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(POWER BALANCE) Wind
bluhman
Posts: 2,410 Arc User
Wind was a pretty risky first for a lot of powersets at the time it came out: it was the first to deliberately cross-over powerset boundaries to combine debuffs and powers from other sets to a great degree, the first to feature a number of advantages that would enable it to synergize with other sets wholesale. In today's powerset landscape, however, that's hardly a unique feature anymore. In fact, Wind has practically crippled itself because of how thin it's drawn itself between all the different aspects it tries to cover and its debuffs. It deals 2-3 different damage types with most of its attacks, doesn't utilize Chill as effectively as Ice, doesn't utilize Negative Ions as well as Electricity, and doesn't have a core defense debuff it can utilize to make the most of its damage types - largely because, at the time of its creation, defense debuffs weren't a standard.
For this overhaul, I'll hope to carve Wind its own all-new niche. For the first time, it'll cover damage types and playstyle combinations that haven't been explored heavily before, which will enable the set, I feel, to synergize with more potential sets and otherwise develop into its own identity as a ranged damage dealer.
Main Goals:
Wind as DPS - Cutting Winds
Right now, the core damage type that Wind has (the damage type that all wind attacks deal, that is) is crushing damage. Already, this is an overlap with Force, which does similar functions even beyond that damage type, with its own knockback and repel. Contrast this to how Physical damage plays in most ranged sets - right now, at large, the ranged physical game is almost purely crushing in the form of Power Armor, Explosive Munitions, and Force, and piercing with Archery and Gun Munitions. There's hardly a Slashing ranged game, and that's where Wind is going to lay down its new niche as a powerset, and define its core damage type.
Wind as Control - The Perfect Storm
Wind can still remain true to its roots as a triple-damage-type set, but to do so, will need to effectively utilize the debuffs it's given. Negative Ions has almost no application by default outside its own set, but Chill, as always, remains an effective speed debuff and has its own chances to root targets automatically when applied. While Wind can certainly become useful as a damage dealer when combining its powers with appropriate powersets, it needs its own area in which to excel in ways that the current iterations of Ice and Elec do not - enter Wind as a Control set. Suddenly these ions and chills become tools to a wind character with which to develop further buffs, debuffs, effects, and pets.
Rebalances of Existing Powers
NOTE - All CRUSHING damage in this set is now SLASHING damage.
Wind Lash
Gust
Wind Breath
Hurricane
Stormbringer
Wind Barrier
Wind Reverberation
Updraft
Whirlwind
Dust Devil
Twister
Typhoon
Air Elemental
OTHER
New Powers
Gale
You ride in on the winds themselves to battle!
Forecaster
When it comes to telling the weather, you're a natural.
Mist
Creates a thick curtain of mist to hide within.
Barotrauma
Manipulating the air in a given radius, you create a vaccum that rapidly decompresses the area, causing enemies to asphyxiate.
Deluge
You're brewing up the mother of all storms here.
Mistral
Using a directed blast of wind, you assault a single target in your sights.
Tempest
Calls down the thunder, reaps the whirlwind!
For this overhaul, I'll hope to carve Wind its own all-new niche. For the first time, it'll cover damage types and playstyle combinations that haven't been explored heavily before, which will enable the set, I feel, to synergize with more potential sets and otherwise develop into its own identity as a ranged damage dealer.
Main Goals:
Wind as DPS - Cutting Winds
Right now, the core damage type that Wind has (the damage type that all wind attacks deal, that is) is crushing damage. Already, this is an overlap with Force, which does similar functions even beyond that damage type, with its own knockback and repel. Contrast this to how Physical damage plays in most ranged sets - right now, at large, the ranged physical game is almost purely crushing in the form of Power Armor, Explosive Munitions, and Force, and piercing with Archery and Gun Munitions. There's hardly a Slashing ranged game, and that's where Wind is going to lay down its new niche as a powerset, and define its core damage type.
- Superstat Focuses: DEX, INT, END
- Damage Types used: Slashing, Cold, Electricity. It should be noted, Cold/Electricity are now optional to the set by and large. Many attacks will primarily deal in just slashing damage, and if the player chooses so, can diversify into the other two damage types if they want more flavor (I'll discuss this below).
