Lunar Wendy's identity crisis

[FluffyBun]

Gestalt Abigail had the problem of either being "too powerful", or "too weak" - but nobody mentioned the most important problem with Gestalt Abigail: she is "too uninteresting". Even more uninteresting than base Abigail.

The most "interesting" she had been was when she was able to solo bosses by herself, which is honestly pretty bad compared to Normal Abi's ability to solo hordes of mobs (a far bigger threat) by herself.

I think her current design has too much competition with similar "stat stick" characters, like Wolfgang or Wanda, while Wendy typically has a unique niche of being able to trivialize aspects of combat (rather than making combat faster)

The current problems

Gestalt Abigail can somehow die almost as easily as normal Abigail despite being heavily nerfed as a result. Giving Gestalt Abigail superior mob avoidance when she is not attacking should aid her survivability a bit.

Making Gestalt Abigail more unique

Wendy should not be in direct competition with other "combat" characters. There should be a reason to pick Lunar Wendy over other combat characters which has nothing to do with how cute she is.

Let's look at the current Combat characters:

Wolfgang: Basic stat-stick character. Good for speedrunners.

Wanda: Medium-ranged character with a dodge watch. Most well-rounded direct combat character, with Wigfrid's low prep time and sustain, Wolfgang-ish damage, Wortox's teleportation and dodging abilities. Only lacks AoE. Good for people who want a bit of everything.

Wigfrid: The facetanker. Has a basic damage boost, but, more importantly, requires low prep time, has natural sustain, and has AoE. Good for tanks and lazy people.

Wortox: The dodge tank. Has AoE, and multiple dodges and bone armors built into his kit. Has teleportation.

Normal/Shadow Wendy: The AoE specialist. Solves any fight involving AoE. Has to position Abigail well.

Woodie: An even lower prep time Wigfrid with less power and more tree chopping abilities. Combat is 50-50 with utility. Not a dedicated combat character.

Walter: A ranged character. Has AoE.

Maxwell: A semi-ranged character who also has access to one of three crowd control abilities: Shadow Prison.

Winona: The factory boss. A ranged character who solves any fight with careful pre-planning.

Willow: See Wendy, but brings more utility like Fireballs to the table. People typically pick her to solve day-to-day threats like night, freezing, darkness, and wildfires.

Webber/Wurt: RAAAH spit spit spit spit spit spit spit RAAAAAHH spit spit phweeee RAAAAA spit spit lu la lu lu phweeee RAAAAA spit spit spit spit florp

Now let's look what Lunar Wendy brings to the table:

Lunar Wendy: I guess you get a bit more damage here and there. Also more annoying and less effective than normal or shadow Wendy.

My suggestion:

Wendy is the only character who requires micromanagement of your units (as opposed to Webber, who requires good macromanagement, Maxwell, whose players suffer from terminal brain death, and Wurt, who just florps everything to death). Wendy's identity revolves around her sisterly bond, which I will focus on here.

Utility Item Duplication: A character from Binding of Isaac, Jacob and Esau, has one bomb usage result in both characters dropping bombs. Wendy and Abigail could have a similar relationship, allowing Abigail to any of Wendy's combat actions (throwing bombs, lighting deerclops on fire, using Brightshade Staff, etc)

Abigail using her powers in stead of your items: Perhaps Wendy could save on Pan Flute/Weather Pain/etc. charges by having Abigail use them instead. When Wendy uses an item, Abigail will instead consume some portion of her health to use that item (if she has any). This allows Wendy to make better use of Abigail's improved survivability by burning it on other things.

Helping Wendy do things: Ever since Maxwell's introduction to DST, there has been no other character who has another character who just copies that character's actions. Perhaps Abigail should just help Wendy do her daily tasks, in order to restore the niche of "character who just does things faster".

[Yifei_]

Thank you for your detailed comparative analysis. I strongly support your point of view.

The current Lunar Abigail has significant issues in terms of both practicality and fun. Compared to other combat characters, Lunar Abigail's performance against single targets is really quite average, with no standout features to attract players. Moreover, it loses Wendy's biggest advantage in AoE attacks. Choosing Lunar Abigail would make Wendy's gameplay experience more similar to that of Wes or Wilson—which is quite boring.

[Catapult 2.0]

I very support your point of view.

[Wendigail]

Even Woby can help collect resources...

I think since Abigail has acquired half-human form with the Lune Blossom bonus, she should help Wendy with her daily work, such as being able to chat with crops in ghost language