ARC-1276

No, seriously, just ban it from Arena. Third specs are ridiculously broken and horribly balanced. Des reduces damage to self by a metric boatload, gets a bunch of iframes, huge damage output and they destroy everyone's FPS. BM has a literally two "I'm invincible" buttons (one literally is invincibility and the other is block everything that isn't behind you, passively), and easy to get 100-0 air combo (meaning you can't just tab out of it). Assassins also have an invincibility button, two actually. There's immortal flicker (which just stops them from dying and gives them back 50% HP) and Cover of Night (Literally invincible). And let's not even get started on FM's 3rd spec (it's not fun to play, nor is it fun to play against) All of this nonsense is packaged nicely and neatly into their 3rd specs, the 3rd specs also seem to be the source of most of my issues with class balancing here. I don't think I'm alone in saying that these specs need to be banned in general 1v1 and 3v3 arenas for the sake of balancing. KR tournaments have banned them as well because they're so game breaking! I say, we do the same and just ban them in the general arena. None of them are fun to play in the arena anyway, and some of them are just bad compared to what we had from before, while others are just busted (there is no in between).

It technically does, as you can use it for a limited time before you have to recharge. But I see where you're coming from since it's just cancer to deal with. At this point, I'm convinced the real problem comes from the amount of damage everything does now. You just won't survive anything anymore. BMs eat chunks of your health without even stunning you, KFMs kill you just be existing, Des press the big shiny button and your FPS dies, GS have always been over damaging, Archers can one-shot you, and now Astromancer does stupid amounts of damage with just 2 buttons. This isn't even a comprehensive list either, there's still SF and Sin to worry about. Meanwhile, classes like FM and BD have to work hard to get their insane damage output unless the FM is using Lightning or Fire (both of which are better for PVE anyway).

Okay, let's address some of these points. Thus far I haven't seen a single BD, SUM, GS, WR, or even a WL for Lyn in the story. The only class I keep seeing for Lyn in the story is FM, so the lore can't exactly back this, and if we went off of the lore, there should be Jin FMs, which there aren't any. Your second point describes what's called the "self-fulfilling prophecy" whereby the popularity of a race is being driven by the creation of new classes for it. There will be a perception that this is the most common and popular race, even if it's not, thus more support for it. Now that's a real chicken and egg situation, perhaps it started with Developer favoritism and the community was just silent about it until it became a problem but by then there were already so many people supporting the race that it became impossible to reign it in. I personally don't remember if this is the situation or not, but I can state with certainty that just because KR likes it, NCsoft should have the brains to know that it doesn't mean EU and US will like it.

I didn't flame Lyn. I stated that I held some slight disdain for them. Yes, that is a typo that went under the radar. You also failed to rebut some of my points and actually agreed with some of them (although limited). I'm also going to state this once. If you provide support for one race or one faction, people will want to play it more because it's getting support. If you leave the others out to dry, no one will play it because of a lack of content, or they will play it if they're feeling extremely bored (which given how many classes Lyn and Jin has, why would you play as a Yun or Gon?). Furthermore, just because something is popular in one region, doesn't mean it should be forced down another region's mouth. I'm sure Lyn is super popular in KR, but I'm not so sure about here. In fact, I'm of the impression that Lyn isn't really as liked here as it is in KR and that we don't want new classes for that race, specifically because at least two other races are being neglected. But your quick fix of letting anyone play any class on any race would be interesting, although you'll get some nonsensical combinations for certain classes and races.

