Hi guys, welcome to our Shape of Dreams Tier List and Special thanks to @throwupbender and @dolharubang for their input.
Power Scale: Broken > Excellent > Strong > Good > Average > Below Average > Weak
Shape of Dreams Prologue Tier List – Best Memories
S Tier
Tranquility – Broken, Universal: I-Frame, Movement Speed, CDR to all abilities. Infinite with rewind.
Chain Lighting – Excellent, AP: 6 total hits, 400% ap and 5x @ 185% base. Light damage so combos with so many essences and gets % amp per light stack. Can both 1-shot bosses reliably and clear groups due to bouncing nature and if it has no bounces, it hits same enemy multiple times.
Shout of Oblivion – Excellent, AD: I-Frame, 1300% base AD scaling and 125% increase at max hunter stacks. Pure 1-shot, also be used to dodge due to I-Frame. Downside of having to charge, any CDR essence mitigates it and can be swapped off after.
Arrow Storm – Excellent, On-Hit: Duration buff, no animation, attack speed, movement speed, AP scaling and projectiles on each attack. Great utility, great strength, great modifiers for on-hit and first arrow procs them at 100% as well. BIS in all attack focused builds.
Fleche – Excellent, Universal: AD-scaling but can be used as both on-hit and on-cast due to all charges coming back at once. Can be used as a movement ability w/ built in healing. Low CD due to refund. (Can also break free from channel ability restrictions but this is a bug in my eyes so I’m not considering it.)
Converging Stars – Strong, AD: Passive that allows autos to hit multiple enemies and activate on-hit… on the character with the best attack speed in the game. It has built-in hefty AD stat scaling.
Incendiary Rounds – Excellent, Universal: Gives attack speed, AP on-hit, and movement speed. It can stack on itself while the other charge is active. Good on both AP and AD on-hit, scaling is mostly for attack speed.
Salamander Powder – Strong, On-Hit: Every 4th shot, crit strike, AP AOE fire damage. 100% additional to enemies on fire. Great scaling, the damage to compliment Incendiary Rounds.
A Tier
Ice Shield – Strong, AP/Defensive: Shield, healing, cold debuff, and no animation. Universally good and ideal for most buffs, the only downside is CD doesn’t tick down till the shield breaks, but has low CD anyways, so the 5sec threshold for most essences can be met easily.
Frostbite – Strong, AP/Defensive: Shield, Cold. It’s the same idea as Ice Shield but not AOE and no healing. For On-Hit builds, this is preferred as the buff applicator.
Starfall – Strong, AP: Need enemies nearby to cast, negligible animation, light damage, and projectile # scales with level. It can carry if built around. Used primarily as a support to essences like Flow or Pure White or as a buff applicator. It can miss if enemies die after the cast.
Shadow Walk – Strong, AD/On-Hit: IMHO, this is the best movement in the game. Fast animation, low CD, dark, and 3 projectiles that apply on-hit at 50% on-hit. Strong utility and is overall dynamically useful.
Rewind – Strong, Universal: Flat CD to last memory used, added AP damage. No animation, useful for refreshing buffs and core abilities, gives an extra charge for minimal dust investment. Long CD is Very strong in single memory builds, less useful in those with many memories.
Umbral Blade – Good, AD/On-hit: Dark, crit chance and flat dark damage w/ scaler. Better on melee. Strong in the cases where it’s used, but not used outside of on-hit.
Purgatory – Strong, AP: Strong AP damage, great healing, sizable AOE application, and also stuns. 3x healing on bosses is three times. Underrated; it takes skill to aim. Random ally healing can be good or bad depending on the case.
Golden Burst – Strong, AP: Best damage output in the game in combo with Clemency. Takes experience to use well due to HP sacrifice mechanic. It’s an all-or-nothing ability.
Double Tap – Strong, AD: AD stat scaling and crit stat scaling give extra attacks on cast or dodge. Good scaling but is outshined by Salamander Powder.
