Power

Power

A power in Shadowbane is an ability or talent granted to a character. Powers may be obtained through character creation or character development and are one of the hallmark differences and deciding factors between classes and factions within the world.

Mechanics

Powers can be both offensive and defensive (buffs). They are never passive and must always be activated by the user. Powers can be activated by either pressing on their cameo in your powers list, or by way of hotkey. Some powers have prerequisite conditions, such as a second party target, and most powers reuire a power cost, a tribute of mana, health, or stamina.

Types

Powers in Shadowbane fall into several archatypes:

• Area of Effect, or AoE, are powers which can affect many targets in a specific radial or spherical area.
• Buff, powers that benefit a player's combat ability for a limited period of time.
• Chant, which provide limitless buffs, but can be interrupted.
• Conversion, powers which convert health, stamina, or mana into a different variable.
• Damage, powers intended to inflict damage on other characters.
• Damage over Time or DoT powers, which spread inflicted damage out over a specific amount of time.
• Debuff, which negatively impact their target's combat ability for a limited period of time.
• Drain, which siphon health, mana, or stamina to the caster from the target.
• Effect Removal, powers that will strip players of timed effects such as buffs.
• Heal, which grant a player additional health or stamina.
• Heal over Time, which grant a player additional health in smaller increments over a period of time.
• Hone, which increase the destructive ability of weapons or the effectiveness of armor.
• Proc, that grant a weapon a 5% chance of discharging a burst of damage, or a drain.
• Recall, that teleport a player or a group of players to their home city or a runegate.
• Runegate Activation, which are powers intended to open specific runegate gates.
• Summon, which allow players to call fourth familiars or even other players.
• Tracking, which grant the ability to find out what PC's or NPC's exist in your surroundings.

Training

While some powers are granted at their full effectiveness, most powers may require training in order to increase it's potency. The benefits of training a power can include inflicted damage chance increase, protection amount, stat adjustment, power cost, duration, efficiency, success rate, or recast timer. Discipline-granted powers, in most cases, may only be trained to twenty, while powers granted by your class are usually able to reach the game's maximum power level of 40 or Grand Master.