Rune Name - Barbarian Windstrider Faction: Ironfist Stronghold Race: Human/Barbarian, Class: Shaman, Size: Small, Rarity: Exotic Artwork: A barbarian with glowing eyes surrounded by electricity, appearing as though he/she had just landed from a great height, with cracks running along the ground. Flavor-Text: Baptized in the very clouds themselves, Windstriders are the voice of the brewing storm. Nora Cost: 95 Champion Stats DAM: 11, SPD: 6, RNG: 3-5, DEF: 1, HP: 42 Champion Abilities Attack : Electricity Jolt 1 Escalation Savage: Storm Clan Thunderous Descent (When this unit loses flying for the first time each turn, all units within 2 spaces take 8 electrical damage and become Jolted 2.) Cloudsong (When this unit makes a successful basic attack, it gains flying. At the start of each of its turns, if this unit did not attack during its previous turn, it loses flying and 5 HP. If this unit has flying, it has MAX RNG + 1.) Upgrade Abilities Stat Bonus: Health 2 Amplify Electricity Jolt 3 Stat Bonus: Speed 1 My thoughts and reasoning for this champion is the lack of anything really "stormy" about the barbarian storm clan. The closest it comes is the Barbarian Bolt, whose moveset seems focused around electrical damage in the same fashion that UD and ST battlegroups might focus around fire or frost damage respectively. Despite that, there isn't very much electrical damage to be found in IS's champion pool. The only champions that I know of with electrical basic attacks are Northern Cross Priestess, Emerald Wing, Barbarian Bolt, and Barbarian Shaman (while everyone and their mother in UD and ST has a fire or frost attack). The only ones of those mentioned that have a legitimate ranged attack is the wing and the priestess, and they have nothing to do with the barbarians or their storm clan. This champion is intended to give a strong ranged champion to a storm-themed battlegroup. It's based partly off of the Nefari Fireslinger, a scaling, high-cost ranged unit capable of dishing out serious damage if it isn't squished quickly. Cloudsong and Thunderous Descent are intended to synergize with Barbarian Bolt's Wind Aura, allowing you to deal damage during the positioning of your champions. Cloudsong also has an Impatience-esque effect to dissuade sticking the Windstrider out of harm's way until it gets big. It's a barbarian, so it fits for it to be aggressive. What do you guys think? Is the nora cost too high? Is it too strong/too weak? EDIT: I've realized that this comes off as ignorant towards the existence of Elite Skirmisher, a rune that I quite like. However, the champion feels pretty out of place in an electricity/storm-themed BG, which this champion aims to address.
i really like it but yh i think u should lower the cost to 83. i would change stat bonus health to electricity aura 3, lightning storm or lightning blast too but it is a very good rune! I would use it in my barbarians!
First of all, I want to say that I liked the flavor text. I'm not usually impressed by the flavor texts of Rune Ideas, but this one I like. Now on to the actual champion. I think the basic idea is cool. A Storm Barbarian that actually moves and is active like Lightning should be, not just do some electric damage. I also like how you gave it Escalation, but made it want to attack (or find some way to compensate the drawbacks of not attacking). I have a certain dislike for champions that can get stronger by easily avoiding combat. However, while the basic idea is cool, I think I see many problems with the execution of it. At a first glance its cost seems too high. Not only that, but it has 42 health with 1 def and no abilities that improve survivability. It has an incorporated Wind Aura gimmick that needs a lot of aditional support to do anything notable, but even then it isn't spectacular, especially with its high cost and the fact that it is a 6 speed ranged unit that needs to get close for Thunderous Descent to count. I noted that you built this under the current, "old system", even though a revamp will soon be upon us. I hope you will not mind if my suggestions are moreso aimed at making a champion under the post-revamp system (which implies I won't be adding Savage: Storm Clan and I will be trying my darndest to keep the abilities as clear and as few as possible). What you would want ideally is a champion that can by itself be awesome while giving the feel of crashing down and shocking everyone, and at the same time synergize nicely with other Barbarians/electric units. But its major power shouldn't be so very focused on its interaction with a few specific other champions, especially not at that cost. How about this for a basic concept? Make it a champion with a 2 stage cycle: first off it starts as a ranged electric unit that "attempts to gain height and accumulate static electricity/electricity from clouds"; stage 2 is where it is required to descend and get into melee range or close to melee with a damaging ability similar to Pounce but electrical. The initial idea is almost unchanged, except the second part, corresponding to Thunderous Descent, allows it to relocate as well, not just do damage; the first stage (the "charging") would be a bit more gradual, with Wind Aura being able to trigger it early. