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Mercedes Balance Analysis - Printable Version

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Mercedes Balance Analysis - JoeTang - 2011-07-01

Assumption: Speed Mastery is learned before level 10
Both jobs have the same critical hit rate, therefore, it will not be included until 4th job where Sharp Eyes exists.
Final Attack on mob skills will be added as a second +%/s It is mostly negligible on mob skills, and is a bigger bonus towards Mercedes due to their faster attack rate.

First Job
 Spoiler
Conclusion: First job, almost all characters can OHKO what they're training on. Therefore, since Mercedes gets a movement skill and attacks faster, it has a significant advantage as well has having more DPS to begin with, although it may be possible in certain cases for its lower damage to not meet the OHKO threshold, anyone who actually cares about DPS would be able to.

Second Job
 Spoiler
Conclusion: Cross Piercing is stronger than either Arrow Bomb or Iron Arrow. Most builds recommend Cross Piercing be capped at level 16 to be able to max other skills, but this difference does not make up for the overall strength it has, combined with Soul Infusion. The only advantage regular archers have is a larger range. Golden Eagle and Silver Hawk suck.

Third Job
 Spoiler
Conclusion: Unicorn Spike is not a very significant improvement to DPS. In most training scenarios, it will be a OHKO attack. In a bossing scenario, the damage improvement to Strike Dualshot is within the 5% overall damage margin. Gust Drive itself only appears to have utility in movement and mob gathering. It does bad DPS as a standalone skill, with a very long delay for spamming. When combined with Charge Drive, it lowers the overall DPS as well as being unable to hit the 7th and 8th monsters. With Booster on, Leap Tornado can be performed twice in a single jump, giving it a significantly large DPS output, beating Arrow Rain/Eruption with similar (though smaller) Range. Strike Dualshot is better than Strafe in every concievable way except its 350% range vs 440%. It otherwise is a stronger mob skill than Inferno and Blizzard as well as being better in single target. High Kick Demolition's "DPS" isn't particularly relevant since it's likely to OHKO in regular training situations and would not be used at bosses, which cannot be tossed. Elemental Knights attack at 1530ms and absolutely dominate Phoenix and Frostprey in DPS.

Fourth Job
Single Target:
 Spoiler

Mercedes are vastly superior in single target damage. Marksmen and Bow Masters are very close to each other, but Mercedes are about 1.5x ahead.

Mob Damage:
 Spoiler

Bow Masters suck at mob damage. Mercedes' Rolling Moonsault is calculated considering a scenario where tossing is not possible, like party play maps. This does not consider the fact that Charge Drive and Lightning Edge move the Mercedes into monsters, so while this does have a really high damage output, it isn't likely to be feasible in most scenarios. When hitting 6 monsters each, Pierce and Mercedes appear about even, but Mercedes can reach up to 8, while Pierce requires CO to hit 7. Strike Dualshot does about as much damage to four monsters as Rolling Moonsault + Lightning Edge, and more than Pierce on four monsters. These do not consider that Legendary Spear can hit up to 12 monsters, or more than 4 monsters when paired with Strike Dualshot.
Unicorn Spike has the possibility to increase DPS by a small margin when combined with skills that are not Ring of Ishtar.

Overall:
Mercedes has a much more utility, and generally better earlier job. Their mobility and mob control provide better training. Rolling Moonsault may have difficulty in utility due to the required use of Charge Drive, causing damage taken in heavier bossing scenarios, as well as the bonus damage from Charge Drive's toss not dealing extra damage. Single Target DPS potential appears to significantly favour Mercedes in end-game scenarios though, but Mercedes' Legendary Spear's defense reduction appears to be a very useful skill for a party regardless.

Mercedes Balance Analysis - Chameleonic - 2011-07-01

All that damage is nice only if you can stay alive. :-) What is their HP gain like compared to regular archers?

