Okay, I've been doing some testing with shofangi abilities, and I think they need help. I'm not the envoy, but I've heard several people talk about how OP we are, so I'd like to go through and point out why we are actually behind if anything, and look for suggestions how to help balance us without making us OP. I'll start with psymet first, and work into the other skills later.

EDIT: OOPS...forgot I couldn't post skillsets. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check the wiki!

So basically...gliding is useful, but could be replaced by an enchant. Ironskin and Energycontainment are nice for increased defense. Bonedensity can sometimes be useful for hunting, but the chance to resist a broken limb seems pretty low, so it is not usually even noticeable - I've had people ask if it even did anything. Regeneration is okay, but nothing amazing, especially since chanting any -PHET mantra will already give 5% regeneration. Any monk with harmony can regen 15% health, this extra 5% isn't usually worth using. Doublepain doesn't increase enough to be noticeable (average around 10 wounds per kick), Pheremones can be replaced with an elixir, forcedsymmetry actually helps the enemy in most cases, and suspended animation can't really be used for the purpose for which I assume it was intended.

Skills I might actually miss if I forgot psymet: Biocurrents, Enhancement, possibly Ironskin or Energycontainment, I haven't even tested how much they help. I'd like to see SuspendedAnimation work regardless of afflictions, Lifedrain increased to 15% of the damage done, Regeneration completely replaced since it is redundant, and DoublePain increased to 10% wounding bonus. That still leaves us with some useless and redundant skills, but makes the skillset overall worth taking.

Anyone else have any ideas/arguments? This is only the first in a series of skillsets, I intend to go over the others too. Harmony is probably okay, but Shofangi, to say the least, needs help.

I haven't actually tried PsyMet, since I don't have a monk alt and I'm waiting patiently for the Mag monks, so keep in mind that this is an armchair assessment. I thought that the key thing about Gliding was that you could GLIDE as a sprinting that worked on water. Granted this is only marginally useful (although the Illwater lake and those adoraths springs to mind) but it's still better than the enchantment. Especially for people who don't have another form of sprinting. Correct me if I'm wrong about that.

And not all monks get Harmony, so for some of us PsyMet Regen is the only regeneration we'll get. Even if it's not particularly useful, it's not redundant for 1/2 (or 1/3 ) of the proposed monk population.

Gliding gives sprint, and it's not locked, so for a mastery skill it's perfectly fine.

You could still get almost as much health from using Lifedrain, (maybe even more if you're not horribly hindered). Having both of them is still redundant since they require locked channels, it is never worthwhile to use both. If we keep regeneration, we could replace lifedrain instead.

Again, I don't have PsyMet, but I would imagine you'd use them for different things.

As a Telekinetic when bashing something like the krokani tower my locked channels are Forcefield, Psiarmour, and Ironwill. Ironwill is only a 75 (I think. Might possibly be 150.) ego balance every tick, but it helps.

Does Lifedrain work against mobs? Against the weaker creatures I'll use any regeneration I can get, to use as few sips as possible, so I'd most likely use Regen. From what I understand, Lifedrain is not the type of skill that would be useful for general hunting. So the two still wouldn't be redundant.

Ironwill doesn't help monks at all. (Nor does introspection, which is in psymet, bizarrely.)

Lifedrain doesn't work on mobs.

Lifedrain drains 10% of the damage you do, meaning like...90 per combo at best. And that's a fairly good combo, initially it's more likely to be -20-. By the time it gets to doing 200 (gasp!) they're already dead. It is laughably irrelevant.

Regeneration seems to be useful for bashing. I tend to put up psiarmour, enhancement spread and regen. This is currently only because I am unsure about how stacking psiarmour works though, because if it works differently to how I think it does, it's actually just better than regen if you use two channels on it.

Bonedensity seems to have a 30% chance to work, and it doesn't seem to work on all the things that do "withered" limbs or whatever. I haven't bothered testing it lately though, that might have changed.

It doesn't work on mobs, which is a good point. I might have had it backwards before - it might be better to keep regeneration, and scrap lifedrain. Lifedrain is the one that becomes redundant, since it restores so little (our damage is pretty bad).

Psiarmour doesn't stack.

Having multiple channels of Psiarmour, Ironwill, or Biofeedback (same type) just wastes channels. Does anyone know if Psiarmour and Ironskin stack?

Also, if CellAdjustment works the way I think it does, then it should be really good for illithoids. They already have decent con, and with over 6k ego at only 73, that should fuel a body good. What's the conversion rate? Even 1.5:1 isn't bad.

It's not so much a conversion rate. It's just an ability that heals a certain percentage of your health, and costs ego (instead of mana) to use.

Oh. That might be even better. I was thinking it was like that skill that Aetolian/Achaean monks had that convert mana to health at a 2:1 ratio (or was it vice versa?)

Isn't it a bit redundant to say that it uses ego in the AB file, since all Psionic skills use ego instead of mana? Or do PsyMet skills use mana?

They all use ego. I am not sure why they put it in the help file...

It's really not useful, though. In the best case, it requires 4 seconds of balance since you have to use it with a channel. I have never used it, especially since the more useful psymet skills require locked channels. I rarely have one open to use this while I'm hunting, and even if I did it wouldn't be worth the time it takes to use it.

One thing you will need to account for also is that all monks will not be using harmony. Mag/Glom do not get that skillset, not sure what they will be getting yet, but Harmony is for Celest/Seren. So things like regen may be redundant for a Seren/Celest monk, but may not be for a Glom/Mag monk.

Did you read everything?

I think I can agree with this point and concede that maybe Regeneration should stay around as-is. With regeneration, though, lifedrain becomes redundant - it's never useful to use both at the same time. So, if we grant that regeneration might be needed for the other monk guilds, lifedrain still isn't.

Psh. I so already said that, and we've covered that topic.

Although do they not stack? I mean, I could see why there would be things that you'd rather be using, but why not the 5% health regeneration in addition to the 50 health every 1.5-3 seconds? It seems like you should just argue for the 15% of damage for lifedrain as you'd previously suggested, rather than taking the skill out entirely.

Because, like you said, there will always be other things you'd rather be using. While conceptually they might stack, in practice lifedrain because useless because people can use regeneration instead.

I'd like to see something done about cell adjustment. When I first saw it I thought woo, a healing ability. Then I tried it. With 3240 health I only heal around 200 per channel I use for it. So to heal around 6 or 700 i'd have to have ALL of my channels unlocked. Note that almost every ability in psymet requires a lock. So unless we want to gimp ourselves without most of psychometabolism just to heal it'd be better to just shield.

Delving into your body on a cellular level, you make seek out and repair any
damage.
2548h, 1980m, 2065e, 1p, 15100en, 8412w esSlrx-
(198h, 0m, -100e)
Delving into your body on a cellular level, you make seek out and repair any
damage.
2787h, 1980m, 1965e, 1p, 15100en, 8362w eSlrx-
(239h, 0m, -100e)

Be sure to message me with the stuff you come up with here, mind. It'll be put on the envoys list.

That being said, I'm pretty happy with PsyMet as a whole. Many useful skills in it, though some things (Celladjust, bonedensity, lifedrain etc.) could use a boost.

I don't think 5-6 is "many."

Their usefulness makes it seem that way.