I thought myrtle not needing balance was an oversight. If anyone recalls, it used to be an edible herb but we switched it to smokable and thus may have simply overlooked the balance issue.

However, this was some time ago and I honestly don't recall if myrtle not needing balance was done on purpose (and the envoys are pulling a fast one on me!). Geb, as usual, makes sense but I'd rather wait and see more repercussions before coming to a decision.

BTW, it has always been my position that deafness and blindness should be unwanted ailments and not defenses.

Hexsense had issues on validating targets which have been resolved. (So it seemed like sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't.)

I just don't use sixthsense. Ta-da. You can do it too, if you're not up to the risks involved.

All we have to do now is wait for Alger to whore Niricol.

Must... buy... niricol...

Thanks for the suggestion, Terenas!

But seriously, blindness is SUPPOSED to be a problem. Being able to instacure by munching myrtle right after something else makes the whole thing kind of pointless. There may be a problem with sixth sense, but the blindness itself as an affliction needed this change, and it really did look like a bug to have eating myrtle consume herb balance but not require it.

I don't mind blindness being a problem if the whole Mindseye/Blindness/Deafness system was easier to manage. Faeleaf should be divided into three herbs to serve three specific functions, not one herb that does all of it. Not only does it make it hard to manage deaf/blind but also make it an incredible pain in the neck to even get Mindseye up half the time.

Oh, something just came to me, we should get a skill called Blindfighting in Discernment or Discipline.

That could work. Have it be a constant willpower drain to put up and have it allow you to target when blind, like we used to be able to.

Not a bad idea at all.

You are only considering one aspect of the problem. Yes, blindness is suppose to be a problem. The other part of the problem is that there is an affliction that can only be stopped by being blind. Now I can just go the route of transcending jewelry and make a perfect gem for myself. With this change that you support, I could transfix, web, transfix, web add infinitum. You would be writhing continuously, giving me a chance to heal any progress you made when fighting me. A mage/druid or wiccan/guardian can have it even better, healing all of your progress while maintaining an offense of their own. So please look at the issue in more of a broad sense then just the narrow sense that blindness is suppose to be debilitating.

Perhaps the problem lies in having such a powerful ability available within a tradeskill?

Very well could be.

Blindness and deafness should be afflictions. The easiest way to do this, by far, is to just make them afflictions totally. There is nothing that being stupid prevents (except things you want to do). Either give us another defense against transfixation, or just remove it. How many abilities besides a perfect gem give it?

Is sensitivity without deafness really a problem? I've never in all my years seen anyone really use sensitivity, and thus never even thought of deafness as a defense against it. And if need be, we still have Lipread at least, so it seems more like blindness being a problem, and not both.

Sacraments Dazzle is Transfix. That's about it.

There is a skill in either celestialism or sacraments that transfixes. As for sensitivity, I know that many Nihilists use it in conjunction with omen to kill with their symbols, and that warriors used to use it, not so sure how popular that poison still is. Only things I know of besides transfix that are stopped by blind or deafness is banshees, and maybe one of the other Shadowdancer fae. Think some forms of dominate, too, as well as sensitivity.

Think I heard Nihilist dominate is stopped by deafness.

Nope I could tank the best damage warrior in the game unhindered as a wiccan and as a mage, this is as a mage with no defences that rely upon locked channels. Im a 11 con furrikin I shouldnt be able to do that warriors need a big damage increase.

Shadowdancers passive paralysis is stopped by deafness as well.

For all intensive purposes, even if Estarra doesn't want blindness/deafness to be a defense, in it's current state it is one.

I considered the % boosts on top of the stat boosts to be the biggest problem, note I can tank a lot of damage with no blessings, favours etc. If I got a life blessing and a tosha I would be immune to damage in any way and any from in a one on one situation. Thats what I thought was the problem everyone stacking the 10% increases to get insane health easily thus negating the damage side of the game.

How the hell is Ferlas so tanky? =/

Many classes could do this already, especially if utilizing sensitivity hexes (at a VERY small time-cost to throw), as well as dominating a myrtle eat (cure one blind/deaf), etc.

I wouldn't mind looking at changing sixth sense so it is a better defence against transfixion, but the actual blindness / deafness afflictions are actually afflictions with this change, which I do support completely.

Banshee is not stopped by blindness/deafness to my knowledge.

The problem lies in that Deafness/Blindness are also used as defenses, as well as blindness being a horribly debilating affliction, one of the worst around. If you are deffed up to avoid being transfixed over and over, than if you get hit by blindness, you need 3 herb balances to cure it. It's just simply not fair. I had believed that was the reason why myrtle and faeleaf worked as they did, but even then it was kind of unbalanced.

They should either remove transfix, or change the way you defend against. Or just simply allow you to eat faeleaf to put up sixthsense (even if you are blind and deaf), rather than eating myrtle twice to cure blindness/deafness than eating faeleaf. Same for when someone strips deafness, eat faeleaf once to put it back up with sixthsense. And make transfix work the same way, so it actually strips blindness rather than doing nothing, and you can just eat faeleaf to put blindness back up along with sixth sense. Myrtle would be reserved for actually removing blindness and deafness.

Intensive purposes!

Sixth sense is the defense you want, though blind/deaf is a side effect.

Blindness/deafness are ailments that you shouldn't want.

Hmm... What if sixth sense acted as though you were blind/deaf for skills but didn't actually give you the side effect... just a thought, haven't thought it through too much.