Game Mechanics Improving 2 More Controversial "Ultimate Abilities"

it's a me

This post was made in collaboration with @Elysium_ ! He is a great brainstorming buddy and quality checker, and he makes sure the designed abilities are fun, viable, and fits their respective archetypes both thematically and gameplay-wise! Elysium my man you are very awesome and epic and cool and awesome and I hope you get the shiniest Weathered ever

What's up, suggestions people! I'm back with more red node suggestions for 2 more archetypes: Trickster and Boltslinger!

Trickster's final red node Diversion is a tanky ability that is heavily overshadowed by another red node: Flow State. On the other hand, Boltslinger currently lacks gameplay variety and could use an ability like acrobat's Flow State that would tie all of the archetype's abilities together. With All-Seeing Panoptes being turned to a purple node, it is a good opportunity to design a new red node that would add this variety to boltslinger's gameplay.

Today, we're giving these two archetypes new fitting red nodes that would further amplify their strengths by working with what makes them unique!

Spoiler: Boltslinger

Boltslinger is simpler and more straightforward compared to the other archer archetypes. While they can be effective in any fight, they lack any ability or gameplay element that could make playing boltslinger more fun and engaging. Most of boltslinger's nodes simply makes your base spells stronger, but there isn't much to the archetype that rewards good decision making and player interactivity.

We'll be designing a new red node for boltslinger that would add more variety to its gameplay, but first we'll make a very small change to Frenzy.



Turbulence is pretty much just renamed Frenzy, but with two differences: 1) you would instead gain a trackable and stackable buff that could (and would) be displayed with a boss bar, and 2) the bonus walk speed would decay more dynamically, but still at the same rate of -10% walk speed lost per second.

These changes are simply to make it work with the new red node which was designed to fit the "wind and storm" theme of most boltslinger abilities.

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What makes boltslinger unique is the tons of projectiles they can release in a short amount of time from multiple abilities like Arrow Rain, Escape Artist, Shrapnel, and Arrow Hurricane. While the archetype's fast-paced gameplay can be thrilling, there isn't much else to pay attention to other than where you are and where the enemy is.

We'll be adding a gameplay mechanic to boltslinger that would give them something powerful and exciting to look forward to that they can make use of. I decided to make use of Turbulence's (Frenzy's) design and make it give a more powerful reward for consistent boltslinging. The winds have your back, making sure every arrow you release would find its target.



(uhh nerf Arrow Rain and Escape Artist?)


How does it work?
While you have 64+ Turbulence or more, your Arrow Bomb would create a wind Vortex upon explosion. If the Arrow Bomb's arrow directly hit a target, the Vortex would be centered on that target and would "stick" to it. If the Arrow Bomb's arrow didn't hit any target, the Vortex would be centered on where the arrow landed and would be stationary.

The Vortex would be sphere-shaped with a diameter of 8 blocks, and would last for 3 seconds. Whenever any of your projectiles enter the Vortex, it would change its trajectory and move towards the center of the Vortex. These projectiles can be intercepted by enemies blocking their new paths. Your projectiles would not be affected by Vortices of other players, and the projectiles of other players would not be affected by your Vortex.

Projectiles affected by Vortices include: your Main Attacks, Arrow Bomb (including Shocking Bomb, and extra Arrow Bombs from Bouncing Bomb or Grape Bomb), Arrow Storm (including all upgrades except Phantom Ray), attacks from Snakes summoned by Ivyroot Mamba, Arrow Rain, Escape Artist, and Shrapnel.

Since Guardian Angels do not shoot projectiles, their attacks are not affected by Vortices. Instead, I designed an optional upgrade that would make your Guardian Angels change their targets based on your Vortex.


(the faster attack rate is to make Arrow Rain trigger faster for that epic Rain-Vortex combo)

Once your Arrow Bomb forms a Vortex, Wind Vortex would go on a 6s cooldown during which your Arrow Bombs would not create more Vortices regardless of the amount of Turbulence you have.

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Why is it designed this way?
This ability went through... a couple of iterations. However its purpose remained the same: give boltslingers a way to direct your projectiles towards an enemy. This design would tie together the different projectile upgrades boltslingers get as they go further down their tree. This would give the archetype a more solid identity by giving them a node that works with their unique ability to shoot tons of projectiles in a short amount of time, especially with their Spells.

