Hide Vs. Detect - My Take

There's been some rumblings on the forums in recent weeks in regards to the Ranger's Hide skill.  Some believe it needs a complete revamping, others think it needs some tweaks, while others think that it's just fine as is.  On the flipside, almost everyone with any type of sense knows that a SharpShooter's Detect is essentially useless in combating/preventing a Ranger's Hide.

So what are my thoughts?  How would I change the two skills?  Read along:

Hide (currently):
Hide is a Ranger-only skill that is acquired at level 100.  It does not have any upgrades currently.  The skill allows the Ranger to become invisible and roam around freely. 

Hide has somewhere between a 30-50% failure rate, meaning you cast the skill, and nothing happens.  This is currently the only "missable" buff in Fiesta.  The cooldown of the skill has a base of 1 minute, empowerable down to a pretty quick 42 seconds.  I guess that's not so quick when you're running for your life though... Hide can be casted while running.

In addition to Hide's high rate of failure, it can also be dispelled by any AOE attack near the Ranger.  In a PvP situation, the use of any AOE near that Ranger is highly hazardous.  Even with a high evasion, a miss triggers the removal of the skill and the uncovering of the Ranger.  If the Ranger is targeted prior to casting Hide, he can still be followed by the opponent.  Marriage Hearts as well as the AutoPick glow from Pets can also give away a Ranger's location.

The Ranger is unable to cast any skills, attack, pick up any items, or summon their mounts until they cancel their Hide.  Their movement speed is unchanged, they move at their current running speed plus any speed scrolls they may have active.

Whether intentional or not, when casting Hide, the Ranger's evasion increases tremendously.

Detect (currently):
Detect is a SharpShooter-only skill that is acquired at level 100.  It also does not have any current upgrades.
Detect is an AOE-type skill that produces a targeting reticle the same circumference as the other Archer AOEs.  If the hidden Ranger is within this targeting reticle, after the skill is activated, the Ranger will be uncovered.  The cooldown of Detect is 30 seconds, I don't know what the fully empowered CD would be as, at this point, it would be moronic to empower it unless you have some sort of emotional attachment to its pretty animation.  It's pretty safe to guess that the fully empowered CD would bring it down to 21 seconds, but again, who cares.  Detect, as is, is the single most useless skill in the game.

Hide (Fatal's Version):
My apologies as this is not 100% my own thinking as many great minds have shared similar thoughts, but I think I've added some twists that not everyone has mentioned.

Hide[1] - Level 100 Ranger.  Keep the same CD time and Duration.  Increase success rate of skill to 100%.  Damage does not uncover the Ranger, but based on Evasion, he can still be hit by AOEs.  DOTs will also stick to the Ranger, with only Bleed showing a resulting graphic.  Hide can only be completely taken down by a SharpShooter's Detect skill, or those Totem-type mobs/object in Thorn Cave.  The increase in Evasion currently enjoyed by Rangers when they cast Hide would be kept and factored in.

Hide[2] - Level 110 Ranger.  This is a group AOE, buff-type skill.  The Ranger will be allowed to Hide all members of his party within the same target reticle distance with the Ranger as shown in the image above.  With that image in mind, all three Mages would also be invisible, but the Cleric who stands outside the circle, is not.  This is a one-time cast skill that continues to hide your party until the Ranger removes it, someone within the Hide casts a skill, or is Detected by a SharpShooter.  Any party member who wanders outside the range of the skill would become visible.  No skills can be cast while under the "blanket".    If they re-enter the circle, they become hidden once again.  Same rules for damage/uncovering apply as Hide[1].  The skill would employ a 4 minute Cooldown period and a 2 minute Duration, both can be empowered.

Detect (Fatal's Version):
I had proposed this before in one of three ways:

Detect - Version A:  Detect would change into a skill that radiates out from the SharpShooter, uncovering any Ranger within a 13m radius.  This eliminates the need to have to aim the skill and just guess at where the Ranger is hiding, which is pretty pointless now with such a long CD.  In this version, CD would be reduced to 6 seconds, matching the unempowered base CD of Piercing Shot and Nature's Mist.

