Panflute is terrorizing PvP

[Gi-Go]

Now, I know that the wast majority of players dosen't care about pvp, and I know klei forgot it even exists, but I LOVE it and would take a pvp server over a casual survival any day. And I'm not alone. I play a pvp server with up to 14 players almost every day and it's a genuinely good experience. 

While pvp has some balance issues, they are mostly overshadowed by the fact that in a current meta 17 out of 18 characters are actually viable with their own unique perks and strategies. Even Wes is unironically useful, providing speed for his teammates, protecting them from lighting book and Wx78's electric modules, and even having additional stuns on the ice staff. The variety makes the game feel somewhat balanced because everyone is OP in their own way. 

But there is 1 item that ruins pretty much every game. And that's the panflute. For years, players used an animation canceling glitch to deal with this nonsense item, which still made you slow but at least you could actually fight back. But resently klei fixed that glitch and animation canceling out of sleep is no longer possible. Fixing glitches is *probably* good for the game, but by doing so klei kinda ruined PvP. And that's the reason I wanna adress this issue. I am not asking for the glitch to come back - I'm asking for panflute to be toned down when used on players. I wish players would only get slowed down by flute instead of becoming completely immobilized. It's not much to ask for right? Just a minor change like the ones klei already did before, like decreasing player to player damage by 50% and Abigail to player damage by 75% (for some reason). 

Anyways, why is panflute such a big deal compared to other busted items or perks? A couple reasons. Firstly, Wortox issue. Wortox is already the most obnoxious character in pvp, combine that with panflute (and he WILL get his hands on it first) and have fun trying to deal with him. Second, very fast animation and an element of surprise. Compare this with sleep book. While it has about 3 times the range - it's very slow and predictable. Wikerbottom will have it. Duh. And while she casts it you can simply light something on fire to damage yourself and stay awake. With panflute however you have no clue who has it untill it's too late. You won't have the time to burn yourself unless you just stay in the fire forever which is not a good idea. And lastly, no good strategy to counter. For example Willow's moon flame is definetly overpowered and can one shot almost every character regardless of their equipment. But weremoose wigfrid and beefalo can tank her. She also can't use her magic when she is stunned, and that is paired with her vulnerability to ice staff. Panflute has no real counters. Wait, what about shroom cakes? Yeah, I know they exist. But they suck so much. They don't make you immune to being slowed down and they don't even give you immunity similar to the one wiker has. Instead of falling asleep from 1 use you get put to sleep from 2. You can eat cooked moon cap after every panflute use, but you will need to get from 30 to 50 to infinite number of these caps (if the flute guy has green staff). But that's not the biggest issue. The biggest issue is how collecting shroom cakes and moon caps is the opposite of fun. You have to go to caves even if you don't want to, you probably have to find all 3 mushroom forests, and then you will get to taste the moon shroom tree chopping experience. This will take forever, a valuable time you could spend on gearing up completely wasted just to deal with 1 item. I also find it ridiculous that every single player on the server has to go to the one specific cave biome just to have the ability to fight back instead of being a punching bag. 

So yeah, please nerf panflute or general sleep mechanic in pvp, or at least buff the shroom cake (and the other 2 grotto dishes for that matter they all are pretty bad). 

[Sustenance]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3168570614

[Fufuji]

Panflute is also one of the most powerful items for PVE. just ban it using mods when hosting PVE servers.

[Notecja]

While I don't really care for PVP I can understand your pain and upvote the idea. I can see why is so much troublematic. Hopefully someone will listen, as not everything can be solved with mods (rip console players).

[Sikers]

I think Rabbit Earmuffs should protect against the panflute effect and all sound effects in general, such as the Beargear yawn or Moose-Goose scream, similar to the Hamlet DLC where the earmuffs provide protection against one of the Queen Womants attacks

[Jakepeng99]

2 hours ago, Sikers said:

I think Rabbit Earmuffs should protect against the panflute effect and all sound effects in general, such as the Beargear yawn or Moose-Goose scream, similar to the Hamlet DLC where the earmuffs provide protection against one of the Queen Womants attacks

I thought rabbit ear muffs already protected against the panflute?

[Well-met]

1 hour ago, Jakepeng99 said:

I thought rabbit ear muffs already protected against the panflute?

nope. Nothing can protect from any sound mechanic in dst

[Gi-Go]

5 hours ago, Sikers said:

I think Rabbit Earmuffs should protect against the panflute effect and all sound effects in general, such as the Beargear yawn or Moose-Goose scream, similar to the Hamlet DLC where the earmuffs provide protection against one of the Queen Womants attacks

Nevermind what I suggested. This is what I want. 

[Jakepeng99]

20 hours ago, Well-met said:

nope. Nothing can protect from any sound mechanic in dst

I remember someone saying they could and sent a video. I might check later today.

[MondayNight]

On 2/26/2024 at 5:48 AM, Gi-Go said:

Now, I know that the wast majority of players dosen't care about pvp, and I know klei forgot it even exists, but I LOVE it and would take a pvp server over a casual survival any day. And I'm not alone. I play a pvp server with up to 14 players almost every day and it's a genuinely good experience.

I presume you mean one of the 6 below Chinese servers:

Fun fact: PvP seems to be "alive" only through the above 6 CHN servers and that's it. Rest of them are empty almost always.

Likewise, the matter of numbers: 115 out of 9583 total atm of this post. That's 1.2% total PvP servers. And among them, solely 6 have activity, meaning ~0.063%. With ~80 people tops (am sure they aren't recurrent, as is the case with most bulk players' habits: majority solely try casually). Do you, OP, really believe KLei will bother to balance PvP further in short-to-midterm for such minuscule player-base when you, the server hosters, could organize yourselves to deploy personalized PvP re-balance mods?! Surely you know all major communities out there have "in-house" programmers making mods for their servers; why not doing that and instead demanding dev re-balance it for you when they seemingly have the "plate full" with content updates?! Am sure even random modders watching these forums could easily help you if asked (via special post in Mods section of DST forums).

Edited February 28 by MondayNight