You may be wondering why the Vortex wouldn't pull enemies despite it making a lot of sense. The reason is simple: crowd control is more of a trapper thing, and I wanted to preserve that. Boltslingers relies on mobility rather than crowd control to maintain distance from enemies. Not only would giving powerful crowd control to boltslinger make the archetype too flexible, but it would also muddle both boltslinger's and trapper's roles and identities. Making the Vortex only affect projectiles would maintain the balance between these two archetypes.

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How would this ability help the archetype?
Wind Vortex allows boltslingers to utilize the raw power of the tons of projectiles they can release at once, making them feel and be more powerful in a way that feels fitting with their design. The archetype invites a fast-paced playstyle, and Wind Vortex is capable of escalating this frenzy further with a burst of power and control. This makes the boltslinger gameplay more exciting and varied, and rewards players for staying engaged to the game and making active decisions.

Spoiler: Trickster

One of the most popular archetype builds right now is Flow State Trickrobat. Tricksters can utilize Echo's spell mimic to quickly reach Flow State's hits requirement, which gives a quick and easy hefty damage buff. Together with Trickster's relatively simple gameplay and the defensive capability of Clones, it's no wonder why a lot of players utilize this combo. The other red node option for Trickster, Diversion, is not as popular as Flow State. While the ability can be strong in its own right, it's tanky and supportive nature made players less fond of it.

Elysium and I designed a new final red node for Trickster that would still provide more defense, but would also increase the archetype's damage potential in a way that is unique to the archetype. Your opponents won't know what hit them as they sink into further delirium.



How does it work?
Whenever you hit a Lured enemy, you would gain +1 Clone. This ability would still trigger even if you have no Clones active, which would set your current number of Clones to 1. This ability would not trigger if you have 3 Clones active without Forbidden Art, or 6 Clones active with Forbidden Art.

Once Diversion triggers, it would be put on a 4s cooldown during which you cannot summon more Clones from hitting Lured enemies. This cooldown can be reduced with Sandbagging.

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Why is it designed this way?
With the ability Echo, Clones can provide both offense and defense for Tricksters: having more Clones means dealing more damage and tanking more hits. Elysium and I made use of this design to provide both offense and defense to Diversion, which would make it compete better against Flow State while still keeping its defensive aspect.

However simply adding 2 more Clones is not enough to make full trickster worthwhile compared to trickrobat, so we designed a new ability that would support Diversion's new mechanic. My good pal Elysium will explain how the ability would work, as he is behind most of its design!

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Hey there! I’m @Elysium_, and I’m here to explain a new purple node, Element of Surprise. It will replace Even Stronger Clones, both in functionality and location on the tree.



This ability seems simple at first, but interacts with others in many ways, just like our idea for Diversion!

Utilizing Bamboozle
Many people don’t use Bamboozle because the tradeoff of losing a clone (and, by extent, losing damage) is not worth it for the low scaling. This ability aims to fix this somewhat by making Bamboozle reduce the resistance of enemies hit. This way, Bamboozle doesn’t have to out-damage Spin Attack in order to be worthwhile. You might say, “Losing a clone still isn’t worth 3 seconds of extra damage!” And this is where Diversion comes into play.

Diversion/Element of Surprise Synergies
With the new Diversion, you can instantly gain back the clone you lost from Bamboozle, effectively nullifying the cost and making it worthwhile (if used properly). Since all of your attacks will deal more damage, it will create a better gameplay loop for full tricksters. Instead of just spamming Spin Attack endlessly, you’ll be able to utilize all of your abilities in a way that can make them worth using.

That’s it for my section. Thanks for reading!

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How would these abilities help the archetype?
These two abilities combined would make Clones act as a resource for tricksters, similar to Mana. By integrating underutilized trickster abilities, the archetype would feel more cohesive, making full investment on the archetype more worthwhile. This ability would also widen the options tricksters have in combat, making the archetype's gameplay feel more satisfying and rewarding with how each ability are connected to each other.

Overall, the goal of these changes is to create variation in the archetypes' gameplay in a way that accentuates their unique strengths. These abilities would allow players to utilize every aspect of their archetype, making it much more worthwhile to fully invest on.

Thank you so much for reading! Remember to like the post and vote in the poll, and feel free to reply with feedback and constructive criticism!

Part 1
Part 3

 

Hey, it’s finally here!

