Elementyle

The Water Set. The bane of my existence. Not really, but seriously, out of all sets, this one has gotten the most attention from a design perspective. That said, third time’s the charm, right?

The #1 issue that has continued to plague the Water set is the set effect activation: Flow. In its second iteration, the effect felt better when trying to activate it but with only a single piece using the effect, it felt bad and so did the rest of the set. Most of the power in the Water set came from generic effects that could realistically be found in any other set. This redesign attempts to put more emphasis on the newly reworked Flow mechanic, which works very similarly to before.

Old Effect Activation: Activates when a piece consumes the first, last, or no mana when taking an action.

New Effect Activation: Activates when any piece consumes the first, last, or no mana when taking an action. All Flow effects have an affinity Full, New, and Eclipse corresponding to each condition respectively. Flow effects can only trigger once per turn per piece.

Whereas the old activation relied on the piece which had the Flow effect taking the action, the new system will trigger any time the mana requirement is met. To compensate, Flow effects now have a type affinity (Full = First Mana Crystal; New = Last Mana Crystal; Eclipse = No mana spent on action) that determines when they activate. All Flow effects are now also limited to triggering once per turn per piece.

In addition to the Flow change and the one (technically 2) piece(s) that were previously designed with Flow, a few pieces had their effect activators replaced with Flow. This should make successful play with Water significantly more dependent on proper Flow management, and while likely increase the general skill range for Water, this change is likely better overall for Water and the game as a whole. That said, onto the piece changes and new releases.

Changed Pieces

The first piece that got touched in this update is Surge. While the effects themselves of the piece are unchanged, the primary effect trigger has been altered. Previously, Surge was extremely easy to use and because of the additional freedom of the Advance effect trigger, this piece felt a bit stronger than it should be for 1 mana. To adjust this, the Advance ability trigger has been changed to Flow (New).

Undertow, the only piece to originally have a Flow effect, had no changes except for getting a designation for flow type (in this case Full).

Shimmering Tide was in a strange place with its effect structure and had a difficult time finding synergy. To try to rectify this, the Hold effect trigger has been changed to Flow (Eclipse).

Wrath of the Drowned is likely at the top of the list for pieces being watched currently for Water. The only change to this piece was a slight buff in the Fortify effect which now refunds 2 mana up from 1.

New Pieces

Rounding out the Water set has been an unusually large undertaking from a design perspective. This set has had more design issues than every other set combined. The goal for Drop of Living Water was to give a solid replacement for Surge which, even after the nerf, is likely still on the higher end of piece power for 1 mana pieces.

To give the Water set a little more offensive capability, Primal Spirit: Hswartaai fills a particular strategic lack for Water, but the 3 mana cost and unique restrictions should make the piece fit well with other designs.

Tidesage Oseptes gives a more complex and unique gameplay angle for the Water set to take, with a primary focus on helping the Eclipse aspect of Flow.

To round out the Water set, and to hopefully capstone many of the big design changes, Cyy, Water Incarnate offers an amplification to the rest of the set. Arguably, Cyy may be one of the strongest Signature pieces as of now.

Closing Thoughts

The Water set is the top priority for design oversight at this time. There are likely a number of pieces to be reworked across all sets, but this set is just problematic. If I’m being entirely honest, if this change doesn’t work the Water set will be scrapped and reworked, barring minor tweaks and adjustments.