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 request of a high rank class, it brings few interesting things to the table but is those are lurking in the backstage, let’s take a look at Shadowmancer. In case this is your first time on a Design Breakdown topic go to this link for some basic information.
Shadowmancer - RANK 8 - ATTACK
“The Shadowmancer is a mage that is able to perform powerful attacks or hide in the shadows.”
As theme goes the element will be what will define it however the class goes quite into the fantastical realm opposed to other elemental mages that do take a more realistic approach on it, as shadows are negative construction and as such has no body or shape it can be harder to work with and requires some logical abstraction to build up into something coherent.
We can ignore the descriptive text as it offers no valuable information whatsoever and even tracking down the class skills there’s no visible identity to be taken, some may argue that the class is designed for PvP and that can be seen in a fair share of the skills but having PvP as the only characteristic of a class leads to weak design as a lot of other classes can be as effective on PvP and have a direction on what they do. Since this is the only clue we have on how to analyse it the PvP factor will be taken into discussion, yet as i don’t have experience playing with the class nor in the game mode some things will be assumed and corrected later.
Shadow Thorn (C) - Lead
As shadows are portrayed as vile and coward sharp forms are often taken when using it in magic, that may also be due the nature of shadows as well since they stretch out into points depending on the light sources. That wouldn’t be as bad but the animation doesn’t communicate the shadows are being manipulated, it’s so quick that only the shadow explosion is seen in both caster and target.
The usual approach on this kind of skill would be quite bland since it’s just another flat damage skill but as we’re taking in consideration PvP Shadow Thorn ends up not being that healthy. As a direct target skill it cannot miss if the enemy doesn’t rely on special mechanics yet the skill also counts with 4 overheats, and low cooldown, with a huge load of damage for an instant effect, this is the kind of design that creates nuke skills with no counterplay and makes it completely frustrating to play against. To make things worse it isn’t possible to condense the damage into less overheats or shorten up the cooldown for lesser damage as it only intensifies the potential problem, reliability is a key factor in games but it when PvP comes into the scene the the counterplay aspect has exist.
One thing that could make the skill fairer is to bind its use to Shadow Conjuration, or reduce the base damage and provide a bonus, as the former can connect shadows, that would even allow it to have some extra targets to it but keep in mind that said suggestion is pointed to keep it more aligned to the PvP environment.
As Shadow Thorn is at significantly decent range yet has rather fancy name and concept we can do some thought experiment on what could be done to it if we take some unconventional directions. The first one is by changing the caster and/or target aura into a damage skill, that however would make the enemy immune to the skill damage and turn into a corruption vessel which can be interesting in PvP as it can prevent enemies to cluster or turn enemy installations from safe spot into hazard zones. Another option is to have it as a bounce skill that has the front target as the damage source and target the closest enemy(ies) nearby, this kills it as a direct use skill but makes it a fairer as a nuke skill. Lastly it could also be converted into a skill that takes the current location of the enemy and spawns a thorn that deals damage over time in the location for a short duration, that may sound lame but it can be expanded on another skill that does miss the mark.
Shadow Conjuration (B) - Counter Lead
The concept here is rather simple, dilute the shadow and stretch it forward. This would be impossible due the interaction of shadow and light as the class doesn’t control the luminosity but it won’t do any good to stick to these details.
Overall Shadow Conjuration is a fair skill since it has hitboxes and requires the user to stay mid range to hit any enemy, that works in PvP as it allows enemies to stay far away and they can also measure the danger zone properly not to say the caster is exposed on the sides and back during the not so long animation. The only improvement it can have is to add some kind of follow up mechanic as the skill could connect the user and enemies shadows, that isn’t needed tho.
Shadow Pool (C) - Gimmick
A classic fantasy when dealing with shadows however it usually has the user hiding inside someone’s shadow, this power often comes with restrictions that wouldn’t fit the game so it we may let this slide in.
As a self invincibility skill Shadow Pool does a good job on being far to play as and against but the problem lies on how it the only enhancement for it is duration, and a fairly short increment, yet it can’t be dispelled by the user (aside possibly the right click and perhaps jump, please correct if the case). In a way this design decision makes the skill more likely to be taken in the early levels, there are few instances where longer duration is required and this is quite a bad way deliver it.
It would be more efficient to tie the leveling factor to movement speed and have the duration static, then have attributes to increase the effect time window. Another good quality of life improvement is the ability to cast skills, attack and jump as ways to exit the state.
Hallucination (D) - Complement
Yet another classic use of shadow magic, redirecting damage to one’s shadow. The visual indicator makes it feel closer to Sage’s Blink as they both produce images, yet for Hallucination it doesn’t feel that important unless you dig in and realize the sole reason for it to be is as a way for enemies to understand that the damage is being redirected.
