As much as I like the idea of playing with Fear on intimidation, especially when it goes off at an inopportune time, the removal is appropriate for group and soloing standpoints. The stun component is a great idea, I support this product and/or service.
The addition of stun to the table of effects intimidation has will be very welcome, and extremely useful. As it stands now, and even when the stun is put in, the other effects of intimidation are negligible to the point that the skill is really only used to generate aggro. I'm curious if the other effects could be looked at to create more utility. The two effects, aside from fear, are:
Pressure (%t looks pressured): No idea what affect this has on the mob; spell parser lists "Pressure" as "Bind Sight." I assume this is a failure of the parser's ability to read the spell and pressure actually has an effect on it. Would it be possible to make the spell landing text a bit more descriptive, so players have a better idea of what just happened. ie, "%t looks pressured and attacks carelessly with abandon" Rather than %t looks pressured: wow intimidation just did something, but no idea what. Pressure would be the ideal effect for intimidation (the objective result for using the ability) by causing the mob to fear for it's life and, breaking it's concentration of the fight, open itself up for attack and lower damage output. Perhaps this is already what it does, but as stated I've not been able to learn exactly what this effect does through parsing or duels.
Defensive (%t goes on the defensive): Spell parser reads "Decrease Dexterity by 50, Increase Agility by 50." This effect is pretty nifty and a nice balance to what I assume pressure does. My only suggestion would be to add a very small melee slow component (~5%)
Both of these effects are very short in duration, perhaps 15-25 seconds at most. Would it be possible to see the durations increased to a minimum of 30 seconds, OR have the chances of these effects processing increased? As they are currently, I can tell virtually no difference in my dps, or my tanking ability, while soloing mobs when these effects go off.
As a balance to the positive effects of intimidation, there's already a counter effect in place: Intimidation can backfire and the mob will "Lash out in anger" which, from what I can tell, is like a mini rampage; the mob will strike players within melee range (or perhaps like rampage, the top 3 on the aggro list including the monk) for one combat round. (As a side note, I can't count the times people ask what the hell "lashes out in anger" means, in groups and raids. Leading me to believe not many people currently use the skill, or I'm just unlucky with the random number generator and fail often. :toot: ) To balance any tweaks added to the other effects, this intimidation backfire could be increased as well, perhaps the mob automatically striking the intimidator multiple times. Or adding a slight debuff to the player; I tried to intimidate this mob, but it absolutely failed and the mob in turn intimidated me, thus wavering my attacks/defense.
Thoughts/opinions?
edit: I knew I forgot the third effect of intimidation: Insecurity (%t looks insecure) Parser says "Lowers Dexterity by 50." This is "Defensive" without the mob gaining a bonus to agility. This is an unnecissary effect, I think it should be removed and have pressure/defensive effects tweaked (especially give pressure a new name; pressure sounds like the mob is on a deadline to get that project to the jefe grande on time, or else he's going to lose his hawaiian shirt day priviliges.) Combined with such a short duration, the lack of potency of these effects is incredibly negligible. I'm not going to sucessfully land an insecurity and then not intimidate the rest of the fight, for fear of accidentally landing a defensive. Or land a defensive and then hammer the skill like mad to hope for a pressure/insecurity. As I said, the skill in it's current form is a tool to generate extra aggro. It should present more utility to groups/raids.
I think the aggro is just a byproduct of the debuffs.