Post by JustVine on 2023-05-18 16:07:13
Stealing some of @SkylarckTheBotanist work to make my post easier to format. Thanks for such a great summary post by the way SkylarckWe have not received permission from Vaknar to share the quoted post.
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Abilities:
o Blink - Instantly teleport a set distance in the direction you are moving
Beginning - The fact that a purple sphere appears before you teleport is a great visual cue and I think you should keep it. It really helps telegraph the teleport. I think the purple is slightly too saturated feeling however.
End - I don't like the cloud effect at the end. It lingers on the screen way too long and the lack of cohesion on the shape makes it possible to confuse with other possible abilities and possibly obscure other more important action happening on a larger scale..
o Shell - Create a protective magical shell around yourself that absorbs a large amount of damage before breaking.
Beginning - I feel like the wideness of the stance required to cast this, compared to the casting time for the spell, makes it feel really clunky. It also makes transitions between neutral stance and the spell being cast far more noticeable despite the quick casting time. The shell itself is perfect as it is in my opinion although could probably stand to be slightly less opaque.
End - No change. Seems fine.
o Ball Lightning - Create a large ball of highly charged electricity that travels slowly forward dealing rapid periodic lightning damage to enemies it overlaps with and applying an Electrified stalk to targets with each hit.
Perfect no changes needed. Shout outs to the glowing on the hands and the swaying motion of the body for the start up animation. Great visual ques.
o Blizzard - Channel a massive blizzard around you, raining a barrage of hail shards upon your enemies while channeling. Each shard impact deals ice damage in a small area around it. All enemies in the blizzard also accumulate a stalk of Chilled periodically. Activate the ability again to end the channel early.
Beginning - My only note about the start up is that the fact that the player is hovering in the air makes me feel like it should be able to avoid 'low'/'very ground based' attacks. If you do not intend this, you should maybe make the floating feel more like 'slowly skating' on the ice created.
End - Like every ice spell, I'm going to say the same thing. The ice is too saturated and blue compared to the over all visual style of the world. I would also like the snowflake decals to match the general hit box of each hail shard rather than having a size inconsistent with that to help give players more visual feedback for calibrating their spacing.
o Frost bolt - Launch a bolt of frost towards your target. Dealing Ice damage and applying 2 Chilled Stacks to the target on impact.
Beginning - The kamehameha like stance isn't my first choice for this type of attack, but it's animation isn't terrible. The charge up time compared to the visual growth of the projectile feels extremely exaggerated and slow.
End - The projectile itself looks fine but the snow trail behind it looks too wide. If the hitbox of the attack is that wide, the projectile should be thicker. The projectile's flight self itself feels weirdly too straight and centered compared to the physical motion used to form it in the first place.
Additionally the impact with the enemy feels weirdly kinetic rather than magical. I'm not against the 'shockwave ripple', but I'd like to see it feel a bit more related to ice somehow.
o Cone of Cold - Blasts a cone of cold in front of the caster, dealing ice damage and applying a stack of Chilled to each enemy hit. The blast also leaves behind a field of ice mines that explode on proximity contact, causing additional ice damage and Chilled stacks to nearby enemies.
Other than the saturation of the ice, no changes.
o Lightning Strike - Call down a bolt of lightning upon your target, dealing lightning damage and applying two stalks of Electrified to the target.
Beginning - I like that the hand raise has some clear vfx indicator that an attack is about to happen. The pose feels natural. The lightning also feels natural.
End - It feels like it's a bit too long. It's also not visually clear where the lightning comes from because it's disjointed. I also think the transition between the casting start and end is a bit clunky and feels pretty choppy. I think this is partially because the animation for the body ends before the lightning finishes.
This might be intended, and if so ignore this next suggestion, but I think if the lightning 'leaped' from in the casters hands onto the target somehow, it'd make tracking who it belongs to easier while still feeling natural.
o Arcane Volley (40 m Range) - Fires a volley of arcane missiles at your target, dealing arcane damage with each hit.
o Elemental Empowerment - Whenever you cast an elemental spell, your weapon attacks deal additional damage of that spell’s element and apply a stack of corresponding element status effect to targets hit. Casting a spell of a different element switches this effect to the new element.
None, perfect. Possibly my favorite ability so far. Will love to see the other elements.
o Chain Lightning - Release a powerful streak of lightning that hits your primary target and then chains outward to all nearby enemies from that target, dealing lightning damage and applying 3 stalks of Electrified to each target hit.
Beginning - The main issue I have with this attack is similar to the start up with Blizzard. The hovering off the ground makes me feel like it should be able to avoid certain types of low/ground based attacks.
End - The rest of the animation feels very smooth and understandable. I really like this effect even if it feels a bit slow.
o Slumber - Applies the sleeping condition to targets affected within a small area around the primary target, rending them unable to move or take any action., Any damage dealt to a sleeping target will break the effect.
This is fine. Purple cloud is very understandable and clear. Just make sure it's distinct and not confuse-able with other abilities (like blink.) It should be very clear who caused cc, what type it is, and what ability was used.
Summary: Over all I think the VFX's look pretty smooth. However, I have some issues with the general fluidity and connectivity of the spells initial formation, body motion, and impact. This can be smoothed out fairly easily in my opinion as you have a large amount of time in the animations to create smoother motions and effect work.