Hailstorm: elite tuning

Received some feedback via Discord on possible changes to Hailstorm elites:

hey jarlyk, sorry for the abruptness if you don't mind, i'd like to give some feedback regarding hailstorm

first off, dark elites are amazing, nowadays i don't really play the game anymore without your mod they serve as a weaker version of celestine, hindering your vision, allowing dangerous enemies to hide beyond your sight, but not as tough as celestine where they make all enemies in an area around them completely invisible, dark elites serve as a decent tier 1 elites

although, i feel like barrier and storm elites need some tweaking for barrier elites, they don't exactly pose much of a threat by themselves, they're tanky, and make everything around then tankier, which can make things scary, but the issue is with the numbers most often than not, you can kill them fast enough before they give enemies around them any barrier. if they're in a position with no enemies around them, they pose 0 threat, and are essentially slightly tankier normal enemies. the rate at which they give enemies barrier is too slow as well, 10% each 5 seconds is too long, and your damage rushes down most regular enemies before they can get the barrier, it's only really threatening against bosses, but then if you kill the barrier elite the barrier will slowly go down so it doesn't really do much. they serve as just weaker versions of the other elite enemies, as i'd rather get barrier elites over blazing or overloading, because those two pose so much of a bigger threat. they're way too situational, only being threatening inside a large group of enemies, but at the point where such huge amount of enemies can spawn, your damage is most often than not strong enough to kill them relatively fast, rendering their barrier ability not do much.

i suggest some of the following: greatly increase the rate at which they give enemies around them barrier, slightly decrease their hp, and give their barrier a cap, something from 50% hp to 75% hp. main idea is that while the barrier elites are there, enemies around them become extremely tedious to kill, and gain huge amounts of barrier in a short amount of time, forcing you to focus all fire towards the barrier elite. slightly less hp to make them easier and faster to kill since they're only a tier 1 elite and since their barrier ability is buffed. same reason for the max barrier cap.

alternatively, you could not give them a cap or not decrease their hp, might slightly increase it instead, and then make them a tier 2 elite instead since the elites themselves do not gain barrier, it shouldn't put you in scenarios with the increased barrier gain where everything will outbarrier your damage, since you can kill the elite and the barriers will get shut down

as for storm elites, i feel like they need a big buff

when comparing storm elites to malachite elites, they feel completely inferior, especially for a tier 2 elite. the tornadoes are a very great idea, but by the time you reach them, they do not really affect you at all while malachite elites drop spikes you can run into, dealing very great damage and completely nullifying all healing, storm's elites' tornadoes send you flying, but their issue is that this far into a run, a single hoppo feather shuts them down, you will not recieve any falling damage from the tornadoes, and since the tornado is constantly spinning you around, it's also very hard for ranged enemies to land any shots at you, not mentioning some chars like merc or loading being able to just escape easily the only time they are threatening is when you're in an enclosed space, but that's extremely rare in this game regarding all maps

tier 2 elites should be extremely threatening and should make you want to stay away from them, similarly to how goosebump inducing malachite elites are. as it is right now, storm elites are a really nice concept, but when you see them you do not feel scared at all, nor do you try to avoid them, since they don't pose any threat and aren't competent run enders. they lack firepower.

thus i suggest some of the following: make tornadoes deal damage ticks as you are inside them, you can tweak their damage and make the damage ticks not lethal as to not let them be unfair. give the elites a unique debuff similar to malachite elites. they can be applied on attacks and when you touch a tornado. since their theme is wind, the debuff can be "light".

light debuff: lasts for 20 seconds. increases your jump height by 200%, fall damage is now lethal, fall damage is multiplied by 200%. nullifies all extra jumps(ex:merc, hoppo feather). nullifies fall damage resistance (ex:loader/headstompers). numbers can be tweaked, so no need to stick by mine

idea is that they're "wind" elites. wind makes you lighter, and makes you extremely susceptible to fall damage, that way storm elites become very scary and a force to recon with. touching a tornado should be just as bad as touching a malachite enemy's spike, most often than not ending your run if your hp is not high enough. as it is right now tornadoes aren't a threat.

alternatively, the debuff could be "heavy" instead. although this doesn't match the theme, and could be used for another elite idea heavy debuff: lasts for 10 seconds. decreases jump height. fall damage is now lethal. fall damage is multiplied by 200%. nullifies extra jumps and fall damage resistance.

main idea is that by the end of the tornado, if your hp is not high enough, you will fall to your death, making you stay away from the elites as much as possible and become more cautious of them. if you run into the tornadoes at high hp you will survive the fall but might land in a dangerous position with lots of enemies around at low hp and little ability to jump. also really sorry for the walls of text.

Jarlyk / JarlykMods

Hailstorm: elite tuning #51