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Ideas for Spellstorm Paragon Path/Feat Trees fix.
morrokain
Member Posts: 4 Arc User
Ok, so I feel a bit vindicated after reading pfft2's wonderful thread on At Will powers:
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?410391-Testing-At-Will-Powers
Nevertheless..
So unlike what I first thought Storm Pillar is actually pretty good, but I still think the lack of synergy within the Spellstorm Paragon path is a big problem. Maelstrom of Chaos seems lackluster in PVE when compared to Arcane Singularity. Sudden Storm is very good but limited because of its range. Though the redeeming qualities of the Spellstorm Mage are the passives, slotted powers like Mastery Chill Strike or feated Conduit of Ice seem way better than the Sudden Storm Mastery to me. It just seems like certain powers no matter how you feat them become no-brainers and others are very underwhelming.
Feats do not seem to make much of a difference to the paragon powers either. So even though I am a mage focused on lightning.. I use very little of it. It just seems counter-intuitive to the whole process of Paragon customization.
Here are a few ideas I have to help fix this problem:
1) Instead of a brief passive damage buff, make the feat give a chance on damage to make Storm Pillar able to be cast fully charged instantaneously. (Placed within Thaumaturge feat tree)
It would really emphasize storm in the Spellstorm Mage and make combat even more dynamic. It would also synergize really well with the Thaumaturge Conduit of Ice feat as you have a higher chance to proc even more Aoe damage and Aoe dots. Proc chance would have to be appropriate and damage may have to be lowered slightly to compensate but at least Storm Pillar would be more than just an opener.
2) Instead of the minor dot, the Sudden Storm Mastery would act like the Icy Terrain Mastery and allow it to be ground targeted in a radius instead of a line. This form would have slightly lower damage to maintain balance.
This would be great for PVE and those who use it for PVP just wouldn't mastery it.
3) Give a feat in Thaumaturge or Renegade to make Maelstrom of Chaos do significantly more damage but remove the stun effect.
Again would serve a purpose in PVE while maintaining PVP capability.
Feats should be the sole (or at least the greatest) determining factor of whether a build is PVE or PVP oriented. I would hate to see paragon paths cater to one or the other and with a very limited amount of spells that each paragon path offers, to designate one of the other as PVP or PVE really hurts the customization of the class as a whole and disrupts the synergy the class has to its paragon choice.
I would also like to see feats revolve around around certain play style choices more as well. For instance Thaumaturge is an aoe centered feat around lightning and storm-like powers such as Conduit of Ice. Renegade is high damage single target revolving around arcane spells, crits and combat advantage damage. Oppressor is ice and chill and centered around control. Something along those lines.
Though the feats trees already do this to a certain extent, I feel improvements could be made to further separate the paths and make them iconic class choices that look and feel very different from one another to create versatility both in look and play style within the CW class.
Thoughts? Critics? Questions?
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?410391-Testing-At-Will-Powers
Nevertheless..
So unlike what I first thought Storm Pillar is actually pretty good, but I still think the lack of synergy within the Spellstorm Paragon path is a big problem. Maelstrom of Chaos seems lackluster in PVE when compared to Arcane Singularity. Sudden Storm is very good but limited because of its range. Though the redeeming qualities of the Spellstorm Mage are the passives, slotted powers like Mastery Chill Strike or feated Conduit of Ice seem way better than the Sudden Storm Mastery to me. It just seems like certain powers no matter how you feat them become no-brainers and others are very underwhelming.
Feats do not seem to make much of a difference to the paragon powers either. So even though I am a mage focused on lightning.. I use very little of it. It just seems counter-intuitive to the whole process of Paragon customization.
Here are a few ideas I have to help fix this problem:
1) Instead of a brief passive damage buff, make the feat give a chance on damage to make Storm Pillar able to be cast fully charged instantaneously. (Placed within Thaumaturge feat tree)
It would really emphasize storm in the Spellstorm Mage and make combat even more dynamic. It would also synergize really well with the Thaumaturge Conduit of Ice feat as you have a higher chance to proc even more Aoe damage and Aoe dots. Proc chance would have to be appropriate and damage may have to be lowered slightly to compensate but at least Storm Pillar would be more than just an opener.