So, let's talk about the new class. Does anyone else remember when the teaser for the new class was dropped? The CGI animation? Does anyone remember which race it was? If you didn't see it, the teaser featured a Yun using the new class. Meaning at the very least Yun would be receiving it. Well, instead we got Lyn receiving the new class, rather than Yun. So let's count them: Jin: 8 classes (BM, KFM, Sin, WL, SF, GS, WR, Archer) Gon: 5 classes (Des, KFM, FM, SF, WR) Lyn: 8 classes (Sum, BD, FM, WL, GS, WR, Sin, Astro) Yun: 6 classes (BM, KFM, FM, SF, GS, Archer) Does anyone else see the problem here? Lyn not only has as many classes as our default human race, but it's also getting classes that were once exclusive to Jin. The only new classes they didn't receive is SF and Archer. I pray to God they never get those either. Meanwhile, Gon and Yun have been basically neglected. The only time they've recently acknowledged that Gon exists was with Warden, but even then, it didn't matter since the only race that didn't get Warden was Yun, and Lyn got it only a month or two after. On top of that, the class that was going to be accessible to Yun also became a Lyn exclusive. I can rip on Lyn all day long, going off about how dumb they look wielding a sword about 110% their size with sticks for arms, or how they don't thematically fit in with their abundance of cuteness in an otherwise more serious game with very few moments of comic relief. I can also mention how their size and physic would not be inclined to martial arts of just about any kind. Hell, Yun has a more believable physical appearance for martial arts and they're ridiculously thin. But because this community has a selection of special people who will reply with "it's a fantasy game with flying swordsmen, who cares if you think it's realistic or believable?" I'm going to refrain from that. Tangent aside, I think we can all agree by now that there's favoritism for Lyn and it's getting annoying. Now you could argue that there's favoritism for Jin, and you'd be right, as I thought them getting SF when it was originally Gon and Yun only was a bit unfair. But given that Jin is supposed to be the most abundant of the races and by all accounts our default human, I think it's safe to assume that they'll end up with more classes, especially since they're supposed to be all-rounders in the first place. My purpose isn't really to hate the other races, it's just to point out what I'll (mostly for comedic effect) call "racism." Yun and Gon haven't received as much support in terms of classes, even for classes that would make sense on them (like GS or Archer for Gon and Astromancer for Yun), meanwhile, Lyn has been receiving classes that don't fit the character of the race at all (like GS, WR, Sin). They're meant to be mischievous and in tune with spirits, hence Summoner and Warlock, but shooting guns with enough recoil to blast their arms off or a sword that looks heavy enough to break their back just by lifting it makes no sense for the race. Yes by that logic, BD shouldn't exist also as it doesn't fit into the character of the race despite being exclusive to them. So if you couldn't get my points, I'll list them off: 1. Lyn has too many classes, not that we can fix that anyway. 2. Lyn is receiving classes that it should be getting, such as Warden and Sin. 3. The devs should provide access to more classes for Yun and Gon so we can have a better distribution of classes across the races. 4. The devs need to stop showing favoritism for certain races over others. It's just not fair for people who like playing a certain race. 5. This overlaps with point 3 but the devs should give access to Yun for what was once a class exclusive to their race.

So undo the Awakening patch. That seems to be where all the problems sprouted out from.

My ping is getting to be borderline unplayable, but that's just because of Spectrum being a smelly ***.

I'm telling you right now, that I not only regret spending a penny on this game but that I ever bought the founder's pack for it. The story's good up until you Divine Mandate Ritual, but from there, the story's quality deteriorates rapidly. Anything involving the old characters will feel good though. As far as PVP is, I reference to you my post: The TL;DR is that it's a joke now. 6v6 was always a joke though, but the original 1v1 is on life support, and 3v3 is dead. The Devs themselves gave up on Open World at around the level 45 patch. PVE is grindy, and frustrating in terms of mechanics. Thankfully, most players can solo the old dungeons, but the new ones require that you dance around, stand in very specific spots for very specific periods of time, or you're instantly dead and your iframes can't save you. Raids are like PVE, but worse. If one person dies in some instances, it's a wipe. I honestly like my odds better clearing Ultra Nightmare for DOOM Eternal on a consul than clearing all the content in this game, because at least that doesn't require I dump a few hundred or thousand dollars into 3 types of damage boosting equipment that gives very minor buffs, and doesn't account for the other 9 or 6 items I have to upgrade.

Not just that. The points system now is completely busted. It doesn't take into account performance in the slightest. You can get matched against some smurf at lower-ranking, spend forever trying to kill the thing and lose because of time out, then lose 33 points JUST BECAUSE THEY WERE AT A LOWER RATING! On top of that, if you come back after a week or two, queue, and lose to someone of lower-ranking, the game doesn't take that into account and you end up in ELOHell. Someone can easily argue that you just simply spar for a bit, but no one is interested in sparring. Everyone's competing for points, so let the guys who're rusty get a little slack for being gone for a week or two. Overall, there is so many quality of life changes that they can make to the ranking system. Maybe make losing to stallers less impactful, because God knows we've all had those matchups when we're fighting some dude and he just spends the entire time running away from you rather than fighting, and the last thing we want to see is that we've been knocked from 1700 to 1670. Hell, maybe even do something about the tie-breaker system, because raw damage output alone doesn't decide anything. There are plenty of classes that win just because they can heal more than their opponent and survive the war of attrition. Or maybe one guy's really low on health and is literally a hit or two away from death, but for some reason they win because they do more damage while you're at full HP. Maybe that'll incentivize stallers to stop stalling the match because it'll take more into account than just simply how much damage they did. In some of the match ups for let's say, a Warden or a SF, the condition to win for them is to kill the target, because they can't win via time out, because that target does so much damage that their healing will just break even.

