[Fern]

"GLOBAL FLEUR"

 

The idea of Duelist's Fleur becoming another effect, and critical hits by default giving +2M has been considered at several points. In most cases it was considered to be a crazy idea, and that it would make things pretty horrible. However, a recent discussion in SL2 general amongst community members has brought to light that...

 

It actually isn't that crazy sounding of an idea anymore.

 

The reason it's being considered is because any basic attack build without Volcanic tends to be considered complete garbage, due to the following factors:

 

*You must invest much more stats in comparison to someone building autohits or magic.

 

*Someone building autohits or magic tends to benefit far more than someone buliding basic attacks, despite the amount of effort it requires to make a basic attacker generally speaking. This is because they have more stat points to spend, and since dodge builds (while somewhat better than they used to be) are pretty easy to blow up, Evasion! red text tends to not matter as much specially to anyone building magic damage (which is the current "top" meta, see: spells, custom spell, sources of magic damage in general SPECIALLY now that Indignant Idol exists. Though don't get me wrong, the Idol existing is also good because it somewhat keeps omni-resist stacking in check.)

 

*Due to the amount of damage reduction stacking present in the game, in addition to the ""negligible"" damage basic attackers (usually) have, building critical evade is seen as not too necessary. UNLESS you're accounting for Volcanic, but the issue is that the Volcanic enchant is currently too strong (it's protection ignoring damage that can, in most circumstances, reach 80 to 140~ or sometimes 300~ damage.)

 

"But Fern. Volcanic means basic attackers have something going for them now!"

 

They do. It makes that particular version threatening. But it also railroads you into that version to be good, which harms creativity. And you ideally wouldn't want to harm creativity in a roleplay game of all things!

 

Sawrock has mentioned several times the following, general idea (not word for word but this the general notion of it):

 

"The default momentum bonus for Critical Hits becomes +2, and Fleur becomes another effect, I.E allowing you to not lose momentum on resist when landing a Critical Hit."

List of benefits from the proposed change
 

1. Build creativity is further enabled by encouraging more character builds, allowing for more character concepts to be properly represented mechanically. This also makes it so there's less of a "cookie cutter build" problem (in the sense that, you'd see the less of the same copy pasted setup that makes a particular archetype functional.)
    
   
2. Critical Evade becomes more important to bulid for, rather than a stat that's considered a 'joke' most of the time. This in turn makes the "mega doomwalls" less appealing to build for, making them put more attention into the Critical Evade stat rather than simply putting all their stats into DEF/RES and worrying for little else.
    
   
3. You finally get people to stop (commonly) bitching about basic attacks being garbage. This sounds like a joke bullet point, but I'm serious about it. How many times have you gotten a headache over people saying that basics flat out suck? It's hard to really complain about something that's decent or reasonably good (unless you're a certain Evoker enthusiast... I say this bit jokingly and with love don't worry <3)
    
   
4. You no longer have to nerf so many things into the ground for an entire archetype to be decent. That means you PROBABLY wouldn't have to nerf mages and doomwalls to the ground and go through the headache of sorting out every little thing on that end. If all archetypes are strong, then that means it's pretty easy to have fun in the game. The "rock paper scissors" feeling can stay, but it wouldn't be in a way that's overly apparent to the point you can predict every match up and making watching fights boring. Sure, there would be an advantage, but not to the point that it's so often a guaranteed win on one end I'd say.
    
   
5. Some classes that are considered kind of weak get a benefit from this. I.E, Boxer's Scharfe (the skill that buffs Critical with Schwarz Sturm) finally gets a more appealing use to it, but that's just a quick mention off the top of my head.
   

 

Things to account for if this were to be seriously implemented

1. Volcanic: You're gonna have to nerf this one if you actually make critical hits give +2M by default, I mean it. Currently it's 100% Fire ATK + Weapon Power protection ignoring damage on Critical Hit, so maybe you could just make it 50% Fire ATK + Weapon Power instead. The reasoning for this proposed change? Because in a world where basic attackers are almost always good, you don't HAVE to use Volcanic and could instead keep it as a thematic enchant or something that you can put on just because without crying about how useless it is.
    
   
2. Twin Dance: If this change were to happen, Twin Dance would become the go-to "meta" no questions asked. For reference, this is Twin Dance, the Rogue Main Class passive (https://i.imgur.com/MTFtF1S.png) / So how would we go about preventing it from going bonkers with the aforementioned system? Maybe it could just make it so your second hit doesn't get a critical hit's momentum tracking, but I'm not sure how hard it is to code that in. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I'm just throwing out an idea.
     
   
3. Bloody Shift: For reference, this is Bloody Shift (https://i.imgur.com/KKQkGcP.png) / I mention this because Phase Fang from Phase Python is a Youkai Evoker that basic attacks and rolls an infliction check to inflict poison while also providing good mobility. This poison can reach LV30, the same as your average Wretched Oil from Hexer. Bloody Shift currently makes Youkai Evokes cost 2M to do, which would turn this into a 2M basic attack that inflicts Poison LV30. If you imagine this in a world where "global fleur" is a thing, you can probably see what I'm getting at. I don't have a good idea for this one chief, but maybe you could make it scale off a fourth of Phase Python's Level so it becomes Poison LV15 max? Or maybe you could just make it so Bloody Shift's exception are Youkai Evokes that make you basic attack. I think the second would be better, frankly, but I'm just spitballing ideas for this one since I'm not so certain. Unless you think Bloody Shift Phase Fang wouldn't get crazy, then by all means, just forget that bit.
    
   
4. Vorpal: Vorpal is currently +10 crit and 10% chance to ignore Phys. Def on a crit. In a world where basic attacks are almost always hypothetically good, I can see how this could get out of hand. You could make the Phys. Def ignoring effect a status that stacks up, similarly to Tarnada Charges, and then is consumed to do its effect. I know what you might be thinking, "wow the guy that always runs Vorpal is proposing a nerf for it" but I really just want basics to be worthwhile. Please.
   

Final Words

This change is pretty big so I can understand if you feel on the fence about it at first, but I think it would be worth thinking about/implementing. It could take a bit of work, but it could turn out pretty good I'd say! And then you could keep mages/autohitters strong as is. I think everybody would be strong with a change like this, with some rock/paper/scissors advantage here and there but not to the point match-ups are always blatantly obvious as to who the victor would be.

   

It would also save the trouble of having to implement a million basic attack passives to make them decent, I'd say.

   

So, what do you think? Please give your feedback and support in order to make this game's PVP and character building less of a heart-breaking nightmare!