Sprites... what's good and what needs to be improved (Drakon)
Dom, 09/22/2019 - 12:37
At the moment I am currently working on ranking up my own Drakon so I can't give a perfect review of the ultimates (though I can still give my opinion based of what I have seen in game and from discussions about it with other players)
The Drakon is supposed to be an offense oriented sprite... but in my opinion it fails at that for a variety of reasons. In fact it doesn't seem like there is much use for it until you finally do get access to the ultimates, till then you're going to be running around with argueably the worst sprite in the game.
The Firebolt is a Ranged attack with a small fiery explosion that can flinch enemies (nice) and can set them on fire (meh)
The Flame Barrier is in my opinion a waste of time... the orbs don't deal direct damage or break blocks like the Barrier pickups you can collect... all the Drakon's Flame barrier does is raise your defense and set things on fire, and I mentioned in the Seraphynx review why Defense Up isn't that useful in this game
The Firestorm is an equal waste of time.... the sprite lays down a small patch of burning ground that lights enemies on fire.... I can do the same thing with a Fiery Vaporizer Mk 2 on a much shorter cooldown and with the ability to actively deal damage with the blast radius
Of the base skills the Firebolt is the most useful and even then it doesn't always light things on fire.... to buff this Sprite I'd make the Flame Barrier function identically to the Barrier pickups dealing damage and breaking blocks, I'd also make the Firestorm function like the Drakon Ultimate "Explosive Firestorm" where it actually creates an AOE that not only burns enemies but can also deal damage.
In addition I would (similar to the Maskeraith in my other review) give the Drakon the unique "DragonFire" status... functionally identical to fire but it bypasses immunities and won't light up Oilers/Toxoils
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As for ultimates (from what I've seen and heard)
The FireBolt ultimates are both pretty nice actually... upgrades but not really game breaking.... the only thing I might change is Blast radius on on the Meteoric by a small bit and to increase the Stun chance on the Concussive
The Flame Barrier ultimates are one of the things that make Drakon so good... The Backfire Barrier is a great tool for escaping bad situations or speedrunning in general, extremely valuable in this game.... the Scorching barrier on the other hand is hardly an upgrade but this goes back to the Barrier's inability to deal direct damage like the Barrier pickups... if that gets changed then I could see this ultimate being very useful for melee attackers
The Firestorm ultimates are also very good.... the Explosive Firestorm finally lets your ability deal direct damage (which it should have from the start) making this a potentially powerful too for players.... unfortunately it's entirely overshadowed by the Frenzied Firestorm, why deal damage with your sprite when you can get it to give you a boost to deal damage with your own weapons which are far more powerful than the Firestorm? The Frenzied Firestorm is the clearly superior choice right now. If the Explosive Firestorm is granted a much higher damage output, maybe explosions that have an extremely high flinch rate and 0 knockback it could prove to be a valuable option for locking enemies in place while dealing damage to allow for a brief respite from attacks or for the knight to join in...
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The Concussive Firebolt, Backfire Barrier, and Frenzied Firestorm are some of the best ultimates in the game... the problem is that until you get to MAX level your sprite is far less useful than the Maskeraith with it's poison and Cloak utility, or the Seraphynx and it's HP drop booster and Shield....
Fire is a good Status but for the Drakon the slow death by burning enemies means that the amount of DPS you actually add to a team is minimal and would be better used on something like support.... Right now the Drakon is too "passive" in how it deals damage and this game is more rewarding to just kill things...
Dom, 09/22/2019 - 13:36
#2
@Nano-sec
As I stated at the beginning I have yet to complete my sprite so I'm not completely well versed in it yet... from what I have seen I am not impressed though... not as much as the others
It's good to know the Flame Barrier does some damage though you still won't see me... or rarely anyone else use it for dealing damage or for it's defense boost owing to the fact that in high tiers you basically get 3 or 4 shot by everything and putting yourself in melee range is super risky... I still would like for it to break through blocks and whatnot... and you can never go wrong with a little more damage, perhaps enough to actually encourage such a risky playstyle.... heck why not make the barrier actually a barrier in that it works like small orbiting shields blocking shots and attacks like a Gremlin Knocker shield?
