We already have a Fire-themed Sprite (Drakon) and a Poison-themed one (Maskeraith), so why not add a Freeze and Shock themed Battle Sprite? They'd make good use for the Moonstone and Valestone we come across the Clockworks these days.
Freeze and Shock themed sprites?
Sun, 07/13/2014 - 03:14
Sun, 07/13/2014 - 13:55
#2
Details
Not sure if this will fly but have at it.
—Freeze Sprite—
Name: Froosdra (portmanteau of “Frost” and “Hydra”)
Description: The Frosdra is a battle sprite that embodies ice and cold. Its skills focus on crowd and environmental control through subzero means.
Harnesses: Iron/Crystal/Golden
Skill 1: Frost Breath – Spray a freezing mist in a wide area in front of you that freezes opponents. (Like the Zombie breath.)
- -Focus: Cooldown reduction
- -Pressure: Increases spray range and width.
- -Chill: Increases spray duration and freeze duration (max: 5 or 6 seconds)
Skill 2: Ice Walls — Flash freezes blocks of ice in front of the knight. (Create ice walls like Maulos from the Heart Of Ice mission.)
- -Focus: Cooldown reduction.
- -Glaciation: Create more rows of walls. (Starting with 3 tiles to 15 tiles at maximum - making a 3 by 5 tiles of a wall.)
- -Density: Increases wall duration and resilience.
Skill 3: Freezing Icestorm — Creates a snowstorm with the knight in the eye of it and flash freezes enemies within. (A skill with the same AOE as Maskeraith's Hexing Haze but it only freezes.)
- -Focus: Cooldown Reduction
- -Convection: Increases range and duration of the ice storm. (Maxed out makes duration roughly as long as a Shivermist Buster)
- -Chill: Increases Freeze chances of Freezing and duration.
Special Food: Frost Mote, Frost Dust, Frost Stone, Frost Orb, and Frost Star. (Made with Moonstone)
Description: “A ________* of special food favored by battle sprites who thrive in the cold climates.”
*part of the description for each Star-Rating on Food.
Ultimate Skills:
—Frost Breath
- -Hail Breath: In addition to freezing enemies in place, the breath also does ticks of damage during the breath animation. (Glowing horns)
- -Snow Breath: Covers part of the ground in snow, slowing down enemy movement after being thawed out. (Snow beards)
—Ice Walls
- -Explosive Ice Walls: Blocks of ice blink a couple of times before exploding, causing both damage and Freeze proc. (Ice back spikes)
- -Freezing Ice Walls: Freezes enemies in tiles where ice walls take form. Completely boxing them in the process of creating the walls. (Icy Mohawks)
—Freezing Icestorm
- -Subzero Icestorm: Enemies cannot be thawed by any means, leaving them open and vulnerable to attack. (Ice claws)
- -Boreas Icestorm: Enemies within the ice storm receive damage ticks while frozen. (Ice wings)
—Shock Sprite—
Name: Teslawyrm (Nikolai Tesla and a wyrm)
Description: The Teslawyrm is a battle sprite that embodies the storms and lightning. Its skills focus on creating electrical traps and shocking thunderstorm to control the battlefield.
Harnesses: Iron/Crystal/Dark
Skill 1: Tesla Spikes – The Teslawyrm shoots several electric spikes in a 45-degree angle, they stick to enemies. The spikes will form an electric wire between them that causes shock status and damage to enemies that pass the wire. (Like the Barbarous Thorn Blade charge attack, but with longer range to create the trip wires)
- -Focus: Cooldown Reduction.
- -Conductivity: Increased shock status and tripwire range.
- -Spikes: Increases number of spikes launched.
Skill 2: Storm Cloud — Shrouds the Knight in a highly-charged thundercloud. Increases Defense and shocks nearby enemies with bolts of lightning.
- -Focus: Cooldown Reduction.
- -Cloud Nine: Increases Defense buff and size of the cloud.
- -Ionization: Increases shock status and frequency of lightning strikes.
