Miao Ying - Lighting/Storm Abilities, TWW3

bcs10#3410

Just to get the ball rolling, regarding Miao Ying's stats shown earlier today from the Cathay units' stats presentation, is it possible that levelling up Miao further might allow you to unlock more of her special dragon abilities pertaining to her control of the element of storms/lighting, which would obviously be placed on the bottom left-hand corner adjacent to her already unlocked 'Wrath of the Storm'? Someone from CA might hopefully answer this query, but if this is the case I think that would be an awesome approach in which you get to unlock new special abilities when progressing through the game as her.

My reason for this query is that she has really cool set of spells (e.g. nights of talon) but these spells can also be accessed by some of the other Cathayan spellcasters and Shegengan lords, and thus aside from transforming into a dragon and enhanced stats Miao Ying would not really be distinguished then from the generic Cathay lords and heroes. I am aware she does not have a breath attack as a dragon (as shown by the absence of missile range and damage stats), but she can in human form still manipulate lighting (when stationary stance).

Nonetheless, looking forward to playing as Cathay when the game is released next year! Dragon up!

LennoxPoodle#1380

I doubt there will be anything beyond the stuff shown. All the characters had a lot of passive and active abilities, including full spells and Arcane Conduit. This indicates that what we saw are the fully decked out versions. Usually Skill Trees don't give actives beyond the ones selectable in quick match.

Jam#4399

Does her dragon form have melee animation on ground wherein it uses its legs?

misunderstoodvampire#7653

She is a storm dragon that “demands sacrifice” of her people but she has healing spells instead of lightning spells. So stupid. It doesn’t fit her theme or personality at all

bcs10#3410

Thanks LennoxPoodle. You are probably right on that matter. The thought behind the query was partly based on how certain legendary lords can access special abilities, skills, and/or spells unique only to them later in the game when improving the character, those of which are usually placed on the second and/or third rows of the skill tree. Particularly examples like Lord Mazdamundi's unique bound spell 'Ruination of Cities', which I believe you have to level your character up for to eventually obtain and only he can use. Then again, Malus Darkblade is a contrast to this format wherein he gets most of his special abilities at the start (his daemon-possessed counterpart Tzarkan).

misunderstoodvampire it would be a bit of a bummer if she cant use lighting spells/powers, but I do see the logic of why she has the lore of life. As I recall, most dragons in Chinese mythology were water-based entities, namely the power to control rainfall, droughts, floods, storms, and typhoons, and thus were heavily connected to the cultural practices and festivities surrounding the emergence of the spring season and harvest period. Hence, life being tied to the renewal or regeneration of life and continual growth/prosperity. However, as we are dealing with the warhammer world, the emphasis of the cathayan dragons is that they are "inspired" by their Chinese counterparts rather than literal imitations. Thus, from a thematic perspective, the lore of life (as well as the lore of Yin) suits well with Miao Ying if it functions as a nice interplay with her potential offensive and damage-dealing storm/lighting abilities, the power of life and death so to speak. Pretty much in lining with your comment where Miao requires the sacrifice of her people, or the 'life' and 'blood' of her human subjects.

Hopefully CA might answer here or in a future blog. But if Miao only has the lores of Yin and Life, then I guess the extent of her powers as 'Master of the Storm Winds' is a fancy way of saying she can make a good weather forecast! I can only imagine what that might be for her sibling dragon in the south in a future DLC as the reputed lord of fire (master of rubbing two sticks together to produce a flame).

T_MACCABBEE

jamreal18 said:

Does her dragon form have melee animation on ground wherein it uses its legs?

Nope, she instead clips through the ground when attacking. You can see this in the chokepoint battle with the ogres.

T_MACCABBEE

I'm honestly not very impressed with miao ying's lore selection.



Her only direct damage is talons of night.

bcs10#3410

T_MACCABBEE I see your view when looking at these spells as the entirety of her powers. I actually like the selection and do not mind it but this selection would be practically ideal if it was combined with her lighting/storm powers. Hence my original query posted as to whether she has any further bound lighting/storm abilities that are unlocked later in the game and thus located on the bottom left corner of the screen with her dragon transformation and wrath of the storms. Although as LennoxPoodle pointed out, her stats reveal from the recent gameplay demos may well be presenting the entirety or the majority of her skill and spell set.

6nieve6

I'd give her a lighting range attack while on foot, like a doomwheel

T_MACCABBEE

bcs10 said:

T_MACCABBEE I see your view when looking at these spells as the entirety of her powers. I actually like the selection and do not mind it but this selection would be practically ideal if it was combined with her lighting/storm powers. Hence my original query posted as to whether she has any further bound lighting/storm abilities that are unlocked later in the game and thus located on the bottom left corner of the screen with her dragon transformation and wrath of the storms. Although as LennoxPoodle pointed out, her stats reveal from the recent gameplay demos may well be presenting the entirety or the majority of her skill and spell set.

From a meta perspective her spellset is good, especially considering she's the only one in the entirety of cathay that can heal, but I just don't see miao ying as the support type caster LL. I wish she was a more offensive LL, but it seems that will be Zhao Ming instead.

bcs10#3410

T_MACCABBEE said:
From a meta perspective her spellset is good, especially considering she's the only one in the entirety of cathay that can heal, but I just don't see Miao ying as the support type caster LL. I wish she was a more offensive LL, but it seems that will be Zhao Ming instead.

