Hot take: Wanda would be better designed, more fun and more interesting if the Alarming clock was removed (+Wanda mini rework)

[Edible Coal]

21 minutes ago, Laguna said:

I might have worded that part poorly. I didn’t mean to say Klei never intended Wanda to be a glass cannon — they definitely referred to her that way even after her release. What I meant is that there's a difference between Klei’s take on the glass cannon concept and what some players were expecting from it. Wanda is a glass cannon — she deals high damage, but she’s fragile in a very specific way: she dies of old age, doesn’t heal through normal means, relies on the clocks, and constantly has to manage her timeline. That makes her extremely vulnerable in scenarios where other characters could recover easily.

yup this, she needs to wear armor that provides over 90% defense to actaully take hits, players who dont plan well can easily die

[WilsonHiggs]

13 minutes ago, Laguna said:

I might have worded that part poorly. I didn’t mean to say Klei never intended Wanda to be a glass cannon — they definitely referred to her that way even after her release. What I meant is that there's a difference between Klei’s take on the glass cannon concept and what some players were expecting from it. Wanda is a glass cannon — she deals high damage, but she’s fragile in a very specific way: she dies of old age, doesn’t heal through normal means, relies on the clocks, and constantly has to manage her timeline. That makes her extremely vulnerable in scenarios where other characters could recover easily.

But glass canon means high damage while being fragile in general not 'fragile in certain scenarios'. By that metric, in a hyperbolic example, willow could be considered a glass canon because she can deal high damage but is extremely vulnerable if can recover temperature in winter or against enemies that reduce it.

In the most important scenario where Wanda should be fragile, she can tank many hits before needing to heal. Is a problem when they made the math behind her ammount of hp considering night armor is 95%, how easy is to evade being hit for hitting with a middle range weapon or  the cool down and amount of age recovered 

Usually in video games when a character is very safe to use because is ranged, has a lot of agility or whatever mechanic is involved, they have very little hp/armor or whatever makes them fragile and when a character deals a lot of damage, the case of glass canons, happens the same. When a character is safe to use and has a lot of damage they usually are really fragile, even 1 or 2 shots away of being killed

In Wanda's case these 2 scenarios happens at once but gives a lot of room for mistakes

I have played with a friend who is really noob but wanted to try Wanda just to do something new after many time without playing the game and I never saw him dealing with enemies and surviving in general as easy as he was doing

[cropo]

Eh, I will say that Wanda's confusing HP(or "age") and needing to manage a certain health threshold is a bit much for me. I would consider myself more fragile playing Wanda, and while her watches are touted as omnipotent healing devices they don't stack and have cooldowns and her HP has a passive drain to it. With other characters, I can easily tank with cheaper armor and spam bandages which do not expire and stack, or make a quick pierogi stack and heal with that.

To the average player I would say Wanda is a glass canon, and Klei often underestimates what their players are capable of and simply does not forsee the depths they go to in order to completely dominate any challenge they try to make. They probably have better data(since you have to agree to share it in order to play online) on Wanda's actual death rates in servers and feel that she's in an alright spot.

[Laguna]

29 minutes ago, WilsonHiggs said:

By that metric, in a hyperbolic example, willow could be considered a glass canon because she can deal high damage but is extremely vulnerable if can recover temperature in winter or against enemies that reduce it.

You can't be serious with this example.

27 minutes ago, WilsonHiggs said:

When a character is safe to use and has a lot of damage they usually are really fragile, even 1 or 2 shots away of being killed

My man, if you want her to die in 2 hits WITH night armor then I have nothing to tell you.

[WilsonHiggs]

6 minutes ago, Laguna said:

You can't be serious with this example.

