Game Mechanics New Acrobat ability: Skystrider

First of all, huge thank you to @ChrisWildfire for making the visuals. This suggestion would become much harder to read and explain without the image being there, it really helped a lot.
Go check out their recent suggestion about improving some important abilities, they have some really good and well thought out ideas in there.

A few weeks ago, I made a post here that included multiple ideas, Skystrider being one of them. I’ve decided to make it its own thread, which is this one.

Explanation and Description

I feel like flying as Acrobat is very slow compared to other classes' movement (except for shaman). This ability aims to help it become faster more consistently by keeping the movement going at all times while you are airborne.

Acrobat flying can be almost fast if you do it right, but it's kinda weird. The only movement you get is from Lacerate and Dash/Hop's combined momentum. After ~1 second of not using that combo, you go just as slow horizontally as you would if you were falling. This heavily contributes to Acrobat flying slowly. Dash also gives a very slim amount of movement while airborne, so you are basically locked in one slow speed at all times. But you probably get the point. Here is the node:



This basically works like Aerodynamics, in that Dash would continue pushing you forward instead of just doing one little hop. It would also move you in the direction you are looking. So if you are like looking down at Greg, you won't go flying forwards or anything.
This doesn't really matter, but I imagined this yellow node as being straight down from Jasmine Bloom.

I was also thinking, because Acrobat is so short on AP, that Wall Jump would simply be renamed to Skystrider and include all of these abilities in one. So wall jumping, Hop CD reduction, and Dash momentum would all come from this ability.

Other things

1. Skystrider’s momentum is ONLY horizontal. Looking straight up will not move you upwards, and the same with looking downwards.
2. Skystrider is also similar to Aerodynamics in that it changes the direction you move based on where you are looking, allowing for much greater control of your aerial mobility.
3. Lacerate cancels your vertical movement completely when cast. This is fine, however it also cancels your horizontal movement. And locks it to the speed of Lacerate's first jump. This basically makes your air speed the same (if you cast lacerate) no matter what.

This mechanic also makes my suggestion absolutely pointless because the goal is to increase flying speed. So... maybe Lacerate should only lock your vertical movement.
If that happens, that might even make Acrobat much faster on its own

The end

I think that this ability (or something like it) would help Acrobat become much more consistent in aerial movement and overall help it become easier and more efficient to use. Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think.

 

I like this idea! It adds more control and flexibility to acrobat's mobility, both while traveling and in combat. The name also fits its function very well, which is really cool!

Like Aerodynamics, though, I think it should also just be an optional node. It changes how Dash works on a pretty fundamental level, so some people might not like it.

Other than that, it's a cool ability! epic10char

 

Yeah it should be optional, I imagined that it would be straight down below Jasmine Bloom on the tree. That way, it doesn't take up valuable space and make it cluttered, and it is completely optional.
Thanks for your feedback!

 

Added this important bit.

 

My acrobat flies faster than my mage teleports... but then again, I hate mana mage.
Although my acrobat does fly faster than my archer. (using grappling hook)

Yea lacerate changes would be nice, but I personally would not use this ability. Still great idea!

 

Acrobat can be pretty fast with certain methods, but I believe that it isn’t comparable to the level of skill required. Especially considering that every other class except Shaman can just spam the movement spell for insane speed, it seems lacking.

Yeah, I can understand not wanting the ability as it fundamentally changes how Dash works. That’s why I think it would fit best right below Jasmine Bloom, being completely optional.

Thanks for your feedback!

 

gonna just

yknow

bump