The Cataphract class doesn’t feel that good and from what we’ve seen and heard from Korean test server and the kToS version, after the re-balance patch, the Cataphract class is definitely not as good against monsters compared to other classes.
I think the reasons for this are as follows:
Cataphract, by itself, needs a two-handed spear. The class has 6 skills at the 3rd circle(most other classes have 7-11 skills when 3rd circle) with no overheats on any of the damage skills. One of the skills, Trot, is just a movement speed buff, nothing more. Two of the damage skills, Impaler and Steed Charge are generally useless against monsters, meaning you have basically 3 damage skills against monsters and no overheats. The class has relatively low damage on skills. Cataphract skills need a mount to be used, also many nice skills of other swordsman classes cannot be used on a mount making your build choices more limited.
The class needs a two-handed spear unless you have Hoplite or Dragoon. The only benefits of using two-handed spears with Cataphract are; having higher base damage than one-hand weapons and the block penetration attribute. The damage difference between 2h and 1h can usually be compensated with gems in the one-handed weapon and in a sub-weapon or shield. In the upcoming patch, against monsters, the block penetration attribute will generally be useless in most situations, against players it will be a little more helpful fighting a Peltasta wearing a shield in PvP but other than that since Stone Skin won’t give block anymore, block penetration won’t really be needed. Basically you lose some other stats and gain nothing much from using a two-handed spear. Two-handed spears for the most part are bad compared to two-handed swords when looking at the stats of the weapons. The attack range bonus on some spears doesn’t even affect skills.
Suggestion: Make using two-handed spears on Cataphract better and unique. Give more damage to the two-handed spears so there’s a noticeable difference compared to using a one-handed + sub-weapon. Change the block penetration attribute to make it better/more relevant, maybe adding accuracy or % damage increase.
Skill Problems:
Impaler is unreliable. It often gets resisted and has a small hitbox when using it for aoe damage. If you move while carrying a monster then try to do damage to that monster, often it won’t register the damage of that hit after moving. Impaler cannot be used on Large monsters and Bosses unless you grab a Medium or Small sized monster first, which is usually annoying to do and not worth the time in doing so.
Suggestion: Increase Impaler’s damage radius and the reliability of the skill, make it so monsters can’t resist Impaler. Make the skill have some interaction with Boss and Large Monsters without needing a smaller target.
Earth Wave is lackluster. The damage of Earth Wave is weird. The skill is considered a multi hit skill. However, if the initial hit of Earth Wave misses or is blocked by the target, the following hits just won’t happen at all. The skill’s animation is misleading, you would think the aoe would be bigger than it actually is. Earth Wave also has a charge up time for a very small damage increase. It doesn’t make sense looking at the re-balanced figures(54% damage increase charging from level 1-15) and comparing it to a skill like Meteor where charging the skill matters(around 900% more damage after fully charged.) Compared to most other damage skills, Earth Wave has really low damage. You have to buy the remove knockdown attribute to make it worth using against groups of monsters due to the fact that it scatters monsters when you knock them down. Scattering monsters decreases your dps because they take time to get back up and gather back together. Having an attribute that removes an annoying special effect but increases the SP cost is such a bad idea. Just don’t put it there in the first place. The Earth Wave: Earth Property attribute really feels useless, you won’t notice any difference when using it, and seems like a waste of silver.
Suggestion: Increase the damage and hitbox of Earth Wave as it gains levels, by a lot. Increase charge time to compensate but make the skill level 5 max. Make the skill a real multi hit, where the hits are independent of each other and remove the knockdown effect. Have an add knockdown effect attribute that will only trigger on the last hit. Remove Earth Wave: Earth Property and add an increased evasion or resistance attribute whenever you’re charging Cataphract skills.
Doom Spike. The same thing as Earth Wave, weird, misleading and annoying.
Suggestion for Doom Spike is to make it matter more as you charge it, increase the range to fit the animation and decrease the casting animation. It feels like you are stuck in skill animation for too long when you release the skill. Make the skill a real multi hit, where the hits are independent of each other and remove the knockdown effect from the base skill. Have an add knockdown effect attribute that will only trigger on the last hit.
Steed Charge. The same thing as Earth Wave and Doom Spike in that it’s annoying to use, low damage and misleading. This skill also has a very short dash range, a very small hitbox, low aoe attack ratio, doesn’t look that nice and a knockdown effect on the base skill. The skill has an attribute that lets it land critical attacks on slowed targets but that seems silly because Cataphract has no skills that can slow targets.
Suggestion: Increase the skill range and damage when you release Steed Charge, the longer you charge it up the more damage you do, based on skill level. Increase the aoe attack ratio. Remove knockdown from the base skill but make a knockdown attribute. Let the critical attack attribute be more like the double slash critical attribute in that it’s a % chance.
Trot. Trot has nice movement speed but that’s all it does. There are no special effects or attributes for it. It seems plain and boring as a skill.
Suggestion: Give Cataphract an attribute similar to the Barbarian Wild attribute, the more you move around the more damage your skills will do.
Rush. Oh dear… This skill is OK right now but can be annoying to use, and in PvP, its annoying when it’s used on you. You have to hold the Rush button down for 10 seconds. If you’re killing monsters for long periods of time this can get tiring and boring. Rush also gets interrupted quite frequently from CC, sometimes it even stops working all by itself. The skill gets you stuck in animation at times, often doing no damage and leaving you as a sitting duck unable to move, spinning your spear for no benefit to you. When the skill does work, it works well, it has alright damage at the moment, but after the re-balance it is pretty low considering it’s a circle 3 skill on a class that has only 6 skills. Rush has a mini knockback effect as it hits that can be helpful sometimes and annoying in others. For example if you’re surrounded by monsters and constantly knocking them back, they get interrupted(unless immune to knockbacks) which is helpful since you don’t take damage. Downside to this is if the monsters don’t die fast enough, you end up in a situation where you aren’t hitting all of them anymore because they’re pushed back too far and you lose dps. Some monster and boss attacks cause Rush to freeze up your movement while channeling the skill. This is SUPER annoying because for the most part you can’t move, and when u do, its not very far.
After the boss charges at me, I can barely move my character until Rush finishes.
Samee thing here.
Suggestion: Make Rush more like cyclone, split the duration and give it overheats. Make it so you don’t have to hold the button down to cast Rush. Give Rush a remove knockback attribute or give it an attribute to where it pulls targets closer on every third hit.
Cataphract needs some work done to it to make it more enjoyable and less annoying to play as and against. Two-handed spears need something to make them worth using other than Cataphract and Lancer needing them.
Some persons tried to make the argument: “You give up damage for speed,” for playing Cataphract C3.
No, even looking at re-balanced stats you lose:
DPS from knocking back mobs with Rush.
DPS from skills having longer animations or charge ups compared to other almost instant, swordsmen skills.
Utility/Stats from your weapon because you’re using a 2h compared to 1h+shield/sub.
Amount of usable skills.
Amount of skills viable against monsters.
Bugs that freeze you when trying to cast skills.
You gain movement speed for ONLY yourself, some knockdowns that no one wants in PvE/lead to desyncs in PvP and a buggy CC skill that gets resisted often and can’t be used on anything large.
