Tactician is a very cool class, and has some fun things you can do. However, there are many issues with tactician. I wanna discuss the different aspects of the class and my take on them before jumping into conclusions and solutions.
1: Most of the formation skills are pretty bad. Assault formation doesn't even allow you to create it with yourself in it, which makes it terrible by default. But at the same time it's kinda op if you get it to work which is a bizarre dichotomy. Bunker formation is the weakest, even if it's also kinda more well rounded and easier to use. Volley formation is kind of amazing, but it's mostly used by sniper builds to just give themselves the buff outright. I wouldn't say that one is a problem.
2: The order skills are okay at best. Assault order is fairly cool, and can yield some decent results. Casting order I think is too weak for sure. It's rarely worth casting because adding raw power to spells isn't doing that much, while basic attacks can crit and multiply the damage which makes it much more spicy. Guard order is ok, kind of a weird heal but ok. Charge order is not bad, actually kinda cool. Mostly used for getting your summons to move. Of course the big issue with order skills is that you need to be main classing tactician to get On My Mark, which is generally a pretty big cost. You don't get to have a parry skill, fleur, or whatever other MC bonuses you might want. It's the same issue as Lantern Bearer where MC is kinda the only way to go. This is especially painful for destiny tact that just doesn't get MC BK. Oof.
3: The tactician spells are weird. But also, they're really good, in some cases. Only a few of them are worth anything, but they have unique utility. The common meme is that tactician spells are way better in the hands of a spellthief. There's no real class-related reason to use those spells other than "well, they're there". Cool, I get a free KD in melee, I get a wall, I get a hesitation spell. But I dunno, I think it's more of a flavor issue in my mind, due to how random it is. They're just, utility spells tossed in from each element. They make sense from a gameplay perspective to an extent, and I think it's like a reference to a final fantasy class or something, but still, there's something off in my mind.
4: Enemy Evaluation is painful. It's something that tactician always had that is basically like... "Oh, it's a tactician that uses Enemy Eval. This is gonna suck". It's 100% a pvp skill as well. It's kinda like playing an optimized rune mage. Nobody wants to play against that, and nobody wants to be that guy these days. Then there's analyze weakness that just sucks in comparison. Even when you're fighting an event boss, it's kinda like... Oh, the boss is weaker now. I dunno though, I literally have never seen someone use this skill in PvE.
Tactician is made up of those three elements. Spells, Orders, and Formations. Then there's EE which is kinda in a weird spot, and field medic which is basically the worst heal in the game, worst than using a potion by a wide margin. It makes Tactician into a bit of a clumsy support class. Healing is obviously really good, and most support characters are mainly defined by their ability to use area of effect healing. Tactician, in my mind, is meant instead to actively buff their whole team while participating in combat a bit. The issue is that it simply falls short in that regard.
The sad truth of the matter is that if you're a tactician, you have a limited amount of ways to be genuinely useful.
- Use wall to hold back mobs
- Use assault order and hope that your team actually makes use of the buff and the damage is worth close to 3 momentum (it's definitely less total damage than just casting a spell unless you play one of those crazy excel tact builds)
- Use acid rain on the enemies
- Use fire whip in 1v1
- Get off a godly titan gale
- Use that volley formation and shoot your excel sniper
- Be a cancer enemy eval build and take the 1v1 to turn 16
- ...
I think the class could really use a revisiting of its core mechanics. I haven't even talked about the issues with like, tactics rank being used kinda randomly across the class, or how some of Tactician's best skills are the XP and SWA boost.
SUGGESTIONS:
1: Make all the tactician spells give +1 tactics rank if you hit an enemy, BUT only if you have hit them with a different tactician spell before this one. Meaning you need to vary up your spells to get high tactics.
