I play Wind BD and i've loved the majority of it... besides the bugs that hard resets your tempo, but I thought i'd share my experience with it
DISCLAIMER: This is a rant! Despite most of this complaining, this is not intended as an attack on anyone or to insult/belittle anybody, despite what you may consider!
Wind BD is garbage, because people want it to be garbage! I love this spec, because it looks cool, and feels great! However, it's garbage!
The only reason lightning is better is because it gets everything it needed, and the awakening buffs were ABSURD
Lightning had its design changed to a more braindead friendly design. If I recall, Lightning's Flaming Scourge used to work the same way as Squall does, where every second of tickrate would grant you 3 orbs, Lightning orbs being the mainstay way to use Lightning Flash.
That has now been removed which makes the class much easier to play than it used to, and less demanding.
I think its absurd that wind still has to play under such a condition, despite it's inconsistencies, it's like admitting you know it has faults, but only changing it for one side of the class.
Lightning talents have ridiculous ramp, it gets a hard cd reduction to an ability that already has a cooldown reduction.
Critical Shock giving a crit damage passive on Lightning Draw and Storm Cleave, AND Lightning Draw getting a base cooldown reduction. WHAT!? So... you gave a crit damage steroid, to a class that already has 3 crit damage steroids... -_-
AND THEN, it gives a base AP damage ramp, with Thunder Rolls, granting 8% AP increase stacked 3 times, whenever you use Lightning Draw & Thunder slash
Not to mention the quintessential, base damage of core abilities: Lightning Flicker and Lightning Flash...
So... ...why doesn't wind get this? considering your choice is one of those, I find it ludicrous a single class gets 3 class ramps on 1 tier of talent points. All 3 of them are insanely good.
Meanwhile, wind gets... sigh mediocrity, a crit damage amp so small, that increasing the base damage of an ability gives more dps on parses. Not to mention LIGHTNING'S BASE PASSIVE OUT STATS IT!!! *rage*
Sigh, I cant believe they're going back to this but... an RNG mechanic on Typhoon, that only gives back 1 wind orb when it costs 3 (Yes i know! Wind charge... relax!)
And a 3rd talent so useless, I don't even use it in pvp, which I assume that's what it was designed for.
The only reason to use returning wind, is simply because the 10% damage increase enhance on Rolling Typhoon, tends to float like crazy... when you have a high tier weapon.
Squall's design is awful, not only you need to land the attack to actually get the insta 3 orbs, the effect is SO SLOW... mind you with the recent framerate issues, it being slow probably is one of the few things that allows my sanity to remain stable, but in terms of "optimal gameplay" which is something everyone SHOULD be striving for when you're trying to perfect your performance and improve as a player, this is not ideal.
When considering something like, Reaper Destroyer's Execute badge effect, which is a consistent uptime. I think they should make squall be a continuous effect for a strict duration. The buff and the damage tied to the effect should be separate, or shouldn't need to hit a target to get the orbs.
One thing I've noticed about this game, is it's rather uncanny and random habbit of applying snap mechanics in certain situations (It's kind of hard to explain snap mechanics, it's a backend processing tendency in video games, basically its the interaction where the game assumes your position, ahead of time when using effects like gap closers and whatnot), something I consider counter-productive in a game that boasts about "Action combat". Why am I mentioning this, because sometimes, you'll have situations where bosses leap & dash, and your ability will whiff, because the game assumes the target at the end destination... before the even finish the traverse!
An effect like Squall, should be governed around YOU as the caster... not based on if you hit a target...
And that's another thing that I noticed with Wind BD... killing blows
If you hit a target, and that ability kills the target, YOU DON'T GET THE INTENDED INTERACTION FOLLOW UP!!
Sunder on a killing blow does not grant you a wind orb
Skyward slash on a killing blow does not grant you wind charge
Rolling Typhoon with Lightfooted Talent, does not grant you movespeed buff
Inconsistencies such as these, will only irritate a player, that's probably something you don't want to do
I also noticed that the new passive for wind, Nimble Recovery, functions awfully.
To cite the description: "Decreases cooldown of all skills by 0.2 seconds on EVERY Rolling Typhoon"
Note the operative word here... EVERY. Considering they did the gimmicky effect of 2 hits of Rolling Typhoon, similar to Lightning Flash, it blows my mind that Nimble Recovery and the new badge "Liberty Soul" works so poorly
If Rolling Typhoon hits twice... then this effect should occur twice.
However, it's effect only occurs ONCE, leading to a one second cooldown reduction from Rolling Typhoon on Hurricane Slash & Skyward Slash, WHEN IT SHOULD REDUCE BY TWO SECONDS. (technically greater than two seconds, due to time in a constant state of flux), because Rolling typhoon... hits twice per cast! This can be compared to Lightning's Flash ability, which triggers badge effects twice on condition! *reduces active cooldown of Lightning Draw on every critical hit
Far be it for me to flame whoever made this effect, if I haven't already, this Badge is still great! But I find this irritating, because it doesn't take much to the mind's eye to know the effect would simply be greater, had it worked as described. And before you mention translations and whatnot... I don't care! I work with what I'm given, I'm a data-driven person, and I'm not inclined to translate Korean, or a person's misinterpretations, or a person's mispronunciations/misfires in creation... their human errors are not my responsibility!
Grand Vortex makes me question life
"This wind is ruining my hair..." Hmm..
I'm kind of shocked there is no synergy in the entire spec on this ability, shocked... and dissapointed
It's a fun ability, but dungeon bosses have a strange tendency of removing fun and pvp is... well... pvp
So, despite me flaming, lets add a little bit of optimism shall we.
For starters, I believe that in the process of criticism (what I'm doing right now), the proponent to propose ideas is equally important as stating the flaws and inadequacies of the current ones. So I will now do this.
What would I propose to make this better?
Wind Squall - Separate the buff from the aoe damage effect, Reaper destroyer has something similar, where it's continual damage and it's buff effect are two separate entities... so it's possible! You shouldn't have to land the aoe effect on Squall to grant the wind orbs. I would also buff the effect, so that the Squall refreshes the duration of Wind Charge... but that's just me!
Returning Wind - Stop with RNG!
Either make the effect trigger on crit, or make the effect trigger after a certain number of Rolling Typhoons.. for example "Every 3rd Rolling Typhoon grants Returning wind, refunding you 3 wind orbs (which is one free Rolling Typhoon)"
The effect is versatile around Wind Charge, Whirling Scourge... and various other effects, which holds a lot of room for creativity, it would also inadvertently fix the inadequacy of Wind Squall, being slower than Wind Charge's intended tempo
Swift Finish - Give it ramp!
If Lightning's passive... PASSIVE, is a ramp of crit dmg, then a talent should definitely be stronger! Go figure
Gathering Storm - remove the effect and make something else, or actually consider it's ability and talent apart of wind's design.
I'm still trying to figure out what this ability was designed for. The only thing I've managed with this, is triple aerial in pvp. Spoiler alert, it's not that good, unless you're a Yasuo fan from League of Legends (nothing wrong with that), and want to scream "HASAGI!" when you do it... there is nothing else productive that comes from it
To conlude
Wind has insane peaks and opportune damage uptimes, I still believe it's stronger than Lightning in everyway. However, there is a strange, uncanny demand from the player, that is ill-advised in various situations. It lacks adaptability, because it's extremely easy to tilt. Rolling Typhoon fall off will tilt you like crazy
I've been asked by my friends that play BNS, how I find Wind BD, I described it as such:
"Wind BD is better than Lightning BD, but demands more from the player, which is something that isn't very safe to do in a game like Blade & Soul"
I love Wind BD, Zephyr til death!