Why do battle sprite skills take so long to cool-down?
dim, 04/10/2016 - 10:57
For something that the devs hyped up back then, its a bit sad when it takes 15 SECONDS to ready the most generic projectile attack, and thats at the highest tier. If it takes this long I expect a death laser, not something that the Iron slug can do in a much faster time. You may as well give it a passive that lets you land crits at this point.
dim, 04/10/2016 - 12:37
#2
To be honest
Sprites are already really-really strong. You just have to use them correctly.
With that said... blue and green mineral eating new sprites would be awesome! ^^
dim, 04/10/2016 - 14:11
#3
@Veridian
I agree - you just gotta learn how to use them to your best advantage.
Also, if they were as OP as Lex is suggesting, then combat balance would go way off kilter. It's just like chaos armour: sure, you get plenty of CTR and damage boosts, but you're also weak to ALL statuses. And these things stack!
But now you mention it, sprites that eat blue and green minerals would be cool... maybe they'll introduce some new ones at some point?
dim, 04/10/2016 - 16:07
#4
Veridian has a good point. Sprites are already kind of broken compared to not having them.. they give you the ability to spawn extra hearts, deal damage when all of your weapons are support (Drakon), brush off light attacks with invincibility shields, become invisible... it's easy to take these things for granted, but try going back and fighting something even moderately difficult without your sprite at all.. it's a world of difference.
dim, 04/10/2016 - 19:20
#5
I'm a Wizard
Sprites that eat Valestone and Moonstone are probably gonna be some ultra rich jerk exclusive pet, because people won't be happy if they already picked a sprite and then there's a new one which suits their playstyle better.
Sprites are good enough as is. They're basically a free trinket slot.
Seraphynx's Death Laser is great against multiple enemies, don't judge it. Also, it's a Tier 1 Skill so you shouldn't expect it to be amazing, and it can reduce defense at Level 90. So that's obviously really good.
dim, 04/10/2016 - 22:38
#6
Sprites
Am i the only one that wished using a sprite ability didn't require the knight to stop everything he was doing? I find it kind of annoying and pointless. If i want to shoot drakon fireball while i am also attacking a high health enemy for example, i can't. I need to stop attacking for it to work. Which most of the time is not worth it. By the time i get to tell my sprite to use 1 fireball, i could've used two more sword slashes, each one dealing about the same as the fireball.
lun, 04/11/2016 - 00:54
#7
Eh.
Sprites are pretty poorly balanced overall. Invincibility tinks on the laz0r are boring and the Disintegration variant outperforms the other one even on zombies. Drakon's abilities are rarely worth using, especially with this forced shared cooldown thing. Firestorm usually fails to actually spawn! I wonder how that thing works mechanically.
lun, 04/11/2016 - 01:54
#8
OOOkay.... :D
Some random answers.
people won't be happy if they already picked a sprite and then there's a new one which suits their playstyle better.
Of course they would be happy. It would be something actual new content. They would either collect and save up some money to buy them new sprites ( i would , easily. even if at first sight i wouldnt like their skills ) , or just create a new character and choose them for free.
@Jazz: yeah. That is actually not the easiest thing to do. But with experience you will eventually come around.
Sprites are pretty poorly balanced overall.
Hell no.
Seras aura and ray are amazing and really helpful to use. Ray is only strong after you picked its ultimate tho', but then... the defense down is almost actually OP.
Firestorm is probably THE BEST party-fighting petskill ever, but only (again) after the ultimate. Makes the party to do more than 200% dmg overall, _if_ you exploit it correctly. About its mechanics: you need to not stand near to a wall or blocking obstacle. Then it will land 100%.
And i didnt even talked about how awesome backfire barrier is...
Believe me, sprites are amazingly STRONG. Its just people really need to get experienced how to actually use them. It takes time to figure it out.
If you dont believe me, contact me ingame, and i'll perform a little preview for you.
lun, 04/11/2016 - 04:21
#9
Sigh.
A blocking obstacle can be anything, including some enemies. It's incredibly finicky. And if you're talking about party damage buffs coming from it, that's precisely the lack of balance I was talking about. Most ultimates are worthless garbage whereas others are broken as hell.
lun, 04/11/2016 - 04:34
#10
Eh
Battle sprites augment your playstyle, they shouldn't become their own playstyle. If you play a support role then spawning health or protecting teammates with a sera shield may be for you.
