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We're back after a short break. This week's offering is a bunch of new class skills; every promoted class gets 1 new skill, and Rogue, the base class, also gets 1 new skill. Why Rogue? Well, I always thought that the class lacked a little bit of identity. Sure, it has some nice self-buffs, situational traps, and the powerful Steal skill, but that just didn't feel like enough, mainly because the strength of all of these is very situational. So Rogue now gets a skill that is less situationally useful.

I will describe each skill below and give some context behind why it exists or the thought behind it in spoiler boxes, but in general, a lot of these are meant to help give some options to 'alternate' play-styles for the classes.

1.28
New Skills - All promoted classes, as well as the Rogue base class, have received 1 new skill each.

• Evasion (Rogue) - Do the impossible and evade damage from skills and spells that automatically hit.
  Comments
  You could argue that the autohit's guaranteed damage was a natural counter to evade stacking, preventing it from becoming the strongest stat of the game, and you would be right to an extent. But at the same time it created an issue where dodge based characters were completely useless half of the time.
  
  Evasion doesn't negate the damage, as a heads-up; it reduces it by a percentage, after all other modifiers, up to a maximum of 50% reduction. And it's not guaranteed, either. It's very similar to as if you were attacking that person, so modifiers to hit, penalties to evade, and so on all come into play. And people invoking spells or flat on their back can't dodge anything, so the skill won't be useful if you're knocked down.
• Mighty Wall (Arbalest) - Become a mighty wall, gaining bonus DEF and RES and becoming immune to knockback to a brief time.
  Comments
  This skill is mostly to help the Arbalest synergize with other classes more and make it harder to keep them out of Blowback Cannon range permanently.
• Bright Bishop (Black Knight) - Send a diagonal bolt of light at your enemies, lighting them and spaces along the way up.
  Comments
  Similar to Crescent Rook, Bright Bishop is a projectile attack in a line. It also drops Light Shafts (sometimes) and causes the person hit to start Glowing for a few rounds. This should make skills like Obscure more attractive, since now Glowing can be inflicted by someone other than monsters, and it gives BKs a decent way to buff their (and allies') Hit.
• Two Souls Beyond (Bonder) - A perfectionist version of the classic Install, you and your Bonded Youkai can do it longer, or shorter, if danger presents itself.
  Comments
  Now you can have longer installs and avoid potentially fatal problems that occur... as long as it's with Bonded Youkai. This skill also lets you proc the effects of Fight As One if you only have one Bonded Youkai, so it's more for the Install fighter summoners out there.
• Grenade Launcher (Engineer) - Fire mini-bombs from one of your inventions, causing explosive havoc.
  Comments
  This is another bomb skill for the Engineer. They're slightly weaker than regular bombs, but they don't require you to have special items crafted and equipped to use. That said, I would like to also add more unique bomb crafting recipes in the future.
• Elemental Overtime (Evoker) - Send your mind into overtime, boosting the effects of Elemental Augment by Charge Mind's percentage while both are in effect.
  Comments
  In my eternal struggle to make people play Fist Mages, I decided to give Evokers a skill that not only buffs Elemental Augment, but gives Charge Mind and its duration extension skills a secondary function. This turns the damage on max rank EleAug to 25 each hit (which required another change, more on that later) and it doesn't consume Charge Mind in the process. So even if you're a regular mage type, you might want this skill to deal a bit more with your tome attacks while you wait for the perfect opportunity to cast a spell.
• Afflicted Spectre (Ghost) - Pile on the pain and increase your maximum HP for every negative status you're suffering from.
  Comments
  Can you guess why this skill would be useful? All it does is increase your maximum HP for every negative status you have. If you guessed 'it makes Rising Game easier to proc without reducing your HP', congratulations! Since your current HP never changes, you can retain higher levels of it while getting Rising Game bang for your buck. But only while you suffer from negative status effects. Note that this can be any status effect that appears in a red box, even ones caused by yourself or aren't that negative at all.
• Auto-Summon (Grand Summoner) - Call your first listed contract to your side as soon as trouble rears its ugly head.
  Comments
  An SL1 classic skill, the Auto-Summon has made its way to SL2. Now that you can rearrange your contracts in the Youkai Manager, there was no better time to add this skill, since the technical issues impeding it are no longer there.
• Sadistic Renewal (Hexer) - Get glee and focus from beating on people who are already in pain.
  Comments
  This skill lets you recover FP when you attack someone who is suffering from negative statuses. The FP recovery is a fixed amount based on Rank. This was the patch of giving mages skills that make them want to basic attack enemies, but Hexers are in a good spot already, so I didn't want to give them anything overbearing.
• Absolute Pace (Kensei) - Bait your opponent into attacking you, and then strike them back with the finishing move of a master of battle flow.
  Comments
  The last of the Absolute series, this skill lets you target an enemy. If that enemy attacks you and misses, you gain Battle Flow, which causes your next Kensei offensive skill to gain damage equal to 100% of your STR. Now maybe people will actually use them!
• Skyhigh (Lantern Bearer) - Spear your enemy into the air like a fish.
  Comments
  Lantern Bearers didn't have any Spear skills, so now they do. This one deals damage and puts your enemy into the Airborne status. I'll let you figure out uses for that.
• Lucky Shell (Magic Gunner) - Increase your own good fortune or steal your enemy's.
  Comments
  Magic Gunner already has a variety of offensive shells, so this one is more along the lines of utility or uniqueness. It lets you increase your Luck, on hit. It lets you steal your opponent's Luck if you charge it with a lot of juice. Have fun.
• Kadouha (Monk) - Releases a non-copyrighted energy ball in a line that gets stronger, flies further, and gains unique effects the more Ki it consumes.
  Comments
  No comment.
• Devocation (Priest) - The power of the gods will protect you, letting you reduce the chance for your Mercana invocations to break based on your Faith.
  Comments
  This probably seems useless, but a change later in the patch notes will make you think twice! Remember me.
• Arcane Formation (Tactician) - Tell your mages to line up, letting your spells do more damage and decreasing the chance of Invocations breaking for all in the formation.
  Comments
  The final formation boosts your spell power and protects your Invocations. Not much else to say here.
• Ice Skate (Verglas) - Skate along the ice as graceful as can be.
  Comments
  Lets you skate across ice sheets. If you skate long enough and run into an enemy, they get knocked down. This may seem like a utility skill, but it's actually a defensive one!
• Detogate (Void Assassin) - Explode a void gate to cause Dark damage to all those within a certain range and teleport them to a random square.
  Comments
  Void Assassin Mages will like this one, because it's a spell. Not much else to say about it. I mainly wanted to encourage more WIL based VAs for some reason.

