WARNING - This thread isn’t made for new players or those that seek guidance on how to use said class, please look for proper threads regarding it such as class overviews and build guides. Design Breakdown is a design discussion thread only and has no purpose to help players on practical aspects of the game.
Starting another Design Breakdown this time with a “suggestion” given ingame and ironically it’s another polemic class but now with religion in the mix, this is no other than Inquisitor. In case this is your first time on a Design Breakdown topic go to this link for some basic information.
Inquisitor - RANK 8 - ATTACK
Going for the same line as the description follows the identity of Inquisitor is the anti mage that punishes those that make use of such power, it’s interesting that the class is in the cleric (as melee magic) tree and is almost pure physical as part of this design direction. Despite this interesting identity the game often struggles to have a good disposition of ‘physical x magical’ enemies as it’s hard to have a cleric type monster, some do exist but often not feel like it, and this gives the class some disadvantage when exploring this take.
Disclaimer - Inquisitor is based on a group that practiced torture on innocent people using religious pretexts and just as other polemic classes it has to be taken as neutral as possible despite the atrocities involved. Due the game storyline we have to consider that the theme is translated into the game universe, i believe the real oppression of inquisition is never taken to the game world as the role of the class has their ideals romanticized in the game context which is explored on the game tone. It’s unlikely for any of the development team to sympathize with inquisition or approve their actions but as the theme was brought up it can’t be brushed off for a shallow class.
The theme of inquisition fits perfectly this identity as those were seen as witch hunters and would investigate and condemn heretics that didn’t followed the catholic doctrines, of course this was a political move to ensure the power of church, dispose of dangerous people that defy social hierarchy and the church, persecute protestant clerics and have devotes on check by setting the consequences. Once inquisition had a target they’d follow a procedure that would often and in torture it until the heretic confess their sins and witchhood practices, an interesting phenomenon that happens with the brain is that it can rewrite itself to create fake memories in the right circumstances by mere suggestion and that is amplified when under constant abuse. Despite having this identity thematic link the only thing that is really taken from the theme is some of their tools of torture, which some may not have been used by them at all but rather be contemporary devices, and this will be the foundation on what to use for it.
God Smash (B) - Relief
It doesn’t feel like God Smash has any thematic value aside for being a blow dealt by god (or in this case goddesses) itself. The expected property for the attack is holy yet that isn’t the case, we could dismiss that as the game universe counts with a fair share of deities opposed to a single god but if it were the case other cleric skills would have to follow the same line. As straightforward skill, it serves as a good and simple damage source and has a nice quirk with the additional damage for maces, which value isn’t informed as usual.
Pear of Anguish (B) - Midground
A pear shaped instrument divided into 3 or 4 segments that would slowly open or close to the center by rotating a screw, it’s believed it was used on lower cavities of those that had relationship with demons inflicting them excruciating pain yet there’s no documents supporting this application. The only properly recorded use of such tool is as a silencer for those that had spoken against the church and also to prevent witches to cast spells, the pear would be taken into the person mouth and then expanded to the jaw limit. It would be expected for this skill be a direct attack that silence enemies but having it to react to magic also fits the concept behind it and is more compelling.
Pear of Anguish isn’t only a homing anti magic trap but also a ground spike that deals punishes those that step on it and that was done only to ensure it has use against physical oriented enemies. The idea of a homing trap would be fine by itself but with the current range of activation, and also having ranged deployment, makes it fairly oppressive as the options are either not being able to use magic till all 5 (or 10) pears are gone or face a massive attack and hope for the best, that’s only a PvP concern tho as it won’t matter when fighting monsters. It’s stated that the skill deals extra damage to spell casters but this the skill never informs the value. Despite this oppressive power it doesn’t seem like the skill is out of rails and it does has some unique values, in worst case a debuff can be applied to reduce any subsequent hit from it in order to slow down nukes and that’s can do the job.
Breaking Wheel (C) - Relief/Gimmick
Execution by the wheel was an antique way to sentence criminals and had many variations, what seems to be the origin was a greek invention that used the object to stretch out the person limbs. Later on it was used as a symbol of justice which had the criminal tied to it in some part of the process, some would roll the person out to a cliff, others would use the wheel as the weapon itself and some would break the limbs first to then tie up at the wheel and place it in public places. There’s also a variant which the executioner would hit the condemned when tied on the wheel and this is likely to be the main source of the skill, yet it wasn’t part of inquisition but rather a governmental punishment.
Breaking Wheel is a pretty functional skill but doesn’t do anything special by itself, it has some decently consistent damage in area, yet it doesn’t inform how many enemies nor how many hits it deal, and even with it having the attack range expanded to outside it isn’t the best incentive. What really changes the skill is the additional damage attribute, that seems to be a component extracted from the base skill, that redirects hits, both damage and effects, towards the wheel to enemies within the skill range and gives it an unique feature but not much of a reason to level. The skill also never informs how many hits it can take nor if it increases with level which would be a great to have.
