What's a SharpShooter Do Anyway?

SharpShooters are probably the least popular subclass in Fiesta, there are probably 40 or more Gladiators to every 1 SharpShooter so we're a bit of a rarity.  Most people don't know what one looks like or what skills we possess.  This fact is one of the very reasons I chose this class.

There are many threads on the forums stating how SharpShooter's skills don't work properly, how they could be improved, etc., and for the most part, they're either accurate or we don't quite understand how the skills work.

SharpShooters receive 5 subclass skills (Detect, Slow Shot, Distant Arrow, Blind Shot, and Neutralize,) after completing their Prestige quests.  Below are some simple screenshots, info about the skills and what I would suggest to improve them.

Detect

Information:  Probably one of the prettiest, yet most useless skills in the game.  The Detect skill is used to uncover Rangers using their Hide ability.  The problem is that the range of this skill is only as large as our other AOEs and the cooldown is 30 seconds so it isn't spammable.  Also, Ranger's Hide skill can be defeated by any AOE, so it's actually better to just spam your damage dealing AOEs (Nature's Mist & Piercing Shot) instead.

How it could be improved:  This skill should just be given maybe a 18.0-25.0m radius from the SharpShooter.  Having to aim this skill to a particular location is ridiculous.

Slow Shot

Information:  This skill is similar to what the Nerpa's (those brown potato-looking archers in Dragon's Tomb) have with the critical exception that it is not spammable even with a fully empowered cool down.  The damage on it is atrocious even fully empowered.  The skill window says the full empowerment adds 2,000 additional damage, but it just doesn't equate in-game.  I hit a level 90 mage for only about 200 damage with it.  The skill in itself is fun to play with, but it's more of a novelty than something particularly useful.  Right now I use it just out of boredom and to chase some newbies in FBZ1.  It is pretty funny in there though. =)

How it could be improved:  Again, make the skill spammable (currently 50secs, empowered to 35sec) as this is probably what was intended.  If you're familiar with the Nerpa's in DT,  those arrows one by one are not scary, but when they spam them, you move and they end up with 6-8 chasing you at once, when they stack that damage.... pain.  So make it spammable and make it stronger.  Fully empowered, this skill should not do 200 damage to a mage.

Distant Shot

Information:  This is probably one of my favorite skills that I acquired after Prestige.  Distant Shot boasts the longest firing range of any offensive skill in the game at 18.0m (Correction, the Knight Skill Discharge has a 21m range, Distant Shot would be the next longest).  Normal skills as well as auto-attacks fire at 13.5m, so you can see that this is quite a big jump.  The range on this skill is so long that at max distance, you can plunk your mob and still not draw aggro!  That's not really all that helpful though since its power isn't devastatingly strong and the cooldown on it is a whopping 2 minutes.  It packs a decent punch, similar to Aimed Shot with the benefit of added distance.  It has a 1.4 second cast time as well so plan accordingly.  This is not a skill that you want to include in the middle of a skill chain for this reason.  I have found that this skill is a great starting or finishing attack depending on the circumstances.  It is absolutely phenomenal as an attack on fleeing players in PvP.  I used it to great effect during our last guild tournament taking down two opposing guild members during separate occassions as they were retreating.

How could it be improved:  The only issue I have with this skill is the damage.  It definitely needs an upgrade to the damage it deals since it's only about as powerful as Aimed Shot.  True the added distance does help, but with a 1.4sec cast time, it's quite risky to cast depending on the timing.  I don't think the cooldown needs any adjustment as long as the damage it inflicts is addressed.

Edit:  I'll post a better screenie showing the max-range of this skill later.  I had focused on the beauty of the animation for this one.  Look for this update tomorrow.

Neutralize

Information:  Neutralize is commonly referred to as 'Disarm'.  It's a neat gadget skill that unequips the weapon of your opponent.  A lot of players don't see that much benefit to it being that most top level players hotkey their weapons anyway, and to a certain extent, that's true.  The skill does do a bit of damage, but it is primarily a defensive skill great for use when your own HP is getting low, it just may buy you an extra second or two as your stones or potions are on cooldown.  I've seen other SharpShooters use this skill in conjunction with Blind Shot, but I would rather use them independently, it gives me that much more protection without having all of my defensive skills incubating on cooldowns.  The skill can also be used offensively as part of a chain when used to distract your opponent.  There is so much muscle memory involved in most players techniques that throwing them off a bit at critical times is sometimes all it takes to swing the tide into your favor.  Just when your opponent thinks they have you, their weapon disappears and they begin to fumble for that uncommonly used hotkey.  Also note that many prestige skills require the weilder to be holding their weapon to cast that skill, that includes Clerics.

How it could be improved:  I think it is fine as it is.  There are reports that this skill does not work against crossbow weilding Rangers, but I have yet to test it to verify that this is still an issue or not.  Cooldown is set at 50 secs while you can subtract an additional 15 seconds via full 5 point empowerment.

Blind Shot

Information:  Blind Shot is without a doubt my favorite of the SharpShooter skills and is more or less our subclass' signature move.  It does not have a 100% success rate.  When struck, Blind Shot flashes your opponent's computer monitor bright white for a couple of seconds, more or less like a flash bang explosive.  Cool time on it is 2.5 minutes, so plan accordingly along with your chain casting.  Although most SharpShooters will probably use this attack on an offensive opponent like a fighter or a mage, I think (in guild war applications) that it would honestly be most effective on clerics.  Clerics would still be able to target heal their main focus, however they would not be able to see the HP of the other members of their party.  If coordinated, this effect could be devastating.

How it could be improved:  In itself, the skill is great.  However, the skill does not affect the opponent's ability to continue targeting and tracking you even though blind.  Once targeted, you remain targeted.  An auto-attacking fighter will continue to follow you even though blind.  A blinded mage can still pummel you at range with all of their attacks.  Being that the nature of the attack is to essentially 'blind' the victim, targeting should be either removed or aim debuffed to zero.  A nice after-effect would be a gradual increase from zero of the opponents aim over the course of say 15 seconds, similar to the debuffs of a fighter.  The cooltime is long enough that even having this type of debuff doesn't overpower the skill.

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