- Primary Defense Debuff: Shredded
- Secondary Defense Debuffs: Superconductor and Hard Frost also make appearances here.
- Other Debuff: Windshear - The target is under the influence of your wind power. Under the hood there would be two types of Windshear; a melee variant and a ranged one. Ranged Windshear will cause targets within 10 feet of you to be repelled, while Melee Windshear causes targets further than 15 feet to slowly be drawn inwards. Most powers that have Windshear can choose between these variants, but the two can never overlap (applying a Ranged Windshear over Melee overwrites the Melee, and vice-versa).
Wind as Control - The Perfect Storm
Wind can still remain true to its roots as a triple-damage-type set, but to do so, will need to effectively utilize the debuffs it's given. Negative Ions has almost no application by default outside its own set, but Chill, as always, remains an effective speed debuff and has its own chances to root targets automatically when applied. While Wind can certainly become useful as a damage dealer when combining its powers with appropriate powersets, it needs its own area in which to excel in ways that the current iterations of Ice and Elec do not - enter Wind as a Control set. Suddenly these ions and chills become tools to a wind character with which to develop further buffs, debuffs, effects, and pets.
- Mechanic: Weather Effects - As a control set, Wind utilizes stationary pets that work as AoE effects. These effects can combine and absorb certain buffs, debuffs, and other effects, to create more disastrous areas that affect targets even more severely. While stationary, certain moves in the Wind set can push these weather effects around.
Rebalances of Existing Powers
NOTE - All CRUSHING damage in this set is now SLASHING damage.
Wind Lash
- The first hit of this EB can apply Windshear. The attack can no longer repel however.
- Stiff Breeze extends the effect of Windshear to all attacks. Once again, no repel.
- Advantage: Downwind - This Zero-Point advantage is present on most attacks that utilize Windshear. Taking Downwind reverses the direction in which Windshear works, drawing targets towards you instead of away. Ideal for melee characters.
Gust
- Charge time determines the chances of applying Shredded to the target, rather than Disorient.
- Still has its signature repel effect.
- New Advantage: Windshears the target with Ranged Windshear on a full charge. Removes default repel.
- New Advantage: Same as above, but uses the Melee version.
- New Advantage: Refreshes the duration of both Hard Frost and Superconductor if present.
Wind Breath
- Deals pure Slashing damage instead of Crushing/Cold.
- Applies Windshear while maintained.
- Amplifies the effect of Windshear on targets, either pushing targets back or drawing them in.
- New Advantage: If Wind Breath hits any Weather Effects, their duration is refilled and they are repelled by the breath.
Hurricane
- Tier 2
- Pure Slashing Damage
- Final knock only occurs on targets affected by Windshear, and knocks in the appropriate direction (inwards for Melee, outwards for Ranged).
- Perfect Storm adds in the two old damage types back as usual. The final tick of the attack refreshes the duration of any Weather Effects inside its reach.
- New Advantage: Becomes a PBAoE toggle similar to Sparkstorm's Electric Personality.
- New Advantage: Removes all repel effects from the attack, and replaces it with 50% chance per tick to stack Bleed.
- New Advantage: Full-maintain of Hurricane will cause it to linger as a Weather Effect, dealing half its normal damage for the next 5 seconds. Puts a cooldown on Hurricane.
Stormbringer
- Applies bonuses to all physical damage, cold, and electric aspects.
- You gain energy whenever a knock or repel is attempted against you.
Wind Barrier
- Applies Windshear to targets who hit your shield
- Refreshes duration of Windshear on nearby targets
Wind Reverberation
- Gain energy whenever you utilize a Windshear effect to repel or draw in a target.
- Gain energy when applying, refreshing, or moving a Weather Effect.
- Energy comes in over a 6 second period.
- (most of the functionality of old Wind Reverb would be incorporated into a new, better energy unlock for Force.)
- Scales best with Endurance, with Recovery also scaling a bit.
Updraft
- Dispersal Advantage no longer exists, and Updraft is now a sphere AoE charge by default.
- Kind of like fireball, deals more damage to primary target.
- Power and knock of this attack scales with number of Windshear stacks on primary target. Also ends all windshear when used.
