Gale Force Changes

[Swede]

Upcoming Gale Force changes, thoughts?


Normal Gale Force can now hit up to 6 enemies, instead of only 4
Charged Gale Force can now hit up to 8 enemies, instead of only 4
Protective Current now grants 50% extra Armor instead of 25% Dodge and lasts 4 seconds instead of 3
Speed of Wind upgrade will now make a non-charged Gale Force move the sorcerer backwards rapidly for a few seconds. Charged version will still give the 25% movement speed buff

[GoodSyntax]

Interesting update. This, along with the arcane shield will make for some super tanky sorcerers!

[matanofx]

with lvl cap increasing and some skills being more useful i hope youre planning on making 5 skills buttons on screen instead of 4 =]

[vholt]

Awesome! I like how you've added a "dash" type ability so now sorcs are on par agility-wise with the other classes. This definitely makes me want to include gale force in my build

[Lady_Pebbles]

Hope we get some free respecs upon the new expansion release so we can test some stuff out. O.o

Edit: I like the descriptions so far. The change from dodge to armor is actually a good one. 50% armor for 4sec is way more useful than the dodge and quite frankly, very much more needed considering how squishy the Mages are.

Im curious about the Speed of Wind changes... when charged released, the toon is thrusted forward as the speed buff takes effect or is the speed buff in effect just after the thrust? Sounds like a better way to get out of a sticky situation.

[savie]

Speed of Wind upgrade will make a charged Gale Force move the sorcerer forwards rapidly for a few seconds, in addition to the 25% movement speed buff
[/LIST]

wanna know more about this tho, hope it helps us sorc to flag more :)

[Swede]

wanna know more about this tho, hope it helps us sorc to flag more :)

Unlike the Warrior and Rogue 'dash' abilities, this one will not go for a target within range, but rather always go in the direction you're facing, so yes it should be very useful for flag running.

[drgrimmy]

Overall, I think great changes. I have always liked gale and I think that some of these changes will make it more attractive to other players. I have also always wanted a dash type skill, and so I am excited about that addition, but I am a little worried about how it will affect my ability to manage a mob and stay on the edge of a mob rather than dashing into the mob to certain death. Think of it this way. You gather a huge mob, and clock it in place. You then sit from a distance and hit the mob with an aoe hailstorm. You then do a charged gale to increase your damage and armor with the attack but as a result dash forward into the mob opening yourself up to attack. Definitely not desireable. I personally like to use gale to push individual enemies at the edge of a mob into the mob and would not like dashing into the mob when I do this. I guess I could just use uncharged gale for this, but then I will hit less enemies, do less damage and not get the armor buff. We will just have to see how it works. It is a little hard to judge until it has been tested out.

Another suggestion. As a player who has used gale alot, I find the push sometimes unreliable. One thing I have figured out is that the push does not work on enemies that are stunned by fireball, so if I want to push a mob into position I have to wait for fireball stun to wear off. Was it designed this way? Also I find that mobs only really get pushed if they are in a certain sweet spot. If they are too close or too far they will not get pushed by the skill (this is withou the aoe upgrade). I can understand it having a range limitation, but I have never understood why enemies right next to you don't get pushed. Perhaps the cone of the area of effect it too narrow right in front of you so it often misses enemies right in front of you?

[Lady_Pebbles]

Last i remembered, the AoE also works without the skill being charged so when you just tap it, it will target 6 (currently just 4) enemies. This way you can* still push mobs around for CC.

Edit: This way you can avoid the dash when charged or just make sure your toon is facing the other direction when charged. Have its back towards the mob so it dashes away from them while thhey are pushed into the desired direction? Gotta test it out when available. X.x

[Swede]

Overall, I think great changes. I have always liked gale and I think that some of these changes will make it more attractive to other players. I have also always wanted a dash type skill, and so I am excited about that addition, but I am a little worried about how it will affect my ability to manage a mob and stay on the edge of a mob rather than dashing into the mob to certain death. Think of it this way. You gather a huge mob, and clock it in place. You then sit from a distance and hit the mob with an aoe hailstorm. You then do a charged gale to increase your damage and armor with the attack but as a result dash forward into the mob opening yourself up to attack. Definitely not desireable. We will just have to see how it works. It is a little hard to judge until it has been tested out.