2: Just don't remove any tactics ranks. Let people get to SSS, but make it diminish by 1 each round when above A. So people can quickly reach a decent rank but don't automatically stick to SSS. (also plz give us a number somewhere)
3: Remove the whole EE and Analyze Weakness thing, replace dark eye with a different cool dark spell, probably some kind of debuffing thing. I mean look, the harsh truth is that aside from maybe the occasional time you cast in on an event boss, nobody really wants that thing to be around. Or at least make it more reasonable and less reliant on tactics rank + dark eye. I don't think dark eye should be in this class, it looks kinda out of place honestly. It looks like a hexer skill.
4: Buff bunker formation slightly, make assault formation the same shape as the others. Should honestly make that balanced imo.
5: For orders, please make them last +1 round by default, and keep On My Mark, so they can last 3 rounds with MC. Just slightly buff assault order to make it something more juicy and worth using. An idea could be to make it work for multiple attacks (but not on twindance offhand), with a certain global limit, like 4 to 6. This would make it less dependent on party composition which is often random. Currently, assault order is mostly just good on builds that use summons. This would make it more versatile, would help the solo experience as well. Otherwise, just buff the damage a bit. And then a crazy idea is to make casting order give +1 area of effect to spells, on top of a bit more damage than it currently does. I think the world is ready for it. Wide lines, big bubbles, huge excel fir...
6: Make field medic a bit more powerful, combined with a stronger bonus from tactics rank. Combined with the more easy access to tactics rank I proposed above, I'm imagining it taking a deserved spot as "the really strong single-target heal, as long as you built up tactics rank".
7: Make the spells benefit from tactics rank, while also reducing their overall power. This would make it stronger on average for tactician, less for spellthief.
8: Maybe some skills could CONSUME tactics rank to become even stronger. Make it a more dynamic resource. What I'm imagining for instance is that some skills could have a bonus effect when triggered at SSS rank, taking you down a certain amount of points. "Okay guys, time for the final assault! First guy to attack gets to do +100 damage!"
9: I think tactician could use a skill to manually move nearby allies into formation. Like, pick 2 allies within 4 range and place them into free formation tiles within 3 range. Let's be honest, your allies don't really want to have to spend 3 momentum to move into your little square. If you do it yourself it feels good for you, and it feels good for them. Would be fun and solid imo.
Alright that's all I got, let me know your takes on tactician and your feedback on my proposals!
1: Most of the formation skills are pretty bad. Assault formation doesn't even allow you to create it with yourself in it, which makes it terrible by default. But at the same time it's kinda op if you get it to work which is a bizarre dichotomy. Bunker formation is the weakest, even if it's also kinda more well rounded and easier to use. Volley formation is kind of amazing, but it's mostly used by sniper builds to just give themselves the buff outright. I wouldn't say that one is a problem.
2: The order skills are okay at best. Assault order is fairly cool, and can yield some decent results. Casting order I think is too weak for sure. It's rarely worth casting because adding raw power to spells isn't doing that much, while basic attacks can crit and multiply the damage which makes it much more spicy. Guard order is ok, kind of a weird heal but ok. Charge order is not bad, actually kinda cool. Mostly used for getting your summons to move. Of course the big issue with order skills is that you need to be main classing tactician to get On My Mark, which is generally a pretty big cost. You don't get to have a parry skill, fleur, or whatever other MC bonuses you might want. It's the same issue as Lantern Bearer where MC is kinda the only way to go. This is especially painful for destiny tact that just doesn't get MC BK. Oof.
3: The tactician spells are weird. But also, they're really good, in some cases. Only a few of them are worth anything, but they have unique utility. The common meme is that tactician spells are way better in the hands of a spellthief. There's no real class-related reason to use those spells other than "well, they're there". Cool, I get a free KD in melee, I get a wall, I get a hesitation spell. But I dunno, I think it's more of a flavor issue in my mind, due to how random it is. They're just, utility spells tossed in from each element. They make sense from a gameplay perspective to an extent, and I think it's like a reference to a final fantasy class or something, but still, there's something off in my mind.
4: Enemy Evaluation is painful. It's something that tactician always had that is basically like... "Oh, it's a tactician that uses Enemy Eval. This is gonna suck". It's 100% a pvp skill as well. It's kinda like playing an optimized rune mage. Nobody wants to play against that, and nobody wants to be that guy these days. Then there's analyze weakness that just sucks in comparison. Even when you're fighting an event boss, it's kinda like... Oh, the boss is weaker now. I dunno though, I literally have never seen someone use this skill in PvE.
