KFM, soon to overthrow the FM in the weakest class category

[ARC1276]

So KFM is already a hard class to play as it is. Near impossible in some cases. Requiring the mastery of an animation cancel and a good internet service. Without both, you will lose as a KFM. On top of that, FMs are getting a massive buff in the next patch (finally!), one that'll render the cheap "counter change mid match" trick irrelevant. Right now, KFM struggle just about as much as FM do in the arena, with the top tier FM being ranked higher than the top tier KFM in the NA region. 

 

Taking a look through the upcoming patch, we can see only two things of benefit to the KFM in PVP: shin kick is moved to the 2 slot, and leg sweep will pierce parry by default. I say it won't be enough. There has to be more added to the class to give it more dexterity, and allow it to deal more punishment. Nothing like the BM ofc, BMs damage is just broken. I was thinking something like the SF's RMB, something that deals a decent amount of damage that doesn't require an annoying animation cancel to do right. 

 

 

Honestly, I don't care about how people react to me saying this but, KFM is hard, possibly harder than FM. The main problem with FM right now is that no one seems to know how to play it properly.

[Ein]

Nothing will overthrow FM as the weakest class. It will reign solemnly as the weakest class King!

[Shuchin]

KFM Iron Shoulder also got a huge buff in that it deals damage and dazes at the same time now - big boost for punishment in the neutral game.

 

And there are more buffs hidden:

Resist Avenging fist available on counter use instead of counter success now makes it very versatile as an iframe.

TAB escape now escapes grapple and dazes at the same time.

TAB cool down reduction with LMB without the need of 6 skill points investment

8m SS, but with agility stack on resist at the same time

for 6v6 - pull tremor with AP buff and strong DoT at the same time, finally making it viable

 

Overall a lot of small but all valuable additions. I only cry a little over the loss of ground grapple and over the longer animation time of Swift/Tiger Strike. T.T

 

 

[ARC1276]

IDK, KFM still feels harder than FM. 

[Featherine]

On 4/19/2017 at 4:48 PM, Shuchin said:

KFM Iron Shoulder also got a huge buff in that it deals damage and dazes at the same time now - big boost for punishment in the neutral game.

 

And there are more buffs hidden:

Resist Avenging fist available on counter use instead of counter success now makes it very versatile as an iframe.

TAB escape now escapes grapple and dazes at the same time.

TAB cool down reduction with LMB without the need of 6 skill points investment

8m SS, but with agility stack on resist at the same time

for 6v6 - pull tremor with AP buff and strong DoT at the same time, finally making it viable

 

Overall a lot of small but all valuable additions. I only cry a little over the loss of ground grapple and over the longer animation time of Swift/Tiger Strike. T.T

 

If you compare what KFM lost and gained, and then ask KFM players what they think of those changes, you'll probably get a lot of people saying they got nerfed as much as they got buffed.

 

What we got:

- Iron Shoulder damage boost and Chi regen is nice, but it's a skill that is rather hard to hit with. There are tricks to get a hit in such as use the no collision, get through the guy and hit him from behind, if he's actually dumb enough to stay in your vicinity after a block, or out of movement skills/iframes or after purposefully hitting a ground counter, but meh. Again, it's a nice little something but that's it. Reminder that for some reason Iron Shoulder doesn't do anything on KD'd opponent...

- Tab escape doesn't daze when you grab someone, no. But it's a nice thing for every class, not to have to spec for grab, it's not really a KFM buff or anything though.

- Tab cooldown reduction on LB/R is indeed nice.

- 8m SS with agility is also indeed nice, or rather it should've been a given. Still is a competitor for shortest iframe time of all SS in the game. I sometimes get caught before having the time to even use counter, that's how short this shit is. Compare that to BDs or BM whose iframe time lasts so long they can actually "resist" during the first two hits of their 5-point strike if used directly after...

- Iframe Avenging fist. Really nice, don't really have anything to say here, it's mighty useful. I wonder why they didn't merge KD and iframe like BDs' Soaring Falcon though.

 

Now let's talk about what we lost:

- We lost KD avenging fist, which makes fighting some classes harder than it used to. KFM is now the only class in the game with BM that has no realistic way to block defensive skills for a time, our only way is to successfully use an armbar, aka good luck with that past silver. BMs at least have def pen on like... half their skills.

- Can't use Tiger Strike and 2RF at the same time anymore, aka we simply cannot play outside of Tab range anymore. And by play I mean inflict significant damage, sure you can use ranged swift strike, but the damage is so bad you might as well not bother. And the upcoming windfist has the same damage as ranged swift strike so it's not gonna get any better.

- Swift Strike damage, back then we had the damage version and the def pen version merged, now it's either damage or range+def pen.

- Grapple but no one in their right mind actually used it anyway.

 

There are hidden buffs, such as normal triple kick being triggered on SS unlike before, and also by C iframe. Which for some reason is not indicated in the skill book.

 

I do think KFM overall got slightly buffed, but the problem comes when you compare it to what some other classes got.

 

Finally got some hope reading the latest patch notes because Ice Flower apparently has it's CD reduced to 24 seconds and range increased to 30m (I'm guessing the freeze effect) which will be immensely useful, now we'll actually have a safe opener without wasting high cooldown skills, and we might be able to actually use the freezing effect offensively, we'll see.  

 

Look at FMs changes, honestly doubt anyone'll be able to call them weak anymore. Glacial Beam/Force Blast stun CD reduced to 24s from 36s, dashes CD reduced, if SS used when not CC'd the CD is only 12 seconds, which makes it usable offensively (like during grabs to get freeze on the opponent) without risking too much. 

 

Anyway, while it can be frustrating at times, KFM is still the funniest class to use for me~

[Raylight]

KFM is far from being the worst class. To me kfm is one of the most balanced class in this game.

 

They dont need a buff or a nerf. Their kit vs skill needed to be played is well balanced. There is just way too much op classes in this game with low skill floor that makes the pvp boring for a lot of classes. Hence why you believe kfm is bad.

FM , SF  are suffering way more than kfm. While WL/SIN/SUM/BM/BD are the only classes that matters right now.

 

NCsoft just needs to wake up and nerf the 5 classes i named above. Too strong for too little effort. Probably why the tournament is sin/wl/bd nothing else. Kinda sad.

[Shukran]

so balanced it sucks

[Viblo]

I'm just really disappointed to see Avenging Fist knockdown removed. It was incredibly helpful in 1v1s.

 

[Shuchin]

I always used resist version anyway. BMs used to pull my out of the animation if I went for knock down, the animation was that slow. =_='

 

I am really missing the option to smite after Av.F., though.

[KnockOut31]

The only class i want to see nerfed is the assasins, i mean, every class have a disavantage agains other class, KFM are fairly useful again force master or warlocks, force master can deal with assasins if played right, sm are useful against anything, but assasins vs kfm is always a 100% defeat unless you suck that hard with it