So How Have Powders Been Treating Y'all?

I've only just begun experimenting with applying powders to my weapons for the "special". So far just chain lightening as I refuse to use less than a T6 for weapon enhancement. I'm close to putting together an air enhanced bow and a water bow.

I've found chain lightening helps me keep spreading the hurt when my mana gets depleted and I havs to fall back to using normal attacks while it regens.

My question to you, my fellow Wynncraftians is: Which special has been the most beneficial in your experience and in what way, both for armor and weapons?

-Davicusprime

 

Curse, the tier IV water powders, i put it on my ethereal, is like poison, weakness and slowness at the same time, use it vs Alkevo, Solar Vanguard, Amadel, even Death and you rekt them easily

 

earth powder on armor plus alka

 

chain lightning is probably the weakest powder special, courage imo is the best

 

Curse: Eh, its okay, I never really seen a significant difference:
Courage: idk
Quake: Idk
Chain Lightning: Looks cool af, prob weakest
Air Prison: eh

 

In terms of PvE:

Chain Lightning > Wind Prison > Quake = Courage > Curse
Concentration > Kill Strike > Endurance > Rage > Dodge

In terms of PvP:

Courage > Curse > Quake > Wind Prison > Chain Lightning
Concentration = Rage > Endurance > Kill Strike = Dodge

 

Chain lightning is the weakest
you spend 2 powders worth at the very least 1 LE each to get a disappointing piece of crap that does less than a regular attack and only hits a few guys
Quake is better it does more damage and it hits possibly infinite mobs due to there being no limit to how many it hits
Courage is great if you have poison I hear
Curse I tried a bit and didn't notice much when I used it on mobs
Wind prison I haven't tried but it seems really bad and just traps a mob for a few seconds which pretty much EVERY class can do but slightly less effectively (ice snake, bash, bomb arrow, spin attack) and the knockback is not really greater than most spells (multihit, warscream, arrow shield, nothing on mage) so wind prison is crap

 

I haven't tried the others yet, but I'm beginning to lean toward the above assessment. It's not a worthless ability, but it didn't drastically effect my game play or damage output like I had expected. The main effect was adding the 5-40 Thunder damage per powder, plus the thunder powder has the least reduction to your neutral damage output compared to the other powders. If you look at the chain lightening as just an additional perk that comes with the damage increase, it's not as disappointing, but it's utility has been more situational and lack luster than I had hoped.

However, as I primarily run as an archer, chain lightening isn't worthless. I suck with managing my mana use due to spamming bomb arrows when things get ugly (panic = blow up everything). Being able to soften up crowds without depleting my mana does add some utility. And fits my usual grinding tactics of grabbing a piece of high ground and carpet-bombing the area. Lightening isn't even close to the damage output of my spells, but it does let me keep hitting more than one target while I replenish mana.

However, one of the things I struggle with most is soloing bosses. Lightening adds very little to combat this weakness. I suspect I'll find the air and/or water effects will be more useful for putting distance between melee heavy bosses and my fragile little self.

I'll have actual informed opinions after another week or two of grinding for powders.

-DavicusPrime

 

despite having a mage setup akin to someone attempting to imitate sans (100+ points in agility, so dodge chance and air damage out the wazoo), i don't find wind prison as effective as i'd originally anticipated. why?

it can get really hard to set it up right the moment someone comes to aid you. wind prison, in and of itself, appears to be more of a 1v1-oriented ability, seeing as it affects one enemy (unless you're a mage like me and can affect multiple enemies at once, but i can't even prove that's 100% a thing), and will break the first time it is hit. that, in and of itself, makes it absolutely horrid for cooperative efforts, as your companions will more often than not break the prison before you can land that massive strike you wanted to use to lay the smackdown on the freak of the week. and i do more than a few things with friends, so...i naturally find myself not using it much.

now, when you're in a one-on-one duel and need to land a meteor strike or something, or need to get away from your opponent...
*commence incoherent rambling about the effectiveness/versatility of wind prison in 1v1 scenarios*

(tl;dr wind prison is best utilized when you're by yourself.)

