[Snake]

Smoke Rune, while 'unique' of its own, makes it so that is impossible to destroy runes the moment it appears.

Destroying runes is one of the only counterplays Rune Magician has aside Silence, and since Silence is no longer common. So Rune Magician became a little too strong with their extra effects that pretty much nullify basic attacking. The current souces of Smoke are also pretty limited on themselves.

Bombs require a heavy talent and light stat (for trait) investment and are limited to the amount you have. Smokescreen from Spellthief can only be a straight line. Rune Magican? It has the potential to cover 25% of the battle map, jesus christ!



For short. Instead of creating a Smoke tile on the effective range, can it just inflict Blind? Blindness is way more fair than outright denying a hit to the runes and making the battle awful to fight on due to the lack of visibility.

[Miller]

I don't entirely disagree but I feel like part of what makes smoke rune unique is the smokescreen.

I'd think it'd be less obnoxious if it was only when it was placed; just my two cents really, Rune Mages can flood the entire map in smoke and options are limited to remove said smoke. (Which is something that should be improved, but there's another thread on that.)

The duration on the smoke also shouldn't be that long as well.

[Swiftkusura]

I think that the smoke shouldn't be so obstructive to the point where you can't actually see, it's already a debuff to enemies hit chance and a buff to the runes suvivability, I'd like it if you could at least see remotely through it, or a trait that lets you not be blinded by it but still keeps the runes point the same.

[Noxid]

Balance issues aside. It's just really annoying to be apart of battles with smoke or even to watch them.

[Jupiter_Storm]

I was also observing this at the time, and the general atmosphere that it offered the battle seemed to heavily detract from the roleplay of the encounter, which seemed to plummet from an exchange of strategy and skill to a display of cheap slap-stick and quoted memes.

Powerful smoke effects have their place, and should be considered a significant threat to be wielded by characters of a very specific nature... But a generically available class capable of applying an almost field-wide effect that changes the game so drastically is not appropriate for day-to-day roleplay.

It simply has no place in normal encounters that any character can participate in at any time, as evidenced by the way other characters react to such a significant threat: "Oh yeah, I see this all the time. It's really annoying and stupid. Blah time to meme."

So. Not only is it mechanically unnecessary, it's also excessive as something available on the fly, because of how it affects in-character behavior when employed.

[Autumn]

There should never be large clumps of smoke in my honest opinion, both bombs and smoke rune should have the inner circle clear of smoke, Just make it so you can't destroy a rune thats shrouded by smoke rather than needing smoke literally on top of it.

[Swiftkusura]

I agree, I'd like it if smoke were more of a smog, bearable enough that you can see but the arena still, but make it not so dense, the density is the real killer here because you can't see out of it or into it, it'd be nice if it were lightened into more of a grey without the density effect.

[Neus]

It could certainly be adjusted to the outer circle + the center tile only. Another alternative is to make smokescreen not block vision but that would obviously remove some of its power. I am also willing to make it a Placement effect only.

[Swiftkusura]

I personally think seeing through the smoke but not losing its overall mechanical impact would be fine personally, I don't believe it'd lose any power if it kept the rune protection and hit debuff on targets if it could be seen through, it's better than the user and all watching to just be blinded in a fight. I feel that's an exceedingly powerful thing but also just as self-harming.

[Fern]

I think it should be placement effect only.