Do tomes enchanted with the vaporal enchant ignore Resistance when the vaporal enchant's effect takes place?


If not, I was suggesting that the vaporal enchant do that. Any reasons why it shouldn't or problems with the idea are welcome.

Thats right, flying bush shenanigans are still happening.

This is dumb.

Can we get some way to check if we're near where a treasure map's treasure is buried, like a hot-cold game? Or a massive increase in the map's size?

Last update claims to have made it so there's always a chance that first place can be overtaken in the fishing contests, yet, no one seems to have reported ever seeing a fish weighing in over 50.

Personally I've participated in only a handful of 50W 1st place contests, so, I can't say if it's just my bad luck or not, but, it's worth making sure thing are working as intended, or if they're working at all.

As it stands, everything in your bank is in just one long list (similar to how shop inventories are stored, I think). Making it so that if you have a lot of items, it can be a pain to scroll through all of them to find what you're looking for.

What I'd suggest is having tabs akin to the inventory, so you could organize your storage to some degree.

It seems like Zerans aren't getting their 100% FP bonus to Enchantment.

I have one with the LE Enchanting trait, and the regular Enchantment trait, which should give me 4 skill right off the bat. However, I only have three.

Since Dullahans get a 100 to their BW, I feel like Mechanations should get a +25 to their BW, too.

Just some ideas I had. I'm not promising any of these will be good. Just that they will provide more options. These will NOT be go-to skills for many situations, but they will have SITUATIONAL use.



NEW TRAIT: Basic Fitness
Prerequisites: None
You know your body, and it's limits. Enables you to use basic Manouvers.

Thoughts: I've outlined Basic Manouvers below. None of them are particularly wonderful in any way, shape, or form. Just a few "meh" generic catch-all skills anyone can use.


Leg Pull (Basic Manouver)
6 Momentum, no FP cost.
Getting immobilized is just an inconvenience. With enough effort, you can wrest yourself free. Grants status immunity to Immobilize for one turn as you expect to be ensnared again.

Thoughts: Yes, you use your whole turn, but if you really need to move, you really need to move! I can see this mainly being useful in PVE with Corpse Hands, if you need to gather your allies together after they've been scattered by the random placement at the start, or if you really need to get to that Healing Glyph.


Deep Breathing (Basic Manouver)
All Momentum, no FP cost.
You take a moment to calm your nerves and focus. You recover HP*2/ FP*1 per momentum spent.

Thoughts: "Waaah, free healing!" Thing is, it's a miniscule amount, just that little "use it while you wait for the mobs to come to you" in PVE. I highly doubt it will be a PVP gamechanger, but someone might appreciate that extra few FP to squeeze out that one last defiant skill. This will be most useful to lower levels in the Jammer cave, for the simple reason that the bread they get from the tutorial is literally useless. Oh, 5% HP/FP recovery? What's 5% of 30? Next to nothing? Yeah, throught so.