Tactician is made up of those three elements. Spells, Orders, and Formations. Then there's EE which is kinda in a weird spot, and field medic which is basically the worst heal in the game, worst than using a potion by a wide margin. It makes Tactician into a bit of a clumsy support class. Healing is obviously really good, and most support characters are mainly defined by their ability to use area of effect healing. Tactician, in my mind, is meant instead to actively buff their whole team while participating in combat a bit. The issue is that it simply falls short in that regard.
The sad truth of the matter is that if you're a tactician, you have a limited amount of ways to be genuinely useful.
- Use wall to hold back mobs
- Use assault order and hope that your team actually makes use of the buff and the damage is worth close to 3 momentum (it's definitely less total damage than just casting a spell unless you play one of those crazy excel tact builds)
- Use acid rain on the enemies
- Use fire whip in 1v1
- Get off a godly titan gale
- Use that volley formation and shoot your excel sniper
- Be a cancer enemy eval build and take the 1v1 to turn 16
- ...
I think the class could really use a revisiting of its core mechanics. I haven't even talked about the issues with like, tactics rank being used kinda randomly across the class, or how some of Tactician's best skills are the XP and SWA boost.
SUGGESTIONS:
1: Make all the tactician spells give +1 tactics rank if you hit an enemy, BUT only if you have hit them with a different tactician spell before this one. Meaning you need to vary up your spells to get high tactics.
2: Just don't remove any tactics ranks. Let people get to SSS, but make it diminish by 1 each round when above A. So people can quickly reach a decent rank but don't automatically stick to SSS. (also plz give us a number somewhere)
3: Remove the whole EE and Analyze Weakness thing, replace dark eye with a different cool dark spell, probably some kind of debuffing thing. I mean look, the harsh truth is that aside from maybe the occasional time you cast in on an event boss, nobody really wants that thing to be around. Or at least make it more reasonable and less reliant on tactics rank + dark eye. I don't think dark eye should be in this class, it looks kinda out of place honestly. It looks like a hexer skill.
4: Buff bunker formation slightly, make assault formation the same shape as the others. Should honestly make that balanced imo.
5: For orders, please make them last +1 round by default, and keep On My Mark, so they can last 3 rounds with MC. Just slightly buff assault order to make it something more juicy and worth using. An idea could be to make it work for multiple attacks (but not on twindance offhand), with a certain global limit, like 4 to 6. This would make it less dependent on party composition which is often random. Currently, assault order is mostly just good on builds that use summons. This would make it more versatile, would help the solo experience as well. Otherwise, just buff the damage a bit. And then a crazy idea is to make casting order give +1 area of effect to spells, on top of a bit more damage than it currently does. I think the world is ready for it. Wide lines, big bubbles, huge excel fir...
6: Make field medic a bit more powerful, combined with a stronger bonus from tactics rank. Combined with the more easy access to tactics rank I proposed above, I'm imagining it taking a deserved spot as "the really strong single-target heal, as long as you built up tactics rank".
7: Make the spells benefit from tactics rank, while also reducing their overall power. This would make it stronger on average for tactician, less for spellthief.
8: Maybe some skills could CONSUME tactics rank to become even stronger. Make it a more dynamic resource. What I'm imagining for instance is that some skills could have a bonus effect when triggered at SSS rank, taking you down a certain amount of points. "Okay guys, time for the final assault! First guy to attack gets to do +100 damage!"
9: I think tactician could use a skill to manually move nearby allies into formation. Like, pick 2 allies within 4 range and place them into free formation tiles within 3 range. Let's be honest, your allies don't really want to have to spend 3 momentum to move into your little square. If you do it yourself it feels good for you, and it feels good for them. Would be fun and solid imo.
Alright that's all I got, let me know your takes on tactician and your feedback on my proposals!
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