Synergy Skills and the communities thought on them. (Trapping Webs especially).

MindOfTheSwarm

I would like to say that personally, I think synergy skills are a great mechanic and make battles more dynamic and engaging. With that being said, I do feel that certain synergies are difficult to activate or don't bring enough to a team to be used. There are some obviously excellent synergies such as Splash, Shards and Orbs that see use pretty much all the time. This may be because the skills themselves are so beneficial on their own, but some see very little use due to being too situational or the skill itself is flawed and undesirable to begin with. This also applies to sets with synergies which I would like to see more of and perhaps some old sets reworked to have synergies to open up more variety in group play.

The Undaunted Skill line has skills that are great in all content, Orbs has already been mentioned as a must have in all group content, but let's not forget that Altar, Inner Fire and Bone Shield all have good synergies. Trapping Webs however is possibly the worst synergy in the game, having it only be activated from half a mile away is a little silly and to be honest I think the skill needs to be reworked. Personally, I think Webs has a good opportunity to have a synergy that benefits group play better. Here is an idea of a webs rework.

Trapping Webs:

Hurl strands of cursed spider silk to ensnare your foes, reducing the Movement Speed of enemies in the target area by 50% and dealing X Physical Damage. After 5 seconds the webs burst into venom, dealing X Poison Damage to the enemies within.
An ally targeting an enemy in the webs can activate the Spawn Broodling synergy reducing the Physical and Spell Resistance of enemies hit by 2500 for 10 seconds and summoning a spider to attack for 10 seconds. The spiders bite enemies for X Physical Damage.

Tangling Webs: Increases the range by 2 meters. After bursting, the webs remain for a further 10 seconds dealing X Poison Damage every second and the snare is increased to 65%.

Black Widows: (Renamed from Shadow Silk).

Summon 2 Black Widow Spiders for 14 seconds that bite enemies for X Physical Damage and poison them for a further X Poison Damage over 10 seconds.
You or an ally near the spiders can activate the Arachnophobia synergy fearing up to 2 nearby targets for 4 seconds.
(Skill no longer snares or reduces resistances. Summon a spider immediately instead and the spider lasts longer. You or allies can fear enemies near the spider.)


As you can see the base ability has been buffed and the ranged requirement on the synergy removed. Also, the synergy would remove resistances which gives it a desirable role in groups and perhaps free up the requirement of running Alkosh or Sharpened/Lover when soloing.

The Tangling Webs morph is changed to boost its zone control utility and the range of its snare.

The Black Widows morph is for immediate damage, but it loses the powerful snare and the resistance debuff. Instead it gains the fear CC and allows you to activate the synergy. The number of targets is 2 so it would not be as strong as other fear abilities.

Out of the 2 morphs Trapping webs would deal more damage over the full duration but since it is a ground effect would be better for PVE and static targets. Black Widows on the other hand gives mobile damage but loses much of its PVE utility.




Outside of these skills, I think the game could use some more synergies that give unique effects. Perhaps old and outdated sets could be given synergies to make them more appealing. What do you think? Do you want more synergies? Less synergies? Are you happy with the way things are? Give your thoughts below.

MindOfTheSwarm

MindOfTheSwarm wrote: »

I would like to say that personally, I think synergy skills are a great mechanic and make battles more dynamic and engaging. With that being said, I do feel that certain synergies are difficult to activate or don't bring enough to a team to be used. There are some obviously excellent synergies such as Splash, Shards and Orbs that see use pretty much all the time. This may be because the skills themselves are so beneficial on their own, but some see very little use due to being too situational or the skill itself is flawed and undesirable to begin with. This also applies to sets with synergies which I would like to see more of and perhaps some old sets reworked to have synergies to open up more variety in group play.

The Undaunted Skill line has skills that are great in all content, Orbs has already been mentioned as a must have in all group content, but let's not forget that Altar, Inner Fire and Bone Shield all have good synergies. Trapping Webs however is possibly the worst synergy in the game, having it only be activated from half a mile away is a little silly and to be honest I think the skill needs to be reworked. Personally, I think Webs has a good opportunity to have a synergy that benefits group play better. Here is an idea of a webs rework.

Trapping Webs:

Hurl strands of cursed spider silk to ensnare your foes, reducing the Movement Speed of enemies in the target area by 50% and dealing X Physical Damage. After 5 seconds the webs burst into venom, dealing X Poison Damage to the enemies within.
An ally targeting an enemy in the webs can activate the Spawn Broodling synergy reducing the Physical and Spell Resistance of enemies hit by 2500 for 10 seconds and summoning a spider to attack for 10 seconds. The spiders bite enemies for X Physical Damage.

Tangling Webs: Increases the range by 2 meters. After bursting, the webs remain for a further 10 seconds dealing X Poison Damage every second and the snare is increased to 65%.

Black Widows: (Renamed from Shadow Silk).

Summon 2 Black Widow Spiders for 14 seconds that bite enemies for X Physical Damage and poison them for a further X Poison Damage over 10 seconds.
You or an ally near the spiders can activate the Arachnophobia synergy fearing up to 2 nearby targets for 4 seconds.
(Skill no longer snares or reduces resistances. Summon a spider immediately instead and the spider lasts longer. You or allies can fear enemies near the spider.)


As you can see the base ability has been buffed and the ranged requirement on the synergy removed. Also, the synergy would remove resistances which gives it a desirable role in groups and perhaps free up the requirement of running Alkosh or Sharpened/Lover when soloing.

The Tangling Webs morph is changed to boost its zone control utility and the range of its snare.

The Black Widows morph is for immediate damage, but it loses the powerful snare and the resistance debuff. Instead it gains the fear CC and allows you to activate the synergy. The number of targets is 2 so it would not be as strong as other fear abilities.

Out of the 2 morphs Trapping webs would deal more damage over the full duration but since it is a ground effect would be better for PVE and static targets. Black Widows on the other hand gives mobile damage but loses much of its PVE utility.




Outside of these skills, I think the game could use some more synergies that give unique effects. Perhaps old and outdated sets could be given synergies to make them more appealing. What do you think? Do you want more synergies? Less synergies? Are you happy with the way things are? Give your thoughts below.

Should be noted, that the resistance debuff from the webs would not stack with other webs... forgot to mention that detail.

Grianasteri

Love Trapping webs, sadly it only sees use on one of my 18 characters and that is a themed fun poison/disease build.

Long ago some friends and I experimented with it in content, we found the synergy was too fiddly to take reliably to make the skill worthwhile slotting.

So, I agree, the synergy needs to just be a normal synergy, easy to take without any thought.

MindOfTheSwarm

Grianasteri wrote: »

Love Trapping webs, sadly it only sees use on one of my 18 characters and that is a themed fun poison/disease build.

Long ago some friends and I experimented with it in content, we found the synergy was too fiddly to take reliably to make the skill worthwhile slotting.

So, I agree, the synergy needs to just be a normal synergy, easy to take without any thought.

I think a lot of people agree on the synergy being too finicky. What do you think about giving it some focused group utility though, such as reduced resistances on activation?

Grianasteri

MindOfTheSwarm wrote: »

I think a lot of people agree on the synergy being too finicky. What do you think about giving it some focused group utility though, such as reduced resistances on activation?

I suspect that even if the synergy conditions were standardised in line with others, it would not see much increased use, unless as you say, some kind of group utility was added. Or unless the damage was OP