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 with the second most voted class, one that used to shine so much into wizardry that received countless nerfs, the one and only - Linker. In case this is your first time on a Design Breakdown topic go to this link for some basic information.
Linker - RANK 3 - SUPPORT
Still to this day this summarizes the class as it cover the most important skills, however the class identity is sharing as most of what linker does is based on that principle.
For Linker’s theme i couldn’t find any reliable source to link with it, even the costumes seem hard to track the origin as they resemble some sci-fi aesthetics from particular old movies and medical uniforms, as such i won’t get that much into themes when analysing skills. Also it may possible for the concept of a Linker wizard to be a cultural concept as that may be found in other eastern games but again, no reliable sources.
Unbind (C) - Chain
As much needed this skill is there are two things that are questionable on it, its price and its execution. As summoning classes received control skills to cover basic operation functions Linker having a skill that has the same finality but costs points is slightly unfair, but that’s a minor thing.
For the skill execution it affects all links on range and as such there’s no control over it, this tho could be improved drastically changing it into a setup skill. Use the skill before to activate it and use a following skill, on cooldown or not, to cancel all effects of it - that simple.
Physical Link (D) - Counter Lead
One of the few thematic things, or in this case aesthetic, that can be discussed when talking about Linker is the use of colors. For Physical Link we have yellow that is tied to warmt and optimism, that ain’t a bad pick for a skill that is suppose to reduce the damage taken by sharing it with others. Blue could be a better pick tho as it communicates trust and that’s a major element on the skill design, however blue is a color associated with mana, or SP in ToS case, and it may be troublesome for players to have that impression.
This is the kind of skill that asks you why you’d bother to level it, the target limit is reached at level 2 and it can be refreshed from start. It doesn’t stop there, the skill itself doesn’t explain how the damage is distributed so any new player would have to have the guts to try it out and find it on combat, but once you add layers of complexity such as defenses, property resistances and damage reduction to it the answer might not be as simple - players need that information to be clear.
A way solve the leveling issue is by adding a component affected by level, having it as damage reduction is a great fit for the skill and it can either work with % or with raw numbers amplified by INT or SPR. Regardless, this skill needs more information to be presented.
Along with that the execution time is fairly slow and unless the party is fairly coordinated the skill will either miss or be cancelled due movement, height difference on cast also has the same effect. The way the skill is designed it doesn’t really need cooldown, in fact it would be fairly smart to have it under 5s as a hotfix for the targeting issue.
Joint Penalty (C) - Lead
The use of red, or in this case pinkish red as links have to be light, is to communicate the aggressive nature of the skill, it’s a common color indicator to hint out the danger of being targeted by the skill.
Since the game launch this skill was only nerfed as its hit count was decreased patch after patch, in the current state the skill has use yet it’s mostly for solo or duo play as it will break easily on a party. The easiest fix to it is by having more hits to it and that should’ve done once the Hangman’s Knot attribute was changed to prevent 0 AoE Defense Ratio, yet it didn’t got a single improvement.
Being fair to the skill it would be better to completely remove the hit count from it and shorten its duration, then change the damage formula to split among enemies with some a minimum damage cap based on skill level. As this only the enemies affected by the source would take full damage as the remaining linked enemies take part of it, the damage will be inflicted but it will take longer to kill enemies.
Lastly, this skill also suffers from height targeting and here it’s even worse as it can get the skill to fail.
Hangman’s Knot (D) - Chain
As useful as the skill is, the sole purpose of it is to gather Joint Penalty mobs into the link center, a full skill for one single effect, i’m only pointing that out because the skill could be completely removed by adding this function to a second cast on Joint Penalty. However if we use the same mechanism i suggested on Unbind this skill could affect other links for some crazy mobility tricks but i can see that being misused, it wouldn’t be the case with Spiritual Shock tho as it only affects the caster and an enemy.
Now, even if we consider it as a regular skill the leveling aspect seems to be there as a dump, it’s useful for sure but having 0.2s per level isn’t the most appealing thing to have as the only component.
Usually i don’t talk about attributes but as the focused attack one was changed it worked both as a nerf and a buff, it isn’t right for the few players that do stack AoE Defense Ratio to have their effort thrown to the gutter, let it decrease 1 per level and set a minimum cap of 1 as it should be.
