[Joseph Jostar]

With the new update, I feel that 'Explosion' has become a bit over-tuned for a base class mage skill. The raw scaling exceeds that of its evoker counterpart, Sear, before applying Charge Mind and an utterly MASSIVE effective range given the size of the circle and how many tiles away you can place its center. It can become a bit pricey to cast when silenced, given the increase relative to circle size, but generally remains MORE than worth it. This is further compounded by its ignoring evasion.

The biggest issue, in my opinion at least, is its mechanic of detonating on round end. This counter-intuitively grants a HUGE boon to mages for being slower than their opponents (neglecting one of their class stats) and tends to punish the opponent for building celerity for dodge (which this spell conveniently ignores). This results in being able to bypass the spell's delay mechanic and effectively make it impossible to avoid if you are engaging with the opponent in any way.

I'm not sure if the raw stats need much tweaking, given its brief cooldown, but if nothing else it'd be nice to see the delay adjusted in some way. The first thing that comes to mind is moving the detonation to the start of the caster's next turn, or making the spell function in a similar way to Setting Sun where after a one-round cooldown the spell must be cast again to initiate the explosion. This would not only bring the spell's balance in line, but give the spell a more interesting role of creating a 'danger zone' you must either escape from or be prepared to eat the damage of rather than just a raw blast of damage that can't be avoided or countered.

I'd like to hear everyone else's opinions on this as well, of course, or suggestions on how to make this a little tamer. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

[Poruku]

As someone who uses explosion as a big part of my character, yes.

It's a spell that has it all: range, aoe, high damage, burn, evasion ignoring. However, keep in mind it's on a 2-round cooldown as a drawback.

I think that fire mages as a whole are fine, explosion is part of their overall kit and identity as a power tool and cements them as the "big aoe" boys

I think the part about explosion that basically asks you to go last in turn order is kind of an interesting part of the spell, honestly.

That being said, explosion could use some nerf. Personally I'd just say to either remove the evasion ignoring or reduce the max aoe a bit. I think making it like setting sun would really kill the spell. After all, setting sun is really bad. But of course, I'm pretty biased as explosion is a spell I like and I have multiple fire mages

[InsainArcaneBirdbrain]

As someone who uses explosion as a big part of my character, yes.

It's a spell that has it all: range, aoe, high damage, burn, evasion ignoring. However, keep in mind it's on a 2-round cooldown as a drawback.

I think that fire mages as a whole are fine, explosion is part of their overall kit and identity as a power tool and cements them as the "big aoe" boys

I think the part about explosion that basically asks you to go last in turn order is kind of an interesting part of the spell, honestly.

That being said, explosion could use some nerf. Personally I'd just say to either remove the evasion ignoring or reduce the max aoe a bit. I think making it like setting sun would really kill the spell. After all, setting sun is really bad. But of course, I'm pretty biased as explosion is a spell I like and I have multiple fire mages

Making explosion evasion ignoring no matter how much sense it makes in a realistic sense was a huge balancing mistake in my eyes. Considering that it achieves even higher damage than another really notable evasion ignoring attack falcon strike, and has burn, kb, and ridiculous aoe on top while having the same cd as the aforementioned skill on a base class is quite honestly baffling. If evasion ignoring is staying, it needs a longer cd, less range, or less scaling, or some combination of that.

[Autumn]

Evasion ignoring skills in general are realllllly strong right now, even excel crash has become overly strong, I would start introducing harsher conditions similarly to Kensei's combo effects.

Excel Crash's evasion ignoring portion needs to be swapped with lvl 3 for example, and explosion should only be evasion ignoring in a short radius of the explosion itself.

[Snake]

Make Explosion only go off at the start of the caster's following turn. That's all it needs, really.

I suggested this become evade-ignoring, and it should be, for being a telegraphed attack. But the way it goes out without giving a chance for someone with higher CEL than you to react?

That makes the point of 'telegraphy' and 'zoning' quite moot.

[WaifuApple]

Would suggesting swapping Explosion and Sear around in the classes do anything at all, it was a random one off thought as I felt explosion just feels like it fits more in line with Evoker than Sear does, anyway.

Wouldn't really fix the issue I guess but idk, I feel like it just makes sense to me, alongside making the zoning of it actually zoning by having it go off on your next turn rather than end of that turn.

[Snake]

Now that's one idea I'd be behind, Appo. I hope it's considered at least for testing.

[Lonestar]

Swapping Sear and Explosion around would mean Explosion would be affected by Charge Mind, which... I don't think I want to imagine how busted that would be.

[Kazzy]

Honestly? It's not. People are going 900% in on evasion twink builds atm and there needs to exist counterbalances to that. Evasion ignoring skills, and easily acquirable ones at that, are a necessary part of a triangle balance system. Explosion is strong because most people currently building Evasion are ONLY building evasion. Any form of elemental resistance and not trying to play rocket tag would cushion the blow enough.


So I suppose the long and short of it is 'Don't okay rocket tag with the most easily resisted element while having no resistance to that element'. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes etc etc.

[Snake]

Assuming its scaling will be either reduced, or the cooldown will fire up to 5 rounds if it stays strong, again, I think it's worth at least putting this as an experimental change. Evoker does lack a non-intensive evade-ignoring skill.

Plus, this is also assuming Explosion will only go off on the next round of the caster, rather than general round start.