WARNING - This thread isn’t made for new players or those that seek guidance on how to use said class, please look for proper threads regarding it such as class overviews and build guides. Design Breakdown is a design discussion thread only and has no purpose to help players on practical aspects of the game.
Starting another Design Breakdown this time not with one nor two, but three classes to cover - Pyromancer, Cryomancer and Psychokino. At first this was supposed to be a duo breakdown but it felt like Pyromancer has some points to discuss regarding Psychokino and it would miss the chance, as it is too much information to be covered (and read) there’ll be a day difference from each release and then the clash will be added later. In case this is your first time on a Design Breakdown topic go to this link for some basic information.
Cryomancer - RANK 2 - ATTACK (?)
As if the ice theme wasn’t enough to hint out the whole identity of Cryomancer is to keep enemies in place, not only that but the class also does it with freeze debuff and deals only ice damage. For this ice wizard the theme is all about the element and few is seen out of it. The costume is based on inuit garment, as they live in the arctic their clothes are fully made of local animals adapted to the environment.
Before going into the skills it’s interesting to take a look at two debuffs, freeze and frostbite (Frost Lord card). Freeze is a debuff that locks all enemy movement for a short to mid duration and, upon the latest change to the class freeze received, increases lightning damage received by 50%, frostbite does the same but slows enemies instead of stunning them. As this single aspect is what makes them different it could be possible to make frostbite an intermediate stage of freeze, a debuff that will guarantee the next freezing skill or effect to apply the debuff regardless of the base chance. I’m not sure if those two debuffs stack and that would be the only loss on tying them and honestly it is a fair change.
Ice Bolt (A) - Counter Lead
Just some straightforward ice magic, it’s simple and has a pretty ice shard on its animation to deliver the blow. The small area effect is great for a direct target skill and works well to freeze a couple of enemies near the main target, even tho there’s no mention on it nor how many enemies can be affected by this. It would be nice to know the value of freezing chance as it is an interesting element of the skill.
Ice Pike (E) - Lead
Taking the original execution of Ice Pike is unlikely for it to have any particular influence outside fantasy on modern media, it’s a simple take on how to direct ice through ground and the visuals sell it well. Unfortunately that was lost with the class rework and now its only at the enemies.
It’s amazing that the current version of Ice Pike was approved to be shipped as it’s too powerful for a basic low rank skill, the old one was buggy but it did respected its placement with its short range and small hitbox. A mere c1 skill can freeze all enemies on screen without even bothering to aim properly, the chance to apply it is 100% (not informed) and the only thing that prevents it to land is the basic resist along with preventive buffs. Adding the 3 overheats the skill has it is possible to freeze all enemies in sight for over 12 to 15s at level 1, meanwhile higher rank skills can’t reach this same power level even with levels invested. Ice Pike does it with sole overheat, has more range, deals damage, amplifies lightning damage as well, all that with not real commitment. This is easily one of, if not the most, powerful and reliable control skills in the game and it comes with no cost at all, it became an easy safety skill that requires no thought to be used.
The whole idea of having it as a guaranteed freeze falls flat when it can’t be missed and by having a huge area it, this direction itself isn’t bad but has to be employed properly. One way to realign it is to convert it back to a short length line or cone hitbox and have it to grow wider with level, it can even grow up to a circle (or half) when maxed, and this gets it back to use at close distance which is fair for the 100% freeze chance.
Ice Blast (C) - Relief/Chain
There’s a slight chance that the finger snap was based on a famous anime as Ice Blast has a Pyromancer counterpart, yet even without that it’s an interesting choice as it communicates a directed skill with screen range perfectly.
Ice Blast is the definition of a Relief skill, it uses the established identity and theme to build an interesting skill that goes against them, as the only way to use it is to deal damage. The only issue with it is how it’s troublesome to use without Frost Tree, having it to remove freeze and be able to be resisted (which i believe it was fixed by this time) also makes it harder to be that effective. As this skill is conditional it can be understood as it damages all enemies on screen as long as they’re frozen, that’s something that could be clarified on tooltip.
