[1] ⭐ ((( Moving Focus ))) ⭐
Currently, moving-focus with high ATT SPD is still slower to "charge" than standing-focus at 0 ATT SPD (see video link https://imgur.com/Ct4xNiA).
Focus level should increment at the same rate regardless of whether Evie is moving or standing. To balance usability, the standing-focus could have a lower stamina consumption when casting spells.
[2] ⭐ ((( Tab Counterattack ))) ⭐
Similar to other characters with a counterattack, Evie could have some way to block attacks and immediately respond with her own. For example, pressing [Tab] at the same timing for a perfect Mana Amber block would block or absorb the enemy's attack and respond with random Tier-1 or Tier-2 magic. Though the random magic would need to have the same animation time to keep block-response timing consistent.
[3] ⭐ ((( Amber Explosion ))) ⭐
Another counterattack-ish idea is that if Evie manages a perfect defend with Mana Amber 20 times (separate Ambers, not continuous block), then "Active: Amber Explosion" becomes available for use. Once triggered, it adds an effect so that the next time Evie does a perfect block with Mana Amber, the enemy is damaged (while keeping Evie in Mana Amber in case of multi-attack). This will help allow for Evie to attempt solo redeemers.
[4] ⭐ ((( Sprint + Raze ))) ⭐
Allow Evie to sprint while using Rage Conductor, using camera viewpoint to aim. Most characters get to use all skills while running solo, but Evie cannot. Rage Conductor is interrupted by red attacks, flinches, or random bugs. No Evie gets gold medals in Ein Lacher while using it.
[5] ⭐ ((( Continual Focus buff stack ))) ⭐
Make Continual Focus buff stackable up to three times. Usage of Continual Focus will remove one buff.
[6] ⭐ ((( Continual Focus interruption ))) ⭐
If a user activates Continual Focus, then focuses but does not cast a spell (because they shielded or the enemy moved), they lose the Continual Focus buff. Ideally, the buff should only be consumed if a spell is successfully cast or saved to a Casting Save slot.
[7] ⭐ ((( Continual Focus T2+ only ))) ⭐
Continual Focus should never activate on focus-level 1. There is no advantage to using Continual Focus to save that focus level, and it only ever occurs due to mistakes or lag-glitches.
[8] ⭐ ((( Continual Focus maintain focus level ))) ⭐
If Continual Focus is not used, Evie will remain at her focus level for a certain period of time depending on the focus level (i.e. without any button being held, she will remain at focus level 3 for 4.5 seconds). If Continual Focus is used to reach that focus level, she will only remain there for 1 second, no matter which focus level it is. This can cause players to lose the benefit of the Continual Focus if they expected to be able to maintain the focus level for longer.
[9] ⭐ ((( Maintain focus level duration ))) ⭐
Currently, Evie will remain at her current focus level for a variable time: Tier-1 for 1 sec, Tier-2 1 sec, Tier-3 4.5 sec, and Tier-4 4 sec. It would make sense for a uniformly-increasing focus duration dependent on level: Tier-1 2 sec, Tier-2 3 sec, Tier-3 4 sec, Tier-4 5 sec.
[10] ⭐ ((( Maintain focus level with stamina ))) ⭐
It would be helpful if Evie could indefinitely maintain a focus level, but would need to expend stamina to do so (e.g. 10 stamina per second). There would need to be a control to maintain this, such as holding down both LMB and RMB. Then LMB could be released to cast normally, or allow for additional RMB presses to continue advancing the focus level.
[11] ⭐ ((( Mana Amber break ))) ⭐
If Evie does not do a perfect block with Mana Amber, it should break, knocking Evie to the ground. Currently, Evie will continue to hold the Amber, taking massive damage on multi-attacks. Any other character is knocked down, giving them brief i-frames until they get up. Evie should get the same treatment.
[12] ⭐ ((( Spell cooldown ))) ⭐
If a user starts to cast a spell, but it is not successfully cast due to getting hit, the spell goes on cooldown. Spell cooldowns should only apply if the spell has been successfully used. Technically, this should apply to all skills on all characters, including suppression skills and transformations, as those have the same issue.
