Najash a.k.a. Naga a.k.a. Lamia a.k.a. 'Basilisks'

For those of us who dislike or don't use the Twitterz.

They're pretty strong opposites in the games I play that have them, 'triangular opposites' at that.

In FFXI they use strong attacks, disarm you, and some can Charm players using Belly Dance. FFXI sentient mobs also have 'classes' that they actually use the abilities of, though, so part of what they do is related to that. They don't do basically any 'snake' things there.

In BDO, they act more like snakes (as much as any mob in BDO 'acts like' anything in particular). Honestly I am being too harsh since Basilisks and Kvariak and particularly Katzvariak are among the better mob designs in the game. There, they burrow, breathe poison clouds, and then have a bit of the same 'classes' thing where some melee, some cast, the usual. But they don't spring-leap, 'grapple CC', or parry (or I just never get hit by any of that? who knows)

Then there's the last which rely on weapons more than the others and use the tail both as a powerful 'spring' or 'coil' and combine the best parts of snakes with the best parts of 'weapon wielding humanoids', moving fast, low sweep and grapple CC, and poison biting those that get CCed, while still parrying with dual swords or doing spear strikes.

Obviously I'd vote 'all of the above' for abilities since none of these are particularly exclusive from each other, and I like having the maximum possible number of things I need to be watching for in PvE combat.

But if you're not the type who likes your PvE to be super complicated, and you had to choose a set of abilities for Ashes ones, like the tweet says:

"What sort of abilities do you think they should have?"

I'd go all of the above and more. High mobility, poison bites and potentially poison application on their weapons as a buff, hard CC by constricting us with their tails, heightened defense from behind and any and all magic abilities that might fit a desert dweller.

NiKr wrote: »

I'd go all of the above and more. High mobility, poison bites and potentially poison application on their weapons as a buff, hard CC by constricting us with their tails, heightened defense from behind and any and all magic abilities that might fit a desert dweller.

By hard cc do you mean bind or stun? Bind plus poison plus the sneeple having allies makes for fun chaos. Replace the bind with stun and now you are probably not having a good time. I like softer cc for mobs with DoT since it adds more flavor to the chaos while keeping actual strategy and reactions dynamic. I don't mind stuns on mobs with DoT but a stun on a grapple...nah.

Maybe if it were more like petrification where it takes a bit to set in so you have a little more control over the out come? So put it on a bite or arrow attack instead?

JustVine wrote: »

By hard cc do you mean bind or stun? Bind plus poison plus the sneeple having allies makes for fun chaos. Replace the bind with stun and now you are probably not having a good time. I like softer cc for mobs with DoT since it adds more flavor to the chaos while keeping actual strategy and reactions dynamic. I don't mind stuns on mobs with DoT but a stun on a grapple...nah.

Maybe if it were more like petrification where it takes a bit to set in so you have a little more control over the out come? So put it on a bite or arrow attack instead?

I'm too used to full stuns so I was thinking just a full "you can't do shit" CC. You could have the mob only being able to do this one ability at once, so it'd kinda be a mutual CC.

NiKr wrote: »

JustVine wrote: »

By hard cc do you mean bind or stun? Bind plus poison plus the sneeple having allies makes for fun chaos. Replace the bind with stun and now you are probably not having a good time. I like softer cc for mobs with DoT since it adds more flavor to the chaos while keeping actual strategy and reactions dynamic. I don't mind stuns on mobs with DoT but a stun on a grapple...nah.

Maybe if it were more like petrification where it takes a bit to set in so you have a little more control over the out come? So put it on a bite or arrow attack instead?

I'm too used to full stuns so I was thinking just a full "you can't do shit" CC. You could have the mob only being able to do this one ability at once, so it'd kinda be a mutual CC.

I guess I am fine with it in that sense. In that scenario its only less fun if you don't have friends.

JustVine wrote: »

I guess I am fine with it in that sense. In that scenario its only less fun if you don't have friends.

The stun kind of snek could only exist as part of a group of sneks, so players would always be in parties when farming those. While other types of sneks would not be able to tailstun you. There's definitely options to make it a more approachable mechanic.

Though if Intrepid decide to forgo those kinds of CCs as a whole I won't be screaming about it.

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Reminds me of these Arbalester skills from L2. They barely ever worked on private server, but when they did - ooohh boi it was fun. Would definitely love to see a few chestbursters in Ashes

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I think that level of body horror would be hard to argue for pegi 16/T not impossible but... I would find it easy to imagine it needing to be censored/redone in stricter countries.

I like a lot of the OP ideas. I'd love to see a leaping/diving lunch into slither for a flanking style attack or quick movement. I automatically envision the folks from that image with dual straight or katana-like swords, and maybe poisoned blades, though there are probably mages too.



There should definitely be a poisonous bite lunge or such (maybe with swords instead of face?), and probably a paralyzing or movement-slowing gaze. (Not hard CC, just some form of slow or 'random flinch' for a bit.) Binding 'tail wrap' style attacks too, though probably short and used to combo into something else. I agree that meaningful hard CC on this sort of thing would just be un-fun mostly.

I'm not into the body horror style thing mentioned by some, here, but you could get similar weird mechanical effects just based on poison stacks of some kind.