2011-05-23, 09:40 PM
Yup, Night Lords do need some major help.
My guess? Night Lords can't get an infinite star skill simply because of the way the ammo system is designed. Archers probably have Soul Arrow because we get unrechargable quivers, and Soul Arrow doesn't take into account whatever ATK bonuses our arrows have. Night Lords and Corsairs probably don't because they get rechargable stars and bullets that matter a lot more in terms of ATK bonuses.
I am curious about one thing, to test whether my theory might have any actual meaning or not. Get a set of Ilibi. Use Shadow Claw. Switch to something like Tobi. Does Shadow Claw get canceled out? If not, does the star switching result in your attack bonus being reduced in any way?
If the above result in 'no' for both questions, then I guess we'd have to see a complete overhaul of the ammo system before Night Lords and Corsairs ever see any kind of Soul Star/Bullet skill. I'd hope that Nexon realizes how horrible the ammo system is by now. It was a method of balance before, but now, it causes way more problems than it actually balances. Look at Mechanics, for instance. They are able to dish out similar ranged damage, without having to deal with the hassle of having thousands of bullets take up valuable USE inventory space that could be better used for pots otherwise. (I'd hope that the very fact that Mechanics don't use bullets means that Nexon now knows that the ammo system is stupid and are planning on doing something about it eventually, but that's likely hoping for too much.)
Other than that... Before I go off talking about possible changes to NL skills, I will fully acknowledge that I am probably woefully ignorant in regards to exactly how half of the Hermit and NL skills are supposed to work. Shadow Web in particular is one that has always turned up as a huge question mark in my head for years. And is Shadow Meso even that useful?
I'd guess that there could be greater importance given to Shadow Partner. The Summoning Rock requirement for Shadow Partner being removed seems to be a given. Actually, if they were to do that, it could probably even be changed into a toggled skill of sorts, like the Battlemage auras. Then there could be skills that add additional bonuses to Shadow Partner, or utilize it in different ways.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was an Advanced Shadow Partner skill at some point, upgrading its attack to something like 70% along with giving additional HP.
One of the ideas I had been tossing around earlier was the idea that, for a very short amount of time, you could make your Shadow Partner stop copying your attacks. It would instead focus all of its efforts into taking all hits in your place (maybe even rendering you immune to 1/1 attempts). In this state, it could also launch counterattacks that inflict damage based on your damage range. Then again, this could make both Dark Flare and Shadow Shifter redundant whenever this new theoretical ability was used.
I could totally see Shadow Shifter being changed so that every attack you dodge allows for a 100% critical hit rate for the next second. It'd still help with keeping damage at decent levels if that theoretical ability up there is used. Maybe it could be given something like a small HP and MP restoration effect each time something misses you as well.
Shadow Web... Maybe it could be a thrown attack that pulls all monsters within range towards wherever the web lands, and immobilizes them there.
Ninja Storm could probably be changed so that all monsters that are affected are pushed towards the direction that you are facing, are stunned afterwards, and you are given invincibility frames during the attack animation so that you don't take damage from monsters that were behind you.
There's still the issue of Ninja Ambush and Taunt, of which I'm not sure what I'd do with them at the moment. Ninja Ambush could probably be scrapped entirely for all it's worth.
My guess? Night Lords can't get an infinite star skill simply because of the way the ammo system is designed. Archers probably have Soul Arrow because we get unrechargable quivers, and Soul Arrow doesn't take into account whatever ATK bonuses our arrows have. Night Lords and Corsairs probably don't because they get rechargable stars and bullets that matter a lot more in terms of ATK bonuses.
I am curious about one thing, to test whether my theory might have any actual meaning or not. Get a set of Ilibi. Use Shadow Claw. Switch to something like Tobi. Does Shadow Claw get canceled out? If not, does the star switching result in your attack bonus being reduced in any way?
If the above result in 'no' for both questions, then I guess we'd have to see a complete overhaul of the ammo system before Night Lords and Corsairs ever see any kind of Soul Star/Bullet skill. I'd hope that Nexon realizes how horrible the ammo system is by now. It was a method of balance before, but now, it causes way more problems than it actually balances. Look at Mechanics, for instance. They are able to dish out similar ranged damage, without having to deal with the hassle of having thousands of bullets take up valuable USE inventory space that could be better used for pots otherwise. (I'd hope that the very fact that Mechanics don't use bullets means that Nexon now knows that the ammo system is stupid and are planning on doing something about it eventually, but that's likely hoping for too much.)
Other than that... Before I go off talking about possible changes to NL skills, I will fully acknowledge that I am probably woefully ignorant in regards to exactly how half of the Hermit and NL skills are supposed to work. Shadow Web in particular is one that has always turned up as a huge question mark in my head for years. And is Shadow Meso even that useful?
I'd guess that there could be greater importance given to Shadow Partner. The Summoning Rock requirement for Shadow Partner being removed seems to be a given. Actually, if they were to do that, it could probably even be changed into a toggled skill of sorts, like the Battlemage auras. Then there could be skills that add additional bonuses to Shadow Partner, or utilize it in different ways.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was an Advanced Shadow Partner skill at some point, upgrading its attack to something like 70% along with giving additional HP.
One of the ideas I had been tossing around earlier was the idea that, for a very short amount of time, you could make your Shadow Partner stop copying your attacks. It would instead focus all of its efforts into taking all hits in your place (maybe even rendering you immune to 1/1 attempts). In this state, it could also launch counterattacks that inflict damage based on your damage range. Then again, this could make both Dark Flare and Shadow Shifter redundant whenever this new theoretical ability was used.
I could totally see Shadow Shifter being changed so that every attack you dodge allows for a 100% critical hit rate for the next second. It'd still help with keeping damage at decent levels if that theoretical ability up there is used. Maybe it could be given something like a small HP and MP restoration effect each time something misses you as well.
Shadow Web... Maybe it could be a thrown attack that pulls all monsters within range towards wherever the web lands, and immobilizes them there.
Ninja Storm could probably be changed so that all monsters that are affected are pushed towards the direction that you are facing, are stunned afterwards, and you are given invincibility frames during the attack animation so that you don't take damage from monsters that were behind you.
There's still the issue of Ninja Ambush and Taunt, of which I'm not sure what I'd do with them at the moment. Ninja Ambush could probably be scrapped entirely for all it's worth.