Another suggestion. As a player who has used gale alot, I find the push sometimes unreliable. One thing I have figured out is that the push does not work on enemies that are stunned by fireball, so if I want to push a mob into position I have to wait for fireball stun to wear off. Was it designed this way? Also I find that mobs only really get pushed if they are in a certain sweet spot. If they are too close or too far they will not get pushed by the skill (this is withou the aoe upgrade). I can understand it having a range limitation, but I have never understood why enemies right next to you don't get pushed. Perhaps the cone of the area of effect it too narrow right in front of you so it often misses enemies right in front of you?

The problem that you're describing with the push is probably due to the limited number of enemies it could hit previously. It picks 4 random enemies within the cone, it doesn't care how close etc they are. This update should help.

I agree on the fact that you will enter combat if you charge forward with the upgrade now and that it could be problematic. I do feel like the upgrade is definitely skewed towards PvP and might not be something PvE players want to pick up. I could possibly change it to only do the 'dash' if you're NOT charging Gale Force so you get the dash but lose out on the armor buff/extra damage etc if you want to speed forward.

EDIT: Okay I just tried out putting the dash effect on the non-charged Gale Force, as well as making it move you backwards, and it's a blast! So, assuming you have all the upgrades and you want a 360 degree attack that buffs your armor and your speed, you charge your Gale Force. You want to get away, you face your enemy and use the regular non-charged attack that knocks them over in a cone and now makes you dash away from them.

[savie]

the "dash" ability will be great on pvp but definitely not on pve especially elite. Was thinking if pulling the mobs toward your last position before dashing will be much better than pushing it away, well that requires a larger aoe to actually prevent yourself dashing towards mobs.

[vholt]

EDIT: Okay I just tried out putting the dash effect on the non-charged Gale Force, as well as making it move you backwards, and it's a blast! So, assuming you have all the upgrades and you want a 360 degree attack that buffs your armor and your speed, you charge your Gale Force. You want to get away, you face your enemy and use the regular non-charged attack that knocks them over in a cone and now makes you dash away from them.

You dash backwards now? That's awesome! It'll also make it look like the gale force pushed on you back

[SkullCrusher]

AMAZING updates! I'm definitely playing the sorcerer class now! =]

[will0]

With the 50% armor have some additional buffs like alpha wolf reflect for 4-5 sec as when rouge hit us critical in PVP we died instantly, two rouge gang against one mage it is like 1% chance surviving since our hp is low and armor is low too :disillusionment:

[FluffNStuff]

I am all for non charged upgrades! Don't believe in charging and definitely don't believe in taking a double penalty by selecting an upgrade that requires BOTH a point and to charge.

[Lady_Pebbles]

Nice changes and tweaks Swede! Sounds like its gonna be more fun to play with Gale Force now. :D

[savie]

definitely gonna try out gale force, was hoping changes for curse too

[jb57542]

This update might actually make mages able to survive without using shield which would be great. In addition will gale grants a push and stun effect now, currently it seems to be an either or based off if u charge or not.


I know it's a bit unrelated to this thread but could you post how the curse DMG works because I read ppl saying it seems to become less effective at higher lvls than lower. This indicates the DMG doesn't t scale well.

[Imjebus]

I know it's a bit unrelated to this thread but could you post how the curse DMG works because I read ppl saying it seems to become less effective at higher lvls than lower. This indicates the DMG doesn't t scale well.[/QUOTE]

+1. :D I tried to figure out how the damage works but I couldn't ;c it wasn't effective at all at lvl10 in pvp to be honest. >_<

[Haligali]

Dodge was useful in km1 vs shark stun.

[Swede]

Curse takes the targets damage, not the damage output of the ability that he just used, but his damage (base damage plus stat increases from equipment etc), multiplies that by another number, depending on if you charged the ability, what upgrades you have etc and then every time the enemy that's cursed uses any ability (including base attack), he takes that number in damage. It also ignores armor.

Since it scales with the enemies damage, it should definitely scale as they grow in levels. My numbers on it might have been a bit low for a first pass though so I'll probably buff it a bit. I have to be careful though because remember that monsters won't stop attacking, like players might, so it can do a lot of damage to them really fast if they are hard hitting enemies with a high attack speed.