2) Instead of the minor dot, the Sudden Storm Mastery would act like the Icy Terrain Mastery and allow it to be ground targeted in a radius instead of a line. This form would have slightly lower damage to maintain balance.
This would be great for PVE and those who use it for PVP just wouldn't mastery it.
3) Give a feat in Thaumaturge or Renegade to make Maelstrom of Chaos do significantly more damage but remove the stun effect.
Again would serve a purpose in PVE while maintaining PVP capability.
Feats should be the sole (or at least the greatest) determining factor of whether a build is PVE or PVP oriented. I would hate to see paragon paths cater to one or the other and with a very limited amount of spells that each paragon path offers, to designate one of the other as PVP or PVE really hurts the customization of the class as a whole and disrupts the synergy the class has to its paragon choice.
I would also like to see feats revolve around around certain play style choices more as well. For instance Thaumaturge is an aoe centered feat around lightning and storm-like powers such as Conduit of Ice. Renegade is high damage single target revolving around arcane spells, crits and combat advantage damage. Oppressor is ice and chill and centered around control. Something along those lines.
Though the feats trees already do this to a certain extent, I feel improvements could be made to further separate the paths and make them iconic class choices that look and feel very different from one another to create versatility both in look and play style within the CW class.
Thoughts? Critics? Questions?
Post edited by morrokain on
0
Comments
I agree with your overall goal, however I am deeply cynical considering Cryptic's history.
I think you need to understand that Cryptic just threw this stuff together with very little thought on how the various powers, feats, and abilities synergize. They likely have a small staff and very short timeline/deadlines to get their stuff out the door! They didn't release a D&D game with Paladins, Rangers, Bards, or even a true dps wizard. What does that tell you? They were DESPERATE to get the game out the door and generating revenue!
For example: look at the feat "Unrestraind Chaos." This feat effect a daily power, not en encounter power, a daily power, really! It has a chance, not even a certainity, the chance could be 5% to add chill or an arcane mastery buff for whooping 1-5 secs depending upon points spent. Whoa boy, the world is going to change with that feat! That makes Maelstrom of Chaos (the signature power of the whole Spellstorm set) over-powered! Are you kidding me? They put next to no thought into this game or class. This class that that is supposed to be lightning centric in theme supposedly. You can argue that the a majority of the lightning powers pretty much suck, or at very best are significantly less powerful and useful than the others. The only one that is really is good is storm spell; and that will likely be nerfed since it is so good there is no reason not to choose it.
Does anyone really play an oppressor build? Why, because the whole chill mechanic sucks! It takes too many stacks, and thus meaningful damage mitgation takes too long to take effect, + the small limits on most of the AOE powers do not make enough of a difference when in T2 epic dungeons when there are swarms of 20-50 mobs at times. Seriously, you really think casting a PBOE in the heart of 20-30 mobs in a T2 boss wave that will only affect 6 mobs and will take several seconds before they are frozen is a viable strategy? Furthermore, the number of bugs and feats not working properly or as described is just abysmal. Apparently the game does not think Icy terrain is a cold encounter spell, because elemental empowerment still does not trigger off of it.
The current game imbalances were created because of a total lack of true play testing based upon strong mathematicaly driven goals. Cryptic is going to try to: 1) fix the most glaring imbalances like the perma stealth TR builds and the double stacking DC astral shields earlier, and 2) then focus on the new shiney in hoping that the disgruntled will switch to the new powersets. Of course they will be better/superior which in turn will require people to do the content again.
Its like a collectable card game in that they release new and improved cards every 6 months that make the old cards obsolete and less competitive. That's how they sell new cards! I beleive it will work the same in this game. They have no real finacial advantage or incentive to fix and fine tune control wizards now unless it is game breaking. That is the real reason they are making the seal and glory items BOP, so you can't twink your new character with gear from your established character! It's always about the money! There is no real good money reason to do a major re-work of the control wizard.
If they were serious about fixing the class and making it balanced with many viable options and allowing equally relevent playstyles the beta would have gone on a good deal longer and they would have actualy listened and fixed the bugs before launch at least. They didn't.