I said it was a hyperbole. A glass canon is fragile not "fragile sometimes"

7 minutes ago, Laguna said:

My man, if you want her to die in 2 hits WITH night armor then I have nothing to tell you

Neither I said that it is what I want. Im just comparing how characters work in other games vs a safe to fight mid range high damage character can tank several hits in DST

The same weird design happens with other characters like Wendy having 150HP despite having a follower; willow also having a follower plus spells and 150 hp; Maxwell having top damage, strong crowd control and 95% protection without downsides and more hp than wanda

In some examples the hp isn't a big deal but looks weird when you compare the rest of the industry. Dst is one of the few games where I see all the characters having a similar tankiness (which also affects the room to mistakes for temperature and hunger) and the ones that are supposed to be fragile are even more safe to use because range combat, duelists, crowd control, riding beefalos not interacting with player hp or easy access to agility 

[Laguna]

3 hours ago, WilsonHiggs said:

The same weird design happens with other characters like Wendy having 150HP despite having a follower; willow also having a follower plus spells and 150 hp; Maxwell having top damage, strong crowd control and 95% protection without downsides and more hp than wanda

So, from what you're saying, does that mean Wanda needs a buff? All the characters you mentioned have great damage output and are much more resilient than her.

Wanda is already more fragile than most characters, so it makes sense that she’d deal a lot of damage through AC to balance that out. Also, all of them can easily tame a beefalo and fight without worrying about health, while Wanda can't do that — her damage is tied specifically to the AC.

To me, she fits the glass cannon archetype. Sure, it’s situational — you can play her in middle or young age and have a safer experience — but doing that means giving up on her full damage potential. And yes, she becomes much more comfortable with Night Armor, which is clearly how she was designed to be played.

I think it's hard for Klei to tweak her base design without messing with that identity. Maybe they could look into increasing the AC damage or splitting it into a talent tree-style progression, but beyond that, changes might be tricky.

[WilsonHiggs]

37 minutes ago, Laguna said:

So, from what you're saying, does that mean Wanda needs a buff? All the characters you mentioned have great damage output and are much more resilient than her

No, what I mean is that Klei isn't good at balancing and, anyway, they are always restricted because of the casual player base

[00petar00]

7 hours ago, WilsonHiggs said:

No, what I mean is that Klei isn't good at balancing and, anyway, they are always restricted because of the casual player base

That's where the most money is, do you know how many hardcore players are there? Most hardcore games are niche and never go mainstream. I know that some people might bring up Elden Ring so I'll explain it here, mage or summoner are kind of an easy mode and so are specific melee builds.

Majority of players are casual, I don't know how many times this needs to be said.

DST has been growing in popularity and klei is making more money so they are doing it right besides decreasing the amount of content in updates within the recent 2 years or so but If players are still buying they don't have to do more.

[Cruvimaster]

From the proposals of some members of this community, I realize that they want a Wanda that is accessible to only 1% of players.

And to make matters worse, these 1% will not even play with her regularly. They will play with her rarely and then go back to characters that are really useful for speedrunners, megabasers or simply those who play calmly.

Other members cannot even play with the current Wanda, but they want the others not to play either so that they can have a better experience.

[YouKnowWho142]

On 4/23/2025 at 6:47 AM, Cruvimaster said:

From the proposals of some members of this community, I realize that they want a Wanda that is accessible to only 1% of players.

And to make matters worse, these 1% will not even play with her regularly. They will play with her rarely and then go back to characters that are really useful for speedrunners, megabasers or simply those who play calmly.

Other members cannot even play with the current Wanda, but they want the others not to play either so that they can have a better experience.

The people on the forum have a very strange habit of considering characters and content "problems that need fixing" if they do not personally like it and doesn't fit with their own playstyle

[DVGMedia]

On 4/23/2025 at 6:47 AM, Cruvimaster said:

From the proposals of some members of this community, I realize that they want a Wanda that is accessible to only 1% of players.

And to make matters worse, these 1% will not even play with her regularly. They will play with her rarely and then go back to characters that are really useful for speedrunners, megabasers or simply those who play calmly.

