Focused Feedback: Storm Blast

[TygerDarkstorm]

1 hour ago, Heatstroke said:

Also because there seems to be quite a bit of scattering and there is no way within the set itself to lock down foes it seems as if a lot of the AoE potential is wasted... That could just be feel however.. 

Not just the feel. I know a lot of people are going to want to pair Storm Blast with Storm Summoning, and it works, but it also syncs quite nicely with Dark Miasma ( I feel like I had fewer issues with them escaping tar patch than some of the other testers running Storm/Storm). It also goes nicely with Trick/Tactical Arrow.

[Underfyre]

Does anyone else feel like the reduced range on the Sentinel version of Storm Cell just isn't in the spirit of the ability when compared to the other ATs? Currently the shortened range forces you to take an alpha to place the cell over a pack. Not especially useful or fun.

[Heatstroke]

5 hours ago, TygerDarkstorm said:

Not just the feel. I know a lot of people are going to want to pair Storm Blast with Storm Summoning, and it works, but it also syncs quite nicely with Dark Miasma ( I feel like I had fewer issues with them escaping tar patch than some of the other testers running Storm/Storm). It also goes nicely with Trick/Tactical Arrow.

 

I planned to try Storm/Dark next.

[Luminara]

5 hours ago, Underfyre said:

Does anyone else feel like the reduced range on the Sentinel version of Storm Cell just isn't in the spirit of the ability when compared to the other ATs? Currently the shortened range forces you to take an alpha to place the cell over a pack. Not especially useful or fun.

 

It accepts Range enhancements, according to CoD.

[Dispari]

I think the power could use more range in general. It's 60 feet for blasters/defenders/corruptors which already makes it hard to place before combat starts. It doesn't aggro on its own, but slinking up close enough to put it somewhere beneficial often put me in range to aggro, to the point I thought it was changed to be a power that aggros for a bit of testing and was going to give feedback on that. And then it's even worse on sentinels at 40 feet.

Yeah, I know patch powers like Rain of Fire are usually 60 feet, but this isn't an attack, it's a setup power that the set revolves around. It's a uniquely different type of power and needs special consideration. On that note I would also say giving it an extremely short recharge so you can position it exactly as needed as often as needed is a better idea than having it slowly move around, which to me feels counterproductive to having it set up where it can be most useful to the user. Because as-is it kinda just does whatever it wants and might stop short of actually covering a group of enemies.

And... I still think it's too vague where the boundaries of the power are so it's hard to tell who's in it and who's not (IE who might be repelled and who wouldn't).

[Underfyre]

2 hours ago, Luminara said:

 

It accepts Range enhancements, according to CoD.

 

Do you ever actively slot for range? Only 2 sets have a +range enhancement to them (Detonation and Positron's Blast). Only 3 sets have a bonus have a bonus to range (Bombardment/5%, Ssentinel's Ward/10%, Opportunity Strikes/10%). I can confirm that those 3 set bonuses alone taking the range to 50ft is inadequate to prevent agro.

[FupDup]

1 hour ago, Underfyre said:

 

Do you ever actively slot for range? Only 2 sets have a +range enhancement to them (Detonation and Positron's Blast). Only 3 sets have a bonus have a bonus to range (Bombardment/5%, Ssentinel's Ward/10%, Opportunity Strikes/10%). I can confirm that those 3 set bonuses alone taking the range to 50ft is inadequate to prevent agro.

Artillery has 25.5% range enhancement in it, but your point still stands. 

[Luminara]

6 minutes ago, Underfyre said:

Do you ever actively slot for range?

 

Yes.

 

28 minutes ago, Underfyre said:

Only 2 sets have a +range enhancement to them (Detonation and Positron's Blast).

 

Artillery Accuracy/Recharge/Range and Endurance/Recharge/Range, four Slow sets with Range/Slow.  And +Range with Intensify.

 

My Archery/Energy/Ninja has a 70.52' range on Fistful of Arrows, soft-capped Defense to Smashing/Lethal/Fire/Cold/Energy/Negative, and 180% global recharge (no Hasten in the build, either), so I know we can have our cake and eat it too.

