The other breath attacks so far have received Challenging Strikes, so I assume Wind Breath will get it as well.
What are the chances of Squall also receiving it? I love the power in just about every way I can think of, and I would love to be able to use it as a tanking tool.
I'd also like to throw my voice in about giving it an energy unlock, active offense, things of that nature.
Some of the powers could use a damage boost but all in all a very nice feeling set. Can't wait for this baby to go live. Am surprised it didn't an energy unlock or damage enhancer of it's own but only the first draft.
I really like the variety between The Last Airbender, Superlungs and Weather Control. I was afraid we'd only get one of those, but you managed to get them all in there - Lovely!
Now all it needs is some in-set synergy and energy unlock options. It's already got lovely synergy with other sets, so seeing it being able to to high damage through in-set synergies as well would be swell!
The visuals are spot-on, with the exception of Typhoon. Things like Wind Breath, Whirlwind, and other cyclonic powers are bad the hell ****, superb work there. The sound is a bit spotty at times, but I've honestly been greatly enjoying the visceral feel of the Wind powers thus far. Heh, first skills pass I've been here for that I can't honestly complain about the feel of the skills. I do wish Typhoon had some massive wind-tunnel beam animation as opposed to just some kinda little squirt-gust, but I cannot complain about its casting animation.
The only real set-wide drawback for me is that I don't think any of the wind powers, with the possible exception of Typhoon and the inevitable exception of Squall, should be self-rooting. The very essence of Wind manipulation as a power is movement Wind-users are almost invariably highly agile and extremely difficult to pin down. A lot of the powers in the set already allow for this, and I've honestly been having a blast rushing around the Battle Station goons with Whirlwind or Wind Breath and watching them all wheeze and puff trying and failing to catch up...but a number of the powers that currently root really shouldn't.
Updraft, for example, could really benefit from being mobile. It could differentiate itself very nicely from Force Geyser by being useable on the go to make up for Geyser's quicker firing time take Geyser and snap yer fingers in place, or take Updraft and charge it up while moving. The set's already shaping up to be a grade-A keepaway set; you should take a really close look at any of the set's self-root powers and make sure they're worth the penalty of letting your opponents have a chance to catch you.
Once again, loving the feel of the set on my first pass-over. Really looking forward to seeing more of it, already doing early planning for a new Wind-ish character. Heh...just wanted to make that clear. Now for specific nits and ideas:
-Gust: Did we not JUST go over this with Infernal Blast?! How many absolutely worthless T0 blast skills do we have to put up with before you go back to doing things like Cleave and TK Assault?! ANGER!
Cryptic...please...for the love of all things good and righteous...STOP MAKING T0 POWERS THAT AUTOMATICALLY DEGRADE ANY BUILD WHICH TAKES THEM! Why should a player with any actual knowledge of the game feel like they have to retcon out of a power choice the game forces on them, guys? I get it, T0 skills are there to give new players a good, reliable way to damage their enemies while they work out how to not suck at energy management. Guess what? Gust, Infernal Blast, Fire Strike, Mind Blast, all those copypasta chargeblast skills ain't it!
|
YAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGH!!
...okay. Mindless rant of great rage over. Still...seriously, Cryptic. Cleave. TK Assault. Bring T0 skills up to the glorious standard set by those two skills, as opposed to forcing them all to the same level of utter junk that is Mind Blast and its legion of drooling hue-shifted clones.
Anyways.
-Stormbringer: The triple-typing damage covering elements of Physical, Energy, and Elemental damage in one passive? Loving it. We're going to be ****-deep in Thor clones when this goes Live and s'far as I'm concerned, more power to 'em. That said, and with all appropriate kudos delivered...it feels a little thin. The triple-typing is obviously meant to be its extra bonus, but that doesn't quite work given that its own set needs that triple typing to function properly. I'd honestly like to see it mitigate slowing effects it'd fit with the general theme of mobility that Wind powers should be shooting for, it'd make thematic sense for something that could control Wind and Snow (crushing and cold) to be less affected by snares or chills than others, and it'd give Stormbringer a unique functionality, something to make it pop. Dunno if you guys want it to pop, but hey.
-Set Holes: I really like what you guys have put out so far; this is the most solid initial PTS pass I've been around for. That said...no active offense, defense, or energy return seems kinda scant. The set synergizes reasonably well with Electricity's stuff Ball Lightning w/Triplicity and Dust Devil w/Triple threat is a lolarious alpha combo, as well as setting up Ionic Reverberation for Super End characters, but the set doesn't have any of the usual tools save for a block. I doubt we'll get an energy unlock, but Wind seems like a nice choice for a new active defense. Some manner of wind bubble or defensive twister around the character perhaps make it a brief but very powerful version of Inertial Dampening Field, have it just absorb a (large) flat amount of incoming attacks off a Personal Defense Cyclone? That'd certainly be an interesting new twist on active defenses, and I could see a lot of players really liking it for when they get themselves in aggro trouble.
-Disorient: I see why the set works on Disorients, it's a good way to represent unsteady footing without inventing a Wind-only debuff and breaking the set further away from the others, but like a few others have said, ways to apply them in-set are awfully scant. If you're going to work with it, it'd be nice to have a solid way of applying it. I'm going to assume there's advantages in the works to strengthen the set's Disorient abilities, but if there aren't and even if there are allow me to suggest that Updraft's base form, or at least its advantage, be modified to guarantee a Disorient on the target on a full charge? It'd make thematic sense for the power, given how abrupt and jarring it is, and it'd also make Updraft a very valuable tool for both Heavy Weapons and Telepathy as well, improving cross-set combos. Heh, you're going to be seeing a lot of Heavy Weapons/Electricity combos as it is given Stormbringer, why not throw 'em an extra bone while you're at it and earn some additional gratitude
So...yeah. That's about it for now, I suppose. Time to go back and have some gigglefun with the Windy powers.
Visually the set is very impressive, Squall is pretty awesome and I really like how the power FX stacks together to give the feeling like the player is in the center of a hurricane. Kudos to the animation and FX people responsible for creating a very unique framework of powers.
That being said, mechanically however it feels like just like more force powers though. I mean I like the uniqueness of Stormbringer and can see how Earth could get a similar passive (Fire, Crushing & Sonic). I also like the options provided among various powers to take advantage of Negative Ions and Cold effects. Though what really makes it feel like just more Force powers is the Crushing damage type. It would have been a truly unique set to have a ranged Slashing set. Even with it's EB's name Wind Lash I expected it to be Slashing, and just ended up with a Force variant in the way Vicious Strikes is to Unarmed.
It's really weird how just a simple Damage Type makes that much of a difference in my mind, but it does. I mean lets say they had an equivalent to Stormbringer with the Earth set, then it's basically two options to have Elemental variations for the Crushing sets rather than covering opposite sides of the spectrum in available power combinations.
