Rising Force: Class and skill review!

 

Source : CABAL EU Tester’s Blog by [GM] Viral

Welcome back! Grab a drink and settle in, as this is going to be a very long read to take you into the weekend 🙂

I’ll start out by answering a couple of questions from the comment section on the previous blog, before giving you my opinion on each class in Rising Force, and ending with a nice big table with skills and cooldowns.

What does STR do for Warriors?
Increases Attack, 1 STR = 1 Attack, and increases HP – 3xSTR = 1HP
What does Art of Curse reduce?
50%: resist down, resist knock back, resist stun + random variable depending on the blade enchant.
How much damage does Spirit Shield absorb, and how long does it last?
3000 damage, on a 12 second duration
Does the BM2 attack change for WA?
No, but Lance Drive gets a root effect
Will the level of upgrade skills be reset?
Not as far as I know.

Now is the time to consider how each class will change with Rising Force, and I will give an opinion on each of the six. Please do note that I said ‘opinion’ 😉 I know players sometimes want to take staff opinions as facts, but this is really not the case here. Your own experience may well be completely different, so feel free to disagree with me! 🙂

Warrior
Warriors will have to master the use of the Bloody Spirit buff. The damage output is really incredible, but you may find yourself wanting to adjust and focus on HP and Vampiric builds, to enable a longer use of Bloody Spirit. Of course you do have the increased HP regen on the Cat’s Recovery buff, and the defence penalty has been decreased which does make it easier. Still, if you are not comfortable with the use of Bloody Spirit I strongly suggest you get used to it.

Fury Shout has been improved, which is of course good news for any party, even though Panic Cry will be slightly less effective after the adjustment for party gameplay.

You will also want to focus on STR above any other stat. 1 STR = 1 Attack. It’s fairly simple really.

Instant Immunity is now a very powerful skill, and limited to the Warrior class, although it has a shorter duration. Bear’s Vitality and Cat’s Recovery also now has a shorter duration, which will mean paying closer attention to what you are doing in the Mission War especially. On the other hand, in the new Battleground the Domination/Suppression effect on Panic Cry will prove to be a very powerful skill, leaving the target helpless for 4 seconds.

Lastly I believe that the passive skills mean that Down Breaker and Concentration will probably be always on for most Warriors in Rising Force.

Verdict: Warriors will be harder to play effectively, and while they can be very scary in 1v1 PvP this will totally depend on player skill.

Wizard
This class has some interesting changes, with the two main ones being the Magic Attack increase buff (+88 at level 20) and the Spirit Shield (3000 Damage or 12 seconds) that functions exactly like the well-known Shadow Shield of the Force Shielders, except of course that Spirit Shield is a self-buff only. Resist Intention has been removed (limited to Shielders).

I think Wizards are probably in the best position when it comes to the fact that skill cooldowns do not reset on death, as most of you would already be used to the Raise Spirit buff not resetting on death.
In terms of PvP Energy Field will be a lethal skill, with the addition of the Silence effect. As you all probably know I am fully in favour of all skills being used in PvP, so even though I suspect some players are going to cry about the new effects I would strongly urge you to play the game to the full potential. All skills are valid for PvP. Don’t limit yourselves! But I digress 😉 Energy Field has a Silence Effect, in return for a 3 minute cooldown. Use it.

I also see several people apparently expect massive increases in your resistances thanks to the stats change, but this is simply not the case. You are looking at around 5-8% or so.

Lastly the stat increases mean you should see a bit more defence, and I know that’s always welcome for light armour users.

Verdict.I believe the changes are not that dramatic for the Wizard. More survivability and more utility, a ‘panic’ button in Spirit Shield, and some more damage. Wizards have always been the kings of party play, and I don’t see that changing.

Blader
Yes, the ‘Z’ target selection has been removed. Yes, it might come back again later, considering the huge outcry so far. Please let us all accept that, and move on. Blader was always good, and will still be damn effective in Rising Force, with or without retarget . Besides, if you really need it you will learn how to retarget in the old way.

One of the first things you will notice is the removal of the critical rate from the Grand Master, Completer and Transcender skills. This means Bladers will have adjust their gear accordingly, and I expect the 15/24 helm will become much more sought-after now.

Many Bladers have relied on the Assault skill before, as it was very good in a 1v1 situation. I believe the addition of the Silence effect to this makes up for the 3-minute cooldown (and subsequent removal from any but the most insane skill rotation). Your other big change is the Complete Evasion that comes with the redesigned Intuition skill. This one skill is perhaps one of the most powerful after Rising Force – 12 seconds of invincibility on a 80 second cooldown – and if it will remain as it is now we will have to see. I am also not sure if this will compensate for the removal of Instant Immunity, but you will have to adjust to a shorter time period of resistance, even with the fact that Resist Barrier should now be on your skillbar and used often. Resist Barrier gives you 100% resistance to any skill that can root you, but you can still be knocked down, or knocked back.

