasks for people who don't have this spell, this would just be a small bonus for those who pick up Detection.
You could cast it without a target specified and it would detect any open elemental channelers in the area. So say a bog wight hides to try and snipe me from the shadows with its spells. I could cast Elemental Detection and, if the wight is currently channeling any elemancy, it would be revealed to me and wouldn't be able to get stealth bonuses against me.
Another idea is what if when you use Detection on someone, it gives a short debuff on them, like you continue to detect them for a short while. Then if they try to use an elemental spell against you, you would have increased chances to dodge it, since you detect that they're going to cast it. So if I detect on a bog wight, let's say for the next 30 seconds if it casts an elemental spell at me, I would get a 20% increase to my dodge chance because I detect that it's forming a spell pattern aimed at me and can prepare in advance to avoid the spell.
Another idea for the 30 second debuff above could be that it increases your chance to successfully use Elemental Severance on them, since you are detecting their channels in greater detail so you can more easily tap into them and disrupt them.
A third idea for the 30 second debuff is that if the person you're detecting tries stealth actions against you, you would get a bonus to seeing them, since you are somewhat aware of their presence based on the detection spell.
If the person stopped all channels at any point while the debuff was on them, the debuff would be cleared. You can't detect someone if they aren't channeling anymore.