[MERGED PR] Nerfs Rathen's Secret and Magic Missile spells

[github_bot]

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About the PR

Removes weakened from Rathen's Secret spell.
Changes weakened time on Magic Missile from 5 to 4. (3 to 2 on the weak projectile.)

Why's this needed?

Recently, Rathen's Secret has been picked extremely often due to how well it synergizes with Magic Missile and with good reason. Nearly every wizard round, at least one wizard would pick this combo and search for players, then use Rathen's followed by Magic Missile. This would nearly always put all nearby players in a 6 second unavoidable stun which could be swiftly followed up with one of the other spells, such as Prismatic Spray, Empower, Polymorph, Clown's Revenge, etc. This makes it extremely easy for just one wizard to slowly kill a majority of the station with little to no counterplay. This PR aims to remove this broken combo by turning Rathen's into a damage-focused spell instead of a stun as well as slightly decreasing how long you're stunned for after getting hit by Magic Missile so it isn't as much as a free kill every time it's cast.

Changelog

Code:

changelog
(u)Lythine
(*)Rathen's Secret no longer weakens. Magic Missile's weaken time slightly shortened.

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[McDougie]

"This makes it extremely easy for just one wizard to slowly kill a majority of the station with little to no counterplay"

My fluero acid cyanide sarin glass would like a word. It literally takes just a single chaplain with some basic chem nerdery to be a serious threat to wizards. The problem as you described it there is apathy from the crew, not a problem with wizard spells in my view.

I'd kind of not disagree completely with (yet another!) nerf to Rathens but not magic missile, its incredibly useful for defence. Most rounds with wizards they are dead pretty quick. If a round has 3-5 wizards you rarely get more than 1 surviving till shuttle and they nearly always get absolutely annihilated on shuttle. If Camryn is playing then they are generally all dead before 20mins.

If the station is being ramsacked by wizards here is what you do:
Get the chem nerds churning out acid glasses. Doesnt even need to be a proper deathmix, 10u fluero works fine for dehatting.
Distribute the glasses to everyone. Even the damned clown. Especially the damned clown.
Tell the crew there is a competition for whoever can bring down the most wiznerds.
Get the HOP to give access upgrades or a gold star sticker or something to anyone who kills a wiz.
Give Camryn their prize for singlehandedly murdering all the wizards.

I dont agree at all with nerfing wiz spells to deal with crew apathy. If you hear wizards are rampaging and dont do anything then of course they will rampage successfully, wizards are a station wide threat like the blob. Only genetics are exempt from dealing with station wide threats.

[MetricDuck]

I figure Wizards should always be able to take any crew member 1v1 with little trouble unless they get completely blind-sided or have drained their cool-downs, and be forced to retreat when faced with 3+ crew members. 1v2 should be a toss-up.

Would it be possible to severely scale spell efficacy / damage / stun time inversely proportionate to the number people the spell hits at once or in sequence?

Also maybe arse-nath could have its range reduced from screen-wide to give people a chance to sprint in the opposite direction.

Edit: Actually does the remove weaken in this PR already achieve that or are they still knocked down long enough to be comboed?

[Sord213]

Good changes, imo. Magic missile is incredibly strong considering it's a free spell every wizard gets. I'd probably also suggest cutting the damage down a bit, but that's just me.

And rathen's secret is.... rathen's secret. A mostly joke spell (haha he butt fall off) that has historically been extremely strong. It's going to take a while to find a good balancing point where it's not stupidly strong but also not completely worthless.

[KikiMofo]

The only problem I saw with magic missile in the wizard round I played a day ago was that the missile NEVER disappeared. It just followed me around the sec table for a good minute or two. Missiles should have a timer that they disappear after so that way you can run away from the missile.

[Froggit_Dogget]

Yea that combo is insane; but if you dont use it your going to get shat on by the crew. The other wizard spells need a buff; seeing the same thing get used every wizard round makes them boring. If there was more variety wizards would be fun to fight.

[Brixx79]

While Rathen's pile's on a lot, I say try the changes to that alone and leave MM alone for now. I'm kind in the same pool Froggit is where I'd like to see other spells get buffs to be more beneficial choices.

Sord kinda hit the nail on the head with this combo. Rathen's is overpowered and has been for awhile. It does a lot: Blows off butts/limbs. Makes line of sight blocking clouds. Knocks people over. Yadda yadda. Put it in one lane. It's supposed to blow off butts? Ok. Just give it the brute damage limb removal in AoE without all the other jazz.

[GORE]

Rathen's secret has already been nerfed quite a lot recently.

Magic Missile was also changed and moves pretty slow.

- - -

Both things are not that bad at all.

Empower has been nerfed into the ground too,...

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Meanwhile Changelings are OP as hell - and wizards get treated like the worst of the bunch just because they are loud and not silent murderers.

[Rilor]

Rathen's secret has already been nerfed quite a lot recently.

Magic Missile was also changed and moves pretty slow.

- - -

Both things are not that bad at all.

Empower has been nerfed into the ground too,...

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Meanwhile Changelings are OP as hell - and wizards get treated like the worst of the bunch just because they are loud and not silent murderers.

yeah they can be OP when theyre just silently murdering, theyre also quite boring to play and they definitly need a rework

[THISISANICEGAME]

Wizard has been getting nerfed a lot, if this PR gets approved I feel like we should do some changes to polymorph to make it not round ending and then buff them by either making their hats immune to acid or their second life spell to just be something they always get. Why? Chem nerding and instantly killing an antag being the only viable ways to not get your round ended in seconds is REALLY boring and bad.

Also, this is a thread about wizards, lings are an entire different deal.