Skill 3: Storm Orb – Fires a spiraling ball of lightning that turns into a storm cloud that drops lightning bolts. Dealing strong tick damage and shock status.
- -Focus: Cooldown Reduction.
- -Ionization: Increases lightning strike rate and shock status.
- -Density: Increases size of the cloud formed by ball lightning and duration. (About as long as the VT haze stands with Max Density)
Special Food:
1* Electron Mote
2* Electron Dust
3* Electron Stone
4* Electron Orb
5* Electron Star (Made with Valestone)
Description: “A ________* of special food favored by battle sprites who roam within the thunderous skies.”
—Ultimate Skills
Tesla Spikes
- -Explosive Tesla Spikes: Spikes become timed sticky bombs and explode when time runs out or when the tripwire is crossed. (Mace-like tesla coil at the end of its tail)
- -Charged Tesla Spikes: Each spike that lands on an enemy gives Charge Time Reduction (CTR) buff on the party. (A bristle of spikes at the end of its tail)
Storm Cloud
- -Charged Storm Cloud: Adds Charge Time Reduction buff during the skill’s effect. (Long ears with an electric arc between them)
- -Conductive Storm Cloud: Lightning Strikes are triggered by attacking enemies and have chain-lightning capabilities. (bigger feet)
Storm Orbs
- -Relentless Storm Orb: Storm Orb expands into three smaller storm clouds that chase down enemies to deal tick damage and shock, they explode at the end of their lifetime. (Ruff made of clouds)
- -Convection Storm Orbs: Storm Orb becomes a vortex of electrical energy, drawing enemies into its center and electrocuting them constantly.(Plasma wings)
—End—
I don't know how viable these are, but those are the details on what I have in mind. I would like to add that the Froosdra has multiple heads as it evolves - maximum of three when fully evolved. I also would like to add that the Teslawyrm is a quadruped.
I mostly thought of how people use Shiver as a main crowd control tool for most runs, so that's why I thought of basing the Froosdra off that though that's not it. I wanted to add blocks (Ice Walls) because blocks really come in handy when you need to hide behind something to avoid damage for instance. So, why not make a wall to cover the group from Turrets, Devilites, and Kats? That was my thought process as I was typing it.
For Teslawyrm, I couldn't leave a Shock-themed Sprite out because Drakon and Maskeraith cover roughly half the Status Themes in the clockworks. Felt like I had to in order to complete it. I do admit to having a hard time thinking of what a Shock-themed Sprite would be used for. So I thought of Tesla Spikes and tripwires to spread shock everywhere but I think making it an AOE-focused sprite would be viable to spring traps and control the battlefield. I had a hard time with that one and not sure if it will work out for the game - because its skills are AOE though I hope the cooldown actually evens it out.
That's what I pretty much went for when I was typing these details out. Not sure how balanced these are.
Mon, 07/14/2014 - 05:54
#3
gods ain't gonna help you, son.
Freeze sprite:
Frost breath: it's ok. it doesn't do damage, but it should be useful.
Hail: no problems with this one.
Snow: mmm. the skill freezes already, so the snow seems overkill. maybe spawn the snow right after the breath runs out.
Ice walls: spawning the blocks in front of you isn't the greatest thing. a circle or half circle would be much better.
Explosive: that way is a portable shard bomb. it's either going to piss off bombers or have the same problems that shard bombs have.
Freezing: I'm not sure that clipping enemies in blocks is a good idea. giving the blocks a slight freeze mist would be better.
Freezing icestorm: it's a shivermist buster replacement. it's better to replace it.
Subzero: a bit OP. it pretty much upgrades freeze t sleep, and it's not in the game for a reason.
Boreas: the damage ticks would free the frozen monsters. yeah.
Shock sprite:
Tesla spikes: it's interesting and it's ok, but blocks.
Explosive: timed quills, that's what everybody wants. no, I'm not joking.
Charged: well, maybe damage up with this one. you use CTR later too.
Storm cloud: seems an awful lot like flame barrier.
Charged: ok to me.
Conductive: no problem.