Ya, I remember PVP, one of the main selling attractions for this game. Ever since the new patches though, the game has became hilariously unbalanced. Archer absolutely dominates, Summoner is now just a poor man's Archer, Des is invincible, Sin is invincible, and BD has so many iframes it might as well be invincible. BMs kill you in two hits, FMs endlessly smash your face against a wall, and Warden's just a joke. I'm honestly worried about my own mental health just constantly queuing and seeing the same three guys over and over again, with only mild reprieve when I fight someone who isn't a KFM, Archer, BD, or has an invincibility skill. The way it plays just screams "we didn't think through the game design and we don't care how it affects the gameplay." Hell, I can't even recall the last time we had a tournament, and I'm pinning this on the awakening patch. Honestly, just ban 3rd spec in arena, or just disable it. So many classes are fundamentally broken now because of it. On top of that, just nerf Archer so it's not impossible to hit at all times because it's on the other side of the map, or because it's iframing while doing 10% per hit. I sincerely don't care about anything else other than just simply not having to worry about third spec, or Archer and thinking "So I've lost?" whenever I enter a match.

I don't need practice because that's not the problem, let alone the reason for me saying the class is broken. No BD worth his salt uses that move in the arena. The problem with BD is its raw offensive power with instant casting daze/air, its ability to stun you while blocking, the bugs around Phantom Grip that prevent you from escaping without using Tab, and the amount of times it can use its most damaging PVE move without worry. Good luck stunning it, as its constant spinning will prevent that from happening, and good luck landing a KD on it because its iframes and the desyncs will be sure to screw you over at every possible turn, assuming it's even in range to be KD in the first place as every BD runs off and waits for CDs. Perhaps its just because you're a wind BD, and most (if not all) BDs uses Lightning in the arena.

Knowing how to beat them means nothing if the only way to beat them is to play perfectly. The gaps between their iframes, if it exists at all, is too short to be taken advantage of. While assassin is a fast class, I doubt it can be consistently impossible to reach like Archer. The class as it stands is constantly running away, engaging when its iframes are up, and doing insane amounts of damage and quickly, forcing anyone who's playing to go on the defensive before they run off again and wait for their cooldowns. Because of their mobility, this strategy is not only viable but is guaranteed to win every match. Maybe Archer might have to play more defensive against a KFM, but they will always be able to outpace you at every turn. So yes, let's make Archer "more like a WL" which is actually the real Archer. I was suggesting my fixes based on how real Archers fight. They would be more akin to the SF's ranged stance rather than a WL. KFM, is overpowered. The Evade isn't their primary, let alone their secondary defensive ability, it's a passive effect that rewards them for using their secondary, and given how long the KFM's iframes last, it's going to go off. The second they use Tremor, they will also get it off (or at least I think that's the case). There were many situations where a KFM would mess up and leave their backs exposed for a counter-attack, but the stun doesn't go off because they "evade" it. This isn't a problem in 1600s as those KFMs are there just because they're on KFM. This is a problem at just about every ranking. Don't know about 1800s+ because I'm not a masochist and there are better games to be playing than BnS, but I know it's not going to get any better and my complaint about the class will remain the same. I'm not suggesting a complete rework like Archer, all I'm suggesting is that they maybe tone down the damage output and remove the evade because the evade stat has always been busted on KFM. Again, I've played the class before, if I wanted to, I could probably out-compete all my other classes overnight using it. KFM really is that easy. I only exclusively play 1v1, btw for the sole reason that 6v6 is a joke. I'm perfectly fine with your BD take, as just about anyone playing arena would know just how cancer that class is, and how frustrating just trying to stun it can be.

It doesn't get any better at gold. Once I broke through 1650, I've exclusively got matched against three classes and in some cases, against the same guy over 6 times in one day, while he was playing an extremely unbalanced class that mine can never hope to beat. It took hours to regain my old ranking and by then I knew that if I queued again I'll have to go through the same cycle.

