I think it's fine as it is. With enough fury and well slotted it will take out minions in one hit.
It's a quite powerful aoe attack and you don't actually have to be near the targets to use it.
Now if they wanna lower the recharge without lessening the damage onit, go for it. But i really doubt they make it faster without altering the damage.
I'd argue that the second damage tick should have an equal radius to the first tick.
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I believe that better comparisons would include other AoE's,|
Originally Posted by Paradigm_Shift
"But wait," you might say. Lightning Rod is an AoE attack. So although other tier-9 attacks may outdamage it by a marginal amount, Lightning Rod is dealing damage to every enemy on the field rather than just one. The problem with that is the fact that foot stomp has a 20 second recharge and does roughly a third/half of the damage capable of being delivered by attacks like seismic smash, knockout blow, energy transfer and total focus.
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(Edit Below)
From Brute Primaries:
SuperStrength Tier9: Footstomp. (PBAoE)
ElectricMelee Tier9: Lightning Rod. (PBAoE) (Lower damage cap, due to being like a pet summon)
Stone Melee Tier9: Tremor (PBAoE)
Fire Melee Tier 8: Fire Sword Circle (PBAoE)
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Yes, this please. Lightning Rod should be brought in line with Shield Charge.
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Originally Posted by Cynical_Gamer
I'd argue that the second damage tick should have an equal radius to the first tick.
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Lightning Rod is the only one with a 16 target cap, though.
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Originally Posted by BBQ_Pork
I believe that better comparisons would include other AoE's,
(Edit Below) From Brute Primaries: SuperStrength Tier9: Footstomp. (PBAoE) ElectricMelee Tier9: Lightning Rod. (PBAoE) (Lower damage cap, due to being like a pet summon) Stone Melee Tier9: Tremor (PBAoE) Fire Melee Tier 8: Fire Sword Circle (PBAoE) |
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This is true. The others, being melee class PBAoEs, have a 10 target cap. |
Originally Posted by Weatherby Goode
Lightning Rod is the only one with a 16 target cap, though.
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Lightning Rod has the same cap as a blaster, defender, or corruptor nuke. It can do enough damage to 1 shot most of a spawn, just like a nuke. It recharges faster than ANY nuke. And, it DOESN'T kill your entire end bar, unlike all but 2 1/2 nukes (the half being Thunderous Blast, it DOES kill the end bar, but has the chance to give you endurance back, which usually fires at least once or twice on a spawn)
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
The defender version of TB, at least, does not have an end gain.. So it's only the 2 nuke-lite powers that don't zero your end.
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That's odd. My wife's Electric/Electric blaster almost always has a sliver of end left after firing his nuke. It's just barely enough to jump in and hit Power Sink and keep toggles active for another couple seconds without them dropping. |
Originally Posted by Dalantia
The defender version of TB, at least, does not have an end gain.. So it's only the 2 nuke-lite powers that don't zero your end.
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It's not a guarantee though, which is why I said 2 1/2 instead of 3.
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
I've always personally chalked it up to Atlas Medallion. More research may be needed. It's not mentioned in the power help or the real numbers, though.
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One important thing to keep in mind in this type of discussion is that Castle doesn't balance powers against other comparable powers. He balances entire powersets. He intentionally allows outliers to give flavor to a set but tries to make sure that all in all there is rough parity. So often (not always, but often) this type of discussion ends with Castle saying in effect "well, I could certainly improve power X as you're asking me too, but then I'd have to weaken powers Y and Z. You cool with that?"
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Lightning Rod currently has a recharge time of 1 minute and 30 seconds, which isn't bad. It comes up often enough. It also has a chance for knockdown, and who can forget the neat teleport feature?
What annoys me though, is that it has such a long recharge time when other high-end powers from others sets can do higher damage, while either holding or stunning the target, and are available every 20 seconds. With proper slotting, such attacks can become a part of your regular attack chain, which cannot be said for Lightning Rod.
"But wait," you might say. Lightning Rod is an AoE attack. So although other tier-9 attacks may outdamage it by a marginal amount, Lightning Rod is dealing damage to every enemy on the field rather than just one. The problem with that is the fact that foot stomp has a 20 second recharge and does roughly a third/half of the damage capable of being delivered by attacks like seismic smash, knockout blow, energy transfer and total focus.
So my suggestion is:
Shorten the recharge rate on Lightning Rod to either 1 minute or to 45 seconds, and increase its base endurance cost from 13.52 to 20. This allows you to use Lightning Rod much more often, while adding a penalty to using it. Most people would slot it with damage/end rather than damage/recharge like they do now.