Redirecting damage isn’t a bad mechanic at all if the damage is taken to a new vessel that is important but in Hallucination case it is a blend of invincibility and shield, combining with the inability of the shadow to be targeted or receive direct damage (as far my Intel goes) it turns out to be quite a hassle to deal with. There also ways to expand the protection limit as the shadow is created based on the user HP and even within the wizard tree some classes can boost the value temporarily just for to abuse this effect, as much as this can be an interesting feature the way HP expansion works favors it more than the skills that do that themselves. If maxed the skill reaches 20s and that’s half of uptime value, that’s a significant duration for a defensive skill that mitigates all damage even with a threshold.
Among the things that could even it out the user shadow could be taken as a targetable object and receive direct damage as well, this gives it a weakness towards AoE attacks by expiring faster and also makes the shadow presence feel more significant. A more conservative approach is to change the leveling factor from duration, into static, to HP threshold in order to prevent an oppressive defensive power
With two straightforward damage skills and other two defensive tools the first circle turns to be quite reliable, on this matter it can be a model for other classes that don’t have as solid circles. Done with the praises Shadowmancer makes too much use of low cooldowns and packs of overheats in plain rank 8, this decision ignores any previous classes taken on the way which can range from a conservative rooster of 9 skills minimum to a 21 maximum assuming each skill will be maxed when taken.
If both Shadow Pool and Hallucination were maxed they provide 18s of protection being 8 complete invincibility, this is quite enough to have the cooldowns back for Shadow Thorn which can be nice and also troublesome.
Shadow Condensation (C) - Relief
This is probably the weirdest way to employ shadows since they’re condensed into bombs and explode, for the usual magic the shadow is turned into a weapon of vessel temporarily and then returns to the source but here it explodes. It may be a minor thematic complaint but even games have to follow some sort of logic to keep its universe believable.
For this skill to work it needs setup by some sort of disruption or control effect and in PvP they don’t work as reliably, this is all due the 3s delay the skill has for its activation which can be more than enough to have enemies out of position. Interesting enough that also allows Shadowmancer to keep the damage up even if they’re disabled which is a thing few classes can do. It also seems like each bomb can only apply to one enemy or that they cannot stack damage on top of each other which kills it as an unique skill that can benefit from crowding, that would usually be an issue but as the damage is delayed and can be dodged by sheer movement it is a fair tradeoff.
A more interesting and effective way to employ it is to give the user control over the explosion time, this can be achieved by making it a two stage activation skill with a 1~2s delay for reactivation. However the difference is that without the automated detonation the skill can be used to zone enemies around, if that were combined with a scaling duration factor the skill can reach a lot of utility potential for the class.
Shadow Fetter (E) - Midground
The interpretation taken to Shadow Fetter theme is to subjugate one’s shadow which would immobilize the enemy, it isn’t a rare employment of the fantasy as at least in media we can see shadow users that do it and the logic isn’t that off.
Shadow Fetter is boring and ridiculously weak for its placement, in some ways it can be compared to Wizard’s Sleep which is a rank 1 skill. Binds are on the fairer side of debuffs since they only stop enemies on place and it does work for the skill, however the area of effect the skill has and the targetability don’t sell the skill. It gets worse when the only known leveling factor is duration, on a minimal increment, and the class may 100 to 0 enemies before that even turn useful.
An interesting way to expand this concept is by making the forcing a maximum distance between user and enemies along the bind, this would allow Shadowmancer to approach enemies to reduce such distance and drag them by their shadows trying to gain distance in a clunky yet unique control skill. It can be balanced out by having the caster restricted to the same rules as the enemies, once it gets into the minimal range it can never gain more distance unless the skill is dispelled and that can be an issue against melee classes by giving them the upper hand, of course it’s possible to give the user some extra advantage by making the skill cancelable when reactivated or by jumping (as shadows disconnect).
Skill wise this circle doesn’t sustain itself as Shadow Condensation has a rather complex execution as the previous circle skills are quick, have overheats and ditch enough damage, in fact to be reliable the skill needs Shadow Fetter, at level 1 as it is completely uninteresting to level, or another control skill to have a guaranteed hit. Due this poor performance the class received a fair share of powerful attributes as Shadow Thorn’s stepping shadows for double hits on ground target, that increases the fearsome nuke potential it already had, and also Shadow Conjuration’s shadow trap, that applies unknown damage amount over time but has no thematic connection to back it up.
Following up the previous damage mitigation segment this circle promotes the duration to 28s being almost half of it of invincibility, however there’s a significant change here as the new Hallucination attribute in HP ratio increases the shield value up to 80% of the caster HP serving as a personal wizard revive. Ironically the best features of the circle are all attributes. If Shadow Pool is maxed it can prevent the user to receive damage for almost the full cooldown of Shadow Thorn.
