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View Full Version : Rabbit & More Leveling Feedback (some other things too)



Oxlazr
06-13-2017, 02:34 AM
http://i.imgur.com/7XPGr1R.png

Above image for reference. This is my no-death/no-group/no-trade character, leveling to 40 took a few evenings. For context, I was planning on posting a feedback thread once I hit 50 or if I died, but as it stands I feel like I can comfortably hit 50 with minimal risk of dying, and I'm not likely to pick up any more relevant feedback during that time, so I'm going to do that.. some other time, and just go ahead and post this feedback now.

Rabbit Specific

Let's start with a rundown of the abilities:

Rabbit Scratch
There isn't much to say about this. The modifiers it has are.. underwhelming, but so is the ability itself. It's about as standard as any spammable combat refresher ability goes. I don't think it needs any changes, but it's not exactly noteworthy.

Thump
This deals.. decent damage, though it's certainly subpar damage. What makes this skill interesting is its effects - however, none of the effects are particularly useful. The built in movement slow doesn't seem to do a lot - monsters that flee still cause the same amount of issues they normally would, and most any other enemy won't be moving around enough for a 25% movement reduction to be noticeable.

That said, I'd imagine it's fantastically useful for PvP, but I don't think bunnies will ever see their way into the competitive PvP environment that PG is (not) cultivating.

The modifiers I've seen/used for it are equally underwhelming. Knockback is mildly useful in niche situations, but when you've clearly won a fight it's a hindrance and a modifier I'd rather avoid. Taking bonus damage from Cold Attacks is very specific in purpose, and (at level 40) a 6% increase is somewhat trivial - especially if you've got to go into melee range to enable that effect.

The crushing damage is relevant, and I'll come back to this, but Bun-Fu Kick is definitely the better option.

Overall, Thump doesn't have enough impact for a Core Attack.

Bun-Fu Kick

This skill, on the other hand, is fantastic. It deals a large amount of initial damage, and the delayed damage is tremendous. It scales with a lot of modifiers - and most of them seem to float around the 36% mark, with other modifiers increasing the flat delayed damage by a fixed amount. Coupled with the base damage increases of a helmet/necklace, this skill scales unreasonably well.

Combine this skill with a modifier available to Hare Dash (to be discussed), and we've a fantastic little combo that does both reliable and large amounts of damage.

I wouldn't say this skill is overpowered, rather it's in exactly the right spot.

Rabbit's Foot

My current rank provides 20% melee evasion, that's fair-decent for a group buff, honestly. Rabbit cooldowns work well; you can easily weave this move into your regular rotation for a useful buff. Initial ranks seemed underwhelming, but I definitely envision this move to be a good one.

It's probably worth mentioning that while it technically affects everyone in the group, it's mostly the tank that'll benefit from the effect, so I don't feel it's drastically overpowered in any capacity.

That said, it's modifiers basically suck. Burst Evasion is nice, but it's unreliable at the rates you're provided. 2-4% bonus experience gain is trivial, and, at max level, completely irrelevant.

For example, you could double the effects of the modifiers for this ability, and you'd still be iffy about using them.

I personally think the bonus experience factor is nice, but may be better suited to a passive aura for rabbits rather than an activated effect; it's a wasted modifier slot and will nearly always be cycled off as soon as possible.

Hare Dash

Useful utility spell that helps you both engage and disengage - the modifier that increases your next crushing attack by X is fantastic, as you can charge into battle and perform a Bun-Fu Kick for pretty decent damage; it's a lot of fun, but certainly not overpowered.

Play Dead

Game breaking bug aside (which I reported, and replaced as soon as I could), it's a pretty good move to have, especially given the circumstances under which I was playing.

One suggestion though - when you stand back up and the enemies are passive, you can attack one and any other enemies affected will continue to ignore you; it may be better that they see their friend being attacked by the no-longer-dead bunny and help them.

I won't discuss the modifiers as right now they're broken - with one exception: The bonus Nice Attack damage on Play Dead seems to defy the ability's purpose.

