Hey, as most of us know the monk skill “Bodyslam” doesn’t actually do anything, and hasn’t for a very long time. At this time all it does is knock the user down on the ground. I was thinking about it, and I have some suggestions for a way to make it useable. As I’m not a coder, I have no idea if this is doable, or how difficult it would be, but here’s my idea:
Instead of making bodyslam useable only to initiate combat, like it’s supposed to be now, make it useable mid-fight as a way to do some damage and put a mob on the ground. Monks already have a good combat initiator in deathgrip, so no one would use bodyslam even if it did work that way. I suggest making it so that if a mob is off balance from things like trip or bash, something like “X stumbles but regains his balance” or “starts to sway”, then you an use bodyslam to put them on the ground (depending on mob size and user strength and/or level) and do damage based on mob size and use strength (Heavier mobs take more strength to slam, but take more damage from the heavier impact).
I think this would go great with the spirit of the monk class (technical close combat fighting) and would be a great way to control/damage a mob when combined with things like trip, bash, and stomp without being too overpowered.
Thoughts?
make it auto rebash maybe?
I can tell you from a code point of view that the skill does do something but it’s looks to be quite hard to successfully perform - even at level 40. I haven’t looked at the various melee skills to know if the damage it does is substantial or not, though. Maybe it’s time to build a table of melee skills and rank them based on the damage they do?
that would be very helpful.
So at the moment, no one can say exactly what bodyslam does and it’s obvious it doesn’t always succeed.
I agree that we at least need to know what it does.
My suggestion would be for a bodyslam to be a successful knock over of a mob, as if it fell down on the ground after 2-4 bashes/trips - and it reduces it’s hitroll by 1 (if falling down doesn’t do this already).
This way, bodyslam can be useful to stomp, if the mob doesnt hit hard, or to reduce hitroll, if it’s a hard hitting mob, which people blast down, rather than chop.
The current behavior is to do damage and to affect balance. The amount of damage is proportional to the combined body weight of the attacker and victim. The victim takes additional damage if at 100% of max hp. The current chance of success is proportional to the percentage learned of the spell. There are no other modifiers.
Bodyslam was greatly reduced after its initial introduction because warriors were never meant to have an opening attack comparable to that of a thief. Honestly, it probably should have never been added to the game and it was quickly adjusted.
I wouldn’t mind seeing it adjusted to have more impact during a battle rather than initiating it!
Enjoy,
Splork
Just as a quick clarification, bodyslam is a level 35 monk skill, not a warrior skill.
I tried to look back into my emails but I’ve lost access to the account I had when Bodyslam was added. I know there were serious issues with it when it got added without everyone’s blessing. I could of swore it had to do with the warrior class but maybe my memory is buggy at the moment!