As for Firestorm I rarely ever see the Explosive one and have little chance to see it in action, I don't doubt that the damage output is nice to finally have but it just needs... MORE.... good to know that it also finally flinches... TBH though if the base form was give the ability to deal direct damage I would want the Ultimate to deal even more and have bigger range
As for Frenzied, well it's meta for a reason.... even if the Explosive got a buff the ability to boost and then direct your attacks where you want (rather than trying to lay the Storm on a group and pray that more walk into it) is much better
I do look forward to finally completing the sprite but until then I don't see how anything (other than firebolt) is really that useful... and it's kinda bad when the first ability you have is your best one...
Mar, 09/24/2019 - 13:52
#3
Research is overrated
*As for Firestorm I rarely ever see the Explosive one and have little chance to see it in action
Probably several reasons for this:
1. People don't pick explosive firestorm as their ultimate because spiral intellectuals who have never used explosive firestorm say it is garbage
2. Explosive firestorm by design is best when a solo knight uses it, in which case you wouldn't be there to see them use it
3. Frenzied firestorm is also very good
4. Maskeraith
Scorching flame barrier is really nice and underrated. Or backfire barrier is overrated, not sure. But it is kind of the same story here, people want to get the fancy speed boost they saw some guy use in FSC and don't even consider scorching barrier anymore. Also I guess everyone uses brandishes so the knockback from charge spam is kind of counterproductive when using scorching. That said, I do agree a little more damage wouldn't hurt. It deals plenty of damage in regular depths with an appropriate harness, but when fighting monsters with high defense it is a bit lacking. The shield idea is cool too.
Firebolt is by far the weakest of the 3 abillities... definitely not the best one. It's used for hitting switches and nothing more really (meteoric has more range given its larger blast radius)
Mié, 09/25/2019 - 12:27
#4
@ Zincamania-Forum
I don't doubt that the Explosive Firestorm is useful but if a skill is only best for solo play then it's kind of niche... personally I want ALL the Firestorm abilities to deal damage, just make the Explosive one the most damaging...
If the Flame barrier actually blocked shots in addition to dealing damage I could see it being useful, since the current form forces you to get in melee range to deal damage... it also goes against the weapon meta atm since in higher tiers you want to use weapons with ranged attacked like Brandish, or knockback like Divine Avenger.... meanwhile the optimal sword for barriers in terms of knockback and attack pattern, The Cutters; are rarely used due to lack of type damage...
Firebolt is an ok ability.... it's not as potent as the Seraphynx or Maskeraith first skill but it's still effective.... regardless of how they buff/nerf sprites there's always going to be one with the most lackluster ability...
Dom, 09/29/2019 - 00:04
#5
Cooldown information
Hey, the wiki also doesnt contain information on how long are ooldowns of the sprite's abilities. It would be amazing if that information was available. Do different ult upgrades also have a cooldown difference. I think they actually might based on some conversations.
Also, I love this thread and agree with at least some of the ideas. Keep it up
"The Flame Barrier is in my opinion a waste of time... the orbs don't deal direct damage"
That's untrue, Fire Barrier deals 101 damage per tick, in T3, level 75 (5*).
"The Firestorm is an equal waste of time"
Base Firetorm is absolutely bad, but it shines when you are in a freeze level without any fire weapons, otherwise, yeah it sucks.
There's also worth noting that Drakon deals Moderate fire considering you put all points on increasing the fire strenght.
"...the Scorching barrier on the other hand is hardly an upgrade but this goes back to the Barrier's inability to deal direct damage like the Barrier pickups... if that gets changed then I could see this ultimate being very useful for melee attackers"
Again, untrue, Scorching Barrier has a 50% base-ish increase, meaning that you'll still deal 101 damage in T3, level 95 (5*), but since you have an extra orb, they orbs rotate faster, and they are bigger (meaning you'll get more consistent damage) you'll deal much more damage overall.
" unfortunately it's entirely overshadowed by the Frenzied Firestorm, why deal damage with your sprite when you can get it to give you a boost to deal damage with your own weapons which are far more powerful than the Firestorm?"
Firestorm can flinchlock a lot of enemies, meaning that you can lock a lot of enemies and deal up to 2000+ damage overall with Explosive Firestorm, using the right harness, that's insanely good, of course Frenzied will deal more damage, but Explosive is useful if you want to flinchlock a group of enemies and deal with another one whilst the other group is being flinched to death.