Now if it was a LIVE set already, I can see the issue with changing them as it could break builds to do so. But since it's technically doesn't exist yet, then there'd be little to no harm in changing it at this time which is why I bring it up. Though if development sees a reason to keep it's primary Damage Types as Crushing/Cold/Electricity, then I'm glad to have more Force powers with neat secondary mechanics and very pretty FX.
The only thing I can add to state my case is this power: Echo's Stick
It tells me that someone out there in the distant past of Champion's development thought Wind attacks should be Slashing.
First off, thanks for all the feedback. It should be pretty obvious that we're still working on Wind. A few points:
The original intent of the Wind framework (stated when we discussed we'd be doing one) was to reskin a whole bunch of existing powers. While it can still be seen pretty clearly (Typhoon is a reworked Force Cascade, Whirlwind is a reworked Snowstorm, etc.) we strayed somewhat from that to define Wind into a set of its own. I wouldn't expect massive changes to the way any of these powers work, but some of the anims and FX are still being worked on, so you will likely see changes there.
We are planning on an Energy Unlock for the set, based off Repel. Currently, we don't have the tech required to make it work properly, which is why you don't have it yet. The plan is for this to be in before the set goes Live.
Things are definitely still in flux with the powers. Costing is still being worked on for a few of them. Some might get renamed. Things might change slightly as advantages are added. Additional Disorient providers and interactions are still being worked out.
We'll be paying lots of attention to feedback on the Wind framework (as well as Earth, which will be on PTS soon) but we may not be as talkative this time around - lots going on with 2 new Frameworks and Archetypes, as well as finishing up Whiteout, working on Winter Event, and other plans for next year.
We'll be paying lots of attention to feedback on the Wind framework (as well as Earth, which will be on PTS soon) but we may not be as talkative this time around - lots going on with 2 new Frameworks and Archetypes, as well as finishing up Whiteout, working on Winter Event, and other plans for next year.
Thanks again for all of the testing and feedback!
If i may suggest, Then.
Wind SERIOUSLY lacks single target damage, it needs some crazy ST Nuke to go with all it's awesome AOE effects, possibly with an advantage to add AOE (TK Lance or Lightning arc style power)
Also, Basing it's energy unlock off repel seems possibly terribad, Does that mean when you ACTUALLY repel a target? or when you ATTEMPT to repel a target - Making it useless on bosses would be bad, thats where you actually bloody need it.
That could be the best passive unlock ever (Attempts giving energy and all powers can do it) or crap (Has to repel, limited powers, useless on bosses)
Overall, set looks cool, Feels a bit weak with a couple powers, and lacks ST Damage and the "Trick" powers that set other energy sets aside from it, but if you give it time, this could be amazing.
Speaking of time, This should SERIOUSLY have a solid month of testing, let alone earth as well, this is a whole new set, not a minor rework.
First off, thanks for all the feedback. It should be pretty obvious that we're still working on Wind. A few points:
The original intent of the Wind framework (stated when we discussed we'd be doing one) was to reskin a whole bunch of existing powers. While it can still be seen pretty clearly (Typhoon is a reworked Force Cascade, Whirlwind is a reworked Snowstorm, etc.) we strayed somewhat from that to define Wind into a set of its own. I wouldn't expect massive changes to the way any of these powers work, but some of the anims and FX are still being worked on, so you will likely see changes there.
We are planning on an Energy Unlock for the set, based off Repel. Currently, we don't have the tech required to make it work properly, which is why you don't have it yet. The plan is for this to be in before the set goes Live.
Things are definitely still in flux with the powers. Costing is still being worked on for a few of them. Some might get renamed. Things might change slightly as advantages are added. Additional Disorient providers and interactions are still being worked out.
We'll be paying lots of attention to feedback on the Wind framework (as well as Earth, which will be on PTS soon) but we may not be as talkative this time around - lots going on with 2 new Frameworks and Archetypes, as well as finishing up Whiteout, working on Winter Event, and other plans for next year.
Thanks again for all of the testing and feedback!
Sounds great.
My main concern are all addressed here. As long as these are covered, the set is golden;
A. Energy performance: energy management via energy unlock, cost vs dmg, etc.
B. How is it different than the original power? Advs (Wind Breath vs other breath, Typhoon vs Force Cascade)
Also, Basing it's energy unlock off repel seems possibly terribad, Does that mean when you ACTUALLY repel a target? or when you ATTEMPT to repel a target - Making it useless on bosses would be bad, thats where you actually bloody need it.
It will be based on Repel attempts, which is why we need new tech for it.
Liking the set overall, especially the triple-typed passive. Not as broad reaching as Quarry, but still fits into most of the appropriate thematic damage types. While I'd hoped for a little Sonic love, it still works well.
Running under the knowledge that this isn't trying to reinvent the wheel nor but the powers are still under review, I'd have the following commentary:
Gust:TK Assault, Ego Weaponry, and Cleave set the bar for T0 powers having a just-right blend of good damage and utility. Currently, Gust cruises clear under that bar with the rest of the T0 pack. I do like the windball, but it serves little to no purpose in the set. Perhaps a debuff application of -10% Crushing/Electric/Cold damage, with an advantage to compound an additional -15%. That would give it in-set and cross-set synergy. The damage and cost could use a bump. Not to Typhoon levels, but...you know. Or perhaps 50% splash damage. Some umph. Something. Right now it is completely dumpable at the first given opportunity.
Wind Breath: Basic breath power. Needs a little fine tuning, but that's probably still in the works, I'm sure.
Whirlwind: Additional damage to disoriented, or a better knock chance. It's not terrible, but tweaking is needed when it's held side-by-side with Snowstorm -- which outperforms it particularly when Eye of the Storm comes into play.
Squall: Love it. Synergistic advantage, decent function, fantastic animation.
Stormbringer: Three damage types is nice. Lets you branch out into Force and Electric, and gives an alternative for boosting Electric damage without Elec Form (but sadly, not particle or sonic). It should get some variety of secondary function to bring it in line with the "good" offensive energy forms. Ego Form has a power cost discount; Shadow Form has perception stealth, a health gain proc, and threat reduction; Electric Form has a big energy boost. It needs something.
Updraft: Could perhaps stand to be a mobile power rather than a root, but not necessarily a dealbreaker. As for function, this is to Uppercut as Force Geyser is to Eruption.
Typhoon: Not bad. The split damage will get hit by Invul/IDF, but overall its reduced cost and still reasonably potent damage makes it a solid all-around T3. Maybe some sort of minor debuff attached (unless I missed it having one) like Disorient or Chill. The VFX appear to be a beefier Gust, but could really stand for something more like...a horizontal column of wind. Think Storm Eagle.
Dust Devil: Cute. I like that it can be summoned multiple times. The advantage is just what advantages should be: better than the base power in a reasonable number of situations, but not all. Lacking a little "boom" like ball lightning is unfortunate, but I noticed that the individual ticks are notably higher.
