Mearls on Controller design and At-Will balance

[Rechan]

In the General forum, when discussing the potency of the Invoker's At-Wills, Mearls stopped by and made this interesting comment:

When comparing at-wills for controllers, the wizard has some issues. His at-wills focus more on damage than control. The consensus is that controllers need a little more, well, control in their at-wills than we've handed out so far.

Vanguard's lightning is what I'd see as a baseline controller at-will, with scorching burst slightly *below* baseline. That little extra bit on vanguard's lightning is precisely the kind of thing that makes controllers go - they limit/mess up the enemy's plans.

Now, this may seem pretty annoying - WotC released stuff that was too weak! However, I think it's actually a strength of the meta systems of 4e. We've never before had the ability to so clearly compare classes/roles and, when necessary, make adjustments. It's a lot easier to listen to feedback, gather hard data, and make comparisons between powers when we have a unified power scale.

The interesting thing is that this issue really only rests in the at-wills. Encounter and daily powers are fine for the wizard.

The controller role is perhaps the one that took the longest to really develop. There's a reason why there's only one in the PH. For a long while, the role was defined by its ability to attack multiple foes. That definition never sat well, since it clearly steps on other roles and archetypes. We'd never want to prevent rangers from firing multiple arrows, or a fighter from striking everyone adjacent to him.

Over time, the controller definition morphed into the opposite of the leader. If the leader sets up his allies and encourages teamwork, the controller screws up his enemies and hinders their ability to work together. The area damage aspect of the controller does play into that (it makes bunching up a bad idea) but in practice controllers need a little more to embrace their role.

It's a subtle point, and in the grand scheme of things I don't think a PH 1 wizard is crippled compared to the PH 2 classes, but it is a sign of the subtle adjustments we're likely to make to the game going forward.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

I thought this offered a lot of insights. Now, the key point is, how should the wizard at-wills be "powered up?" For Scorching Burst, I could see something like a lingering effect. So the wizard casts SB, rolling Int vs Ref as normal. However, until the beginning/end of the wizard's next turn, the SBs area is filled with little flame bursts and the like. If a creature tries to move to a new square, maybe the wizard makes another Int vs Ref attack, doing Int of half Int mod damage on a hit? For Magic Missile, maybe the creature hit takes a -1 to its next attack roll, until the end/beginning of the wizard's next turn? Anyway, I think it would be interesting to hear some ways to beef up the wizard at-wills.

EDIT - I just realized that my "fixes" for SB make it about as good or better than Cloud of Daggers! But I think the basic effort at trying to think up "rider effects" is still a worthwhile one.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Hopefully that will see, if not errata (I don't want my lovely shiny books with writing in them) then much better at wills in Arcane Power that any Wiz can swap out for....as soon as they get the book IMC.

 

[Tony Vargas]

You could just up Scorching Burst to a d8.

 

[chronoplasm]

Hopefully this insight makes it easier for them to give us our martial controller.

 

[Mistwell]

You could just up Scorching Burst to a d8.

He seems to be saying it's about more than just damage.

For example, if you gave it a secondary attack vs. reflex, hit = target is pushed 1 away from the center of the burst, that would be more "controllery" than merely doing damage.

 

[Mal Malenkirk]

As the only ranged area effect at-will, scorching burst is pretty darn strong.

It may not be the epitome of the 'controller' power the designer hoped for, but I'm pretty damn sure scorching burst will not get an upgrade. We'll just see more 'disruptive' power in the upcoming offerings. And swcorching burst will still be a popular choice.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

As the only ranged area effect at-will, scorching burst is pretty darn strong.

It may not be the epitome of the 'controller' power the designer hoped for, but I'm pretty damn sure scorching burst will not get an upgrade. We'll just see more 'disruptive' power in the upcoming offerings. And swcorching burst will still be a popular choice.

I think the reason for this post was the fact that Invokers get an at will that is identical to Scorching Burst except that it also has another effect on top. So people were complaining that it was way too powerful. To which Mike posted, "It's not too powerful, it's that Scorching Burst(and in fact, ALL the Wizard at-wills) are underpowered.

 

[brehobit]

The wizard at-wills are amazing, at least at low level. I don't know that these need an upgrade.

Mark

 

[Zsig]

I'll give it a shot:

"1d6+ Int fire damage. Whenever the target shifts before the end of your next turn, the target takes fire damage equal to your Dexterity modifier."

Highly situational (like the Invoker power) and it also gives some love for wand/blaster wizards out there (providing there are any).