However you have to think of the positives. The combat is FUN. Which is not the case in many other games I have played. The foundry is a great design choice and their content is being released in a pretty timely fashion all things considered. Do I want better class design instead of a bear companion or other Zen items? Of course! But they have to make money to continue to develop the game. As long as it doesn't JUST remain half produced expansions and zen items this game will flourish.
Our job now as players is to tell them what we want and be as detailed as possible. Remember we are the ones who eventually pay them, so if they refuse to listen in the end it just hurts them. That's why I made the post I did. I want to generate constructive class discussion so if the devs decide to rework it they have a base to start on. That's really all we can do is put the ball in their court and hope they serve it back.
So while I definitely understand and share your frustration with many of the aspects of the feat and power decisions that were made, I would rather commend Cryptic on what they did right and give encouragement to improve on the aspects that I would love to see introduced into the game.
The first step for me is definitely better power balancing and feat synergy so lets start there! Hopefully my dream of being a lighting bolt summoning bad *** as a CW will come true.
But maybe I'm just an optimist. We will see! Thanks for the reply all the same!
If you want them to change things you will have to do the work for them. You will need to re-design the feat trees. Good luck with that as they have done nothing but nerf CWs and that is with most of the feats not working as intended or bugged. They already think CWs are overpowered. You will have to understand why they thought the way they did. Why did they think unrestrained chaos was a good feat to choose, because they obviously did.
Look at Gautylgrym. Do you think that was a success? Nobody does the King dungeon because it sucks, the PVE aspect is pretty hard and repetitive and the zerg PvP is not all that fun either. Now that they have nerfed the reward system for doing it, you can no longer earn something to sell to buy what you really want. Their game model is not tolerant of failure. There is significant flaws in the endgame because it is such a different game than what it is to get you there. I would not hold my breath. When Cryptic ran City of Heroes it took years to fix well documented bugs that negatively impacted inequities in the classes. It was not till it was sold did the mechanics of the game became transparent, and the design team started giving the players what they really wanted like customizable everything!
Tell me you wouldn't kill for even a Cryptic-run City of Heroes using Neverwinter's game engine, though.
Actually, that sounds like the best solution to our current problem: give us the option to roll a Storm Defender here, Cryptic!
Well the best we can hope for then is that Cryptic has learned from its past mistakes and will make an effort to streamline better feats and character customization.
I too would love a lightning storm ability which is why I suggested the new mastery for sudden storm!
Also I would like to point out that most if not all mmos were very rocky and filled with annoying bugs or letdowns upon launch and many of those cost money to pay for initially. The mmo community expects more nowadays and I think that Cryptic will deliver in time. The important thing is that Cryptic has a solid base upon which to build with its combat system. That's the key here. Even redesigning the feat system is small in comparison with redesigning the combat system or engine.
The test will be whether the devs pick up on the fact that players need a sustainable customization system that supports multiple and unique styles of play both in mechanics and stylized look (even or especially within the same class) to succeed in keeping the new content take on a fresh appeal. If every CW has the same skills and feats because they are just so much better, then the game will get stale fast. If Cryptic has half a brain (and the fact that they are still around means they do) they will already know this. We just need to fill in the blanks with constructive ideas of what we want. Your suggestion of a Lighting Storm ability is a good start.
I hate to use the dreaded analogy, but look at World of Warcraft. It would be naive to think that the changes to the classes in Wow were simple balance redesigns. In fact, they were new fresh ways of looking and playing an old class. Some of these changes were great. Others in hindsight were terrible homogenizing blows that eventually destroyed the core integrity of the game(imo). Either way, it is important to let Cryptic know that the current state of feats and power imbalance is a serious problem and affects the game's playability.
That's the only way they know and have an incentive to fix it. If we keep silent then they will assume all is well and continue forward without a second glance. That's mainly what I'm trying to avoid.
I would agree that when certain powers are so overpowered as to be unavoidably taken and others are so underwhelming that you can't justify using them even when you like them that players will go elsewhere. So lets throw some alternatives out there and let Cryptic know what we need rather than assuming/letting the game fall to the wayside along with the corpses of so many others that have come before it.