Game Mechanics Making Riftwalker More Engaging (Riftwalker Mini Revamp!)

Hey, suggestions people!

I'm back with another archetype revamp! This time, I'll be talking about Riftwalker!

Compared to the other archetypes, riftwalker's gameplay doesn't feel as fun or satisfying. While the archetype can produce considerable results, the way to get these results involves the long and monotonous gameplay of pressing left click for little to no purpose other than to stack Winded. While Main Attacks are not the mage's strongest suit, it is still part of rifwalker's gameplay, and could use an upgrade to make it feel more satisfying to use!

Another problem with riftwalker is that the archetype is meant to have good mobility. While the archetype has access to mobility augments like Blink or Time Dilation, these abilities tend to have little to no impact on the archetype's gameplay. While they have their own niche use and can be strong in their own right, they become much less utilized in combat which can feel like a waste of ability points.

With these problems in mind, I redesigned a couple of riftwalker abilities and turned them into something more satisfying to use, whatever the situation may be!

Spoiler: Winded Application

The first problem I want to talk about is how riftwalkers apply Winded and how it impacts the archetype's gameplay loop.

Currently, there are two ways to apply winded: using Main Attacks, and using Ice Snake with the ability Gust. These two nodes occupy the same purpose of applying Winded, which can make for an awkward and unclear gameplay loop.

I redesigned Gust and added a complementary node for it that would make Main Attacks and Ice Snakes work more harmoniously together by giving a clearer reason to use either of them to apply Winded stacks.

Spoiler: Current Node:

Spoiler: Old Revamp Version

Gust would also make Main Attacks stronger against enemies with more Winded stacks, which can add more variety to riftwalker builds!

Spoiler: Riftwalker Mobility

Part 1: Teleport

Riftwalker's Teleport is unique in that the archetype can use the spell to deal a lot of damage. This is especially evident with the current Timelock ability which makes Teleport spam even more powerful than Meteor spam! This is because Teleport's damage with the Transonic Warp ability scales with Winded stacks much better than Meteor's damage with the Breathless ability.

However, using Teleport for damage is only viable while using Timelock since the ability allows you to use Teleport while keeping you in place, which allows you to focus on your target. Outside of these abilities, Teleport is much harder to spam since you'll need to turn around every time you cast the spell to hit the same target again.

I designed an ability that would allow riftwalkers to use Teleport as a viable spell for combat, both for dealing damage and for avoiding hits!


(riftwalker having a rift-related ability???)

Spoiler: Replaced Node:

How would this ability work?
After casting Teleport, you would create a Rift on your previous location. The Rift would last for 8s, and would immediately close once you are more than 32 blocks away from it. Casting Teleport again would close your current Rift and create a new one.

While you have a Rift active, cast Shift + Teleport to teleport to the Rift before closing it. Enemies between your previous location and your new location will be dealt Teleport's damage and effects: enemies would be blinded if you have the ability Eye Piercer, would be dealt damage if you have the ability Wind Slash, and would be dealt increased damage based on Winded stacks if you have the ability Transonic Warp.

Casting Shift + Teleport while there are no Rifts active would turn it to a regular Teleport.

This ability does not have a cooldown.

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This ability would improve riftwalker's mobility significantly by allowing players to be more creative with Teleport, both for moving around and for dealing damage!

This ability would also work with Explosive Entrance:

Spoiler: Current Node:

Since Continuum Break would be riftwalker's second red node, you might be wondering what would happen to Diffusion. However before I can talk about Diffusion, I need to talk about a different ability first.

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Part 2: Time Dilation

Other than Teleport, riftwalker has another movement ability: Time Dilation.

Time Dilation is... not the most popular ability. While useful for builds with minimal mana sustain or with huge spell costs, the ability is hardly useful in combat. This makes those two ability points feel like its going to waste while fighting mobs.

I decided to completely reimagine Time Dilation and turned it into a ramping buff that still grants a lot of walk speed, but would also grant an additional buff to make the archetype feel like they're actually gaining power overtime regardless of the amount of Winded stacks out there.


