@Aeralik - Please don't remove Possession

[Soldancer]

Hi Aeralik, quote from You "Possession - You guys dislike it and I think I dislike it even more. So this spell is getting a big change." I want to ask if it's possible to let the current version of Possession in the game and make the new version as a new spell. By this way those who never liked/used Possession can remove it from their hotbars and replace it with the new spell, and those who like the spell in the vurrent version would not loose it. In the past I haven't used Possession too but with the time I learned that Possession can be very useful in many different situations (especially while soloing but also in some small group situations). It would really be sad for me to loose that spell. Greetings

[Grimlux]

<p>Im mostly curious how you find it useful at all. I am happy possession is getting revamped, as are most coercer's in this game. It has little range, you have to be out of combat, and if you dont have the luxury of a healer following you around your pretty much scrooD once possession on its 20or so second duration wears off. </p><p>I for one am happy that possession will get a revision.</p>

[Nuhus]

imo it's a good idea to remove it. I think the only uses it had was more towards the exploit side of things. I'm glad to see it go. The legitimate uses seemed rather useless.

[Oriax]

<p>From what I understand the spell is going to be changed by Possession making a copy of your target mob which will become a controllable pet. Instead of totally possessing a target that you spam its spells with.</p><p>"Instead of temporarily controlling a creature, it will keep with the possession theme by creating an essence of the creature that is a controllable pet.  It basically turns into an always on pseudo charm pet.  This pet won't be able to zone or anything but you can at least use it in dungeons with groups or raids."</p><p>Copied from Aeralik's post in case you missed this part.</p><p>I for one am really looking foward to this change the most.</p>

[Kro]

<p>Most of coercers seem to hate it so cant wait for the change.  If you want to share with us what possable use it has thats not a exploit feel free.</p>

[Illine]

<cite>Praetorate@Nektulos wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Im mostly curious how you find it useful at all. I am happy possession is getting revamped, as are most coercer's in this game. It has little range, you have to be out of combat, and if you dont have the luxury of a healer following you around your pretty much scrooD once possession on its 20or so second duration wears off. </p><p>I for one am happy that possession will get a revision.</p></blockquote><p>no, you're not screwed if you use it with a group and if the mob is not fighting anymore and you place it far from you so he can't agro when the spell wears off.</p><p>It's not easy and I don't use it much because it's sometimes annoying but it's quite fun and powerfull if in a dongeon, like Chardok, you possess a mob to fight the mob your group is fighting. It needs improvement, and is difficult to use because of the aggro range if you don't have the AA wis line 2nd spell to make mobs non-aggro. </p><p>it's not so the change of possession ... it's more the fact that we get another charm <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Encantador]

<p>If you don't like the thought of another charm then don't think of it as such.</p><p>Think of it as being a version of the Illusionists' Personnae spell. Instead of copying the caster it copies the mob.</p><p>Currently Possession does not have a concentration cost, I wonder if it will once this change is implemented?</p><p>Assuming the 'copy' made by possession creates a pet of the same strength as a charmed mob then it seems reasonable that it would stay around until it dies, the coercer dies, or the coercer zones. Many coercers will see this as being more like a perma-charm.</p><p>Seems Aeralick has set himself some conundrums.</p><p>1) If possession and charm are excusive then the most powerful will be used by a soloing coercer. If they are not then a soloing coercer gets to use both a charmed pet AND a possessed pet. A raiding coercer will only be able to use the copy.</p><p>2) If they are exclusive and the copy is as strong as a charmed mob then why charm? If the copy is weaker than a charmed mob then why even bother with it except where there are no charmable mobs? </p><p>3) If concentration slots are used to make them exclusive then in a group or raid the copy will be used but only if it is seen as providing more benefit than using the concentration for buffs. So the copy has to be quite powerful.</p><p>4) To be usable in a raid then a 'copy' will have to have at least the survivability of an illusionist personna. The main issue with this is that a personna can be set to cast from range whereas the majority of raid mobs do not cast many 'ordinary' spells. I don't see how a possessed raid mob can do anything like the ranged damage of a personna and if it has to melee it is going to die fast.</p><p>My guess is that a possessed copy of a mob will be weaker than a charmed mob, charm and possession will be exclusive (you can have one or the other up), and that possession will not take any concentration slots. </p><p>Of course this might just be the beginning of the end for charm. Copying mobs removes so many of the problems that charming of them causes.</p><p>Who will charm a mob when they could copy it, kill it, and still have a permanent pet?</p><p>I know that charm is currently far from high risk for high reward but I will be pretty annoyed if charm is made worthless.</p>

[Trepan]

Indeed, it sounds as though the new form of "Possession" should really be considered Puppetmaster and not "Possession".Coercer possession is more about taking over the mob's body, not the "ownership" connotation of the word.  Please don't get them confused, Aer.