- New Advantage: Refreshes the duration of Shred.
- New Advantage: Causes Weather Effects to be drawn in towards the target on full charge.
Whirlwind
- This is a weather effect!
- Vortex now causes the Whirlwind to amplify Windshear effects and refresh them.
- Has a cooldown associated with it, but you can create multiple Whirlwinds.
- New Advantage: Whirlwind is now a click power and is instantly summoned directly on top of you instead of at your target.
Dust Devil
- Can critical hit now, but only per tick.
- Another Weather effect, and one of the only ones that can move by default.
- Windshorn targets are snared and have the debuff refreshed while the Dust Devil is on them.
- Triple Threat no longer deals bonus damage to chilled/negative ioned targets, but does refresh the debuffs, and the first tick dealt against the given targets will refresh the duration of Hard Frost/Superconductor
- New Advantage: Dust Devil prioritizes targets that are not bleeding, and has a 30% chance per tick to apply bleed. (it's going to be moving around a lot)
- note: one of the unique things about Dust Devil as a pet is that it can be stacked if you have enough cooldown reduction. I want to see this feature kept, please. Maybe have an upper cap of three of these things?
Twister
- Completely changed, Twister is now a Tier 3 sphere maintain that creates a tornado instead of a weird hold. Think of it like Wind's version of Avalanche/Conflag/etc.
- Knocks targets within its reach up while dealing high slashing damage.
- Fully maintaining shreds all targets.
- New Advantage: Windshorn targets 20 feet outside of its reach (i.e. double its normal aoe sphere) are knocked inwards on the first tick of Twister.
- New Advantage: Fully maintaining creates a Dust Devil at its location. If you have any advantages on Dust Devil, this Dust Devil adopts any advantages you have on the base power. 3 point cost.
- New Advantage: Draws in and consumes any other weather effects to deal extra bursts of Slashing damage.
Typhoon
- Pure slashing damage
- Knock effect now dealt to targets that are Windshorn instead of Disoriented.
- Cold Front now costs 2 points, and acts as a cylindrical shatter.
- Ionic Discharge costs 2 points, forms circuits, and can stun targets.
- New Advantage: Applies Open Wound to all targets on full charge.
- New Advantage: Utilizes Windshear to either repel or draw in target instead of just repelling by default. 1 point cost.
Air Elemental
- Renamed to just Elemental.
- Has the ability to Absorb Essence. When used, Air Elemental charges up and consumes any of the following other pets to empower itself:
- Firesnake transforms the elemental into a Fire Elemental and causes its attacks to apply Clinging Flames and refresh Engulfing Flames. Fire Elemental uses Fireballs that leave Pyre Patches. (spheres)
- Ball Lightning transforms the elemental into a Thunder Elemental, and causes its attacks to apply Negative Ions and refresh Superconductor. Thunder Elemental flings lightning spears at its targets, and sets up nicely for completing Circuits. (cylinders)
- Ice Cage transforms the elemental into an Ice Elemental, causing its attacks to apply Chill and refresh Hard Frost. Ice Elementals use frost breath. (cones)
- any Weather Effects turn it into an Air Elemental, which causes the elemental to apply Windshear and refresh Shredded. Air Elementals travel extremely quickly and fight in melee distance. Their version of Windshear counts for your Energy Unlock, but is its own stack that draws targets towards them instead of towards/away from you.
- Other concepts: Tying into a later rehash I'll try to do, Earth Elementals that refresh Demolish, stagger, and hit in melee cones and generate super threat.
- A successful Essence Absorb will heal the Elemental to full and grant it significant defense boosts. It also will generate a nice fat stack of energy for you, scaling off your Int score.
OTHER
- Snow Storm (ice), and Ball Lightning (electricity) count as Weather Effects for Wind mechanics.
New Powers
Gale
You ride in on the winds themselves to battle!
- T1 melee lunge, deals slashing damage, knocks target down if done from far away enough.
- Advantage: Windshears the target. Comes in melee and ranged varieties.
- Advantage: Causes Gale to deal Ranged damage instead of Melee. On connecting, the target is repelled a significant distance away from you.