(would grant +30% damage bonus and +150% walk speed at 60 stacks)
(also applying multiple Winded stacks at once would grant multiple stacks)

Spoiler: Current Node:

This version of Time Dilation lacks utility compared to the current version, but would make the riftwalker gameplay feel much more satisfying with its ramping buff. Currently, riftwalker's strength relies too heavily on Winded, which I believe makes riftwalker quite awkward to play; continuously applying Winded stacks is supposed to make you feel more and more powerful, however one can quickly lose this power by using Timelock or once you've cleared the horde of mobs. This version of Time Dilation should make riftwalkers feel like they won't have to start from scratch whenever they confront new mobs.

This ability would definitely warrant a small nerf to Winded damage. However I believe rift-bender can take such nerf to its key ability Breathless considering how strong the archetype hybrid is right now.

Spoiler: Old Revamp Version

Part 2: Time Dilation

Other than Teleport, riftwalker has another movement ability: Time Dilation.

Time Dilation is great for traversing long distances, especially for builds without much mana sustain or spell cost reduction. However, Time Dilation is hardly useful in combat. This is because Time Dilation can only activate if you are sprinting forwards, which you will rarely do if you are fighting mobs.

In spite of this, Time Dilation's utility is incredibly powerful. Instead of completely replacing the ability, I adjusted it to be usable in combat.

Spoiler: Current Node:

How would this ability work?
After using Teleport or Spacetime Rift, the area around you would begin to Warp. Warped areas are circle-shaped with a radius of 3 blocks, and would last for 3s. While the ability is active, using Teleport or Spacetime Rift would Warp the whole area between your previous position and your new position.

You and allies who stay inside Warped areas would gain +10% walk speed bonus every 1s, which can stack up to +200% walk speed bonus. You or allies that leave Warped areas would immediately lose this bonus.

Once 6s has passed since you last used Teleport or Spacetime Rift, the area around you would stop Warping. This would not un-Warp currently Warped areas.

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With this version of Time Dilation, the walk speed bonus is no longer dependent on whether you are sprinting or not. Instead, you would gain its walk speed bonus by staying in these warped areas! This means walking, strafing, standing still, or even walking backwards, wouldn't make you lose the buff!

These warped areas would be marked with the same particles the current Time Dilation uses. For clarity purposes, there would also be sound effects when Time Dilation activates, while you are inside warped areas, and when Time Dilation deactivates.

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Part 3: Diffusion

Now, back to Diffusion!

With Continuum Break replacing Diffusion as a second red node, Diffusion will need to be changed. One can simply turn Diffusion into a purple node with this change, however I decided not to go with this because Diffusion itself has its own problem: it only activates on kill. This makes the ability completely useless in 1v1s, which can feel like a waste of ability points.

However, Diffusion is still a powerful utility ability that significantly affects riftwalker's performance, particularly when dealing with lots of mobs. To compensate for losing this ability, I designed a new node for riftwalker that would help players apply Winded more quickly against lots of mobs. I took this opportunity to give Meteor its own purpose and place in the riftwalker spell-cycle!


(look I know Gravity Well is also a name of a Major ID, but it's just the best name for this ability)

Spoiler: Replaced Node:

This ability is designed to feel like Diffusion but without the on-kill part, making the ability useful in any situation. This ability would also give Meteor a new purpose, especially since Teleport's better Winded damage scaling compared to Meteor would become much more noticeable with the ability Continuum Break (which allows you to teleport back and forth by spamming teleport while holding shift).

Spoiler: Old Revamp Version

Part 3: Diffusion

Now, back to Diffusion!

With Spacetime Rift replacing Diffusion as a second red node, Diffusion will need to be changed. One can simply turn Diffusion into a purple node with this change, however I decided not to go with this because Diffusion itself has its own problem: it only activates on kill. This makes the ability completely useless in 1v1s, which can feel like a waste of ability points.

However, Diffusion is still a powerful utility ability that significantly affects riftwalker's performance, particularly when dealing with lots of mobs. To compensate for losing this ability, I designed a new node for riftwalker that would help players apply Winded more efficiently against lots of mobs. However I also took this opportunity to integrate mobility into riftwalker's gameplay even further!

