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 a long delayed twin clash, this time the contenders are Fencer and Matador as the two Rapier classes yet that won’t be as relevant to the discussion. In case this is your first time on a Design Breakdown topic go to this link for some basic information.
Matador - RANK 8 - PROVOKE
All those elements are seen within the class skill set yet it doesn’t describe an identity, in fact it is hard to extract a one from it as each circle changes direction. Shortly after the class release IMC had to patch up the class to get it in the rank power level and be satisfying to play, there it was stated that Matador was designed to be a class about provoke and counter which is the direction taken for this analysis and nothing else is as fitting.
Disclaimer - Matador can be a polemic class to discuss on the theme side due the cruel practices involved yet we must stay as neutral as possible when dealing with it, for this thread i won’t get deep into the real portrait of it but rather take a more romanticized version so it will be tuned down a lot. That doesn’t mean i approve the sport, or “art” as defenders call it, but for sake of analysis an impartial stance is required, if you do have interest on the subject please do some research but beware the imagery that will come along.
Matador is a major professional which the job is to perform along with a bull in an arena as a competitor, the word comes from Spanish and can be translated as slayer. There are several types of performances that vary from region which some are less aggressive and play more with the human danger as others do injury and have the bull killed at the end. The one taken for ToS is he Spanish one which includes weakening the bull and slay it in the end, some may call it a dance of death as one is bound to die at the play.
There’re also three types of Matadores (or better said, bullfighters) in spanish bullfighting that are Picadores (pikeman), Bandilleros and Matadores (slayers) properly said, each one performs on a different part of the performance and has different roles in it. Picadores are horseman in charge of piercing the bull to weaken it, Bandilleros do a similar job but they don’t have the horse nor the range advantage and use ornate barbed sticks to hindrance the bull. The ones that are real Matadores come at the last stage as they do perform a series of passes (guiding the bull and dodging) and then slay the beast. It could be that one day only the Matador had place in the arena and fought in a true duel with a fierce beast, taking down a bigger and stronger enemy while betting its life in front of an audience, and this is the best way to take it considering the aesthetics of the game and how romanticizes all sorts of historical groups despite their flaws.
Also those two earlier types of Matadores are represented as attributes for the class but they barely connect to it as damage boosters to provoked enemies, it would be interesting if the class could support spear usage instead to reference them and even allow some skills to be used while mounted but it’s reasonable to not do it as spears are already broadly used within the class tree.
Capote (D) - Counter Lead
That’s Matador’s cape used to provoke bulls in the first stage of the performance and is gives control over the beast, when using the Capote the Matador has take the bull attention and tire it out so Picadores and Bandilleros can weaken it posteriorly. A common misunderstanding is that the color angers the beast but the truth is that it only happens due the presented circumstances and also due the cloak movement. Having it to prioritize bosses and stick to a limited and low target count is a thematic choice as real Matadores have only one opponent that is way bigger than they.
Capote is Matador’s taunt but unlike Peltasta’s Swash Buckling it applies to a lower number of enemies and can only be increased with attribute, however it also decreases enemies Evasion and Accuracy, which values aren’t informed, and has an attribute to half their Critical Resistance that is what sustain the leveling potential of it. The leveling factor for Capote is duration and there’s no worse choice for that as the target count itself is low, which it’s likely that enemies will die before it expires, and that can’t sell out the skill levels, the only real application for it is against bosses yet they can be finished quickly at regular content.
It may not be enough but having either accuracy or evasion debuff to scale, or even both, with skill level can give it some extra push and that would be even better if it had an overheat. Another interesting direction is to have all amplifying debuffs to have higher values when applied under Capote status, that may come later as an attribute as it may be too strong for the first circle.
Muleta (B) - Lead
Similar to Capote but has a wooden support on top and hides the sword as well, however Muleta is used to get the bull into position for the final blow at the spine. It’s used on the last act of the performance where the Matador and bull are alone in the arena.