Other members cannot even play with the current Wanda, but they want the others not to play either so that they can have a better experience.

It happens to every character. It happened really badly to wendy

[GrapeVruit]

4 hours ago, YouKnowWho142 said:

The people on the forum have a very strange habit of considering characters and content "problems that need fixing" if they do not personally like it and doesn't fit with their own playstyle

I guess it's comes with how much knowledge and experience they have playing the game. They believe they know how to make the game better than the developers. Some of their posts can come off as pretty entitled if you ask me. 

[Cyrefy]

I think what most undermines combat in any aspect within the game is actually hit cancellation, I think the reason the devs put a slower attack literally means to balance it, then the player goes there and throws the dev's balancing completely in the trash, I think there are only 2 options to fix this kind of thing, prevent hit cancellation, or balance things with damage only, already expecting that the player will cancel the hits.

[BattleOzze]

14 hours ago, DVGMedia said:

It happens to every character. It happened really badly to wendy

What do you mean? Wendy is the most accessible character in the game by a mile. The fact that you don't like skill tree haven't changed that.

[DVGMedia]

2 hours ago, BattleOzze said:

What do you mean? Wendy is the most accessible character in the game by a mile. The fact that you don't like skill tree haven't changed that.

It's about how many opinions went into the character many from some who don't even like her gameplay. And it tainted how she came out.and even how her players are treated today 

[Wawchik]

17 hours ago, Cyrefy said:

I think what most undermines combat in any aspect within the game is actually hit cancellation, I think the reason the devs put a slower attack literally means to balance it, then the player goes there and throws the dev's balancing completely in the trash, I think there are only 2 options to fix this kind of thing, prevent hit cancellation, or balance things with damage only, already expecting that the player will cancel the hits.

Animation cancelling is not an issue really, if you can do it, do it, if you can't, don't. The only problem I have with it is that it's pretty much impossible if you're not hosting the server, and if I'm not mistaken, you can cancel your attacks so you can dodge earlier and not have to wait for the animation to end, so it was intended to make combat less annoying 

[Mike23Ua]

I have a crazy suggestion, but uhh.. what if we repurposed the alarming clock as a late game rift weapon tied to either the lunar or shadow story arches and turned it into more like a Ball on a chain, or the new weapon from the Minecraft movie the buck chucks..

But in general strip it away from being a Wanda Exclusive, and just make it universally available as a late game Nunchuck/Whip.

[Theukon-dos]

I don't think it's fair to say that the alarming clock makes Wanda's worse because Klei *could* add more Shadow Weapons. Before shadow rifts, the only other weapon she could boost was the dark sword. Even if you did give more weapons the shadow classification, I'd question how much she's actually benefit from that.

 

And yeah, no. Wanda ain't a glass cannon. Though in fairness I'd credit that more to armor being absurdly overturned in general rather than Wanda specifically, though the fact that the other half of her kit is tailored to keeping her alive definitly doesn't help. But 95% DR is just waaaay to much defense to call anyone with access to it fragile. Unless they want to give Old Wanda something like, 10 effective HP. She'll always be surprisingly durable, even in old age.

[Bumber64]

4 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

I have a crazy suggestion, but uhh.. what if we repurposed the alarming clock as a late game rift weapon tied to either the lunar or shadow story arches and turned it into more like a Ball on a chain, or the new weapon from the Minecraft movie the buck chucks..

But in general strip it away from being a Wanda Exclusive, and just make it universally available as a late game Nunchuck/Whip.

SMALLBIRD JOCKEY!

