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 now with the first rank 8 class, the only archer class that is full into bows, Mergen. In case this is your first time on a Design Breakdown topic go to this link for some basic information.
Mergen - RANK 8 - ATTACK
“The Mergen is a class that uses large bows and is most effective when facing numerous enemies.”
Mergen takes the same identity approach as Ranger by focusing on crowd combat, that could be enough for it to be a twin breakdown but as these classes are really appart and Ranger executes it differently it doesn’t make them clash, as in this case it also adds the multi hit to the mix and that’s nowhere seen. However that doesn’t apply to Cannoners as the third take on it but it’ll try to clear it out when we get there.
At the time Mergen was released it was the first archer with no real life counterpart as it was a title granted to the greatest mongolian archer, that was chosen in honor of the archer Erekhe Mergen as mongolian legends say that he slaught 6 out 7 suns as they scorched earth. On the tale he swore to slay all suns and if he failed he’d cut his thumbs and dwell into darkness, at the time he fired the last arrow a swallow flew across the sky and caused it to miss, he honored his promise and became a groundhog after that. Another instances of Mergen can be found in ancient turkish culture as one of their deities that carried a bow, however most of the information about it isn’t available in english.
There’s another similar legend in chinese mythology about the god archer Hou Yi, this time there were 10 suns and they were birds that took turns to warm and brighten the land. One day all the suns decided to come out at the same time and Hou Yi was assigned to stop their mess, he tried to solve it peacefully and also by threatening them but it didn’t worked, as his last resource he slought them with magical white arrows leaving only one alive. As any legend there are several variations on how the story goes and it’s very likely for them to be the same tale as Mongolia conquered Chinese territory under Genghis Khan. As a theme we got something between a legendary archer and a god of archery.
Spread Shot (B) - Lead
Here is interesting to look back at Ranger’s Barrage, it’s virtually the same skill but with the difference of having all arrows shot simultaneously, and that can serve as a mastery gap between classes.
Ironically this same argument works against it at gameplay department as the only difference is that Spread Shot arrows will hit all enemies in range, i’m not sure if it also has the multi hit effect when used at close range but i’d assume so. This skill could be really good but can be overshadowed by Triple Arrow as it does a similar job and looks way more impressive.
Homing Arrow/Koochaksal (B) - Midground
In the tale of Erekhe Mergen it’s stated that he’s so skilled that he’d never miss a target and as such it’s natural for it to have a skill has homing nature, also the second name is from the official website and there’s no info on what that was supposed to be.
Homing Arrow auto targets enemies after a cast, which time isn’t informed and seems to increase with level, and unlike the misleading tooltip it will give preference to multiple targets instead of focusing on a single unit. The cast time the skill has can be enough of a reason for it to be skipped as it can be significantly long when leveled as the remaining Mergen skills have instant effect and can be provide the same effect against multiple targets. However this skill has a deadly potential as AAR allows it to bounce to other enemies even those that were already hit by it and adding the homing nature it can do a lot of damage.
An easy improvement to have is fixed cast time of 1s and the attribute can be changed to make it uninterruptible, along with that it could be interesting to have the skill focus all arrows back to the locked target at the end. This is a way to keep the multi target feature and also to be consistent on individual combat even when more enemies are around, working as some sort of death sentence as other enemies will get less hits.
Triple Arrow (B) - High Lead
For this skill all arrows seems to be charged with electricity and when hit will call up a lightning. From the information i managed to dig out there isn’t any connection with the source, if we take the chinese counterpart we can relate it to the white arrows used to slay suns or the fact that Hou Yi was married to the moon goddess but even that doesn’t really make through.
Just as Spread Shot, Triple Arrow is an enhanced take on Barrage that fires all arrows at once but here it also adds an explosion to boost the crowd fighting power. It would be nice to have more information on how damage is dealt as it isn’t clear if the explosion is a single hit, how much damage it deals, if arrows hits multiple enemies, what kind of targeting mechanism it uses, how many explosions it can have, etc. For a skill as fast and overloaded as Triple Arrow it isn’t easy to test.
An interesting option to have here is an attribute that applies a debuff to trigger the explosion on the next attack instead of an instant effect.
Arrow Sprinkle (B) - Counter Lead
Many armies employed an archery move that consisted on archers firing at the same moment without a specific target, this allowed them to spend less time training soldiers and still be effective as it had massive coverage, and mongols did employed it in some of their battles.
Arrow Sprinkle has an interesting design element that may be removed soon, as it hit randomly it isn’t the most reliable skill however that also makes it more effective against larger enemies. This kind of mechanic plays with size in an unusual way and it isn’t just a matter of numbers or bonuses, it uses the own game rules to reduce and increase damage. Despite all praise it’s nowhere informed how many arrows are fired nor how many hits are dealt per second and that is some information of player interest.
Along with Hail those are the only skills that have this feature and the wizard counterpart will be changed soon and will lose this characteristic, it may be just a matter of time till the same happens especially as it can have Aiming along. If that does happen it would be interesting to have Arrow Sprinkle as rectangular hitbox that goes forward for the total area it has, at least that can set it apart from a regular damage over time skill.
Parthian Shaft (C) - Midground
This is a mounted archery move that had riders to shot backwards when pursued and, as the name implies, was one of Parthians most effective tactics. Mongolians also employed it later on as they had horsing deep into their culture and also developed bow techniques.
