Slings - Called Shots (ranged category for future Slingers)

[Fortescue]

Slings - Called Shots
This category is all about called shots, inflicting maximum pain to specific places on your enemies. Most scaling is done with Cunning.

Kneecapper
Nail your opponent in the knee for 150% (+10% / rank) weapon damage, knocking them down (1 turn pin) and slowing their movement by x% (Cunning / rank, max 60%) for 3 turns afterwards. At rank 3 the slow is extended to 4 turns, and at rank 5 the knockdown lasts 2 turns. Costs 10 Stamina. Cooldown 8.

Throat Smasher
Something in your throat? Silences an enemy for 3 + (rank / 2) turns and does 100% (+25% / rank) damage. Silence chance scales w/ rank + Cunning. Costs 10 Stamina. Cooldown 8.

Noggin Knocker
Apply directly to the forehead! Shoot 3 quick sling bullets for 50% (+5% / rank) damage in succession into your opponent’s brow. For each bullet that hits, they are stunned for 1 turn. Stun chance scales w/ rank + Cunning. Costs 15 Stamina. Cooldown 8.

Sling Sniper
Passive. Your mastery of called shots is unparalleled. Gain 5% bonus critical chance and 10% critical damage per rank on your Called Shots. At rank 3 lowers the cooldowns of your Called Shots by 2 each. At rank 5 gain x% physical resist piercing (dex / cunning, max 50%) with all Called Shot attacks.

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This is a category intended for any Slinger, not just Skirmishers. I don't know exactly when or how another Slinger will come about, but because the design is not movement or shield related, it could go with any Sling user. For Skirmisher, this will be a default Class category that offers up some important negative status effects and a powerful passive damage boost at the end of the line.

[bpat]

The first two talents are fine.

With 3/5 Sling Sniper, 5/5 Noggin Knocker is a 6 turn stun with a 6 turn cooldown dealing 300% the damage of a regular attack. Either the stun duration should be reduced or the cooldown should be increased, and the damage should be lowered a little (like 85% per shot at max rank)

For Sling Sniper, 60% resistance penetration is a bit too high. No other physical class can get close to that much resistance penetration except Arcane Blade (in the form of a Sustain that requires a category point). I'd cap it at about 35% instead.

[Fortescue]

The first two talents are fine.

With 3/5 Sling Sniper, 5/5 Noggin Knocker is a 6 turn stun with a 6 turn cooldown dealing 300% the damage of a regular attack. Either the stun duration should be reduced or the cooldown should be increased, and the damage should be lowered a little (like 85% per shot at max rank)

For Sling Sniper, 60% resistance penetration is a bit too high. No other physical class can get close to that much resistance penetration except Arcane Blade (in the form of a Sustain that requires a category point). I'd cap it at about 35% instead.

Noggin Knocker is like that intentionally, meant to be one of your most powerful buttons to press as a Skirmisher. Again, remember that Skirmisher doesn't benefit from the Archer's stances when talking about if something is too powerful or not. Without stances they might need 50-60% resistance penetration to be viable, or do you think they'll still be fine with 35%?

[bpat]

The first two talents are fine.

With 3/5 Sling Sniper, 5/5 Noggin Knocker is a 6 turn stun with a 6 turn cooldown dealing 300% the damage of a regular attack. Either the stun duration should be reduced or the cooldown should be increased, and the damage should be lowered a little (like 85% per shot at max rank)

For Sling Sniper, 60% resistance penetration is a bit too high. No other physical class can get close to that much resistance penetration except Arcane Blade (in the form of a Sustain that requires a category point). I'd cap it at about 35% instead.

Noggin Knocker is like that intentionally, meant to be one of your most powerful buttons to press as a Skirmisher. Again, remember that Skirmisher doesn't benefit from the Archer's stances when talking about if something is too powerful or not. Without stances they might need 50-60% resistance penetration to be viable, or do you think they'll still be fine with 35%?

Noggin Knocker is essentially this class's version of Stunning Blow but better. If you thought Stunning Blow was too strong, this definitely needs a nerf since it's better (more damage and more stun uptime).

