[Ray2064]

This thread will essentially be discussing Ghost's current balance - not that the class needs to be nerfed or buffed in any significant way, simply....adjusted.

See, there usually are two types of characters picking Ghost as a class :

A- Basic attackers who wish for a class to make better use of that archetype, usually only making use of Ghost for the passives and utility it and Duelist grant. (Fleur, Poise, Wraithguard, Claret Call, free RES/HP...)

There is nothing quite inherently wrong with that, and is quite the popular choice given the many combo of classes like Ghost/MG, Ghost/Monk , Ghost/Ranger , Ghost/Boxer , Ghost/VA or VA/Ghost, use the class for little more than the reasons aforementioned for good results, most of the time simply turning their class into Initial Class +. Good for'em.

B - Duelists with no real other choice.

Here's where the problem lies. Duelist's promotional structure makes it so Ghost will be the option by default if you dare picking something as odious as a REGULAR sword, or god forbid, an AXE.

A fencer character who doesn't quite use a katana will often be shoved into the class by default, due to being unable to make use of Duelist's two other promotions efficiently.

Let us look at Duelist's sword options.

- Sanguine Star : Costs 4 Momentum and therefore cannot fit into the structure of Fleur combos if you want to act thrice this turn.  Next.

- Ghastly Strike : Outright mediocre, with no real use outside of very specific conditions during teamfights. You usually will have no reason to ever use this over a plain basic attack, or... Anything else, really. Next.

- Blood Spike : Uses two easily resisted elements and drains 8% of your HP, though one of those is at least guaranteed to have decent scaling.
It's at least ranged, magic damage and applies Claret Call, though by the time your Rising Game Level is high enough for the spell to truly be good, using it will likely do more harm than good. Eh. Next.

- Scarlet Twister : Pretty good pulling tool, though suffers the same issue of easily being able to be resisted and therefore potentially breaking a Fleur combo. The fact it drains 1/10th of your HP doesn't help much.

Let's move on to the second weapon that Ghost advertises itself as a class of in theory - Axes.

With base Duelist offering no real offensive skills to Axes and Ghost at a first glance offering such a strong emphasis over those, it gotta make up for it, riiiiiiight ?
Wrong.

- Reaper Scythe : SWA based Skill, in a crescent. Costing moderately heavy FP. Great. Except not so much for a Weapon Type that mostly focuses on BASIC ATTACKING. Furthermore, the fact that you'd actually actively want to avoid using the Skill against a Guarding enemy, lest you wish to waste 20 Claret Call stacks to break a 1M Guard for one turn. Next.

- Cut Down : Stuffers from the same issue as Ghastly Strike where its only truly useful in specific team fights situation. Though in an actual 1v1 , well. Why would you want to actively consume your Claret Call stacks to inflict a reduction of their defenses for 3 rounds when the stacks would've increased your physical damage in the first place if you just kept basic attacking.

Dark Imbue : The dark bonus damage is essentially worthless due to not ignoring armor or DR, and while 15 hit is nice, the ridiculously low duration of 3 rounds essentially means you'll only use this when in an utter pinch.



Spells : Already defined in the Sword section.


Special mention to Ether Invitation also breaking the Fleur combos due to being 4M , though that applies to all weapons and is therefore not exclusively a problem for swords or axes.


Tldr, make Swords and Axes actually good for Ghosts.