Class Development: Footpad

[Sasuke]

CLASS DEVELOPMENT : FOOTPAD

Intro: Note: This is a pretty hefty article .. for those of you that just want the nitty gritty skip down to “important” or “recap”.

So…, I have been doing a “bit” of pking lately inorder to race change… and as you all know im all for footpads. I found my self in various unplesant ‘situations’ and issues not with my game play but rather with the footpad class itself.. thus I would like to cover some of the footpad’s main arsenal and my suggestions/tweaks.

The strange situations:

Its been a while since I played and I think most people forgot how to fight a footpad.. The first few days I had no problem taking down anyone with 15k-20khp.. Why? Malignant Injury – vanish – come back and oh look oh look your near death .

1) Then came the ‘group running’ were several people of my size begain running together (after remorting and such) This was obviously more difficult bc there was 2-3x the hp I had to chop my way through.. My solution ? Bandit tactics of enmeshing. With this nifty tool I could isolate one group member and do away with him/her before the group realized what was going on and then move on to the next target…

2) Next were the “big hitters” and the “healers”. Both of theese categories laughed of my poison and called me a wuss for not staying in combat. I compensated by throwing immedieatly after malig and ending with a blindside or Crit wound or Concentration of killing (assassin specials). Theese allowed me to out damege / overwhelm the target(s). If I actually hit.

3) Finally the annoying part.. people realized that a locked footie was a dead footie.. so I continuously found my self either battle locked or chasing a ghost (the target recalled). To fight this I worked on my timing with thieve’s side step / blindsided / malig / and throwing with an occasional crit w when I new I was going to get locked.

4 ) “Big players that can see me” / people with imparmant abilities.. I really didn’t know how to beat theese people so I just avoided them. (bash/stun/north wind / channeled anger / beguile to name a few..)(and yes its even sadder when people’s pet’s impair you instead of the actual person o0)(or rescue the target >.<)

**Important**
See here, the deal is all this stuff I mentioned is actually A LOT harder to do than say :P
Footies are:
- bad at running in comparison to other classes (nim is only useful at low lvs)
- have a hard time competing with people that have: >20khp/more damage/locks/imparments/heal/more defense/eye for cloak/ the list goes on…
- cant tank at all lol (very little nr / quickness)
- there are problems with the individual abilities which I will try to cover in the next section.



*The arsenal:*

[ Skills ]:
climb swim
kick withdraw
palm striking fist
critical attack nim
throw dodge
trip critically wound
glancing pierce unseen motion
stealth archers competence
ashi barai kick one of four, pivot
bandit tactic of enmeshing retreat
disengage combat art of imbalance
vanish thieves' sidestep
cloak hire
concentration of killing malignant injury
stratagem of the cloak shadow
regenerate singularity of fate
winded passage ambush
blindsided machination singularity of focus
continuum of combat takushiki

*Note Assassin abilities included



I would like to start with Nim by saying it sucks. Footpad=thiefs=should be able to steal more than they run. (that’s all we do after all right..?)
- This would take care of the whole not being able to run very well issue since we woulnt have to tank o0 .
- Suggestion: reduce the lag << substancially

Next lets look at Hire .. it SUCKS. Why do other classes get supper pumped up pets with uber eq on them? We get stuck with lv 80 mortal mobs that at best hit in bay for 500ish damage. I cant tell my follower to ambush someone and rescue dosent do much good if it only has a few hitpoints… I cant hire a healer to heal me or a pollir to tank well or a mage to buff me ..not to mention some abilities are limited (like I cant hire a noj and have it fuse me).. enough said there.