Keeping in mind that an energy return is in the works... Repels: Don't scale with anything but rank. I imagine this is a tricky subject, as heavily scaled repels could be over the top. Feels like they become a little impotent compared to scaling knocks. There was mention of a repel-immunity damage bonus, but I think only Might and Heavy Weapons powers get that boost. I'm not aware of any ranged knocks getting a damage bonus on immunity.
Active Defense or Offense: To flesh the set out, an Active D (T2) or O (T1) would be nice, and permit power progression a bit better by offering a utility power. Active Defense perhaps permitting brief flight, a pulsing area repel, and some defensive benefit. Perhaps a combination of a medium Dodge bonus (far less that Masterful Dodge) and an absorption value up to a maximum per second. Think of it as deflecting attacks with sheer force of wind. Active Offense would be decidedly more vanilla, with the standard damage boost and some useful bonus effect.
Lastly, while not having to do with the Wind framework directly, Crushing Wave could use a tweak. The repel is just too weak for it being a self-rooting power. Either it should not root you, or the repel should be nudged up. Henchmen can walk through the 7-foot repel pulses like they weren't even happening. I bring this up because it's a power that is very strongly thematic alongside Wind.
Wind is a neat set but I always imagined a wind set to have slashing damage instead of crushing. Crushing isn't too far off but I always imagined high speed "comic book" winds to be cutting and bleeding the targets.
The breath attack doesn't angle down properly. When attacking things while standing on the ground this isn't so obvious, but try attacking something from directly above it in the air. You'll be blowing the cone one way and damaging things in a completely different area.
Active Defense or Offense: To flesh the set out, an Active D (T2) or O (T0) would be nice, and permit power progression a bit better by offering a utility power. Active Defense perhaps permitting brief flight, a pulsing area repel, and some defensive benefit. Perhaps a combination of a medium Dodge bonus (far less that Masterful Dodge) and an absorption value up to a maximum per second. Think of it as deflecting attacks with sheer force of wind. Active Offense would be decidedly more vanilla, with the standard damage boost and some useful bonus effect.
I like this. In particular, the special effects would be such that the Active Defense would effectively provide a brief access to Tornado Flight.
Wind is a neat set but I always imagined a wind set to have slashing damage instead of crushing. Crushing isn't too far off but I always imagined high speed "comic book" winds to be cutting and bleeding the targets.
I know right? Like Ice for example, if it didn't have it's own Damage Type, I'd lean towards Slashing rather than Crushing. It seems like Ice & Wind are intended to work thematically well with each other and probably Earth & Fire based off of Heavy Weapons. Many of Might & Heavy Weapon powers are named after Earth concepts.
Like I myself would love to pair up Wind with Dual Blades (Sword Cyclone), maybe also use an advantaged Sparkstorm and do a Whirling Dervish concept. (Complete with waist capes & Fezes).
That's is just my random imagination running wild as an example but it's true that most of Dual Blades powers are named after Wind concepts. It seems they should also be mechanically compatible as well in that regard.
I'd be down with converting wind to slashing instead of crushing damage.There's already a ranged crushing damage framework (force) and a ranged piercing damage framework (munitions), why not make wind slashing?
I also like the idea of an active defense/offense that grants flight and has a PBAoE repel.
Slashing opens the set up to Bestial, Single, and Dual Blades, but cuts it off from Might, Heavy Weapons, probably part of Earth, and Force. If it's not going to be the Sonic set (the last damage type without a set to call its own), I'd have to lean my preferance in favor of Crushing over Slashing. The current animations seem to lend themselves more toward concussive wind whomps than flesh-rending lacerations.
Was thinking about more needs for improvements....
Gust could really use a new SFX. It sounds laaaame.
Was going to say something about Stormbringer but honestly, like others have said, secondary effects and maybe a minor resistance to all damage. Make Stormbringer the passive all offensives aspire to be x3
Was thinking about more needs for improvements....
Gust could really use a new SFX. It sounds laaaame.
Was going to say something about Stormbringer but honestly, like others have said, secondary effects and maybe a minor resistance to all damage. Make Stormbringer the passive all offensives aspire to be x3
I think Quarry currently holds that title. Good damage boost on multiple types, a fair bit of defense, and significant utility via stat boosts.
I know right? Like Ice for example, if it didn't have it's own Damage Type, I'd lean towards Slashing rather than Crushing. It seems like Ice & Wind are intended to work thematically well with each other and probably Earth & Fire based off of Heavy Weapons. Many of Might & Heavy Weapon powers are named after Earth concepts.
Like I myself would love to pair up Wind with Dual Blades (Sword Cyclone), maybe also use an advantaged Sparkstorm and do a Whirling Dervish concept. (Complete with waist capes & Fezes).
That's is just my random imagination running wild as an example but it's true that most of Dual Blades powers are named after Wind concepts. It seems they should also be mechanically compatible as well in that regard.
This really is why in general offensive passive damage boosting being specific to certain damage types or even melee/range is undesirable. Along with other issues it's part of the reason Defiance/AoPM with Enrage as well as Quarry builds are so popular, they're extremely versatile in what powers can be used with them.
Personally, I want to use Archery with the new Wind powers, and the passive I'm going to be using is Quarry, no questions asked, because not only does it give dodge, but it boosts INT and EGO and a wider range of damage types I'll be using. Even if the fact it wont be boosting Cold damage as much as Crushing is annoying, it's still desirable over the in set passive for numerous reasons.
I'm in a similar boat with energy unlocks. I'd like to use the archery one, but it only works with archery powers, so I'm stuck between using MSA and Form of the Tempest despite having no melee at all.
I think Quarry currently holds that title. Good damage boost on multiple types, a fair bit of defense, and significant utility via stat boosts.
Ah, well then there you go. ;3 Make it live up to that in some way. Thanks a ton for the info Gamma.
Also... I'd like some clarification involving the toon slots. How is that going to work? Is it only for PTS or will this spread like an icky disease to live?
Wind Breath - I love it. New must-have for the Superman clones.
Whirlwind - Snow Storm. Meh.
Squall - Awesome
Stormbringer - Good off passive. Like the Crush/Cold/Electricity combo (but see comments below)
Updraft - Why would anyone take this over Force Geyser? The animations aren't even different enough.
Typhoon - Not bad. I don't love long charge up and animation times, but the damage is decent.
Dust Devil - It's okay.
Twister - for another useless charged hold, at least it's got decent animation.
Wind Block - Meh. Fire Shield with some wind animations, and doesn't change much if ranked.
One thing I notice is "how do I buff these powers"? Stormbringer is obvious. Fire Snake for the Cold part, Demolish for Crushing? Not exactly synergystic with Wind. Methinks we need a toggle or a buff power here.
...If it's not going to be the Sonic set (the last damage type without a set to call its own), I'd have to lean my preferance in favor of Crushing over Slashing.
Just wanted to understand this clearly "If it's"? or "If there's". Thanks in advance.
Updraft - Why would anyone take this over Force Geyser? The animations aren't even different enough.