[Underfyre]

4 minutes ago, Luminara said:

And +Range with Intensify.

 

Have fun wasting 25% of your Intensify time with casting Storm Cell.

[Wravis]

11 hours ago, Heatstroke said:

1) Graphics

 

Hail Stones. Also needs more... Ooomph graphically. 

 

 

on the other hand.. Chain Lightning.. what ?? I really didnt like this animation at all. I would have preferred like hitting thr ground and lighting dropping down on foes.. like a Thor smashing his hammer on the ground and then lighting starts dropping in an area on all foes.. (come to think of this.. why isnt THAT an attack)

100% Agree with both of these.

Hail Stones looks ridiculous and wimpy. Like a cartoon rain cloud that follows a sad character around. It doesn't look powerful at all.



Aww man. They used hailstoned on me... What a drag.
 

Edited April 8, 2023 by Wravis

[WindDemon21]

31 minutes ago, Wravis said:

100% Agree with both of these.

Hail Stones looks ridiculous and wimpy. Like a cartoon rain cloud that follows a sad character around. It doesn't look powerful at all.



Aww man. They used hailstoned on me... What a drag.
 

That's cloudburst, not hailstones. But you are explaining exactly why it seems like those two powers should be swapped in tier/damage/rech.

[MHertz]

On 4/5/2023 at 5:10 PM, WindDemon21 said:

Maybe it's not as bad as I'm imagining…

If you imagine it is bad, I would post your hypothetical results on the Focused Imagination thread. This is for feedback by beta testers.

[ScarySai]

I'm kinda okay with cloudburst. I just think the projectile could maybe be faster.

 

Like maybe instead of it being a projectile, it just spawns over their head. It would probably look better and also cut out the delay in damage delivery without having to modify the power itself.

[WindDemon21]

16 minutes ago, ScarySai said:

I'm kinda okay with cloudburst. I just think the projectile could maybe be faster.

 

Like maybe instead of it being a projectile, it just spawns over their head. It would probably look better and also cut out the delay in damage delivery without having to modify the power itself.

Agreed, it seems weird how you throw a projectile for it, and not a fan of that current animation in general either.

[WindDemon21]

40 minutes ago, MHertz said:

If you imagine it is bad, I would post your hypothetical results on the Focused Imagination thread. This is for feedback by beta testers.

You're 7 pages late, I've been on and testing it, move on.

[Camelbobsled]

Going down the rabbit hole of potential t9 names I humbly submit a classic. 

 

[Wravis]

1 hour ago, WindDemon21 said:

That's cloudburst, not hailstones. But you are explaining exactly why it seems like those two powers should be swapped in tier/damage/rech.

Oops you're right! 

[Luminara]

1 hour ago, Underfyre said:

 

Have fun wasting 25% of your Intensify time with casting Storm Cell.

 

70.52' without Aim.  I apologize for failing to note that in my previous post.  With Aim, the range would be 83.84'.  For completeness, the slotting I used to achieve that is 2x level 53 Centrioles, 1x Detonation Dam/End/Range, and 20% +Range from set bonuses (Superior Sentinel's Ward in Blazing Arrow and Superior Opportunity Strikes in Stunning Shot).  I have three more slots in Fistful, all 3.5 ppm damage procs.  I specifically avoided pursuing any more global +Range on this character because I wanted the range of Fistful to match up with the ranges of the single-target attacks (72', not including Aim), so there's plenty of head room for increasing the range via set bonuses.

 

But to address the point you were hoping to make, I have a few counterpoints.  One, on that Archery sentinel, Aim's cycle time is 25.91s, so it's going to be back up ~16s after it drops.  Losing a couple of seconds of Intensify on a similarly built character wouldn't bother me at all.  Two, Intensify increases the probability of interaction between Storm Cell and Category 5 (20% chance IncreaseStormStrength), and anyone with more than a few brain cells is going to be using both Storm Cell and Cat5 together once they're both available, so why not use Intensify first?  Three, Intensify's +Damage is 25%.  That piddling amount isn't enough to lose a femtosecond's sleep over.  The 50% +ToHit is absolutely meaningless because of the clamp, you're still going to go through the same miss/forced hit/miss/forced hit bullshit with or without it.  That only leaves the +Range and 20% chance IncreaseStormStrength to give it any value.  Storm Cell and Cat5 are the only powers which can really benefit from it fully, so why not use it before using those?