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So a first attempt from me would look kind of like this: DAM: 11, SPD: 6, RNG: 3-5, DEF: 1, HP: 45 Attack : Electricity Cloudsong (frankly, I'd rename this to something more descriptive, like Cloud/Storm Charge): When this champion damages another champion with an attack, it gains one of the following, in order: +1 MAX RNG; Flying (and Mobility perhaps); Electric Aura(2). Thunderous Descent: When this unit loses Flying for the first time each turn all units within 2 spaces take 80% of its damage as electrical damage. If this Champion has Flying, it gains Leap(2). If Leap is used, it loses Flying. ------------ Upgrade Paths: Upgrade Set 1: Stat Bonus +2 dmg; Opportunistic; Running Start; Upgrade Set 2: Paralytic Feedback; Dodge(2/3); Reflexes(3); -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's a bit rough and the wording of Thunderous Descent especially bugs me because it is kind of unlike the typical Poxnora wording. I attempted to keep it clean and simple while offering a few slightly different ways to play it depending on the upgrades. I hope that my intentions with the champion are clear and that it respects the wishes behind the OP's idea. Note that while building this I did not realize the Leap could be used to get away, I only kept in mind the agressive aspect of it. That being said, I think it can be kept like this and be fine. I initially went for Leap(3) too, but Running Start is very cool imo, but it seemed a bit ridiculous with Leap(3). Stats, cost and actual damage done by the abilities and Electric Aura can of course be adjusted. EDIT: Another one of my intentions was to allow it to benefit from fitting into various unit groups. For example, the change of Thunderous Descent from 8 fixed damage to 80% is meant to allow the player to focus his efforts on increasing its damage before "crashing down". They might instead prefer to dedicate effort to making Thunderous Descent trigger at will with Wind Aura, or use abilities like Grant: Flight to make the ability useable earlier than normal. Or perhaps they'll want to give it more AP or increase survivability. Just hopefully not all at once. I have considered multiple ways to do this, including Charges, Mutation-like abilities and something like Thunderous Descent starting on cooldown and reducing the cooldown when it attacked. Also, my phrasing of Cloudsong is inspired by Ferren Focus and in its current version all buffs are intended to be permanent and to be added only once, with the exception of Flying which would be lost and regained faster after completing the first buff cycle because the other buffs have already been applied (similar to the way Ferren Focus works). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Indeed, the OP didn't take into account the changes brought by the revamp, but that is no reason why we can't give the champion a look, especially since the core of it is not bound by the current Savage racial.
Thanks a ton for the input. I've only looked at a couple of the revamp things, so while I'm optimistic about the changes they will bring, I'd be lying if I said I understood them, so I just made this using my current understanding of the game. Until now, I was unaware about the upcoming changes to Savage, so thanks for alerting me. I like your version a lot better, but I feel there should be a further incentive for the Windstrider to get into the thick of things and strike down rather than sit back and attack from afar, and a clear way for it to upscale its damage on its own, like a Fury or Thirst For Battle unit can. How about this? Thunderous Descent: When this unit loses Flying for the first time each turn all units within 2 spaces take 80% of its damage as electrical damage. If this Champion has Flying, it gains Leap(2). If Leap is used, it loses Flying. This champion gains 1 DMG for each opposing champion damaged in this way. This makes it akin to the gimmick of putting a damage aura on a unit with Fury, allowing you to squeeze out extra damage from a cluster of enemies. As it would involve putting a ranged champion in melee range, there would be a certain risk involved.
Should just steal a page from the Northern Cross Fanatic. Thunderous decent should function like a Glorious Leap style ability in that you can proc it when you want too directly while playing on the wind/air vibe more then the electricity vibe. As a concept it would be cool to have it function as a knock back rune with multiple ways to control the movement of both enemy and ally champions. It could function much in the same was as the old Savage shieldman use to with its shove ( no longer an ability) or the windfury in that it can push both allied and enemy champions around the board. Something like: " Thunderous Decent: This champion is relocated with in 4 spaces. Opposing champions with in 2 spaces of the target space are knockbacked 2 spaces and are Distracted for 2 turns. This abilities CD is reduced by 1 every time it is successfully attacked." THen add something alone the lines of the old Shove like: " Wind Tunnel: All adjacent champions are knock backed 3 spaces." Now the unit can descend to break up positions and enable its range attacks/do some minor CC or it can shove champions around including allies to increase threat range. Just so you know, its kinda a hated mechanic to put melee capabilities on range champions, even things like auras.