Keep Reserve (Basic Manouver)
Toggle skill
By limiting the effort you put in now, you save enegry for later. Reduces your max HP/FP by 50% when active. When deactivated, you regain the amount you lost upon activation.

Thoughts: Sounds useless, right? But think about Poison. The harder you work, the harder your blood pumps, and the faster it spreads through your system. By slacking off, you limit the speed it can spread at. This would basically serve the purpose of limiting percentage based damage at the cost of being easier to KO via other means. It could also be used to limit the amount of FP wasted by Phenex opon reviving if they feel they don't need all that much HP (For example, if they're a curate who can heal more efficiently) and reduce a Dullahan's FP costs per action taken.


NEW TRAIT: Martial Trainee
Prerequisites: 10 Skill.
Basic training with your weapon has taught you some simple tricks. Unlocks Combat Manouvers.

Thoughts: I'll outline Combat Manouvers below. These are probably a bit more generally useful than the Basic Fitness ones.


Cautious Strike (Combat Manouver)
6 FP, 3M.
A precise, careful blow preserves your weapon. A basic attack that does not decrease weapon durability, and does not apply on-hit effects.

Thoughts: An option for anyone trapped in a PVE battle that is less than ideal. Too many enemies for your existing durability, but your skills are too costly? Using a Coral weapon (Or heaven forbid, a Swordfish sword) against Goblins? You have an option. Very basic, very situational, very useful in those situations.


Skillful Strike (Combat Manouver)
15 FP, 3m.
Strength isn't everything! When using this skill, you make a normal attack using Skill instead of Strength. No further effects.

Thoughts: Ever had a Kensei with 8 Str and 25 Skill? I've had three. For that FP cost and no other effects, it's a viable option for some characters (especially Kensei and monks) whose skill growths are considerably higher than their Strength Growths but still rely on Strength for basic attacks. The FP cost is a little steep since the primary classes this would be likely to benefit (Kensei, Monk, and whatever an MG subs to have a non-ranged backup) all have some form of FP recovery (Channel Spirit, Power Up, Vamp Shell)

Aimed Strike (Combat Manouver)
10 FP, 4M
They're fast... but you trained for this! Concentrating hard, you take careful aim. Performs a normal attack at +30% hit.

Thoughts: For 10 FP and 4M, it seems fair. If you need the hit that bad, it's a small price to pay. It's momentum cost also prevents this from being the death of evasion, since you cannot spam it.


New Trait: Focus Training
Prerequisites: 10 will.
All mastery need to start somewhere. Enables Focus Manouvers.


Studious Eye (Focus Manouver)
10 FP, 6M
You've read about it in a book somewhere, right? Or something like it. By intensely observing your target, you can "size it up" and recieve generalized information about it's capabilities in comparison to your own, as well as information about any aura they may emit.

Thoughts: This is basically what people have been asking for, RP wise. Not exact stats, just a general comparison. "They're a lot more muscular than you." "You're dextrous enough to hit them easily." "You feel an overwhelming will pushing against your own." You get the idea The "Aura" refers to their primary skill type, just to give you an idea what they're capable of.


Masterful Preparation (Focus Manouver)
6M
You know how to get more flash for your focus, so long as you... well... "focus" on it. For the next 2 turns, skills cost 15% less FP to cast.

Thoughts: Another "useful for PVE as they close in" kind of skill, primarily for skills with high FP costs like Invocations.


Applied Application (Focus Manouver)
6M, 10 FP.
You understand your arsenal like it's nobody's business! Any on-hit effects that have a luck-based chance of applying, such as the elemental damage of a weapon's material, apply on every hit for the next 3 turns.

Thoughts: Again, mainly useful for PVE, such as if you have a Rockdirt weapon against a Barghest or Sand Shark.



Anyways, that's it for now. I was going to propose new skills for each class, but I'll do that later.

This is a small one and not combat based, but I've been rolling a master chef and something been bugging me.
Fugu is one of the most challenging dishes to make as such I've been working toward it even making it in to Fugu Sashimi.
However it useless, the most difficult dishs in the game to make is really weak compare to what else I can make at the level you need to be to make it.

Here the fugu sashimi
http://i.imgur.com/n7oUhYQ.png

Flat 35% to both not bad don't get me wrong.

Here the swordfish
http://i.imgur.com/EUZqrvB.png
Changes each time but give me in this one 52% to health and 23% to fp. That 17 more on health and fp may be lower but worth it for the health boost.

Here soup with noodles (level one difficult one of the easier dishes in game)
http://i.imgur.com/6eLcgEI.png
Almost match it, one 1% lower in health and 7% lower in fugu sashimi a 7 difficult the second hardest one and the hardest one you can make with out LEing.

Think this is just well broken for it makes leveling up cooking (Did plan to LE in to) seem just well pointless when soup with some noodles in is almost as good.