- Since the spell cooldown should only start after the spell has begun to be used, the cooldowns may need to differ slightly to be consistent with pre-change timing. For example, Tier-3 Lightning current cooldown behavior is fine, because the cooldown starts as the first lightning mote is released. However, the Tier-3 Ice cooldown should only start after the ice is actually launched. Since that includes an extra second (or so) of animation, the cooldown for that spell should be reduced by that amount.
[13] ⭐ ((( Ice Blast usability ))) ⭐
Ice Blast (Tier-1 Ice) is currently not very useful in raids. Decrease the duration of its animation, or at least allow for shielding/dodging after a shorter period of time. Increasing its damage would be good too.
[14] ⭐ ((( Mana Mine usability ))) ⭐
Currently, Mana Mine is almost never used. To improve its usefulness, it could deal double the current damage. Additionally, if [Mana Mine]-[Smash] is used, the Flying Sparrow could move Evie triple the normal distance. It would also be neat and useful if three Mana Mines spawned along the path of the Flying Sparrow. To balance this, the cooldown could be increased.
[15] ⭐ ((( Mana Mine + Flying Sparrow + Mana Amber ))) ⭐
When Flying Sparrow is used normally, Evie can Mana Amber mid-flight. When Flying Sparrow is used by pressing [Smash] after Mana Mine, Evie cannot use Mana Amber mid-flight. It seems oddly inconsistent.
[16] ⭐ ((( Hallucination usability ))) ⭐
Currently, Hallucination is almost never used, and needs a rework. As a behavior change, instead of only stopping low-level enemies from attacking, it could also do a reduction of party player's cooldowns. Also triple its range of effectiveness to be usable.
[17] ⭐ ((( Revive option ))) ⭐
Currently, Revive will restore the targeted player with 60% HP (at max skill level). An additional option could be added that would allow Evie to sacrifice 40% of her HP to restore the targeted player at 100% HP. This could be selected by using a long-press of "E" when reviving, or something similar, and would not go into effect if Evie has less than 40% HP remaining.
[18] ⭐ ((( Auto-aim at close range ))) ⭐
When using auto-aim at enemy option, magic cast when Evie is at point-blank range always seems to miss. Evie's auto-aim should be improved to actually hit the boss immediately in front of her.
[19] ⭐ ((( Auto-aim with boss flinch ))) ⭐
When the boss is flinched, the auto-aim of the magic should target the new position, rather than continuing to cast at the old position of the boss.
[20] ⭐ ((( Lightning auto-aim ))) ⭐
Tier-1 and Tier-2 Lightning should also aim in the vertical direction (like Tier-2 Ice), instead of always casting on the horizontal plane. If the boss is on a hill, flying, or jumping, currently those spells are useless.
[21] ⭐ ((( Healing Corona alert ))) ⭐
When Evie uses Healing Corona, pop up a message in the chat so players know it is available. Also, marking an icon at the location of the Corona on the Minimap would be valuable in showing players where to go for healing. Currently, the Corona is not very visible, especially on larger maps, and it fully disappears at times as the healing motes rotate.
[22] ⭐ ((( Dodge i-frames ))) ⭐
Many new characters have multiple options for parry/block/dodge, but Evie has only her Mana Shield. It would be more balanced if Evie had invulnerability frames in her dodge. This would also allow for potential survival in cases where Evie is staggered (e.g. Life Flare), but the boss is using a multi-hit attack. To keep the balance, the i-frame could be canceled if [Smash] is pressed to start the Flying Sparrow.
[23] ⭐ ((( Reverse Gravity ))) ⭐
Unlike all other suppression skills, Reverse Gravity only does damage at the end, and it's very little damage. Suggestion is that small objects could lift up with the boss and do damage to the boss at intervals while they're in the air. Also, if the boss is not initially captured by the Reverse Gravity suppression, Evie is stuck doing the skill. Suggestion is that if the boss moves into the area of effect (or becomes vulnerable to it) while it is ongoing, the suppression will then affect them.