Carrot Power

I don't have a lot to say about this. I was using psychology, and I did not need the healing this spell provided. Having an ability rely on a consumable isn't great, though I do appreciate you can trade other vegetables for snacks which seem to count as a carrot.

This ability just wasn't relevant to my build, so I can't comment on its usefulness. I'd compare it to "Chew Cud", though, and in this case I feel like the cost to use it may be too high to ever justify a place on your action bars.

Long Ear

Again, I didn't get much use from this. I do like the intention, though; a bunny should be able to slide into places unknown, but the design is obviously to avoid combat, but it occupies a slot on your combat bar - for this reason, any modifiers it gets are always going to be irrelevant on your primary gear set. The most common mod, as I recall, was projectile evasion - again, this is too niche a modifier for too niche a skill to ever be more than reroll fodder.

Additionally, the 10 second duration and 30 second cooldown really limits how practical this ability can be.

Snow Hare Mode

Didn't really get a chance to use this (wasn't going to risk Kur until I'm ready - and this involves finding thousands of pieces of Raw Meat for Spot to unlock basic camp fires) - anyway, it's pretty clear what the purpose of it is.

I've two minor problems with the ability's design:

1) Low level ranks of this ability don't need to exist. You're not likely to encounter the cold mechanic until level 30, but there seems to be versions of this ability available well before that.

2) It lasts 5 minutes with a 1 second cooldown - this seems frivolous. It should at least last 30 minutes, with that 1 second cooldown, but ideally, this effect should just be a passive effect for rabbits given... well, the ability is basically an activated passive effect that you click once every 5 minutes in the cold; it just seems like ability clutter.

Conclusions: Overall, rabbit is better than others seem to give it credit for. It's pretty good, one of the easier classes I've leveled, with lots of utility which makes avoiding death surprisingly easy. I think Thump could be redesigned, and Rabbit's Foot tweaked; all other abilities seem to be in a good spot (though overall, there's a lack of ability options - given that it was just created recently this is understandable, though).

Strangely enough, though, I think it may be too powerful, considering you're playing a rabbit, one wouldn't expect to be such an efficient killing machine - even the skill's description seems to indicate that. As it stands, it's much more viable than I believe it should be (though this is a personal remark).

Other Notes regarding Rabbits:

1) Cinnamon is a bit reluctant to trade; even at the lowest tier of garden vegetables, cabbage, (he?) won't trade even at close friends (I think I was at that rank, anyway). Given Carrots require 50 gardening, I don't think there's any viable way for a new player to ever utilise Carrot Power.

2) Having a bunny-specific modifier that increases movement speed out of combat again feels like a dead roll; it would be nice if this were another passive bunny effect from leveling; having a set of gear purely for movement bonuses isn't particularly fun.

Some Scattered Suggestions

1) I apologise in advance if this is wrong, as I recently learned you can get first-aid from Norbert, but I wonder if there's any animal-friendly way to level up endurance - currently, you need both lumber (or an excessive amount of a specific gem, obsidian), to gain sufficient favour with a an NPC who won't talk to animals to trade a resource you can't get as an animal to unlock endurance requirements. Please tell me if there's an alternative, because as it stands this just plain sucks for anyone who wants to play an animal full-time.

--> For reference, Ravana gear requires 60 endurance.

2) Totemic Infusion is meant to be newbie friendly, as I understand, but I think both the precursors to unlock it and level it are way too.. restrictive.

Leveling Specific Feedback:

So just a rough outline of where I went to level:

1-15 - Outside the crypt.
10-20 - South Serbule Kill-Quests.
20-30 - Etibule Kill-Quests.
30-33 - Goblin Dungeon Entrance
33-40 - Wintercourt Fae, Sunvale Ruins.
40-50 - Will probably just farm WC Fae.