[drgrimmy]

Thank you for all the changes you have been experimenting with, but I really think that if a dash type ability is added to this skill it needs to be in a forward direction. This is something that sorcerers have been lacking while warriors and rogues both have a dash type ability (pierce and skyward). This has really handicapped us in terms of flagging in pvp, running away from enemies or catching fleeing enemies in PvP, and doing timed runs in a few maps (especially hauntlet). My only concern was that I don't want to be dashing into a mob in pve when I am on the edge of a mob doing crowd control or into the middle of the mosh pit in PvP during big PvP battles when I am trying to stay at a distance. Perhaps you can just leave it as originally designed with the dash only with a charge skill. This keeps it from being accidentally activated (eg with a charged skill failing). I will just have to use the uncharged skill until I want to use the dash ability. And as someone else mentioned, the planned update will already increase the number of enemies hit with an uncharged skill, so not too much of a compromise. The only drawback would be not getting the armor boost by routinely using the uncharged skill. Would it be overpowered to make it so you get the armor boost with the uncharged version of the skill, and the dash with the charged version? This would be the best of both worlds in my eyes.

[Swede]

For running away from enemies in PvP, backwards is superior. You turn around and land your Gale Force on the enemies, and shoot away in the other direction. So they get crowd controlled by the gale force in addition to you dashing away. I might change it back but going to be playing PvP on the new map today and trying it out, so we'll see how it feels.

[falmear]

I agree with Drgrimmy, because in PVE I can't really envision a situation where I want to dash backwards. And if you are doing timed runs and you accidentally don't hold wind long enough you would now be penalized with being dashed backwards. Where as before, you keep moving at a normal speed. I think it should be dashing forward because that would be more useful in both PVP and PVE. I'd also like to see the 50% armor boost be on non-charged. Because it only lasts for 4 seconds and the cool down for wind is 5.5 seconds. So I dont think it would be over powered because you still have to wait 1.5 seconds before you can cast wind again.

[Alhuntrazeck]

You just might have made me a new gale mage. Looking forward to update! Free respect weekend also please.

[jb57542]

You just might have made me a new gale mage. Looking forward to update! Free respect weekend also please.

+1 this. Gale might become a standard mage skill like fireball. It was once upon a time when it gave 75% dodge with a 3 sec cool down.

[Haligali]

For running away from enemies in PvP, backwards is superior. You turn around and land your Gale Force on the enemies, and shoot away in the other direction. So they get crowd controlled by the gale force in addition to you dashing away. I might change it back but going to be playing PvP on the new map today and trying it out, so we'll see how it feels.

uhum, new pvp map? cant wait..

[Lady_Pebbles]

Dash moving the toon forward rather than backwards makes sense. It would be more useful against mobs & players in PvP... Especially if it does damage to our enemies when the toon strikes an enemy as a result of dashing towards them. Maybe that part could be single target (like the other class's Dash abilities uncharged) so it won't be OP.

[jb57542]

Dash moving the toon forward rather than backwards makes sense. It would be more useful against mobs & players in PvP... Especially if it does damage to our enemies when the toon strikes an enemy as a result of dashing towards them. Maybe that part could be single target (like the other class's Dash abilities uncharged) so it won't be OP.



Skyward smash does aoe damage, so only rogues dash does single target DMG. Besides the whole point of Gale has been to do AOE dmg.

I think gale dash forward will be fine since it'll be stunning enemies.
Personally I would like to see the dash paired with the armor boost because it would help negate the negative effects of dashing into a mob.

[drgrimmy]

Skyward smash does aoe damage, so only rogues dash does single target DMG. Besides the whole point of Gale has been to do AOE dmg.

I think gale dash forward will be fine since it'll be stunning enemies.
Personally I would like to see the dash paired with the armor boost because it would help negate the negative effects of dashing into a mob.

I can see the rationale of that too, wanting increased armor while dashing into a mob. I just felt that I would rarely want to dash into a mob during elite runs or during a huge 5v5 pvp battle, and I would want to have the 50% armor on an attack that I would use more often. Perhaps the 50% armor could apply for both the noncharged and charged versions of the skill? Nevertheless, I think I would be happy with the upgrade either way. Either way it is going to take some adapting to get used to...