Detect - Version B:  In this scenario, Detect will become a buff skill.  As a buff skill, it can be re-cast at anytime like a Cleric's buffs, but it will not translate into a party-buff like Nature's Aim, meaning the buff only affects the SharpShooter even if partied.  When Detect is active, the SharpShooter is able to see any Ranger on any map, not just in PvP situations.  The Ranger can be seen in the same fashion that they are visible to themselves, that clear, LabGhost-type visual, the same that you see in Guild Tournament.  The SharpShooter is the only class able to see, actively target and attack a Ranger in Hide.

Detect - Version C:  Similar to above, but it becomes a passive skill.  SharpShooters would be able to see Rangers at any time, on any map, without the use of casting a buff.

Now how would these two proposed changes work in conjunction with each other?  If the passive version of Detect is adopted, the SharpShooter should still have a skill that allows them to completely negate the Ranger's Hide and remove it in PvP situations.  On a normal map, the SharpShooter is only able to see the hidden Rangers and not actively remove their buff.  So perhaps a passive plus the current version of Detect with modifications to the Cooldown?

A Journey Into the Secret Lab!

Who says Archers never get Lab parties?  Well, for 99% of us, that's true, even for me.  Fortunately, I ran into some friends in FBZ1 that were looking to do a few runs in Secret Lab and they asked if I'd be interested.  Since I hadn't gone to Lab on my SharpShooter in months (probably closer to a year), I pounced on the opportunity.  Sadly, my time was limited so we could only get two full runs in.  I do want to thank ChocolateThunder, WhutAboot1T, and MorePewPewLessQQ for letting me tag along.  It was perfect timing as I had wanted to do a full-run video and thought activating my Warlock would be my only hope... that or *gasp!* I go in as an HK...



Since I was only available for an hour, I didn't Cookie, I just used a 20% STR/DEF Charm, some of the freebies from Vault, I think.  It was sufficient as both Fighters managed aggro fine.  We didn't add another player and just went with that we had, 110 Gladiator, 110 Knight, 107 SharpShooter, and 106 HolyKnight.  It was the first time I've gone through Lab without a Mage in the party.  We completed two runs, didn't get any weapons (first run we cracked a tube, second run we had an empty chest), but did manage to get a Guardian Shirt and Gladiator Pants, neither of them were all that good.

All in all, I had a lot of fun, got to complete one of my quests in there, so it was definitely worth my time.  The party was strong enough that the shortcomings of the Archer subclasses weren't too much of a detriment.

As far as tips for an Archer heading into Secret Lab?  Well in the off-chance that you are actually invited, don't be a noob.

• Stay back, play backline, let the Knights or whomever's tanking, set the pace.  
• Stay alive as much as possible to keep the party buffs at maximum, so that means being fully scrolled.  
• Be sure to target what the Tank is targeting unless you can handle a few hits in there.  
• Keep your AOEs to a minimum as you don't want to be the one to mistakenly crack a Tube with a misplaced AOE  As you get more comfortable in there, you can open up a bit.
• Click to target (or use party window, aggro window), tabbing can be dangerous as you may target the Tube
• Be quiet. Observe. Learn.
• Keep all of the above in consideration, but do try to have some fun in there!

Archer Rebalancing - A Continuing Evolution

Well another round of much needed Archer Rebalancing has come and I'm truly grateful for the changes.  While none of the changes are what you would consider game-changers, their subtle improvements are a help to the Archer class.

So what did we see? 

Aimed Shot Changes

The skill Aimed Shot's Power Empowerment effect has been increased - This was definitely a nice addition.  While on paper it looks like a significant increase, in practice, it wasn't too much.  Aimed Shot basically got buffed up to the old Power Shot, but with a faster Cool Down and Cast Time.  I still would like to see the complete elimination of cast times on these two skills for those of us that go SharpShooter.  Overall increase in damage is an estimated 11%.  Again, not great, but it's something.

Power Shot Changes

The skill Power Shot's Power Empowerment effect has been increased - This along with Aimed Shot was, in theory, another nice change, but, just as in Aimed Shot, what we got wasn't that dramatic.  All told, we saw an increase of only about 9% in raw damage.

Blindshot Animation - I think it changed at some point..