Storm orb: I don't know if it's a kind of VT with damage attached to it or an artillery strike with not much range and shock. better the latter.
Relentless: if the effect takes place after the skill has finished, fine, otherwise I find the original skill better.
Convection: portable vortex, which is a bad idea since vortex users will be pissed to no end.
to replace abilities, automatic aimed shots and basic blasts are unused, try thinking about that.
Mon, 07/14/2014 - 08:54
#4
On Snow Breath: That actually
On Snow Breath: That actually sounds good. After the breath animation ends, the area is covered in snow to slow mooks down.
On Ice Walls: I thought of a 3 by 1 tile wall to start out with and then a 3 by 3 tile wall when you've maxed it out, though I realized since you need 3 SP to max out its Glaciation aspect - then it means adding 1 SP wouldn't show any sign of improvement until the next 2 are added. Hence why I thought of a 3 by 5 for a maxed out form and thus it looks like a big rectangle of ice spawned in front. Though a semi-circle isn't that bad, actually. A full circle kinda works though I hope it doesn't disconcern people with trapping each other inside a circular wall of ice.
On Explosive Ice Walls: I was intending to make that ultimate the more offensive variety, though you do have a point that its like a shard bomb-like skill. Just couldn't think of any "offensive" type of wall at that time.
On Freezing Ice Walls: I thought about that and felt it would seem OP compared to the other skills. Though its an option, and I would consider it to see how it would work out. Its like spawning mini-Shivers or Ice Cubes.
On Freezing Icestorm: I wasn't sure with this one. Its either setting a static Shiver skill that you call down, or a mobile Shiver in which means that you freeze everything that is near you because its a Freezing Haze covering you. It gave me trouble.
Subzero and Boreas Icestorm: Thought this one would be for those who prefer the absolute freezing Ultimate, or at least an ultimate that keeps them frozen indefinitely as long as the Subzero Icestorm is in play compared to Boreas. Its meant to be a more offensive-type of Ultimate than actually freezing opponents. I wanted to make Boreas focus on damaging things more than actually freezing - even though the base Skill has freeze proc. I wanted to make these Ultimates to be decisive on how you wanna play them - would you rather stop a mob close in their tracks as they are coming on to you closely or rather have some DPS assistance by having an AOE around you that does ticking damage?
Charged Tesla Spikes: I try to avoid damage increase, because the Drakon has that Frenzy Firestorm Ultimate and if I went with damage increase instead - then Frenzy Firestorm would be obsolete because of this Ultimate Skill that the Teslawyrm gets. It has low cooldown because its the first skill and its more likely to be used (spammed) on mobs than the Drakon, resulting a constant damage increase and I didn't want to kick Drakon out of the options list because of that. Especially since the buff will be on as long as the spikes are stuck on targets with anything stupid enough to cross the tripwires.
Storm Cloud: Its not just Flame Barrier, Shadow Cloak also gives Defense increase too when you have it on. So I thought about this and added a defense buff because you have to get close to a mob to shock them - just like you have to get close to a mob to burn them with the Flame barrier.
Storm Orb: Its an artillery strike. The Wyrm fires a ball lightning in front of the knight a few tiles forward prior to the actual strike occurring, I thought it would make a skill where you can surprise the enemy before you rush in to fight them. A tactical artillery strike that you direct in front of you.
Relentless and Convection: Relentless pretty much makes the lightning strikes more controlled. Rather than a big thundercloud striking at seemingly nothing during the skill, it splits into three that home in on targets and drop the bolt on them. It basically changes the Skill's behavior. Kinda the same thought process as Icestorm on this one - Relentless makes the artillery strike to hit mooks about 90% of the time. Convection is basically a vortex, yes. Its meant to be a decisive-sort of Ultimate as well. Either you want to make lightning strikes to always hit or pulls a group together into one place for an ambush - considering that the original skill is meant to surprise enemies.
I'll see what I can do about those. Automatic aimed shots and blast, can you give an example?