[24] ⭐ ((( Skill Active Flinch ))) ⭐
With the upcoming increase to Regeneration's cooldown, staff Evie does not have much to spend SP on. A new skill that does damage for 500 or 750 SP would be similar to other characters.
- One idea could be to add a flinch-causing attack. Animation could show Evie riding the staff like a real witch to ram the boss, maybe with a Mana Amber cone that breaks on impact. Propulsion for the staff could be the Rage Conductor laser or Magic Arrow effects.
- Another idea could be to buff Evie's normal attacks to be more powerful, different types, or have additional properties for a period of time or number of shots. For example, after the active skill is used, her next 10 normal attacks throw chunks of ice with a similar range as Ice Spear and more damage than her normal attacks.
[25] ⭐ ((( Smash flinches ))) ⭐
Prevent Evie's smashes from being interrupted by normal mob or boss attacks. All of Evie's smashes have significant animation time, which makes her vulnerable to losing the smash when any attack hits her. It shouldn't be so easy for her to flinch out of smash attacks.
[26] ⭐ ((( Flying Sparrow height ))) ⭐
Evie's Flying Sparrow moves her through the air. It would make sense that its movement would not be impeded by enemies that are low to the ground (e.g. mob spiders, crabs in Malina, underground hemdrills). Her "hop" dodge moves past them, it would make sense if her Flying Sparrow did too.
[27] ⭐ ((( Improve mob-clearing ))) ⭐
Staff Evie is one of the slower characters to clear mobs in an area unless they are all grouped up. Since Evie is stationary and slow to attack, something that allows her attacks to be more effective on multiple mob enemies would improve balance. Possible suggestions include:
- Allowing Tier-2/3 Lightning and Tier-3 Ice smashes to automatically target multiple enemies, rather than all homing in on a single enemy and being wasted if it dies from a single hit.
- Enable the "splitting" of Magic Arrow, to divide the normal damage between three automatically targeted mobs.
- Making Tier-2 Lightning have a kind of "chain lightning" effect, where a part of the damage jumps to a nearby enemy if any others are close. This won't have an impact on boss fights, only if there are multiple enemies.
[28] ⭐ ((( Magic Arrow focus ))) ⭐
Similar to other characters that use normal attacks to build up to more powerful smashes, Evie could use Magic Arrow to increase her focus level. So a single Magic Arrow would let her start at focus level 1 (no difference), but LLR would start at focus level 2, and LLLR would be focus level 3. LLLLR (and any additional initial Magic Arrows) would maintain focus level 3 when right-click is used.
[29] ⭐ ((( Casting Save same spells ))) ⭐
Allow Casting Save to save the same spells multiple times. This prevents the loss of a spell if the player doesn't recall what spells are currently saved, and they attempt to save the same one again (using it and putting the spell on cooldown while not in range of the boss).
[30] ⭐ ((( Smoother transitions ))) ⭐
Currently there is delay in the animation between using multiple spells when used from Casting Save. This is obvious when transitioning from Tier-1 Ice to Mana Amber to any saved spell, or Tier-3 Lightning to Mana Amber to any saved spell. See the videos for a comparison between the current and suggested behavior.
[31] ⭐ ((( Extendable freeze ))) ⭐
If multiple Evies are in a party, and one freezes the boss with an Ice spell, allow for the duration to be extended slightly if other Evies use Ice Spear or Ice Blow on the frozen enemy. The original Evie cannot extend this time, and only one time extension per freeze available per Evie. This encourages more cooperation between players, and will help offset the upcoming nerf of freezing on bosses.
