2008-11-22, 06:59 PM
Slingers were massively underrated at first. The initial videos showed Double Shot hitting two-digit damage in late 2x and everyone assumed the class would have great movement, but low damage potential. And Double Shot actually is that weak. It's the weakest 1st job skill. Gunslingers have the lowest 1st job damage output; lower than even Bandits and only improved by the fact that they have range. DS is so weak, that SK-first is actually a valid build for Gunslingers. Double Shot is also the only single-target skill Gunslingers get until third job. Second job offers no improvements to the skill other than Booster. This means that Gunslingers are using the worst 1st job single-target skill as their main form of 1:1 damage until level 70. Invisible Shot outdamages it on 2 targets, making that your go-to skill. You can't train on the single-target 1/2hko mobs that Assassins and archers train on nearly as fast. That hurts. The other ranged classes, in comparison, have very good 1:1 damage. Assassins have the best 1:1 damage in the game in 2nd job. This makes Gunslingers look horrible and useless at low levels.
As the release of Pirates got closer, two things happened.
1. The Float video was released. This was the first big video that made Gunslingers look fun, and it gave us a much better understanding of what the skills did.
2. We figured out how the Durability of Battleship worked. Before, it was assumed that Battleship would not hold up at bosses. Rapid Fire is much weaker than typical 4th job skills, and would suck as the main attacking skill at bosses. Now we know that Cannon can be used for at least as much time as a typical Buc can use transform. Calculations factored this better understanding of Cannon in, and showed that Corsairs are actually near top-tier in terms of 1:1 damage output.
Of course, it'll take a while for this information to digest, and the masses of MS will continue to assume that Slingers do no damage, their assumptions reinforced by the weakness of Double Shot. I'm happy with that. This keeps gun prices cheaper than Knuckles, at least until more Corsairs show up in the rankings and people realize how strong they are.
As the release of Pirates got closer, two things happened.
1. The Float video was released. This was the first big video that made Gunslingers look fun, and it gave us a much better understanding of what the skills did.
2. We figured out how the Durability of Battleship worked. Before, it was assumed that Battleship would not hold up at bosses. Rapid Fire is much weaker than typical 4th job skills, and would suck as the main attacking skill at bosses. Now we know that Cannon can be used for at least as much time as a typical Buc can use transform. Calculations factored this better understanding of Cannon in, and showed that Corsairs are actually near top-tier in terms of 1:1 damage output.
Of course, it'll take a while for this information to digest, and the masses of MS will continue to assume that Slingers do no damage, their assumptions reinforced by the weakness of Double Shot. I'm happy with that. This keeps gun prices cheaper than Knuckles, at least until more Corsairs show up in the rankings and people realize how strong they are.