Blackout is never, ever, useless. 1v1 combat rarely happens in Lusternia, and it's in group combat that the blackout is insane, and you're even admitting it can happen. The mage can keep someone permanently blacked out, even if he/she does nothing else. The rest of the group can attack without him/her seeing these attacks, knowing their health, knowing what afflictions they're getting, knowing if they're on/off bal/eq. Blackout is very powerful.

3746h, 6226m, 5612e, 10p, 14510en, 26960w exk---\\\\14:38:48:265//
Holding a radiant symbol of love before her, Sheia makes the Sign of Raziela at
you, and you are engulfed in pink light.
---\\\\14:38:51:000//
Your senses return to you as the blackout ends.
3746h, 6226m, 5612e, 10p, 14510en, 26960w exkp---\\\\14:38:52:984//

3603h, 5915m, 5612e, 10p, 14510en, 26960w exkp---\\\\14:40:46:140//
Holding a radiant symbol of love before her, Sheia makes the Sign of Raziela at
you, and you are engulfed in pink light.
---\\\\14:40:47:531//
Your senses return to you as the blackout ends.
3603h, 5915m, 5612e, 10p, 14510en, 26960w exkp---\\\\14:40:49:515//
You remove 1 kombu, bringing the total in the Rift to 43.
3603h, 5915m, 5612e, 10p, 14510en, 26960w exkp---\\\\14:40:50:203//
You eat kombu seaweed.
You shake your head and clear it of vapors.
3603h, 5915m, 5612e, 10p, 14510en, 26960w exkp---\\\\14:40:50:375//
Holding a radiant symbol of love before her, Sheia makes the Sign of Raziela at
you, and you are engulfed in pink light.
---\\\\14:40:50:859//
You may eat or smoke another herb.
---\\\\14:40:52:062//
Your senses return to you as the blackout ends.
3603h, 5915m, 5612e, 10p, 14510en, 26960w exkp---\\\\14:40:52:843//
You remove 1 kombu, bringing the total in the Rift to 42.
3603h, 5915m, 5612e, 10p, 14510en, 26960w exkp---\\\\14:40:53:687//
You eat kombu seaweed.
You shake your head and clear it of vapors.
3603h, 5915m, 5612e, 10p, 14510en, 26960w exkp---\\\\14:40:53:859//
Holding a radiant symbol of love before her, Sheia makes the Sign of Raziela at
you, and you are engulfed in pink light.
---\\\\14:40:54:859//
You may eat or smoke another herb.
---\\\\14:40:55:468//nod

You nod your head emphatically.
---\\\\14:40:56:765//
Your senses return to you as the blackout ends.
3603h, 5915m, 5612e, 10p, 14510en, 26960w exkp---\\\\14:40:57:140//'thanks

Wow. I can see what everyone's going insane over. Yeah. That's really rough. Now that we have a visual on the use of Raziela's Symbol for Vapors, I think that point of the argument can stop.

If you're speaking of Judgement, it has three or four messages, not just a start message.

If the Celestine is using active vapors, then they won't be doing anything else.

If you invest more than three powers into your archangel, it becomes too unpredictable for combat.
I believe that's that. Sorry, but from those Symbol tests, you can't complain about the Razielan Vapors. If you want to continue this discussion, please send me a PM. This thread is about Blackout Motes, and it has suffered enough derailing already.

I'd never argue that blackout is useless! It's by far my favourite embeddable mote, and probably my major reason for sticking with Dreamweaving (a skillset that leaves me cold otherwise). I do agree with Ferlas, though, that it seems a lot less dangerous in the hands of a mage/druid than in those of a Celestine. And I also agree that there are many, many abilities that can screw someone over quite badly in group combat. If you've got one person dedicated to nothing but hindering you, and a bunch of others pounding on you... you're dead, no matter what the hindering is. How's that an argument?

You say, "Okay."
3603h, 5612m, 5612e, 10p, 14510en, 26960w exk---\\\\14:56:03:578//'just one

You say, "Just one."
3603h, 5612m, 5612e, 10p, 14510en, 26960w exk---\\\\14:56:05:921//
You smile softly.
3603h, 5612m, 5612e, 10p, 14510en, 26960w exk---\\\\14:56:06:687//
Gillin plucks a mote from his dreamcatcher.
3603h, 5612m, 5612e, 10p, 14510en, 26960w exk-
Gillin makes a flicking motion at you with his hands.
A sudden shiver shoots up your spine, making you involuntarily jerk as a
creeping sensation crawls over your skin.
---\\\\14:56:07:046//
You remove 1 kafe, bringing the total in the Rift to 12.
---\\\\14:56:07:234//
---\\\\14:56:07:406//
You may eat or smoke another herb.
---\\\\14:56:09:078//
Your senses return to you as the blackout ends.
3603h, 5612m, 5612e, 10p, 14510en, 26960w exk---\\\\14:56:15:000//'okay. And again?