I have to agree about the animation thing. I'm not digging the snap animation. It's already been done on two other powers. Why not both hands with palms up being flung up from the waist. As for the power itself, yeah, it's a weaker Force Geyser. I'll be taking it because of my wind dual blader theme I've been dreaming of. Right now that's the only reason. Hopefully the advantage makes it worthwhile.
I bolted Stormbringer on to a Dex/Int Energy projector that I happened to have on the PTS then gave the toon Lightning Arc, Storm and Force Cascade.
This passive enables me to do my cascade toons with full offensive support for thematic maintains e.g. electrical ones. Of course the only minor hiccup is that if I've got Arc and Storm there isn't much point in cascade but that's force for you. I did try the Squall power on a few boxes and I think it's jolly good also it looks lovely - it just didn't quite fit my theme but to me that seems one of the cherries of the set to me.
What I found a bit disturbing was that the Typhoon power was less than half the damage (circa 1200 to 2600) of the mighty cascade, now I know FC costs a lot - no really I know that trust me... But I did wonder if Typhoon was well kinda a bit rubbish!
K so more testing needed
BTW does Close Area Attack mean the same as Melee? If so then Squall would go well with FOTT but surely not!
Good lord, it's amazing. Like I said earlier, it's like the PBAoE counterpart to One Hundred Hands, and much like it, it looks awesome.
Yeah, i also said how i like that, and i still want a single target attack that fits to it. No cost intensive chargep
but also a maintain more like Lightning Arc please.
Typhoon: Ungainly clumsy and expensive. Much like the force cascade it was based off of. now FC can spike damage but this has the damage split into two. MIght be helpful if you had some sort of tech that split damage reduction between the two damage values in binary damage types like this. I really am not a big fan of charged AoE attacks. If the primary target dies (which happens a lot on these slow charging attacks) you lose all the time you spent charging it and need to do ita ll over again. We need the ability to fire a charged attack off at a dead primary target, even if it means risking firing it and hitting nothing, like in pre-launch beta. If you get knocked in the animation you can lose all the endurance AND the power doesn't activate. Sustained things at least give you partial credit and let you keep firing after the primary target has fallen over. If I don't want to fire it I can always hit block. This needs some sort of mechanic akin to gigabolt for firing a strong blast once in a while at mitigated costs.
Gust: Reskinned force blast. Force blast is kind of rubbish, so this thing is kind of rubbish. has some interesting defensive play though if you smack something with it just before they drop a melee whammy. But you really can't plan on that with the charge up time for such a repel being so long. So, like most Tier 0 it's rather meh really. I can't make much of a verdict until I see if you hook any intersting advanatges on to it. Ice blast for example isn't too amazing until you see it's advantage....
Squall: Amazingly good I pretty much use this all the time, comperable DPS to typhoon at max rank, except it's a sustain (plus), I can move while using it (plus), really nice large area of effect, (Another plus), and it's merely 1/4th the endurance per second of fully charged typhoons at full charge or 1/6th the cost if you are tap spamming typhoon. This thing is so amazinglyg good and cheap.
Animations wise I love the ball of wind for gust, I hope it gets a nice function tagged to it. Typhoon looks like it could use some work, I wouldn't mind another large wind-ball like projectile personally, the charge up looks a little funky too. Squall is so purdy.
I'll toy with some more powers later and put my reactions in later.
First let me get that out of the way so we can move on; I'm disappointed to see that wind feel like a re-skin of existing power, it was one of the most anticipated powerset for me.
I would have prefer to see a range slashing damage too with power like windblades or something.
Now a quick feedback as I couldn't test too much powers yet:
Stormbringer: I like it a lot, multi buff passive will help cross framework build.
I don't agree completely with people saying it need a secondary effect; There is defensive utility and energy gain.
Now if the devs agree and want to add something else on the passive I will not object
Gust: charged T0 are awful seriously, it's a re-skin of Force Blast which itself is a not good (the knock-back make it barely OK). **Suggestion**
Here what I think the power should look like:
- 3ft cylinder, piercing through enemy for a 100ft distance
- chance to repel based on charge
- 15% chance to apply chill/neg. ions
- Rank increase cylinder size and damage
- Adv: base the chance to apply chill/neg. ions on charge time (from 5% to 50%)
Whirlwind: I like it but I think it need to buffed because actually snow storm is much better.
Squall: like everybody I like this power a lot for both FX and damage/utility
**Ideas**
I really would like to see more passive like Stormbringer in the energy Framework.
Something like elec/fire/ice would be great, these passive could be made available across all frameworks
**Ideas**
I really would like to see more passive like Stormbringer in the energy Framework.
Something like elec/fire/ice would be great, these passive could be made available across all frameworks
I think what they are trying to accomplish with Passives like Storm Bringer is to bridge the gap between Power Sets that normally would not function well together.Ice and Elec work well together, Elec and Force work well together, but Force and Ice did not. Ice is about trapping, setting up big hits and tanking damage, Force is about large knocks and keeping enemies spread and dissengaged.
But Wind brings the two sets together and can can use Traps, Knocks and Repels.
My point being, that if they were to do another Passive that used odd Damage Combinations, it would be something like Toxic, Plasma and Fire (Come on Raidation Power Set!!! )
Pretty much everything has been said about Wind already. But one of my concerns, which haven't seen too much in this thread, is about Disorient: it doesnt proc enough to say the least; Snowstorm for example, procs Chill a lot more. A buff to Whirlwind and the Disorient applying is really needed, specially since the damage is "so so"; Gust could have Disorient 100% applied on max charge for example (aswell as having advantages, like xx% apply Ions and/or chill based on charge time, crippling challenge/nailed to the ground etc ...).
But Ame have said there is more to come, advantages for sure, an energy unlock based on repel and probably more powers aswell...(a controllable pet would be great, a toggle too and AD/AO of course). Hopefully they already thought about all this, or at least that they read everything here and get some new ideas
Stormbringer: I like it a lot, multi buff passive will help cross framework build.
I don't agree completely with people saying it need a secondary effect; There is defensive utility and energy gain.
Now if the devs agree and want to add something else on the passive I will not object
Electric Form, Ego Form, and Shadow Form all provide their damage bonus, energy gain on trigger, and niche defensive functions in addition to some sort of secondary enhancements. Stormbringer is falling short of them in that regard.
But some of you seem too excited that its covering 3 damage types.
After all, it covers Cold, but not all Elemental.
It covers Electric, but not all Energy.
It covers Crushing, but not all Physical.
So in it's own way, it is limited.... but kind of the same way Elemental/Energy/Physical Passives cover thier 3 damage types...
So it's3 damage types is unque, meant to overlap certian frameworks. Going to luv to see the synergies of this overlapping!
I'm sure we'll see secondary effects worked in.
So I luv Stormbringer for being Unique yet Balanced :-)
Twister:
Charged holds are not so good in pve but the fact that you can move while charging it helps. This power needs a 2ndary effect or advantage to make it stand out Suggestion:
Add an advantage to this power that puts a small AOE suction around the held target. This would be the suction effect that ebon void has with the radius of mass effect from ego hold.
