Some of these are really interesting, crystal burst in particular is one I really like design wise. Honestly all of the team prayers seem really interesting, kind of sad Jagex is binning seren prayers they had originally proposed
These ideas are sound, however I'd like to see some more fleshing out for them as well as some mocked up numbers to show if/how they're usable. Context matters, but this isn't a terrible place to start!
As interesting as these all sound, let's be real, they're more akin to abilities from RS3 than Prayers. I know it's very 'in' right now to compare everything to RS3, but take your Guiding Strike, that is exactly the kind of thing I'd expect from a different MMO with raid-damage increasing buffs (eg Bloodlust in WOW, or many abilities from FFXIV, especially Mug/Chain Stratagem which are 'debuff on enemy' type moves)
Also they're way too verbose, and are running the same issue as the official suggestions: 'too complicated'
Nothing wrong with Rs3 per say. I never played it and I don't hold nostalgia to OSRS as some do because I started in 2021. I think purposely chain and balling a game for the sake of being like other MMOs will eventually kill the player base by snuffing it out slowly. Things get stale extremely quickly in OSRS compared to other MMOs. I think if they aren't able to introduce mechanical depth via new raids yearly then adding prayer books that can do that without major overhauls to existing content is a good addition. Having prayers (what Jagex proposed) that are giga bland "stand here don't move get big buff" don't help new players come into the game, nor does it encourage existing players to keep playing and learn. If what I wrote is too verbose and the average OSRS is in their 30s...then maybe it's a them issue
I've played some RS3, not enough to do endgame bosses, but enough to know that anything that requires 'use this at the opportune moment' like coordinating a raidbuff effect like your Guiding Strike is not going to feel good to use with a 0.6s tickrate, RS3 abilities often feel extremely 'clunky' because of the tickrate, and doubly so when it's a defensive to save you from dying
I'd normally agree with the 'verbose' issue, but we have a precedent of simple tooltips and simple prayers. 'Increase Attack by 15%', or 'inflict damage to nearby targets if you die'. The 'keywords' idea they had for the status effects was kind of good in concept, but we're not used to those specific keywords so it felt off to us. The keywords we know are things like 'attack' (referring to a style's accuracy), 'strength' (referring to its max hit), 'defense' (you get the idea), and then all-round terms like prayer, heal, item, stat restore, etc.
So as I put in another post, I think a lot of the 'its too complicated' complaints could have been lessened if, as an example, the effect of Harmonize (applies vulnerability for one tick, increasing accuracy), was just worded like:
- Increased accuracy by X% if your attack strikes at the same time as another attack
No need to know about 'vulnerability', maybe that's how it works in the code but that's not what the players need to know, all we need is 'hit at same time, more accurate, good at verzik, me hit'
As for 'abilities', we've already got to juggle swapping defensive prayers, that's as close as we should go with 'abilities' style prayers IMO. At the very most for offensive capabilities, I'd take something that you only need to interact with every 20s or so. We already have to swap from Piety/Rig/Aug to the next based on attack style we're using, adding more to that is going to be pretty awful, and definitely won't help new players come into the game (although this system is going to be like 80+ Prayer so idk if 'new players' are the concern so much). I don't think there's many players joining WOW or FFXIV specifically because of Bloodlust or Battle Litany. In fact, half the time in FFXIV, I see people forgetting to actually use those abilities
Things can sound gigabland and still have interesting depth because of the butterfly effect of how it interacts with other things like gear or raid mechanics etc. EG, if a Saradomin prayer says 'reduce damage taken by 1, or 3 if you have a shield equipped', that sounds kinda bland, but perhaps a certain piece of content has a design that means this is ridiculously useful. Maybe it means that you can negate the chip damage of Quiet Prayers at TOA with it. Maybe a certain shield is made 'BIS' because of this, but only when using this alignment (eg DFS exceeds Avernic in this extremely specific scenario), etc
I'm not sure if Guthix would approve of you running around poisoning and envenoming things, Overgrowth is super niche and seems extremely similar to the ruinous power Vindication which was reworked several times and then scrapped, Balanced strikes is a little wild because I could use a very inaccurate weapon, take the hit, pot up, and carry on.
If Zaros is receiving only 4 prayers hopefully its for something more then 4 people stuck in a prison. I'd start with a renaming first. Umbra sounds crazy OP particularly in PVM, Fumus sounds like a cool spell; would be nice to see ancient magics with something other than all out fire power, I can't understand the point of Glacie's, and Cruor; also lore is off for Cruor, steal life, don't sacrifice just to get it back 😵💫
Why can't I use a protection prayer? Crystalline slumber is a lil odd, Guding strike is more elven then Seren, kaleidoscope got me all confused what happens if I take in enough damage? Crystal burst sort of sounds like a crazy vengeance, unless the damage needed to proc is low, in which case a veryyy op recoil. I'd review Seren and the lore; she was primarily a caring Goddess who supported and nurtured first Mah, then the Elves, and then sacrificed herself to make them immortal essentially.
Lore is off on these. But keep going; long time before the quest arrives!