Something that can be done here is to expand the skill to use frostbite as well, if the debuff is taken as part of freeze it can even be applied after Ice Blast is used on a frozen enemy, and remove it as the usual interaction. Taking into the skill allows it to be used twice in a row and it can be make it more friendly to use. Lastly if frostbite were applicable to bosses it can finally allow Ice Blast to be used on them by itself as at the current state it relies on Ice Wall.
Ice Wall (C) - Gimmick
It doesn’t seem like this skill draws any reference not even from standard media, there’s a slight chance that the inspiration for it lies on using ice to build iglus but that may be more of a stretch.
This is the kind of gimmick that is perfect for the class, it can be used to lock down enemies when positioned properly and also has a nice treat for melee attacks as it shots ice pellets upon hit. Unfortunately there’s no information about the damage of pellets nor how many hits a wall segment can take before it breaks, it also isn’t consistent as which wizard tree skills can trigger the effect. For new players it can be fairly confusing to see those uninformed pellets to be there at all and when triggered they fly facing the caster direction instead of following the hit flow, it’s known as the skill was tested by many yet it isn’t intuitive. As for the direct freeze and damage, uninformed and dealt on contact, the skill is impractical to use but that is addressed with Ice Blast combo applying it in explosion. Even with all those critics Ice Wall can be taken in a broad range of levels without getting players down and rewards creativity, not to mention it’s a fun skill to use.
Ice Wall weakness is how it has few cells at early levels starting with only 2 at level one, it is better than having no floor but it’s also too little to be effective. A way to address it is by having segment count fixed, with attributes to expand at higher circles, and work with duration or hit count for the leveling aspect. It may be interesting for Ice Wall to have small a frostbite aura as well. It’s also interesting for the skill to have a two stage use as done with Capture, when using the skill again it will deactivate Ice Wall completely as misusing it can be really annoying and dangerous to other players.
Most of this circle is well put out, three skills follow the class identity in distinct ways and the relief skill makes use of this same trio, however as both Ice Bolt and Ice Pike improvements are damage they are forced to compete for skill points. Ice Pike is way out of balance it can overshadow Ice Bolt completely on every single aspect, as the supportive identity of Cryomancer that is at full power at level 1 it is just a matter of numbers and the one with the best values will always be the winner.
The current state of the circle allows it to be a perfect filler with a ‘save me’ button at no real cost and even comes with a fair share of good skills, the only thing preventing it to be a thing is how diverse and useful the wizard tree classes are and some invisible requirements that certain classes have.
Subzero Shield (C) - High Lead
For that works as a counter it’s great to have a visual indicator for both user and aggressors, the choice is a simple shield like shape and makes it easy to understand that is a defensive effect to watch out for.
Subzero Shield works with layers, for it to be effective it needs the user to wear a shield or have a buff that enables block without it, then it requires the stat itself or CON enough to be able to block, lastly it relies on the freezing chance from the skill level itself to have the effect delivered. By having a scale of duration and chance it only gets worse to be applied, having only 15% chance to apply on a successful block for 18s isn’t enough to be useful at all, when maxed those values rise to 60% and 45s which is a huge difference. It’s understandable that due the skill nature it can’t have it to be active all time nor have a high chance of freezing but at least one of those factors should be fixed as the skill itself has requirements to be used. In the future Subzero Shield will have a hit count to expire and won’t deal damage to the aggressor, that isn’t mentioned at all, and as much as it helps the skill to be balanced it won’t make a difference if those two elements stay as they are.
Another option to get this skill on the rails is to have both elements fixed, but instead of freeze it can apply frostbite, and have an additional block rate, be that +% or extra block, that increases with level. This change, if under freeze-frostbite expansion, changes the freezing part into an active effect and also allows it to have a freeze attribute for c3 that is triggered if the aggressor is under frostbite.
Snow Rolling (C) - Midground
Having it to be a ball of snow that collects everything in the way is one of the most creative ways to mimic the power of an avalanche, the best part is that by taking such execution it makes the best use of the game aesthetics as a goofy and fun skill.
Snow Rolling has four leveling factors making it one of the most overscaling skills in the game, as much the target component doesn’t matter much for it and the uninformed size increase is mostly for convenience, which attack ratio and duration increasing with level is dangerous combination for a damage over time skill. It’s funny to see that this skill scales as a snowball as each single point invested increases its power exponentially, however this kind of design makes it almost impossible to not to be maxed. The other element that doesn’t work as well is how it scatter enemies at the end, it isn’t necessarily a bad trait but it also break the flow when using with other Cryomancer skills.