[Wavicle]

13 minutes ago, Luminara said:

 

70.52' without Aim.  I apologize for failing to note that in my previous post.  With Aim, the range would be 83.84'.  For completeness, the slotting I used to achieve that is 2x level 53 Centrioles, 1x Detonation Dam/End/Range, and 20% +Range from set bonuses (Superior Sentinel's Ward in Blazing Arrow and Superior Opportunity Strikes in Stunning Shot).  I have three more slots in Fistful, all 3.5 ppm damage procs.  I specifically avoided pursuing any more global +Range on this character because I wanted the range of Fistful to match up with the ranges of the single-target attacks (72', not including Aim), so there's plenty of head room for increasing the range via set bonuses.

 

But to address the point you were hoping to make, I have a few counterpoints.  One, on that Archery sentinel, Aim's cycle time is 25.91s, so it's going to be back up ~16s after it drops.  Losing a couple of seconds of Intensify on a similarly built character wouldn't bother me at all.  Two, Intensify increases the probability of interaction between Storm Cell and Category 5 (20% chance IncreaseStormStrength), and anyone with more than a few brain cells is going to be using both Storm Cell and Cat5 together once they're both available, so why not use Intensify first?  Three, Intensify's +Damage is 25%.  That piddling amount isn't enough to lose a femtosecond's sleep over.  The 50% +ToHit is absolutely meaningless because of the clamp, you're still going to go through the same miss/forced hit/miss/forced hit bullshit with or without it.  That only leaves the +Range and 20% chance IncreaseStormStrength to give it any value.  Storm Cell and Cat5 are the only powers which can really benefit from it fully, so why not use it before using those?

Intensify increases the chance for your other powers to Proc your storms. It is best used AFTER summoning Storm Cell and Cat 5.

[ScarySai]

@Luminara I wouldn't lose sleep over it either way either, but I'd probably pop it after laying the storms down as well.  Having every attack proc both storms obliterating your targets is just too good.

[Luminara]

50 minutes ago, ScarySai said:

@Luminara I wouldn't lose sleep over it either way either, but I'd probably pop it after laying the storms down as well.  Having every attack proc both storms obliterating your targets is just too good.

 

I don't care whether everything's prone a few seconds sooner or later.  I'm in it for the face mutilation and butts, not to break records and "win" Internet points.

[Underfyre]

While we're on it, do we know for sure if using Intensify AFTER casting either Storm Cell or Cat 5 will retroactively apply its affects? I haven't really seen much of anything being applied retroactively in this game, everything is a snapshot at the time of activation.

 

I just did a test to check stuff, and I can say that the damage boost from Intensify does not apply to the lightning strikes. Neither Cat 5 lightning nor Storm Cell lightning saw an increase in damage.

[Wavicle]

Just now, Underfyre said:

While we're on it, do we know for sure if using Intensify AFTER casting either Storm Cell or Cat 5 will retroactively apply its affects? I haven't really seen much of anything being applied retroactively in this game, everything is a snapshot at the time of activation.

 

I just did a test to check stuff, and I can say that the damage boost from Intensify does not apply to the lightning strikes. Neither Cat 5 lightning nor Storm Cell lightning saw an increase in damage.

 

It increases the chance that your other attacks will cause SC and C5 to proc.

[Underfyre]

Just now, Wavicle said:

 

It increases the chance that your other attacks will cause SC and C5 to proc.

 

I know, but Intensify also has a 25% damage boost. Seems like it should be increasing the damage if the entity has a flag for "Boosts are copied to entity"

[xmenlegend]

I love the set so far! My only suggestion would be to make the lightning fx the same color yellow as the lightning in "Lightning Storm" in the storm summoning set, that way all the powers aren't just blue all the time.

 

Maybe also make the wind fx more white and leave the snow/rain/ice blue?

Edited April 8, 2023 by xmenlegend