Blindshot skill now reduces target's hit rate. SP consumption changed - Since I couldn't test this on mobs, I headed down to FBZ1 today to see what this was exactly.  I ended up testing on several different players, a capped Gladiator, a capped full DEX Knight, a level 65 Archer and a level 41 Cleric. 

In test #1, the Gladiator went from 1601 Aim down to 859 a drop of 742 points. 
The full DEX Knight went from 1941 down to 1241 a drop of 700 points.
The Archer went from 650 Aim to -65, a difference of 715 points.
The Cleric wend from 316 Aim down to -384, a drop of 700 points.

So while those numbers are great, unfortunately, they only last for the duration of the debuff, so about 5 seconds.  As far as SP consumption goes, if it's not a skill I'm able to spam, it just doesn't matter much.

Success rate for Poison Shot skill increased - I didn't see a noticeable difference in this, didn't really pay attention to Stick Rates on my single-target DOTs.  More times than not, they work unless against Boss mobs.

Bleeding (DOT) for Piercing Shot skill increased - This was a nice change.  DOT damage went from 96 or so up to 218 every 3 seconds.  Too bad it's not per second huh?  *wink*

 

The poison, bleed, and disease damage over time (DoT) skills now act independently - FINALLY!!!!  We can now stick all three kitable AOE DOTs!  They all work independently of each other!  There's also a new icon for the Multi Blood Shot DOT, kinda looks like the HP Regen Pot icon.  Oddly, this DOT only does about 69 damage every second.  Low compared to the 96 that a similar Nature's Mist provides per second.  But still, a nice, long-awaited, fix.

So is there more?  Well we can only continue to hope.  Archers are slowly moving back into respectability thanks to changes like those mentioned above.  While none of them were game-changers, they do help round us out a bit more and give us hope that there is still more just over the horizon.

Special thanks to [GM]Kobal for his continued efforts to level the playing field for the Archer class.  Without his help, we'd be much worse off.  Thanks again.

Fortress of Shadows Kingdom Quest - 2 Viewpoints

Since not all of you that visit my blog have experienced the 10x Kingdom Quest: Fortress of Shadows, I figured I'd record it for you.  Yeah I know there are other YouTube vids out there of this, but hey, you'd rather watch mine right?  *exerts mind control*



So the first one is a run through with my SharpShooter, she's currently 107 (non-leveling), using +10 Ashur Bow (Malephar), and +0 Ashur Hat, Pants, and Boots, along with a +0 Blind Shot (Lab) shirt.  She also has 2 +9 Paradise Rings, a +3 Blessed Necklace and a +9 Aquamarine Gem Earring.  No active SparkCash items on her, Honeying shirt and hat are both statless and permanent.  Also using her typical complement of T4 Scrolls including Speed.

This KQ is really fun on an Archer if you are able to survive/evade the hits from the mobs being kited.  If you are skillful enough, you can dictate the pace in the two stages prior to Kalban Obeb's arrival.  Just be careful not to get too overzealous and end up training everyone!  See screenshot below from a previous, fiendish-Faytal KQ.

The second run is with my Warlock.  She's 105 (also non-leveling) using a +10 Storas Wand (Lab), and +0 Khoolin (Malephar) Shirt and Boots, paired with +0 Electronic Shock (Lab) Pants and Hat.  For accessories, she's using 2 +9 Paradise Rings, a +9 Blessed Necklace, and a +0 Aquamarine Gem Earring.  Only active SparkCash item on her is a Summer Boop set.  She's wearing only the pants from the set along with a Team Korea Soccer uniform (permanent and statless).  Her Arctic Fox Ears and Tail are also permanent and statless.

This video gives a great view of what's buggy about this KQ.  That first entry room, the Skeleton Archers spawn in the correct place, but they used to jump down from the tops of the walls.  Now they just stay up there (which strategically makes more sense) and are unable to be attacked except for Mage AOEs.  That far wall has I think about 25 Archers, not many people can survive a volley from them if they all target you.

As you watch the video, you'll notice how much aggro the +10 Storas Wand generates.  I don't know whether or not the Fighters are using aggro generating skills or not, but I keep pulling aggro and have to stay highly mobile even using Metamorphosis as an escape if the situation gets really bad.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed both videos, I could do one on the HolyKnight, but Cleric videos are pretty boring unless you want to just see the pretty, new animations.

