07-27-2016, 05:26 AM
I'm not sure if a topic has been made about this recently or not, but this is a long-standing issue that's only been getting worse as of late, I think.
There are three forms of attacking in the game. Basic attacking, magic-based autohits (i.e. magic, usually), and physical-based autohits (i.e. skills, or just autohits, usually). You would think that the difference between the latter two wouldn't be important enough as to warrant separation, but the explanation for that will come later.
To counter a regular basic attack, you can either dodge it or reduce the damage by defense or resistance. Usually however, someone who's basic attacking you is getting some benefit solely by making contact (Fleur, MG Shells, etc), and taking no damage is better than reducing it, so you're going to be playing the game of evade buffing/hit debuffing, while the other side is going to try to hit you (Or use an autohit, but elaboration later). Assuming your opponent doesn't have any autohits at all and they're dedicated to making their attack land, you're going to have a fair bit of trouble keeping that from happening. Nearly every physical class has some method of boosting their hit, while boosting evade is slightly rarer. Not to mention that before buffing, usually, a basic attacker will have the hit to make dodging a risky gamble at best. Oh, and if the attacker is using a bow or a gun, you're not dodging. Ever. Though on the flipside, those using a gun can also inflict Hesitation at a rate of nearly 50%, making other basic attackers miserable.
To counter magic, even more options are available. You have your resistance, the magical counterpart to defense, but then you also have elemental resistance. Both of these are percent reductions and work very strongly together, while usually, physical attackers don't need to worry about elemental resistance (Remember how much people complained about Drowned Woman? Yeah). Now, you might be saying, "Just use a different element!", but in the current meta, it's extremely hard to use more than one element effectively, and mechanically impossible to actually use more than one element at its fullest power. This is because of the casting penalty you take if using a tool that doesn't match the domain of the spell being cast, so if your opponent correctly guesses the element of the spell you'll be using (Which will probably be Earth, Water, or Dark, due to how using defenses as attack stats is, again, the understandable meta), you're going to be hurting. To top this off, magic can be, simply, stopped from being used as a whole by the Silence status effect (Blind, while similarly debilitating, has the benefit of a Trait to reduce its effect, as well as Hit being generally stronger than Evade. Hesitation is much more rare than Silence is, but still allows the opportunity to attack). Magic overall has seen repeated nerfs due to the high damage it used to able to put out in a fairly wide range, though it continued to receive nerfs after it was made weaker than physical attacking in general, and right now is in the gutter.
As for physical autohits, without an element. Your only defense is to decrease the damage you take from them. You can't stop them from being used, you can't do double-time with an elemental resistance, and you can't dodge them (aside from Evasion, which is the aforementioned gamble, and is generally less effective than simply nabbing Defense and Resistance). You could try sapping the user's FP, though this isn't nearly as effective as before, and is a viable tactic against nearly any other build. There are no specialized statuses to stop physical autohits in the vein of Silence, Blind, or Hesitation, and autohits generally have higher attack scaling, longer range, and more/stronger effects than their basic/magical bretheren.
This is a design flaw that's been plaguing the game since release, and it would be wonderful to see this get fixed in the Reckoning. If I've misrepresented something or you have an opinion, try to note so civilly, so this issue can get fixed (Or so that this non-issue isn't made worse, if you don't agree.)
There are three forms of attacking in the game. Basic attacking, magic-based autohits (i.e. magic, usually), and physical-based autohits (i.e. skills, or just autohits, usually). You would think that the difference between the latter two wouldn't be important enough as to warrant separation, but the explanation for that will come later.
To counter a regular basic attack, you can either dodge it or reduce the damage by defense or resistance. Usually however, someone who's basic attacking you is getting some benefit solely by making contact (Fleur, MG Shells, etc), and taking no damage is better than reducing it, so you're going to be playing the game of evade buffing/hit debuffing, while the other side is going to try to hit you (Or use an autohit, but elaboration later). Assuming your opponent doesn't have any autohits at all and they're dedicated to making their attack land, you're going to have a fair bit of trouble keeping that from happening. Nearly every physical class has some method of boosting their hit, while boosting evade is slightly rarer. Not to mention that before buffing, usually, a basic attacker will have the hit to make dodging a risky gamble at best. Oh, and if the attacker is using a bow or a gun, you're not dodging. Ever. Though on the flipside, those using a gun can also inflict Hesitation at a rate of nearly 50%, making other basic attackers miserable.
To counter magic, even more options are available. You have your resistance, the magical counterpart to defense, but then you also have elemental resistance. Both of these are percent reductions and work very strongly together, while usually, physical attackers don't need to worry about elemental resistance (Remember how much people complained about Drowned Woman? Yeah). Now, you might be saying, "Just use a different element!", but in the current meta, it's extremely hard to use more than one element effectively, and mechanically impossible to actually use more than one element at its fullest power. This is because of the casting penalty you take if using a tool that doesn't match the domain of the spell being cast, so if your opponent correctly guesses the element of the spell you'll be using (Which will probably be Earth, Water, or Dark, due to how using defenses as attack stats is, again, the understandable meta), you're going to be hurting. To top this off, magic can be, simply, stopped from being used as a whole by the Silence status effect (Blind, while similarly debilitating, has the benefit of a Trait to reduce its effect, as well as Hit being generally stronger than Evade. Hesitation is much more rare than Silence is, but still allows the opportunity to attack). Magic overall has seen repeated nerfs due to the high damage it used to able to put out in a fairly wide range, though it continued to receive nerfs after it was made weaker than physical attacking in general, and right now is in the gutter.
As for physical autohits, without an element. Your only defense is to decrease the damage you take from them. You can't stop them from being used, you can't do double-time with an elemental resistance, and you can't dodge them (aside from Evasion, which is the aforementioned gamble, and is generally less effective than simply nabbing Defense and Resistance). You could try sapping the user's FP, though this isn't nearly as effective as before, and is a viable tactic against nearly any other build. There are no specialized statuses to stop physical autohits in the vein of Silence, Blind, or Hesitation, and autohits generally have higher attack scaling, longer range, and more/stronger effects than their basic/magical bretheren.
This is a design flaw that's been plaguing the game since release, and it would be wonderful to see this get fixed in the Reckoning. If I've misrepresented something or you have an opinion, try to note so civilly, so this issue can get fixed (Or so that this non-issue isn't made worse, if you don't agree.)
![[-]](https://neus-projects.net/forums/images/collapse.png)
