2-Piece Bonus
The 2-piece bonus has the potential to change how Windwalkers AOE a bit, although it is heavily dependent on tuning to do so. Depending on the damage that it does, there's a chance that it pushes
神鹤引项踢 behind
旭日东升踢 even in AOE.
旭日东升踢 is already high in the priority for single target, so if this tier set also damage the target you hit with
旭日东升踢 (it should) then this will be a small increase where it is much needed. Some of the problems with its potential is that if its not strong enough then it becomes useless as you still won't cast
旭日东升踢 very much in AOE except maybe immediately after
怒雷破 because of the
雪怒的战甲 increased crit buff. If it is strong enough then pushing
神鹤引项踢 further down in the priority will mean we may not consider using
骨尘酒 even in AOE. This may mean that the "AOE" and "ST" builds look very similar, if not identical. The success of this tier set will live and die by how much damage it does, it could either be almost useless or dramatically change how we AOE, with very little in between.
Personally, the fact that its a random proc drives me crazy as Windwalker continues to be pushed into a more RNG-heavy spec. This means that you could prioritize abilities based on getting the proc, not getting the proc, or the average in between. Generally we go for the average, but it does mean that if you have 2 Chi to spend and you use
旭日东升踢 instead of
神鹤引项踢 and you don't get the proc, its likely you should have used
神鹤引项踢 instead. That doesn't feel good without any way to control it. There's also the usual conditions of wondering whether
风火雷电 will also copy the nova or will the tier set do less damage when
风火雷电 is up.
4-Piece Bonus
The 4-piece bonus is a real puzzler. The first puzzling choice is that it procs off of auto-attacks, which is something that Windwalkers have, historically, done less or worse than just about any other melee spec and even some tanks. Windwalker has
神鹤引项踢 and
怒雷破 that stop auto-attacks. The proc rate should be adjusted for the limited chances, but it's just a very weird design choice to focus on. The next bizarre choice is that it creates a Shadowflame spirit that duplicates abilities, seemingly a mechanic similar to
风火雷电. The problem is that the history of Windwalker has been full of situations where
风火雷电 has bugs or reduces the effectiveness of other effects. How strong this bonus is will depend entirely on the tuning, whether it works correctly, and when it happens.
Like my opinion of the 2-piece, the fact that this 4-piece is completely out of player control just feels antithetical to the design foundation of Windwalker, even though realistically Windwalker has been a heavily RNG-dependent spec for the past few years. Proccing off auto-attacks doesn't make any sense when considering Windwalker's relationship with auto-attacks over the years; there's a reason some tanks get more value out of
风怒图腾 than Windwalkers. Lastly, it's the 3rd tier set in a row that is "3 empowered casts" after something happens. Sepulcher was 3 empowered casts after 10 abilities, Vault was 3 empowered
旭日东升踢/
神鹤引项踢 after a
怒雷破, and now Aberrus is 3 empowered abilities on a random proc. The Vault bonus was something predictable but didn't really change how we played, the Sepulcher bonus could change how you played and was predictable, the Abberus bonus can't change how we play because its unpredictable.