[Tushonka]

I really like the idea of Wanda's mini rework, which Uncompromising Mode did. They changed the weapon damage and increased her shadow weapon damage.
Young Wanda with AC does 51 damage, which I think is fine; it makes sense that this is her weakest form.
Middle-aged Wanda does 68, which I believe is also fair because she will still have her range. And Old Wanda does 102 which is double the damage of the Young Wanda, I think it’s kinda fitting but numbers can be changed I don’t think they are perfect by any means. Also, she will do 136 with a dark sword like Wolfgang.
The only thing I would change is boasting her weapon damage to 52 so she does 104 damage as old Wanda, then her skill tree you can upgrade your AC with 20 planar damage so you will deal 124 damage (like 24 hours, I think this is funny)

And a really cool addition from Uncompromising mode is 25% more damage from shadows, just very thematic and I think they should increase the amount of shadow creatures that spawn when she is insane. I know it won’t stop good players from killing them but you will have to be more careful when you’re sanity is low.
Thanks for reading, please share your thoughts!

[Jakepeng99]

19 hours ago, Tushonka said:

I really like the idea of Wanda's mini rework, which Uncompromising Mode did. They changed the weapon damage and increased her shadow weapon damage.
Young Wanda with AC does 51 damage, which I think is fine; it makes sense that this is her weakest form.
Middle-aged Wanda does 68, which I believe is also fair because she will still have her range. And Old Wanda does 102 which is double the damage of the Young Wanda, I think it’s kinda fitting but numbers can be changed I don’t think they are perfect by any means. Also, she will do 136 with a dark sword like Wolfgang.
The only thing I would change is boasting her weapon damage to 52 so she does 104 damage as old Wanda, then her skill tree you can upgrade your AC with 20 planar damage so you will deal 124 damage (like 24 hours, I think this is funny)

And a really cool addition from Uncompromising mode is 25% more damage from shadows, just very thematic and I think they should increase the amount of shadow creatures that spawn when she is insane. I know it won’t stop good players from killing them but you will have to be more careful when you’re sanity is low.
Thanks for reading, please share your thoughts!

Good idea.

[Nikki Darks]

Honestly, this post shares similar sentiments that I've had about Wanda.

If she were a full generalist character with some mix of shadow tool efficiency increase, her clocks, her age mechanic.... She'd me much more interesting.

Now she's yet another damage character. Insert Buzz Lightyear copy meme here.

 

[IAmAFurrz]

On 4/16/2025 at 6:12 PM, Jakepeng99 said:

rather than immediately judging

you expect people to respond with anything BUT anger? preposterous (jokes aside i do genuinely hate that klei is so deadset on not removing items that are horribly designed cuz 'feely hurty' from ppl that really dont care at all about change, whether its good or bad)

[Cruvimaster]

Wanda's 142.8 damage has always been lower than Wolfgang's 136 damage.

You shouldn't be fooled by this type of number, since it is the damage per second (dps) that is the real damage of a weapon.

There is already a gap between Wanda and Wolfgang in terms of the "cannon", since Wolfgang has undergone two general improvements (rework + skill tree).

And Wolfgang can still use armor with 95% protection without penalty while having 200 health.

While you ask for a real damage of less than 102 points for elderly Wanda, Maxwell must be doing 300 or more damage with his 6 followers on top of a buffed beefalo after defeating AFW.

And they still want to call Wanda a cannon, when several characters do much more damage than her.

This forum is a joke.

[Jakepeng99]

1 hour ago, Cruvimaster said:

Wanda's 142.8 damage has always been lower than Wolfgang's 136 damage.

You shouldn't be fooled by this type of number, since it is the damage per second (dps) that is the real damage of a weapon.

There is already a gap between Wanda and Wolfgang in terms of the "cannon", since Wolfgang has undergone two general improvements (rework + skill tree).

And Wolfgang can still use armor with 95% protection without penalty while having 200 health.

While you ask for a real damage of less than 102 points for elderly Wanda, Maxwell must be doing 300 or more damage with his 6 followers on top of a buffed beefalo after defeating AFW.

And they still want to call Wanda a cannon, when several characters do much more damage than her.

This forum is a joke.

If its "not just numbers" you forgot the extra range of the whip, leading to more dps oppertunities and safety.