Here we have a rare case of class that doesn’t have enough skills to even have a point distribution, a case like that shouldn’t exist as it throws out of the window the whole building aspect from it, and we’re talking about an MMO. Heck, even if with a new skill Hangman’s Knot doesn’t really adds much with a fifth of second on bind duration per level.
The current structure of Linker has too much power on its earlier skills which forces their leveling aspects to be tuned down, Joint Penalty is an amazing skill yet it can’t do its job due balance issues, meanwhile Spirit Shock is a perfect fit for c1 as it lacks a 4th skill and also a damage one. Also it may be interesting to replace Hangman’s Knot for Spiritual Chain if it’s that important to have it as a standalone, that would delay linker power spike for a rank and open up more opportunities for Spiritual Chain.
Spiritual Chain (F) - High Lead
And we have yellow again, the same reasons to pick it can be applied here but having a the same color for two skills is a big issue on the gameplay department. I think the color fits more here than at Physical Link as it has no further implications as taking damage for your allies.
A complete waste, the leveling factor is sheer duration, it suffers from the same mechanical issues as Physical Link and the amount of skills it can share is less than you can count on your fingers, even there they’re mostly useful for specific classes and build and carry penalties if they have one.
Now about what can be done with it, the first step is to increase the poll of buffs that can be shared as the current one is fairly limited, in fact the skill itself could be changed to have some buffs applied as images, being removed once the link breaks. Next, giving it a solid reason to level, at the current placement a simple rank restriction based on skill level so when maxed all buffs up to rank 10 (that is rank 8 circle 3) can be shared. Another option is to downgrade the skill and limit the buff level based on the skill, just as scroll crafting does.
Side note, the new magic damage attribute added was just a cheap way to pull interest on the skill as it doesn’t fix any of the fundamental flaws.
Spirit Shock (B) - Relief
For some reason the only offensive skill in Linker uses blue, at least for the western culture the color is associated to confidence, trust and tranquility, it doesn’t link the aggressive nature of the skill. It’s possible that in asia, or even specifically in Korea, it may have a different reading but i’d need some external help to get that right.
The best change Linker received since release was this skill, it fills a vacancy spot the class always had and it does respect its theme. For some unknown reason Spirit Shock always takes the nearest enemy even when another enemy in range is targeted, that makes the skill feel clunky and harder to use when it was supposed to be simple and intuitive.
Also this skill can be the exception if Joint Penalty really get changes on how the damage is handle, on the theme aspect it would make sense for it to deal full damage and it also gives it an unique value.
For a really long time this circle was fairly lackluster regarding skills and attributes, that changed with the addition of Spirit Shock even tho it may be more fitting for the first circle. There’s not much to look for here aside for Joint Penalty natural improvement and an additional second on Hangman’s Knot bind, the last one being not that great.
One issue presented here is the way Joint Penalty and Spirit Shock combo works, they have the exact same hit count, it may sound like a great fit first but that means not using attacks or skills or even having a party to screw it up.
Lifeline (E) - Grand Lead/Chain
Before going into the skill itself i just want to question why does the skill has that name when it fits so Physical Link way more as a survival skill, this skill may connect the best of each character stats but it doesn’t have the same weight as sharing lives.
As parties can have 5 members and we have 5 base stats it would be possible for Lifeline to maximize all stats for all members for the whole skill duration but that’s only when the stars align, also as classes have different needs they also may or not value certain stats. The only stats that are are marginally useful to have, if you don’t own already, are CON and SPR as they boost your HP and SP but no skill that increases those substats will refill them or adjust it to the proportion. Each time Lifelines is activated or refreshed, assuming Melstis affects it, the whole bonus will be gone, in fact as the skill can break by moving too far from party it can be gone without using it. The whole skill design is ironic, Lifeline really can make all players unite to keep the link up as the potential bonus is enormous yet even if they play their best it will be over and they’ll have to restart again, it’s like building card castles on a storm.