Clutches of Malice – Good, AP: AOE pull effect, increases size and # enemies hit with upgrades. Size increase is unique to this, good super late. Refunds ~90% CD or so when it doesn’t hit enemies, which allows it to be the lowest CD buff applicator, but the animation makes it lose to the highest tier ones. 2nd AP damage doesn’t apply to CC immune. Weak midgame outside of being used for buffs.
Scattershot – Good, AD: Solid AD scaling, applies on-hit at 50% over 5 bullets. It has a high cooldown but overall more damage and can apply all shots to one enemy. It can be used as AOE or single target.
B Tier
Ignite – Good, AP: Charges restore at once, fire, AOE AP if burning. Just good and mostly used in on-cast or fire builds. Virtue essence makes this much stronger.
Blink – Good, Universal/AP: Low CD, AOE high AP scaling, built-in CD. AOE radius is small and lacks utility; also, it must be in melee distance to deal damage with. For movement alone, it’s the most reliable as it has no animation.
Beam of Light – Good, AP: Light, healing, single target. Can swap to new target if nearby current beam target. Must channel this to deal damage. It might randomly heal an ally instead of you. Good utility and damage at the cost of only using this.
Pillar of Fire – Good, AP: Lingering AOE Fire, CC on initial hit. Overall, it’s good at most points of the game, not strong.
Dark Bolt – Good, AP/On-hit: 3 enemy max hit @ 100% on-hit, dark, low CD. It can be used with momentum to get 100% uptime quickly, but the animation feels a little weaker than attacking with great buffs. Often a stand-in utility/buff applicator.
Chomp is good, It is a Universal/AP of large healing, single target, and melee. There is a lot of single-target damage and healing on an average cd. Putting you in melee can be risky compared to healing for 50% normal.
Disintegrating Claw – Strong, AD: Has good AD damage and scaling, heals, and 100% amp on bosses. Overall good; sadly it requires a good investment because Aurena’s base stats are low, and she blows up her health bar by being melee or Golden Burst.
Parry – Strong, Universal: I-Frame, AOE AP damage. Used in the same situations as a movement ability but best access to I-Frames in the game with tree upgrade. Can chain into self with Overload. Not very good standalone damage.
Astrid’s Masterpiece – Good, AP/Defensive: Bonus damage and shield, upgrading reduces CD on same enemy greatly. Solid stability and helps with AP on-hit but nothing insane.
Discipline – Good, AD: On-hit dash to enemy. Gets built in CDR for hits on enemy. Combo with Mercy of El. Lacks movement I-Frames. Light damage so some combos exist.
Mercy of El – Good, AD: Healing, AD stat, attack speed and crit every 4th hit (all scaling). Light damage so some combos exist. Great with Discipline, otherwise just good.
Searing Charge – Good, Universal: Fire, whole CD reset on kill, increased stats with move speed. Solid ratios, but slow. I’ve seen lots of deaths from improper use of this.
C Tier
Hand Cannon – Good, AP: Low CD, Good CC, Fire. Burn feels weaker than others ATM because its damage is distributed, still good but close-range and movement often unintentional.
Quick Draw – Average, AD: Regains all charges w/ tree upgrade. Can be used as on-cast but CD is too high to be optimal. Good early damage and safe from a range.
Dangerous Theory – Good, Universal: Scaling on Healing is AP, damage is AD. Hard to make this the cornerstone of a build but good sustain and AOE damage. Decent learning curve and melee.
Unbreakable Determination – Good, AP: Combo with Astrid, AOE AP damage, healing, good scaling. Downside is charging time. With a good mix of this and Astrid it’s amazing.
Ethereal Influence – Average, AP: Good damage and CC but AOE, has 2 activation casts. Can be used in on-cast or light builds, but there are better options.
Mental Corruption – Average, AP: Dark, initial AOE into DOT every .5s. Nice for stacking dark, better if you have an attrition build and make this into fire, still slow.
Repulsive Shield – Average, Defensive: Target AP (4 base), blocks front attacks. Often used in stall builds and has decent damage. Real use is damage nullification from the front.