I don't think the stances give any resistance penetration at all. 35% is a very reasonable amount for a physical class considering this is a passive talent. In comparison, 5/5 Total Thuggery might give you about 35% but it costs a significant amount of stamina while this is free.

[Fortescue]

Do Slings do more damage than 2H Weapons? I don't actually know about Stunning Blow being too good any more, either. Some of my opinions have changed a bit since back then, but I would still lower the duration if I lowered the CD on it.

I meant since Skirmishers don't have stances, period, they are missing out on all that free +crit / +dmg that Aim gives special attacks. I'm asking you if 60% piercing is better than turning on Aim every time you use a special, essentially.

Edit: I didn't really like giving 60% universal, so I changed it to 50% on Called Shots only like the first part of the talent. Feels better imo.

[ZyZ]

Imho all skills need a context. There is no way to tell how good something is when you dont know what is the best possible combination of skills for given class. When you compare skills focus only on strongest combinations of skills possible.

ps. I dont like this tree. I cant even tell what "kneecapper" or "noggin knocker" means

[bpat]

Slings to less damage than two-handed weapons but they attack faster. A six turn stun with a cooldown of six is too good, you shouldn't be able to get that high of stun uptime. I recommend either reducing the stun duration to a maximum of four or the cooldown to a minumum of eight and lowering the damage a little as well (you shouldn't be doing high damage and applying a massive stun at the same time).

I never really used Aim over Rapid Fire except really early, anyway most people seem to prefer Rapid Fire. There was a thread that showed mathematically that Rapid Fire was way better but I don't remember where it was. Anyway, Aim is decent but it's not passive and if you turn it off to move, you can't reactivate it for a much longer time. Additionally, this class already has it's own form of Rapid Fire with Sling Bombardment so it's fine not having stances. Maybe add like 20 armor penetration and reduce the resistance penetration to 25%, but 60% is definitely too much for a passive.

[Fortescue]

Ok, made some adjustments. The damage is pretty evened out now across all 3 skills and the phys pierce only applies to them. I don't agree that the stun needs lowered since it isn't even guaranteed to hit all 3 times. That was an inherent weakness built into the skill, you never knew exactly how many turns you would stun for. They get 3 chances to avoid or resist part of it.

[ghostbuster]

I also think that Noggin Knocker should be nerfed. Applying three successive stuns is already VERY powerful whatever the duration, much more than stunning blow. Every stun application puts new talents on cooldown and 3 stuns in one turn will probaby put most of the opponent talents out of order. A 2 or 3 turns stun is for me a grand maximum in that case...

[bpat]

Ok, made some adjustments. The damage is pretty evened out now across all 3 skills and the phys pierce only applies to them. I don't agree that the stun needs lowered since it isn't even guaranteed to hit all 3 times. That was an inherent weakness built into the skill, you never knew exactly how many turns you would stun for. They get 3 chances to avoid or resist part of it.

Ah, looks like I misread the part about the 60% resist penetration only applying to these shots. Still, 60% seems a bit high for something that only applies to three attacks. Maybe instead it could be 20% in general but doubled for Called Shots? Either way it's much more reasonable in terms of balance than I originally thought.

The issue with three chances to avoid or resist a shot is that often there will be a 100% chance of your shot hitting and the enemy not resisting. It's specifically that case that made me a bit worried. I like the change about the damage adjustment, hopefully all three will be similarly damage but with different types of utility.

[Fortescue]

I also think that Noggin Knocker should be nerfed. Applying three successive stuns is already VERY powerful whatever the duration, much more than stunning blow. Every stun application puts new talents on cooldown and 3 stuns in one turn will probaby put most of the opponent talents out of order. A 2 or 3 turns stun is for me a grand maximum in that case...

Dang. I forgot about that, ok adjusted to 1 turn stun per hit.

[Fortescue]

Ah, looks like I misread the part about the 60% resist penetration only applying to these shots.

Nah you didn't misread it. I adjusted it because I agreed with what you were saying. This category is now self contained and powerful all by itself, without any global effects on other categories. Safer and better for balance this way.