• Extreme Range
  
• High Firepower
  
• High Durability
  
• High Crowd Control
  

• Buster Cannon is 90% of the class' power budget currently, this skill is AMAZING for what it does, BK can play against it but no other tank really can, it serves as a good check to tanks and should remain in some capacity.
  
• On Demand CC in the form of Blowback Cannon, usually not worth over Buster Cannon, but has its uses.
  
• Heavy Tackle is surprisingly potent when built for, if more arbalests were keen to build STR (which they are not currently) it would likely retain some power, though the damage output of the skill is extremely low and should be based on SWA + B/W like Board Shaker is, that way it can be uncapped again.
  

• Oil Chain is simply not that good anymore, unlike cinders the fire doesn't have on-round damage, and only contributes 120% fire ATK to the initial attack, afterwards it acts EXACTLY like cinders do and splits damage for pulls/pushes, this assures the skill doesn't completely annihilate someone so I'd like to see it get something else.
  
• Straight Cannon is not worth putting your weapon into reloading currently, and is kind of a boring skill anyways.
  
• Deadly Aim is an outdated stat buff, given Arbalest is a Basic Attack centric class, this could easily be turned into a hit/crit steroid buff.
  
• Reload Accel is a whole ass 5 momentum, I'd rather see this become a cooldown skill instead, 5 round cooldown should suffice to be long enough.
  

• A Mechanic that encourages the class to build high STR, currently the class suffers from a lack of stat points, which is detailed below, I think a very unique and interesting mechanic is the ability to scale its critical damage from STR instead of GUI for bows only.
  
• The ability to bunker down and immobilize itself is both thematic to the class and could potentially provide a good costly boon to it.
  
• More B/W centric mechanics, it only has like 2 of them currently.
  
• More durability, likely coming from heavy armor, it should be physically tanky but not as much as Black Knight might.
  

• Arguably the worst cannon skill you could use. Its competition being either stripping your targets Phys Def entirely or potentially (or guaranteeing) a stun and forcing the target away from you (and potentially through damaging tiles for minor extra damage).
  

• As for what it actually does--for taking a Hit penalty as low as 50% of your Special Armament's weight, you deal up to 100% of its weight as bonus damage and apply any On Hit (Not on Crit) effects it has if the attack connects. If my SA's weapon has an On Hit that makes this worth it, I'm hitting my enemy with that, not my bow. Only extreme outliers like Rampaging Salamander Swords and Narcus will ever be seen used with this
  

• Best case scenario you're firing off a Gigantys to maximize the damage you deal and making sure you've spirited the skill--you'd be looking at roughly +60~ damage, which seems OK at a glance, but it has the opportunity cost of losing out on the other cannons unless you waste momentum reloading prematurely. Against targets with more than 40% DR (on the assumption you're dealing around 160 damage on your basic attacks) Buster Cannon will immediately provide this much damage without requiring a hyper-specialized Special Armament to do it.
  

• Everyone's favorite cannon before Buster came along, and Stun got gutted.
  
• Blowback Cannon is fairly straightforward. Carrying no hit penalty, it can have up to a 60 + SA Weight% chance to stun if the attack connects, knocking the target back up to 7 tiles. Short simple and effective. While Stun nowadays can often be a detriment to your team it has its uses for temporarily removing a problem from the fight, both consuming a turn and forcibly relocating it (optimally).
  
• Its only real downside is the sacrifice of your cannon skill use for utility rather than the sheer offense of Buster. Or in some cases where stun gets prematurely removed due to a Resist! proc, all you get left with that's 100% reliable is the knock back.
  

• Most people's entire reason for even slotting Arbalest in the first place.
  
• Again, carrying no hit penality, if the attack connects the target's Phys Def is reduced by up to 150% for 3 rounds. Note this is redundant for players and most people are going to leave this unspirited, but the 150% is effective for further cutting Boss monster's defenses
  
• If the status is left unanswered odds are the target is going to be mulched in the time the status takes to expire, bar liberal Guard spamming or other equally effective defensive measures like Metalaegis. Especially if used in a team battle where multiple teammates can utilize the stripped Phys Def, this skill alone marks someone for being removed from the game if not properly answered.
  