[Jesdyr]

<cite>Earar wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite><p>It's not easy and I don't use it much because it's sometimes annoying but it's quite fun and powerfull if in a dongeon, like Chardok, you possess a mob to fight the mob your group is fighting. It needs improvement, and is difficult to use because of the aggro range if you don't have the AA wis line 2nd spell to make mobs non-aggro. </p></blockquote>Possession "can" be powerful since it does not always* scale the mob down. You use it on a ^^^ and it stays a ^^^. This means it can do a large amount of damage in the short duration. I use to use it to solo in Unrest sometimes. There are also some nasty bugs with it that may of may not be fixed (havent tested it in a long time). * I say "not always" because when RoK was released I noticed possessed mobs had much lower DPS than non-possessed mobs.

[cxp1]

<p>I'm baffled that anyone thinks Possession is useful.  Duration is short and can't be cast in combat.  Other than viewing the pets stats and abilities, this spell is completely useless.   The upgrated SOE is offering is Huge.</p><p>Vixn</p><p>80 Coercer</p><p>140AA Befallen</p>

[Illine]

<cite>Encantador wrote:</cite> <blockquote><p>Who will charm a mob when they could copy it, kill it, and still have a permanent pet?</p><p>I know that charm is currently far from high risk for high reward but I will be pretty annoyed if charm is made worthless.</p></blockquote>I will because charming will remove that mob from your way. A possessed mob as it is won't. Before you could use possesion to move pets ... now you won't be able to.

[Grimlux]

<cite>cxp1 wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I'm baffled that anyone thinks Possession is useful.  Duration is short and can't be cast in combat.  Other than viewing the pets stats and abilities, this spell is completely useless.   The upgrated SOE is offering is Huge.</p><p>Vixn</p><p>80 Coercer</p><p>140AA Befallen</p></blockquote>Its only usefulness is for exploiting.. Everyone wave goodbye to Possession. "Bye Posssession"... Say hello to something useful..

[Oriax]

RoK made the spell even more useless with it's short range. Most mobs in RoK will aggro you before you even get into range to use the spell. So hopefully a range increase will come along with the changes.

[Regholdain]

<p>So, I'm curious... what are the supposed "exploits" of Possession in its current form that everyone refers to but doesn't actually state as evidence that it's otherwise useless?  My understanding is that possession could be used to move mobs and put them against each other.</p><p>Also, as far as the aggro range thing is concerned, wouldn't the Wis AA line with the aggro prevention ability help in getting close enough to cast possession?  Just a thought...</p>

[zuzer]

<cite>Regholdain wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>So, I'm curious... what are the supposed "exploits" of Possession in its current form that everyone refers to but doesn't actually state as evidence that it's otherwise useless?  My understanding is that possession could be used to move mobs and put them against each other.</p><p>Also, as far as the aggro range thing is concerned, wouldn't the Wis AA line with the aggro prevention ability help in getting close enough to cast possession?  Just a thought...</p><p><span style="color: #ff0000;">That is what I want to know. What are the un-intended ways people are using it now that are so great? I personally never use the spell and welcome the change.</span></p></blockquote>

[Soldancer]

Strange to see how some people think that any unintended use of a spell must be an exploit. To direct control a mob allows a wide spectrum of "unintended" strategies but to call them all exploits is simply wrong. Possession basically allows to throw mobs out of the way without having long fights, but Possession makes it not possible to insta-kill nameds or such things. It makes you not uber but it can save a lot of time especially while longer farming sessions. The big problem with Possession was always that it's very bugged and was never fixed - results of using this spell are very different, it's often hard to reproduce an effect. The basic behaviour of the spell is also crap e.g. the aggroing. If I bypass invis a mob my visible charmed pet does not aggro the mob, only if I give the attack command. But if I possess a mob it will immidiately aggro any nearby mob. And, what's worse, after the end of the allready way too short duration of the spell both mobs come attacking me, the attacked and the once possessed mob. This behaviour made the spell for normal players completely useless because it's a suicide spell. The usefullness of the spell can only be found by experimenting a lot with it in many different situation. Again: this spell saves me a lot of time, not more. All mobs I can kill can I kill with or without Possession. But I have no illsusions, after reading the responses here it's clear for me that Aeralik will change this spell.

