Grading At-Will Powers

[keterys]

Chill Wind is, frankly, pretty amazing. The loss of a stat mod is painful, but you can do some really nice things with that many slides. It still kills minions fine and the damage is low enough you don't have to care about hitting your party defender with it really.

Shame about it targeting Fort and the Fort imbalance, though.

 

[Mengu]

I dunno, I think Chill Wind merits at least a B+. It targets Fort and does less damage than Scorching Burst, but the sliding is pretty boss. Minions don't usually have super-high Fort, so I wouldn't rate it much worse than SB in that respect either.

EDIT: And Chill Wind works nicely with Lasting Frost/Wintertouched. Area cold spells are niiiice.

I went back and forth between a B and a B+ for it. The lack of stat bonus to damage can mean, you are missing out on 8+ points of damage assuming you manage to hit 2 things in the area, and gain two slide 1's instead. Sliding is nice when you can be precise about it, but 8+ points is a lot of damage, especially at heroic levels. I think the power becomes better at higher levels. But I do like the fact that you can dump it on friendlies without worrying too much about the damage, and if you happen to hit, you can slide them to advantageous positions as well. I'll bump it to a B+.

I think Savage Rend deserves an A-. It's a melee basic attack, so it can be used on OAs, and a slide can be just as tactically useful as CA if a defender is nearby. Definitely better than Grasping Claws, you don't want enemies staying near you.

On second look, I should have graded it a B+, it definitely is also better than Tide of Iron. It's even slightly better than footwork lure, so I can see an A-. But when I look at the other A powers, it does fall a bit short. The scale is not quite granular enough for that much accuracy, I'll make it a B+ for now.

 

[yesnomu]

Also, WTF at Pressing Strike being a C+. It's Tide of Iron + a better Deft Strike put together, and it does extra damage when raging. I mean, what else do you want it to do, make you breakfast?!

My dragonborn barbarian uses it all the time to get into flanking positions or extend his movement (which is nice when you wear chain). I don't regret not getting Howling Strike at all, he does plenty of damage already.

 

[Yurius]

Twin Strike Rules

Nah, if you look carefully, you don't add your ability modifier to the damage of either attack, so it's actually kinda crappy, IMO. Once your ability modifier exceeds 5, on average you'll be doing more damage with a basic attack than with Twin Strike...

Elven TWF Ranger 4th Level (Feats: Double Weapon Proficiency, Weapon Focus [double weapon/heavy blade], Lethal Hunter), +1 Lightning Double Weapon. Twin Strike, Hit and Run, Evasive Strike, Cut and Run, Sudden Strike, Yield Ground.

My elf dances like Gene Kelly in Brigadoon around all the baddies and Twin Strike makes it much much worse.

1) Move in.
2) Minor action to designate quarry.
3) Twin strike (1d8+1d8+2/1d8+2) for an average of 17 damage (I hardly miss since the elf's speed allows me to get into flanking position with my Fighter and Elven Accuracy is always useful).
4) Action point: Favorite Encounter power to strike (average damage: +14-18 more for a total of 31-35 in 1 round; assuming that I hit with all attacks, again flanking) and get away (I have a good Wis allowing me to shift like Blagojevich at a FBI fund raiser). Crit hits make all these powers much worse and since I am rolling so many d20s chances are one will be.
If any of the baddies decide to chase my ranger, well then they probably get hit by my fighter since they were marked or I just yield ground after their first hit and dance away.

I have played this PC in many different LFR mods and he totally rules. Love the dancing elf ranger.

 

[MwaO]

-2 penalty is the same as Illusory Ambush, that's mainly why it's a B. Brutal Scoundrals gain their strength bonus to every sneak attack, instead of just rattling ones like Ruthless Ruffians, so I'm not sure if that's enough of an incentive to bump it up a knotch. I felt it was better than Sly Flourish, but not better than Piercing Strike, that's the other reason why it's sitting at a B. If more people agree Disheartening Strike helps the rogue do his job as well as Piercing Strike, I'll consider bumping it up to a B+.

