Revised Berserker and Skirmisher Feedback Thread

[RedBucket]

Bloodthirst is the least problematic tree berserkers have at the moment. Superiority, Warcries, and Field Control need revising the most.

It really bugged me when Warshout and Relentless Fury got disabled by disarm. Execution never looked appealing because it's weaker(powers up slower) against stronger enemies.

[Kwibus]

Shouldn't this be in the spoilers thread?

[Davion Fuxa]

Initially the thread I guess was started here to get additional attention from players. If it had been started in Spoilers then some people who might have been willing to give feedback that never read the Spoilers forum might have missed it.

Might be time to move this thread over though, seems like there isn't much feedback given now at the moment.

[Davion Fuxa]

I figured I'd drop a note since I'm not sure this has ever worked differently. It appears that ranged deflection from Skirmishers doesn't proc off of Call Shot talents from other Skirmishers. This is likely due to the fact that these talents are just instantly hitting their targets, but it seems odd and makes those talents that much more dangerous.

[MalReynolds]

Just played and won a Skirmisher. Really enjoyed it. Felt a fair bit overpowered, I think, as some people have mentioned here.

Let's say there's a significant damage nerf, as I think has been proposed. If there is going to be a damage nerf, I think a counterbalancing strategy would be to make the mobility skills more interesting.

I really liked vault and tumble, but I think the entire Acrobatic aspect could be made more interesting.

I think it is critical to realize that in general taking a step to an adjacent tile just to get some benefit (like reloading or getting Breathing Space or whatever) is too dangerous. It just takes up time, and everyone is attacking you and debuffing you in the meantime.

And yet I think that movement should be more central to Skirmishers. So their moves have to either have jumps which take no time (like Tumble) or jumps which do something else (like Vault).

Vault is interesting, but it really is too situational to be of use more than a handful of times during an entire game run. Maybe the continued run should be faster than ~75%--almost like a full movement infusion. And you should be able to fire little half-damage shots (e.g. over your shoulder) each step if you continue running in the same direction, or strike people you run past with your shield... Or maybe the person/persons you vault over should be stunned/dazed, or you get a shield hit on each of them?

I would redistribute the passive buffs of Trained Reactions and Superb Agility into the first two talents of Acrobatics, and add two more movement types. I imagine Skirmishers as being sort of fast attack/fast retreat fighters. For #3 in Acrobatics, I would love some skill that let me bounce *into* a bunch of enemies, do damage for a turn, and then if you used Tumble or Vault to bounce back out within two turns then Tumble or Vault wouldn't go on cooldown. Perhaps something that would let you bounce onto an enemy, doing a shield strike, moving him to an adjacent square and stunning him, and simultaneously causing you to Block? You'd get a bit of offense, but would put yourself right in the thick of things. I also like the idea of a Bull Shot-like talent for Skirmishers, rush + shot.

Maybe there could be a reaver-type skill, where you get to whip your sling/shield around so you get a hit on someone next to you as you're swinging to put a shot at someone farther. Or something like checkers: if there are enough enemies adjacent (including diagonally), you'd get to bounce off each of them, with damage increasing each hit, but putting you in the middle of the enemy.

I don't know; I'd just like more movement. For the most part, the goal was just to pelt everyone from far away, which made the entire shield thing seem a bit irrelevant to the entire image.

But overall really liked it.

[MalReynolds]

Another important point, beyond just skirmishers and going into archers and even rogues:

If I recall correctly, Venomous Strike ONLY works at MELEE RANGE. This despite the fact that the description says "if you have a bow or sling, you shoot instead." So Venomous Strike really has immensely less utility for a ranged character, which means that poisons are significantly disfavored for slings/bows. If you're willing to invest in poisons as a ranged character, VS shouldn't be just melee.

If just melee is intentional, I think that's a bad idea; if a bug, I hope it can be fixed.

[donkatsu]

I can use Venomous Strike at range just fine.

[elboyo]

I just got my first Roguelike win ever with the Skirmisher.

This guy --->http://te4.org/characters/104665/tome/0 ... 24dc362c79

I loved the play style of this class, easily my favorite so far, but there are a few ideas that I would like to put forth.

1) Melee damage deflection was a total non-issue. I think you should combine it with the ranged one, or just remove it, and add another active skill in its place.

2) Ranged deflection needs some re-balancing. One thing that I think would be amazing for it is if it could also deflect ranged spells, but only if your shield has the correct energy resistance on it just like Block. This would also create an additional use for the Spectral Shield prodigy. Obviously, a buff like this would require something to offset it. I think that either a reduction to the percent of projectiles blocked or a short cooldown which, similar to Swift Shot, recharges faster while moving.

3) The Skirmisher - Slings tree needs some real work done to it. Obviously, Sling Supremacy needs to be maxed and you need 3 points to get double hits on Hurricane Shot for your AoE. After that, until you hit level 40 or so, boosting Swift Shot is rarely worth it and Bombardment felt a bit jokey to me. By the time I could afford the Stamina cost for Bombardment, I had Sling Sniper maxed out and the critical multiplier combined with the Physical Penetration made it completely useless when I could just use a Called shot instead. A fun idea that popped into my head was to have Bombardment cast as an instant sustain that tacked additional stamina costs onto all of your other Sling skills and proc'd Shoot on every attack action (not every hit).

4) Tireless Combatant 3/1/3/5 is really the only way to approach this tree. I think that it would be better if Pace Yourself subtracted flat numbers from Stamina costs and lowered damage, critical strike chance, or even APR. Lowering global speed is never going to be worth it on a class that relies so heavily on speed to dance around. You may also look at adding a talent level 5 incentive for Breathing Room and Dauntless Challenger since, in their present state, the diminishing returns at level 4/5 make them unappealing as an option.

5) The Called Shots tree is fantastic. The only problem that I had with it was the scaling. I went through 80% or so of the game before I changed from 1/1/1/5. I think that you might want to lower the starting damage of these talents and increase their scaling for talent levels. Netting a measly 20% additional damage on Kill Shot when I was already dealing 91 + 250 = 341% damage was really unappealing. I really see the possibilities for combos within this tree. If, for example you gave each attack a talent level 3 special which gave additional effects based on status debuffs the enemy is under. Like if Noggin Knocker could Confuse opponents that are currently Pinned or if Kill Shot could Silence a Stunned enemy.

6) Acrobatics is amazing, you'll notice I went 4/4/4/5 in this tree. Absolutely loved it. Don't change this if you can avoid it.


Anyways, I really enjoyed the play style of this class and I hope that my feedback can be of some help in the future.

~elboyo