[Dreamspeaker]

DISCLAIMER:

This topic is written by someone who has played as Cosmic magi, fought vs Cosmic magi, observed it under many builds & many circumstances. It is not aimed at anyone in particular (although examples may be used), as much as it is to bring up something on forum-setting that's discussed on Discord a lot.



With that said, let's get into it.

For a very long time, Cosmic has been arguably one of (if not the most) the dominant trees. While good on paper, given the fact that Cosmic magic is appealing to many due to its IC and mechanic, I feel like ever since it has become a public tree, it has seen an incredibly large increase in how often its used - not to mention, it still remains very powerful.

Quite often, I see people who are fairly experienced at the game, and among them the best RPB combatants to even grace this game, all discussing Cosmic magic - and in one united thought, there's one thing that they naturally agree upon unanimously.

Cosmic is busted. Very much so.

And it's for a good reason, too. You can't go wrong by going cosmic. You could dip into it & purchase Cosmic dash, and only use that to ever apply for Cosmic hiddens. In fact, I will make a bold statement that any character can dip into Cosmic just for the dash and it will not harm their build; quite on the contrary, it will boost them a lot. Perhaps I'm wrong, or perhaps I don't see the bigger picture - but after gathering overall consensus of people, comparing different combat results, it's difficult to believe otherwise.

Besides, hasn't the meta shown that's true?

We had Cosmic x Metal pairing.
We had Cosmic x any fire trees/ sub-trees pairing.
We had Cosmic x Nature/ Light pairings.
We had Cosmic x Water.
We had Cosmic x literally any other tree. 

You can slap Cosmic onto any build and that'll boost it by a lot - as someone said, that's the beauty of it, but I also believe that's a vast problem with it.

Given the fact that it dominates the meta so strongly, not to mention the amounts of cheese (talking about you, stun into cosmic beam for 50% HP shred), and the fact that it remained a very dominant tree for over three timeskips (and arguably beyond that, going even unto Spires), perhaps it's time to actually do something about it.

There were several changes that were thrown around. Maybe some of them are too harsh, or too lenient, but I'll re-list them nonetheless.
• Cosmic dash becomes intermediate. You can no longer dip for cosmic dash alone. (Replaced by Invigorate?)
• Cosmic beam does not allow for whip stun/ beam follow up. Stun immunity should trigger; you could walk out of beam about 1/3 way through - you'd be forced to actually have a skill to land such high damage spell (which was kept at such damage because of that skill requirement, mind you) as opposed to becoming the Cheese King and having guaranteed beam.
• Meteor should see either slight damage tone down, or cooldown increase. As it stands, much like beam, it can harm someone a lot; ever since it started to trigger faster with better tracking, it's quite a big menace.

I believe that even with these changes Cosmic would still remain a very dominant, powerful tree - just not as oppressive. Arguably, there are more changes to be made, but these are the most painful things about it that I've noticed.


Leave your upvotes, downvotes, threats, insults, subscriptions and such down below.

[Kyro]

As a cosmic player I completely agree.. The tree was made a public tree for some odd reason despite it being a pretty solid tree with actual IC and lore know how behind it. (You should at least know the bare minimum about cosmic magic lore when using it like.. C'mon.) I do not believe that it should be nerfed but I do believe it should be made an App magic again.

Maybe tone it down a little for example.. Nova ray into whip stun. Nobody likes the fact you can be whipped once and then eat a full nova ray for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and still be hungry. Maybe either tone down nova ray's damage or possibly do what Bog said.

But as I said before, a strong tree (Like holy and Occult mind you!) should be locked behind an app. Especially when it's so lore heavy (Again, like holy and occult!)

Edit: Apping for cosmic is not difficult either.. In fact, it's fun!

[Shadovarn]

Being public or a 'app' tree shouldn't determine the raw power of a tree. The only reason people are realizing how degenerate the tree can be is because it was made public. Moving it to app only just lets people hide behind "But it's app only! You can't know what it does".

Nerf Cosmic into the fucking ground.

[Prestige]

invig as an opener? gross. any buff being an opener is flat out wrong (also allows a diff type of dipping, so...) I’m not opposed to cosmic getting a diff opener, personally, but that shouldn’t be it.

the complaint about the beam is valid but it’s less of a cosmic thing and more of a meta thing that’s happening regardless of cosmic. targeting cosmic for it is wrong, since ultimately, it’s not the reason it’s happening. Whips/bone stun/sand root/metal root/pyro are the spells responsible for that, if anything.

meteor, like most sear spells, is fairly simple to play against and counter. it can get out of hand if you dash in a diag direction towards it, which is something that could use a fix? But beyond that, nothing else. the tracking is awful as is and the spell, ever since spires (and probably before) had the notorious bug where it circles your enemy just to mock you.

There are several better trees than cosmic. Cosmic is more popular than all of them (or just as popular), yes, because of its vast IC directions and even the ties it has into the main history of Esshar.

Now... we can address the elephant in the room and talk about fire instead. I hate it.

[DojaCat]

• Cosmic beam does not allow for whip stun/ beam follow up. Stun immunity should trigger; you could walk out of beam about 1/3 way through - you'd be forced to actually have a skill to land such high damage spell (which was kept at such damage because of that skill requirement, mind you) as opposed to becoming the Cheese King and having guaranteed beam.

a bit out of context but gcde 3x3 stuns like pyro/whip that are stupidly easy to land shouldn't exist in the first place..

[Sandshark]

Cosmic is strong, but this isn't the play. I've gone to round 5 against the majority of the active cosmic magi in Osrona, and I'm really bad at verb and play a suboptimal setup without even 50 perms.

Once you fight enough of them you know what they're about to do and can (usually) bait them out. Even as armed with me accidentally fataling into beam from time to time I still manage to hold up well.

[SilkiyTea]

i mean i just hate cosmic dash. but that is literally purely because i have been KO'd by it more times than i'd like to admit, or count. so it is not a 'its op' thing it is a 'gosh diddly darn i hate it' thing.

kinda like how i hate Illusion flurry...

actually all homings that cant miss are satan and should die. i know that would gimp 3 of my spells but my mind cant be changed.

[InThePooPoo]

macaco

[europeanSavior]

I'd like to add something into this.

Meteor + beam.

It literally half healths anyone. LITERALLY. ANYONE.

I find it fun as fuck to literally explode every single person in existance (that's why I love this tree so much), but I know it's extremely problematic and should've already been nerfed. It's fun to play as, but not fun to play against, and I say this as a filthy cosmic/light user myself

[Sandshark]

I'd like to add something into this.

Meteor + beam.

It literally half healths anyone. LITERALLY. ANYONE.

I find it fun as fuck to literally explode every single person in existance (that's why I love this tree so much), but I know it's extremely problematic and should've already been nerfed. It's fun to play as, but not fun to play against, and I say this as a filthy cosmic/light user myself

It has an arcing trajectory and a deceptively low max range so even thought the combo is good you can make it do 1 or 0 ticks with only a little learning curve by going to the edge or corner of the RPB or by running towards the enemy but a little bit to their left (your right) since it tracks to their right (your left) when it's fired and will swerve around and miss you.

After sparring ~5 times with cosmic magi I've learned how to do it and I'm on a way more even footing with them. Even winning now.