Spoiler: Replaced Node:

Combined with abilities like Spacetime Rift and the reworked Time Dilation, Temporal Slipstream would reward players for circling around their opponents with more utility and damage!

Spoiler: Timelock

Finally, we got riftwalker's final red node: Timelock!

I've actually already made a rework for this ability, and I believe the reworked version has stood the test of time(lock)! I will not be talking about this reworked ability in this post, so if you want to know how the ability would work and what my design philosophy behind it was, then check out this post!

Instead for this post, I changed the ability's description and made it easier to read! Let the tempests weather away your adversary through time and space!

Spoiler: Current Node:

With all of these changes, the riftwalker's ability tree would need to be adjusted. Here's what the new tree would look like!

Spoiler: Adjusted Ability Tree

You can click on these images to enlarge them!

Without Text:


With Text:


Total Riftwalker Nodes: 16
Total Ability Points: 45 (including Eye Piercer and Explosive Entrance)

There are two other abilities that would be affected by these changes:

Eye Piercer would become a 1-cost optional yellow node, similar to archer's Windy Feet and warrior's Heavy Impact! Here's what the ability currently looks like:


(the new Eye Piercer would only cost 1 Ability Point)

The other node is Dynamic Faith, which would be removed! Dynamic Faith is one of the many stat conversion nodes, which are slowly being removed in the ability tree. Here's what the ability currently looks like:


(goodbye, dynamic faith. you probs won't be missed)

Overall, these changes would bring about a more engaging riftwalker gameplay! In the early game, riftwalkers would be switching between Main Attacks and Ice Snakes to stack Winded and boost Meteor's damage. As they level up, riftwalkers would gain access to more mobility tools that would help them simultaneously deal and avoid damage while slowly becoming stronger. Finally, Timelocked Tempest would allow riftwalkers to go beyond their limits and deal as much damage as they can!


Thank you so much for reading! I decided to take a different approach while making this post. The previous post I made took quite a toll on my mental well-being with how detailed I wanted to be with my explanations. You'll notice that this post is more concise compared to my recent posts, which was much easier for me to write. However if you think I missed any important detail for any of these abilities, please tell me in the comments! I am willing to answer any question regarding these abilities, and make adjustments when necessary! Don't shy away from giving feedback, I'll hear you out!


Don't forget to like the post and vote in the poll!

If you want to read more epic ability reworks made by me, then check out my signature!

 

TEMPORAL SLIPSTREAM? Who let the singularity get its grubby hands on wynn...
Wynncraft is truly becoming DBD more and more by the second smh smh

On a more serious note, seems pretty okay? Winded support for melee seems nice but mage melee is a major :skull: moment dps wise, so I have doubts that it would mean much.
Space Time Rift feels as gimmicky as time dilation is right now, so not sure. It's really difficult to judge how any of this would play out without having it coded up.
Interesting ideas overall though, definitely a bit more interactive than current riftwalker.

 

Yeah I agree, mage is just the worst class for melee. My goal was mostly to make Main Attacks feel a bit more satisfying to use since you'll be doing it a lot as a riftwalker.

Spacetime Rift is definitely the most gimmicky ability I've ever designed lol. It does make Teleport spam for dps viable even without Timelock (spam tp while holding shift makes you go back and forth), which a lot of people really want for riftwalker.

Thank you!!!

Thank you for the feedback, man!

________________________________

...who?

 

As I get it ya could just hold shift teleport constantly to teleport between two places? Interesting, though I would probably use Spacetime Rift as a safety net more.
Gust and Gale would support each other? Like you cast Ice Snake for Gust then Main attack for Gale and repeat? Really nice.

I have an idea... What if some ability could slow down falling? Or just make ya float like righting reflex? Ya could tp up and then rain spells from above. Though Timelocked Tempest already makes ya float so maybe being able to move up and down in the tempest would be cool? Being higher should probably make tempests comsume more winded.

 

Yep, Spacetime Rift is designed to be very flexible!

I'm glad you like the abilities, man!

That's a good idea! An ability that allows you to slow down your fall would bring back that Timelock feel where you spam Meteors from above, which is always fun!