Muleta is a real straight counter attack channel, once an enemy hits the damage will be negated and will damage enemies nearby and from a game design point it is a really effective way to make channel exciting. It may not be clear from the skill description but it’s possible to force the counter attack by timing the channel release with the enemy attack and that’s a great way to add skill expression for players, however it can be troublesome when dealing with crowds as it’s harder to read animations and the skill can be sabotaged by evasion and block as they prevent the attack to be executed but we can lift that up as it can block magic as well. Having a race restriction is only a hindrance on using it, which can be removed by an attribute at c2, and should be taken as a bonus instead of penalty. It’s also odd that Muleta has no provocation effect, and even for the closest enemies, nor a damage execution bonus due the themes, yet it carries a critical rate buff that scales along damage and have no floor but that is related to nothing.
The most interesting route for Muleta is probably to make it a deadly counter due the thematic counterpart and for that it would be fitting to have some for of execution element embedded in the skill instead of the flat critical bonus (even tho it’s overall more useful), that can be a critical damage amplifier or bonus damage based on enemy HP as done with Retiarius’ Dagger Finisher.
Faena (C) - Relief
It’s roughly translated as ‘job’ and in bullfighting can be taken as the whole Muleta performance going from passes to the beast slaughter, the connection here is barely seen as it works as a simple multi hit skill that is nowhere seen within the class theme nor identity.
Faena is a damage skill with a variable hit count, it doesn’t has damage increase with level and can hit between 9 to 17 times when maxed. It isn’t clear about how the skill decides to take more or less hits when used and from testing it feels completely random when doing it which makes it fairly unreliable to be that high and isn’t like other skills which this factor is determined by hitboxes. There’s an attribute that negates shield block during its execution in exchange of extra damage and it feels it has more of a thematic than anything, this isn’t the case with the additional damage to large monsters as it fits the beast slaying fantasy.
One thing that could be explored here is to tie the number of provocated targets to the skill hit count variance increasing the floor by each extra enemy, this can be used to allow the skill to hit the maximum value against crowds and keep the same random factor in smaller fights.
Ole (D) - Complement
Whenever a Matador does a successful pass the crowd will shout Ole to cheer the performer and that gets more energetic over each maneuver, this however isn’t explored within the skill mechanics as it is a flat buff that is about provocation rather than evasion.
On the gameplay department Ole design is spot on. It is great for any kind of build, it synergises with all skills in its circle and has a fair relation of leveling improvement and uptime. It’s also important to mention that it has a slow growth of only 1% per level, doubled for provocated enemies, yet it is significant to level and doesn’t make itself mandatory to max.
Despite all good we can’t ignore that it doesn’t capture the theme in it as going for a buff stacked based on evading (or all forms of damage mitigation) that lasts long but has to be built. Another option is apply it as a short duration buff triggered by Evasion, that can be either part of a long duration buff or a simple attribute.
If it weren’t for the class placement it could be a problem to have only two offensive skills as one is a counter. This circle does a good job on integrating skills as Capote acts as a hub for them, Ole is completely dependant on it and Muleta benefits from the directed aggression, and even Faena can make use of it as it gathers enemies for a slaught fest.
Paso Doble (C) - Midground
Paso Doble can have two meanings but due context it is the a traditional Spanish pair dance that plays as a bullfight and is similar to flamenco, in it the man always perform as the Matador and the woman may represent the cape or the bull itself. There’s not much of dancing in it but the animation tries to sell out the performative aspect as the Matador rises, almost in a spotlight, and doesn’t feel like an attack.
In game it is a rather quick one hit skill that knocks down enemies around the user, which can be disabled via attribute, and makes is roughly all control the class has. The skill also grants invincibility during execution but that can be an overkill as it comes with natural control. It’s also hard to ignore that the skill does Pierce damage when the animation sells a Slash attack, that’s probably taken due synergetic value but it creates this dissonance.
Just to clarify, the Midground status was given to Paso Doble because dealing damage while invincible can be considered a counter and else it would fall into Relief territory.