[Lady_Pebbles]

True, but the Rogue's Dash is also AoE when they have that sub skill added for multiple targets (again only when charged). I was talking about uncharged*. Still, would be nice to have an armor boost without having to charge it too. Im all for more armor!

[Rare]

I think this is awesome. Since I use Gale Force anyway for crowd control, its like a little gift.

[FluffNStuff]

I want to toss in a vote for backwards since it would works nicely with what I am experimenting with. Essentially the Mage has to rush into the crowd to drop the clock then unleash the fireball and wind and run back behind the warrior. Having it toss me out of the crowd would be nice

[Kraze]

Getting costly to keep respecing with all the "enhancements" to sorc skills

[TuMadreee]

Bahahaha, I think I'm going to laugh way too much when I see a blue smurf flying away...
Or just simply making everyone mad as they stun and fly around them, abusing the new power ;)

Great changes though!

*Also, if a sorc makes a rogue in PvP cursed, will a critted aim shot kill the rogue instantly? I'm confused :p

[Swede]

*Also, if a sorc makes a rogue in PvP cursed, will a critted aim shot kill the rogue instantly? I'm confused :p

No, the Rogue will take the same amount of damage from Curse as if they had just used their basic attack. It's not dependent on how much damage they (the Rogue) actually did.

[SkullCrusher]

For running away from enemies in PvP, backwards is superior. You turn around and land your Gale Force on the enemies, and shoot away in the other direction. So they get crowd controlled by the gale force in addition to you dashing away. I might change it back but going to be playing PvP on the new map today and trying it out, so we'll see how it feels.

Am I the only person who saw that? So what's this new map? :)

[Carapace]

One of the reasons the mage is getting a backwards dash is to keep the different classes feeling different. It takes a bit more skill to wield well but it's a lot of fun to use the new gale force and will certainly be useful in certain PvE situations. It also makes chasing interesting and does make sorcerers a bit more formidable in PvP.

On a related note I died a couple times during testing from neglecting to notice I was cursed as I tried to pummel his shielded mage with aim shot... and paid the ultimate price. Shame.

[SkullCrusher]

Lol, that shielded mage was me, GF bro! Lol jk :p. P.S: Wooooot! My 300th post. :)

[will0]

Hi Carapace : I know it is beside the point as topic is for Gale, for Arcane shield invulnerability is only 2 sec possible to increase to 3-4 sec non-charge? As you know the critical shot from rouges are deadly and they are fast and the cooling period for shield is slow.

For PVP usually mages uses light but the frequency of critical is not often and doesn't AOE as often too. Is this something can be tweak so we do not have to respec too often even we have light as a skill and light AOE is so infrequent for PVE.

[Jed]

So.. flag running sorcerer:
Shield/heal | EDIT no, shield if curse because shield and curse seems like a good combo
Gale force
Curse/lightning depending on how effective curse is
Fireball
That'll be fun when people are chasing me. Curse 'em, spin and charge fireball them to get a couple seconds, gale force them to jump ahead and knock them down, heal if you need, continue cycle.
I was going to get gale for the speed anyway, but this extra should make things extra fun.

Question, how far does the gale force backwards push sorcerers compared to rogue's dash?

[falmear]

One of the reasons the mage is getting a backwards dash is to keep the different classes feeling different. It takes a bit more skill to wield well but it's a lot of fun to use the new gale force and will certainly be useful in certain PvE situations. It also makes chasing interesting and does make sorcerers a bit more formidable in PvP.

On a related note I died a couple times during testing from neglecting to notice I was cursed as I tried to pummel his shielded mage with aim shot... and paid the ultimate price. Shame.

Dashing backwards has limited uses in PVE. It makes more sense to dash forward, and then have the wind effect/damage. Dashing backwards means the wind effect goes off and then you move backwards. Also in some maps you are fighting in close proximity to ice and if you dash backwards into ice you are frozen. I suggest you play Crystal Caverns or Oltagar Keep and see how useful dashing backwards is. You are going to be reluctant to use wind in these situations. In PVP dashing in any direction will be formidable, if you dash foward you can turn to run away and then dash. Turn into a fight to dash backwards seems like suicide.