Mercedes Balance Analysis - JoeTang - 2011-07-01

Chameleonic Wrote:All that damage is nice only if you can stay alive. :-) What is their HP gain like compared to regular archers?

How would I know. Someone said 4.2k at 12x in some other thread or some video about paping or something.

They have higher damage mitigation from Water Shield compared to Elite Puppet by 10% I believe too.

Mercedes Balance Analysis - White - 2011-07-01

Wow, thanks for crunching all the numbers. Bit disappointed that they have higher dps than BM's but that's to be expected with a new legend. Glad to see it's actually not as dramatic as it at first looked.

Mercedes Balance Analysis - Locked - 2011-07-01

JoeTang Wrote:How would I know. Someone said 4.2k at 12x in some other thread or some video about paping or something.

They have higher damage mitigation from Water Shield compared to Elite Puppet by 10% I believe too.

When did Elite Puppet get nerfed to 10%?

Mercedes Balance Analysis - JoeTang - 2011-07-01

Locked Wrote:When did Elite Puppet get nerfed to 10%?

Water Shield absorbs 30%. Elite Puppet absorbs 20%.

Mercedes Balance Analysis - FenixR - 2011-07-01

I dunnno talking about balance at this stage is... i dunno... useless? At least wait until shes on the official Server when all nerf/buffs have been completed, you never know if she is going to be like Cannon shooter that had 3-5 balance patch just for himself...

Mercedes Balance Analysis - Locked - 2011-07-01

JoeTang Wrote:Water Shield absorbs 30%. Elite Puppet absorbs 20%.

Oh. I got it.
Misread, my bad.

Mercedes Balance Analysis - White - 2011-07-01

JoeTang Wrote:Conclusion: Legendary Spear adds a strong bonus of ignore defense for the entire party. It has a longer duration than cool down, so you can constantly recast it and have it active. It gives a big bonus, and scales better for the other Archers than for Mercedes herself. When both given Sharp Eyes and Legendary Spear's debuff, they become very close in a bossing situation.

JoeTang Wrote:Unicorn Spike has a party effect, but I'm not 100% sure about how the number of hits it states works, if at all. Seems rather useless actually given that condition. They otherwise do not appear to have any party skills.

???

Mercedes Balance Analysis - Alloy - 2011-07-01

Night Lords better have quadruple jump to make up for this...

Mercedes Balance Analysis - JoeTang - 2011-07-01

White Wrote:???

Shut it.

Mercedes Balance Analysis - White - 2011-07-01

JoeTang Wrote:Shut it.

No, i'm not trying to be a jerk, genuinely curious. If Mercedes has a party buff that averages out to 30% defense ignore and stacks with everything everyone has, that's really really awesome.

Mercedes Balance Analysis - Worthyness - 2011-07-01

Alloy Wrote:Night Lords better have quadruple jump to make up for this...

Reverse Flying assaulter GOGOGOGOGO

At least they took out her walking hurricane :/

Looks not too bad, but her buffs are ridiculous in comparison to regular archers o_O

Actually not really considering Bowmasters in Jump get the same amount almost. Her's are just cooler.

Mercedes Balance Analysis - Chameleonic - 2011-07-01

Worthyness Wrote:At least they took out her walking hurricane :/

They did?...crud. I'd rather a walking Hurricane than most of the other skills they get.

Mercedes Balance Analysis - Baklava - 2011-07-01

How do you get a 0% defense monster...

Mercedes Balance Analysis - FrothyFrog - 2011-07-01

JoeTang Wrote:Water Shield absorbs 30%. Elite Puppet absorbs 20%.

wait, is the 20% reduced damage for just the puppets HP or does it absorb 20% of damage taken on our archers?


also i think you forgot to add in the elemental knights (120%x3) they attack quite often and seemed very useful at pap to take care of the bombs, and they had a bigger range than our own birds Sad

Mercedes Balance Analysis - HighOnMushrooms - 2011-07-01

FrothyFrog Wrote:wait, is the 20% reduced damage for just the puppets HP or does it absorb 20% of damage taken on our archers?

