Gara's Splinter Storm needs a smoother method to refresh

[Hexerin]

Currently, the ability is refreshed in one of two ways:

• If one of the mirrors spawned by Spectrorage shatters while inside the radius of Splinter Storm.
  • For obvious reasons, this is not going to happen the overwhelming majority of the time.
  • Considering this is the skill you subsume away, many Garas won't even have this option.
• Upon casting Mass Vitrify.
  • Only upon initial cast, not upon solidifying the wall nor upon shattering it.

In both cases, the refresh is just... not smooth. You can't even control Spectrorage's refresh, so it's not even really worth discussing to be honest. Meanwhile for Mass Vitrify, you're expending a massive amount of energy to refresh your Splinter Storm (because you're also going to want to smack the wall with Shattered Lash, for obvious reasons).

I've been playing Gara on and off quite extensively, and refreshing Splinter Storm is pretty much the singular thing about her that feels less than awesome. The entire rest of her gameplay feels amazing, and is extremely satisfying. Hell, even her sound effects are incredible. I just wish there was a better way to refresh Splinter Storm.

So here's a non-exhaustive list of possibilities that could be considered:

• Upon striking an enemy with Shattered Lash, refresh Splinter Storm.
  • If an enemy is killed, additionally add 50% of Shattered Lash's damage to Splinter Storm.
• If an enemy is killed with Astilla, refresh Splinter Storm.
  • Add 50% of Astilla's modded damage to Splinter Storm?
• If an enemy is killed with Fusilai, refresh Splinter Storm.
  • Add 50% of Fusilai's modded damage to Splinter Storm?
• If an enemy is killed with Volnus, refresh Splinter Storm.
  • Add 50% of Volnus's modded damage to Splinter Storm?
• Allow recasting of Splinter Storm while it is already active, to refresh its duration.
  • Maintains current damage value.

[Nekomian]

14 minutes ago, Hexerin said:

Upon casting Mass Vitrify.

• Only upon initial cast, not upon solidifying the wall nor upon shattering it.

Just to add to this - sometimes the initial cast doesn't even refresh it, most noticeably when you're in the air and casting (my best guess would be it's due to janky molten glass hitboxes as they expand outward not interacting with Gara, since their contact refreshes allies' durations and I presume it's coded the same way for the caster) , requiring a double cast to properly refresh it.

It really needs something more consistent or better than this current system, I like the ideas proposed of either recasting it with current stacked damage or having shattered lash interact with it in such a way.

[BiancaRoughfin]

So you want to make a skill that has infinite scaling damage be easier to scale damage?

[sunderthefirmament]

8 minutes ago, BiancaRoughfin said:

So you want to make a skill that has infinite scaling damage be easier to scale damage?

I think it's more about making the frame fun to play.  Gara is many things, but she is not fun, not if you're trying to maximize her damage.  There's a ridiculous dance to perform to maintain this endlessly scaling damage.  DE did streamline it a bit, but she's still too fiddly.  Too much platespinning going on.

 

Yes, obviously fun is subjective.  But I don't see a lot of Garas, and her usage stats aren't what I would call high (0.72 and 0.32 for her prime and base frame, respectively, according to the 2022 stats).

 

She's also got the whole statstick thing going against her, which when combined with the obnoxious FOMO of her infinitely scaling damage leads me to believe that she should get a rework.  There are a lot of frames in line ahead of her of course, but Gara is still in a miserable, if powerful state.  Frames that are miserable to play with abilities as clunky as Gara's should get reworks.

[_Anise_]

14 hours ago, Hexerin said:

If one of the mirrors spawned by Spectrorage shatters while inside the radius of Splinter Storm.

woah I didn't even know this! does that count to enemies you cast splinter storm on ? you could drop the circle then cast it on a bunch of them inside ?

14 hours ago, Hexerin said:

Upon casting Mass Vitrify.

would be better if it was after casting? if if the timer continuously refreshed while casting as to not waste any

anyway I use a really high duration gara build, if you are just doing what gara does, drop wall, glass enemies break wall and repeat keeping one eye on buff  it really becomes a none issue to keep up, the only issues I do run into are energy drain enemies or nullification units really spoiling the day

[Nekomian]

16 hours ago, BiancaRoughfin said:

So you want to make a skill that has infinite scaling damage be easier to scale damage?

I dunno about others' intents, but I just want the skill to actually work / refresh properly and feel better - randomly losing the stack you've been keeping up consistently all session because it feels like not refreshing, despite you using mass vitrify, does not feel good.

The additional damage stacking additions wouldn't hurt, since the current strat is to just take a statstick and rush to 1m+ damage anyways; it would just give a nice alternative to something that can already be done without the weird weapon restrictions, which is a separate conversation about statsticks but that I wish they'd rework or do away with.

If it becomes an issue they could honestly just cap the threshold you receive on splinter storm per hit or glass shatter, but honestly the ability takes so long to stack in normal gameplay scenarios compared to just hitting an enemy with other weapons or abilities that I don't see it as an issue.

[Hexerin]

18 hours ago, BiancaRoughfin said:

So you want to make a skill that has infinite scaling damage be easier to scale damage?

I'll go ahead and let a certain legend take care of this response for me, since he puts it best.

[BiancaRoughfin]

20 hours ago, sunderthefirmament said:

I think it's more about making the frame fun to play.

Problem with Gara is most of her kit isnt engaging, its mostly standing in place casting Mass Vitrify and shattering it with her Shattered Lash, even if you try making her a bit more mobile with Splinter Storm, it still revolves around constantly casting Mass Vitrify and shattering it to refresh the duration on Splinter Storm and add more damage.

OP`s suggestion wont make Gara Fun, it will make her basically a Octavia`s Mallet and playing with her will just make the game trivial. Her Splinter Storm already grants practically 90% damage reduction and amplifies damage done to enemies, the AoE per second effect`s damage is broken because it has no cap and OP`s suggestion would allow her damage to scale up faster and her maintain the skill active infinitely.

3 hours ago, Hexerin said:

Spoiler

 

Shame on you if you need a Xitter meme to do the counter argument for you and its still invalid.