The reasoning behind this suggestion is that wind can be a chaotic set, but being able to draw mobs into a single spot would help bring things under control (especially on teams).
This power also looks like it would draw objects around it inward.
Gust:
very plain power that is unlikely to be used later in the game. This power needs some kind of 2ndary effect to make it useful on its own and in conjunction with other powers. Suggestion:
Add a disorient to this power. the set needs disorients and ranged disorient blast would may be useful out side the framework. Other things to think about adding are repel and interrupt.
Typhoon:
This power seems roughly comparable to FC but not quite as good (FC seems more EZ to buff and may hit a bit harder).
What i dont like about this power is that it is yet another hard hitting cylinder with knock back. We already have FC AND chest beam. I would really like for this power to do something other than knock back.
FX:
This power also does not look like it has much as a kick. The FX on this power need to be bigger or more violent at rank 3. FC rips the ground and looks like it would knock people back, this power does not. Suggestions:
Drop the knock back and replace it with a repel + disorient. Buff the damage in the base power to make up for the loss of fall damage.
This would help the power not seem like just a reskined FC/Chest beam. The repel/disorient are thematically consistent and give the user a chance to brace them selves for resulting agro, Keep unwanted mobs out of melee range and allow in set synergy with disorients.
Don't let stormbringer's 3 listed damagetypes fool you into thinking it's giving you more. Ice and fire form both give their bonus to elemental damage, so that's fire, ice, and Toxic. Electric form gives it's bonus to energy damage, which means it buffs sonic, particle, and electricity.
There's a number of energy forms that give their buff to 3 damage types. It just contains those damage types in a catagorical description.
Storm bringer does benefit from pulling iconic damage types for weather controllers together however. So you can mix a bit of snowy frost and electricity to be a true storm bringer, but in terms of overall utility, thematics aside, 3 boosted damage types is nothing new.
So really, as it stands now Stormbringer is subpar. But I'm sure they aren't done developing something shiny for it. I mean this is just first draft (Well probably nth draft for them, but first draft for us at least).
It's kind of fun seeing the rather WIP stuff on the PTS personally. I like watching stuff like this take shape.
I was sort of expecting Wind to offer something unique, like Ranged Slashing damage and bleeds, perhaps also even with area effect. Are more powers coming that might do something like that or the like? The computer I have access to during the holidays is crashing with CO consistently, so I'm not able to play for long until I deal with that, so does the Dust Devil or will some planned advantage with some power offer this?
Also, I wonder: Is there a clear distinction to the feel of the powerset, like offering crowd control/snare effects as consistent secondary effects/mechanics ("buffeting" by the attacks hindering movement generally) instead of knockback as Force does, or do the interactions and synergies at least feed into something like that, or is that planned?
This kind of sounds like the "Sonic" set i put in suggstion Forms..
One thing I did on that set was allow powers to be used in conjunction with each other internal to the set.. like Power Armor.. that would take all these low performing powers and make them much more awesome.
I mentioned it before and I'll mention it again, wind is rather repel heavy from what I've seen. Which makes for an intersting field control power especially as a tank. With some finessy advancing while using wind breath you can actually and corall foes back, Squall's repel allows you to move during it as well, shoving foes into place. It's very much a movement in positioning thing. I haven't tried to use it in a large team, but I am interested in what I can do with a tank build I've been toying around with on the PTS in a large team setup (After taunt advantages have been added of course). In theory I could help keep foes clustered together to make the blaster's job easier, especially if there's a couple of wind tanks pushing foes into position.
I know it is a bit out of contest, but could you people also make an Ice Energy unlock? It would greatly help ice users to be capapble of regenerating energy when applying chill.
Comments
What are the chances of Squall also receiving it? I love the power in just about every way I can think of, and I would love to be able to use it as a tanking tool.
I'd also like to throw my voice in about giving it an energy unlock, active offense, things of that nature.
Now all it needs is some in-set synergy and energy unlock options. It's already got lovely synergy with other sets, so seeing it being able to to high damage through in-set synergies as well would be swell!
The visuals are spot-on, with the exception of Typhoon. Things like Wind Breath, Whirlwind, and other cyclonic powers are bad the hell ****, superb work there. The sound is a bit spotty at times, but I've honestly been greatly enjoying the visceral feel of the Wind powers thus far. Heh, first skills pass I've been here for that I can't honestly complain about the feel of the skills. I do wish Typhoon had some massive wind-tunnel beam animation as opposed to just some kinda little squirt-gust, but I cannot complain about its casting animation.
The only real set-wide drawback for me is that I don't think any of the wind powers, with the possible exception of Typhoon and the inevitable exception of Squall, should be self-rooting. The very essence of Wind manipulation as a power is movement Wind-users are almost invariably highly agile and extremely difficult to pin down. A lot of the powers in the set already allow for this, and I've honestly been having a blast rushing around the Battle Station goons with Whirlwind or Wind Breath and watching them all wheeze and puff trying and failing to catch up...but a number of the powers that currently root really shouldn't.
Updraft, for example, could really benefit from being mobile. It could differentiate itself very nicely from Force Geyser by being useable on the go to make up for Geyser's quicker firing time take Geyser and snap yer fingers in place, or take Updraft and charge it up while moving. The set's already shaping up to be a grade-A keepaway set; you should take a really close look at any of the set's self-root powers and make sure they're worth the penalty of letting your opponents have a chance to catch you.
Once again, loving the feel of the set on my first pass-over. Really looking forward to seeing more of it, already doing early planning for a new Wind-ish character. Heh...just wanted to make that clear. Now for specific nits and ideas:
-Gust: Did we not JUST go over this with Infernal Blast?! How many absolutely worthless T0 blast skills do we have to put up with before you go back to doing things like Cleave and TK Assault?! ANGER!
Cryptic...please...for the love of all things good and righteous...STOP MAKING T0 POWERS THAT AUTOMATICALLY DEGRADE ANY BUILD WHICH TAKES THEM! Why should a player with any actual knowledge of the game feel like they have to retcon out of a power choice the game forces on them, guys? I get it, T0 skills are there to give new players a good, reliable way to damage their enemies while they work out how to not suck at energy management. Guess what? Gust, Infernal Blast, Fire Strike, Mind Blast, all those copypasta chargeblast skills ain't it!
|
YAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGH!!
...okay. Mindless rant of great rage over. Still...seriously, Cryptic. Cleave. TK Assault. Bring T0 skills up to the glorious standard set by those two skills, as opposed to forcing them all to the same level of utter junk that is Mind Blast and its legion of drooling hue-shifted clones.
Anyways.