 

I've actually been hoarding them and not using them at all

 

four words: DON'T USE COMIC SANS

 

that's six words total. also, comic sans is a personal favorite of mine.

also, can you speak up? i don't think they heard you clearly enough from gavel.

 

Reading your posts so far I think I have some additional hypotheses to test and I have a follow up question too.

Observations:
1) Offensive powder "specials" do not match or surpass class spells. But the trade off is that they aren't dependant on mana.
2) Powder specials should be seen as a perk added to a damage enhancement, rather than a strategic capability with the perk of damage enhancement.
3) The effectiveness/usefulness of powder specials is dependent on class and tactics.

Follow up question:
Have you seen evidence of certain play-styles that could benefit more than others from certain powder specials?

-DavicusPrime

 

Courage is the BOMB if you know what I mean

 

No. Powders have been treating me very unfairly. They've beaten me and starved me in their basement. They let me out for 10 minutes a day to come on the forum and generate likes for them. Send help

 

my setup would only get more powerful with dodge on my boots. :v

to explain: my dodge chance, thanks to my agility skill, is just a few points shy of 70%. so naturally, it can be difficult to land a hit that connects, even when i'm right in your face. so naturally, i can afford to rub up against my opponent, which is basically what dodge wants you to do.

combine this with tier 4-6 air powders (tier 6 for best results), the meteor spell, ice snake, and the agility skill's multiplier to air damage. you'll very quickly see why it's so cool for an air mage setup. :p

generally speaking, something similar can be said for the other four elements; the powder specials work best if used in tandem with a setup that specializes in that element. bonus points if you specialize in two or more elements, allowing you to use multiple armor specials in tangent with one another for extra-big bonuses.

 

Those bastards! And with all of us out there freeing them from incarceration in those relics, chests and mob pockets. The ingratitude is breath taking.

The best thing you can do is save up some pepper, snort it right when they let you out to hit the forum and sneeze your way to freedom. By the time they pull themselves together you will have left a multicolored cloud of their brethren in your snot splattered wake.

God speed and may thy nostrils bring you both glory and freedom.
-DavicusPrime

 

Powders stole all my money ;-;

 

Anyone else have any experiences with powders that aren't too silly...? I'm looking at you Spring and Jared.

-DavicusPrime

 

Oi. So I've had a chance to try out the Thunder and Air Specials on my bows. In the middle of a scrum, both abilities are fine, but I find the spells to be more useful in escaping a swarm of nasties or scattered missile type mobs. I've been finding that I'm better at setting off a spell than holding the Shift key to set off the special. With practice that should even out but it does make me lean that direction over using the special because the shift key isn't relex yet. Other wise I have two observations:

1. What these really help out with is when I'm out of mana and need a little something special to get out of danger until my batteries recharge.
   • Not enough mana to fire another bomb arrow? Chain Lightening!
   • Out of mana and need to get some distance? Air Prison!
2. And they are great for when I need to focus in on regular attacks to utilize my health and mana steal abilities. I use my escape spell to get to high ground, hold the shift key and shoot everything that moves, setting off the specials as soon as they recharge. Before you know it, your health and mana bars are filled in and you're ready for another scrap.

One other thing I didn't realize was that the Wind Prison ability is an area effect. I thought it was a direct hit only effect. So it's more useful than I expected.

Next guinea pig will be the Water Special: Curse. As soon as I can scrounge up that one last T6 - Water Powder, that is. I'm guessing it'll be a useful set up attack for a bomb arrow. If it also has an area effect like the air special, then the Curse + Bomb arrow could really thin crowds. But I'm sure it'll still be a secondary utility ability rather than a tent pole to build my tactics around.

-DavicusPrime