I think there's a serious content gap in the level 20 - 30 range, also, levels 10-15 are too fast while levels 15-20 seem to be too slow. 20-30 is okay, but there's currently no alternatives to the Goblin Dungeon in terms of level 30 gear (that I could find) - playing solo, you're basically confined to the entrance of the goblin dungeon trying to scrape together what kills you can to find level 30 equipment to use.

I'm hoping South Serbule's update will address this, but I figured I'd mention it.

Once you can kill Winter Fae, their equipment is just ridiculous. You can use the white items right away, which have a tremendous amount of armour - coupled with modifiers at level 40, I don't see any problem for hardcore players leveling 40-50, hell, even 60, with this equipment (again, see screenshot - look at all that armour).

At the very least I think the white wintercourt armour should at least have an endurance requirement of 40 on it.

However, speaking of level requirements, it might be useful for items to instead roll a level range rather than having a set requirement (i.e. level 30 equipment can be used from levels 25-30 instead); right now, you're usually hoarding equipment to use as soon as you hit a particular level, and when you do, there's a huge powerspike in your character, rather than a progressive one.

If you can just farm Wintercourt gear, why would you bother with things like Yeti Cave and Kur Tower? The hardcore tag in this instance is a very small price to pay for such a tremendous amount of easily obtained "armour" (as in, it has a lot of armour).

As a side note, South Serb no longer lags (FPS) for me.

More Scattered and Less Relevant Ideas & Suggestions:

Rabbit Specific:
- Metabolism should be lower for smaller animals.
- Bunnies should have access to a jumping skill, that levels when you jump.
- Rabbits should have a larger emphasis on foraging.
- Per above, rabbits should move quicker out of combat passively, and grant bonus experience to nearby players passively.
- Reduced aggro radius could also be a passive effect.
- Bunnies could stand to be a lot weaker in combat and more of a challenge/joke build; they're far too good right now!
- Animal-specific diets should have more emphasis.
--> Hell, bunnies should forgo cash all together and trade entirely in carrots.
- Bunnies could be more restricted in what they can do given their smaller size.
- Bunnies could fit into the entrance to the Mushroom cave.
- Bunnies should not cause enemies to "call for help" (if they can't defeat a rabbit, there's no hope for them).
- Play Dead should reduce rage (killing rabbits is very soothing, after all).
- Play Dead should rarely give dying experience.
- Rabbits should not be able to use psychology (especially Cause Terror).

Animal Specific
- Move Animal Town out of Sunvale; it's not a good place for players to gather and collaborate, and the camp isn't accessible to lower level players very easily, but contains a lot of fun and flavour for animal players. I think it'd be better placed in South Serbule.
- Per above, animal diets would make playing an animal a little less mundane, especially if they don't need to rely on gourmand or humanoid foods for fighting.
- Animals could use a bit more variety in terms of "life-skills" and features to break up the leveling process. I'd probably say one unique to each animal form, then a couple that all animals can do. At the moment, it's just murder & repeat, plus you can't craft or interact with half the game because reasons.
- Per the above, I'm still hoping to see animals detached from the economy and instead deal in things like grass and carrots, especially when it comes to leveling new skills; having to make friends with various humanoids to make enough cash to train abilities is kinda.. eh, that's the sort of thing I'd personally like to get away from on my animal-characters.
- I'm personally against allowing access to community storage for animal players, as it's basically another incentive to constantly decurse to unlock additional storage slots.

Other Suggestions
- South Serbule could use a Marna-like shop.
- Inherent Vulnerability should be utilised; I figure it will be when it comes to Fae and such, but I'd still like if various animal forms were innately weaker/stronger against certain damage types, much like the enemies you face.
- For the future, having a "lootable gravestone" for permanent death characters would be pretty, um, soul-crushingly fun?
- Sunvale's brightness during the day could really be toned back; it's lovely at night, but at day, it's almost blinding.
- An option to automatically use ctrl+4 if you hit 4 when your normal 4 is on cooldown, for example, would be a handy little feature.