About Timelocked Tempest, the height up to which you can float above the ground is very limited at 2-3 blocks, which adds a bit more movement freedom but not so much as to allow you to avoid all attacks. Making the whirlwinds lose Winded a lot more overtime when floating way up high is a good way to balance a flying mechanic, but I think 2-3 blocks off the ground is not too strong as to require such mechanic.

As for your movement while Timelocked Tempest is active, you can simply hold space to float up, hold shift to float down, and double space to toggle between "float mode" and "non-float mode". It's pretty much just vanilla flight!

But yes thank you for the feedback, man! I'm glad you like them!

 

idc how gimmicky these might be, IVE ALWAYS WANTED A TELEPORT BACK ABILITY

GOOD THREAD

 

Hey man, I'm glad you like it!!

 

Sooo Pyrokinesis but on Riftwalker's side of the ability tree? I don't think this is the solution because currently, mage melee is still bad even with Arcanist (ignoring the fact, on an item-design level, wands are simply weaker for melee playstyles)

Don't forget Gust boosts Ice Snake's base DPS

I can't remember if you mentioned it, but I think a single fix in the right direction - at least before we talk about revamping/adding new abilities - would simply be Winded boosting melee damage similarly to how it does spell.

You've highlighted Teleport being unviable from a playstyle standpoint perfectly. In the past I've suggested a "shift to teleport backwards after teleporting forwards (Blink)" ability + Xavier's meme "Thrink" (3rd teleport) but your Spacetime Rift (though I think could use a rename) fits especially nicely with Riftwalker's theme. I'm also a huge fan of the idea of being able to use Rifts strategically (kind of like the Vermin Spirit's burrows from Festival of the Spirit's Banish the Beyond).

Maybe I'm misunderstanding but is this not the same if not very similar to how unfunctional Time Dilation is for combat? A circle area of diameter 6 blocks is tiny... and defeats the point of gaining the movement speed buff. It's sort of in the same realm of Snow Storm.

It would still be 2 AP though-
I at least agree with you that it perhaps isn't deserving of Red Node status

 

wEll

Riftwalker's own version of Pyrokinesis: Gust, would, in fact, increase your melee damage based on Winded stacks!

If Gust's damage is not enough to make melee riftwalker viable, then one can just bump up its numbers!

I considered Gust's damage boost to your melee as the replacement for current Gust's damage boost to Ice Snake, but I can see that it's an unnecessary nerf to spell riftwalker's dps. However adding back that extra Ice Snake dps to Gale would make it more like a 2-cost yellow node instead, which I suppose is fine considering the total AP cost of this reworked riftwalker is only 44.

I'm glad you like it! And yeah, I also agree that Spacetime Rift is not the best name for it lol.

This reworked version would work similarly with current Time Dilation where you would leave a "trail" on where you walk/teleport on. However the reworked version would instead make you automatically leave this trail for 6 seconds after casting Teleport/Spacetime Rift, and the trail itself would persist for 3 seconds. This means you are free to move however you want without losing the ability's walk speed buff!

I suppose I didn't describe reworked Time Dilation's mechanic well.

My point was that as much I can still keep Diffusion around as an ability, I decided to completely replace it with something else instead. The replacement for the ability would make those 2 ability points worth it in any situation, even in 1v1s!


Thank you for the feedback, man! I really appreciate it!

 

I NEED THIS

I.

NEED.

THIS.

 

Hm. These are quite cool, actually. How surprising coming from me. What fun!

People have already gone off about Space Rift being a massive gimmick so I'm going to only make some small points about it. Being able to use teleport offensively is something which a lot of
For one, the rift closing immediately after using it is Not Very Cool, only being able to have one rift at a time is also Not Very Cool, and constantly warping back to the exact same spot is Not Very Cool.

