2014-08-04, 10:19 AM
Some information about Night Walkers that I've collected, mostly about Shadow Bats:
Every 3 attacks, you will summon one Shadow Bat, until you reach your limit (2 in 1st job, etc).
Every attack, there is a chance one Shadow Bat will fly out and attack an enemy.
This enemy can be the same target, but if it dies, it will search for a different target.
If the Shadow Bat is in midflight, and the target dies, the Shadow Bat will disappear. (Like Soul Seeker, Shield Chasing, etc.)
The Shadow Bat can bounce across targets, up to a limit (3 in 1st job).
If there is only one target, the Shadow Bats cannot bounce.
If there is more than one target, the Shadow Bats will bounce until they have hit their maximum limit.
If there are only two targets, the Shadow Bats will bounce between them until they have hit their maximum limit.
Triple Throw, Quadruple Throw, Quintuple Throw, and Stardust have a delayed hit component to their attack. For Shadow Bat summoning and attacking, these are considered two separate attacks.
i.e. every 3 Triple Throw, 2 Shadow Bats are summoned because it is 6 attacks. Every Triple Throw, up to two Shadow Bats may be sent to attack, because there are two attacks.
Each Shadow Servant's attacks count towards Shadow Bat summoning and attacking. I assume that Shadow Illusion's extra Servants also add to this, meaning with it active, each Quintuple Throw is considered 8 attacks.
Stardust hitting multiple monsters is only considered one attack. Only one Shadow Bat can be summoned or attack for each of its attack components.
Stardust's explosion costs 1 Star if it hits a monster, and 1 more Star for each additional monster hit. I don't know why, and it's not important with Spirit Throwing, but it's still not cool.
The duration for Mark of Darkness's stacks are reset each time it is reactivated on a monster. This is the only way it could possibly stack to +5.
Mark of Darkness doubles the activation rate for Shadow Bat's attack.
The following is speculation:
For each stack of Mark of Darkness, one additional Shadow Bat is sent to attack when it activates, up to however many Shadow Bats you have.
i.e. Lucky Sevens may send 2 Shadow Bats if you have 1 Mark of Darkness stack active, and it may send 5 Shadow Bats if you have 5 Mark of Darkness stacks active despite being one attack, if you have 5 Shadow Bats at once.
If Mark of Darkness is active, one additional Shadow Bat is summoned when the attack count is reached.
Alternatively, one additional Shadow Bat is summoned for each stack of Mark of Darkness when the attack count is reached.
These two points are extremely difficult for me to confirm, but it appears to be what is happening and explains how it is possible to send out so many Shadow Bats at any given time.
The first point, additional Shadow Bats (per stack?), is mentioned in Shadow Bat's description. It is fairly easy to see 2 Shadow Bats attack a single target with Mark of Darkness, if it is activated when using Lucky Sevens which normally can only send one out. I believe I have also seen an instance of all four of my Shadow Bats attacking at once when testing with Lucky Sevens.
I have also noted gaining two Shadow Bats on a target with Mark of Darkness, though this is difficult to replicate accurately. It may be possible for me to check at Easy Zakum if I strip off enough weapon attack, but the position of the damage numbers and Mark of Darkness makes it a bit difficult to read. This may require me to simply level high enough to find monsters that I can hit, but not kill immediately. It's also difficult because in the process of trying to get Shadow Bats, they simply just fly out and hit things. It's easiest to get them when you OHKO, since they won't try to attack if everything is dead, but it's also meaningless because dead things can't have Mark of Darkness.
The extra Shadow Bats gained would explain how it is possible to actually send out so many Shadow Bats to begin with, since with the Mark of Darkness function as it is, any Shadow Bats summoned every 3 attacks would be sent out nearly immediately. Sending out more bats can't possibly just be a functionality for Darkness Omen and Dominion, can it? Because summoning Shadow Bats is basically 33%, whereas sending them to attack is 45% (90% with Mark of Darkness), meaning you should never have many Shadow Bats, let alone 5, unless you were to use Darkness Omen or Dominion to summon them/keep them from dying.
I may just need to record a video and count how many bats are being sent out to compare with what theory would dictate. Otherwise, if anyone knows a Night Walker on KMS who has Dominion (level 170), if they could activate it with no bats, throw 3 Lucky Sevens to see how many Bats come out, and then throw it again to see how many bats attack, that would probably explain everything.
Otherwise, my experience with the class has been more interesting than Blaze Wizards. I feel my training has been rather limited to areas in my level range so far, i.e. every time my Shadow Bats activate, I OHKO 6 monsters, which is cool, but I think traditional mobbing is much more efficient. Stardust is extremely weak, and slow. Only useful if you OHKO. I believe latency causes my Shadow Servant to overkill my target, otherwise, I think it's possible to OHKO 4 monsters with Quadruple Throw. Tried some +20 level areas today, and the Shadow Bats are much less effective, especially since I miss so often. It is interesting to be able to spam Quadruple Throw and still clear a map because of the bats, despite their missing though. There are probably some really strong maps for this playstyle, and it lends itself extremely well to multipart bosses like Zakum and Horntail, which it should be able to hit many of the parts with just the bats alone, and simply a high hits/s makes it very powerful at the highest levels.