Without the attribute the skill doesn’t do much and that can be fixed by having some extra components on usage that are disabled when using additional damage attribute. If the skill is meant to make the user hit the wheel it’s possible to have it to be indestructible and lower its duration, then each attack delivered to it will extend the duration for a maximum of X% or Xs. Other options are to have it to always deal critical damage or have damage increased for the next 0.5s~1s after being hit, have the damage interval reduced by attacks or even make it apply bleeding.
Malleus Maleficarum (B) - Counter Lead
A book that uses this title, as Hammer of Witches, and was supposed to be the manual of inquisition, it contains instructions on how to investigate and recognize witchcraft and also procedures on how to exterminate witches. Despite never being officially used by inquisition, and even prohibited by the church, some historians connect the publication of the book with raising brutality on witch torture and executions which added burning on stakes to the list.
Few skills have interaction based on enemy stats this is one of them, here the power is increased based the damaged enemy MAtk and both on identity and thematic aspects it does the witch hunting and it also comes with extra SP consumption debuff and halves hitten enemies SPR and INT. It’s also interesting that it deals Magic damage and as such it may have almost no harm to physical oriented characters and enemies while having some considerable damage to casters, however the lacks a very welcomed floor for this component. Malleus Maleficarum can hit the same target multiple times but will take the most amount of enemies around by default, this allows it to be used as a fake taunt as it has some significant range. This could easily be the class uncontested Lead but due the damage type, as the whole class damage is Physical, it can be limited to weapon investment only or require some counter synergy to make the most of it and despite cleric support such route it isn’t something all players enjoy.
As a starting circle the class doesn’t feel complete, the skills have a minimal degree of synergy as the two active ones can make use of Malleus Maleficarum targeting mechanism to lure enemies. Breaking Wheel seems to be a skill which only serves to increase other skills range with its attribute and can work as a taunt and spread skill as well, it is an useful feature but also makes it questionable to level as it only adds up more damage to the skill itself. What really beats this circle is Pear of Anguish as any trap skill will rely on the enemy to be triggered, this kind of skill works better for ranged classes as they can lure down enemies to traps while attacking, and as such is more suitable for the second circle.
An interesting feature Inquisitor has is the burn attribute has a chance to spawn flames after killing enemies, this will change in the brief future to have a fixed number of flames. There’s no information provided about how the damage is calculated nor if it interacts with buffs or substats such as property attack, along with that the change will prevent new flames to spawn they reach maximum number as the natural way is to overwrite the oldest one. It’s a nice gimmick overall but not as reliable since it deals with chance, the only tiny slip is that it doesn’t have higher chance on Devil/Demon enemies as it is part of the theme.
Iron Maiden (E) - Gimmick
When researching about Iron Maidens the results were unexpected, the object we known seems to be a crafted myth built with the pretext of the atrocious punishments of middle ages however there wasn’t a single reliable record its usage. In concept this device would puncture the person inside it slowly, the spikes would long enough to make it bleed yet too short to hit vitals and as such it would die from a slow and painful blood loss.
Iron Maiden is lackluster. It may work as a PvP, specially with Judgment to trigger the damage component (if damage isn’t reduced), and having it to be ranged an target the ground may not be the fairest. When the matter is PvE the skill is beyond disappointing as is limited to small and medium enemies and also deals only HP% damage which can’t be increased at means and as a single target skill it isn’t as effective as any other skill. It isn’t clear about the damage interval and we’d assume is every 0.5s or a fraction of that number as the only leveling factor is duration.
On the easy side of the skill a new damage component would be great and two good candidates are enemy INT or SPR and MAtk, for basic stats it can convert it into a PAtk% factor (up to 1k%) or have the offense to be raw extra damage, that not only is a great thematic link but also keeps a consistent functionality on others. It still doesn’t feel like it should be a skill with more than half screen range and unusable on large enemies, it has too many restrictions for the placement rank.
Now let’s do a thought experiment on how to turn it into an amazing skill by changing it into something unique and useful in more scenarios, which also changes the skill focus completely. Iron Maiden is a torture coffin and is perfect for a collect type trap, it could be an offensive installation that acts in two stages as collects enemies and then damage. At deployment, statue range, it can capture enemies around and also those that are thrown inside it, then after a couple of seconds it closes and deals damage for a certain amount of time. The current Inquisitor can’t use it at all as it has no knockbacks nor pushes to get enemies inside yet it may work in party play as other tree classes can do the job. It’s also possible to have all enemies inside it to be counted as a single unit and also share damage and debuffs, however it would have to use the same ADR mechanism as being the first one to receive the hit and also absorb target count and AAR before going for the next target.
Judgment (D) - Complement/Gimmick
There’s some beautiful irony on this skill as the more appropriate name for it is in line with “Accusation” yet it takes Inquisitors as a group that would deliver judgment before a proper trial trial, some sources point out that a formal investigation would be taken before the trial but that may only apply to those that had no political value. It’s a one to one relation with the way the inquisition would take someone as witch, heretic or demonic. One flaw the skill has regarding visual communication is how it has no area indicator, when using it the natural expectation is to take the enemies in front, as Krivis’s Divine Stigma, yet it has a circular hitbox around the caster.
