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Proposal: Ice Staff Tanking Rework
trowlk
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For me, it was a good initiative to transform the Ice Staff into a tanking weapon. Sadly the idea was poorly developed.
To raise frost walls, to conjure armors made of ice, just like the wardens do, to freeze the enemies until they cannot move at all, to make this possible you need to be creative, not just add some stats into a weapon and call it tanking staff
I have some ideas to make the frost tank inmersive and helpful for magicka guardians, first, I will consider the problems and then give solutions.
Problem #1: By making the Ice Staff a defensive weapon, you have made a breach between this staff and its cousins, the Lightning and Fire Staff
Solution: Separate the Ice Staff from the Destruction Staff skill line. Doing so will allow you to opperate this defensive weapon without affecting or causing trouble to the other 2 damage oriented staffs.
Problem #2: You are creating magickal tank which has a very similar approach to its counterpart, the physical tank.
Solution: The frost tanks must distinguish themselves from physical tanks by having an ample amount of magicka resouces and a high proficiency in magicka wards and barriers, not physical prowess and toughness. Force the Ice mage to rely on damage shields, healing and magicka to absorb and nitigate damage.
Problem #3: While channeling your Ice Staff heavy attack, you are vulnerable to incoming damage. But you need you to complete the channel or you will neither taunt the enemy nor get resources and the passive damage shield.
Solution: Make the light attack be an icicle which taunts the attacked enemy and transform the heavy attack into a channeled blast of cold. At the end of the heavy attack, you restore magicka resources and form a frosty damage shield, rewarding the time spend on the attack.
Problem #4: The Ice Staff blocking animation looks like they are using their weapon to stop incoming attacks and not their own magicka.
Solution: Make an special blocking animation for Ice Staffs, one that looks like they are casting a ward with their weapon or off hand.
Also, create a channeling animation for the frost blast heavy attack.
Problem #5: The Ice Staff abilties and aren't based on a tanking perspective, making them obsolete for both damage builds and tank builds.
Solution: Now that the Ice Staff is divided from the Destruction skill line, we can start being creative, here are some ideas that could be useful for magicka tanking
1- Frost Wall: a real ice wall, just like the one the frost mage NPCs conjure while in combat. The imposing wall protects the caster from frontal attacks and has its own health bar, increased by magicka and damage shield potency. It could also deal frost damage to enemies in around it, just like its former form . Its morphs could increase the barrier health points or make a wider wall that moves along with the caster for PvP purposes.
2- Freezing touch: Make physical contact with an enemy to induce frostbite on his skin and vital points. Causing frost damage over time and applying major breach. The ability can be improve to freeze the target's gear, adding major fracture, or to seep the victim's magicka, causing minor magickasteal. Or maybe, for pvp purposes, apply the same effect as a restore stamina poison, incresing the target stamina costs by 30%
3- Avalanche: a new abilty that requires a small casting time and then deals a direct amount of frost damage around the caster. The avalanche debris will protect the user in the form of a weak damage shield, but increases with every enemy affected by it and stacks with previous casts of the same spell (with a limit cap). The ability can be morphed to knocking back or inmovilize nearby enemies and the second morph could remove the casting time.
4- Hibernate: When you activate this ability, you sacrifice a moderate portion of magicka over 20 seconds, granting you minor aegis and your damage shields recieve 8% less damage. You can activate this spell again to pop out your gathered magicka and an additional more if it lasted 20 seconds. If you ran out of magicka the spell cancels itself. The pvp morph will add 5% damage reduction against players and the pop will heal the caster by 25% of the total hibernated amount.
The second morph will make the magicka cost less demanding while the magicka recovered remains unchanged if it lasted 20 seconds.
5- Hail: the caster surrounds himself a with a thick hail that damage nearby enemies and adds a small non stackable damage shield made of the said hail on the caster and allies every few seconds for a 5 second duration. One morph will apply minor fracture and breach on enemies, due to the destruction of their gear by the sharpened hail, the second morph allows the allies to stack more hail, and thus, a bigger damage shield, but not on yourself.
Ultimate- Atmoran Blizzard: A terrible and chaotic blizzard forms at the pointed location after 2 seconds. Dealing frost damage to enemies and reducing their speed by 50%. An ally can unleash the blizzard's true potential, dealing frost damage, dragging all the enemies to the eye of the storm and staggering them every second while they remain in the area.
Charging Blizzard to increase the allies with minor expedition and granting them inmunity to crowd control efffects.
Rampaging Blizzard tweak the sinergy and no longer drags the enemies to the center, but refreshes the duration of the blizzard and applies major slayer to the allies inside of it.
Problem #6: Because Frost Staff was forced to share the destruction staff passives, its perks were limited in terms of tanking.
Solution: With a new skill line, the Ice Staff is free to have passives such as these:
1- Intolerable Cold: While wielding an Ice Staff, your light attacks taunt your target and your heavy attacks create a damage shield.
The cold and sharpened light attack icicles will attract the enemies attention and your channeled frost blast heavy attack will form a icy shield around you.
2- Cryopreservation: While wielding an Ice Staff, any damage shield applied by you is attacked or destroyed, 20% of the total arsorbed is restored to your magicka pool.
