I've been seeing a lot of threads lately relating to the forgotten Sleep status, where the OP wasn't aware of how broken it currently is. As a response, I thought I might explore a few ways to actually fix Sleep and make it a more balanced status. First, however, we must ask one question:
What is wrong with Sleep?
Short and to the point, Sleep is even more overpowered than Freeze on steroids. You can't attack, shield, move, or use Remedy or health capsules to heal yourself while under it, and there's no getting out of it until the timer runs out; getting hit doesn't wake you up. However, as overpowered as it is, it can become a knight's best friend, because you heal while sleeping, so you can just have your friends hold off the Slooms while you recover all of your health. It's broken in more ways than one.
So here's where the solutions come in:
The new Sleep
+ Before going to Sleep, you enter a 3-4 second period of Drowsiness. Nothing is changed while you're Drowsy, but it gives you a chance to use a Remedy Capsule to get rid of the Sleep, or if you're stuck in the middle of an angry mob of enemies, you have the chance to get away to a safer area
+ When you're Sleeping, your defenses get fortified by 33% (possibly 50% in Tier 3), and your resistance to all other statuses get a similar buff
+ HP regeneration is gone
+ When you wake up, you're invincible for a quick few seconds; this is so that if you get caught in Sloombargo's mist and it isn't gone before you awaken, you have a chance to get away instead of getting put right back to Sleep
+ You can't have Sleep status be re-inflicted; meaning, if you get hit with a Sleep-based attack while you're Sleeping, and the timer is on 4, the timer won't go back up to 8
+ If you get hit with a strong attack or get hit too frequently, you immediately wake up with a few health pips restored (not enough to make the status easily exploitable)
+ You can't be asleep for more than 9 seconds; that's the absolute strongest it can get even at Depth 27 and 28
+ Overall, Sleep has a slightly lower chance of being inflicted on players than any other status (unless I eventually cook up a Curse fix) which isn't enough to completely nerf its effect, but enough to keep you from constantly being put to Sleep when you're fighting a swarm of Slooms
+ The animation is slowed down a bit; it looks too jittery at the moment
+ AMENDMENT: With Sleep resistance from the Royal Jelly Set and UVs, the amount of hits it takes to wake up is decreased. Thanks to Jenova for pointing this out
With these tweaks, more Sleep-themed enemies and levels, in addition to the existing Slooms and Starlight Cradle, could come about in the Clockworks. It would be a waste if only two enemies could deal it and only five levels featured it, anyway, that would make it an even more wasted status than Curse. "Sleeping Dogs," the Sleep-based Gun Puppies, could be like Red Rovers and spray a trail Sleep mist similar to the Sloombargo's, rather than fire bullets.
Now, with improvements to enemies' use of Sleep also comes improvements to players' use of it. The Sleep Vial as it stands is garbage, because Freeze can do what Sleep does much better, and Freeze also doesn't HEAL THE ENEMIES. However, if using this status against enemies and it boosted their defense by 33 or 50%, it would still be largely inferior to Freeze, wouldn't it? Here's what I propose for the version of Sleep we can use with Vials and weapons: Same alterations as above, except no invulnerability period upon waking, no health restoration if the enemy gets hit too hard or frequently and defense buff isn't as high. This is so that it's a force to be reckoned with when using it against foes, and not completely worthless like the Sleep Vials are now.
In regards to Sleep-themed weapons: I want a Sleep-based Sealed Sword line that has the same self-infliction as Faust. With the above tweaks, Sleep becomes a pretty beastly status in my opinion, and should be relatively limited like Curse is now with the Faust line. Another idea for a Sleep-based weapon I kind of liked can be found here: http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/108565
I thought this up in a relatively short amount of time, so forgive me if I messed up a few parts.
One thing that bothers me time and time again with players bringing up sleep is they take the health regeneration into account. If you are wearing gear appropriate to the tier, sleep isn't going to heal you to full. In fact, the damage dealt to you (that inflicts sleep) is much more than what you recover. If you take 8 pips of damage, you aren't going to recover 8 pips from being asleep. At most you'll recover, say, 2 and a half. Sleep vulnerability is the only offsetting part, however that's just plate stuff, and not going to be all that big.
Anyways, this fix isn't too bad. Personally I've believed in something a bit different for a while, in that being inflicted by sleep will immobilize you. If you take a large amount of damage (i.e., 33% of your current health or more), you will instantly wake up being drowsy, which means you cannot be inflicted with sleep and your attacks and movement are slowed. If you are asleep for the whole duration, you will wake up refreshed, and thus heal a little bit ( 15% of the original damage taken) and be unable to be inflicted with the status for another 4 seconds.
The duration of being asleep is affected by resistance to the status. Drowsiness is elongated (only the negative effects!) with negative resistance and refreshment is quickened with negative resistance, only giving you a second or two to escape after waking up naturally. You also heal less when waking up naturally, only healing as low as 7.5% of the damage you took. Positive resistance reacts in the opposite manner, giving you a longer grace time when waking up, lowering drowsiness time, and healing you more when you wake up (up to 30% of damage taken).
Now against monsters it will be similar. They are put to sleep and immobilized. They will regenerate health as they currently do, but a bit less than before. Enemies that are fully rested (i.e., didn't take critical damage) will wake up with boosted stats and immune for 4 seconds. Enemies that do take critical damage will react similarly to knights, becoming immune to the status for 2 seconds and attacking/moving slower.
This makes freeze still optimal for holding enemies in place, however sleep can be used to shut down targets temporarily, as long as you deal with them again.