Celestial Cleansing has to be the most underwhelming power in the game. It doesn't do a very impressive job at its main purpose (buff/debuff removal) and several other powers do a better job at it in addition to something else (
Skarn's Bane along with the advantages on
Protection Field and
Arcane Vitality).
It does have some very situational uses (e.g. Trauma removal), but it's still of limited utility there. I think it has to do with several issues relating to how Champions Online has been set up and its history. Right now, Celestial Cleansing will remove 1 debuff or 1 buff and travel power before going into a 25 second cooldown (each additional ranks will shorten it by 5 seconds).
There are several ways I can think of to make Celestial Cleansing worthy of attention...
1. Have Celestial Cleansing removal all buffs/debuffs on a target.
OR
2. Remove the cooldown on Celestial Cleansing. Ranking it will remove an additional effect instead of reducing cooldown.
Both work out fine. Removing all effects while keeping cooldown will still allow enough time for Bleed and Poison stacks to build up so as not to invalidate users of such. Removing the cooldown while only purging fewer effects allows it to be spammed but limited by energy costs. Even with the crazy energy returns these days (Energy Builders have been mostly obsolete for several years now), the cost adds up without a
Circle of Arcane Power (like Redirected Force). It can even work with removing Active Offenses and Active Defenses. There might be a few exceptions for things that are difficult to build up (Rush, the Glory of Battle, Locus, and that crazy Unified Theory buff come to mind) or are expensive and have a long cooldown as well (
Energy Storm and maybe
Hex of Suffering). Passive effects will obviously remain due to their inherent nature.
The first has more of an impact. The recipient is guaranteed to be wiped clean of whatever noteworthy temporary buff or debuff that you want gone. The second allows it to be used more often giving it a more tactical bent than a strategic bent (or is that the other way around?). Maybe you want to remove something from yourself, a boss, and a teammate. You'd be able to do target all three in short succession though if there are multiple effects, more applications may be required. Speaking of which, an AoE advantage isn't a bad idea either.
Comments
Its a bit tough for me too gauge how much stronger this power should be, since I consider things like trauma and buff removal to be a bit broken or not well-designed in this game as a whole atm.
- Be safe and have fun, champs - for science!
Debuff (Illumination on enemy target); When an enemy trigger the mend effect, one buff or something is removed from the target.
Buff (Illumination on friendly target): 15% chance to gain Celestial Cleansing buff (3 stacks) whenever you take any form of healing. Celestial Cleaning buff will absorbs debuff affects removing one stack per debuff absorbed, once all three stacks are removed the target gains a debuff for 15 seconds that stops them gaining Celestial Cleansing again.
Of course those are just ideas and I am fairly sure I have some parts off alittle but it is really just an example to try and make both powers alittle better.
Alexandra
It could have a larger cost or a very small cooldown. Given how lacklustre Celestial Cleansing is right now, it could go a lot of ways to make it a considerable power. It's true that buffs are crazy in this game. That's its own issue that requires addressing and like Celestial Cleansing, I'm not sure if it'll happen.
Between a small quasi-Honor bonus or pairing it with Illumination as suggested by alexandrafreya, Celestial Cleansing could stand to take something extra. But I'd like to see its main component addressed first before considering any additional effects. I'd also consider some sort of short-term buff/debuff resistance that reduces the duration of incoming buffs/debuffs as a possibility. But with the finicky balance and implementation required, it's probably unlikely.