That "single basic projectile" is more than a basic projectile - it's one of the longest ranged projectiles in the game, and additionally deals fire ticks. It has pretty high knockdown as well, making it a perfect "enter combat" or "exit combat" attack - but "during combat" it will just slow you down.
If all you do is charge spam brandishes then nothing new will really be "good" ever... Because if you play only one specific way then the only thing that "matters" is whatever makes you play that one way better - ie, valkyrian aura for brandish chargers.
lun, 04/11/2016 - 09:38
#11
It's possible and valid to base your play around your sprite. Endgame skills, 'ultimates' allow that more than ever-
Deadly Shadow Cloak + Dark Retribution + Dread Venom Striker
Generally you're going to just be bombing but the real strength comes from the sprite skill- all of your existing bombs do extra damage while you're at zero risk, followed up by absolutely destroying whatever you choose to at the end. Similarly, it's possible to base your play around valkyrie aura by bringing weapons specifically to use with that CTR boost, or heart attack by bringing weapons that knock enemies low on health.. but the point is that your role in your party becomes fairly well defined by your sprite skill, and that there's nothing wrong with that.
As far as poorly balanced goes, they have some really good balance and some really poor balance. Maskeraith and seraphynx are balanced well with one another. Drakon falls short until he gets his ultimates and even then isn't as good.. but overall the 3 sprites aren't -that- poorly balanced, Drakon is still viable just not 'best'.. what are poorly balanced are some of their ultimate skills. Seraphynx's ray of light is one sided towards disintegration, heart attack is imbalanced towards iron, maskeraith's "ghosts" do nothing, stuff like that.
lun, 04/11/2016 - 09:42
#12
No love for mask, I see
Since nobody else is gonna talk about the maskeraith, I suppose I'll have to.
As soon as the sprites were announced, I looked at the maskeraith and thought "yep, that's the one I want. I don't care about the skills, that thing is MINE."
The poison quills are good for anti-healing in the case of annoying gremlin menders/silkwings, and with the right harness can shave off several hits from what it would have taken to kill an enemy. It makes the Jelly King an absolute cakewalk with a shadow harness. Ult goes into quills that freaking TELEPORT to other enemies once you hit them or to quills that EXPLODE with poison. They are honestly so good.
A lot of people looked at the invisibility and said "Eh, who wants to go invisible, that's pointless if you want to fight and it goes away as soon as you do anything." NO. THE INVISIBILITY IS AMAZING. If you're in a tight spot and need to reposition or get out of the line of fire to pop a health capsule, just go invis and shield bump everything out of your way, because using your shield doesn't get rid of the invisibility. Ult goes into a boost to damage and attack speed upon loss of the invis, and that boost is GREAT for taking out single targets, or if they're lined up correctly groups of enemies. You become an assassin in times of peril. The other ult is an explosion once invis is lost, and honestly I feel like that one isn't as good. But mayhap it is.
And then there's the hexing haze. At first glance to the numbers, the skill doesn't seem like it does a lot of damage. But the beauty of the haze is in the ultimate versions, specifically Chaotic Haze, because Haunted Haze is bad from what I hear. Chaotic Haze can cause status effects, and that includes curse. Add in having the correct harness for the situation, and I've seen about 200+ damage per explosion during the skill. That's about on par with what my swords do at those same depths, though that can vary a bit. And that's all around you WHILE you keep attacking.
tl;dr Maskeraith needs more love, he's awesome.
lun, 04/11/2016 - 11:42
#13
Some more answers.
@Putkis : enemies dont block firestorm. Only exceptions are bosses probably when they are in invincible state , or other creatures with unpiercable shields.
I cant spell it in any other ways. You need to be experienced, then your pet will be OP no matter what.
@Fangel : im gay for branidshes and i still find every pet really good for my playstyle :D
@Fehzor : i disagree with you on Drakon. Drakon is arguably the best pet for many missions. For example if you want to quickrun FSC. Ask any hardcore Vana speedrunners. As a matter of fact Drakon is overall best pet for doing quickruns almost (not entirely) everywhere.
