Rain of Steel too powerful

[Saeviomagy]

Think about it as extra damage every round. It blows the rangers and warlocks extra damage out of the water, even if a ranger spends a feat!

But not, say, if he picks stormwarden and has a high dex.

 

[keterys]

No, 1W+Enh+Feat should pretty much just > Dex.

The real trick is to get both going.

 

[Psikus]

One balancing possibility is that it counts as your Opportunity Attack for the turn. Meaning it only affects one target per turn, which would also limit a fighter's ability to halt someone's movement if they provoke.

How about changing the effect to "any enemy that ends its turn adjacent to you takes 1[w] damage" ?

It should be a bit less powerful, since it no longer auto-kills minions, giving a chance to run away, or at least hitting the fighter before dying. Also, it would be much more interesting to play around. Unlike the current version, it gives some incentive to try to move away from the fighter, risking OAs and Challenge attacks.

On the other hand, the change also provides new functionality, since enemies charging the fighter would now take damage. Overall, I think the power would be more balanced this way, and still worth taking, but I'd have to test it.

Note that the "as long as you are able to make OAs" line would be no longer necessary, since enemies could just walk away from the fighter.

 

[brehobit]

So it is a Fighter Attack 5 power (daily), is a martial Stance, that is a minor action to activate.

The effect is that any enemy that starts its turn adjacent to the person triggering the power takes 1[W] damage, for as long as the person triggering the power is able to make opportunity attacks.

Yeah, pretty good daily power. I would not call it too powerful, and I do not think it is more powerful than the choices for other classes, and in fact the average damage is probably similar to other classes but more reliable since it's an auto hit (while those other classes instead have to roll, but do a lot more damage with those rolls if they hit). It's a good one.

I don't know about that. Figure you normally have a 50/50 chance of hitting. Say you have a level 6 dwarven fighter with a +2 hammer and a STR of 18. A 2[W]+STR close burst 1 will do about twice as much damage on a hit, (11+4+2+2=19 vs 5.5+4=9.5) and therefor about the same average damage. So this attack is _about_ as good as a burst 1 attack. HOWEVER, it is only a minor action to activate AND it can last for the whole combat. In many ways it is similar to doing a 2[W]+STR burst 1 as a free action every turn.

Translation: it's really really powerful. Much better in nearly any fight than any of the other dailies you can select from. Yes, it is different than the burst in terms of when the damage happens, and it isn't as good when trying to get to someplace else (with a burst you can use it then move away if you wish). And a fighter probably has a better than 50/50 hit chance. But it is great against minions and also wonderful against a solo...

There are a few other classes with similar powers. Thus it isn't crazy overpowered, but it is really nice.

Mark

 

[NorthSaber]

Rain of Steel has a few disadvantages, too. For one, since it's a stance, you're unlikely to have any other stance powers in your repertoire (like Boundless Endurance). This means you have to choose between higher DPR and regeneration (for example).

Another downside is that it makes being next to the fighter an unattractive choice for the enemy, which makes for a less sticky defender.

Granted, if the fighter wants to deal a lot of damage, and perhaps to be more of a strikery defender, this power is great, no argument. My fighter is 99% sure to take it as she reaches level 5. But is it over-powered? Probably not.

Also, it seems to be one of the fighter's shticks to be very dangerous to multiple enemies in adjacent squares, so this power fits that theme very well. Paladins heal and often do more single-target damage, and strikers tend to do their big damage from afar.

OTOH, if our group had a dual-wielder ranger or a melee rogue, I can see how they might look at Rain of Steel and think it's unfair that the defender gets something that cool and powerful...

 

[QQQ]

OTOH, if our group had a dual-wielder ranger or a melee rogue, I can see how they might look at Rain of Steel and think it's unfair that the defender gets something that cool and powerful...

The striker can always multiclass fighter and pick it up. Rain of Steel + Stormwarden = very nice

 

[Dausuul]

So it is a Fighter Attack 5 power (daily), is a martial Stance, that is a minor action to activate.

The effect is that any enemy that starts its turn adjacent to the person triggering the power takes 1[W] damage, for as long as the person triggering the power is able to make opportunity attacks.

Holy minion-murdering death, Batman.

 

[Mengu]

Especially for a Greatweapon Fighter, it's very powerful. Some similar 5th level daily powers are:

Spiritual Weapon, which needs to hit, can target only one model a turn, but does a bit more damage and can grant combat advantage.

Sign of Vulnerability, which can amount to 5 extra damage a round from the Paladin, Cleric, and Starlock. But it's only against one target, and highly party composition dependent.

Hunger of Hadar, which can do quite a bit more damage and can be a beneficial LoS blocker, but can't be move around.

Stinking Cloud, which can do a bit more damage to targets in a larger area, but doesn't avoid allies. It is also slightly better when fighting large based opponents.

Hunger of Hadar and Stinking Cloud can potentially surpass the damage of Rain of Steel. However both require a bit more effort. Rain of Steel is just effortless damage.

 

[keterys]

I suspect the better comparisons are Flaming Sphere and Armor of Agathys.

 

[Reed]

Armor of Agathys + Rain of Steel is pretty sexy. throw in some wintertouched and lasting frost and it's a bit broken, just gotta keep them next to you.