-Stormbringer: The triple-typing damage covering elements of Physical, Energy, and Elemental damage in one passive? Loving it. We're going to be ****-deep in Thor clones when this goes Live and s'far as I'm concerned, more power to 'em. That said, and with all appropriate kudos delivered...it feels a little thin. The triple-typing is obviously meant to be its extra bonus, but that doesn't quite work given that its own set needs that triple typing to function properly. I'd honestly like to see it mitigate slowing effects it'd fit with the general theme of mobility that Wind powers should be shooting for, it'd make thematic sense for something that could control Wind and Snow (crushing and cold) to be less affected by snares or chills than others, and it'd give Stormbringer a unique functionality, something to make it pop. Dunno if you guys want it to pop, but hey.
-Set Holes: I really like what you guys have put out so far; this is the most solid initial PTS pass I've been around for. That said...no active offense, defense, or energy return seems kinda scant. The set synergizes reasonably well with Electricity's stuff Ball Lightning w/Triplicity and Dust Devil w/Triple threat is a lolarious alpha combo, as well as setting up Ionic Reverberation for Super End characters, but the set doesn't have any of the usual tools save for a block. I doubt we'll get an energy unlock, but Wind seems like a nice choice for a new active defense. Some manner of wind bubble or defensive twister around the character perhaps make it a brief but very powerful version of Inertial Dampening Field, have it just absorb a (large) flat amount of incoming attacks off a Personal Defense Cyclone? That'd certainly be an interesting new twist on active defenses, and I could see a lot of players really liking it for when they get themselves in aggro trouble.
-Disorient: I see why the set works on Disorients, it's a good way to represent unsteady footing without inventing a Wind-only debuff and breaking the set further away from the others, but like a few others have said, ways to apply them in-set are awfully scant. If you're going to work with it, it'd be nice to have a solid way of applying it. I'm going to assume there's advantages in the works to strengthen the set's Disorient abilities, but if there aren't and even if there are allow me to suggest that Updraft's base form, or at least its advantage, be modified to guarantee a Disorient on the target on a full charge? It'd make thematic sense for the power, given how abrupt and jarring it is, and it'd also make Updraft a very valuable tool for both Heavy Weapons and Telepathy as well, improving cross-set combos. Heh, you're going to be seeing a lot of Heavy Weapons/Electricity combos as it is given Stormbringer, why not throw 'em an extra bone while you're at it and earn some additional gratitude
So...yeah. That's about it for now, I suppose. Time to go back and have some gigglefun with the Windy powers.
That being said, mechanically however it feels like just like more force powers though. I mean I like the uniqueness of Stormbringer and can see how Earth could get a similar passive (Fire, Crushing & Sonic). I also like the options provided among various powers to take advantage of Negative Ions and Cold effects. Though what really makes it feel like just more Force powers is the Crushing damage type. It would have been a truly unique set to have a ranged Slashing set. Even with it's EB's name Wind Lash I expected it to be Slashing, and just ended up with a Force variant in the way Vicious Strikes is to Unarmed.
It's really weird how just a simple Damage Type makes that much of a difference in my mind, but it does. I mean lets say they had an equivalent to Stormbringer with the Earth set, then it's basically two options to have Elemental variations for the Crushing sets rather than covering opposite sides of the spectrum in available power combinations.
Now if it was a LIVE set already, I can see the issue with changing them as it could break builds to do so. But since it's technically doesn't exist yet, then there'd be little to no harm in changing it at this time which is why I bring it up. Though if development sees a reason to keep it's primary Damage Types as Crushing/Cold/Electricity, then I'm glad to have more Force powers with neat secondary mechanics and very pretty FX.
The only thing I can add to state my case is this power: Echo's Stick
It tells me that someone out there in the distant past of Champion's development thought Wind attacks should be Slashing.
First off, thanks for all the feedback. It should be pretty obvious that we're still working on Wind. A few points:
We'll be paying lots of attention to feedback on the Wind framework (as well as Earth, which will be on PTS soon) but we may not be as talkative this time around - lots going on with 2 new Frameworks and Archetypes, as well as finishing up Whiteout, working on Winter Event, and other plans for next year.
Thanks again for all of the testing and feedback!
If i may suggest, Then.
Wind SERIOUSLY lacks single target damage, it needs some crazy ST Nuke to go with all it's awesome AOE effects, possibly with an advantage to add AOE (TK Lance or Lightning arc style power)
Also, Basing it's energy unlock off repel seems possibly terribad, Does that mean when you ACTUALLY repel a target? or when you ATTEMPT to repel a target - Making it useless on bosses would be bad, thats where you actually bloody need it.
That could be the best passive unlock ever (Attempts giving energy and all powers can do it) or crap (Has to repel, limited powers, useless on bosses)
Overall, set looks cool, Feels a bit weak with a couple powers, and lacks ST Damage and the "Trick" powers that set other energy sets aside from it, but if you give it time, this could be amazing.
Speaking of time, This should SERIOUSLY have a solid month of testing, let alone earth as well, this is a whole new set, not a minor rework.
Sounds great.
My main concern are all addressed here. As long as these are covered, the set is golden;
A. Energy performance: energy management via energy unlock, cost vs dmg, etc.
B. How is it different than the original power? Advs (Wind Breath vs other breath, Typhoon vs Force Cascade)
It will be based on Repel attempts, which is why we need new tech for it.
It would be nice if Updraft got an advantage that procs Disorient. Maybe even give the proc a small AoE radius, similar to Pillar of Poz.
Running under the knowledge that this isn't trying to reinvent the wheel nor but the powers are still under review, I'd have the following commentary:
Gust: TK Assault, Ego Weaponry, and Cleave set the bar for T0 powers having a just-right blend of good damage and utility. Currently, Gust cruises clear under that bar with the rest of the T0 pack. I do like the windball, but it serves little to no purpose in the set. Perhaps a debuff application of -10% Crushing/Electric/Cold damage, with an advantage to compound an additional -15%. That would give it in-set and cross-set synergy. The damage and cost could use a bump. Not to Typhoon levels, but...you know. Or perhaps 50% splash damage. Some umph. Something. Right now it is completely dumpable at the first given opportunity.
Wind Breath: Basic breath power. Needs a little fine tuning, but that's probably still in the works, I'm sure.
Whirlwind: Additional damage to disoriented, or a better knock chance. It's not terrible, but tweaking is needed when it's held side-by-side with Snowstorm -- which outperforms it particularly when Eye of the Storm comes into play.
Squall: Love it. Synergistic advantage, decent function, fantastic animation.
Stormbringer: Three damage types is nice. Lets you branch out into Force and Electric, and gives an alternative for boosting Electric damage without Elec Form (but sadly, not particle or sonic). It should get some variety of secondary function to bring it in line with the "good" offensive energy forms. Ego Form has a power cost discount; Shadow Form has perception stealth, a health gain proc, and threat reduction; Electric Form has a big energy boost. It needs something.
Updraft: Could perhaps stand to be a mobile power rather than a root, but not necessarily a dealbreaker. As for function, this is to Uppercut as Force Geyser is to Eruption.
