Five New Skills for v5.14
The default fighters takes his weapon skill, pumps it every five levels, and invests in holy for maximal leveling. However, as the expense of potions goes down (as it does in 5.14), and the value of other skills begins to rival the ‘default’ view, there may be more interesting fighter builds emerge.
Thats what new skills are about. So as the title suggests, we’ll break down these five new skills and see where they fit.
The nature of these new skills emphasize two of the key mechanics going on in every battle… Dodging and critting. Focus helps hit, then once you pass a threshold of hitting, it starts helping to crit. Same goes for Defense. It helps to avoid crits, then after a certain threshold, it starts to help dodging.
The threshold is when your FOC is equal to your opponents DEF (or vice versa for dodging). Hopefully a discussion of each skill will clear up the details.
DEFENSIVE SKILLS
new skill #1, AVOID CRITS: +2 to DEF on crit rolls. Avoid crit might be useful to very low def characters. If you aren’t investing in DEF at all and monsters are high in FOC you’ll be critted everytime! 2def/lvl gives dismal DEF an option to survive… When 2x crits come into the game, taking 2x Crits every hit cannot happen regardless of your armor, its gonna hurt just too much.
new skill #2, QUICK FEET: +1.5DEF on dodge rolls is awful useful when you are a massive DEF build and want to push that dodge towards the 75% max consistently. Top-notch tanks will covet this. Very power-build skill…
new skill #3, THICK SKIN: +2 Armor power. If you keep this skill at pace with your level, it is like having a 7th accessory slot with a SUPER accessory in it. Useful for everyone. Perhaps most useful for those with low armor to begin with, or power-building for Über tanking.
OFFENSIVE SKILLS
new skill #4, PRECISION: +1.5FOC to crit rolls will allow power FOC’s to push into 100% crit range… after 100% crit, “CRIT 2X!’s” will start happening… Again, power build skill.
new skill #5, CONTACT: +2FOC to hit rolls will allow zero FOC charcters to exist. Complimenting a brute-ish or traveller-ish build, this makes either one more viable. If you have no aspirations to get criticals (Hell, you are probably so strong you regular hit is LIKE a critical!) and JUST NEED TO MAKE CONTACT, invest here.
Final Thoughts
It is tough to choose how to build your character, and certain skills will prove superior to other. Time and experience is the only way to tell what builds comes out on top. There will be many solid builds with different characteristics. New skills add more depth to Quest’s character builds and that is nothing but good.
All existing characters will have their skill points reset when 5.14 is released. Skill resets after will continue to be available from the witch for 5 million gold after that.
March 5, 2009 at 1:06 pm
I like the thought with these ideas, though I think it once again might push the balance towards a Foc build over def. Def is capped at 75% while crits can be at 100%. Now you are saying that not only can crits go to 100%, but there will be a bonus to keep adding Foc to get crit 2x’s. Def however is still capped at 75% and theres no “dodge2″ to make it worth continuing to add it. All i can go by is pre wipe, where you thought it impossible to have a no def build because you would be critted constantly. Last version proved that theory wrong because with enough Foc you would always get first hit and kill any mob in 1-2 hits, so the damage the monster did was irrelevant. With Crit x2 on the way and a way to boost Foc even more per lvl, i think that Foc has a significant advantage over def. Focus characters will always get first hit then eventually work to 100% crit and crit 2x killing mobs in a short enough time to where the damage they do wont matter.