We need to talk about crowd control/disables

[Blaze997]

The biggest glaring issue with combat in this game is how hard CC interacts with defenses. The fact that even grazes result in hard CC, just for a lesser duration, makes hard CC by far the best option in combat - for players and enemies. I am still going to win a fight easily if spells like confusion or Gaze of the Adragon graze. "Oh no the enemy is totally screwed for 9 seconds instead of 18, I still win." This problem is further exacerbated by the lack of immunities in the game.

 

Unless you are a main character paladin with a very strong Faith and Conviction, you cannot rely on CC spells to miss you with much regularity, the window for misses is just way too small. This creates a situation where the only real strategy is to CC the enemy spellcasters first (mental binding is good for this - which is why ciphers are so damn good). Again, even if it just grazes their spell doesn't go off and they become an easy kill.

 

If we aren't going to have even temporary immunities in this game then defenses need to be much better at stopping hard CC. Grazes should not just result in a lesser duration, they should result in a lesser effect. This would be easy to do with already existing game mechanics. For example: charm, dominate, and confusion effects that graze should result in a daze. Paralyze and petrify that graze could weaken you instead.

 

It makes sense and balances combat, what more could a person want? Currently when a physical attack grazes it does barely anything. When a hard CC grazes you are still screwed.