Give engulfing dragonfire more utility

Callosum · March 12

After playing around with the Dragonknight (both PVE and PVP), I really like what has happened to the class. It feels good overall and the changes are interesting.

One thing I do find a little unfortunate, though, is how the new breath ability mainly seems to encourage using the skill as a spammable, similar to how the Arcanist beam gets used. Considering the ideas that were presented for the Werewolf skills, where the focus was on increasing the utility of each skill, I think something like that approach could work well for the channeled breath ability too. It could help the skill fit into more builds instead of mostly being used in “breath spam” setups.

So here’s just a small suggestion:

Suggestion:
When Engulfing Dragonfire ends, it places a short DoT on the target for 1 second. The duration increases for each damage tick of Engulfing Dragonfire. The DoT is removed if the skill is activated again.

My quick rationale:
This would incentivize players to bring the skill in more bar setups, including more traditional whip or lash setups. You could still use it for its channeled effect in certain encounters, but it would also function as a DoT in boss-fight setups, giving it more flexibility and utility.

Silvains_Demon · March 14

Engulfing? That was the channeled one, right? Tbf, I think it'd be neat if it went a little farther but narrowed a bit. Not quite like the Arcanist's beam but something in that direction in a sense.

ADarklore · March 15

Callosum wrote: »

After playing around with the Dragonknight (both PVE and PVP), I really like what has happened to the class. It feels good overall and the changes are interesting.

One thing I do find a little unfortunate, though, is how the new breath ability mainly seems to encourage using the skill as a spammable, similar to how the Arcanist beam gets used. Considering the ideas that were presented for the Werewolf skills, where the focus was on increasing the utility of each skill, I think something like that approach could work well for the channeled breath ability too. It could help the skill fit into more builds instead of mostly being used in “breath spam” setups.

So here’s just a small suggestion:

Suggestion:
When Engulfing Dragonfire ends, it places a short DoT on the target for 1 second. The duration increases for each damage tick of Engulfing Dragonfire. The DoT is removed if the skill is activated again.

My quick rationale:
This would incentivize players to bring the skill in more bar setups, including more traditional whip or lash setups. You could still use it for its channeled effect in certain encounters, but it would also function as a DoT in boss-fight setups, giving it more flexibility and utility.

The point was to give DK an alternative to whip, since pretty much the only spammable DK had was whip for years. So they added the synergy with Take Flight to give DK's more build options instead of solely revolving around whip. They said they felt that it was comparable to Fatecarver.

ZhuJiuyin · March 16

Engulfing Dragonfire's design concept is excellent. Compared to Fatecarver, its advantage is that it doesn't require consuming 2-3 GCD skills to maximize damage, while Fatecarver requires accumulating Crux to achieve maximum damage. This allows for quick attacks after the player is rolled or blocked, without wasting GCDs.

Of course, Engulfing Dragonfire's disadvantage is its shorter range, but this is somewhat compensated for by its wider horizontal range compared to Fatecarver.

Callosum · March 16

I totally agree that Engulfing Dragonfire is well designed. I’m also not suggesting that it should be changed or that its current use needs to be adjusted. My point is simply that it would be nice if it also had a place in standard whip setups. A class-defining skill like this should, in my opinion, have value outside of a very specific breath-spam build.

What I’m proposing is a small addition at the end of the skill such as a DoT component. In PVE content you could still channel it for trash packs or just simple gameplay, but the added DoT would also let it fit naturally into a normal rotation, giving the skill broader relevance without affecting its current role.

Avran_Sylt · March 16

Dunno if it's "optimized", but I'm running molten whip that outside of applying DoTs goes (Max Stack) Molten Whip -> Engulfing -> Magma Fist -> Magma Fist -> (Max Stack) Molten -> ...

While I don't have Take Flight up.

A DoT component would add more DPS when re-applying buffs/using Molten Whip/Fist in this rotation.

ZhuJiuyin · March 17

Callosum wrote: »

I totally agree that Engulfing Dragonfire is well designed. I’m also not suggesting that it should be changed or that its current use needs to be adjusted. My point is simply that it would be nice if it also had a place in standard whip setups. A class-defining skill like this should, in my opinion, have value outside of a very specific breath-spam build.

What I’m proposing is a small addition at the end of the skill such as a DoT component. In PVE content you could still channel it for trash packs or just simple gameplay, but the added DoT would also let it fit naturally into a normal rotation, giving the skill broader relevance without affecting its current role.

I think Engulfing Dragonfire is already strong enough; adding more dot would make it too powerful. Furthermore, Engulfing Dragonfire is essentially another spam for the DK, like Arc's Runeblades and Cephaliarch's Flail.
And adding DoT would inevitably reduce some initial burst damage to balance the game. I believe this would actually be detrimental to Engulfing Dragonfire.