Fencer, Doppelsoeldner, Murmillo, Featherfoot, Musketeer… The list of classes that are ahead from dragoon in almost every damage-wise aspect doesn’t stop there, it goes on. This happens because the recent combat update managed to solve a lot of problems, but also brought new ones - as expected, since a game is never completely balanced.
One of the problems brought was the class divergence when it comes to overall power. Dragoon is one of the classes that got the small piece of the cake; it fails in compete with others classes when comes to raw damage. That’s why i suggest following changes:
##[DRAGOON]
[Dragontooth]
-
Overheat:
0
2 -
Attack: 149 + (8.2 per skill level after the first) 164 + (9.0 per skill level after the first) -
Casting time: X s + (Y s per skill level after the first) 0 s -
Animation/Cast Time: 0.6 s 0.8 s -
SP Cost: 57 + (14 per skill level after the first) 49 + (12 per skill level after the first)
Change's context: Both base and scalling skill factors are increased by approximately 10% so this skill can compete with others rank 8 ~ 7 skills. Casting time for this skill is totally unnecessary from every perspective and just make it more annoying to use; casting/charging time are for high burst skills such as Meteor or Multi Shot, not mid damage skills like Dragontooth. In order to compensate the removal of casting time, the animation/cast time is increased slightly. The overheat serves to compensate the lack of pure damage skills, since Gae Bulg needs to be a far from the target, dragon soar and serpentine have low damage due to their attributes.
[Serpentine]
-
Attack:
112 + (6.2 per skill level after the first) 123 + (6.8 per skill level after the first) -
Animation/Cast Time:
2.0 s 1.0 s -
Interrupt Time: 1.3 s 0.7 s -
SP Cost:
62 + (16 per skill level after the first) 56 + (15 per skill level after the first)
Change's context: The 10% skill factor increase justification is the same of Dragontooth. The animation/cast time decrease is absolutely necessary. This skill is one of the slowest non-charging/casting skills in the entire game. Why it's that slow? well, good luck trying to find a reason for that. While you're wasting 2 seconds debuffing your target, other damage classes already killed it.
[Gae Bulg]
-
Attack:
1008 + (55.4 per skill level after the first) 1109 + (61.0 per skill level after the first) -
Animation/Cast Time:
2.0 s 1.3 s -
Interrupt Time:
1.2 s 0.8 s -
No longer requires to pick up the spear. -
SP Cost:
58 + (16 per skill level after the first) 52 + (15 per skill level after the first)
Change's context: The 10% skill factor increase justification is the same of Dragontooth. The animation/cast time, just like Serpentine's, is atrocious; a reduction is needed. The concept of spear throw's weapon pick up is cool, but it only works with spear throw, since it can be casted multiple times in a row, removing the possibility of having multiple high range AoE attacks in a row. Gae Bulg doesn't have overheat and is a long-mid cooldown, the only thing that the pick up mechanic does is make the skill annoying to use.
[Dragon Soar]
-
Attack:
161 + (8.9 per skill level after the first) 177 + (9.8 per skill level after the first) -
Animation/Cast Time:
1.1 s 0.7 s -
Interrupt Time:
0.6 s 0.5 s -
Attribute: Executor: Dragon Soar deals double damage to enemies below 25% maximum health. This percent threshold is decreased to 15% against Boss-type enemies. [50% increased SP cost]
Change's context: The 10% skill factor increase justification is the same of Dragontooth. The 'Executor' attribute makes Dragon Soar unique and useful, different from it current useless and weak version. The animation/cast time is very long for a such mid damage skill, a decrease on it would make it more fair.
[Dethrone]
-
Overheat:
2 3 -
Attack:
484 + (33.9 per skill level after the first) 532 + (37.3 per skill level after the first) -
Attribute: Remove Knockback: Removes the Knockback/Drag away effect from [Dethrone]. [10% increased SP cost]
Change's context: The 10% skill factor increase justification is the same of Dragontooth. The overheat justification is similar to the dragontooth's; most of the Rank 8 classes gain 2~4 damage skills that deals 1200% ~ 2000% and some of them have even 3 overheats while dragoon have 1200% dethrone with just 2 overheats. The unfairness in this case can be seen by miles away. The knockback/drag effect is one of the main problems of dragoon in my opinion. Some times it can be useful, but most of the time makes you hold your finger before using dethrone. You can screw up a whole dungeon run by dragging away the mobs from ground target skills of your party such as Frost Cloud or Pole of Agony, and you can screw up yourself as well by spreading ranged monsters and rooting them with dethrone, making the mob clear much more hard. This skill should already have this kind of attribute, like any other CC skill such as Cataphract's or Catar Stroke.
These changes are extremely easy to apply from the devs perspective, since it’s just number tweking and some minor mechanics change. This still wouldn’t completely resolve the problem, since dragoon still need another rank to become complete (C3 usually receives more power than the others circles) and just like i said, the game is in constant need of balance, but those changes would definitively make dragoon more competitive and fair, as well decrease the power divergence between the classes.
Sorry for any typo (since it’s a giant ***king text wall) and thanks for the attention!