Trip – Moderately usefull now that it was revamped.. prevents players from performing certainn actions in battle i.e (you are trying to recover from being triped first)

**Art of imbalance – I still have no idea what this does.. something related to trip .. why is trip the only imbalancing thing we have ? arent footpads suppose to know the weak points in every race? (yes im aware that this is supposed to reffer to critical attack)
-Suggestion - replace glancing pierce / striking fist / ashi barai kick / one of four pivot (I actually like the description of this one) with new imbalancing abilities possibly charge based.
e.x. addle(cant perform certain actions), silence(cant cast/invoke),slow(give em lag),shadowbind(makes each successive attack hit harder?)
e.x one of four is a “cornering tactic” as in trap the opponent in a corner. it should allow you to choose a corner (n,e,s,w) and then prevent the opponent from moving in that direction. useable only outside of battle and also inflicting damage.

Continuum of combat – are you joking ? giving a lock ability to a class that is suppose to stay out of battle? There is only one use for this.. locking people at near death to ensure the kill o0. Also usefull if someone else is doing the tanking…


Singularity of focus – Ok so this is supposed to transform some of the footpad’s stratagem attacks into full out critical attacks.. Why do I always pick Singularity of fate istead (they are on the same prev)
1) it’s a short duration / long prev

singularity of focus - unbreakable concentration 82% (02:00)
singularity form (14:00)

2) fate gives us substancial stat bonuses :
singularity of fate - agility +38 (04:59)
- dexterity +38 (04:59)
- speed +38 (04:59)
- quickness +18 (04:59)
singularity form (09:52)

3) im hardly ever fighting someone long enough to make good use of it , the exception to this is combining it with concentration of killing which reduces the lag between each critical attack (from 4k to 2.5k) , +1 hit / 2 dex and +1 damg / 10 int. and is also very usefull for 5 mins of running o0 or making sure you hit people with malig.
concentration of killing - damage +36 (05:54)
- hit +175 (05:54)
- wind-striking 82% (05:54)
aura - oe naj'k (35:01)

The problem here is obvious.. 35 min prev.

For singu of focus
*-Suggestion add affects like attacks cannot be parried/dodged
Ignore opponents natural resistance
- cut down prevention time
- place on a different prevention than singu of fate.
- Note Silent Malevolance could be brought back with some of theese affects on it (or shadowbind each successive attack does more damage)

Bandit tactics of enmeshing - great move for isolating someone from a group, based on dex.

bandit tactic of enmeshing - confined movement 78% (03:00) *(easily 100% with some more dex)
bandit tactics (18:00)
- down side? People recall when they cant move , only got one shot
- Suggestions? Dunno this one is pretty good as is.

Blindsided machination – An awesome ability that does good damage and prevents people from recalling.. based on dex and agil.
blindsided machination - anti-recall 100% (00:19)
- down side 20 secs is just not enough some times especially if the target is running around (lack of enmesh)
- you need to be cloaked .. another reason y im race changing

-Suggestion Again charged based prev 3 charges 3 min prev .. slightly reduce damage.. also plays along well with the footpad’s attack and retreat strategy

Cloak – Great – weakness eye for cloak - probably the footpad’s best defense based on agil.
cloak - cloaked 102% (19:03)
stealth maneuver - basic level (28:43)

Stratagem of the cloak – I like the description on this one.. could use
Critical Attack – Awesome useful for a life time. Both passive and Active uses.
-Suggestions
Shadow - great in combination with tracking
Ambush – great for starting a rumble
Vanish - great for leaving a rumble

Critical Wound – the 2nd assassin ability (concentration of killing was the first)
Sadly, crit w is only a basic leathal attack o0 and caps at 25k on players (which im just find with) also based on dex and int.
- down side if its dodged or if it misses well it’s useless (this happens often)
- Suggestion reduce the prevention time when this happens.

critically wound - critically wounded 78% (00:33)* (easily 100% with some more dex)
- lethal attack - basic level (16:40)



Other Suggestions Traps, Locking/Unlocking doors /Higher chance of finding loot/ reduced lag abilities (not time walker but simmilar)
There are so many things I can think of , and not just for this class but for any of them o0. I think in general we need some more class development going on 


I got tired so there will be no recap atm.

Tks
Sasuke