For the past two days, I've fought almost exclusively three classes: BD, KFM, and Archer. I've also almost exclusively fought them using three classes: Warden, FM, and SF. In almost every case, Archer was the most broken and overpowered out of the three. They are genuinely the most irritating and frustrating thing I've ever had to play against, and I've been playing a lot of video games lately. Archers stun go off almost instantly, and they can be anywhere on the map at any time. You might as well name them "Teleporting Archer," considering how they just disappear and reappear on the other side of the map and that's no exaggeration. They almost always just run away the second you use any buff, and come back in with their infinite dashes and dodges, constantly iframing while spewing damage out mindlessly. Their damage output is enough to wipe out your health poor in a matter of seconds, and that's outside of their instant death air combo. The result of an insanely fast, highly damaging class that can be effectively invincible: frustration. Even fellow players in the arena agree with me on how busted Archer is, going so far as to say that they don't have any bad matchups except maybe BD. This takes me to BD. The class gets three bubbles (5 secs 5 hit invul or something akin to it) and that's on top of their side steps and backstep. They also heal a lot but, what doesn't anymore? Their damage output with doing anything is through the roof, to the point where I don't think they're even trying to force an escape skill anymore. Their five-point Daze goes off instantly and even if you block it with say, an FM, you're still going to get dazed. If you don't, you get instantly aired. This means that they don't have to particularly try to tech chase, just use that skill the second someone uses F roll and you can basically end the fight with Lightning Draw. Even worse than that is the BDs who know their damage output is insane, will go for this quick and cheap combo, and then spend the whole game waiting for the timer to end. KFM, it says it's "expert difficulty." Then why can people get into gold with their UI closed? I know, I've done it. I couldn't see my CDs, but that didn't matter. Fire KFM deals so much damage that I, again, don't think KFMs are bothering with combos anymore. Just simply air someone, use 4 when they're about to hit the ground, Q/E to triple kick and whale on them. If they don't do anything just keep stunning them because you're going to kill them in a matter of seconds anyway. Now let's talk about Evade. It's been a feature of KFM for a very long time that when you iframe three attacks with Q/E you get a 100% Evade for about 3 seconds or something, making it theoretically possible to win a match without using Counter (which I know because I did it before, several times). Honestly, the only thing I would change about this class would be to do away with the Evade, and hamper its damage a fair bit. This leads to suggested fixes and all of them are fairly straight forward, all you have to do is remove an iframe from BD and nerf its damage so air combos aren't effectively instant kills. KFMs need to have less accident forgiveness and they need to lose the Evade stat when in the Arena. There's a reason why passive status effects weren't ever placed in here and KFM being allowed to bring that in allows for instances where you're about to tech chase a KFM or slip a cheeky stun, but they evade it and now you're on the back foot. My suggested fix for Archer would be to just simply scrap it. The class is so fundamentally broken that I would've never released it in the first place. The fix for Archer would involve removing or nerfing its infinite dodges, its damage output would have to be adjusted so it's only very damaging at about half range (to represent the loss of momentum and force after an arrow is fired). Its stun would have to be a close-range attack, and it should lose the buff that allows it to shoot through defenses. It should also gain a static block that defaults to either build to make up for its nerfed movement because as of right now, it has more mobility than a class with actual grappling hooks. Who knows, maybe even do something else where they don't fire this instant kill arrow after making you airborne, or maybe even make it fire special arrows that create things like slowness or DoT, or a spot on the ground that constantly stuns their opponent. Maybe even have it so the Archer gets in close, jabs something into its opponent and back away to fire a bunch of arrows and have that something stun the opponent again after they're hit enough times like Searing Palm. Just something that makes it require more skill and forces the Archer to engage the opponent, rather than kiting so far that they're about to run out of air to float with.

If your dying to that, you're not doing something right. Fire FM is a joke and really easy to kill as they have no defense and no combos. Meaning you can just use escape at any time you want. All you have to do is play a little defensively and apply heavy pressure when you can. Trust me, if I can kill them using Warden of all things, you can do it whatever class your playing.