Every 3 attacks, you will summon one Shadow Bat, until you reach your limit (2 in 1st job, etc).
Every attack, there is a chance one Shadow Bat will fly out and attack an enemy.
This enemy can be the same target, but if it dies, it will search for a different target.
If the Shadow Bat is in midflight, and the target dies, the Shadow Bat will disappear. (Like Soul Seeker, Shield Chasing, etc.)
The Shadow Bat can bounce across targets, up to a limit (3 in 1st job).
If there is only one target, the Shadow Bats cannot bounce.
If there is more than one target, the Shadow Bats will bounce until they have hit their maximum limit.
If there are only two targets, the Shadow Bats will bounce between them until they have hit their maximum limit.
Triple Throw, Quadruple Throw, Quintuple Throw, and Stardust have a delayed hit component to their attack. For Shadow Bat summoning and attacking, these are considered two separate attacks.
i.e. every 3 Triple Throw, 2 Shadow Bats are summoned because it is 6 attacks. Every Triple Throw, up to two Shadow Bats may be sent to attack, because there are two attacks.
Each Shadow Servant's attacks count towards Shadow Bat summoning and attacking. I assume that Shadow Illusion's extra Servants also add to this, meaning with it active, each Quintuple Throw is considered 8 attacks.
Stardust hitting multiple monsters is only considered one attack. Only one Shadow Bat can be summoned or attack for each of its attack components.
Stardust's explosion costs 1 Star if it hits a monster, and 1 more Star for each additional monster hit. I don't know why, and it's not important with Spirit Throwing, but it's still not cool.
The duration for Mark of Darkness's stacks are reset each time it is reactivated on a monster. This is the only way it could possibly stack to +5.
Mark of Darkness doubles the activation rate for Shadow Bat's attack.
The following is speculation:
For each stack of Mark of Darkness, one additional Shadow Bat is sent to attack when it activates, up to however many Shadow Bats you have.
i.e. Lucky Sevens may send 2 Shadow Bats if you have 1 Mark of Darkness stack active, and it may send 5 Shadow Bats if you have 5 Mark of Darkness stacks active despite being one attack, if you have 5 Shadow Bats at once.
If Mark of Darkness is active, one additional Shadow Bat is summoned when the attack count is reached.
Alternatively, one additional Shadow Bat is summoned for each stack of Mark of Darkness when the attack count is reached.
These two points are extremely difficult for me to confirm, but it appears to be what is happening and explains how it is possible to send out so many Shadow Bats at any given time.
The first point, additional Shadow Bats (per stack?), is mentioned in Shadow Bat's description. It is fairly easy to see 2 Shadow Bats attack a single target with Mark of Darkness, if it is activated when using Lucky Sevens which normally can only send one out. I believe I have also seen an instance of all four of my Shadow Bats attacking at once when testing with Lucky Sevens.
I have also noted gaining two Shadow Bats on a target with Mark of Darkness, though this is difficult to replicate accurately. It may be possible for me to check at Easy Zakum if I strip off enough weapon attack, but the position of the damage numbers and Mark of Darkness makes it a bit difficult to read. This may require me to simply level high enough to find monsters that I can hit, but not kill immediately. It's also difficult because in the process of trying to get Shadow Bats, they simply just fly out and hit things. It's easiest to get them when you OHKO, since they won't try to attack if everything is dead, but it's also meaningless because dead things can't have Mark of Darkness.
The extra Shadow Bats gained would explain how it is possible to actually send out so many Shadow Bats to begin with, since with the Mark of Darkness function as it is, any Shadow Bats summoned every 3 attacks would be sent out nearly immediately. Sending out more bats can't possibly just be a functionality for Darkness Omen and Dominion, can it? Because summoning Shadow Bats is basically 33%, whereas sending them to attack is 45% (90% with Mark of Darkness), meaning you should never have many Shadow Bats, let alone 5, unless you were to use Darkness Omen or Dominion to summon them/keep them from dying.
I may just need to record a video and count how many bats are being sent out to compare with what theory would dictate. Otherwise, if anyone knows a Night Walker on KMS who has Dominion (level 170), if they could activate it with no bats, throw 3 Lucky Sevens to see how many Bats come out, and then throw it again to see how many bats attack, that would probably explain everything.
Otherwise, my experience with the class has been more interesting than Blaze Wizards. I feel my training has been rather limited to areas in my level range so far, i.e. every time my Shadow Bats activate, I OHKO 6 monsters, which is cool, but I think traditional mobbing is much more efficient. Stardust is extremely weak, and slow. Only useful if you OHKO. I believe latency causes my Shadow Servant to overkill my target, otherwise, I think it's possible to OHKO 4 monsters with Quadruple Throw. Tried some +20 level areas today, and the Shadow Bats are much less effective, especially since I miss so often. It is interesting to be able to spam Quadruple Throw and still clear a map because of the bats, despite their missing though. There are probably some really strong maps for this playstyle, and it lends itself extremely well to multipart bosses like Zakum and Horntail, which it should be able to hit many of the parts with just the bats alone, and simply a high hits/s makes it very powerful at the highest levels.