Feedback for midnight alpha Windwalker changes
Changes I am referencing:
Since I don’t have alpha all I can do is give feedback based on patch notes and clips.
Some terminology I use here:
PAS^2 (Passive squared): Entirely passive effect amplifying an entirely passive effect. There are positive and negative cases of this.
Class tree:
Chi transfer:
- Because of the limitations of being able to use touch of death this effect is only ever useful in very specific situations where you are fighting multiple enemies and you are low health when executing a target with TOD(Touch of Death).
- In PVP it will likely find no uses since in most content being able to use TOD means you have already won since your target is dead. In battlegrounds the effect will not make enough of a difference to be noticeable in most situations.
- In PVE content this effect will likely just end up as over-healing.
- In solo content this could be quite nice to get a juicy heal off killing a target when fighting multiple enemies.
- My suggestion is to replace this with something else or even bake it into another touch of death talent effectively making it a baseline “hey that’s kinda nice” effect that players could very rarely say “hey my touch of death heal saved me there”.
- Perhaps for WW specifically it could heal you based on touch of karma damage as well (This was a thing at some point I don’t remember when) instead of being entirely TOD based.
Windwalker spec tree
Auto attack modifiers
- This could be cool, with dual threat now dealing actual damage. Keep in mind that auto attack empowering passives are even more passive than something that increases the damage of an ability (PAS^2). While its cool fantasy to constantly throw out spin kicks there is little game play behind it.
- Martial agility is a capstone talent that is PAS^2 and seems weak at first glance. Another thing to note is that during fists of fury auto attacks do not occur making this talent entirely inactive during one of your core abilities.
- Momentum boost is already an existing effect that is triggered by the player, perhaps auto attack enhancing talents should play into that or an entirely new effect. For example Martial agility could provide the 30% attack speed boost during zenith and double the effect of momentum boost as opposed to just flat increasing attack speed. Momentum boost is not some random proc and always lasts 8 seconds which makes it straight forward to play around without an aura tracker of some kind. Another idea could be to have one of your active rotational abilities force proc dual threat on X next attacks creating some active interaction with what would normally just be 100% automatic damage.
- Empowering auto attacks in retail feels weird. Compared to classic where auto attacks feel strong and important on classes such as ENH sham, Warrior and paladin the pacing of retail makes auto attacks hard to notice. Even if there was an “auto attack” spec making it feel fun to play may be hard to accomplish.
Zenith
- Zenith is a much cooler name than Weapons of Order. (Yippie)
Hero Talents: Shado-Pan
Initator’s Edge
- Not a big fan of once per fight effects, perhaps should proc off Zenith as well.
- Might be fun in M+.
Wisdom Of the Wall
- Redesign removes all interactions with flurry strikes outside of additional damage
- Shado-Pan fighter was a cool idea maybe instead of being an active pet it could be a visual of Shado-Pan fighters striking targets hit by flurry strikes at the end of Zenith for damage based on flurry strikes hit while Zenith is active.
- Since flurry strikes hit all target’s for the same amount the total dps increase on the “Focus target” is equal to the dps increase on secondary targets. If flurry strikes is the primary source of dps increase from this hero talent then overall Shado-Pan may fall behind Conduit of the Celestials on ST.
- Based on clips I have seen the visual of sending flurry strikes constantly during Zenith is very cool even if its a bit visually cluttered when combined with jade ignition and jadefire stomp.
Vigilant Watch + Veteran’s Eye + Against All Odds
- All of these talents are basically just stat increases (Vigilant watch at least has critical strike chance interaction and Haste at least interacts with some abilities) out of all of these I would rather Against All Odds be changed since it is quite literally “get 4% damage”, most boring of them all type of deal.
Protect and Serve
- Feels bad to have this removed, would like to see this come back in some form.
Weapons of the Wall
- Good to see this simplified
Hero Talents: Conduit of the Celestials
Zuen
- Add the Invoke Zuen tooltip to the description of celestial conduit.
- Restore Balance could replace Zuen’s empowered tiger lightning effect (7% of damage you deal is repeated) or vice versa for simplicity. (replacing Zuen’s lightning effectively makes him cosmetic unless his base damage is considerable)
Celestial Conduit
- Change to AOE softcap is very much appreciated.
- Path of the falling star is a great addition to still allow that massive single target burst.
Ideas I think are cool
Shado-Pan Fighters
A visual effect (NOT A PET) of a Shado-Pan fighter shadow stepping the target and striking them from behind. Could deal based on flurry strikes sent over the duration of Zenith or even when you use Strike of the Windlord/Whirling Dragon Punch, dealing damage based on flurry strikes sent.
Ranged touch of death
While channelling Jade lightning you can use TOD on the target if they are within the requirements of touch of death with an additional visual of a large lightning strike upon executing the target. (More interesting for MW PVP)
Spirit Punch
PVP talent a short windup frontal cone or simply a targeted melee ability that creates a “transcendence” of enemy players hit at their current location by PUNCHING THEIR SPIRIT OUT YEAHHHHH. When reactivated within 10 seconds forcefully pull your active target back to that location. “Yeah I just punched your spirit out, and NO there is nothing you can do about it. You are going to BRAZIL”