Before we get started, I just want to say that I know there is counterplay to these classes. There is counterplay to everything regardless of how powerful or weak they are. However, the point of this post is to simply point out how hilariously difficult the counterplay can be. So let's get started. BM: From the beginning of the game, BM has had the most solid defense in the game, only rivaled by KFM. It's fine, to say the least as it helps it stand out. While the defense is very useful in most situations, in the context of the arena, a quirk of the defense begins to stick out as too useful. That would be the dreaded deflect. You see, it's fine to have something happen whenever you time a block just right, but that thing that happens should not be a stun. In fact, I'd think it's best that we don't have anything happen at all whenever a BM blocks at just the right time except maybe shortening the CD on something or some other buff. But given that a BM can stun you whenever you use your standard "get up" skill, it can easily swing the fight in the BM's favor and when they're able to do it consistently, you might as well just stay on the floor and let the BM have his/her way. Sticking to the defensive profile of the BM, the new Awakened build for BM having a passive frontal block is absolutely ridiculous. Sure it's unfair that Des get to be immune to CCs when using Emberstomp (which is a placed down AoE buff on a 45sec CD time with short reach), but for BM to be immune to punishment of any kind for like 12 seconds or so, that's just stupid. Sure you can just go around, but there's no guarantee you'll actually be behind the BM as they can Q/E behind you while you're behind them. Don't believe me? I've seen it happen plenty of times in the arena, suggesting it must be some kind of bug. On top of that, they might even stack it with some other iframe ability to make them completely invincible. Furthermore, their basic bubble that we all know and "love" can heal them about 20% or so HP. I won't complain about that as it's completely fair. But to add insult to injury, they also have two, two escape skills: their backstep, and their tab. Given what I've described their defenses so far and what's still yet to come, you might say this is overkill. Well it is, as their Q/E makes them untargetable on top of their iframes. Then we have five-point dash which is also an iframe and if they resist something while using it (which is all the time), you proc up cyclone, giving them a decent amount of damage dealt, while also being immune to damage in return for quite some time. So it's very clear that in the hands of a skilled player, you're never killing a BM unless you're lucky or really good at the game. Now we move on to offensive abilities which won't take long for me to describe as BM has to only press the same button three times in a row with their Lightning Build in order to win any match. Flashstep is stupid. It makes them untargetable, again, and with just three hits you can bring a fully healthy SF to only inches from death. And this is just the beginning because now we get to their dreaded Awakened Build which I shall call their "Shadow Build". With this build they get just about all the benefits of their defensive profile while trading out Flashstep for a WL style 100-0 air combo that somehow makes the original WL air combo look fair. You stay up in the air for an unholy amount of time as you watch your HP bar slowly disappear as they keep launching you back in the air and all because you refused to tab on the first stun they got on you. The class is no longer a melee class, it's a ranged class that just so happens to be good at melee. Now for two universal skills on BM that have been the bane of almost every player's existence: boot and soaring falcon. Never before have I seen a class more dependant on one button in order to win a match. The second I use Second Wind I know immediately that the BM is going to try his Z pull. It has become such a predictable pattern that I refuse to use my tab until he/she uses it, or until I see that they miss with it. Now for their other skill, boot, it too can dominate and dictate the way a match goes, As stated earlier, a BM's block can stun a player if they try to get up from KD. But what about counter? Well boot or X, can easily let the BM completely dominate the ground game. Instead of being an inconvenience like SF's Howling Blast (which KDs a target while piercing Block and Parry), Boot allows a BM to stun anything that's blocking or using a counter, including if that target is on the ground. This is usually followed up with Flashstep, ending the match before you had a chance to do anything. Then we have their opening moves, which is the most dominating thing about BM. They can dictate when and how the game begins at any time, and it usually begins with them getting a cheeky stun off you. If you have any problems with loading in first, you'll know the pain of losing to Shadow BM because the arena didn't load in fast enough. This wind riding attack is also present on BDs as well but is a follow up to them using their version of Soaring Falcon. Now what tweaks would I suggest being made to BM to make it more balanced? Well for a start, their stun parry has to go, in fact, I'd remove parry as a mechanic from the game as a whole and just keep the block mechanic. Sure