The damage that you take.

Mercedes Balance Analysis - FrothyFrog - 2011-07-01

HighOnMushrooms Wrote:The damage that you take.

awesome thank you, i never realized that lol, i thought it was kind of dumb that our puppet had 20% damage reduce, so the damage that is reduced is applied to the puppets HP? or is it just a 20% reduction

Mercedes Balance Analysis - JoeTang - 2011-07-01

dante9898 Wrote:I dunnno talking about balance at this stage is... i dunno... useless? At least wait until shes on the official Server when all nerf/buffs have been completed, you never know if she is going to be like Cannon shooter that had 3-5 balance patch just for himself...

The point is to analyze how effective Nexon's implementation and planning of a class is. As you can see, they have very similar DPS to Bow Masters and Marksmen in a bossing scenario, which comparatively changes when you look at their training utility, as that's significantly better than other Archers due to her speed. We now have a decent sense of what requires buffing or nerfing.

Alloy Wrote:Night Lords better have quadruple jump to make up for this...

And backflips.

Worthyness Wrote:Reverse Flying assaulter GOGOGOGOGO

At least they took out her walking hurricane :/

Looks not too bad, but her buffs are ridiculous in comparison to regular archers o_O

Actually not really considering Bowmasters in Jump get the same amount almost. Her's are just cooler.

The only odd thing is why Ignis Lore adds 40 attack when Concentrate adds 20. You can justify the higher avoid and damage reduction since they don't get Spirit Link's HP buff I guess. Maybe a small decrease to the bonus that Ancient Spirit gives might be necessary but I'm trying to keep in mind that if a monster is also Threatened, the damage boost is huge for Marksmen and Bow Masters compared to Mercedes.

Baklava Wrote:How do you get a 0% defense monster...

Theoretical comparison. It shoes how the Bow Master and Marksmen rely more heavily on defense reduction to deal more damage to bosses, and they'll have lower DPS vs regular training mobs.


Taking a deeper look at 3rd job comparison, Rangers and Snipers have a range and AoE advantage over Mercedes vs her speed. Strike Dualshot has a small AoE impact compared to Inferno/Blizzard. It does do a lot of DPS for hitting four monsters, but there's some efficiency in hitting the fifth and sixth that is sometimes noticeable during training. Arrow Rain/Eruption is wider than Leap Tornado, faster due to the jumping requirement unless you have a rope and platform to abuse, and in some cases Leap Tornado won't be able to be used efficiently due to platforms blocking repeated use since it pushes you upwards.
Otherwise, I see Mercedes using Cross Piercing in 3rd job, which is very weak. Charge Drive requires rushing and the actual range of Lightning Flare and all other finishers is rather small. Ideally, you're strong enough to train without needing to rush. As a ranged character, I don't see it being too ideal.



Also, I'm not 100% sure I'm calculating the defense reduction from Legendary Spear combined with Marksmanship correctly. The case I use is both defense reductions are stacked. 25% ITD turns into 45% ITD with Legendary Spear. Against a 75% DEF monster, Marksmanship turns their defense to this 56.25%. With Legendary Spear stacking additively, it turns their defense to 41.25%. Logically speaking however, their defense should be reduced by 20%. Then Marksmanship should be applied. Thus, it would reduce their defense to 45%

Mercedes Balance Analysis - Hanabira.Kage - 2011-07-02

White Wrote:???

If you even bothered to run the skill data through Google Translate, you'd realise that the defense negation is a debuff to the target and not a true "party buff". Joe refers to it as a "bonus...for the entire party" because it is indeed that; it boosts the damage of the entire party, except not because it gives everybody a 100% chance to ignore defense by 20% for 15 seconds, but because the victim has its defense reduced by 20% for 15 seconds.