Renewal Stunlocking will destroy any depth this game has if it makes it into the release version.
It can't be beaten, it's pretty easy to pull off, and only three DGs can do it. If Erebus ever gets any love then he'll be able to do it too. Great.
Two weeks after release every team who has competitive aspirations will be using it. A week after that they will stop playing, because once you can do it you've eliminated any team from serious competition who can't. "But Kestrel," you counter, "Only a few people use this technique!" Yah well you don't see this being used alot now because every team that figured it out with a couple of exceptions has stopped playing already. Not only that, but all the casuals who can't find good partners and come up against this in pub games will be ragequitting and then crying to you about it.
Rebound items might work. We don't know. Do you know? Have you tested them against a good stunlocking team? If not then you need to seriously consider taking drastic measures:
- Staff of Renewal should provide a flat passive 20% reduction to cooldowns. It's still an advantage and worth getting, but not as OP.
- Stuns should have drastically reduced effect time on DGs - I'm thinking along the lines of 0.3, 0.7, and 1.0 seconds. Rook doesn't need time to walk up and hammerslam. He can buy speed items, he can warp in, he's fine, trust me. It's a numbers tweak, which means you can do it before release. It still provides an interrupt and at high levels a useful stun. Stuns all have secondary effects anyway, so you won't cripple the DGs, who are all relatively powerful anyway. It prevents the complete rage that you will be facing from a community of what we all hope will be many many thousands.
Longterm, as mentioned elsewhere, all Spells which have similar effects should either
- have diminishing returns
or
- take effect only when similar spells are not in place
If and when Renewal Stunlocking is removed from the game we will be looking at a fun, deep, and dynamic experience for groups larger than 4. (2 v 2 and 1 v 1 are still relatively shallow, but that can wait until after release.)
Peace
Kestrel