Lastly Art of Fierceness gets a huge damage boost, but on a shorter duration so it might actually average out. It will however increase your ability to really burn down a single target in a short period.

Verdict. Still powerful, even with the retarget ‘issue’. Learn how to use Intuition, and use it well.

Force Archer
The Archer is still (in my opinion) the strongest PvP class, even with the slight decrease to the BM3 DPS. Art of Sniping has a shorter duration and cooldown, which means you can use it more often, and it will take less planning in PvE for the best times to engage the skill. The change in critical rate means that you cannot simply change out rings during AoS, but I personally do not consider that a massive loss – although I am sure the top players will disagree. Art of Healing becoming a passive skill is a good thing, and will make your role as healer much easier, as you don’t have to pay attention to it any more.

On the other hand, with Thrusting Arrow becoming a passive… I know some players liked to have the option to disable this at specific points (speaking purely from a PvE perspective now). I am curious to see how you will adapt to this change. You also now have a new ability called ‘Quick Move’ that really increases your evasion rate, and by extension increases your survivability.

Explosion Shot is going to be very useful in a PvP situation, and I expect it to have a big impact. Rooting the opponent in place, while you remain at range… This one is going to be painful for Melee classes.

Verdict. Healing will be easier, you have a decent new skill in Quick Move, and your DPS will still be very high. I do expect this class to do very well in the new PvP Battleground.

Force Shielder
I like this class, even though it’s probably the least popular class ingame going purely by the number of people playing it. The Shielders have also never really been popular in dungeons, because the old Shadow Shield was about the only really unique thing they could bring to a party. Now, though… Shadow Shield can take 8000 damage, which is doubled from before, making it very tempting and probably essential inside B3F – which along with the DPS increases when BM3 came would mean that demand for them should go up.

Considering PvP I expect a Shielder with a skilled player behind it is going to be a scary thing indeed. The Suppression effect on Shield Charge is painful, almost more so than Silence, and Reflect Damage is going to annoy ranged classes quite a lot.

I know many people are already complaining about the big 3-minute cooldown on the revamped Heal skill, but I consider this to be a panic button for PvP more than anything else, since it is a self-heal that heals for 1500. 1500 HP + 700 from even a normal pot – consider it more as an emergency 1500 HP than anything else. It can and will save your **** if you do get too deep into trouble, especially if the opponent is also on low HP.

Verdict: Shadow Shield is going to increase the viability of having a Shielder in a party for PvE. In PvP the new skills are going to make this class very interesting to play, and fun to watch.

Force Blader
Lastly we come to the class choice of the thinking player 😉 The first and biggest thing that you will notice is that you cannot use all three Blade Buffs at the same time any more – you have to choose between Fire, Ice or Lightning, and this choice will depend on the situation you are in at the time. I consider Fire Blade to the PvE buff, and Lightning Blade the PvP one (Silence again!), with Ice Blade being relegated to the one no one uses very often.

You might also find yourself reconsidering your gear, or rather your Orb/Crystal, since the new Astral Enchant buff increases in effectiveness as the grade of the sub-weapon goes up. Archridium, for example, will give you +100 Attack, +17 Critical Damage, and 15% Critical Rate, while the attack and rate decreases for lower grade weapons.

BattleMode 2 use will probably go up, since the major debuffs are now available during it (Execration, Mana Freeze).

Art of Curse, your new debuff, is very powerful, taking 50% of the target resistances, and the added debuff depending on the Blade Buff you have enabled will make its use very interesting to see.

Lastly you will see that the skill point redistribution means you can probably take most of your debuffs up to level 20, and you will also be able to consider adding something like Lower Defence into your arsenal.

Verdict: Still a very interesting class to play, and you can really change the output depending on your buff selection. For PvE the FB will still be very effective in party situations, as before, with a significant impact on the damage of the entire party.

So that concludes my opinion on each class in Rising Force. I am really looking forward to seeing how this will play out once the update goes live on Wednesday. I already predict people trying to limit the use of certain skills (hint: those with new effects) in PvP, but I can only urge you NOT to do this. Play the game, use everything, leave the limits and complaints to the small-minded and unskilled 😉

The last part of this blog will be nothing but a big table, showing you the new cooldowns for the skills. Given that all skills now have a single cooldown, instead of going up or down as the skill level goes up I guess this is useful information for you. All skill effects are given as level 20.

And in case you still don’t know – and if you don’t, how on earth did you manage to find this blog – Rising Force will be live on 13-03-2013!

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