Snazz up Cryo

[parcel]

Because of T2 tradition and because the trees aren't supposed to be clones. Water can either get some type variety and use decent spell formats or it can become yet another monotonic elemental tree that sucks because it doesn't get the basic boring but functional rays, cones, and balls.

The trees aren't supposed to be clones, but they should all have a low cooldown beam in the first slot and there's no other way to make it work? I'm not arguing for the removal of all bolts and beams and cones and balls, just for a different way of setting things up so that the tree is not built around yet another beam as its low-cooldown low-cost damaging spell, and is perhaps more reliant on ball attacks than usual. I do want water to play less like a clone of the other unlocked elemental trees, and that's an important sense in which we do not want to clone all aspects of gameplay. Type variety makes trees sufficiently effective? I'm not sure what you mean there, or whether you are using 'type variety' in a way that I can't quite interpret. But I see plenty of non-ray, non-ball, non-cone attacks that are interesting and fit into the context of developing a particular class -- or in the case of archmage, a particular damage subspecialty within a class. Some might need rebalancing in cost, cooldown, damage or casting time, but they have a proper place in the tree.

What is the nature of tradition from T2 when much of the design scheme and lore is no longer a part of the current game? When should we respect it and when shouldn't we?

[Atarlost]

Because of T2 tradition and because the trees aren't supposed to be clones. Water can either get some type variety and use decent spell formats or it can become yet another monotonic elemental tree that sucks because it doesn't get the basic boring but functional rays, cones, and balls.

The trees aren't supposed to be clones, but they should all have a low cooldown beam in the first slot and there's no other way to make it work? I'm not arguing for the removal of all bolts and beams and cones and balls, just for a different way of setting things up so that the tree is not built around yet another beam as its low-cooldown low-cost damaging spell, and is perhaps more reliant on ball attacks than usual. I do want water to play less like a clone of the other unlocked elemental trees, and that's an important sense in which we do not want to clone all aspects of gameplay. Type variety makes trees sufficiently effective? I'm not sure what you mean there, or whether you are using 'type variety' in a way that I can't quite interpret. But I see plenty of non-ray, non-ball, non-cone attacks that are interesting and fit into the context of developing a particular class -- or in the case of archmage, a particular damage subspecialty within a class. Some might need rebalancing in cost, cooldown, damage or casting time, but they have a proper place in the tree.

What is the nature of tradition from T2 when much of the design scheme and lore is no longer a part of the current game? When should we respect it and when shouldn't we?

Every tree with pretensions of being a viable path needs a low cooldown bolt or beam. Nothing else has the single target damage to make the early game viable while being low enough power to be put in the tier one slot. A cryomancer should not need to rely on fire bolts. And if any two trees should get beams rather than bolts they're water and air. Because hydro-cannons and lightning bolts are beams.

Type variety is a way to make water different without making it weak. A tree with split types is both harder to resist and harder to stack bonuses for. The physical/cold split becomes an inherent quirk of the path and the cute but nonfunctional stuff like Ice Shards can go away in favor of abilities that actually work but that are "boring."

Fire is the strongest elemental tree because it has a no nonsense beam, a no nonsense cone, and a no nonsense ball. You don't have to worry about someone walking out of the area of effect of fireflash before taking full damage like with aether breach or aether beam or glacial vapor or flameshock bouncing the wrong way like chain lightning or flame missing because your target moved towards you diagonally instead of orthogonally or visa versa like ice shards. They're easy to understand and reliable and therefore never wind up with odd weaknesses where they only work well in one tile corridors or any such nonsense.

[Sradac]

you should make Geyser a ranged cone. Sorry but I cant see a jet of water going through something, or around it then form back into a beam.

Fires a "beam" (really a bolt but it looks like a beam) at a target, when it hits water splashes into a cone targeting the direction you targeted.

It will make it both cool and unique! Beams are for noobs