Typhoon: Not bad. The split damage will get hit by Invul/IDF, but overall its reduced cost and still reasonably potent damage makes it a solid all-around T3. Maybe some sort of minor debuff attached (unless I missed it having one) like Disorient or Chill. The VFX appear to be a beefier Gust, but could really stand for something more like...a horizontal column of wind. Think Storm Eagle.
Dust Devil: Cute. I like that it can be summoned multiple times. The advantage is just what advantages should be: better than the base power in a reasonable number of situations, but not all. Lacking a little "boom" like ball lightning is unfortunate, but I noticed that the individual ticks are notably higher.
Keeping in mind that an energy return is in the works...
Repels: Don't scale with anything but rank. I imagine this is a tricky subject, as heavily scaled repels could be over the top. Feels like they become a little impotent compared to scaling knocks. There was mention of a repel-immunity damage bonus, but I think only Might and Heavy Weapons powers get that boost. I'm not aware of any ranged knocks getting a damage bonus on immunity.
Active Defense or Offense: To flesh the set out, an Active D (T2) or O (T1) would be nice, and permit power progression a bit better by offering a utility power. Active Defense perhaps permitting brief flight, a pulsing area repel, and some defensive benefit. Perhaps a combination of a medium Dodge bonus (far less that Masterful Dodge) and an absorption value up to a maximum per second. Think of it as deflecting attacks with sheer force of wind. Active Offense would be decidedly more vanilla, with the standard damage boost and some useful bonus effect.
Lastly, while not having to do with the Wind framework directly, Crushing Wave could use a tweak. The repel is just too weak for it being a self-rooting power. Either it should not root you, or the repel should be nudged up. Henchmen can walk through the 7-foot repel pulses like they weren't even happening. I bring this up because it's a power that is very strongly thematic alongside Wind.
would love this.
I like this. In particular, the special effects would be such that the Active Defense would effectively provide a brief access to Tornado Flight.
I know right? Like Ice for example, if it didn't have it's own Damage Type, I'd lean towards Slashing rather than Crushing. It seems like Ice & Wind are intended to work thematically well with each other and probably Earth & Fire based off of Heavy Weapons. Many of Might & Heavy Weapon powers are named after Earth concepts.
Like I myself would love to pair up Wind with Dual Blades (Sword Cyclone), maybe also use an advantaged Sparkstorm and do a Whirling Dervish concept. (Complete with waist capes & Fezes).
That's is just my random imagination running wild as an example but it's true that most of Dual Blades powers are named after Wind concepts. It seems they should also be mechanically compatible as well in that regard.
I also like the idea of an active defense/offense that grants flight and has a PBAoE repel.
"The Squall"? :rolleyes:
Yeeaaahhhhh
(lets not make "Wind" the red headed stepchild of the AT names ok?)
How about "The Storm"! :eek:
Yes, yes, I know "The Blade", but to be fair that AT isn't that close to the character. Then again, maybe this isn't either, but still :rolleyes:
That's just me, though.
Gust could really use a new SFX. It sounds laaaame.
Was going to say something about Stormbringer but honestly, like others have said, secondary effects and maybe a minor resistance to all damage. Make Stormbringer the passive all offensives aspire to be x3
I think Quarry currently holds that title. Good damage boost on multiple types, a fair bit of defense, and significant utility via stat boosts.
This really is why in general offensive passive damage boosting being specific to certain damage types or even melee/range is undesirable. Along with other issues it's part of the reason Defiance/AoPM with Enrage as well as Quarry builds are so popular, they're extremely versatile in what powers can be used with them.
Personally, I want to use Archery with the new Wind powers, and the passive I'm going to be using is Quarry, no questions asked, because not only does it give dodge, but it boosts INT and EGO and a wider range of damage types I'll be using. Even if the fact it wont be boosting Cold damage as much as Crushing is annoying, it's still desirable over the in set passive for numerous reasons.
I'm in a similar boat with energy unlocks. I'd like to use the archery one, but it only works with archery powers, so I'm stuck between using MSA and Form of the Tempest despite having no melee at all.
Ah, well then there you go. ;3 Make it live up to that in some way. Thanks a ton for the info Gamma.
Also... I'd like some clarification involving the toon slots. How is that going to work? Is it only for PTS or will this spread like an icky disease to live?
Gust - another useless charged T0.
Wind Breath - I love it. New must-have for the Superman clones.
Whirlwind - Snow Storm. Meh.
Squall - Awesome
Stormbringer - Good off passive. Like the Crush/Cold/Electricity combo (but see comments below)
Updraft - Why would anyone take this over Force Geyser? The animations aren't even different enough.
Typhoon - Not bad. I don't love long charge up and animation times, but the damage is decent.
Dust Devil - It's okay.
Twister - for another useless charged hold, at least it's got decent animation.
Wind Block - Meh. Fire Shield with some wind animations, and doesn't change much if ranked.
One thing I notice is "how do I buff these powers"? Stormbringer is obvious. Fire Snake for the Cold part, Demolish for Crushing? Not exactly synergystic with Wind. Methinks we need a toggle or a buff power here.
Just wanted to understand this clearly "If it's"? or "If there's". Thanks in advance.
I have to agree about the animation thing. I'm not digging the snap animation. It's already been done on two other powers. Why not both hands with palms up being flung up from the waist. As for the power itself, yeah, it's a weaker Force Geyser. I'll be taking it because of my wind dual blader theme I've been dreaming of. Right now that's the only reason. Hopefully the advantage makes it worthwhile.
This passive enables me to do my cascade toons with full offensive support for thematic maintains e.g. electrical ones. Of course the only minor hiccup is that if I've got Arc and Storm there isn't much point in cascade but that's force for you. I did try the Squall power on a few boxes and I think it's jolly good also it looks lovely - it just didn't quite fit my theme but to me that seems one of the cherries of the set to me.
What I found a bit disturbing was that the Typhoon power was less than half the damage (circa 1200 to 2600) of the mighty cascade, now I know FC costs a lot - no really I know that trust me... But I did wonder if Typhoon was well kinda a bit rubbish!
K so more testing needed
BTW does Close Area Attack mean the same as Melee? If so then Squall would go well with FOTT but surely not!
Luv
Squall
It is a very cool set, cant wait to see the special adv's.
PS:
I
Luv
Squall
Hush you, it's not THAT good a name
He's talking about the actual power.
Good lord, it's amazing. Like I said earlier, it's like the PBAoE counterpart to One Hundred Hands, and much like it, it looks awesome.
Yeah, i also said how i like that, and i still want a single target attack that fits to it. No cost intensive chargep
but also a maintain more like Lightning Arc please.