[XFnarX]

Possession is currently VERY useful for those of us that know how to properly use the ability. Yes it's also can be expliotable, but that's not it's purpose.In A Group Setting:1) Frequently I will break 6k DPS with this ability only2) Becoming a tank for a short duration to give the healers a power break. (Which is a stretch because they never need it with us there.)3) It freaks out the group and I get lovely reactions when a rainbow colored mob randomly comes to help and totally pwns the group on the parser.4) To move mobs for a short duration.In A Raid Setting:None / Never / UselessSo. I think the ability is fun currently and does come in handy. The only problem I have with it right now is it's RANGE. With out DayDream to cut the mobs aggro radius  down this spell is VERY hard to land and use. If they merely increased the RANGE on the ability it self it would be AWESOME for instances and groups... for those of us that know how and when to use it properly that is.So in closing... The ability does need a mild upgrade, however if they make it raid capable I believe that in it self would make it more powerful. But seriously... Don't whine and complain about an awesome ability we already have. If you don't know how or when to use it, that's your own fault. Learn to play your class!

[Grimlux]

<cite>XFnarX wrote:</cite><blockquote>Possession is currently VERY useful for those of us that know how to properly use the ability. Yes it's also can be expliotable, but that's not it's purpose.In A Group Setting:1) Frequently I will break 6k DPS with this ability only2) Becoming a tank for a short duration to give the healers a power break. (Which is a stretch because they never need it with us there.)3) It freaks out the group and I get lovely reactions when a rainbow colored mob randomly comes to help and totally pwns the group on the parser.4) To move mobs for a short duration.In A Raid Setting:None / Never / UselessSo. I think the ability is fun currently and does come in handy. The only problem I have with it right now is it's RANGE. With out DayDream to cut the mobs aggro radius  down this spell is VERY hard to land and use. If they merely increased the RANGE on the ability it self it would be AWESOME for instances and groups... for those of us that know how and when to use it properly that is.So in closing... The ability does need a mild upgrade, however if they make it raid capable I believe that in it self would make it more powerful. But seriously... Don't whine and complain about an awesome ability we already have. If you don't know how or when to use it, that's your own fault. Learn to play your class!</blockquote><p>I'll agree on one point. Possession "Had" potential... For it to be worth it they would have to make the duration A LOT longer, Range longer, and get rid of the silly "cannot cast while in combat" crud. Otherwise, since we know that's not going to happen its better off just getting replaced then staying in it's current state.</p>

[XFnarX]

<cite>Praetorate@Nektulos wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>XFnarX wrote:</cite><blockquote>STUFF!</blockquote><p>I'll agree on one point. Possession "Had" potential... For it to be worth it they would have to make the duration A LOT longer, Range longer, and get rid of the silly "cannot cast while in combat" crud. Otherwise, since we know that's not going to happen its better off just getting replaced then staying in it's current state.</p></blockquote>I can see the combat thing, but seriously, duration? Are you high? Then it would be a god-mode solo ability. Here's a hint, try it on a Monk/Bru or a Guard/Zerker mob. With these I can solo kill a 83^^^ in VoES in about 20 ~ 30 seconds which is already less than the duration needed. If they doubled or tripled the duration I'd be solo-ing this zone as well as many others. On caster mobs Possession is FAR less effective because it reduces all of their abilities output damage, however, they leave all the Fighter class type abilities at max MOB strength (scout types seem to be around 50% of original str, where casters are at like 20%). I know many Guards that wish their "Blast" ability hit for 10k+ I'm sure. =p I love the ability the way it is currently, but I seriously think I am the only Coercer alive that knows how to use it properly, and to the point of where it's usable upon almost every cast in instances with DayDream. (No I don't use the WIS line on raids, yes I use a respec mirror and have a different setup for group/solo.)Although!, if they make it a good raid spell I rather see that than a freaky instance ability.Rainbow mobs FTW!