[The Alpha Bat]

I really don't think kiting should be a viable response to anything but that's a larger issue than what we're talking about here.

The fact of the matter is, invocations are a little gimped right now. Considering that most non-evoker invocations are either map-wide or self-targeting, I think it's safe to say we're talking about evoker here.

A year or two ago everyone came to a very funny realization: you can stand still and spend nine momentum for a chance at a singular strong attack or you can spend nine momentum to cast the same non-invocation spell three times more safely and now, often, for more damage.

"Chance" meaning that you are not guaranteed to land your attack nor is said attack guaranteed to deal a lot of damage. Outside of HSDW, opponents will have a turn to respond to your invocation before it comes out. This is a very bad thing for the caster for many reasons I feel I shouldn't have to explain (hint: it ties back to the purpose of this thread and beyond.) However, using HSDW will usually prompt the same sort of behavior before you even start casting. You can silence the caster, making them unable to invoc anyway. You can remove the HSDW status leading you into a loop (while getting free hits in) or forcing the evoker to change how they play entirely. Or you can start running. Thanks to the recent nerf to Blink, this is pretty much guaranteed to work outside a certain wind element invocation. You know the one. 

It's been brought up that some invocations are too strong to allow them to hit you. Maybe. But certainly not all of them are like that and it does indeed come down each one individually. If after being looked at as a whole here they need some more fine-tuning, so be it. That's the name of the game. Do keep in mind that this is using nine to fifteen momentum on a class that's one role is being a powerhouse. There are plenty of other things that can kill you within that momentum investment.


So let's look at Kunai's solutions again.

- It now lasts 10 rounds.
This only solves the issue of status removals that simply lower duration. You can't wait out a silence or wait for the target to walk back into range, you're just wasting time while people are probably taking potshots at you. By removing a bit the threat of status clearing it would make HSDW slightly less ABSOLUTELY MANDATORY if you want to use invocations, but it's doing it in a way that targets a specific option. Das bad and I don't think that's the direction we should be heading.


- It cannot be dispelled by most effects.
And this is the other half. I think Silence is fine if it requires a status inflict check and the person silenced is able to remove it, even if it has to be via item or cleansing effect. The invocation is still prevented but it came at a risk/has a counter and the caster is able to respond again shortly after.

Just removing the status effect that means you're invoking (or having HSDW up) is a little more BS. There is no counter play to this aside from hoping they stop doing it (bad strategy.)
In the end, I think being able to remove the status should be a valid alternative to Silence, but make it more costly, or have a cooldown, or make it so it can only happen under specific circumstances. So I'll say Kunai is at least targeting the right thing here.

Now I'll put my own recommendations in:

- Make it harder to remove the status effect of invoking
Do this by either adding cooldowns to all things that dispel effects on others, make them have requirements such as having prepared the dispel ahead of time in a status like Null Shell or make the dispels go through a status inflict chance (status unflict, I guess?) This recommendation is a bit sketchier since it's affecting things beyond the scope of just invocations but I feel it will still be healthy for the game in the long run. Future-proofing, we'll call it.

- Allow basic movement while invoking
After the nerf to Blink, it is now practically impossible to chase someone down if they're running away. Other movement options haven't really been touched upon yet and right now it is very easy to outpace someone with an invocation up. The mage gets 1 (one) chance to Blink and if they're still out of range (very possible), the invocation is now wasted since the runner isn't going to walk back into range. Commence potshots. Now the caster can wait for the status to wear off or they can cancel the invocation. Either way, they're left wondering why they bothered trying to use an invocation when they had the option of the aforementioned three non-invocation spells.

Basic movement will help alleviate this issue a little and will allow mages to actually interact with ground effects, something Dev has been moving toward. This will also push players more toward interactions with basic movement such as buffing beforehand or teleport movement boots, some of which get no love at all.