Typhoon: Ungainly clumsy and expensive. Much like the force cascade it was based off of. now FC can spike damage but this has the damage split into two. MIght be helpful if you had some sort of tech that split damage reduction between the two damage values in binary damage types like this. I really am not a big fan of charged AoE attacks. If the primary target dies (which happens a lot on these slow charging attacks) you lose all the time you spent charging it and need to do ita ll over again. We need the ability to fire a charged attack off at a dead primary target, even if it means risking firing it and hitting nothing, like in pre-launch beta. If you get knocked in the animation you can lose all the endurance AND the power doesn't activate. Sustained things at least give you partial credit and let you keep firing after the primary target has fallen over. If I don't want to fire it I can always hit block. This needs some sort of mechanic akin to gigabolt for firing a strong blast once in a while at mitigated costs.
Gust: Reskinned force blast. Force blast is kind of rubbish, so this thing is kind of rubbish. has some interesting defensive play though if you smack something with it just before they drop a melee whammy. But you really can't plan on that with the charge up time for such a repel being so long. So, like most Tier 0 it's rather meh really. I can't make much of a verdict until I see if you hook any intersting advanatges on to it. Ice blast for example isn't too amazing until you see it's advantage....
Squall: Amazingly good I pretty much use this all the time, comperable DPS to typhoon at max rank, except it's a sustain (plus), I can move while using it (plus), really nice large area of effect, (Another plus), and it's merely 1/4th the endurance per second of fully charged typhoons at full charge or 1/6th the cost if you are tap spamming typhoon. This thing is so amazinglyg good and cheap.
Animations wise I love the ball of wind for gust, I hope it gets a nice function tagged to it. Typhoon looks like it could use some work, I wouldn't mind another large wind-ball like projectile personally, the charge up looks a little funky too. Squall is so purdy.
I'll toy with some more powers later and put my reactions in later.
I would have prefer to see a range slashing damage too with power like windblades or something.
Now a quick feedback as I couldn't test too much powers yet:
Stormbringer: I like it a lot, multi buff passive will help cross framework build.
I don't agree completely with people saying it need a secondary effect; There is defensive utility and energy gain.
Now if the devs agree and want to add something else on the passive I will not object
Gust: charged T0 are awful seriously, it's a re-skin of Force Blast which itself is a not good (the knock-back make it barely OK).
**Suggestion**
Here what I think the power should look like:
- 3ft cylinder, piercing through enemy for a 100ft distance
- chance to repel based on charge
- 15% chance to apply chill/neg. ions
- Rank increase cylinder size and damage
- Adv: base the chance to apply chill/neg. ions on charge time (from 5% to 50%)
Whirlwind: I like it but I think it need to buffed because actually snow storm is much better.
Squall: like everybody I like this power a lot for both FX and damage/utility
**Ideas**
I really would like to see more passive like Stormbringer in the energy Framework.
Something like elec/fire/ice would be great, these passive could be made available across all frameworks
I think what they are trying to accomplish with Passives like Storm Bringer is to bridge the gap between Power Sets that normally would not function well together.Ice and Elec work well together, Elec and Force work well together, but Force and Ice did not. Ice is about trapping, setting up big hits and tanking damage, Force is about large knocks and keeping enemies spread and dissengaged.
But Wind brings the two sets together and can can use Traps, Knocks and Repels.
My point being, that if they were to do another Passive that used odd Damage Combinations, it would be something like Toxic, Plasma and Fire (Come on Raidation Power Set!!!
But Ame have said there is more to come, advantages for sure, an energy unlock based on repel and probably more powers aswell...(a controllable pet would be great, a toggle too and AD/AO of course). Hopefully they already thought about all this, or at least that they read everything here and get some new ideas
Electric Form, Ego Form, and Shadow Form all provide their damage bonus, energy gain on trigger, and niche defensive functions in addition to some sort of secondary enhancements. Stormbringer is falling short of them in that regard.
I dont luv the NAME, I luv the POWER.
It's unique and FUN!
But some of you seem too excited that its covering 3 damage types.
After all, it covers Cold, but not all Elemental.
It covers Electric, but not all Energy.
It covers Crushing, but not all Physical.
So in it's own way, it is limited.... but kind of the same way Elemental/Energy/Physical Passives cover thier 3 damage types...
So it's3 damage types is unque, meant to overlap certian frameworks. Going to luv to see the synergies of this overlapping!
I'm sure we'll see secondary effects worked in.
So I luv Stormbringer for being Unique yet Balanced :-)
GOOD JOB DEVS!
Charged holds are not so good in pve but the fact that you can move while charging it helps. This power needs a 2ndary effect or advantage to make it stand out
Suggestion:
Add an advantage to this power that puts a small AOE suction around the held target. This would be the suction effect that ebon void has with the radius of mass effect from ego hold.
The reasoning behind this suggestion is that wind can be a chaotic set, but being able to draw mobs into a single spot would help bring things under control (especially on teams).
This power also looks like it would draw objects around it inward.
Gust:
very plain power that is unlikely to be used later in the game. This power needs some kind of 2ndary effect to make it useful on its own and in conjunction with other powers.
Suggestion:
Add a disorient to this power. the set needs disorients and ranged disorient blast would may be useful out side the framework. Other things to think about adding are repel and interrupt.
Typhoon:
This power seems roughly comparable to FC but not quite as good (FC seems more EZ to buff and may hit a bit harder).
What i dont like about this power is that it is yet another hard hitting cylinder with knock back. We already have FC AND chest beam. I would really like for this power to do something other than knock back.
FX:
This power also does not look like it has much as a kick. The FX on this power need to be bigger or more violent at rank 3. FC rips the ground and looks like it would knock people back, this power does not.
Suggestions:
Drop the knock back and replace it with a repel + disorient. Buff the damage in the base power to make up for the loss of fall damage.
This would help the power not seem like just a reskined FC/Chest beam. The repel/disorient are thematically consistent and give the user a chance to brace them selves for resulting agro, Keep unwanted mobs out of melee range and allow in set synergy with disorients.
So it's safe to assume that wind will get more repels or more working ones?
I've only seen 3 powers in the set actually use it
If so, I expect to see some sort of gimmicky builds involving Ebon Rift and Mighty Kick.
That's an even better reason to change the name of the AT
Which AT has the same name as a power? :rolleyes:
There's a number of energy forms that give their buff to 3 damage types. It just contains those damage types in a catagorical description.
Storm bringer does benefit from pulling iconic damage types for weather controllers together however. So you can mix a bit of snowy frost and electricity to be a true storm bringer, but in terms of overall utility, thematics aside, 3 boosted damage types is nothing new.
So really, as it stands now Stormbringer is subpar. But I'm sure they aren't done developing something shiny for it. I mean this is just first draft (Well probably nth draft for them, but first draft for us at least).
It's kind of fun seeing the rather WIP stuff on the PTS personally. I like watching stuff like this take shape.
Also, I wonder: Is there a clear distinction to the feel of the powerset, like offering crowd control/snare effects as consistent secondary effects/mechanics ("buffeting" by the attacks hindering movement generally) instead of knockback as Force does, or do the interactions and synergies at least feed into something like that, or is that planned?
One thing I did on that set was allow powers to be used in conjunction with each other internal to the set.. like Power Armor.. that would take all these low performing powers and make them much more awesome.