Game Mechanics Riftwalker Archetype: Utility Master!!!

I'm level 101 with my mage class and have been playing Riftwalker for some time because I really like the concept of Riftwalker, but the execution seems off and I wanted to post a few suggestions to allow the archetype to fit a niche and playstyle not currently present in Wynncraft. Here are some of my thoughts.

There's a nice outline for damage, buff, and debuff archetypes for mage; Arcanist for damage, Light Bender for buff, and Riftwalker for debuff, but Riftwalker seems to miss a few things that make him impactful in teamplay.

These are the only changes to the ability tree I think are necessary to make Riftwalker do the thing I think the archetype should!

Note: Some of these number can be adjusted for balancing purposes, but the concepts are still largely there.
1. Replace Blink --> heal also knocks back enemies to maximum heal range (this is affected by Larger Heal)
2. Winded status als0 applies a slow, up to 70% at max 20 stacks. (3.5% slow per stack)
3. Eye Piercer blind duration from 1s --> 3-5s
4. Replace Timelock --> a new ultimate where after 60-90s of status applied to enemies (separate statuses like blind and slow apply 1s each, i.e. blind+slow+poison = 3s per 1s) transforms meteor into a vortex that pulls enemies towards the center, dealing air damage. Bosses and enemies resistant to crowd control are unaffected by it.

These 4 changes should allow Riftwalker to provide a lot of utility for the team and keep enough statuses for the team to survive without strictly needing a healer on the team. Not only that, but as far as I'm concerned, this gives the poison status a boost in relevancy since currently no archetype in any class needs to build poison unless someone really wants to incorporate it into their build.

Please leave replies for your input, I'd love to respond to what you guys think about this idea! I really want more people to play Riftwalker and I think these would be great to impliment into Wynncraft!

 

Blink definitely should not be removed but I like the sound of a new ability that makes Heal flings mobs up in the air (nothing crazy, just some simple knockback like Arrow Shield). It could be really funny with high walk speed builds too.

Ice Snake already has slowness applications (and Teleport blindness stun) but otherwise this wouldn't be a terrible idea.

3.5s is a REALLY long time I think. Eye Piercer can be spammed in most scenarios anyway

I remember reading a Riftwalker rework on the Forums about Vortexes and stuff but I'm too lazy to look for it o.o

 

Hm I do think that Riftwalker and Arcanist are a bit too similar playstyle-wise and they also fullfil the same dps role (at least archer archetypes have hella different playstyles), but these changes seem very unimpactful in the grand scheme of things. These won't really turn Riftwalker into a debuff archetype, only a damage archetype with debuffs (although the direction of these changes would be a good start).

The Timelock rework is interesting, although it's wayy too different from current Timelock, and current Timelock isn't really so problematic that it has to be entirely replaced. It's design is pretty cool and I like how it rewards building poison, though it's not the most impactful ability; I think an ability like this can just be added as purple node instead.

But yeah I also want Riftwalker to have a bit more spice, since right now Riftwalker is just Arcanist except you're required to melee in the early game.

no way that sounds so cool I think whoever made that is an awesome cool and handsome dude

 

Current timelocked is pretty bad imo ;-; I wouldnt take the ability even if it didnt cost ability points. Two miliseconds of infinite mana arent worth loosing all winded stacks

 

Idk if there's a way to build an archetype that provides debuffs without dealing a bunch of damage like arcanist which is kinda the problem, cause I like that Riftwalker can fly around and ramp damage over time, but it'll never do what arcanist does best. I'm trying to think about the best application or niche right now and honestly I don't think it fits anywhere well at all, nor is it even exactly a fun archetype because, you're right, it's a lot of melee attacks until you get a lot of mana regen which isn't even built into its kit.

This post was created with the idea that maybe Riftwalker doesn't have to do a lot of damage, but CAN as a consequential effect of apply a bunch of it. At least that way you can still do damage without relying on other people to progress. Maybe there can be a purple node where a certain amount of debuff gives vulnerability up to 10-20% from all sources of damage?

 

That's a very valid concern. Both Riftwalker and Arcanist are spellspam archetypes, and both even use Meteor as its primary source of damage. Moving Riftwalker into a different niche would make it feel a lot less like a budget Arcanist.

However the thing about changing Riftwalker's core design to a debuffer is that it would require a lot of fundamental changes before it starts to make sense. This tends to be more trouble than it's worth, especially since there's already a lot of Riftwalker players who find success in playing it. I'd say that warrants something more like a "light revamp" where Riftwalker's gameplay feel is still there (floaty, high-mobility damage powerhouse), but feels less like Arcanist's cousin.

I'd say changing Riftwalker's playstyle would already be a good start in making it stand out more as its own archetype, similar to how the archer archetypes have different sources of damage (Bolt=tstack/arrow storm spam, Trapper=arrow bomb, Sharp=heavy melee twain's arc. these three archetypes can feel VERY different from each other). This can mean changing Riftwalker's primary damage spell, or shifting Riftwalker's damage to melee, or even turning Riftwalker into a super-fast heavy-spell archetype (which I think is what it was supposed to be honestly).

 

This is really valid. I gave it some thought and realized there's influence of time for the subclass. I really like the idea of Riftwalker as a master of time to some degree, so what about this:

1). Remove secondary effect of ice snake dealing extra dmg against winded enemies for Windsweeper --> Upon casting ice snake, (let's name it Rewind for now) a faded image of the player spawns at the location casted, lasting 2-3 seconds. Past those seconds the image disappears. When Rewind is casted again, the player is sent back to that position, dealing dmg along the way and upon arrival, dealing extra dmg to winded enemies. Benefits from teleport abilities like Eye Piercer, Transonic Warp, and Explosive Entrance, but not Blink.
2). Time Dilation: Has a larger area of effect, maybe 4-5 blocks?

Minor wording adjustments for the rest of the ability tree can be made to fit Rewind but for the most part everything else can stay since imo it seems to fit.

Riftwalker can manipulate time by affecting themselves, while providing speed for allies. The slow effect will be gone, but Riftwalker can now move forward much quicker with Blink and "backwards" with Rewind, allowing players to teleport in an area to their heart's content.

 

Ooh I do like the idea of focusing more on mobility. I think the Rewind mechanic would be fun to work with as a mobility tool, especially since it leaves your Teleport free to be used however you like. I'm interested to see how you're going to integrate this and the other three mage spells into a gameplay pattern.

Time Dilation having a larger radius would be especially great for boosting the mobility of your allies, however using Time Dilation in combat is at the expense of your own dps since it's hard to aim at enemies without breaking your sprint. Though I'm curious if you have an idea on how to deal with that.

But yeah, I think the way you described your overall vision is really cool! I think it would be interesting to see a mobile archetype that's all about teleporting, instead of dashes or walk speed like with the other mobile archetypes.