Dark Spear – Average, AD/On-hit: Dark, pull, AOE. Dark bolt but melee. .5 sec more cd on base. Works but more niche.
Glacial Stomp – Average, Defensive: AOE AP Cold, CC, shield. Melee shield gain feels bad, but the CC and cold are useful at most points of the game.
Lunge – Good, AD: Good AD scaling, solid on-hit proc and can hit multiple. Really only used in combo with Astrid’s Masterpiece focused builds. Outshined by Fleche in almost every way.
Resolve – Average, Universal: Healing, CC, Max HP scaler. Only heals per 1 enemy hit on 4th but heals a good chunk. Lacks HP scaling or damage scaling to be considered great.
Cataclysm – Average, AP: 30% AP stat for duration is the real use of this. Shield and meteors are good, meteors are great w/ tree upgrade. Far outshined by Tranquility.
Winter Dive – Average, AP: Cold, movement. Longer I-Frames and solid AOE/scaling. High CD and a little bit of startup animation make this average.
D Tier
Ice Claw – Average, AP: Cold, CC. Technically can be used as a movement ability, I’ve found niche cases where I use this. CC is good early, 2 casts can be impactful.
Glacial hammer – Average, AP: Cold, pull, melee. Good AOE and Scaling, average CD. Not feeling particularly ranged or melee makes it hard to find a spot in builds.
Sanctuary of El – Below Average, Defensive: Gives Unstoppable, attack speed and shield. Must charge up, doesn’t do much else. Good early and for source of Unstoppable.
Backstep – Below Average, Universal: Movement, CC. Low scaling, moving backwards feels awkward for a movement ability compared to universal ones.
Flaming Whip – Below Average, AP: Fire, melee AOE. Very short attack, unique refresh on other memory cast. Can be useful as a buff applier but I don’t tend to use this for damage due to APM restriction. (I’m not including Flow bug)
Exotic Matter – Below Average, AP: AP AOE damage on attack after spell casts or dodge. No stat scaling. Good AP damage but not useful compared to using memories and having to attack to activate this.
Lightning Strike – Weak, AP: AOE AP, 50% fire, CC. Good ratio and scaling, high cd. Delay on cast can make it harder to hit coupled with smaller size.
Flame Jet – Below Average, AP: Fire, channel. Almost melee with same restriction as beam of light. Does not feel good to run but can do good damage and has a fun combo with Pure White and Celestial.
World Cracker – Below Average, AP: Light, channel. Huge AP scaling and damage but forces you to be stationary and channel.
Hysteria – Below average, AD/On-Hit: Dark, healing, melee. Heals solid amount and increases with attack speed. Only triggers on-hit first hit, can’t cast anything or control character.
Dark Arbalest – Weak, AD: Dark, AOE. Nice to % scale when shooting through enemies but cd very high, usually used for kiting groups. Better than others due to scaling and niche role in AD builds.
Great Frost Sword – Weak, AP: Cold, AOE. Single target buff of 200%, has below average base and weak scaling with a long animation.
Anti-Gravity – Weak, AP: AOE, CC. Only hits CC immune enemies if they remain in circle after 1.6 sec, about average damage or scaling. Useful early for groups, otherwise useless.
Cruel Sun – Weak, AP: Fire, gives unstoppable and armor. Must be still and channel for full damage. Many better options.
Static Discharge – Weak, AP: Light, channel. Move slow while channeling, average damage and small range.
Precision Shot – Weak, AP: Same issues as cruel sun, have to stay still and charge. Can be used with similar combos to Shout, but sadly with similar amplifiers Chain Lightning 1-shots boss twice before this does once.
Pressure Point – Weak, AP: Melee, CC. Pushed enemy back into wall to get most the damage on this. Melee with short range/size makes this hard to use. Average CD.
Supernova – Weak, AP: Does not scale in size. Can’t use anything else while active. High CD. 1.3 second channel for max 450% base scaling, worse than Precision Shot (800%). Tree upgrade gives negligible difference.