| RPG Tinkerer
Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 5,043
| Daily 1 Powers:
Quick note on damage - I'm assuming a baseline of 3W (or 3d8 - 3d10) damage for powers as I go through them, and I'm assuming some little bit added onto that 3 dice.
*CLERIC*
B- / Avenging Flame
A / Beacon of Hope
C+ / Cascade of Light
A- / Guardian of Faith Cascade of Light is short range and under most circumstances I don't expect that vulnerability to add up to that much extra before it's saved against. If it's trivial to 'game' the vulnerability for a ton of damage with conjurations, zones, and ongoing damage, let me know. Avenging Flame's ongoing damage can really rack up or force a creature to take no action for a round or two, which is quite nice. Unfortunately it gets no ongoing damage on a miss. Beacon of Hope hits a nice large area and can add a metric ton of healing over the course of an encounter, and even potentially does a healthy amount up front. The weaken can hit several enemies which is also a solid kicker. Guardian of Faith is particularly good against undead. Its abilities as a blocker were updated away, but not requiring a sustain action and especially when working with a fighter or some other penalty or difficulty moving (Pin the Foe, what have you) it can really do very good damage over the course of an encounter.
*FIGHTER*
C+ / Brute Strike
B- / Comeback Strike
B+ / Villain's Menace
I may be slightly overvaluing Reliable, but it has a certain amount of 'Feel good' points I'll admit. I have a difficult time rating any of the fighter powers over each other, which I find interesting and cool. Brute Strike is very solid damage that you know will eventually connect. Comeback Strike is a healing surge you can count on with decent damage. Compares well to Paladin's Judgement. Villain's Menace is the best 'meta' power of the bunch and would almost assuredly rise higher in ranking if it wasn't pretty lackluster on a Miss and I didn't expect its relatively minor bonus to attack to sometimes not come up due to stacking.
*PALADIN*
C+ / On Pain of Death
B- / Paladin's Judgement
A- / Radiant Delirium On Pain of Death is very short range and likely saved against fairly quickly. The main advantage it has over, say, Avenging Flame is that it's a damage roll for the ongoing damage which means you can add on your enhancement bonus or potentially other things like feat and power bonuses, but I ultimately find it disappointing and would rather mark it lower. Unlike Avenging Flame you can also guarantee you won't take damage by not attacking (which is still a solid benefit if it prevents attacks for a round). Paladin's Judgement is a guaranteed healing surge which is quite useful. No damage on a miss is disappointing however. Radiant Delirium is a guaranteed daze (potent) and deals radiant damage. It has short range, but the AC penalty can be quite nice even if it only lasts a round or so.
*RANGER*
C+ / Hunter's Bear Trap
B+ / Jaws of the Wolf
B- / Split the Tree
C+ / Sudden Strike Hunter's Bear Trap is tolerable I guess. Okay damage, side effect (slow) not that great, and probably saved against quickly. It has its uses (quick strike on a melee foe far away) and you can get lucky with it on failed saves. Split the Tree is a neat resolution mechanic and all, but it's very possible to miss entirely with it and the requirement to have 2 enemies within 3 squares is a notable limitation. Sudden Strike is okay, but it does no damage on a Miss and the off-hand strike only does 1W which is a bit lackluster. Jaws of the Wolf is just damage, but its Miss damage is almost as much as most of the powers do on a hit, so it edges ahead on pure damage potential.
*ROGUE*
A- / Blinding Barrage
C / Easy Target
B- / Trick Strike Easy Target could be pretty decent, if the target fails a bunch of saves, but the kind of target that can take multiple rounds of damage to make this Daily worthwhile is not the kind of target that fails saves that often, so I find it pretty disappointing. I do find it amusing that a Miss often results in a longer lasting Combat Advantage than a Hit. Trick Strike I really like. A slide every single time you hit can really let you do some fun (and even powerful) things, but it suffers from the lack of any damage on a Miss and is pretty much just a gimmick for solos and some elites. Blinding Barrage gets a little bit for doing solid damage assuming you're attacking at least two people and blind is a very powerful side effect, often crippling an enemy's turn in addition to setting up the bonuses to attack and sneak attack.
*WARLOCK*
A / Armor of Agathys
C / Curse of the Dark Dream
C / Dread Star
C / Flames of Phlegethos
I suspect I'll get some objections on the warlock powers from those who argue you can mostly avoid missing so I should rate the non-Armor ones better, but there you go. Armor of Agathys I rated highest because it's a ton of temp hp at the level you get (well more than a surge's worth) and the guaranteed (auto minion killing, even) damage for a brave warlock really adds up to a ton over the course of an entire encounter. Curse of the Dark Dream is a decent power with reasonable damage and a solid slide, but its sustain will be quickly saved against and it does so little on a Miss. Dread Star does low damage, but it's radiant so that helps slightly. A hit immobilizes for a turn, and I like the auto-penalty to Will defense even if the penalty is pretty small and quickly saved against... but again I'm finding it pretty disappointing on a Miss. Flames of Phlegethos does high damage on a Hit, negligible on a miss.
*WARLORD*
B+ / Bastion of Defense
A+ / Lead the Attack
B / Pin the Foe
C+ / White Raven Onslaught
I personally am a little iffy on the Warlord's powers so would particularly appreciate feedback on these. They're very party dependent - I do appreciate that they have a lingering cool effect for the entire rest of the battle. Bastion of Defense is definitely a bit disappointing on a Miss, but that's very respectable temp hp at low level and when it hits +1 to all defenses is always appreciated, and it's decent damage. Lead the Attack is a gigantic bonus to attack for an entire encounter. If you can setup a hit with someone else, this power potentially halves the duration of a Solo encounter. On top of pretty solid damage at that. Pin the Foe is neat. No damage on miss is disappointing, but being able to completely deny shifts for the duration of a battle can give you some great synergy with other powers (zones and conjurations) and make it much easier to flank, or give people free opportunity attacks, and all that without hitting. White Raven Onslaught is certainly a cool special effect, but I think it's a little too specialized, especially on a miss where you have to pick a single person to key off of. This is the kind of effect I like, so I'll admit I'm disappointed that I find the power's implementation a bit lackluster.
*WIZARD*
C / Acid Arrow
A / Flaming Sphere
B- / Freezing Cloud
A+ / Sleep (Disclaimer: Only for certain builds, particularly at Paragon+ Tier)
B+ / Phantom Chasm Acid Arrow can potentially do a fair amount of damage, but I think its damage is probably a little low and its 'area' less useful. Flaming Sphere can do a ton of automatic damage and is nice and maneuverable. Also good for a wizard down to at-wills for a damage boost. Freezing Cloud doesn't look like much, but it covers a reasonable area and anyone caught in the initial cloud is attacked twice with automatic Miss damage so it can be pretty respectable. Sleep is a power that will probably be accused of being both broken and useless, depending on who you ask. For orb wizards, there are many who claim they would not give it up until 29th, if ever. That said, I suspect some of its power is purely based on errata-to-be in the form of making some way for the creature to wake up other than making its save. For now, however, it is the most powerful control effect (unconsciousness) short of death and is a guaranteed slow on a decent-sized group of enemies. Phantom Chasm is a guaranteed immobilize to a small area, which is potentially very powerful. Knocking prone is nice, though enemies will likely just stand up while immobilized to no harm except for attacks made between the wizard's turn and theirs. Its damage is only okay.
Last edited by keterys; 10th July 2008 at 06:47 AM..
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