I like the idea of being able to (very nonchalantly) breaking the fabric of reality, and using rifts as free-access portals could be a funny way to add extra strategic mobility and damage to teleport. That is to say- you get 2 portals which stay open at all times. Shift-teleport to spawn a new one on your position. Walking or teleporting into one will teleport you to the other (and deal whatever else teleport buffs you have, like you said). Place them across from an enemy. Keep teleporting between the two. Gaming.
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Now, I move on to ranting about winded. Hooray!
It still feels too slow. While I will say that it's quite integrated into the rest of the archetype, Meteor and Heal (or Arcane Transfer, whatever works) are quite and very uninvolved with the rest of the archetype.
Maybe this is fine- given that the focus on Heal is given to Lightbender, and the focus on Meteor is given to Arcanist, though the fact that Meteor remains the main damaging spell for Riftwalker makes me think it should get more gimmicks associated with it. What that entails- who knows. Make the main explosion apply winded too, perhaps give it additional effects with higher winded applied to the target (extra thunderstorm hits centered on them? maybe??)
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And now I move on the the thing I somewhat do not like. Timelocked 2.
Now the main point I was going to bring up was that the theming just- did not come out right. Riftwalker isn't directly built around storms and wind nearly as much as it is (especially with some of the new nodes you made) designed around time and space manipulation. Things which, going off of Timelocked Tempest, don't actually mean anything, unless I've misinterpreted it which is very likely for me.

Timelocked feels designed to be a QoL/utility button rather than a direct bonus damage option, and if it were up to me I would have reversed the effects of Timelock to instead freeze enemies around you still.

I elaborate on this now. Same basic requirements/time duration as regular Timelock, now with a 24 second cooldown and no longer taking winded away from enemies. Shift-cast Ice Snake to figuratively and literally freeze enemies around you in place, during which time they take damage from the cumulative winded in the area (like original Timelock). During the 1-6 second time period, they cannot move, or attack, and your mana won't deplete. Good for taking a short break from the fighting, or need to land some better shots against fast enemies (SKY ISLANDS ENEMIES....)
---
Yeah uh. That's all, I suppose. Alt Spacetime Rift suggestion, make Meteor cool in Riftwalker, New Timelock suggestion. Have a good day again, something or other...
(oh yeah and sorry about that part where every single one of my responses is a whole thesis to dissect.)

 

Don't worry, I like reading long responses as much as I like writing them!

While designing Spacetime Rift, I wanted to acknowledge that people will most likely miscast Shift + Teleport, which can be frustrating if the Rift won't immediately close right after Shift + Teleporting to it. I also want players to have more control over their Rifts, including whether they have one or not. This way, players can still use their abilities however they want without much frustration!

About multiple Rifts, I actually entertained the idea of allowing it. While it is possible to code, it might be incredibly confusing to work with as a player. One can make Rifts change color to denote the order in which they will be used, or perhaps make it so that Shift + Teleporting to a Rift will make you teleport to it regardless of distance, but I think either of those would make the riftwalker gameplay too convoluted. I decided to design Spacetime Rift to be simple but flexible instead, which allows for some creativity without taking away simpler and more practical uses such as back-and-forth teleporting.

This is a cool idea! However it needs to have a cooldown, lest one be stuck uncontrollably teleporting between portals. It might also be frustrating to work with considering how likely one would be to accidentally enter a portal.

I agree that Meteor is pretty overshadowed by other riftwalker spells! Heal at least gets some riftwalker-exclusive function with Timelock/ed Tempest, but riftwalker Meteor is purely for damage. While this is not inherently a problem, it becomes one when we consider that Teleport can deal more damage that Meteor, which will become more apparent with the addition of an ability like Spacetime Rift!

I definitely didn't give Meteor enough use for riftwalker in this revamp. (Transonic Warp nerf + Breathless buff perhaps?)

Timelocked Tempest is mostly Timelock redesigned to allow its duration to be extended. I actually struggled quite a bit with this revamp because I couldn't exactly pinpoint where the riftwalker's power is coming from. However, this revamp actually fixes that too! I got an "internal lore" of sorts that I based on when designing and naming these abilities!

Spoiler: Where does riftwalker's power come from?

Before I continue, I want to let you know that this is not canon at all. This is something I made up.

To answer the question, we will try to figure out riftwalker's core mechanic and how it works: what exactly is Winded?