Cold is one of the best preservers we know so far, why wouldn't it apply to magicka aswell?
3- Iceberg's Fortitude: While wielding an Ice Staff, your blocking cost is reduced by 30% and the amount of damage your damage shields and blocking can mitigate is increased by 20%
Creating Ice is to shape a substance, mostly water, into a solid and rigid state, a magickal icy ward will not be break so easily.
4- Hypothermia: Increase the chance to apply chilled status effect by 100% and when you deal damage with an Ice Staff spell, you reduce the enemies speed by 30% for 5 seconds.
Hypothermia is the Ice Mage best friend and their enemies' bane. Besides, cold is something difficult to get rid of.
5- Kleptothermia, when an enemy is killed and you assisted in his downfall, you steal his corpse life and magickal essences, recovering said atributes over 5 seconds.
Playing with heat exchange is one of the most important lessons for a frost mage. Take whatever energy is left from a corpse, while it remains warm.
Problem #7: with the removal of Ice Staff from the destruction staff skill line, weapons such as Maelstrom, Master and Assylum became obsolete.
Solution: I like to think of different approaches for these weapons, they could enhance the staff spells with increased damage, or maybe add some benefits for both allies its caster:
1- Frost Wall:
- Enemies affected by frost wall damaging area will recieve extra damage from light and heavy attacks dealt by you and your allies.
Its easier to cut or damage anything that is chilly, this set resembles its counterpart, Maelstrom Staff, but with way less aditional damage.
- Your frost wall health points will increase by a flat amount and when it gets damaged, it will be affected by your Cryopreservation passive.
A set to increase the caster's sustain and survivability.
2- Hail:
- Increases the damage of hail by an X amount every time it ticks.
I have experienced a hail just once in my lifetime. It is beautiful but scary and damage vehicles and even structures.
- The hail reinforce your gear and provides to you and your allies minor ward and minor resolve.
The frost mages won't waste all that hail, with this special staff they will concentrate hail-made-wards on their allies.
3- Avalanche:
- Increases the direct damage from avalanche and applies chilling status effect on its victims.
This avalanche will blow snow all over the enemies and leak ice inside their gear.
- The stackable damage shield that applied by this spell will affect allies that standed inside the avalanche.
Following the same principle as hail, this support staff will allow your allies to survive while staying close to the frost mage and his casted hail.
Edited by trowlk on December 31, 2017 6:25PM To raise frost walls, to conjure armors made of ice, just like the wardens do, to freeze the enemies until they cannot move at all, to make this possible you need to be creative, not just add some stats into a weapon and call it tanking staff
I have some ideas to make the frost tank inmersive and helpful for magicka guardians, first, I will consider the problems and then give solutions.
Problem #1: By making the Ice Staff a defensive weapon, you have made a breach between this staff and its cousins, the Lightning and Fire Staff
Solution: Separate the Ice Staff from the Destruction Staff skill line. Doing so will allow you to opperate this defensive weapon without affecting or causing trouble to the other 2 damage oriented staffs.
Problem #2: You are creating magickal tank which has a very similar approach to its counterpart, the physical tank.
Solution: The frost tanks must distinguish themselves from physical tanks by having an ample amount of magicka resouces and a high proficiency in magicka wards and barriers, not physical prowess and toughness. Force the Ice mage to rely on damage shields, healing and magicka to absorb and nitigate damage.
Problem #3: While channeling your Ice Staff heavy attack, you are vulnerable to incoming damage. But you need you to complete the channel or you will neither taunt the enemy nor get resources and the passive damage shield.
Solution: Make the light attack be an icicle which taunts the attacked enemy and transform the heavy attack into a channeled blast of cold. At the end of the heavy attack, you restore magicka resources and form a frosty damage shield, rewarding the time spend on the attack.
Problem #4: The Ice Staff blocking animation looks like they are using their weapon to stop incoming attacks and not their own magicka.
Solution: Make an special blocking animation for Ice Staffs, one that looks like they are casting a ward with their weapon or off hand.
Also, create a channeling animation for the frost blast heavy attack.
Problem #5: The Ice Staff abilties and aren't based on a tanking perspective, making them obsolete for both damage builds and tank builds.
Solution: Now that the Ice Staff is divided from the Destruction skill line, we can start being creative, here are some ideas that could be useful for magicka tanking
1- Frost Wall: a real ice wall, just like the one the frost mage NPCs conjure while in combat. The imposing wall protects the caster from frontal attacks and has its own health bar, increased by magicka and damage shield potency. It could also deal frost damage to enemies in around it, just like its former form . Its morphs could increase the barrier health points or make a wider wall that moves along with the caster for PvP purposes.
2- Freezing touch: Make physical contact with an enemy to induce frostbite on his skin and vital points. Causing frost damage over time and applying major breach. The ability can be improve to freeze the target's gear, adding major fracture, or to seep the victim's magicka, causing minor magickasteal. Or maybe, for pvp purposes, apply the same effect as a restore stamina poison, incresing the target stamina costs by 30%
3- Avalanche: a new abilty that requires a small casting time and then deals a direct amount of frost damage around the caster. The avalanche debris will protect the user in the form of a weak damage shield, but increases with every enemy affected by it and stacks with previous casts of the same spell (with a limit cap). The ability can be morphed to knocking back or inmovilize nearby enemies and the second morph could remove the casting time.