Infernal Shadow (B) -
Stealing one’s shadows is a classical move for shadow magic and can even be seen in some folklore around the world having the person to be cursed if not reunited with it, in stories the shadow may turn evil and hurt people or even the original body.
Everything here screams PvP, since a single target debuff it has no PvE application as single target combat is only seen in bossing and the skill has lower efficiency towards that, and that is clear as day when we see the effect is dispelled if the player touches the shadow which gives enemies a way to play around the skill. One thing that may be an issue is how targeting is handle, the skill is casted on ground and takes only one unit out of a group even PvP being a game mode where enemies seldom group (if not forced) it may be harder to pull out the right target even if we assume the shadow distance is constant it would be more beneficial to have the skill aiming target oriented. It’s also important to point out that Infernal Shadow allows enemies to be hit twice by multi target skills if used properly, another interesting feature is that even boss shadows are treated as regular monsters and can receive all kinds of debuffs yet it isn’t sure if damage over time debuff skills that overwrite themselves can stack on top of each other. The only thing that doesn’t quite work for Infernal Shadow is the leveling scaling as it has only floor for duration and investing in the skill not only increase that value but also the damage redirect, it’s almost impossible not to max the skill due that.
It’s possible to have the shadow HP% as the leveling factor allowing it to be higher than target’s in higher levels with that it’s possible improve the bossing potential slightly and expand the damage prospect on enemies that use HP boosting buffs or that have healing on their side, it may not be much of a common scenario but it opens up the possibility to have variance when taking it to lower levels. Another interesting thing to consider is the possibility to make the shadow a Dark property unit (if not done already) slowing down some of the class power and add synergy to other classes, on this matter Shadowmancers can still have reasons to target the body instead of the shadow if they have to chose one.
The main addition to the mix is decent and has some direct synergy with the class as it can provide extra range for Shadow Thorn and extra damage to Shadow Conjuration. Here Shadow Pool also receives an attribute for extra movement speed and nothing else is as significant.
Going back to the protection provided by Shadowmancer the duration increases to 38s being 18s complete damage mitigation, however here it’s interesting to point out that Hallucination cooldown is 40s so in theory it would be possible to chain out both skills in a rotation for 58~60s of protection. Of course such skill distribution weights a lot on low rank skills but it’s interesting to consider it.
Conclusion
Just to recall, i have no experience with the class nor at PvP to fully support some points but the class never appealed to me as i see better features on other counterparts. Along that the Dark property damage can be obtained with Warlock that is way more interesting, both in aesthetics and execution, in my opinion.
As it doesn’t sell a solid identity, aside being PvP oriented, Shadowmancer lacks charm, for anyone that sees it from afar the class looks dull with one or other and unique interesting skill. The only uniqueness seen in Shadowmancer lies in Shadow Pool, Shadow Condensation and Infernal Shadow. Shadow Pool prevents any action and may be less beneficial to level than most skills in the game, Shadow Condensation can’t be employed properly without a setup, only Infernal Shadow does a good job on being engaging but is also shoved down to be maxed as the scaling hits hard. It’s also interesting to point out that Shadowmancer doesn’t need two defensive skills as in Shadow Pool and Hallucination especially when the later feels less connected to the theme and can be taken out as other skills.
Among the major elements that shadows carry along we have fluidity, fear and dishonesty, only the first is explored in minimal ways as the skill themes display shadows morphing, we can only see a proper shape shifting in the mechanics through Shadow Condensation and yet it’s straightforward damage. For a fantasy of an element that has to deal with different physical, and supernatural, properties that others on the same group won’t it doesn’t feel as right to be traditional, it would be way more interesting to explore more characteristics of shadows in the skill mechanics such as the need of vessels to manifest, shapes molding the way the skill deals damage and shadows affecting the unit on contact.
An identity that can be taken to Shadowmancer is of an indirect field controller that has enemies to do the dirty job, a class that has few skills to hurt enemies with straightforward damage but rather takes enemies position and turn them into it own weapons. That isn’t as practical as the current version of the class but is way more interesting in the gameplay and how it can employed shadows, it also justifies using the theme it has in ways other classes couldn’t do it in a natural way.
| C 1 | C 2 | C 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identity | C | E | B |
| Theme | D | E | B |
| Gameplay | C | E | C |
| Cohesion | E | D | D |
| Point Distribution | C | D | D |
| Dropout | C | D | C |
That’s how we take out with Shadowmancer, as i probably missed a couple of things i ask for you guys to contribute to the discussion, add your personal take on the class and also point some interactions from experience since i have none. Since they just announced a huge change coming to the game that seems to abolish the rank structure, reorganize classes and likely to change the classes design there won’t be a new Design Breakdown for a while and changes won’t be that small that this can stay relevant later on, the previous entries will be updated later on but till further concrete information this will go into a hiatus. In case you haven’t seen there’s also a Templar breakdown that was released earlier today.