Bugs

- There's that major bug I won't mention here.
- There's also the minor bug: Long-Ear's icon is incorrect.
- Finally, if you level up Compassion to level 20, but haven't died, you won't unlock Dying as a skill; not sure if this is intentional.


tl;dr - rabbits r ok

Crissa
06-13-2017, 05:02 PM
- I'm personally against allowing access to community storage for animal players, as it's basically another incentive to constantly decurse to unlock additional storage slots.It seems to me that what we need is transferable slots or something. Not allowing animal players storage is the bigger problem; without storage I constantly need to decurse to sell/store.

But that's a huge aside to bunnies. They sound fun!

Silvonis
06-13-2017, 06:06 PM
Strangely enough, though, I think it may be too powerful, considering you're playing a rabbit, one wouldn't expect to be such an efficient killing machine - even the skill's description seems to indicate that. As it stands, it's much more viable than I believe it should be (though this is a personal remark).


Ahemm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCI18qAoKq4

Tagamogi
06-14-2017, 09:42 AM
Silvonis - Thank you! I've been wanting to post that but didn't get around to finding a clip.



- Rabbits should not be able to use psychology (especially Cause Terror).



But look at the bones! ;)

Hood
06-14-2017, 12:38 PM
I agree that animal town would fit more nicely in south serbule.

rabbit form is usable in the game but i doubt its intended to be fully-formed at this point. right now the ability set seems like a mish-mash of different animal forms' abilities. i think solidifying the form's role in the game could help with this. support/dps? needs a tiny bit more support functionality in mods.

sidenote: why doesn't citan have a creepy guy-in-a-shadowy-cloak avatar picture?

Tagamogi
06-14-2017, 01:20 PM
I think Animal Town in its current location makes more sense - the animals were looking for a peaceful secluded spot safe from humans and other intolerant bipeds after all. You could maybe find a similarly isolated spot in South Serbule, but I rather like the current story of the druids helping them set up their town.

I'd agree that Animal Town is in an annoying location as far as actual gameplay logistics are concerned. Rather than moving Animal Town, I'd prefer other changes though: Maybe add a lower level mob area next to it for low-level animals to hang out, or give animals some special abilities to easily travel to Animal Town. Someone suggested in another thread adding Animal Town as a travel option when dying, which would also be really helpful for non-hardcore players at least.



sidenote: why doesn't citan have a creepy guy-in-a-shadowy-cloak avatar picture?
Maybe he tried adding a hood to cover the cheese, and it looked insufficiently sinister?

Hood
06-14-2017, 01:53 PM
One more idea: what about a crafting animal form? all abilities useful for crafting in some way

Oxlazr
06-14-2017, 04:14 PM
I think Animal Town in its current location makes more sense - the animals were looking for a peaceful secluded spot safe from humans and other intolerant bipeds after all. You could maybe find a similarly isolated spot in South Serbule, but I rather like the current story of the druids helping them set up their town.

I figure, even if a few more animal NPCs were jotted about for lower level players to interact with, you're still going to be spending a lot of time going to Sunvale; Sunvale is a pretty niche zone as-is, and is essentially a "dead-end" as far as gameplay goes. Plus the environment itself doesn't really lend itself to "animal town" thematically beyond the connections to the druids that dwell there. South Serbule, by comparison, seems both peaceful & out of the way with a more temperate feeling.

From a logistical standpoint, the location is no better than Sunvale, but the zone's overall atmosphere feels much more suited (especially given the creatures that dwell in each zone - hell, given the way you get to Sunvale, how did the animals get there in the first place? The boatsman is pretty surprised to see PCs talk to him, even).

Probably not an entirely relevant discussion.

Anyways, the reason I mentioned psychology is because Rabbit + Psychology synergises too well. With Play Dead & Psychology's crowd control options, you can pretty much continuously lock enemies out of battle. It's not a huge issue right now, but it will be down the road.


One more idea: what about a crafting animal form? all abilities useful for crafting in some way

I think animals in general could use a bit more to do outside of combat, but I don't like the idea of having to go a specific form to gather lumber etc. as it's just another method of avoiding the downsides of playing an animal.