I definitely agree with you, I never looked at Miao Ying as a support caster LL either. Her having both the lores of Ying and Life (while important) feels like it should be only half of her powers. Lore-wise she is meant to be the strongest or the most powerful of her dragon siblings so her being offensive makes the most sense. Come to think of it, I should have realized earlier but she is presented in the stats video with only half of the spells from the lores of life and ying (e.g. she does not have ancestral warriors) so maybe she was not presented in the video as an entirely fully-decked out version?

Interesting you say that Zhao Ming is possibly offensive-based because I have always thought of him as the more support-type caster LL, albeit geared toward buffing his units' defensive/armour capabilities (such as his dragon ability Warding Iron), despite having access to the more heavily offensive lore of yang.

bcs10#3410

T_MACCABBEE said:
From a meta perspective her spellset is good, especially considering she's the only one in the entirety of cathay that can heal, but I just don't see miao ying as the support type caster LL. I wish she was a more offensive LL, but it seems that will be Zhao Ming instead.

T_MACCABBEE I definitely agree with you, I never looked at Miao Ying as a support caster LL either. Her having both the lores of Ying and life (while important) feels like it should be only half of her powers. Lore-wise, she is meant to be the strongest or the most powerful of her dragon siblings so her being offensive makes the most sense. Come to think of it, I should have realized it earlier but she is presented in the stats video with only half of the spells from the lores of Ying and life (e.g. she does not have ancestral warriors) so maybe she was not presented in the video as a fully-decked out figure?

Interesting you say that Zhao Ming is possibly offensive-based because I have always thought of him as a more support-type caster LL, albeit geared toward buffing his units' defensive capabilities (such as his proficiency in alchemy and his unique dragon ability Warding Iron), despite having access to the heavily offensive-based lore of Yang as well.

T_MACCABBEE

bcs10 said:

T_MACCABBEE said:
From a meta perspective her spellset is good, especially considering she's the only one in the entirety of cathay that can heal, but I just don't see miao ying as the support type caster LL. I wish she was a more offensive LL, but it seems that will be Zhao Ming instead.

T_MACCABBEE I definitely agree with you, I never looked at Miao Ying as a support caster LL either. Her having both the lores of Ying and life (while important) feels like it should be only half of her powers. Lore-wise, she is meant to be the strongest or the most powerful of her dragon siblings so her being offensive makes the most sense. Come to think of it, I should have realized it earlier but she is presented in the stats video with only half of the spells from the lores of Ying and life (e.g. she does not have ancestral warriors) so maybe she was not presented in the video as a fully-decked out figure?

Interesting you say that Zhao Ming is possibly offensive-based because I have always thought of him as a more support-type caster LL, albeit geared toward buffing his units' defensive capabilities (such as his proficiency in alchemy and his unique dragon ability Warding Iron), despite having access to the heavily offensive-based lore of Yang as well.

Mixed lore LLs tend to not get the whole lore from either school of magic afaik.

bcs10#3410

6nieve6 said:

I'd give her a lighting range attack while on foot, like a doomwheel

Yea, I had not thought of that, good thinking! Manipulating lighting as her particular attack moveset when engaged in combat, a little bit like Thor or Raiden from MK.

busbee247#5862

I mean a lord that is a sem with healing is super good. I'm not sold on the theming but I'm sure she'll be good in mp barring extreme cost.

bcs10#3410

T_MACCABBEE yea, your right, I have forgotten about that element, like Teclis, which would make it all the more vital for Miao Ying to have a mixed lore set consisting of life, YIng, and lighting/storm.

This might be a silly question to ask and either you (or someone else posting on this forum can answer), but as this is my second forum topic post and being new to the TW forum, does CA's community team usually respond to this kind of topic or only the most salient ones concerned. It is not a criticism, just curiosity.

busbee247#5862

bcs10 said:

T_MACCABBEE yea, your right, I have forgotten about that element, like Teclis, which would make it all the more vital for Miao Ying to have a mixed lore set consisting of life, YIng, and lighting/storm.

This might be a silly question to ask and either you (or someone else posting on this forum can answer), but as this is my second forum topic post and being new to the TW forum, does CA's community team usually respond to this kind of topic or only the most salient ones concerned. It is not a criticism, just curiosity.

From what I've seen ca pretty rarely directly addresses these forums, typically the community team is pretty active on their discord server however

bcs10#3410

epic_162578572945FgdWSzp Yea, I think so too, a nice supporting contrast to her offensive capabilities. Hoping she has a mix of spells (Life and Ying) and possible bound abilities (lighting/storm).

bcs10#3410

epic_162578572945FgdWSzp said:

bcs10 said:

T_MACCABBEE yea, your right, I have forgotten about that element, like Teclis, which would make it all the more vital for Miao Ying to have a mixed lore set consisting of life, YIng, and lighting/storm.

This might be a silly question to ask and either you (or someone else posting on this forum can answer), but as this is my second forum topic post and being new to the TW forum, does CA's community team usually respond to this kind of topic or only the most salient ones concerned. It is not a criticism, just curiosity.

From what I've seen ca pretty rarely directly addresses these forums, typically the community team is pretty active on their discord server however

Oh cool, cheers, much appreciated. I might try that approach. Is that on Discord.com?

I not one of those who send constant complaints. I'm just really glad that CA has given us the TWW fantasy trilogy, and for them to have created Cathay and its world is a huge undertaking in itself, so I really appreciate their hard work and effort (especially under covid stress).