I think that Wind Vortex and Turbulence will connect all of Boltslinger’s abilities really well, so it isn’t an endless spam-fest.
Same goes for Diversion/Element of Surprise. I think that being able to interact with your clone amount and having a better use for Bamboozle will definitely help the enjoyability of Trickster’s playstyle. It will add something that is worth going all the way down the Trickster tree, something more than just overhealth. I hope you like these!

It’s an honor to work with you @ChrisWildfire , amazing suggestions as always!

 

yo this is almost better than the last ones

 

Thank you! I'm glad I get to work with you, my man!

uhhhh, Thank you!!

 

Excellent work, any suggestions to help with the Paladin tree?

 

Yesssssssss, good bamboozle is my dream. I had even same idea for bamboozle ability. It will be usefull just in normal ability, but if future dmg and other buffs,it could be a another playstyle.

I am not sure about this. It seams op, but at other hand forbidden Art just gives 3 clones. It would be great for bamboozle so it's great but imo it will better work as future ability in fruma, but I still like it. I think that Diversion should not be connected to clone, because tricksters description says that he confuse enemies with tricks, but he actually didn't LOL

 

And this one is much better than what I could come up with!

 

I'm glad you like them! Unfortunately, we don't really know much about warrior. It's personally the class I'm the least familiar with, especially when considering how people want to play the class. We'll talk about it, though!

I'm glad you like it! We're really proud of Element of Surprise!

Well first off, I want to point out that Diversion was designed to compete with Flow State, which is also very powerful with trickster.

About the Clones, I guess there's a bit of "tricking" with avoiding damage with Clones, but it can feel too... passive. Delirious Gas combined with Hoodwink is a good mechanic. That combo does feel like you're being a trickster.

I guess one can add to the Clones mechanic itself to make it feel more like you're actively tricking enemies.

I'm glad you like it, my friend!

 

In my opinion, I think that both Element of Surprise and Diversion add to the feeling of actively tricking your enemies. Diversion summons a clone whenever you hit a Lured enemy. This means that you have to engage in the Hoodwink/Delirious Gas combo, along with hitting an enemy, to gain the clone. That seems pretty active to me, and IMO would be pretty satisfying to pull off. Definitely would make me feel like I confused my enemy.

For Element of Surprise, I think you are actively tricking your enemy because you have to bamboozle them (both figuratively and literally) to reduce their defenses. Obviously, Bamboozle is an active spell, so that makes me classify it as an active trick.

 

Y'all might also be wondering if I got something for summoner, and I do! However summoner's problem runs pretty deep, and I don't want to approach it with just a few new nodes. If I were to make a suggestions post for summoner, I would want to disect the archetype's design a bit further, address its problems, then make appropriate changes, similar to the shadestepper post I made.

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That's a good point! Bamboozle already adds that player input aspect to Clones!

 

IT'S TRAPSLINGER TIME!
(Basaltic trap+Wind Vortex feels wayyyyyyyyy to powerful)


Coherent Trickster! YES!

Omg another top tier suggestion from @ ChrisWildfire.

 

You and elysium should become xavierexe's right hand men, these are both really cool imo.

Third person saying it here, yet another banger ability suggestions thread by ChrisWildfire.

 

Agreed, his suggestions are amazing. Everything he posts is something that is absolutely worth changing, along with an amazing idea to fix it. I don't know how he comes up with this stuff xD it's crazy

 

Thank you so much you guys!!! Your words mean so much to me!!

I'm glad y'all enjoy the suggestions we're coming up with!!

 

I definitely think the trickster thing is balanced. Flow state trickacro would provide more mana with cheaper spin 2, and the full trickster tree with weightless would still get good mana but have a more damage oriented playstyle that isn't as bursty.

 

very cool. but turbelence instead of +2 arrow streams kinda sucks.

 

What do you mean? Turbulence is just Frenzy that is slightly modified to work with Wind Vortex. It shouldn't affect the boltslinger tree at all.

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I'm glad to hear it!

 

i was halfway through reading wind vortex before my brain screamed I LOVE ULTRAKILL!!!!!!!!

seriously though that is a great idea for boltslinger in so many ways i hope we see the attractor nailgun in wynncraft someday

 

I'm glad you like it!! also I have no idea what you're talking about but I'm glad you're having fun

 

WAIT YOURE SO RIGHT IT IS ULTRAKILL HOLY SWOOP