Runes of Magic US / AU

This, is my all-together round-a-bout-fix on Scouts. If even just a few of these Idea's are implemented, in some way, I'd be very grateful as scouts, currently blow.


Numero Uno.


Line of Sight (LOS). Currently, LOS is currently coming from the opposite point of the body that it needs to be coming from. This needs to be changed to at least follow the arrow on the bow. I understand that it should not come from the eyes, as you do not shoot your bow from your eyes. But It should at least come from waist level (where your bow hangs) or chest level (where you shoot your bow from).
This, would honestly be a quite easy fix, this really would not fix the DPS issue, but we'll get to that later. This is just a common problem with scouts that needs to be fixed.


Numero Dos.


Autoshot Passive Buff


This Idea was given to me by Amberwave. The idea was that autoshot added a debuff to the target, that increased scout damage. I have modified this idea however, to more properly fit the task.
A new Scout Class-specific skill, obtained after Target Area. My preferred name for this skill, "Steady Aim" This skill is simply passive, and can be level up to 50. The skill would work like this: Steady Aim improves your Autoshot, as you hit consecutively with autoshot, you gain a buff that lasts for 5 seconds (at level 1, the buff length lasts -0.06s per level (2s at level 50) Stacking up to 20 times. Each stack increases your Ranged Weapon Damage by 0.25% (at level 1, increases by 0.025% per level (1.5% at level 50) X .001% accuracy (does not change and is not affected by stack).


So, as a fair example, at level 50 this means if your accuracy is 15k (a fair bit more than most high level rogues and scouts I asked's accuracy), and your Ranged Weapon Damage is 10K at 20 stacks you'd get a total of 1.5% (of) 10,000 = 150 X .001x(15,000x20% = 18,000) (1 2700 Ranged Weapon Damage. A fair increase in damage for scouts.


If you are to really look at this skill, it would add usefulness to bows so that you can maintain this buff for a longer time, but still able to get max stacks with a crossbow at full buffs. So crossbows would then do more burst damage, and bows would then do more sustained damage. As well as you look at this skill, it adds more bonus for scouts to actually use accuracy, instead of to hit other scouts and rogues. This would also fix the damage problem quite successfully.


This would also be a null for scouts in siege war, as they are already pretty good at PvP, this skill would be quite worthless.


Numero Tres.


Skill % DPS Reworks.


Although I feel this will not be implemented at all, I have gone through serious brainwork to figure out how to balance scouts, by once again changing the skills % DPS bases (this time, at a balanced rate)


I'll go through all the skills with this, starting with Shot.


Shot is increased by 2.4% per level, starting at 40%. While I agree with 2.4% being a fair increase of damage, I believe the only change should be that the base should be 40% higher. A 40% increase in base damage will mean less as you level up, however, the usefulness of the skill will be more than just a "filler" between cooldowns.


Vampire arrows again, has a good increase of 3.3% per level, starting at 55%. Again, I agree that the increase is fair, but it should have a base of 100% damage. My reason being that vampire arrows is still quite a worthless skill, it's only used because it's just slightly less useless than Shot. I believe the skill should be one that scouts would want to use the moment it's off cooldown, and this should do just that.


Joint blow does it's job. While it's rarely used, it has it's purpose, and it's just fine.


Blood arrow was redone well. I will not disagree with it's current status.


Throat Attack also does it's job, it's not made to do damage, it has it's purpose, and it's just fine.


Swiftness is just as fair as all of the other stat increasing skills. I will not disagree.


Speed shooting has never been changed, and is just fine as well.


Onto Scout Class-specific Skills


Wind arrows, this skill has become entirely worthless. As shot costs no focus, has more DPS even now, and a greater % increase per level. Wind Arrows needs a definite fix. While the skill's only advantage over shot is that it is instant, it has more disadvantages as most scouts can get shot down to a 1 second cooldown, or an instant (GCD .5s) cooldown. Wind arrows should be an equal base % DPS as shot, as well as an equal % DPS increase per level.


Ranged Weapon mastery is significantly lower than all other weapon masteries. The Ranged accuracy is nearly worthless as it is. The 20% accuracy increase, I'm fine with, but another 10-15% damage increase would be sufficient.


Mana drain shot, I like the change they made to this, however, it would actually be used if it had some real damage on it. With the 1 minute and 30 second cooldown, It should at least do a hefty amount of damage for your time, and that extra key on your skillbar. Perhaps a base RWDPS of 120% and an increase of 5.2% per level as opposed to 3.6%

EDIT ~ After more testing, the 1 minute and 30 second cooldown is absurd. The cooldown should be reduced to at a maximum of 20 seconds. Preferably the cooldown should be 10 seconds, which is the length of the debuff. The debuff itself is really only useful in PvP situations that I can see. And even should it be used in PvP, the % Mdam reduction would be quite worthless in PvE as almost all of PvE is physical based.

As well as there needs to be a range increase to 220 with xbows and 230 with bows.


Lasso does it's job, I see no issues with this.


Piercing Arrow is still quite balanced. No issues.


Eagle Eyes is also just fine as is.


Snipe, While I like the big % damage increase, and agree with it currently, they're idea to make it a skill used in combat was a failure. It is a skill used for hitting high, pulling mobs with a big bang, and 1 shotting. This skill should not be viable for midfight use.