Going straight to the point, it’s possible tie change the size and enemy count to cast time (which already happens) and remove this aspect from the level itself, then duration and/or damage can be the defining factor on leveling it. A skill as fun and useful as Snow Rolling doesn’t need that many elements to promote itself.
Here is where the class starts to get clumsy, this circle isn’t that impressive as both new skills need a fair share of points to be useful and on one side Snow Rolling is too good to not be maxed while Subzero Shield entry and scales makes it barely useful. It’s also where Ice Pike starts to dethrone Ice Bolt as a more effective overall and has better synergy with Ice Blast as it can make use of the massive area coverage.
Frost Pillar (D) - Grand Lead
Some species of trees will lose leaves on winter to save resources and energy, it also connects with the contact freeze that can happen when water touches ice and, if cold enough, will be bound to it. It’s nice to see this represented on Frost Pillar as the peak of the class but unfortunately this is where the praises ends.
Back in the glory days of Cryomancer this skill had no damage component and would vacuum enemies to the center as a permanent freeze with no escape, that was wrong in many levels and that became an ice damage amplifier, that isn’t mentioned, with a damage over time component. Those changes were a mere compensation and shifted into an offensive skill with some utility, the freeze effect is applied continuously but will be removed once the skill is over and on that matter Ice Pike does a better job, yet it fails as the damage is laughable for the circle, it just feels wrong.
It’s possible to make this skill shine again with some new mechanics, as ice can group things into blocks it would feel natural for Frost Pillar to do the same. Whenever enemies are frozen in touch they can be counted as a single unit that sums their ADR, this means each group count as a giant monster and have debuffs and damage shared within the group. For target oriented skills it can expand the enemies hit by a little and for AoE attacks can take lesser AAR to hit all them, it’s even possible to have an interaction with other ADR reduction skills and allow it to hit all enemies for a brief time, and it’s possible it can turn out as an issue if not adjusted properly. Having Frost Pillar to apply frostbite, if under freeze-frostbite expansion, can also allow it to be more controllable when grouping enemies.
At this point Frost Tree seems like an obligation to be taken for commiting to the end of Cryomancer and also as it is free damage, it’s interesting that Ice Pike does a better job than it on the first level with the only disadvantage as it can be resisted and has to be reused to freeze again, and the additional ice damage provided can be handy. As c2 get full potential it is hard for the basic skills to stand out, that would be an issue if Subzero Shield were friendlier on execution but as it retains conditions to work it gives a room for a c1 skill to be picked instead.
Conclusion
The old Cryomancer was the class which the analysis model was extracted from, it had all the elements in position going for the identity and as such it would interest players on each circle as they dwell deeper into it. Back then the class wasn’t performed at its best and the latest changes didn’t fixed the individual skill issues, in fact it made Ice Pike go out of control completely as a supreme freezing skill that can’t be contested. Part of the issue with Frost Tree is as it can’t even outperform a basic skill as is a ranged area skill along with the Cryorite requirement, that is more suitable for Subzero Shield. Some improvements are required at c2 as the skills need more levels to scale, Snow Rolling did improved it significantly but it wasn’t enough to get it on the spot.
It’s possible to get it to restore its glory once again by adjusting skill power which isn’t as bad as, in fact the even with it thrown at the ground it still survived due its solid identity. Having ice to fit this control identity works perfectly even as the design process were likely to operate the other way around, it does capture the nature of ice as this stalling element that drains action of all things.
| C 1 | C 2 | C 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identity | A | B | A |
| Theme | A | A | A |
| Gameplay | B | B | B |
| Cohesion | E | D | D |
| Point Distribution | B | C | D |
| Dropout | A | C | A |
The discussion doesn’t end up here. If you haven’t read Pyromancer’s and Psychokino’s go take a look at the overall points at least as those are shorter to read and going deep on skills isn’t that necessary, it’s too much to ask to read all them so if you’re already aware of the classes just skip to the end.