Forecaster
When it comes to telling the weather, you're a natural.
- T1 ranged toggle.
- Scales best with Int and Dex
- Stacks when you repel or knock targets with ranged attacks. Also stacks when applying or utilizing windshear.
Mist
Creates a thick curtain of mist to hide within.
- T2 click weather effect. Creates a 25 foot radius PBAoE effect that boosts your dodge chance and stealth, while debuffing enemy attack and perception.
- Has a cooldown
- Counts as a Weather Effect liminally - unlike most, it isn't movable by most wind techniques. That said, it still will generate energy with mechanics such as wind reverb.
- Advantage: Restoration
- Advantage: Causes Mist to become a Threat Wipe against all enemies in the immediate area.
- Advantage: When inside the mist, enemies have a chance to choke and become held.
Barotrauma
Manipulating the air in a given radius, you create a vaccum that rapidly decompresses the area, causing enemies to asphyxiate.
- Charged AoE incapacitate.
- Charging increases effect radius, with tap only affecting a single enemy.
- Moderate/High cooldown period.
- Advantage: Windshears targets. This is two advantages, comes in ye old melee and ranged versions.
- Advantage: Any weather effects at Barotrauma's AoE will be consumed to deal slashing damage. This slashing damage comes in as a burst and doesn't affect the hold duration.
Deluge
You're brewing up the mother of all storms here.
- Tier 3
- Creates a 30 foot radius Raincloud effect over your target after a full charge.
- Deluge by default deals light Slashing damage and refreshes the duration of Windshear while targets are within it.
- Snares targets within.
- Counts as a weather effect.
- Things get interesting when it meets other weather effects...
- Hurricanes strengthen the Deluge, doubling its hit rate.
- Dust Devils deal extra Slashing damage when inside the Deluge, using rain droplets as extra slashing implements.
- Snow Storm transforms Deluge into an ice storm, hitting targets with significant ice damage.
- Ball Lightning creates a thunderstorm that deal out massive bursts of electric damage to Negative Ion targets, that stun, and automatically form circuits.
- Advantage: Root targets on first tick. Base damage from Deluge does not disrupt control effects now (though its combo abilities still do.)
- Advantage: Allies inside the Deluge gain healing over time.
Mistral
Using a directed blast of wind, you assault a single target in your sights.
- Tier 3 maintain, deals high slashing damage to a single target within 100 feet.
- If the target is windshorn, Mistral amplifies Windshear's effects. Otherwise, Mistral just repels the target up until the limits of its range.
- Deals 20% bonus damage if the target is stuck inside a Weather Effect. In this case, Mistral does not repel.
- Advantage: Deals 30% bonus damage on targets afflicted by Shred.
- Advantage: Each tick has a 33% chance to apply Bleed. Very rapid bleed stacking.
- Advantage: Stacks Furious if you hit targets afflicted by Negative Ions or Chill.
Tempest
Calls down the thunder, reaps the whirlwind!
- The Tier 4 ultimate of Wind.
- A charge that acts essentially like a Gravity Driver that deals slashing damage.
- The center of the tempest deals extra slashing damage.
- Upon expiring, Tempest deals a final burst of slashing damage, knocks targets outwards, and applies Overpower.
- Must be fully charged
- Advantage: Generates extra threat on the user.
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Post edited by bluhman on
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Comments
> Just a quick thought: Slashing doesn't make a lot of sense for wind since it doesn't cut things up, it pushes/throws things around. I can see that maybe the idea was because crushing is already pretty widespread, but so is slashing. Logically speaking, crushing makes more sense for wind given how it functions (repels, knocks, both ingame and irl)
Slashing is widespread only in melee, however. As far as ranged powersets go, this would be the first focused on slashing damage type.
If I kept wind as crushing there'd be a significant overlap between it and Force, which would be dangerous - either force reigns with superior focus on its one damage type and it's own ability to push and knock enemies, or wind takes the show and then there's scarcely a reason to use force for DPS again.
The other big reason that I'm going slashing is because of the other sets that'd make sense to synergize with it: so for example, fire goes along with heavy weapons. In it's current state, heavy weapons also goes along with wind! Both deal crushing damage and inflict disorient. Slashing winds opens up the possibility of wind/sword builds, imagine charging in with a Sword Cyclone with an Entourage of other tornadoes!
