The biggest issue I have with C3 starter classes so far is the lack of versatility. Of course raw damage output is lower too, but, setting up a late game character will sometimes have these sacrifices, so I’m okay with it so long as the payoff is worth it.
Consider the C3 Wizard example above. And let’s compare a Cryolinker and a Pyrokino.
At C1 they all start as Wizard and have access to 5 skills, 2 of which are attacks, 2 of which are debuffs, 1 of which is a buff.
At C2 the Wizard gains one single skill in the form of a self buff where as the Cryomancer gains access to 4 attack skills with fun spins and the Pyromancer gains 4 attack skills and a buff. Both the Cryomancer and the Pyromancer now have a total of 6 potential attack skills to cycle through based on circumstances where the wizard has a total of 2 attack skills. At C3 the Wizard gains an attack skill and an amazing buff. At C3 the Pyromancer picks Linker and gains 4 skills and, while only one deals direct damage on disconnect, their versatility jumps through the roof. The Pyrolinker is able to party well with useful buffs and debuffs and still have a grand total of 7 total attack skills to select from, 8 if you count Joint Penalty. The Cryomancer chose Psychokino as their third rank and it opened up 4 skills, 2 of which are attacks and 2 of which are versatility skills. In this sense the Cryokino has also opened up additional self-combos such as Ice Wall and Swap etc.
C3 Wizard: 8 skills (3 hits)
Pyrolinker: 14 skills (7-8 hits)
Cryokino: 13 skills (7-8 hits)
The end result is the C3 Wizard has a much harder time progressing because he lacks much of what makes a new class shine. The C3 doesn’t get 4-5 additional skills in C2 like a new class election does but instead they get a single skill at C2. At C3 they get a single Hit type skill and a great buff but that’s only 2 skills compared to the allure of 4-5 fresh skills of a rank 3 class election. What you end up with 2-3 attack skills and a metric ton of auto attacking as you don’t really offer a lot more to a party.
I understand that moving up in the ranks should be viewed as a “specialist” profession of sorts, where instead of being a jack of all trades you elect to master one… but there often isn’t enough bonus in skill ranks from lv6-10, or 11-15, to warrant the dedication to C3. At least with the starter classes.
I’ve tried to consider what could be a good solution to this problem… at first I thought just make the skill scaling much much higher when jumping tiers. Like from lv1-5 lets say you’re getting a 50 damage bonus per level. In the current model at lv6-10 you’d also be getting a 50 point bonus and from 11-15 you would be getting a 50 point bonus as well. If you were to take the damage though and scale it to your tier then lets say at 1-5 (C1) you get a 50 damage bonus per level, but, at lv6-10 (C2) you’d get 100 damage bonus per rank, and lv11-15 (C3) you’d get 150 or 200 bonus per level. As an example I can see it’d obviously need tweaked but the idea was that progressive and tiered bonuses rather than flat bonuses across all levels. But then I considered that there are items that give bonus to skill levels and it’d seem unfair to boost the level of a skill via equipment and gain access to the perks that someone had to earn by giving up a class election in their advancements.
I think a nice solution would be to give a passive skill bonus to all classes, like a C2 or C3 bonus that passively boosts all skills in some way, in addition to granting at least the starting classes a couple more skills by the time they master C3 to help make up for the lack of versatility. I imagine the C2 Wizard passive would be something like “Insight; dedication to wizardly ways has granted you a 20% bonus to all damage and duration lengths of Wizard skills” or whatever (applying only to Wizard, not wizard subtypes like pryomancer, sorcerer, etc I’m sure the wording would be proper in whatever they’d come up with lol).
At least in my head it’d work out well lol It’d still need a few more skills though for the starter classes as the versatility would still be lacking as they have less skills to cast overall and even less that are useful in most engagements.
