The Sinister Design Forums

After notable amounts of testing the elemental blasts' damages, I began to wonder what the strongest affinity was. I'll keep my conclusions to themselves, and intead offer the information I discovered, and let you all discuss:

All of the elemental blast attacks are Damage=Power+3*Skill+2 EXCEPT shadow, which is Damage=Power+2*Skill+3. However, shadow blast costs one psp less, (6 instead of 7)
Area attacks are as follows:
CyroCross:
OOXOO                       Damage=Power+1.5*Skill+3
OXXXO                       (cost 13)
XXMXX
OXXXO
OOXOO

PryoHail
OOXOO                       Damage=Power+1.4*Skill+1    (Unsure of the 1.4, but it is definately not 1.5)
OXXXO                       (cost 12)
OOXOO
OOMOO

DarkVortex
OXXXO                       Damage=Power+Skill+2
OXXXO                       (cost 16)
OXXXO
OOMOO

LightBomb
OXXXO                       Damage=Power+Skill+2
OXXXO                       (cost 18)
OXXXO
OOOOO
OOOOO
OOMOO

i think everyone picks cold just because of the cryo cross

I believe that Shadow Affinity is the most useful since we haven't seen any enemies other than Spriggats and Shadowling Loyalists with that affinity. (So far, we have seen these enemies only in the map editor, mind you.)

well, i have another question-What's the weakest affinity?
I had hoped to get a few more responses before bringing this up, but I want Craig to realize my conclusion before the downloadable demo comes out

i think the weakest affinity is pyro
because the strgonest move for that element is pyro hail and it hardly does anything

Technically, or at least hopefully, all the affinities should be balanced. They're all useful in different situations. Neither should be "stronger" or "weaker" than another. Cyro Cross can potentially deal the most damage out of the four area-effect spells, but you need to be in the center of an enemy formation to get the most out of it, since it centers on the Hero, as opposed to being able to blast things from afar, like with the other elemental skills. Pyro Hail has the smallest area-of-effect, but also the lowest cost, etc. While it's true that they may end up unbalanced, it's still possible to run into something that's resistant to that element, in which case its usefulness diminishes greatly.

With that in mind, I do admit that Shadow skills dealing less damage does bug me and does seem to make things a bit unbalanced.

What would be interesting is if other characters had affinities of their own; that way you'd be prepared for multiple situations, instead of the main character being the only one with elemental skills.

the affinities line up as:
1. Light/Cold-about tied, one could make a case for either
2. Shadow-a little weaker-just make shadow blast the same as the other blasts, and it will be tied
3. Pyro-Weakest By Far
Pryos have the weakest EAA. Also, the ability to grant Fire resistance will only help against the Fawaz Gorge boss assuming that Craig makes a boss with each affinity, and will only have about one for each. While this is more of a guess, I doubt anybody uses fire affinity

I agree with mikew781 in points 1,2&3.
I usually prefer Light. I find it safer to bomb my enemies for far away.
Since I like to play with friendly fire on, the cold affinity is the hardest one to use.

Yay-according to the Twitter, Craig has changed the equation for Pyro Hail damage to 2*Skill instead of 1.4*skill. Now all he needs to do is make Shadow Blast the same as the other three elemental blasts, and the affinities will balance perfectly.

Ah, that's good. So basically, fire has a smaller range, but deals more damage. (Technically, that actually makes less sense seeing that fire spreads so easily, but whatever) I hope that he balances Shadow next...

By the way, has Craig said anything about adding elemental weaknesses? Right now, using elemental attacks is essentially a disadvantage, since the only enemy modifiers are immunity and resistance.

I actually think Light Bomb is really useful.
I also think Cyro Cross is useful.
I think Dark Vortex is also useful but has low damage sometimes.
Pyro Hail? I don't actually like it though when it hits it can sometimes do decent damage.

I'd prefer Light or Cold.  ;)

We'll just have to see how pyro hail turns out with the new damage formula Craig gave it.
I'll still take Cryo Cross. Great damage, perfect for the one-man-army I like to create, and looks awesome to boot.^^

All of them have to be the most useful. Shadow is awesome and so is Light! Cold is awesome too but i don't really think Heat is awesome. I prefer Light because i think its the AWESOMEST!

I prefer shadow, merely because I think it looks the best.

I wish they made the Pyro Hail area a bit bigger so it was usefu,its easy to guess my affinity look at my name. :'( :'(

please keep it PG
but i agree
btw, didn't you ask what the games were like, yesterday?

try to control the language please. there are young people in these forums to

Why does everyone like Light Bomb so much?

Probably because it has the longest range, or maybe the coolest sound effect, I wouldn't know. I voted shadow, so I don't know from experience, except for the "longest range" part.

Cold and Shadow are my favourites.  I find Pyro Hail to be somewhat un-useful, and Light Bomb costs too much PsP for me.

Light bomb does cost alot of psp.However, the range makes up for it

Quote from: KAMISAMA on June 09, 2010, 04:07:38 PM
Light bomb does cost alot of psp.However, the range makes up for it

I agree besides my psp is high enough it wont matter.

Shadow because it looks really really cool.

Yeah, truth is, when I took the test, I didn't know about the affinities and I ended up with Cryo. Personally, I don't know if that's a good thing because I've never been strong enough to learn Cryo Cross.