I still think having some progressive buff to incentivise players to not decurse whenever they need to do something would go a long way - I don't think locking players out of animal town for 3 hours really cuts it as particularly immersive or persuasive.

Hood
06-14-2017, 11:46 PM
I meant more like a FFXIV style of crafting gameplay thats available only in an animal form. the crafting skill itself would be part of the animal form, and youd use the abilities, which cost power, to craft a good item.

Niph
06-18-2017, 02:31 AM
I have skilled Rabbit up to 70, with the goal to test the skill against the current highest level content. In summary, I would say that it seems quite underwhelming to me.


Usually I play Ice Magic / Psychology in a tanky build: stand and fight mobs face to face. I knew it's not an option with Rabbit, but also that it's possible to play Ice/Rabbit using a Familiar Controller. Since Ice Magic has ranged damage (Ice Spear, Ice Lightning), I figured maybe I could slow down mobs, run fast, and with projectile evasion never get hit. This plan IMO fails because Ice Magic and Rabbit combined simply don't do enough damage to kill before I run out of power kiting, and out of run speed options, or healing.


My other concern was about grouping, but with appropriate mods a Rabbit can help a group, and possibly survive a wipe with Play Dead, always appreciated. However, when I compare a simulated build with my current one, Psychology seems superior in almost every possible situations. I kill faster, heal more, and this is what people want 90% of the time.


To be fair, Rabbit has less mods per slot than other skills, so I assume it will be upgraded eventually. My suggestions in that case:
. Give some Rage control options, to Bun-Fu Blitz for instance. Perhaps "damage for the next rage attack is reduced by X%"
. Restore power over time to make kiting sustainable
. Increase the range and reduce cooldown for Play Dead.

kazeandi
07-03-2017, 08:17 AM
Most of the Fae drops are Hardcore-only. Can't use them as a normal mode player.

Tagamogi
07-27-2017, 03:43 PM
I still have only limited feedback on the rabbit skill but since I level at the speed of molasses, I might as well post my current thoughts. I leveled rabbit to 30 so far on an existing character paired with a 10-15 level higher unarmed skill.

Mostly, I'd sum up my opinion as "Oxlazr is right.":) A few things that stood out for me:

I like Thump, just because it's a kick and I can use it in my unarmed combos.

Long Ear should be a sidebar ability in my opinion, similar to the druid ability. I was really excited at the concept of Long Ear initially, but so far haven't even bothered putting it on my bar.

Snow Hare mode seems like it has far too many ranks. I think it would be just fine to only have 3 ranks of snow hare total, at levels 30, 50 and 70... I didn't even make it out to Sun Vale until I was almost level 30, and training in 3 ranks of snow hare all at once seemed pretty pointless. I did use Snow Hare at level 30 to run through Kur and Gazluk to learn mushroom farming. It seemed ok if not nearly as cozy as my regular winter gear. I'm tentatively fine with the 5-minute duration of snow hare mode.I didn't get to use it yet beyond my mushroom farming run, but a 5 minute refresh for a situationally useful ability doesn't sound too onerous.

Carrot Power seems like it would be a very difficult skill to use for a new player. I had a stash of carrots, but I always felt hesitant about using it since I don't really like gardening that much and don't want to spend time growing more carrots. It might be nice if the lower ranks of carrot power used a lower-level garden vegetable, although that rather ruins its name... "Potato Power" would be alliterative at least? ;)

I find Play Dead kind of confusing. I'd expect that if I use play dead and then move out of a mob's regular aggro range, the mob wouldn't attack me after the play dead time is over. Instead, it starts chasing me, even if I'm a very long way away at that time thanks to hare dash. I'm fine with the game mechanics as they are, it's just that I keep expecting Play Dead to act differently than it does. Probably the problem here is just that I'm a slow learner. :p

Rabbit's Foot is probably my favorite ability. I like buffing in general and since I spent a fair amount of my recent rabbit time grouping with a friend, it felt nice to have at least one group-helpful ability on my skill bar. The delayed heal mod for rabbit's foot looks nice as well, although I haven't gotten a chance to do much with it yet.