Mainly it just makes more sense to me that wind goes along with the set that has moves and powers called things like, "form of the tempest" or "sword cyclone" and "eye of the storm" rather than another set that can pull off the HW/Force/Munitions/Might/PA hybridization
I honestly like it quite a bit!!
In a similar manner to Earth, Wind has a lot of potential which seems to be a bit lost on strange mechanics or power function (questionable at times).
(Change Weatherer to "Forecaster" toggle)
I would also request a few powers:
1)
Punishing Vortex - You create an area of powerful swirling wind which moves at such incredible speed, it removes the available oxygen from the targeted area, causing your targets to halt their assault and choke!
- Counts as a targeted AoE Incapacitate.
- Deals periodic slashing damage to targets, this does not break the strength of the hold.
- Upon full maintain, affected targets have Windshear applied to them.
* Advantage: Oxygen Starved - Your mastery over this ability has increased the effectiveness of it, allowing this skill upon half maintain to apply Shredded debuff to your primary target and a 50% chance to apply it to secondary targets.
I'll probably think of a few more...later.
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I do think that having a hold of some sort is a good idea, considering I was labeling one of the subsets of Wind as a control set... And then get rid of its only hold, lol. That said, I'll include the power but I'll probably want to come up with a less confusing name.
Edit: Besides, wind can still have a few knock powers without it being a major focus or competitor with force. There's pretty much knocks in every set, after all.
Think that damage type has enough going for it.
Cold sets: Ice.
Piercing Sets: Munitions, Archery.
Say, maybe Wind could be Cold and Piercing? Wind is often described as cold and piercing so, there ya go.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
All melee. They also all only really synergize between one-another, but even so it's not much of a gameplay style difference. It's maintaining shred, then doing something with wounds; rupturing bleeds, dealing criticals, using open wound to restack bleeds, etc.
Doing that likely would have the side-effect of making gun-toting wind manipulators (which is a combination I find as strange as things like gun furries that utilize the furious buff and howl, or the insane chest-beam burst-shot force user).
Those sets also already have some pretty well-defined set crossovers that are seemingly more intended, stuff like Muni's heavy banking on melee and fire, and then the whole Fire/Ice thing that goes on with Rimefire Burst and several advantages and a shared defense debuff from firesnake.
Meanwhile the way this is drafted out already has some cold mixed in there for advantages. Ultimately it's up to the dev team if the set becomes slashing or piercing or remains crushing. Or even remains the consistently awkward triple cold/elec/crushing typing it has on several attacks.
What you need to keep in mind is that "melee" has far smaller implications than "dps". The more sets benefiting from and piling on debuffs for a given damage type, the more they all benefit from it. That's why it doesn't really matter if the sets involved are melee or ranged, what matters is sheer number of sets benefiting and producing. Slashing debuffs already have many sets benefiting from them, melee or no. Piercing has some catching up to do, as does cold. Electric too. Makes more sense to even things out, rather than pushing the peaks of the graph higher. We've acknowledged the issue of "crushing damage" many times...why suddenly forget about that just because you had your heart set on slashing?
As far as "wind and munitions that's weird". So what. You might not like the idea of "wind and guns guy" but somebody else might. Since when are weird combinations a reason for not doing anything ever in CO. My gun wolf is awesome, deal with it.
Also you don't really have a lot of room to say things are thematically weird while trying to make the "wind sword" powerset. Like anime is a great source to go to for things that make sense.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Ultimately, what really matters is whether or not using your wind powers feels like you're using wind powers, it doesn't matter too much if it's doing crushing, slashing, piercing, cold, zombie, or potato damage. It just has to feel like you're flinging enemies around the room with gusts of wind. Slashing enemies and applying bleeds really doesn't convey that feeling. Pushing foes around (toward, away, together, etc) through an assortment of maintained powers definitely does.
Besides the above, what truly matters in terms of CO gameplay is whether or not it can be pieced together with other, similar sets--specifically, those in the energy projector group. I want to fling around fire tornadoes, summon frozen hurricanes, buffet foes with ionized gales, or maybe even send foes flying with the force of an abrupt wind blast.