@Tiraen : I love all 3 kind of pets, i just answered the random statements above :)
I love Sera cuz of Disintegration Ray and Valkyrian Aura.
I love Drakon cuz of Backfire Barrier and Frenzied Firestorm.
I love Maskeraith cuz of Vengeful Quills and Deadly Shadow Cloak.
All 3 are amazing! :)
To be honest one who wants to master this game on PvE side needs to get all 3 pets.
There are certain missions tailormade for Sera, for Drakon or for Mask.
At least this is my experience.
lun, 04/11/2016 - 14:18
#14
Hm.
I'd love to own a Maskeraith some day. And Tiraen is right: from what I know of the Maskeraith, the invisibility is actually incredibly useful. Not only can you shield-bump monsters away if you're in a tight spot, you can also use shield barriers without the invisibility being cancelled. Sometimes a simple status inflict is all you need!
mar, 04/12/2016 - 06:00
#15
Am I late to the party?
@ Putkis #7
Just for clarification: dazzling will do more dmg vs fiends with the pierc harness and vs undead with the ele harness.
But yeah, even in those 2 scenarios it is YOU (and everyone else hitting the marked monsters) who wants to do more dmg not your sprite.
mar, 04/12/2016 - 10:03
#16
Sigh.
2185 hours played and I still get told "git gud" when suggesting that maybe the skills need further balancing. Joy. And guess what, I DO have all 3. Can't say I tried all ultimates but I don't really need to. When one ultimate changes an escape ability into a "press button, instantly receive ridiculous damage boost that stacks above gear caps" and the other one maybe stuns in a tiny radius, it needs some damn work. "It's amazing!" Yeah, that's the problem a lot of the time. Power creep.
mar, 04/12/2016 - 12:42
#17
A M A Z I N G
Well, if you think pets arent _amazingly_ helpful, if you think firestorm isnt _amazingly_ strong... then yeah you said it: "git gud" mate ;-]
mar, 04/12/2016 - 13:00
#18
I'm not saying that Drakon is unuseable or even not best at something, just that he's not as good as Maskeraith or Seraphynx- which provide substantial buffs to what you're capable of. I'm talking Grinchlin Assault, Dreams and Nightmares, challenging content and not just running past enemies- invisibility in these situations guarantees hits on whatever you feel like, lets you stall for time, multiply your damage output... and more hearts becomes VERY valuable when heart drops slow to a crawl. In these situations, Drakon's damage and running quickly become secondary.
mar, 04/12/2016 - 13:10
#19
Meh.
Guills do more damage than Firebolt does + they bring a useful status on the table. Fire is not powerful and has extremely limited utility. As for AoE, even if you spend the time to set it up, it still does one swing's worth of damage. The Stun is nice I suppose but that should really come standard.
Explosive Firestorm does less damage than Hexing Haze. Maybe not if you stand right in it but the radius is small and can't be controlled. Frenzied Firestorm looks like it falls to the same problem as the Shadow Cloak variant, only being worthwhile because it makes YOU scale instead of doing anything impressive on its own.
Scorching Barrier serves me well but I suspect the movement speed boost of the alternative would do more damage simply by allowing you to move around your opponent, causing the spheres to connect more. Synergizes with the barriers and their periodic disengagement requirement too. And unless you use a cutter, you really don't hug enemies in this game much. Tends to provoke attacks. But again, no experience with the other variant of this. It's entirely likely the fireballs become an afterthought, defeating the point of your "pure offense" pet yet again.
Even Drakon is useful, there is no doubt about it. It's just that the overall balance is poor.
Does Fire damage scale with party size? If it was percentage based, that'd help.
Sprites are supposed to augment your weapons and not be as tremendous power creep as they could be. Imagine going through the game with a death lazor every 15 seconds.
What I want is sprite boosting armor/trinkets. Imagine being able to use your sprite as a weapon at the cost of not being able to buff your weapons as much.. Possibly also a new weapon class based around buffing your sprite and your friends' sprites. Nothing too big, just something like sprite treats. You charge it up and throw it down as a pick up + throw thing, and the sprite consumes it + gets a buff.