Ask Fatal: Simple Questions With Not So Simple Answers

Time for another round of questions.... These are mostly questions that I've gotten asked in my chat box that I just can't answer in such a limited amount of space... So here are a few I figure I'd tackle today since the servers were down.

Even at 106, You Can Still Learn Some Things....

So I'm back to my SharpShooter now, the Warlock has pretty much been shelved.  I didn't get to the 50-60% I had hoped for, although she currently sits at about 25%, I'm still satisfied.  With the Ascendence of Heroes Event finally winding down, it ends on March 31, I figured I may as well try to solidify my spot within the top 5 for Bijou's Archers.

The Archer Rebalance - More on the Way?

Much has been made for nearly the last 3 years about how Archers really come up with the short end of the stick when it comes to many elements of gameplay.  Archer advocates speak of major tactical disadvantages in PvP (lack of damage, nearly identical evasion to fighters, effective evasion vs effective aim, lack of skills, etc) as well as a lack of a defined party role leaving Archers with almost no option other than to solo.  So with all of the grumbling, posturing, and debating from the player base, OutSpark asked OnsOnSoft to revisit the Archer class and attempt to put them back on par with the other two damage dealing classes.

Stacking Has Returned! *throws confetti*

With last week's patch, included with it was the removal of the ability for non-mage classes to 'stack' damage.  Simply, this was defined as the ability to simultaneously run auto-attacks during your skill spam.  This resulted in a sort of 'double-attack' as your auto-attack always ran in the background while you launched skills at your targets.  Many players, to my surprise, were unaware of this.  Many claimed to have never done it, but really they have, they just never noticed it.  It was impossible NOT to do it unless you went around 1-hitting everything.

Stacking was essential for any class or subclass that chose, or was forced via prestige subclass choice, that used a lighter damage weapon.  In the case of the SharpShooter, the choice was made mainly because of the bow's high rate of fire, 1.0/1.1 secs per attack for the bow vs 1.3/1.4 secs per attack for the xbow.  While kiting, this makes no difference, but in a standing still situation, it makes a world of difference.

SharpShooter Skill Builds

 
There aren't an overabundance of SharpShooters on Bijou, nor for any server for that matter, but those of us that have gone this route are generally pretty chatty with each other.  Some classes like Gladiators are so secretive over everything, their builds, their empowerments, their equipment.... My SharpShooter is a work-in-progress and basically an open book.  I'll show you whatever I can, if I can (can't show you bound stuff other than posting screenies), and offer whatever advice I can give based on my own playstyle and experience.

That being said, I get asked a lot by other players about my SharpShooter, so here's a basic rundown of my Archer and my hopes on the future:

Fatal's Mailbag - November 1, 2010

Since quite a few have left me messages, I figure I would try to address them all in a blog posting rather than clutter up the message board.... so here we go!

Secret Laboratory - Blind Shot Set Completed!

Some of you around Bijou may have seen me carrying around this really unique, epic looking bow.  Some have asked what it is, and I gladly explain.  Many have asked to see it in trade window or in a vendor, but I can't because like the 100 blue sets before this one, the 105 blues are also Soul Bound.  I could drop it on the ground so you could pick it up and look at it yourself, but being the only bow of its kind on Bijou the likelihood of that occurring is nil.

Class Rebalancing - Archers

As most of you know, class rebalancing in regards to the Archer class has been a hot topic for the last 2 years (Archers were actually really good @ 59 and early 79 cap before people starting enhancing armors and buying extenders).  You can find threads on a near daily basis by those of us with archer mains asking for help from OutSpark and OnsOn to at least bring us up to par with the other 2 offensive classes, Clerics are another story.

So after much urging by both the playerbase as well as OutSpark, we finally have our first steps toward achieving a bit more balance to the Archer class.  Here is a breakdown of what's to come and what I think can still be improved.

So here's what was announced:

- The Archer's skill, Nature's Mist, will now be extended to include levels 6, 7, 8, and 9. The current level cap will allow tier 8 to be received at level 107.