Judgment could work decently if it was interesting to level as the component taken is duration, despite having a significant floor the leveling growth is considerably slow and in most scenarios it won’t be needed at all as few enemies can last more than 15s. The damage amplification on holy property is nice but the value is significantly low to feel impactful, that’s further aggravated as the only physical skill that deals holy damage is Monk’s Energy Blast. Judgment’s provoke attribute gives it some extra functionality and is the only instance where taunt can be found outside swordsman tree.
An interesting element to tie to Judgment is flames, it’s a natural fit on the theme side as inquisition was known to burn the condemned so why not make it spawn flames when the enemy dies. The latest changes to flames limited it to 5 units only and doesn’t allow it to be overwritten so in this matter it would be a more controllable way to use the feature but with proper information on damage. Another interesting possible addition is to give it an attribute that will get a single unit of Pear of Anguish fly towards enemies hitted by Inquisitor basic attacks if they have the debuff, if an attack hits 3 enemies each one will receive damage from a different pear.
Completely lackluster, both new skills add almost nothing to the table, as Iron Maiden can be quite useful in PvP, and they don’t have a drop single of identity in them. Judgment does nothing for the class at this point and the only combination that does make use of it is limited to a single target only, not to mention it doesn’t do much damage even when maxed.
The only valuables attributes are on Breaking Wheel to increase its resilience and an extra damage towards devil enemies on God Smash, yet neither of those make up for the questionable execution and terrible scaling on the new skills.
Ripper (C) - Relief
When the skill first shown in public it was known as Breast Ripper which was a real punishment and torture device used to tear apart women’s breasts, it had two claws at the end that would to do the job and could be also be heaten up for extra efficiency. Records say that the device was used as an ironic punishment for those that committed adultery or self performed abortion. The visual design is changed to have blades at the end yet it keeps the same pincer grip which doesn’t work well on scissors, it’s likely that the name was changed to disconnect it from the source as the tool is really specific and explicit on functionality.
There’s not a single identity connection within the skill aside dealing physical damage. Ripper has a huge coverage and also comes with a small pull effect towards the center, that isn’t as effective since the hitbox takes the blade area only and that allows enemies to walk by since it takes a second to start. The skill also makes use of key smashing, that has a tiny time window to keep the attacks going, which is a fake channeling that doesn’t inform when it ends, how many hits it deals and on which interval, it is great when works and terrible when doesn’t which can be the case for anyone that doesn’t have great connection with server. Having the enemy count to increase with STR is a bold move, and also a great feature that can be further expanded as additional AAR as a default substat increase even if more STR is required, but as expected the conversion value (+1 ~= 50 STR) isn’t informed anywhere and requires players to search outside for information or test by themselves. Lastly the skill also deals additional damage to Devil monsters which value is not informed.
Just as the previous circle it doesn’t go back to the proposed identity, this time tho it provides a power fantasy that communicates the theme brutality on a friendly tone. On power standards Ripper does makes justice to what a rank 10 skill should do, however it is the only skill in its circle and doesn’t concludes the class as would be expected. To stated weakness on Ripper can also be overcomed when used with Breaking Wheel and its additional damage attribute which is a nice throwback to earlier circles and that also applies Judgment as it increases its damage. On that regard the class also presents a new attribute that doubles damage of God Smash on the Iron Maiden hostage and reset refresh by killing with skills that have item consumption.
Conclusion
Another case of a class that starts on a specific direction and shifts completely over circles. The starting one has a pair of anti magic skills that are tailored to PvP, then the following circle drops the anti magic component and focus on PvP, finally it throws everything out of the window and decides to be a crowd destroyer. What really had Inquisitor to be unique isn’t explored and for that matter it is more effective to stop at c1 and take another class that does it better, however this is hard to follow up as it gets players behind on power level if they don’t go for rank 10.
Aside the identity weakness the other issue with Inquisitor is the vacuum at its second circle as it feels completely empty when getting it and having new c1 attributes would only make it feel worse, it wouldn’t surprise me if some players don’t spend a single point on c2 skill. On Judgment defence the skill has some synergy with previous classes but it’s a marginal scenario for a rank 9 value skill, instead of empowering the earlier skills it has its value bound to their presence. Lastly the class doesn’t brutal at all except when using Ripper, that may have been intended to tone down the theme or be a flaw to deliver the theme feel but that’s something we can’t know without devs telling us.
| C 1 | C 2 | C 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identity | C | D | E |
| Theme | C | C | B |
| Gameplay | D | E | C |
| Cohesion | C | E | C |
| Point Distribution | C | D | D |
| Dropout | C | E | C |
And that’s how we end the unexpected breakdown, for the next week we’ll start the swordsmen series and the first one will be the base class itself which will be followed by the most voted classes on the poll bellow (only 3 or 4 of those will be covered for now). As usual drop by opinions on the class design or even your reading on what really makes Inquisitor stand out, corrections and missed points are also welcome.
- Peltasta
- Hoplite
- Cataphract
- Corsair
- Doppelsoeldner
- Templar
0 voters
