Grading At-Will Powers

[LittleElvis]

Guys, you can't do just a straight up comparison of average damage between holy strike and valiant strike, because in many situations all you care about is hitting.

That's actually been said many times already above. Valiant is better, period, if you're attacking a minion or someone with a few hp. That's one of its selling points.

 

[Minigiant]

I still say a wizard's at will is heavily influenced by the tiers. I can expect them to retrain power right before jumping tiers so their at wills differ in power at different levels.


Cloud of Daggers B+/B/C
CoD is awesome at the heroic tier. Later on autokilling minions 1 at a time is too dangerous and insubstantials are rarer, usually low HP, and vulnerable to something other than force.


Magic Missile B-/B/B+
Like CoD but less minion kill and better range. Chances are when you are using this, your attack resources are low so you might as well be 15 squares away.

Ray of Frost C+/B+/B
RoF targets a bad defense so you'll need a boost to spam slow on non shrimisher/lurker. The 2 cold feats help, especially if you have an cold vs Ref encounter or daily.

Scorching Burst A/A-/A-
Kills 50-75% of the minions of a group without using an encounter or daily by turn 2? Where do I sign? Too bad by level 15, wizard should have so many AOEs.

Thunderwave A all around
Nice at heroic, range gets better at paragon. Chance are that you use this every time you get damaged.

Illusionary Ambush B/B+/A
Your only anti artillery at will power and the only one that hits Will. Not bad vs Solos either.

 

[Roxlimn]

Creatures whose Fort defenses are lower than Ref defenses:

Astral Stalker
Phane
Fire Archon Emberguard
Fire Archon Ash Disciple
Banshrae Dartswarmer
Banshrae Warrior
Shadowhunter Bat
Fire Bat
Beholder Eye of Flame
Beholder Eye Tyrant
Berbalang
Bone Claw
Cambion Hellfire Magus
Dark Creeper
Dark Stalker
Chain Devil
Succubus
Displacer Beast
Dopplegangers
Black Dragons
Green Dragons
Spiretop Drake
Needlefang Drake Swarm
Pseudodragon
Spitting Drake
Drider Shadowspinner
Drow
Eladrin
...
...

I'm not bothering to finish the list.

There are a good number of monsters whose Ref defenses are higher than their Fort defenses. Thus, for these monsters, it's better to use a Ray of Frost than a Ref attack at-will.

 

[KarinsDad]

There are a good number of monsters whose Ref defenses are higher than their Fort defenses. Thus, for these monsters, it's better to use a Ray of Frost than a Ref attack at-will.

Err, so?

The issue is:

1) There are more monsters (a lot more monsters) with higher Fort Defenses than Reflex Defenses then there are ones with higher Reflex Defenses than Fort Defenses.

2) Wizards only get 2 (or 3 if Human) At Will powers.

3) People who play Wizards want both single target and area At Will powers.

4) Unless a given DM is generous in handling out information (even with skill checks) as to whether a given monster is Brute, Soldier, Minion, etc., the players of Wizards will not have a strong idea as to the best attack to use in any given circumstance. The player might have an educated guess at best.


All bases cannot be covered. So, the best strategy is to use higher frequency At Will powers (such as vs. Will and vs. Reflex) and fill the vs. Fort powers out of Encounter and Daily powers. Doing it the other way is an option, but it is a suboptimal option, especially at lower levels. When a PC starts gaining more Encounter Powers and uses fewer At Will powers within encounters, it becomes less suboptimal to switch to a vs. Fort. At Will power.

 

[Darkthorne]

Commander's Strike?

OK, I'm runnning a Warlord and I am not sure of the value of this power UNLESS you have a higher Int than Str AND if you have someone in the group that can hit & dish out more damage than you (and do you need to be in melee as well?). Am I missing something? Wolf pack can give you & an ally a +2 to hit (also helps rogues immensely), Furious Smash attacks Fort instead of AC which is very good against mobile/high int targets as they probably have a decent AC as well gives you some damage and a decent bonus to hit & damage, viper's strike allows a opportunity attack if the shifts which is pretty good in my opinion.

 

[Stalker0]

OK, I'm runnning a Warlord and I am not sure of the value of this power UNLESS you have a higher Int than Str AND if you have someone in the group that can hit & dish out more damage than you (and do you need to be in melee as well?).

I think you just answered your own question.

 

[blargney the second]

Commander's Strike = snake's swiftness. It was useful in 3e, it's useful in 4e.
-blarg

 

[Darkthorne]

I think it should be a lower grade as it's much more restrictive to be of use, only useful IF there is a high str ally to use it with. Also not nearly as good as Snake's Swiftness used to be. Snake's Swiftness allowed either any type of ranged or melee attack and was cast by a mage at range so if you were up against something with SR this is a value add to any noncaster. Commander's Strike only allows an ally a basic melee attack and you have to be in melee as well(?) If this can be one at range then I can see value being added.

 

[keterys]

Snake's Swiftness didn't add bonus damage. Let's say you've got a longsword and board tactical warlord with Str 16, Int 18 in a group with a Str 18 greatsword fighter.

So, you get +2 attack and +6 damage. More if you add in bracer's of mighty striking - which you really should if you're grouped with a warlord doing this.

 

[Darkthorne]

Still seems restrictive & stat dependant. Also shouldn't the damage be +8? If even with the 16 Str you could be either the highest or tied as the highest for Str in which case you would want to use any other power w/ a bonus effect (Furious Smash gives you Str+Cha damage +cha to hit on his next attack which doesn't have to be a basic one). The one perk of this power I could see is if you are statused by something (weakened etc) where someone's basic attack is way better than your at wills