Mon, 07/14/2014 - 09:43
#5
When the developers designed the battle sprites, they did so with specific play styles in mind. Seraphynx is defense oriented, maskeraith is stealth oriented and drakon is blunt offense oriented.
I'd personally like to see an icy offensive support themed battle sprite and a shock themed monster manipulation sprite.
By offensive support I mean something that can deal massive damage to enemies that aren't focused on the player, while dealing smaller safer damage when possible. For instance-
Icy Offensive Support Sprite:
-Skill one = 15 second cooldown; shoots 3-5 chunks of ice in the direction shot in. Deals small damage and freezes mobs.
The idea here is to deal in small bits of damage while strafing, while knocking mobs away from you. This would be very spammable.
-Skill two = 35 second cooldown; generates a frosty aura that freezes all nearby mobs; grants the player charge time reduction: max. Lasts for 10 seconds.
This would let you go up to enemies and freeze them, then charge your weapon and take advantage of their lack of cover and completely wreck them. To make the most of it, you would have to come up behind monsters attacking your friends and charge attack them, dealing huge damage and freezing them.
-Skill three = 45 minute cooldown; applies strong freeze to the user, but unleashes a huge AoE effect that damages all mobs heavily, freezing them and knocking them down
Once you're frozen, your team would have a fun time crushing all of the monsters around you, especially after they unfroze you with a quick attack. This skill would also make freeze resistance far more worthwhile.
---
By monster manipulator, I mean something that could draw aggro and make monsters chase you, or stop chasing you. This would be a very strategic move on the developer's part.
Shock themed manipulator sprite
-Skill one = 10 second cooldown; Shoots a lightening bolt that shocks one enemy and makes it lose focus on whoever it is after.
The idea would be to loose certain enemies, so as to send them after others. The shocking them bit would assist with this, as they would no longer be following after you religiously and would instead stand there shocked.
-Skill two = 30 second cooldown, draws all aggro to you in a radius. Grants a defense and speed bonus. Very slim chance to deal minor shock to nearby mobs upon activation.
This would be the opposite, and would let you draw in the entire crowd, to focus in your attacks.
-Skill three = 1 minute cooldown, a lightening effect that shocks and damages all monsters actively going after you, regardless of distance.
Once you have all of the attention, it would be smart to deal with everything.
Mon, 07/14/2014 - 22:55
#6
Move over, there's bubble-wrap to be popped!
Swap their minerals
Trust me on this one
Tue, 07/15/2014 - 00:37
#7
To Fehzor
The ice chunks look interesting, kinda like when you force cast Ice on Magicka. Though trying to knockback and freeze a mob at the same time sounds feasible but what could be considered Ultimates for it then?
That second freezing skill is good, though I don't know how it makes sense that a Freeze-based skill gives you CTR. I choose the shock one to grant that because its electrically charged - mostly to give an idea that makes sense. I know where you are going with that one: I spam a lot of Brandish charges and I'd play that skill a lot on any run that isn't Freeze-themed. Just that I don't know how will it make sense that you "envelop yourself in frost, granting you the ability to charge faster". I like your ideas, just pointing out a nitpick of it that others are likely to pick up on too.
Hah, that's balanced. In an extreme and high risk-high return kind of way. Though I am guessing the best AOE range this skill would have is Shiver's (or any 5* Haze Bomb) to make it worthwhile - nobody wants to freeze themselves and the mob in a situation where they are sorrounded and completely crowded. Its not a bad skill, I am pretty sure anybody with Freeze-res Armor - potentially the Black Kat Kowl users - would make use of this. Though the AOE range is kind of in question though. I wouldn't mind if it were as large as Shiver, considering the cooldown period after executing it - getting more bang for your buck. As they say.
How would the lightning bolt come out to be on the first skill? I can only think of an arc, though I find it that it would be hard to use and aim - mostly thinking it will seek the nearest target. In addition, wouldn't it be better if augments would allow it to shoot multiple arcs of lightning rather than one? Just to make it more viable to hit multiple foes in a mob rather than just one.