[moot]

Question, how far does the gale force backwards push sorcerers compared to rogue's dash?

I want this question answered too because I guess it wouldn't make sense if the mage pushed backwards a lot when fighting mobs.

[wawawa64]

Dashing backwards has limited uses in PVE. It makes more sense to dash forward, and then have the wind effect/damage. Dashing backwards means the wind effect goes off and then you move backwards. Also in some maps you are fighting in close proximity to ice and if you dash backwards into ice you are frozen. I suggest you play Crystal Caverns or Oltagar Keep and see how useful dashing backwards is. You are going to be reluctant to use wind in these situations. In PVP dashing in any direction will be formidable, if you dash foward you can turn to run away and then dash. Turn into a fight to dash backwards seems like suicide.

IMO, dashing in any direction has limited uses in PVE, not just for mage, but also for warrior and rogue too. Skysmash dashing for warriors mean you can be the first to engage in battle, but after that, it's pretty useless to dash because mobs don't run away and you are usually fighting at melee range. For rogue, shadow pierce dashing is only somewhat useful for dagger build. If you are a bow/trap rogue, it's not very useful.

As for mage, it depends on your build as well; if you like get to close and use staff and shield, dashing forward is useful, but if you like to use gun and attack at a distance, dashing backward seems more useful. For instance, you can launch a fireball to knockdown, run in to launch timeshift, then follow by gale force to knockdown again and dash backward to get away and launch another fireball.

[Jed]

I want this question answered too because I guess it wouldn't make sense if the mage pushed backwards a lot when fighting mobs.

I want it to be far for pvp. Guess shorter is good for pve, longer good for pvp.

[JaytB]

I read most of the comments but, personally, I like the changes as described in the OP. Personally again, I would keep it as it was first described.

Whatever changes might make it through, I'm happy to hear gale is going to become a better skill. I recently specced gale in for maximum AoE dmg and am looking forward to how the changes will play out in PvE.

[drgrimmy]

Hmm seems like opinions are all over they place. I think it is best if you just make the changes as you see fit and then we test it out. I think any of the above changes would be welcomed and would make many happy!

But just for a crazy idea. If part of the intent of gale and dash is for running, wouldn't it be cool if with charged gale the attack fired behind you and you dashed forward. It would only make sense that a dash forward would cause a displacement of air behind you :) If you needed to run away from enemies in pvp, you start running, charge gale and release it to stun the people behind you chasing you and to dash ahead. This would also still make the dash useful for running flags, timed runs, and running through elite mobs to get to friends when you have to revive at the start of a map. Otherwise the backwards dash pretty much eliminates the advantage of the 25% speed boost. You can imagine that any distance you gain with a 25% speed boost would be pretty much be eliminated by a backwards dash when you are trying to run.

[vholt]

I still want dash backwards.

Newtons Third Law of Motion: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

[Linkincena]

Please don't remove dodge from gale ...
Da backward push is good...
1 suggestion - it should be given extra force to throw mobs away,...

[Lady_Pebbles]

Dashes are also often used to get to the end of maps too. We'd have to turn our toons around just to "booty bump" in the air to get to the bosses for the drops while getting the speed boosts lol. Makes no sense.

I still think dashing forward would be much better than backwards. Think of pinball games, wouldn't it be fun to dash forward and hit a coupoe of targets OR mage dashes forward, hits one target, that target gets ricochet from one target to another? Haha, little blue goblin pinball of doom ftw. XD

EDIT: Also loooove the idea for 50% armor for 4 seconds instead of 25% dodge! Mages are in need of more armor for survivability.

[Cero]

i think this backslide effect is good for me.

when i pvp i stun the enemy first charging ahead leaving the tank behind to stun the enemy then retreat or brings up shield and tank. Now with the backslide i can stun and retreat fast:) love it.


also this backslide is good counter from axe's pull, cross fingers.


so pls just leave it be.

[savie]

lets just stick to the initial plan for the upgrades of gale force? it was all good in the first place until all the comments came in :/

[Energizeric]

I don't use Gale and probably won't even after this update, but just a thought.... Isn't +25% dodge better than +50% armor?

+25% dodge effectively reduces the damage you take by 25% since one in four hits will now miss you.