it keeps you on your toes, but it's over punishing for such a chance encounter, but when it can be consistently abused it gets even worse. Next, I'd suggest shortening down the Shadow BM's air combo and nerfing the damage a little. Make the combo easier to perform, but at the cost of it not being a guaranteed kill. Then I'd suggest removing the untargetable effect from BM altogether, the class never needed such a thing and it's honestly overkill given how many defensive options the class has. Just keep the Q/E iframes as they were. Furthermore, I'd have the damage from flashstep be heavily nerfed. Only needing to press one button to win is absurd and frankly unfair. By proxy, this will also nerf the dreaded Z pull and Boot as the follow up might not be an instant loss. Finally, I'd remove the backstep as an escape skill. Trying to force Tab on BM is difficult enough as it is, but having to force two of them is just too much. BMs were more than capable of reaching high long before they had two escape skills, they don't need another. Destroyers: Where to begin? Let's start with their new build as that's the only thing worth complaining about. Everything else on Des seems to be perfectly fine, possibly even warranting a buff. But let's stay focused on their new "Iron Will"build, shall we? When I first returned to the game, I was dumbfounded by the sheer, unbridled stupidity of this build. So let's start with its defenses which should be fairly brief. It gets the classic spin parry, which again I despise as a mechanic, especially since you don't get stunned in real life when you are parried but left vulnerable (hint hint, perhaps consider a damage boost when you successfully parry). But that's not the problem with them, no that's their immunity to just about everything. They have a new skill which lets them unleash this Titan form. During the casting of the skill, they turn gigantic and unleash a multi-hitting daze ring around them that goes through defenses. Not much of a problem, although it deals too much damage. But what comes after is even worse. For twelve seconds they're invincible and get a damage boost. To put that into context, FM's Frost Armor lasts for 10 seconds and is purely a defensive move as they can't attack or move for that matter, and get back 30% HP. This buff, however, does CC, a lot of damage upon casting and gives them immunity to damage for 12 seconds after, along with a damage boost. You might as well call it "Temporary God-mode" because that accurately describes it. Hey, remember Fury by any chance? That damage boost that makes Des immune to CC at the cost of taking slightly more damage, and you can still knock them down? Or Persistence, which is an escape skill on a minute CD that makes them immune to CC and damage for 5 hits. Then we have their basic form, by which I refer to their "Double Axe" stance. I couldn't think of any better way to make this class a more obvious counter to FM, as not only can their dish out an absurd amount of damage for no work, but they're also immune to KB, you know, the core mechanic behind FM's wallbang? Oh and if you other classes think you're fine, you're not, as they're also immune to being knocked in the air. On top of that, they have access to an AoE of damage around them, and causing your framerates to drop so badly you'd be forgiven for thinking you were playing a consul game, all while out-competing Warden's 4 spam in the damage department. Now for their special bubble of invincibility that lasts well over five seconds and doesn't seem to be breakable by any means. This combined with their insane damage output, their ability to laugh through block, makes Des one of the most brainless classes I've seen since coming back to the game and I'm not even sure if I've covered everything about it that makes it so powerful. Now there are ways around the new Des build, for sure. But the amount of effort it takes, stacked on top of Destroyer's already decent defense with their spins, shields, and their C ability, makes the class near impossible to hurt. So my solution would be to have Des worry about KD even with this Titanic form, and have their floating shields be breakable, or shorten the duration of it. From there, I'd also have the damage output on it slightly nerfed. Conclusions: Now I know there are other classes out there that are also equally powerful, if not even more so (Archer), but I'll get to those one day. I'll probably even advocate for FM to have an overhaul with its PVP style as I hate its wonky and unreliable wallbang 100-0, as it's been the source of a lot of toxicity and its generally unreliable as having ping above 100ms will usually cause it to fail. Notice however, that the changes I suggested are minor for the most part (barring the suggested changes to parry), and are more of a return to form for these classes. Although, given that none of the classes I play arena with have yet to receive their awakened builds, the solution to this imbalance might just come when they finally decide to give every class their awakened builds. Ultimately, I know the Moderators, Developers, or Community Managers will never see this post or possibly even care much, as ultimately they're powerless to actually act on it and we're all doomed to just take in whatever new patch is released for the Korean server. I could be wrong, and I hope I am.