It sounds to me the shock ones you suggested do require a new element into the mix but I think its plausible. I do sometimes use Maskeraith's Shadow Cloak to get all the aggro off me - this one sounds like its the opposite in terms of drawing all enemy aggro. Though what I am wondering is, for how long can the second skill maintain a mob's aggro regardless of having partymates already getting the jump on them? Just thinking to myself here if their aggro will be sustained towards you for a certain ammount of time - I am thinking this would be like Seraphynx's Heart Attack: where you "enchant" enemies to draw their aggro towards you during the enchantment period.
I don't know how will that third Shock skill with work in practice. It sounds like you hit everything that's aggroing you, and I can only think of using that as a way to sweep out a big crowd of enemies - like something I run through Compounds or Apocrea's Grasping Plateau to clear out all the Scarabs. Other than that, I can't think of other practical use for it and sounds like I have to make it count for the long cooldown period in mind.
——
They are good ideas, Fehz. Just trying to previsualize on how they would be used - if they were really on the live server (or test).
@Sir-Crazee-Pi: I choose Moonstone and Valestone for Freeze and Shock Sprite food on purpose. I know Moonstone and Dark Matter were formally used to create Shock-themed levels, and Vale and Moonstone are used to make Freeze-themed stratums. What I was considering first for those was the aesthetics of it. Shock-themed levels look a little more green than the Freeze-themed ones, because they look bluer than Shock-themed levels. That's my artistic call on the minerals used to craft the (suggested) Sprite Food.
Tue, 07/15/2014 - 00:41
#8
That's a lot of reading.
It seems like you've got something figured out here for sure. But ideally, the sprites would play into a playstyle, as Fehzor has stated. Seraphynx is focused on defense and restoration, Maskeraith is focused on support via debuffs(as well as significantly boosting stats temporarily for its user), and Drakon on the frontline offensives.
Fehzor's idea for the two new styles of play are decent. Ice is given a teamplay role (I.E., it might be detrimental to solo players, but fantastic in parties), and the aggro playstyle. Essentially, these would help fill in some gaps so that now we have: the Medic, the Debuffer, the Soldier, the Teamplayer, and the Tank.
Adding on to a bit of what Fehzor suggested, I would suggest instead of giving a CTR on the second skill of the ice sprite, make there be a split ultimate path, one leading to the targets being deathmarked, and one with CTR max to players within the aura radius.
Wed, 07/16/2014 - 13:38
#9
That's a good idea.
Make a recon Deathmark and CTR bonus for an Ultimate skill choices on second skill sounds decent. And you have a point, a Teamplayer and a Tank.
I do still want to be able to put temporary blocks somewhere, having that ability sounds useful to me.
Wed, 07/16/2014 - 14:59
#10
For sure
The "blocks" you're asking for are essentially the wall that seraphynx's ray of light provides. If anything, the freeze sprite would have those blocks, but they should be able to be inflicted with fire and melt. Anything that walks into these puddles is cured of the fire status. Perhaps an ultimate would turn the water into "holy water" that cures all statuses.
The primary sprite ability could create walls and have a short range. If the ice blocks did not hit an enemy, they could create walls that players can pass through, but mobs cannot(you wanted maulos ice, and that's how it works for them).
Thu, 07/17/2014 - 01:45
#11
Heheh, Remedy.
That would be neat if you melt the "holy" ice into holy water to heal your partymate's ailments for an Ultimate. What I find it funny is how the Seraphynx doesn't have that - which is supposed to "The Medic" of the party - this may sound off-topic: Why couldn't they make Heart Attack's Ultimate (namely Violent Heart Attack) into a skill that Remedies partymates and yourself when you're in its AOE?
Anyway, I've done Heart Of Ice a few times and never noticed the ice blocks would be transparent to enemies. Though being able to have a sprite that could do them would be nice - I could say it'd be pretty hax to have that, though I think the short range of walls could even it out for it. Wondering what ultimates could those walls have.
sprites have already been suggested, and in more detail. please detail your suggestion.
yes, now detail is a verb.