Rabbit & More Leveling Feedback (some other things too)

[kazeandi]

Most of the Fae drops are Hardcore-only. Can't use them as a normal mode player.

[Tagamogi]

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.

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]

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. And in combat, I enjoy being a mighty kicking bunny, too, even if most of my actual combat power comes from Unarmed.