Krschkr very nice!!! This is exactly the sort of thing I was hoping to see (= I've banned a couple more skills (Blood is Power, Ether Renewal, and Putrid Bile) now - care to try again without them? =P Ineptitude and Aura of the Lich are now unbanned.
Marty Silverblade I think we may have different definitions of OP xD In this context I mean that those skills are so strong that they beat out all alternatives in numerous areas of the game. For example, Soldier's Defense is an excellent skill in Deep SC, but it requires some skill to use, doesn't trivialize the content, and is next to useless elsewhere. Ebon Escape, on the other hand, is an exceptionally useful skill, being meta in every single speed clear - it performs an important function significantly better than any alternative - you are essentially forced to bring it.
A lot of people who don't have enough mesmer heroes bring an E/Me running full dom, even using the long casts like ESurge and Mistrust. I'm not saying that's good, but the fact that such a build is viable at all proves that Fast Casting is not necessary. Besides, mesmers are gonna have Fast Casting - I wasn't about to say "you can bring the mesmer skills but not on a primary mesmer". However, I really did ban a lot of mesmer skills so I'll give something back: unbanned Ineptitude.
Yeah, Shelter isn't a great skill without Soul Twisting, but the reverse is also true. I thought it would be more interesting to ban Shelter and leave the possibility of something coming up with a different ST build - it could happen! Then again, a build with Shelter but not ST could be cool, but I considered that unlikely enough to not bother complicating the rules.
Minion bombers aren't exactly super OP, but Death Nova and AotL are definitely over-used. I feel like Death Magic would be too strong if I unbanned one of them (probably AotL) without also banning Putrid Bile... what do you think? EDIT: unbanned AotL; banned Putrid Bile.
Using AP to spam EVAS is kinda over-used too I suppose, but banning YMLaD and MoP takes a lot of the power out of it, forcing people to come up with interesting alternatives.
I think the main reason BiP didn't bother me is because it's in Blood Magic - having to pump points into such an under-used attribute is an incentive to bring some other unusual skills, especially since some core skills from the BiP bar (Signet of Lost Souls, Protective was Kaolai, Mend Body and Soul) were banned. However, it does trivialize energy management for the rest of the team. The same applies to Ether Renewal, although the only emo skill I banned was Aegis, so I guess without Shelter that easily filled the gap of "next best". Both skills are now banned!
Yes, thank you for reminding me about cons - allowing them was a mistake; not sure what I was thinking. I could ban half the skills in the game and cons would still make things too easy. Cons are now banned.
or maybe I was just delayed because I forgot to give Master of Whispers any points in Blood Magic...