4- Hibernate: When you activate this ability, you sacrifice a moderate portion of magicka over 20 seconds, granting you minor aegis and your damage shields recieve 8% less damage. You can activate this spell again to pop out your gathered magicka and an additional more if it lasted 20 seconds. If you ran out of magicka the spell cancels itself. The pvp morph will add 5% damage reduction against players and the pop will heal the caster by 25% of the total hibernated amount.
The second morph will make the magicka cost less demanding while the magicka recovered remains unchanged if it lasted 20 seconds.
5- Hail: the caster surrounds himself a with a thick hail that damage nearby enemies and adds a small non stackable damage shield made of the said hail on the caster and allies every few seconds for a 5 second duration. One morph will apply minor fracture and breach on enemies, due to the destruction of their gear by the sharpened hail, the second morph allows the allies to stack more hail, and thus, a bigger damage shield, but not on yourself.
Ultimate- Atmoran Blizzard: A terrible and chaotic blizzard forms at the pointed location after 2 seconds. Dealing frost damage to enemies and reducing their speed by 50%. An ally can unleash the blizzard's true potential, dealing frost damage, dragging all the enemies to the eye of the storm and staggering them every second while they remain in the area.
Charging Blizzard to increase the allies with minor expedition and granting them inmunity to crowd control efffects.
Rampaging Blizzard tweak the sinergy and no longer drags the enemies to the center, but refreshes the duration of the blizzard and applies major slayer to the allies inside of it.
Problem #6: Because Frost Staff was forced to share the destruction staff passives, its perks were limited in terms of tanking.
Solution: With a new skill line, the Ice Staff is free to have passives such as these:
1- Intolerable Cold: While wielding an Ice Staff, your light attacks taunt your target and your heavy attacks create a damage shield.
The cold and sharpened light attack icicles will attract the enemies attention and your channeled frost blast heavy attack will form a icy shield around you.
2- Cryopreservation: While wielding an Ice Staff, any damage shield applied by you is attacked or destroyed, 20% of the total arsorbed is restored to your magicka pool.
Cold is one of the best preservers we know so far, why wouldn't it apply to magicka aswell?
3- Iceberg's Fortitude: While wielding an Ice Staff, your blocking cost is reduced by 30% and the amount of damage your damage shields and blocking can mitigate is increased by 20%
Creating Ice is to shape a substance, mostly water, into a solid and rigid state, a magickal icy ward will not be break so easily.
4- Hypothermia: Increase the chance to apply chilled status effect by 100% and when you deal damage with an Ice Staff spell, you reduce the enemies speed by 30% for 5 seconds.
Hypothermia is the Ice Mage best friend and their enemies' bane. Besides, cold is something difficult to get rid of.
5- Kleptothermia, when an enemy is killed and you assisted in his downfall, you steal his corpse life and magickal essences, recovering said atributes over 5 seconds.
Playing with heat exchange is one of the most important lessons for a frost mage. Take whatever energy is left from a corpse, while it remains warm.
Problem #7: with the removal of Ice Staff from the destruction staff skill line, weapons such as Maelstrom, Master and Assylum became obsolete.
Solution: I like to think of different approaches for these weapons, they could enhance the staff spells with increased damage, or maybe add some benefits for both allies its caster:
1- Frost Wall:
- Enemies affected by frost wall damaging area will recieve extra damage from light and heavy attacks dealt by you and your allies.
Its easier to cut or damage anything that is chilly, this set resembles its counterpart, Maelstrom Staff, but with way less aditional damage.
- Your frost wall health points will increase by a flat amount and when it gets damaged, it will be affected by your Cryopreservation passive.
A set to increase the caster's sustain and survivability.
2- Hail:
- Increases the damage of hail by an X amount every time it ticks.
I have experienced a hail just once in my lifetime. It is beautiful but scary and damage vehicles and even structures.
- The hail reinforce your gear and provides to you and your allies minor ward and minor resolve.
The frost mages won't waste all that hail, with this special staff they will concentrate hail-made-wards on their allies.
3- Avalanche:
- Increases the direct damage from avalanche and applies chilling status effect on its victims.
This avalanche will blow snow all over the enemies and leak ice inside their gear.
- The stackable damage shield that applied by this spell will affect allies that standed inside the avalanche.
Following the same principle as hail, this support staff will allow your allies to survive while staying close to the frost mage and his casted hail.
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Checkmath✭✭✭✭✭
✭I would be very happy to see some of those ideas implemented in the game. The idea, that this tanking frost staff is bound to the offensive fire and lightning staves is just stupid. Right, some points do they have im common, but to separate it would be a good approach to get some more diversity in pve and pvp.2 -
trowlk✭✭✭✭December 31 edit, I added some ideas for the possible Maelstrom, Master and Assylum Ice Staffs.
Enjoy your new life festival!1