For the mundane use it’s quite likely for stats to be overwritten on up to half bonus on dedicated builds or doubles on hybrid dispersion, on both cases it doesn’t really adds up. The only way to really use this skill efficiently is by using snapshot for buffs and even then it’s more likely for the character to have the required stat in the first place, it’s too much work to make it happen when the skill required for it can break due displacement or even by having the party members to move around.
There are ways to make the skill work at a decent level, on thing that can be done to prevent the massive scaling on Lifeline is a maximum ratio on stat increase, similar to what’s done to shield protection. Here are some possible things to work with.
• A stat can only be increased up to a cap (A 360 cap can get up to +360 in each stat).
• A stat can only be increased based on a ratio (A 2x ratio allows each stat can be increased up to two times).
• All stats will be increased up to the character stat sum, giving preference to the highest stats (If all main stats sum 1000 the total bonus won’t exceed it, going from highest to lowest each stat will take a part of the sum, the next stat in the line will take the new sum and the process repeat till all points are used or if all stats check the sum).
Notice that it’s even possible to combine those at will, as such if the issue is getting value such as 1k on every single stat it is possible to stop that.
As duration doesn’t fit Lifeline it is possible to have an offtime window by adding a threshold for the caster and/or party, either HP or SP %, or draining the caster SP with a decreasing cost per level, both keep some level of uncertainty on the buff maintenance yet it presents the possibility to keep it up as much as possible if used correctly, that can give it skill expression and depth.
It would also be interesting to have the skill to be used with Physical Link and/or as a standalone, as so give it the possibility to switch links without having it dispelled. Adding a new feature to it wouldn’t be a bad idea either, the stat sharing effect is powerful but it can also be useless depending on the party.
Again another circle fairly disappointing, as powerful Lifeline can be the execution and requirements to maximize its efficiency makes it unreliable in most scenarios, that’s quite concerning as it’s the only new skill.
There’s an interesting SPR attribute for Spirit Shock and that’s basically the only noticeable thing here, as usual Joint Penalty is the main reason to go this far as no other skill has a significant improvement and both party links only have duration extended.
One thing that could improve the class drastically is an attribute for quick switch on Physical Link and Spiritual Chain, once one of them is active the other one can be casted with no animation by converting the current link.
Conclusion
Here we have curious case of a class that has its skills that are aligned in its identity yet the direction that was taken moves it away from all power and utility it could provide. Aside for Joint Penalty all skills operate with longer duration on their effects, with the exception of Hangman’s Knot, and that’s something i thought IMC had learned when massive changing buffs to fixed time. There’s no reason to level skills past their refresh time aside for a possible extra level, in fact the whole link mechanic is so fragile that you may not have the skill active for the full duration anyway.
The whole linker design seem to be based on having the stars aligned to you, Joint Penalty is a mostrous skill yet it can be wasted by bad timing or any multi line basic attack, Lifeline requires every party member to max a single stat to provide full power yet classes like Wizard get no benefits from STR while Archers and Swordsmen waste incoming INT, Spiritual Chain makes use of some few classes as the poll is so limited yet not all classes and builds have use for those shareable buffs such as Quick Cast and Running Shot, that if the party manages to stay within the link range.
Despise all that there is something simple Linker needs drastically, even more than reasons to level its skills, and that is better visual indicators. There’s no excuse for Physical Link and Spiritual Chain to use the same color range, it can confuse players as they see the skill being executed and back in the days it could be enough to make people forcefully breaking it. Along with that it would be great if each link segment had a proportional thickness or at least an indicator when the boundary is about to be broken, be that a blink effect, transparency or any other kind of hint.
| C 1 | C 2 | C 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identity | B | C | B |
| Theme | A | B | A |
| Gameplay | B | B | C |
| Cohesion | D | E | E |
| Point Distribution | F | E | E |
| Dropout | B | C | D |
That closes up this breakdown, next week we’ll have Falconer and then… a double release taking Swordsmen twins. I’d like to get a poll for hidden classes, those will be used to fill blank in case i don’t get enough time to do a full class. As usual drop comments and arguments on the class design, Linker has been a really dear class for me so i can understand those that may be passionate on it, also hit the like if you enjoy these as i helps me to have some kind of feedback.
Pick 2 to 3 options to vote
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- Nak Muai
- Rune Caster
- Appraiser
- Miko
0 voters