Well, Summoner does have cat sit which is the bane of any class with a static block...at least until BM got their buffs.

Ya, that's my ranking between those three classes. If you want to rub salt in the wound, Summoner can be nye unkillable.

Okay, here's my long-form post breaking down why FM isn't broken. First, let's go over healing. Against just about every class, FM loses out against them in healing. Sure, FM is invincible for 10 seconds while they're healing 30% HP every minute. However, some classes heal 15% every 30 seconds and then some on top of that. FM does heal 10% HP over the course of 15 seconds while within Divine Viel, but almost every class will still be able to hurt the FM while it's active, in fact, most classes aren't even deterred by the veil, even the ranged classes. Most of them have abilities that damage and CC FMs while in a veil. On top of all of that, most class healing is in the form of an invincibility bubble, one that allows them to continue fighting, sometimes while even doing extra damage. Damage output on FM is all located in two skills, Frost Tornado and Duel Dragons. Frost Tornado requires the FM to press two separate buttons to get it off (and even then, sometimes you won't get the instant cast) or you need to wait one second to cast it. This also assumes you don't get CCed while casting it. However, you will always end up being stunned while using it, or you just get one tornado off. Meanwhile, other classes have a single attack that goes off instantly which does about 30% damage. Then we have Duel Dragons which, while it does a lot of damage, is incredibly hard to get in the first place as it requires a critical hit from a fire and ice attack to simply use it. Sure, it's no problem during the wallbang combo, but outside of that, it's borderline impossible. Now onto defenses. FM has about four defensive abilities, a basic "block", two self freezes, and +15% HP shield. The HP shield lasts for a short duration of time, but enough to matter, but if you do enough damage, you can break through the shield and start damaging the FM while the duration is still active, this will also be the best time for FMs to use the Frost Tornado and it has an obvious effect around the FM (a physical bubble). The self freezes are both good, but not nearly as scary as the bubbles other classes have access to, like Des or BM. Since Frost Armor was already covered in healing, I'm instead moving on to the keystone of FM's defenses: Impact. Impact pushes the FM back when blocking a melee attack, it doesn't prevent damage of any kind but just gives it some breathing space, and it only blocks one melee strike (meaning multi-hit attacks can break through the block). Meanwhile it's proven itself nearly useless against ranged attacks as plenty of them go clean through it, or are AoE and thus cannot be blocked by it to begin with. Offensively, FM has a few things to use to get past the enemy's defenses. Frost Tornado is a good one, but a BM can just spam block and deflect you regardless, and most other classes can just iframe for a little bit and are perfectly fine. Classes like BD or Des just don't care because they have multiple bubbles or can just spin through it and minimize damage. Frost Burst (the airborne one that constantly freezes) is extremely unreliable given its short-range and making you vulnerable to air combos (which some classes love doing), and dragonwhorl is required for starting the wallbang combo. So it's mostly just Glacial Blast (the stun) and Phantom grip, which is really freaking good even if it's likely to miss half the time. So overall, the FM is a glass cannon that relies entirely on baiting out its opponents and trying to find an opening using a combo that's complicated and difficult to pull off if you have ping above 100ms (which I assume is most people). Its great at making openings with Phantom Grip, but so many classes have such stubborn and strong defenses, you'll almost never get past them. KFM can just dodge infinitely and gets an iframe every time it counters while putting endless pressure on the FM. BM is straight-up invincible and immune to grip for 75% of the match, Des ignore KB with their new build and can resist status effects for 12 secs while dishing insane damage. Sin is much the same as Des, only not as good. BD has infinite bubbles. SF's hard to hit but not impossible, so FM's got a good time against them, Warden, and WL. GS, not as much. But Archers...Archers will demolish FMs every time, no questions asked. They literally teleport across the arena, ignore FM's defenses, and have solid defense themselves because of their dashes. FM in the context of general arena purposes, is a bad class, the only thing it has going for it is a complex 100-0 combo that requires patience and careful planning from the FM, along with being at just the right distance from the wall to do it.

And KFM too, let's not forget them, or BM for that matter. All of them are just invincible, damage spewing, heal spamming, braindead, easy mode classes.

Are you guys seriously complaining about FM when Des and Archer are so busted right now?

Ummm...that piece of artwork looks radically different from the original. The only thing I can agree with you on is the pose, Everything else is seriously transformed from the original picture, from the overall mood to the character put on the there. You can't exactly steal a pose or a concept like "gunslinger". If you want to see what stolen art looks like might I recommend you check out all the art theft going on in Disney Star Wars as there's plenty of great examples.

She looks better in the artwork than she does in game. But she's pretty flat...which according to anime logic means she's overpowered plz nerf.

Mine looks better.

Fun might be a subjective trait, but what happens when most people's subjective view of something points to the negative? That subjectivity becomes what we call statistical data, and statistical data is objective. If most players think the game isn't fun anymore, and to the point where they'd quit (and that is exactly what happened here), then we can say that objectively, there must be something wrong with the game design that is leaving players unsatisfied. Some players don't mind spending boat loads on the game, but most players (past and present) do. Some players were professional PVP players, and now the arena is more empty than it's ever been, with people unable to get past the 1800 mark because of the lack of people queuing. My clan's had to cancel raids because so many people have quit the game.