Fix werebeasts in gladiator

Yea. Werebeasts who transform while fighting as a gladiator lose out on a substantial portion of their passive warmaster abilities.

What would you suggest? A hand to hand form?

a h2h form, as well as working the code so their other passive skills work. As it stands you lose alot of your gladiator in combat "perks" while your transformed.

A h2h form for non monks would be absolutely FANTASTIC. As it stands a gladiator benefits about 60% from being promoted to anything before E if you fight while transformed. And you gain nothing at L if you fight while transformed.

I am taking this straight from my prayer forum thread, a stickied one too, since Morle asked for ideas:

I am bumping this thread again because I promised to post my suggestions regarding the WM problems I spoke about in my first post.

I needed some time to do some tests and to improve my understanding on some WM skills and I feel certain now to give suggestions that can possibly solve some of the problems certain combos encounter in both subcabals.

First problem:

Melees that use hand to hand get the stick in both Gladiator and Barbarian. Why? In barbarian, the strength of the staple skill (deathblow) is defined by the weight of the weapon you use. If you don't use a weapon at all, deathblow deals funny damage. On the other hand, if you use a good weapon the damage can go up to === DISINTEGRATE === through sanc. A monk will be extremely lucky to get a MANGLE, while most of the time he will be getting DISMEMBERS. Same goes for werebeasts. How do we solve that? My suggestion is, when a character uses hand to hand combat the damage of the deathblow to be defined by the DAM ROLL of the character, not the by weight of his non existent weapon. This should solve the problem with monks/werebeasts getting extremely low damages from deathblow.

Second problem:

Again monks and werebeast (characters that rely on hand to hand combat) in gladiator. Things here are even worse. There is not one, but multiple skills that are based on the thought, that a melee character must use a weapon. First we have forms (trusted), which are weapon based. Then we have [edited] (elder), and then we have [edited] (leader). Those are all skills which a werebeast can not use, or can not use to their fullest extend at least. Perhaps I am missing something, but if one wants to have a werebeast character, he must be a complete masochist to choose gladiator as a subcabal, since his most important skills, hell even his leader skill are completely useless to him.

Monks, I've never had one in gladiator, but I've heard forms work a bit different for them. I.e. the trusted form enhances the damage of the chakeras and the Leader one gives [edited]. I don't know whether that is true, but I am willing to believe it. My personal opinion is that if this is how the forms actually work for a monk, then the leader skill is adequate enough, but the trusted is not. Why? Because it still relies on luck. I execute the forms, they I hope for a chakera to land. In most cases though, such doesn't happen so monks basicly gain nothing from their trusted form.

I have a suggestion which can solve both monk and werebeast problem with their trusted form - give them a hand to hand form, something like maelstrom, but it will cause mind disruption for 0 hours instead of disarm. Call it flaming fists or whatever. The RP justification - the characters deals many weak blows and prevents the target from concentrating on spells.

For their leader form (for werebeasts), I suggest it would be haste. Something like the inborn haste for ferals - automatic and doesn't affect HP regen. Now that's a good leader skill. And it fits the werebeast RP well too.

IMMs can see the whole original thread here.

I like the changes f0xx suggests. Perhaps others can weigh in on this?

I like most of the ideas. Not sure about the flaming fists that cause mind disruption though. Don't they already have enough tools vs mages? I'd prefer to see one of those legendary death fists you see in those older martial arts movies. Where they punch you in the chest, you start experiencing blood loss, then dysentery, then you die a few steps later lol.

I agree on the mind disruption

Just to let others know, there is NOTHING wrong with gladiator monk forms the way they currently exist. Having played one to the Trusted rank in Warmaster, I can vouch for how powerful they are once they gain forms. Not to mention the bread and butter of a monk is the chakera strike. They don't need forms to provide damage, and without going into detail, the person that coded their gladiator forms, understood this and optimized their form to take advantage of this. Rather, I'd suggest a snipet of code specifically for werebeasts that checks when they are transformed and gives them the agreed upon benefit when executed.

Edit: Monks currently cannot execute forms while under the affects of defensive empowerment. Which I thought was well-balanced. Some of their other Warmaster skills allow for extra benefits while in defensive to make up for this.

Excellent avatar, Mindflayer. Mine was not put on here by choice but by a dastardly girlfriend.

I never meant that their should be anything buffing monks, more so for non monk gladiators.