Old Issue No. 10: Spirit Idol (Idol of Mal*) Issues

[WaringMcMarrin]

[Ughbash]

[Sharok]

[Catmandew]

[Ughbash]

[Dakota]

[Idracab]

[Jaraman]

I'd like to see the Idol be made untargettable by F8/cycle NPC, last a few more minutes (same as Sloth?), and have the old one automatically destroyed when you cast a new Idol in a new location.

I envision the Idol as a pre-castable, proactive, and portable AE debuffing strategy. The Idol can be dropped before engagement, to be used to AE debuff in order to make crowd control such as tash, AE tash, AE stun, AE slow, roots, mezz, and AE mezzes more effective. Alternatively, it can be cast after engagement to be used as an AE debuff, with minimal aggro concerns for the shaman.

I also use the aura as a pulling tool sometimes. By placing the Idol halfway between the mobs and the party, I can VP one mob then proceed to confidently root-park other mobs on incoming. Because the Idol is a separate entity, it is possible to debuff mobs that are not close to the shaman.

During certain raid events, having an AE debuff helps the shaman as well as others, mostly chanters, who are not in group to make the most of the Idol's debuff. This would not happen if it were an aura instead.

If desired, as an external object, the Idol can act as a sort of magnet to draw first aggro to the shaman. Useful for farming and debuffing greenies. If not desired, the Idol can then be cast afterwards to take advantage of the debuff effect.

Making the Idol into an aura would severely limit the Idol's varied usefulness. The Idol -- as is -- can give the same effects as if it were an aura, but if it were an aura instead, it would lack much of the versatility that the Idol currently has. Further, if the Idol were made into an aura, this would effectively render all mobs encountered with a negative resist check. From the Dev's eyes, this is likely an undesired effect. In order to counter this "permanent" debuff effect, mob resistances would need to be raised to compensate in order to achieve the level of resist that the Devs are aiming for. Raising all mob resistances in this way would handicap every other class and shamans who do not have the Idol, so logically is not a viable solution.

Besides, having an extra visible "thing", a totem, dropped by a shaman is a unique and distinguishing quality I'd like to see kept for our class. It's similar to the WoW shaman's totem, but EQ shaman are much more powerful and fun to play. And EQ shaman came first anyways. Keep the Idol and its cool factor, just make it more user-friendly.

[Samanna]

[Brohg]

[Aruman]

[Giac]

[Brohg]

3 ticks , actually, but yeah. The problem is, as I understand it, the one guy who actually knew how Auras (and traps, since traps are just stationary auras) worked is... well, he's gone.

[Giac]

[WaringMcMarrin]

[Samanna]

[WaringMcMarrin]

[Samanna]

Yeah, pretty much. Only, instead of a flat % resist rate reducer (although that would be okay, too), it would give an aura to all in the group which would give each spell cast an (additional) -30 or -40 (depending on which aura) resist... just as if the idol was out, only the aura would affect players instead of NPCs.

[WaringMcMarrin]

That sounds like a good idea.

[WaringMcMarrin]

[Brohg]

Can't happen, the guy who can work auras is gone.

[Samanna]

[gaesekki]

[Ungkor]

[Kiru]

I don't want that aggro magnet to follow me around. I think it should either be fixed and made to continue to work as a trap or be replaced with an aura that has a different function.

[Idracab]

[Kianor]

I've never really used Idol of Malos - after all I heard about it, it didn't seem worth the risk.

[Aruman]

[Ungkor]

[Tordail]

[Jooruus]

[Kiff]

[Samanna]

[Giac]

[Kiff]

[Galelor]

[Kiru]

[Jaraman]

[Gordaon]

[Zinovy]