You say, "Okay. And again?"
3603h, 5612m, 5612e, 10p, 14510en, 26960w exk---\\\\14:56:17:312//
Gillin plucks a mote from his dreamcatcher.
3603h, 5612m, 5612e, 10p, 14510en, 26960w exk---\\\\14:56:20:890//
Gillin makes a flicking motion at you with his hands.
A sudden shiver shoots up your spine, making you involuntarily jerk as a
creeping sensation crawls over your skin.
---\\\\14:56:21:265//
You remove 1 kafe, bringing the total in the Rift to 11.
---\\\\14:56:21:437//
---\\\\14:56:21:625//
You may eat or smoke another herb.
---\\\\14:56:23:281//
Your senses return to you as the blackout ends.
3603h, 5612m, 5612e, 10p, 14510en, 26960w exk---\\\\14:56:28:937//'and once more?

You smile and say, "And once more?"
3603h, 5612m, 5612e, 10p, 14510en, 26960w exk---\\\\14:56:30:359//
Gillin plucks a mote from his dreamcatcher.
3603h, 5612m, 5612e, 10p, 14510en, 26960w exk---\\\\14:56:35:187//
Gillin makes a flicking motion at you with his hands.
A sudden shiver shoots up your spine, making you involuntarily jerk as a
creeping sensation crawls over your skin.
---\\\\14:56:35:484//
You remove 1 kafe, bringing the total in the Rift to 10.
---\\\\14:56:35:671//
---\\\\14:56:35:843//
You may eat or smoke another herb.
---\\\\14:56:37:468//
Your senses return to you as the blackout ends.
3603h, 5612m, 5612e, 10p, 14510en, 26960w exk---\\\\14:56:43:250//'wonderful. Thank you.

You smile and say, "Wonderful. Thank you."

You can move one room if you don't want to keep getting hit with the passive blackout. You can shield or hinder the druid during active blackout. If you just sit there and do nothing, of course it looks bad. There are ways to reduce the impact of it. I can't say I make much use of active blackout when I'm in my demesne, because there are far better things I can be doing. It's just one of the very few useful abilities I have out of my demesne as a Dreamweaver.

I meant symbols blackout.

Are you suggesting the recovery length on puncture should be longer? Remember that mugwumps are the extreme.

You can hinder them during active blackout, but active blackout is very long, as you can see. 8 seconds, about...that means you can usually get two actions in, so maybe dissolving the shield/writhing out and then sapping, just as one example.

There's a 2-3 second recovery time on flicking a mote. That leaves 5-6 sec of blackout in which the mage/druid can act. Like Ferlas said earlier, the druid gets time for 2 active abilities. Hinder or shield, and you've probably cut that time down to one active ability. If it's sap, note that you're probably not webbed at this point (as the druid's been busy puncturing/flicking memoryloss), and unless the swarm hit between the beginning of blackout and the sap, you're going to cleanse on the very first "sticky" message. Passive blackout is plenty useful in sticking sap. Active blackout, not so much, because you don't have time to vine beforehand.

In conclusion (because I'm very late for work!) I think it looks a lot nastier in theory than it is in practice, and logs of people standing there, not moving, not fighting back, while someone flicks memoryloss at them, aren't indicative of what this skill is like in action.

This piece of information was missing:
Dreamweavers cannot make a (new) puncture while their target has blackout.

That means that as long as you cure the punctured aurea, dreamweavers cannot stack more then two blackouts. If you cure with focus spirit after a blackout, the second cannot be stacked.

If a dreamweaver embeds memoryloss in a demesne, he needs to track the timing very good if to use motes, or the blackout from the demesne will ruin a third of the punctures.

If you're an experienced combatant, you'd generally notice the fact that you're opponent has stopped doing anything altogether and you'll tumble or fly or something. Generally, though, if someone spends a lot of power afflicting you and hindering you, then they deserve the win. If they spend time setting up the kill, then they're going to get you. But I do think Soulless should cost power. It's strong, I'll give you that.

@Ashteru

You can move one room if you don't want to keep getting hit with the passive blackout.