A skill that requires movement to be used seems more fitting for Hackapell or Schwarze Reiter especially as it can used mounted which Mergen doesn’t have access and those same classes have weapons restrictions and going for a Bow build isn’t effective. This also brings a design conflict within the skill as it is a multi target skill yet has the smallest hitbox in the class kit, even being at the highest instantaneous damage corner and having 3 overheats it has a hard time competing with large area skills. The major issue here is that the skill looks boring even being as good as the others and the execution restriction contributes for it to be overlooked.
Mergen starts with a solid kit, usually i’d point out that having damage as the only improvement by level isn’t attractive but all skills, aside Spread Shot and Triple Arrow, have different goals, strengths and weaknesses that are visible. As Spread Shot and Triple Shot are that close they could be merged into a single skill keeping the 5 shots but with the lightning effect, that also allows Parthian Shaft to get additional arrows and make it more appealing overall.
Jump Shot (A) - Midground
This is a standard skill on fantasy archer set and honestly it feels odd to be so deep into archer ranks, one interesting element they added to it is the dust explosion that makes it look quite strong.
Jump Shot is quite simple to use and after casted will move the character backwards granting it invincibility till it lands, it’s a simple and useful defensive skill that has distance scaling with level and despite that the skill doesn’t overscale. It also hits multiple times, that isn’t informed, but it isn’t clear how it is targeted, from what i got on testing it feels like it targets the closest enemy in front of the character jumping location.
There are two things that could push it to the limit as a real rank 9 worth skill. The first one is the ability to cast it in air and being usable when disrupted, marking it as the first recovery to knockback and knockdown, and as such the targeting is redirected to the impact area. As for the second element a small delay before the skill to be fired to allow retargeting, that isn’t really needed but would be interesting if along the previous element as it can fire at the current spot without input and change add movement if inputted.
Down Fall (C) - Relief
At first this looks like a directed version of Arrow Sprinkle as the arrows are shot upwards and fall straight, however it seems like this is another way to take the mystical Mergen skills as the arrows follow the target way beyond the firing time.
Down Fall mechanic is a poison/bleed in disguise, it doesn’t add anything new to archers and claims to use arrows instead of getting the enemy injured, with the exception it doesn’t allow the user to distance itself from target. That changes at c3 with the new attribute that damages nearby enemies and honestly it feels more like the kind of component that should be natural in the first place, at least for a skill that high up. They also gave it a different animation when the attribute is active and it makes the skill way more visible.
This circle is quite interesting, it doesn’t expand the identity of Mergen at all but grants new skills that still bring uniqueness to the table and that is really odd. Players complained a lot about this circle when it was released and the part of the issue may be due these skills going for their own things instead of having identity value, seems like the last changes helped the circle but it doesn’t feel like the best approach. One interesting point is how Jump Shot is virtually the same as Parthian Shaft but with invincibility and possible multi hit on positioning, it also doesn’t require movement and that is a plus.
Zenith (B) - Grand Lead
Zenith has three definitions, the first is as the celestial point above the observer, the second is the highest point reached by a celestial body (sun or moon) and the third is a culminating point, and all them are connected to the theme. The first two definitions are used for astronomy and that suits a class based on the tale of the sun slayer, it also represents the peak of the class as the major offensive area skill which is exactly what the class is about, but unfortunately the skill execution has Mergen shooting around itself and that kills the astronomy thematic link. In those terms the name doesn’t fit it.
It seems like the skill have one or more square or cone shaped hitbox that rotates around the user and uses hit per hitbox damage, this means it can hit multiple times based on enemy size and character positioning. Distance plays a huge role here enemies at the edge will be hit only once and being inside an enemy hitbox will land all arrows. Another merit the skill has is how it is the only archer skill that takes 360º degrees as this is still an archer class.
Doing a quick thought experiment it could be possible way to have a skill to suit the name by having it to trigger a lightning, exactly as in Triple Arrow, whenever the user kills an enemy. A skill like that should improve the crow combat significantly but be nonexistent on one to one fights, with powerful area skills it can even display impressive visuals (that can be dangerous as well) and possibly be worth of c3. Just to make it clear i’m not saying the skill is bad nor that this other idea is better, it’s just that does a better job to connect with the name and also fits the class identity.
The only change to previous skills is regarding Down Fall and as stated before it could be a natural component of the skill, Zenith seems to be solid and have some room to play around in unconventional ways which is always interesting to have.
Conclusion
Mergen is a solid design, it still has a down spike at circle 2 when it ditches most of its identity yet the new skills bring elements that can’t be found earlier, not to mention it has one of the best c3 for its rank in both design and power. What seems to be the major, and perhaps only, flaw in its design is the way some skills that are similar enough to entangle and fell redundant to have, that would be reasonable if the game didn’t had overheat system but as multiple uses are available it doesn’t make much sense to have them.
| C 1 | C 2 | C 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identity | A | C | A |
| Theme | B | B | C |
| Gameplay | B | C | B |
| Cohesion | A | B | A |
| Point Distribution | C | C | C |
| Dropout | A | C | A |
And that’s all for Mergen breakdown, next week we’ll have Cryomancer + Psychokino followed by Canooneer and then Fencer + Matador, i’ll have to switch the duos as i don’t have familiarity with Matador and it’s nice to have a positive review after the last duo. As usual drop some comments on the class design and feel free to correct any point that wasn’t properly discussed, experience from rank 10 is also welcome.
