Destro Visual/Animations & Thematics

Tetujin

I just want to put this out there, in case there is a chance that at some point they look at the combat visuals for the destructive staff and some of its abilities--at least this way I will have said it beforehand even if it is a long way off.

I thought I would post this here instead of just emailing in feedback in case others disagree or see something I didn't. Just remember that this is meant to be about theme and feel more than balance and all that.

For the visual / animation side of things, mainly I want to suggest looking at the lightning staff. I think it would feel a lot more awesome to use if it was an actual charged up lightning strike. Maybe there needs to be an over time one for variety's sake, but the way it is now just doesn't evoke the mighty power of lightning to me, it's more like the gentle bzzzzzt and *pop* of an electric outlet. I'm also very biased against "lobbed balls of electricity" in general like this one's final hit, I always wish they were actual lightning strikes. If nothing else, I hope this is read and considered (for "theme and feel"). I just feel like a wimp using it right now.

Something else I had thought of comes from my liking of the idea of using the staff wading into the thick of things in heavy armor. It would be cool to have more melee-ish spell/staff animations when within melee range for the light and heavy attacks. Thinking about the staff at short range on top of long range doesn't seem outside the realm of reason considering a few of the abilities.

Mechanics-wise, something that I am hoping can be reconsidered in the future is Force Shock. To me it would be better to have it single-element. A bigger, magicka charged ranged attack, like a more impressive version of heavy attack. Or whatever, but something that adds more fire, lightning or ice. Having it multi-element is maybe useful because of possible resistance scenarios, but it seems like it is just limiting the number of element themed spells available, and part of the appeal of the weapon is throwing that element around.

The last thing is about the secondary qualities, where they seem to vary a bit right now and don't fit together nicely for each staff type in my opinion, and where instead they could do more to distinguish the three staves functionally or thematically. Seems like it would work well to have these be consistent on each:

For example, the following for tri-focus, destructive clench morph, wall of elements, etc.
Fire: Set on fire
Lightning: Chain to nearby enemies (or interrupt or micro-stun or whatever makes sense)
Frost: Slow

The 'larger' effect, following for destructive touch
Fire: Knockback
Lightning: Stun
Frost: Frozen

So for example the morphed lightning destructive clench would stun/damage the primary target with some lesser and shorter damage/stun chained to nearby enemies. And for example, wall of elements giving some slow-down, and then hitting with the staff giving its slowdown on top of that, helping frost be better at manipulating enemy speed.

I don't know specifically, maybe these choices of secondary effects are obviously wrong, but building more consistency for secondaries seems like like it will give a better identity for each staff, one that ideally fits with its element.