>
> Ultimately, what really matters is whether or not using your wind powers feels like you're using wind powers, it doesn't matter too much if it's doing crushing, slashing, piercing, cold, zombie, or potato damage. It just has to feel like you're flinging enemies around the room with gusts of wind. Slashing enemies and applying bleeds really doesn't convey that feeling. Pushing foes around (toward, away, together, etc) through an assortment of maintained powers definitely does.
>
> Besides the above, what truly matters in terms of CO gameplay is whether or not it can be pieced together with other, similar sets--specifically, those in the energy projector group. I want to fling around fire tornadoes, summon frozen hurricanes, buffet foes with ionized gales, or maybe even send foes flying with the force of an abrupt wind blast.
Good thing that pushing people around and summoning tornadoes is exactly what this suggestion is about.
In this instance I sort of wish that conflag had a lingering effect advantage, then you could mix in all that burning rain into your wind attacks. Darkness might get in there as well
FWIW A great deal of what currently exists as the Wind powerset - things like Wind Breath - would actually make more sense as the basis for a Sonic powerset, and it's that set which should be full of control effects like Disorient, etc.
Re: Slashing damage - this does work, for me (Wind tears rather than slashes but the end product is the same) but I think Slashing damage is pretty well served as a damage type.... wouldn't be my focus, anyway.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
My characters
Keep Air as is CRUSHING .. slashing and bleeding makes no sense in an air power.
1) Make Tornado wider (so it matches the cone diameter of the animation) so that it can CC more than one person, (powered by presence) but instead of rooting the controlled to one spot, make the controlled spin around the tornado (Like real tornados) and this will also add a rooted debuff afterwards.
2) Keep AIR ELEMENTAL as AIR ELEMENTAL but change the Air Elementals to Dust Devils or Mini clouds (smaller versions of the air portion of the earth flight travel power)
3)New Power: Cloud
This power summons a full size cloud (like the normal size of the air portion of the earth flight travel power) but this power does not directly do damage.. instead it creates a summoned microclimate that "echos" Air/Ice/Electric damage back at the enemies inside the cloud. the Echo damage would be 10% , 20%, 30%
Advantage: Suffocate
The oxygen in the cloud is so low or rich with water that it makes it hard to breathe, this causes a movement debuff within the cloud
Advantage: Thunder
In addition to the "echo" dot caused by AOE powers inside the cloud, the enemy's also suffer sonic damage caused by the clouds thunderclaps
4)New Power Skyclad (toggle)
Your body is clad in a cloak of air, making any normal projectiles just pass through you without causing you damage. This is much like the power armor "invulnerability" power but with an air theme.. normal
Ranged physical objects just pass through you cause you no damage, projectile attacks (with a certain power) pass through you also .. but only cause 50% , 40% , 30% damage to you .. and whilst toggled you cannot be snared or controlled by physical methods. any non physical method will only work 50%, 40%, 30% of the time.
Advantage: Breatharian, when the Skyclad toggle is activated you have a small heal over time added to your character.
Clearly this is Last Avatar wind which I remember seeing do quite a few things. If we're going by what Aang did with it, perhaps the set should be a mix of crushing, piercing, and slashing. I mean it's all just molecules right?! Molecules'll cut a fool damn straight down the line! >:O
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Air doesn't cause damage!? .. ever heard of air pressure? suffocation? Hurricanes leveling buildings to the foundations?
You can also get friction burns from strong wind.
If you had a hurricane type power based on the tornado travel power (the one with the debris) then you can have a slashing/cutting advantage.. but without objects caught up in the powerful blasts of wind, wind crushes and bends what it hits.. you cannot shoehorn all air into slashing just because you are a force fanboi.
Force shouldn't even belong in the group.. as DeathknellQ suggests.
Air/Winds major selling point is it's AOE Crowd Control
Razorwind is the exception .. not the rule
Most air attacks are crushing.
I'll consider the statement you've made here before I consider the suggestions made. In the future, think about how much one would want to implement somebody's ideas if they were just called 'clueless' in the process.
Now, to clean up this argument over a single aspect of the power suggestion.