Tornado

Create a funnel of wind and debris to blast your enemies.

Tornado is the Druid's level 24 Elemental skill, requiring Twister; it unlocks Hurricane. It is a cast that sends one large funnel on a random path towards the targeted point. It deals physical damage two ways: on collision, and periodically to everything within a small radius around it. The numbers that decide it are the damage, 273–295 at level 20, raised 9% per hard point by each of three wind skills, and the cost, a flat 10 mana with no casting delay, which is why cast rate is the skill's real multiplier.

The numbers

• Damage is the MinDam/MaxDam columns: 25–35 at level 1, then +8 a level on both ends to level 8, +14/+15 to 16, +20/+21 to 22, +24/+25 to 28 and +28/+29 past that (MinLevDam1–5 and MaxLevDam1–5). 109–121 at level 10, 179–196 at level 15, 273–295 at level 20, 385–412 at level 25, 513–545 at level 30. The Basin's formulas give the same.
• Periodic damage delay is calc4 = Param1 = 15 frames. Radius is Param2 = 3 (aurarangecalc par2), the table's "Missile Radius", which the Basin gives as 2 yards. Missiles: calc1 = 1.
• Mana is a flat 10, and the row has no delay column.

The damage line reads lvl, so +skills from items raise it; the synergies read hard points only.

How it works

Tornado is a cast on your cast rate (Casting Speed) and cannot be used as a werewolf or werebear. The Basin's description: a single size 3 tornado missile that follows a random path in the general direction of the point targeted, the same path each time if you keep casting at the same point, lasting 75 frames (3 seconds). It applies its damage on collision, with a 25-frame next delay and Last Collide, so each tornado normally applies collision damage once to a single target and never more than once every 26 frames; and it applies the same damage periodically to every target within the radius, in its first frame and every 15 frames after, five times before it expires. Periodic damage from several tornadoes can land on the same target, which is why the Basin says Faster Cast Rate raises the damage rate: more tornadoes on the target at once. The damage goes through Dealing Physical Damage.

The collision damage can be blocked (Blocking); the periodic damage cannot, by the Basin's page.

Synergies and +skills

Three synergies at +9% damage per level (Param8 = 9, "Damage synergy"): Cyclone Armor, Twister and Hurricane, through DmgSymPerCalc = (skill('Cyclone Armor'.blvl) + skill('Twister'.blvl) + skill('Hurricane'.blvl)) × par8, hard points only. Tornado's own hard points are a synergy for Cyclone Armor (+7% absorbed a point), Twister (+10% damage a point) and Hurricane; those pages give their lines.

Against players

A player's hit on another player is cut to 17% of its value (difficultylevels.txt PlayerDamagePercentVSPlayer) before anything else, see Player versus Player. The Basin's page says nothing more about Tornado against players.

Build notes

• Sixty hard points in the three synergies are +540% on the damage; with Tornado maxed as well that is the whole wind tree, and every one of those points also raises Cyclone Armor's pool.
• The damage is physical and the periodic part cannot be blocked, so it is the Druid's answer to fire immunes.
• No delay and 10 mana flat: the rate of fire is your cast rate, and the Basin's rule that periodic damage stacks across tornadoes makes faster cast rate the stat that multiplies it.
• The path is random, so the periodic radius of 2 yards is what reliably lands; casting at a point past the target keeps the funnel moving through the pack.