Combo shot needs some rework as well Not by much, but the base is currently 45% with a 2.7% increase per level. I believe this skill should start at 65% with a 3.1% increase per level.


Reflected shot is just fine as is.


Concentration is just fine as is.


Target area is a little worthless currently. If it were simply to increase accuracy up to 10% and have the critical hit rate increase by 1.9 instead of 1.3 it would be much more effective.


I would do elite skills, but It would require a lot more information, and I doubt they are going to make the changes above anyhow.


Numero four


Ranged weapons.


Ranged weapons are currently becoming more and more lacking in physical damage as compared to daggers, axes, swords, and hammers. While I agree bows and xbows should be lower, the space is becoming increasingly widened. Simply keep ranged weapons a steady 12-15% less DPS than daggers and it should be sufficient. (Currently ranged weapons are running 16.5-20% less DPS than daggers at a base)






Conclusion:


If you don't make these changes, there's no real way you can fix scout. This is quite literally the only ways that scout could be fixed. If absolutely none of these changes are made, it will be gimped and nerfed for eternity. It would be possible for scouts to be balanced by increasing their support ability, but the class would then be more support than DPS. And at that point, I don't really think anyone would play scout.

Quoted from "Gutterboy;597726"

+1 I like this post. Although I will most likely never go back to scout as a main, it was one of the first classes I ever rolled and I enjoyed it so much until it was gimped. I would love to see scouts return as a balanced class once again and see some of the older players go back to their roots.

I'm glad you support this, and if you could, try and pass this information to you server, I really would like this to make a difference, because I refuse to play anything other than scout .

Its too bad you stopped playing scout.

Quoted from "gigilomann;597721"

Well, s/wd is fine b/c of their elites, and s/r and s/w can still do decent damage in endgame, but not near as a s/wd can.. I agree with your changes Noony, idk abotu the los issue b/c they might break all classes... lol but I like your well thoguht out post.

Right, S/wd works because its a selfish scout class. Very dps based, little to no support in groups.

Ty for liking my brainpower ; P

Quoted from "choujiaki;597747"

scouts just need to get their skills damage raise a bit more, they are a ranged class so they do need to do less damage then melee classes.

I agree with this, none of these changes actually puts scout on par with rogue, warrior, or even warden dps classes. It would put them at approximately 10% less dps than rogues.

Never did I think while making this post, that scouts shuold be equal DPS, just on Par, and balanced.

Quoted from "camagic;597846"

Numero Uno.


Line of Sight (LOS) needs to be fixed for everyone. This is one of the seige fixes that has negatively impacted on PVE content. Any slight bump, ramp, step, or pebble yields zero dps and/or death.

Yes, I agree this should be fixed for everyone, I understand skills like the warriors surprise attack are also affected by this, but scouts are the most critically affected class.

Scouts are always literally attacking from above chest level, and there is no way around it, it makes sense in slight ways that surprise attack for warriors should come from the feet, as your feet should not be dragging through rocks and hills.

Quoted

Numero Tres.

Wind arrows, "this skill has become entirely worthless."--> Not exactly. I suggest using/learning the benefits of frost arrow.


Snipe, While I like the big % damage increase, and agree with it currently, they're idea to make it a skill used in combat was a failure. It is a skill used for hitting high, pulling mobs with a big bang, and 1 shotting. This skill should not be viable for midfight use.
--------> Not exactly. I use snipe as the start of the rotation on s/p and s/wd. True, if interrupted it is not worth anything, but why is a ranged dps reeeeeealy getting interrupted? I recommend changing tactics to compensate and increase use out of this nice dps increase.

Wind arrows, the slow is worthless, a 15% slow is nothing, your best off using your high dps skills, when the mob/player gets close use lowblow, and then run and kite. as the 40% slow is nearly 3x as effective.

S/wd and S/p are 2 classes. Sure, they can use it in their rotation for DPS midfight, but a 3s interruptable by damage skill is a big waste of time for every other scout combination. I don't see a real argument here.

Quoted from "SeanD123;597848"

looks good so far, but if all scout classes are to be balanced there needs to be a change in how scout gets its pa, either the dex giving 1 pa needs to be changed to 1.5,1.8,2.0 or giving scout a new skill or buff to raise its pa somehow, its kinda ridiculous how a scout has to stat, its a dps class not a priest or tank why does it get 1 pa per str or dex. Mage is a ranged dps class and it gets 2 matk per int, so obviously scout being ranged shouldn't be a reason to make scouts patk so gimp.

The thing is, that rogues only get 1.3 patk per dex as well, and 1.2 patk for strength. And scouts have swiftness which, in essence makes dex better for patk than rogues. And strength, while not the most viable way to stat a scout, is still viable if you want a tankier scout (idk why you would want this, but it's a viable option that is there) and I don't feel that the Patk ratio's for stat's are unbalanced at all.

The patk ratio's for stat's and matk ratio's have all been in place since chapter 1, and have been untouched. Everything that is pre chapt 3 is pretty balanced and was well thought out by the dev's. Chapter 1 was extremely balanced, aside from scouts being underpowered, and mages being slightly overpowered. But it was no major gap, and every class could be used in instance runs. Chapter 2 was also well put together, and I have no issues with anything from either chapters. The game just started getting F'd up after chapter 3.