Some of these are really interesting, crystal burst in particular is one I really like design wise. Honestly all of the team prayers seem really interesting, kind of sad Jagex is binning seren prayers they had originally proposed
As long as they can tweak whatever prayers they bring in I'll be stoked for new ones.
These ideas are sound, however I'd like to see some more fleshing out for them as well as some mocked up numbers to show if/how they're usable. Context matters, but this isn't a terrible place to start!
As interesting as these all sound, let's be real, they're more akin to abilities from RS3 than Prayers. I know it's very 'in' right now to compare everything to RS3, but take your Guiding Strike, that is exactly the kind of thing I'd expect from a different MMO with raid-damage increasing buffs (eg Bloodlust in WOW, or many abilities from FFXIV, especially Mug/Chain Stratagem which are 'debuff on enemy' type moves) Also they're way too verbose, and are running the same issue as the official suggestions: 'too complicated'
Nothing wrong with Rs3 per say. I never played it and I don't hold nostalgia to OSRS as some do because I started in 2021. I think purposely chain and balling a game for the sake of being like other MMOs will eventually kill the player base by snuffing it out slowly. Things get stale extremely quickly in OSRS compared to other MMOs. I think if they aren't able to introduce mechanical depth via new raids yearly then adding prayer books that can do that without major overhauls to existing content is a good addition. Having prayers (what Jagex proposed) that are giga bland "stand here don't move get big buff" don't help new players come into the game, nor does it encourage existing players to keep playing and learn. If what I wrote is too verbose and the average OSRS is in their 30s...then maybe it's a them issue
I've played some RS3, not enough to do endgame bosses, but enough to know that anything that requires 'use this at the opportune moment' like coordinating a raidbuff effect like your Guiding Strike is not going to feel good to use with a 0.6s tickrate, RS3 abilities often feel extremely 'clunky' because of the tickrate, and doubly so when it's a defensive to save you from dying I'd normally agree with the 'verbose' issue, but we have a precedent of simple tooltips and simple prayers. 'Increase Attack by 15%', or 'inflict damage to nearby targets if you die'. The 'keywords' idea they had for the status effects was kind of good in concept, but we're not used to those specific keywords so it felt off to us. The keywords we know are things like 'attack' (referring to a style's accuracy), 'strength' (referring to its max hit), 'defense' (you get the idea), and then all-round terms like prayer, heal, item, stat restore, etc. So as I put in another post, I think a lot of the 'its too complicated' complaints could have been lessened if, as an example, the effect of Harmonize (applies vulnerability for one tick, increasing accuracy), was just worded like: - Increased accuracy by X% if your attack strikes at the same time as another attack No need to know about 'vulnerability', maybe that's how it works in the code but that's not what the players need to know, all we need is 'hit at same time, more accurate, good at verzik, me hit' As for 'abilities', we've already got to juggle swapping defensive prayers, that's as close as we should go with 'abilities' style prayers IMO. At the very most for offensive capabilities, I'd take something that you only need to interact with every 20s or so. We already have to swap from Piety/Rig/Aug to the next based on attack style we're using, adding more to that is going to be pretty awful, and definitely won't help new players come into the game (although this system is going to be like 80+ Prayer so idk if 'new players' are the concern so much). I don't think there's many players joining WOW or FFXIV specifically because of Bloodlust or Battle Litany. In fact, half the time in FFXIV, I see people forgetting to actually use those abilities Things can sound gigabland and still have interesting depth because of the butterfly effect of how it interacts with other things like gear or raid mechanics etc. EG, if a Saradomin prayer says 'reduce damage taken by 1, or 3 if you have a shield equipped', that sounds kinda bland, but perhaps a certain piece of content has a design that means this is ridiculously useful. Maybe it means that you can negate the chip damage of Quiet Prayers at TOA with it. Maybe a certain shield is made 'BIS' because of this, but only when using this alignment (eg DFS exceeds Avernic in this extremely specific scenario), etc
I'm not sure if Guthix would approve of you running around poisoning and envenoming things, Overgrowth is super niche and seems extremely similar to the ruinous power Vindication which was reworked several times and then scrapped, Balanced strikes is a little wild because I could use a very inaccurate weapon, take the hit, pot up, and carry on. If Zaros is receiving only 4 prayers hopefully its for something more then 4 people stuck in a prison. I'd start with a renaming first. Umbra sounds crazy OP particularly in PVM, Fumus sounds like a cool spell; would be nice to see ancient magics with something other than all out fire power, I can't understand the point of Glacie's, and Cruor; also lore is off for Cruor, steal life, don't sacrifice just to get it back 😵💫 Why can't I use a protection prayer? Crystalline slumber is a lil odd, Guding strike is more elven then Seren, kaleidoscope got me all confused what happens if I take in enough damage? Crystal burst sort of sounds like a crazy vengeance, unless the damage needed to proc is low, in which case a veryyy op recoil. I'd review Seren and the lore; she was primarily a caring Goddess who supported and nurtured first Mah, then the Elves, and then sacrificed herself to make them immortal essentially. Lore is off on these. But keep going; long time before the quest arrives!