[32] ⭐ ((( New element spells ))) ⭐
Additional spell options for all focus levels would be nice. "Earth" spells would round out a standard 4-element system. The [W] key could be used to trigger Earth spells. With the addition of more Tier-4 spells, to keep balance, all Tier-4 spells would go on cooldown if any are used. Example spells could be:
-Tier-1 Earth: Stone Throw
-Tier-2 Earth: Earth Shock
-Tier-3 Earth: Earth Wall
-Tier-4 Earth: Earthquake
-Tier-4 Fire: Hell Tornado
-Tier-4 Ice: Snowstorm
-Move Rage Conductor to [D] key to be consistent with Lightning spells
[33] ⭐ ((( Fourth Casting Save slot ))) ⭐
With the addition of the "Earth" elemental spells above, a fourth Casting Save slot would be appropriate.
[34] ⭐ ((( Cancel Focus ))) ⭐
Evie should be able to instantly cancel out of her focus state with a separate control (for example, [E]). This is especially important if "Earth" spells are added, as [W] is no longer an option for canceling focus. Trying to go from focus state to Mana Amber currently requires double-press of [Space], which may not be as quick as [E]->[Space].
[35] ⭐ ((( Focus level 4 early access ))) ⭐
Allow Evie to access focus level 4 a short time before the Tier-4 spell(s) are off of cooldown (since she can hold at that focus level, preparing to use the spell).
Staff Evie Suggestions, compiled by Tony
Thanks nice english by Receiver NA
Comments
Also, many of the things suggested would require some major work/rework on Evie and i'm not sure the devs are willing to invest so much on our beloved.
I'll start with Evie core-identity because i while i feel Evie has less tools than other characters when solo, i don't want her to become a clone.
Rather than giving her a counter mechanic, like the amber counter you suggested, i'd empathize what already works for her and keep her unique.
So, to me Evie is a caster mage who sacrifices mobility and speed for great burst.
Ideally, if you want to master Evie you should learn to position yourself properly, understand how much time you have and plan your actions accordingly.
The problems:
I) it's hard to stick in the face of enemies due to long focus+animations times.
II) if the boss is relentlessly in your face you have small damage uptime compared to other characters.
III) you play vs the boss and vs the camera/auto-aim.
IV) bugs makes staff in general feel very clunky and unresponsive.
V) normal attacks feel irrelevant [minor].
Where to go from there?
I'd start giving Evie the tools for Evie to handle fast attacking bosses.
One i would really like is the possibility to use amber before and after casting spells.
CF = continuous focus
F1-4 = Focus 1-4
T1-4 = Tier 1-4 spell
For example what you do now is:
CF -> F1 -> F2 -> Save-cast T2 -> Amber -> Cast saved T2 -> Save cast an other T2 spell
What i would like to have is:
CF -> F1 -> F2 -> Amber -> T2 spell -> Amber -> Save cast T2 spell.
On certain spells you can already amber after casting and use CF later, most notably Fire Shock (T3 fire), adding amber before the cast would mean i can cast stronger spells even when being chased without relying on save-cast.
An other thing that would greatly help is the ability to animation cancel actions based on enemy attacks.
The usual scenario is when you solo enemies which super fast windup attacks.
There you either wait for the enemy to commit to an attack and react to it (booring and RNG dependent) or you start attacking and if you see the enemy going for a fast attack you must cancel your attack.
Having ways to reliable cancel animations into defensive or aggressive stances would really help.
For instance, if you release RMB during half charged focus, i'd like to restore the previous focus level instead of cancelling it entirely.
About restless bosses (II), better animation cancelling (it shouldn't cancel spells already fired) and what suggested before should go a long way.
But i've thought of an other thing that may help while fitting in the caster theme:
If using sparrow from a mana-mine, make the mine explode but sparrow for a longer distance, like using the mine to propell yourself.
I'm strongly against giving iframes on Evie hop or sparrow, i think it would become too good and remove part of the challenge on the character.
III) Camera and auto-aim are a HUGE pain, I would love to have the option to remove it entirely.
When fighting huge humanoid bosses you stand between their legs, all the attacks are aimed at the center of mass of the enemy, making you miss both feet T_T +cry +pain
If we remove auto-aim (please do) ice spear and non guided lightning spells vertical angle should be adjusted with the camera angle though.
