Change AFK Check on Ultimate

it should be after the 1st and give it a 10 second cast time + a 10min cooldown, solves leeching too, screw those guys who main mages, should've picked a real class

 

Addressing both of these since while I do somewhat agree with the 2nd there is a bit of a disconnect where I don't think you should have to be overly cognizant and the AFK check is overdoing it's job if you do in traditional gameplay. The amount of casts should be something kept handy if you're intentionally scumming the AFK check but frankly it's run into all too often compared to AFK check on regular skills which I would try to compare this to as I see that as a legitimate functional system preventing bot-like gameplay. You shouldn't be keeping count of casts as some sort of gameplay aspect, you could consider it a "skill check" of some sorts but I don't think most players would enjoy this as an added aspect of gameplay from vanilla. Not including SI in boss runs, most ultimates run into this check within around 15-18 seconds whereas regular abilites although much more variable I'd guess wouldn't run into this much more often than every 40+ seconds. A skilled player can still use raid boss timers to judge when they should probably scum the check if they truly haven't needed to adjust in that larger amount of time and I'd guess setting ultimates to 10 casts wouldn't even meet that 40 second mark for most of them needing to scum after about 30-36 seconds at that point which would be more in-line. Really the only argument I see for 5 casts is nerfing people who intend to bypass the check rhythmically anyway but please don't let that be a reason to affect regular methods of play, at that point just crack down on the abusers some other way.

Incidentally, I do think a positive change that came from the initiative of setting it to 5 casts is this discussion where I believe there should be a parallel in similar *timings* the AFK check halts attacks rather than a blanket 100 casts for even the shortest or longest of cast times, although I truly believe damaging in it's current state.

 

Here's an example, I got knocked away from the spot I'm trying to cast from, teleport back and still AFK check kicks in, worth mentioning the mitigation of AFK check is very peculiar and most players like me probably don't know what's happening with this, it's obvious you don't just have to move, you have to completely change your cast patterns. After this I casted a couple more, AFK'd on a ladder nearby for a while, then it only took 3 casts in the same spot to proc the check when I got back as if the first 2 casts were still registered... I intend to cast an ability relatively in the same spot, and often times enemies force me to cast in different places so it wouldn't be a big deal if it weren't for the fact that it's 5 casts and isn't mitigated by being knocked down, teleporting back, travelling all the way to the ladder on the right, etc. It's pretty ridiculous.

 

When it's a "necessary evil" is this as some nerf to full-screen ultimates themselves or afk/multiclient/etc. other abusers as well? If it's a nerf to ultimates/leeching it doesn't do a very good job as you get much more eph moving around the map and I do this simply to near safely kill Lyka and I'm sure other mages also move around as spawns often clutter in different areas. If the later, all the scenarios people have mentioned in this thread shouldn't suffer the checks as a consequence and intentionally scumming at 10 casts isn't that much different from 5 anyway, but the collateral consequence on others is harsher since the scummer knows what they're getting into anyway. Not to mention it still disproportionately affects ultimates compared to other skills time-wise like I mentioned earlier, it probably takes ~1/3 of the time to get AFK checked on an ultimate from a regular skill. You can adapt sure, but I don't think that's on anyone's list of things they enjoy doing on maple especially when server specific.

Personally, I'll adapt if there's no change. I don't have anything else to add really, I'm just condensing some information since I want this to be my last post on this. At this point all I could really do is go through the effort of adding more examples but I think people know AFK check isn't as simple as "move away and back" to mitigate it now at least, it forces you away from position whether that position is beneficial to you or not. To me this shouldn't exist as it only did in vanilla as a flimsy anti-botting method and the 'added depth' is much more intrusive than it could ever be engaging and interesting.

 

I mentioned that along with it, I was just pointing out all of the arguments I could conjure up even if not mentioned. My main position was 10 casts is balanced for regular players w/ other skills having similar afk check timings and if 10 is too easy on multiclient it should be cracked down on in a different way that doesn't change others' experience negatively. Up to staff to decide whether that's logical or not.