Being "winded" means having your air knocked out of you, causing difficulty in breathing. While wynncraft can have its own definition of winded, one can say that they use the same definition as real-world winded because of abilities like Breathless and Devitalize, which implies that enemies become more vulnerable when becoming Winded because of the lack of air.

However, taking away someone's breath hardly correlates with the ability to warp spacetime to your will, so what's up with that?

This is where my made-up shit comes in: making enemies Winded is actually bending spacetime around your enemy, bending the laws of physics to make air flow outwards from the enemy regardless of the difference in pressure in the atmosphere. This means riftwalker's power is not air manipulation, but space manipulation!!!

This is especially more evident with the ability Time Dilation. Time Dilation is the difference of the passage of time between two objects. This is either caused by a massive difference in velocity, or because of difference in gravity.

As we know, gravity is simply the bending of spacetime around an object. With the power to bend spacetime yourself, one can create their own gravity, and even modify it to recreate the effects of Time Dilation without it's usually massive requirements!

What does this mean for Timelocked Tempest, you may ask.

Well, as we've discussed, Winded is a bend in spacetime that makes air flow outwards. This means with lots of Winded accumulated on a single spot, one can create vacuum. A vacuum has incredibly low pressure, and can't possibly coexist with regular atmospheric pressure without some sort of barrier. How is this possible? Well, magic! As established, one can bend spacetime to bend the laws of physics itself. However, if one were to unbend spacetime, then one would unbend the laws of physics.

If one were to accumulate all Winded energy in a single spot, this spot would have incredibly low atmospheric pressure. With the laws of physics unbent, the air around this low-pressure area sinks and spirals inwards to it, like a storm! This is how Timelocked Tempest works and how it relates with riftwalker's new-found made-up space powers the end

Since your damage would be based on cumulative Winded around you, then it would be totally useless when fighting a single but incredibly powerful crowd-control-immune boss. One philosophy I have when designing these abilities is that I want all of their abilities to be useful regardless of situation. This does not aim to eliminate all weaknesses, but rather give players a way to deal with them, which I believe is much less frustrating game design!


Anyway, thank you so much for the feedback! This revamp is definitely not one of my best works (I designed all the abilities in like a day lmao), so I'm especially grateful for any constructive criticism! I'm glad we all want riftwalker to be more fun to play!

________________________________

I'm glad you like it, my man!!!

 

Mourning the loss of my beloved ice snake spam, but I love all of these new abilties, especially the lack of Diffusion. (We won't miss you.)

________________________________

Please don't buff riftbender.

 

What would be the range of gust? Also does it fire a circle projectile? Anyways great suggestion.

 

I am now confused as to what the people's opinion on Diffusion is. But yes I'm glad you like them!

oh right that would be a riftbender buff, and riftbender is pretty cracked already

Gust would fire a projectile similar to warrior's Air Shout! Also yeah I forgot to put a max range for Gust, but it would be the same as the max range of your Main Attacks.

I'm glad you like the suggestions, man!

 

Guess what, y'all: I edited the post! Here are the changes I made:

- added range to Gust

- made Gale increase Ice Snake's damage
- buffed Gale's Winded application
- promoted Gale into a yellow node
- added a cooldown to Gale (this should make the transition between Main Attacks and Ice Snakes much smoother)

- renamed Spacetime Rift to Continuum Break

- reworked Time Dilation
- demoted Time Dilation into a yellow node
- replaced Temporal Slipstream with a new purple node: Gravity Well

If you wanna learn more about these changes, then check out the post! I decided to leave the old versions of the abilities that are significantly changed in the post for those who wanna compare between versions.

Thank you so much for all the feedback, everyone!

 

Gravity well be like. (New time dilation is awesoooome!)

 

I'm glad you like it, man!

 

ok 50/150 stacks for Gravity Well is definitely hard to build up against 1v1s. I'll reduce it to like 20 stacks required, and max of 60 stacks for Time Dilation

 

Hey y'all, I updated Time Dilation's and Gravity Well's numbers! This should make the abilities stack much faster. I also reduced Time Dilation's max walk speed cuz I don't think anyone wants +300% walk speed in combat.

I also made Time Dilation require Windsweeper just in case.