IV) Is self-explanatory, bugs like raze conductor not dealing damage is not fun. Tony always n°1 bug-finder.
V) Normal attacks don't feel very rewarding. I would love them to have have more purpose without becoming unbalanced.
Normal attacks are actually the fastest "spell" evie can throw, and could really benefit the playstyle of people who want to stick in the enemy's face and fast adapt to the boss attack patterns.
I thought it would be cool for spell masteries to enhance normal attacks, like increase the duration of already applied fire mastery, or additional stamina regeneration on lightning mastery.
I want normal attacks to feed "good" when you have too little time to cast spells, but not to feel mandatory in combos.
Or maybe normal attacks reduce the cooldown of other abilities like clipping wing? Must be carefull to not overbuff those things.
Imho this can all be adressed with "little" effort from the dev team. If they are willing to have some major rework like we had in the past, then we can talk about new abilities, different animations, new element etc etc, but i wouldn't get my hopes too high.
Side note: I think golem, mana pistol and object transmutation can be removed entirelly. It was cool in seaons 1, now it's a source of buggs more than a usefull feature.
My suggested about Normal Attacks with chain to Smash Attacks is already allow to block
during normal attacks, which is easy to access smash while boss attacking spam, without
problems, like as you wanted, normal attack = allow block, but smash attack = no allow block,
only end smash can be block
(II)
See example Tower mission, with trap outside, while Keaghan/Macha does multi-hits,
I had to block for 3 seconds, but while he/she pushing me to trap area, was impossible
to ran away, I don't find fair, I think that should add iframe hop to solve this issue
block = no move = pushed to trap room, very difficulty to try 0 hits challenge in Tower
maybe solve it by no moving amber, it should solves everything...
(III)
I already reported that bug that misses aim +yay for sure they will solve it
instead magic goes to air, need sure magics can aim on body, or multi aims on one big body
like as Bow's skill, but remove auto-aim is kinda impossible for staff... seems is complicate
(IV)
Thank you +shy Bugs report is worth submitted
(V)
Is really good idea!
I really hope they improve at least small important things, such as good balance main focus:
Solo run, Party run and also cleaning massive mobs, I had ideas about Alchemy Tools, but
I don't interest to improve it, because seems is pointless, it's made for only staff solo run
probably make mana pistol or golem as 100% aggro on boss, so staff can dmg on bosses in peace
such as using raze without aggro against the bosses, less hard of gameplay, but if improvement raze,
so no need of Alchemy Tools, I don't see any worth with it, sorry my bad english
Thank you to give more opinions NitroLux!
Why would you use normal focus when attacking, does damage, is faster, allows blocking attacks?
Also if blocking resets your focus level, you won't be able to cast high level spells in between boss attacks.
Keaghan/Macha requires you to perfect amber their combo individually, which i do agree, require a lot of skill :<
Otherwise you have to go for a hit-and-run aproach: save cast some spelll, run away, cast, run away, repeat
Good reference:
SUPER booring right? that's why i wanted to enable focus -> amber chaining.
The extreme opposite are
Lethor
and
Miri
Which doesn't fit Evie style at all, but having some way of attacking while the boss attacks you would help in solo or no-hit runs
If i could rework spells, i would make ice spells like "counter spells" something you can use to damage while not receiving damage. Like creating a wall of ice infront of you before shattering it.
I don't want to rely on alchemy tools because it doesn't feel like a 1-vs-1 with the boss. It feels like you're tricking the AI because the character is too helpless alone.
"Casting Save" version 1, in 2013, was most stable, they find it too OP, so fixed it
If you don't see difference, let me explain, when use ALT+1, Evie does magic, press dodge (skip ending magic animation)
to press ALT+1 second magic instantly, skipped much time of animation, which is incredible gameplay fast by pressing
very responsive ALT+1/2/3 by dodge each, maybe should bring back this old system version 1, now v2 is buggy,
unresponsive all time, always must to walk to responsive with ALT+1