Does +50% armor reduce your damage by 25%? I doubt it. If it did, that would mean your base armor would reduce damage by 50% which I know it doesn't.

Seems like the dodge is better than the armor. I suppose against a rogue the armor will guarantee you won't be one hit, while the dodge just gives a chance at that, but overall the dodge will cause you to incur less damage over time.

[Linkincena]

Power of gale is awesome when u fight mobs or a group in pvp..... :)

[jb57542]

I don't use Gale and probably won't even after this update, but just a thought.... Isn't +25% dodge better than +50% armor?

+25% dodge effectively reduces the damage you take by 25% since one in four hits will now miss you.

Does +50% armor reduce your damage by 25%? I doubt it. If it did, that would mean your base armor would reduce damage by 50% which I know it doesn't.

Seems like the dodge is better than the armor. I suppose against a rogue the armor will guarantee you won't be one hit, while the dodge just gives a chance at that, but overall the dodge will cause you to incur less damage over time.

I personally want the armor since it'll reduce all damage incurred while dodge is just a chance. It's similar to the crit vs pure damage argument and I believe the DMG being consistent vs burst DMG won when u did the math for overall dps.

My second reason I want armor is because I don't believe dodge works well in PvP even for rogues.

[Rare]

I don't use Gale and probably won't even after this update, but just a thought.... Isn't +25% dodge better than +50% armor?

+25% dodge effectively reduces the damage you take by 25% since one in four hits will now miss you.

Does +50% armor reduce your damage by 25%? I doubt it. If it did, that would mean your base armor would reduce damage by 50% which I know it doesn't.

Seems like the dodge is better than the armor. I suppose against a rogue the armor will guarantee you won't be one hit, while the dodge just gives a chance at that, but overall the dodge will cause you to incur less damage over time.

Yeah, except we all know how percentages work. I'd rather have less damage and time to pot spam rather than the "chance" of dodging an attack in that small amount of time

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

[GoodSyntax]

I don't use Gale and probably won't even after this update, but just a thought.... Isn't +25% dodge better than +50% armor?

+25% dodge effectively reduces the damage you take by 25% since one in four hits will now miss you.

Does +50% armor reduce your damage by 25%? I doubt it. If it did, that would mean your base armor would reduce damage by 50% which I know it doesn't.

Seems like the dodge is better than the armor. I suppose against a rogue the armor will guarantee you won't be one hit, while the dodge just gives a chance at that, but overall the dodge will cause you to incur less damage over time.

I don't think that 25% Dodge means that 1 in every 4 attacks miss. I'm not sure what the exact mechanics are, but I do know that there is a hidden Hit%, which, similar to PL, Dodge serves to offset. My rouge, when fully buffed, can get to well over 60% Dodge, but as I've said in other posts, hits land more often than Dodge would imply. At 60+% Dodge, my "real" or effective dodge rate is more like 25-35%. I dodge more often against lower level mobs (maybe at 40%), but against bosses and PvP it's lower (more like the 20-25% range).

I'm not sure where the break-even point would be between added Dodge versus added Armor, but I suspect that 50% armor is more serviceable than 25% Dodge.

Between the 50% armor and the damage reduction/invincibility of Arcane Shield, Sorcerers have the potential to be extremely tanky (probably even better than a Paladin in PL with their Mana Shields). Two seconds of invincibility, plus a net increase in armor of about 70% (Gale + Shield DMG reduction) would mean that for 15 seconds or so a Sorc would be nearly invincible.

I'm going to have to play with my Sorc toon's build, and see just how effective Gale, Shield, Fireball and Time will be. I can just see this as a super-tank with tons of snare and AoE ability - perfect for running elite maps. I will miss the Ice and Lightning skills in my nuking rotation, but I'll trade nuke for survivability, plus, I won't need Heal anymore, and everyone will just have to comment "Sorc doesn't heal" while I am busy out-tanking my entire party.

[drgrimmy]

I don't use Gale and probably won't even after this update, but just a thought.... Isn't +25% dodge better than +50% armor?

+25% dodge effectively reduces the damage you take by 25% since one in four hits will now miss you.

Does +50% armor reduce your damage by 25%? I doubt it. If it did, that would mean your base armor would reduce damage by 50% which I know it doesn't.