Back Slide (E) - Relief
There’s nothing special to be said here, it’s a skill that can fit in a broad range of classes and uses the same animation as Musketeer’s C attack attribute. Having guaranteed dodge on cast and an attribute that increases Evasion is nice. One issue with it is how it uses cooldown reduction as leveling factor and that can’t make it compete with other skills that have at least two leveling aspects.
Aside for Muleta attribute to remove race restriction there’s nothing here that is really impressive, Paso Doble is a good skill for the class as it has a hitbox that can make use of taunt completely and denies incoming damage yet the class doesn’t have the tools to get enough enemies as Capote is limited to 8 enemies max. The issue here is that Back Slide is useful but also too simple and has low leveling value, it doesn’t feel like a rank 9 skill in any matter and that weighs the circle down.
Corrida Finale (B) - Relief
With the name of “last run/stand” it relates to the last conflict in the performance as the bull charges to the Muleta. However the conclusion is pacific and the opponent helps the Matador instead, it’s rather contradictory with the class theme but that was probably avoided to maintain a lighter image on the class theme. Personally i think it would be better to not have it at all instead of taking this route as Mastador was brought to the game in the first place.
As many rank 10 skills this one also throws the identity out of the window and goes for a power fantasy, Corrida Finale has one of the biggest are coverages in the game and has a decent target count which is enough to be a good skill. Some can argue that the fact the Matador provokes the bull to run towards it counts into the class identity but that’s more thematic element as the only interaction with enemies is damage and a small knockback, that’s why it’s hard to take it up as being within the identity. There’s also an attribute that resummons the bull in the opposite direction and this is beyond overkill as it literally doubles the skill damage with no downside aside SP cost, having this available feels like the skill is being shoved into players instead of relying on own merit. Lastly, it also feels weird for it to deal Pierce damage as a bull ramming forward communicates a Strike type of damage.
For this last circle the class doesn’t really develop into the conclusion and receives a massive damage boost from a skill with no detriments, it’s ironic that a class focused on provocation and counter attack can ignore its own playstyle by having a skill that sweeps out the whole screen in few seconds and it isn’t even done in an interesting way. Here Muleta also gets a new attribute that reduces cooldown on other Matador skills but none of them really has long cooldown, not to mention that low skill rotation shouldn’t be an issue at rank 10. Back Slide also gets an attribute that rewards well timed dodge by resetting Paso Doble cooldown, that is quite useful but would be more interesting for the previous circle in order to promote the skill when it needs most. It’s also funny that Corrida Finale could be some sort of attribute for Muleta that can use the counter timing to deal extra damage or have the bull to drag enemies to the counter zone.
Conclusion
Out of the classes analysed so far this one is fairly interesting as it is a great class to play with but which design fells out of place, it’s a great example of a class that is good and but takes a for each following circle. For a rank 8 class it isn’t much of a deal but that can be an issue later on as more classes are to be released and they can eventually collapse on each other if they don’t stick to a direction, and that’s even worse as it’s visible that the skill set integrate their part.
Taking ‘taunt and counter’ as an identity is also an issue as it takes the least out of the theme, provocation is indeed part of Matador’s fantasy but it isn’t the major element in it nor is countering. Within the theme we also have ‘fighting larger enemies’, ‘gradual weakening of enemies’, ‘guidance’, ‘performance’ and ‘evasion’ that are bigger than the ones taken. As result the class doesn’t play out as the portrayed fantasy nor presents something unique that can be explored by its theme, it’s just a waste of potential in everything.
| C 1 | C 2 | C 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identity | B | D | E |
| Theme | E | D | B |
| Gameplay | C | C | C |
| Cohesion | D | D | C |
| Point Distribution | D | D | D |
| Dropout | C | C | A |
If it wasn’t clear why Matador has a problem, as it is a good class that has skills that synergize in itself, stick further for the class crash as well talk about how it diverges and overlaps Fencer.