I'd like to have at least one more rabbit combat ability than there currently is, just for variety. Not counting Long Ear, there are only 7 rabbit combat abilities, so there isn't a lot of choosing involved when setting up a combat bar.

Silly cosmetic stuff:
I really liked the old name of "bun-fu kick" since it made it crystal clear to even martial arts-impaired people like me what bun-fu is. Of course, it doesn't make a lot of sense to call an ability that isn't a kick a kick, but how about renaming Thump to Bun-Fu Kick (making clear that it is a kick, incidentally), and Bun-Fu Blitz to Thump? Admittedly, the current thump is less impressive than bun-fu blitz, so it may not quite deserve the bun-fu title.

Play dead sounds more like a possum ability than a rabbit ability. It also seems that if a bunny played dead when fighing a wolf, the wolf would just go ahead and eat the bunny... I'm not really succeeding at coming up with a better name though. Freeze - blend into your surroundings, causing your enemies to temporarily lose track of you? Nose twitch/dandelion nibble - look so adorable that your enemies can't bear to attack you? Meh... I want to somehow tie this ability to my real life backyard bunnies who always look so cute that I can't bring myself to care which prized garden vegetation they are currently in the process of eating. Maybe that's more of a mez or rage reduction effect than a mere temporary de-aggro though. (Yes, this paragraph definitely deserves the "silly stuff" label.)

Also, shouldn't rabbits be able to fit through the entrance to the Myconian cave? ;) I spent a lot of time hunting for a mushroom to enter the cave, and I felt very sad about not being able to squeeze through the main entrance. Incidentally, I wonder if there are enough mushrooms for entering the cave? I never had a problem before (months ago) but they seemed to be in really short supply this Tuesday afternoon at least, maybe from people putting up barrels and mushroom boxes? I want to say there were only 4 people in the cave at the same time, though...

Tagamogi
08-21-2017, 02:25 PM
Ok, I just have to say it: How about werebunnies? Just like werewolves, only fluffier and more vegetarian... And maybe they'd be forcibly turned into rabbits during the new moon rather than the full moon since otherwise they might all be rapidly eaten by the werewolves.

This suggestion is based purely on my selfish desire to shift in and out of rabbit form at will. I really like being a bunny, it's fun and I love the bunny dances but ... I love being able to collect wood more. Much more. :( So, once I use up my second to last unbunny potion, I probably won't be going back to being a rabbit for a long time, although I'm sorry to miss out on the new bun-fu strike.

On the further feedback side, my rabbit skill is up to 48 or 49 now, while my Unarmed co-skill is 54. Rabbit at this point is really losing its combat luster for me, in particular in comparison to Unarmed. Unarmed has been getting new abilities, exciting mods, and some huge epic hits, while rabbit just feels like more of the same as I level. Well, hey, it is a new skill.

I personally would love to be able to play the rabbit like a group mascot and buff other players, so I'm continuing to love rabbit's foot and its assorted mods.

I haven't really used the mods for long ear, hare dash or play dead; I think that's mostly an attitude problem on my part since I like to save hare dash and play dead for an emergency, and don't like long ear. I should learn to use these abilities more. I can't really think of any circumstances where I'd really want a mod for 18% projectile evasion but the other mods for these abilities look more promising.

Carrot power is continuing to annoy me. I used probably around 40 carrots total so far and while they may have saved my life once or twice, I'm still bemoaning the loss of carrots. I just don't really care for gardening that much, and it seems a bit silly to have a slot on my main combat bar for an ability that I'd really rather not use.

Combat aside, I'm still enjoying just being being a bunny. :D And in combat, I enjoy being a mighty kicking bunny, too, even if most of my actual combat power comes from Unarmed.