Seems like the dodge is better than the armor. I suppose against a rogue the armor will guarantee you won't be one hit, while the dodge just gives a chance at that, but overall the dodge will cause you to incur less damage over time.

Good point. It think it depends. If you are sustaining a lot of little hits over time, then I would go with the 25% dodge. If you are facing the situation where you periodically sustain large hits that come very close to killing you, then I would go for the armor boost. I think the major problem with our class is that our damage and our armor is so low that we are prone to getting one-shotted in elite levels, particularly by the bosses. 25% dodge may prevent you from getting one-shotted every 1 out of 4 times, but I think increased armor is far better. If find my survivability against elite bosses substantially improved with only minor changes to health, armor and damage reduction in comparison to a 50% armor boost. I think that a 50% armor boost is really going to help us out a lot in terms of survivability with big hits from elite bosses, alowig us to survive far more than 1 out of every 4 hits that used to one shot us.

[Jed]

tanking sorcerer in pvp
oh I'm going to be so annoying

[wawawa64]

I don't use Gale and probably won't even after this update, but just a thought.... Isn't +25% dodge better than +50% armor?

+25% dodge effectively reduces the damage you take by 25% since one in four hits will now miss you.

Does +50% armor reduce your damage by 25%? I doubt it. If it did, that would mean your base armor would reduce damage by 50% which I know it doesn't.

Seems like the dodge is better than the armor. I suppose against a rogue the armor will guarantee you won't be one hit, while the dodge just gives a chance at that, but overall the dodge will cause you to incur less damage over time.

I think it's also dependent on the mobs/boss's "hit percentage". You can see this when you are running the lower level maps, the mobs miss a lot more often than the ones in higher level maps. So without knowing the "hit percentage" from mob's/boss, we don't know how good is +25% dodge. For instance, if a boss has +125% hit percentage, with a +25% dodge, you will still get hit 100% of the time (assuming the hit/dodge calculation is just a simple subtraction like that).

Maybe STS can shine some light on this topic regarding hit/dodge percentage.

[Swede]

There are many factors that go in to Dodge calculations but the main factor that made me make the change is that dodge is not very effective at all in PvP, armor is much more valuable. 25% Dodge could arguably be a little bit better in PvE, as long as you don't get unlucky. Armor is more consistent in all cases.

[FluffNStuff]

Holy Hall is that awesome!

[Wowsome]

I tried hauntlet, and Gale is now awesome for PvE :). I have yet to try it out for PvP though.

[falmear]

For me I don't really like the dash backwards. I played with it a bit in PVE and PVP and I feel it's too situational. I don't like having to charge a skill to avoid being thrown backwards. So I think this is a good option for those who like it but for me I don't think I'll be using it. I wasn't using gale before and I think this is some nice changes but its not for me.

[vholt]

I tried out Gale, and honestly, for a sorc its perfect. I went in pvp and it can be possible (not really preferred though) to not use a shield. This is because the dash is enough to get me out of range of aim shot and such. Then i run in, and dash back. Pretty cool.

[yuriramos]

Damage buff doesnt seem to work. The stat on armor doesnt add up and even tested the damage intake on ctf flags, doesnt reduce damage.

[Haowesie]

I tested gale in PVP, and here are my observations:
- Knocking down opponents doesn't always work, if they are in the middle of a skill action, the stun doesn't work (I'm assuming the damage still takes effect)
- When I try to time a charged gale, by the time I'm actually ready to release...I'm almost dead. The benefit of the 50% armor and gale stun, does not go hand in hand because you want your armor before the rogue hits you; if you release too early, the gale won't hit the rogue.
- Effects of Gale stun around corners doesn't work as good; and rogues can still shoot around corners it seems.
- The 25% increase in speed is useless for flagging. Turning back and doing a non-charge gale seems to give you a faster boost, which is weird, because you have to turn around.

It seems to be good in PVE....not so sure in PVP, unless you're 100% support only.

[Energizeric]

There are many factors that go in to Dodge calculations but the main factor that made me make the change is that dodge is not very effective at all in PvP, armor is much more valuable. 25% Dodge could arguably be a little bit better in PvE, as long as you don't get unlucky. Armor is more consistent in all cases.

