Storm Caller Lightning Rotation

To be clear which monster this topic is about, I’ve taken a screenshot of it.

The Storm Caller enemy is a pretty decent enemy in my opinion. They have a good amount of health, but not too much, their attacks are telegraphed pretty well (could probably use a few more distinct attacks but that’s a different discussion :wink: ), and they do decent damage when you fail them. Ultimately, I think they are a great monster to fight, except for one key problem.

The lightning strikes they attack with are linked to their rotation. I don’t think this is really fun to deal with, and in terms of transparency it feels deceptive. A minor change can influence the rotation of the monster quickly and then that can line up the lightning strike to hit you despite you actively avoiding it, as at the last second the rules changed.

It looks like the game picks a random direction off of their body, and then spawns the lightning AoE off of that chosen direction but still attached to their body. This results in the direction being linked to the Storm Caller’s rotation. If the Storm Caller turns 90 degrees, the lightning strike will turn 90 degrees as well.

For example, the Storm Caller walks towards you directly towards the east on the screen (it is facing east). A lightning strike starts to spawn from it, aimed south. Then, the Storm Caller is forced to turn 90 degrees to its left, causing it to face the north. At the same time, the lightning AoE will rotate with it and now be facing to the east. My feedback here is that this last part should not happen.

In my honest opinion, once the lightning strike has started, the rotation should be locked. It is possible to compensate, in theory, when there’s only a few monsters on the screen. However, in reality, during a horde encounter with many enemies, having to juggle not only the AoE but the monster’s rotation as well, is really an exercise in frustration. These attacks do a lot of damage, as they should because they are well telegraphed, but the rotation aspect causes the entire mechanic to flat out be unenjoyable to engage in.

I should be able to weave myself between these AoEs reliably during combat but the reality is that any random situation could cause the Storm Caller to rotate, which completely destroys all knowns about the situation and can directly lead to death. Perhaps it changed its path to me because another monster got in the way, or perhaps something changed its aggro priority. In multiplayer, this can happen for a multitude of reasons, many outside of your control entirely. Also, when you’re the target and the lightning strike spawns in the same direction the Storm Caller is facing, you’re basically running from a tracking AoE now as it continues to try and face you.

In practice, I find myself keeping a significant distance from these monsters so that I can handle them without worry. This is me actively disengaging in the primary mode of combat specifically to deal with one monster type, which to me signifies an issue with that monster type, and it all revolves around how this attack operates.

Even if this feedback isn’t acted upon directly, I hope I’ve brought attention to, what I feel is, an issue with this monster. Thanks for reading!

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