[1.2.381] The Wind

I think a significant buff to Pierce would be to roll Dragon Pulse's push effect into the Pierce attack. This reduces the crapload of SP that Marksmen need to be good and can give MM another passive that puts it on edge with Bowmasters. It also solidifies MM in dealing with heavy amounts of mobs. Then you could do Pierce --> Blizzard --> Ulti Strafe --> Ulti Strafe... Instead of Pierce --> Pulse --> Blizzard --> Ulti Strafe --> Ulti Strafe

In thinking about it, Snipe has no use within the MM arsenal of skills. Their skillset heavily leans to dealing with groups of mobs, so why is Snipe even there? So they can do okay 1v1 damage every 5 seconds? Snipe would have far more use and make more sense with Bowmasters.

Disclaimer: Never played a bowman.

I guess snipe is there because back before BB having strafe be their only 1v1 skill would suck completely. They wouldn't have much appeal otherwise. It's kind of overhyped except for the super funded like bryan imo.

Joe's calculations were an interesting read as always. Their damage will only go up as long as their avoid is through the roof, making avoid a stat that's actually useful for increasing damage. How scary. @_@

I think a significant buff to Pierce would be to roll Dragon Pulse's push effect into the Pierce attack. This reduces the crapload of SP that Marksmen need to be good and can give MM another passive that puts it on edge with Bowmasters. It also solidifies MM in dealing with heavy amounts of mobs. Then you could do Pierce --> Blizzard --> Ulti Strafe --> Ulti Strafe... Instead of Pierce --> Pulse --> Blizzard --> Ulti Strafe --> Ulti Strafe

In thinking about it, Snipe has no use within the MM arsenal of skills. Their skillset heavily leans to dealing with groups of mobs, so why is Snipe even there? So they can do okay 1v1 damage every 5 seconds? Snipe would have far more use and make more sense with Bowmasters.

Disclaimer: Never played a bowman.

A huge problem with Pierce is the charge time. I feel if it just had a really long delay like Buccaneer skills, and you could fill the space with another skill, it would be perfect. No one uses Pierce without charging it. Or if they do, they're doing it wrong, seeing as Iron Arrow is better, and it scales better as you charge it so the only reason you wouldn't is due to overkill.
Instead of charging for 840ms (~current time) and then spending another 720ms (boostered) to fire, it should shoot at 810ms standard (speed before booster, what it is now), but then have another 810ms (boosterable) before being able to use it again, making it effectively spam at 1620ms, and you would naturally fill the gap with Blizzard or Dragon Pulse. i.e. 810ms Pierce + 810ms Dragon Breath instead of 810ms Pierce and waiting for another 810ms delay to use Pierce again. With this, they could either decrease the damage, or remove/change the increased damage effect to balance it, since charging is pretty stupid.
You waste a lot of potential DPS charging. Ask an Arch Mage (if an Arch Mage feels Big Bang is useful time spent charging, they shouldn't =[ ). They lose out on being able to Telecast it, which without charge actually comes close to matching its fully charged DPS, and has less room for error (read: overcharging).

With the way Pierce works now, you would freeze if necessary, Dragon Pulse, then charge up Pierce. Anything that survives would be Dragon Pulsed forward to get a larger mob, and then Pierced again to efficiency make use of its charge and damage, as opposed to Piercing twice on one cluster half of which just died, if possible. Otherwise, it's for a large burst DPS where you charge it while moving around/climbing/falling to do a big burst when you find something to kill. I very much dislike this methodology since the charging wastes time, and burst has little sustainability compared to something like Ultimate Inferno, but they improved it so that you don't have to wait another 7 levels to get 6 mob Dragon Breath in 4th job. It's still a bad model since you lose a lot of DPS Dragon Breath-ing and over charging. Maybe adding a passive to Pierce to improve Dragon Pulse like how Boomerang Step works, but it still doesn't address the charge problem.