Ok, that explains it then. I guess since I'm more of a PvP player than a PvE player (although I do both, I spend much more time in PvP), I always think in PvP terms when I consider which skills to use.

[Wowsome]

I tested gale in PVP, and here are my observations:
- Knocking down opponents doesn't always work, if they are in the middle of a skill action, the stun doesn't work (I'm assuming the damage still takes effect)
- When I try to time a charged gale, by the time I'm actually ready to release...I'm almost dead. The benefit of the 50% armor and gale stun, does not go hand in hand because you want your armor before the rogue hits you; if you release too early, the gale won't hit the rogue.
- Effects of Gale stun around corners doesn't work as good; and rogues can still shoot around corners it seems.
- The 25% increase in speed is useless for flagging. Turning back and doing a non-charge gale seems to give you a faster boost, which is weird, because you have to turn around.

It seems to be good in PVE....not so sure in PVP, unless you're 100% support only.

Agreed to all the points here :). I have observed the same.

[Obi]

I think it would be better to dash forward on charge and backward without. Other boosts should work always.

[will0]

i go for dash forward.... backward in PVP u cant see if there's enemy .. who move backwards when walking ? Lolz

[moot]

Hmm seems like opinions are all over they place. I think it is best if you just make the changes as you see fit and then we test it out. I think any of the above changes would be welcomed and would make many happy!

But just for a crazy idea. If part of the intent of gale and dash is for running, wouldn't it be cool if with charged gale the attack fired behind you and you dashed forward. It would only make sense that a dash forward would cause a displacement of air behind you :) If you needed to run away from enemies in pvp, you start running, charge gale and release it to stun the people behind you chasing you and to dash ahead. This would also still make the dash useful for running flags, timed runs, and running through elite mobs to get to friends when you have to revive at the start of a map. Otherwise the backwards dash pretty much eliminates the advantage of the 25% speed boost. You can imagine that any distance you gain with a 25% speed boost would be pretty much be eliminated by a backwards dash when you are trying to run.
tldr; make it pushed forward.

Also, please make the stun more reliable like fire stun. It's too hard to actually stun using gale.

Pushed backward is soo awkward lol. I might need some training with mobs and in pvp using it.

[n19one]

I hav tested gale.. Sometimes the backward useful in pve boss. help us to run from the red spot. But the stuns not too reliable and the fact that i hav always charge gale force if i want to move forward is annoying lol.. I still learning how to use it. it seems weird when we accidentally not fully charge n pushed backward.

[keikali]

I've tested Gale in PvP and to be honest its just MEDIOCRE, then again I don't PvP much so maybe my point is moot. (Not you moot above me, lol)

But in PvE its a different story. Its amazing. I soloed Kraken Mines Level 3 again with ease again. With Frost back then I used it mainly for the bosses or running up to freeze them all in groups, but for Gale its like a finisher to clean up after Fireball and Time wears out.

Basically I modified Gaieje's build and took out Frost for Gale and its amazing. Also took out 5/5 Dex and threw in Strength instead.

4/5 Fire
4/5 Time
5/5 Gale
2/5 Life
5/5 Int
5/5 Crit
5/5 Strength

I literally respecced tons of times testing the stats of passives etc and if it was worth it. This build is suitable for PvE definitely.

I run with the following pet rotation: Clyde, Wrath, Horton, Ribbit, Misty (Yes I bought Misty. Hoping it will get better stats in future).

[Valsacar]

Swap out crit for dmg, you'll see an improvement.

[matanofx]

Swap out crit for dmg, you'll see an improvement.

are you saying its better to use passive dmg other than passive crit?

i might aswell try since its free now

[keikali]

Swap out crit for dmg, you'll see an improvement.

5% passive damage over 5% crit?

I know at a certain point crit % might be useless? I read that somewhere on the forums, but with me maintaining a high crit %, I see crits more often from my AoE based attacks then ever.

[Valsacar]

Please read the stickied thread about damage and dps, crit is also tested. 1% crit gives you about 0.35% more overall damage, 1% damage gives exactly 1% more damage. You can test it yourself by using the excel calculator listed in that thread.

[Energizeric]

It only pays to do crit instead of dmg if you have lightning strike skill with the crit upgrade. And even then, its still depends on what other skills you have.