My thoughts:  This is great!  This was much needed ever since the 89 cap was raised.  Archers capped out on this skill at level 83 [Tier 5], so aside from more damage from leveling up and a better weapon, the skill remained unchanged all the way through Prestige.  I'm extremely happy that this skill will get the attention that it deserved.  I'm guessing at 105, I'll have up to [Tier 7].

- The Archer's Skill, Entrap, will now be extended to include tiers 2, 3, 4, and 5. At the current level cap, tier 3 will be the highest attainable at level 110.

-  The damage for Entrap will be increased significantly and its cooldown will be reduced.

My thoughts:  Since I'm not a Ranger, I don't have much experience with this skill.  Keep in mind that this is the 'Invisible Flower Traps' skill and not Entangle.  From talking with friends and witnessing a bit in FBZ, the skill as it was was pretty useless.  It did minimal damage, similar to the damage the SharpShooter skill Slow Shot does.  We're guessing that with each tier, an additional flower will be dropped.  This skill is kitable, and with increased damage and shorter cooldowns, it may be pretty useful.

- The Archer's skill, MultiBloodShot, will take 50% of the original Spirit Points needed to cast the spell. Tier 1 will now take 451 SP, Tier 2 will take 533 SP.

- MultiBloodShot will be a skill that can be cast while moving. (still being worked on)

My thoughts:  This is also a welcome change.  However, as it is currently, the DOTs for MultiBlood and Piercing Shot are not stackable.  One cancels out the other which makes no sense as Piercing does 'Disease'-type damage and MultiBlood does 'Bleeding'-type damage.  The single target equivalents of the two skills can be stacked however.  Hopefully this is addressed when they implement these changes.  This skill also had a nasty habit of locking up all of your other skills if you cast it too often.  This skill-bug required a full log out to correct and oftentimes resulted in your death.

- The Soul Stone limitation for Archers that are below level 100 will be increased.


My thoughts:  This is a good thing for Archers, our stone capacity was really low, often requiring us to restone every 20-30 minutes depending on what we were kiting.

- The Soul Stone limitation for Mages that are below level 100 will be increased.

My thoughts:  Nice bonus for the mages too.  Mages were capped at only 72 HP stones all the way up to 99, if you were duoing or soloing in a far off place, like TOS Boss Room, your HP stones got wiped out really quickly, especially if you didn't have a Cleric available.

So those are the announced changes so far... not bad, at least it's a start.  There is just so much more that can be done though....  Here's what I would do, feel free to debate any of this:

1.  Increase base damage of both Archer weapons.  If base damage is not increased, we need a serious upgrade in the skill damage instead.  Either way, our attacks are really weak.

2.  Aimed Shot & Power Shot:  Once a Scout chooses SharpShooter, the level 100 upgrades should have a no cast time upgrade as well.  Having to wait to cast these skills is ridiculous, we're better off just standing there auto-attacking.

3.  Multishot:  Kitable after Prestige also with no cast time.  More base damage than Piercing Shot.

4.  Increase in Evasion.  No reason a fighter's evasion should closely rival that of an archer.

Will add more in a bit........

The Grind: Getting to 105

Staying Awake is the Real Challenge

It's been about a week now that I've been sitting at 104.  Slowly, but surely, I'm inching my way closer to 105.  It's honestly a struggle for me, staying motivated to grind since my quests have all been long completed.
104-105 is a 955m grindfest.  I completed all my quests which may have accounted for about 10-15% of my total tops.  I didn't keep track of the experience gain from them and I did them here and there between grind sessions.  I've been fortunate enough that I haven't had to rely solely on myself to get all this experience, via kiting.

Mission ACCOMPLISHED Advanced Concentration Set

Well, we did it!  The SharpShooter 100 Blue Armor Set has become a reality!

First off, I wanted to thank my guildmates for all the help and support in helping me achieve this goal.  Extra thanks goes to my husband, StormyRain, thanks so much hun, this wouldn't have been possible without your help.  You've got me pixel-pretty and beaming.

Special thanks also to guildies: SenzaMisura, Akariiii, dan112, Mia_, laceface, wave92, Rehab_B and _Aim_2_Shoot_.  Thank you also to Haiyan, Spiderman, and RaidenX.

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.