Don't forget, a Ruthless Ruffian doesn't need CA to get the bonus to damage. And in that context...

One of the big advantages of Disheartening Strike in combo with Ruthless Ruffian is that a Rogue can do 1d8+Dex+Str and the -2 to hit as an at-will. That's clearly better than a Paladin's Enfeebling Strike or Wizard's Illusory Ambush.

 

[Mengu]

Also, WTF at Pressing Strike being a C+. It's Tide of Iron + a better Deft Strike put together, and it does extra damage when raging. I mean, what else do you want it to do, make you breakfast?!

My dragonborn barbarian uses it all the time to get into flanking positions or extend his movement (which is nice when you wear chain). I don't regret not getting Howling Strike at all, he does plenty of damage already.

Valid point, hadn't made the Deft Strike comparison. It should probably be a B or B+. Anyone else want to weigh in?

Don't forget, a Ruthless Ruffian doesn't need CA to get the bonus to damage. And in that context...

One of the big advantages of Disheartening Strike in combo with Ruthless Ruffian is that a Rogue can do 1d8+Dex+Str and the -2 to hit as an at-will. That's clearly better than a Paladin's Enfeebling Strike or Wizard's Illusory Ambush.

B+ it is then.

 

[Mengu]

Added Invoker

http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-4th-edition-rules/233943-grading-will-powers-13.html#post4583301

*INVOKER*
B- / Avenging Light
A- / Divine Bolts
B- / Grasping Shards
B+ / Sun Strike
A+ / Vanguard Lightning

Avenging Light is pretty much like Eldritch Blast, slightly worse because it targets Fortitude, but makes up for it with a little extra damage if there is an adjacent bloodied ally.

Divine Bolts is an A power like most other powers which do decent damage to multiple targets, but it's on the lower end of the curve, and takes a -.

Grasping Shards is an average power. Comparable to Ray of Frost, less damage, multiple targets.

Sun Strike is a great power. Sliding opponents around from a safe distance to provide flanks is a good pseudo-leader power.

Vanguard Lightning is basically as good as scorching burst, except there are fewer creatures resistant to lightning, than fire, and it has an additional small bonus. Not sure if it should be an A or A+, it's only a very small bit better than Scorching Burst.

 

[reticent]

I'd say Vanguard Lightning is just a very solid A. A+ should probably be reserved for those choices that are both build defining and likely to be used at every opportunity.

VL will probably show up in the large majority of Invoker builds but I'm guessing it will be pretty rare that it will be the most used at will in any given encounter.

 

[keterys]

Well, Vanguard Lightning is just flat out better than Scorching Burst... but yes there's only so much give there in the grading scale.

I do think Grasping Shards is better than you give it credit for - it kills minions just as well as Scorching Burst, does radiant which is good against undead, and area slow is solid (much more so than single target). At 21st+ level it's potentially better than Scorching Burst when it picks up the d10, but Fort is most annoying then and slow least effective so probably not.

 

[Ahglock]

Just curious with the designers saying after the invoker preview that they think the wizards at wills are a bit sub-par have people rethought there grading on wizard at wills. Now that I've been playing a while I don't rate the area at wills nearly as high as I thought in the beginning. You have to hit 2 people to be in the same ballpark as non strikers in damage, and you kind of need 3 hits to make it an A rating spell IMO. And in play that really just does not happen nearly enough for these powers to be As.

My in play experience form the DM side of things would be.

Wizard.
Cloud of daggers B+(guaranteed minion killing and a zone of effect)
Magic Missle B- The range kicks it up to B-
Ray of frost C+ Lame damage, slow end sup being ineffective
Scorching burst B+ need to many targets for it to pan out.
Thunderwave A- The push really has been useful
Illusionary Ambush(have not seen it in play, but B)

I'm not sure I'd call that a sub-par list except in relation to the invokers. But it is not as good as I initially thought.