Another interesting thing they added which I found to be very thoughtful was the 1 second buff of Evasion Boost (Dodge). When a monster misses on you, for 1 second, all your attacks have 100% critical. This means that instead of 1 Arrow from Hurricane being 100% critical, all shots for the whole second are guaranteed, and Ultimate Strafe gets two shots (12 arrows) that are 100% critical since you can shoot twice in one second. (720ms for the first shot, and then the second shot starts before the buff wears off, therefore giving it the effect). This helps Bow Masters more than Marksmen (8~9 Hurricane Arrows and the average AFA, 3110~3330% vs 12 Ultimate Strafe Arrows and the average FA 2880%), but the previous Evasion Boost was laughably useless, especially for Bow Masters.

Make snipe useful for bossing: give it a kind of weakening effect a la Parrot.

I LOLED so hard at your comic! And I've been so used to saying "hai...." that it's such a refreshing thing to see someone say "咳" hahah!

Hadriel

I demand you post your reactions to these threads in this form for the rest of time.

So yeah, current skillset for NL's can't even stand up to Wind Archers...

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Pack your bags, NL's. A cygnus outdid you. A cygnus.

Oh my god, did you draw all those? They're really cute! Also, is that a Shadower in the last comic?

Oh my god, did you draw all those? They're really cute! Also, is that a Shadower in the last comic?

Yeah. That's the Dark Lord.

You should have made it a pirate in the last comic. ;-;

You should have made it a pirate in the last comic. ;-;

We're not worthy enough to drink with a Night Lord. ;_;

I thought that was Dark Lord in the 4th comic. It would be fitting haha. Mumbling to himself how Athena's students got so much better than his all of a sudden.

Like i said before, i like those 4komas. they're cute

Pack your bags, NL's. A cygnus outdid you. A cygnus.

Hahahaha, all of these are great. I think I like the double jump one the best. Also, is that the Cygnus Chief Knight in the second picture? However you spell her name.

Haha, Dizzy, I never knew you could draw so well. Those were adorable. xD

Something tells me NLs (well, thieves in general) will get a pretty big compensation for the whole speed thing, though, they were always known as the speedy class. Archers were always second place in that (I think).

Also, we can pot during Hurricane now?!

Repostan from SW because it's actually funny.

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Repostan from SW because it's actually funny.

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Whoever did that is a fucking genius. xD

Hurricane (4th): Allows usage of potions during attack

This widened my eyes. That's an insane buff for bossing Bowmasters, in my opinion.

They really did some nice things for Bowmen in this patch. Adventurer Bowmen are back in the game, eh?

So yeah, current skillset for NL's can't even stand up to Wind Archers...

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Pack your bags, NL's. A cygnus outdid you. A cygnus.

That's basically everything, yes, feel free to add me in the kerning bar :p. Oh God, please, let us reach 200 speed on the next patch...

Awesome update to archers. Can't wait till they reach Thief. As a NL im looking forward to it. It is true Archers have everything a NL has now. But could we stand up to them with a new update? Matter of time before we know it. .

The 55% dodge chance is scary....... thats my biggest fear atm......

The only thing i liked about my NL after big bang was the high avoid and fast mobility...and now archers 55% dodge chance and characteristics of WH fast mobility makes me cry lol.

Awesome update to archers. Can't wait till they reach Thief. As a NL im looking forward to it. It is true Archers have everything a NL has now. But could we stand up to them with a new update? Matter of time before we know it. .

The 55% dodge chance is scary....... thats my biggest fear atm......

The only thing i liked about my NL after big bang was the high avoid and fast mobility...and now archers 55% dodge chance and characteristics of WH fast mobility makes me cry lol.

Don't forget the 160 speed cap!

Ignoring the damage calculations and lamenting NLs for a sec, do mastery books from a removed skill carry over to the new skill with the same skill ID? If that's the case I'd like a list of which new skills each of our removed skill's books will morph into so I can stock up on cheap useless books, if possible. Thanks!

EDIT: For the people saying how we will have 55% dodge, it's already been proven that evasion boost doesn't give 20% dodge, but instead factors in enemy accuracy somehow and comes out to a WAY less avoid rate. Who's to say that EB, and the new illusion skill for that matter, won't function the same way?