• Is this skill broken? Yes and no. While (almost) entirely removing someone's defense investment is a bit ridiculous, one has to consider the same thing is available far more freely against Evade (Frozen, Plisfa's Masochism, Soulshot), so it's only fair that simply bulking up on Phys Def isn't entirely impassable.
  

• A supplemental damage bonus that applies when using a Cannon skill.
  
• When used, you gain a buff that causes your next Cannon skill to create fire tiles (unique in appearance from cinder tiles) along the path of your cannon attack, as well as dealing up to 130% Fire ATK to all enemies between you and the target, said fire tiles will deal half that damage.
  
• In the past, the tile damage would not be split if you pulled or pushed something through them, making for insane amounts of damage that'd kill most players in one round. Nowadays, the damage gets split by the number of tiles being crossed, so a 60 damage tile effect is only going to deal 60 damage, split evenly as possible into each tile crossed.
  
• This makes it questionably worth to actively build for but it's something for when you have nothing to do but prep while waiting for the enemy to engage. Its usefulness is largely seen in PvE where mobs are prone to walking straight through your tiles for undivided damage and subsequently taking pre-nerf levels of fire damage as a result. Best used with Blowback Cannon (as the game tips helpfully state) to maximize the odds of a monster walking right back through the fire, but definitely worth still using Buster Cannon if the target's DR warrants it.
  

• Simply put, you attack with your SA at 5 range. Spirited, you take no hit penalty, unspirited, it's a -10 to hit.
  
• If you have an SA with an On-Hit worth using, you're going to be using this and not Straight Cannon outside the fringe scenario of needing that one last push for lethal and your target has barely any DR worth Bustering. This can be potentially useful for enabling melee-weapon attacks at a range, but odds are you'd be better off just using your bow with a damage amplifying or status inflicting attack than whacking someone with your off-hand weapon with no extra modifiers (and a potential malus to hit without spiriting the skill).
  

• Once the best skill in the game, has since aged poorly.
  
• Capped at a potential 168 damage (assuming you have 144 BW and spirit the skill), Heavy Tackle deals damage based on your BW 1:1 up to the aforementioned cap with a bonus of up to +24. Additionally, it knocks the target back 1 tile for every 15 BW, and if at least 3 tiles (45 BW) are passed, knocks the target down. The knock back of Heavy Tackle ignores immunity as well, making it very effective for keeping targets out of the 1-range-hit-penality zone of an Arbalest's bow.
  
• The downside is simply the minuscule damage the attack deals (most people are only going to see around 100 tops if that, before any defenses), countered by the comparatively simple means to knock down a target, matched only by Domino Resonate (which has a 3 round cooldown).
  

• +10 DEF/RES and knockback immunity for 3 rounds. (not accounting for a spirit, which can make this up to +12/12)
  

• Straight forward and questionably worth for its short duration. If you're for some reason not capping your Phys/Mag Def this acts as an extra 10% mitigation for at least 4 instances of damage, assuming you went second and are fighting one person who's hitting you twice a round.
  

• Since cinders and tile-based damage in general got toned down, knockback immunity isn't mandatory anymore, and with Ymir existing, this can potentially be a liability if used improperly. The most thought typically required with this skill is if it's really worth the 3m to lower your incoming damage. In team fights this is usually yes, in 1v1s odds are that's a no. Even then, the opportunity cost of buffing your defenses is losing out on prepping a Buster Cannon sooner or dealing more damage to actually win the fight.
  

Quote:R1
140 Damage vs 240 Damage (760/1000 vs 860/1000)

R2

280 Damage vs 240 Damage ( 520/1000 vs 580/1000)

R3

280 Damage vs 240 Damage (280/1000 vs 300/1000)

R4 - Mighty Wall expires. The damage, without any modifiers, isn't going to be lethal at the rate this is going, while the now unmitigated damage from the enemy would be lethal, but since you're going first, you can reapply Mighty Wall and attack while barely staying above lethal.)

140 Damage vs 240 Damage (40/1000 vs 160/1000)

R5 - At this point you have lethal, and win on your second attack of the round with barely any HP left, having in total mitigated 160 damage across 8 attacks for 6m.

What would happen if you just attacked your opponent as normal with first-turn advantage?

R1 -

280 VS 280....etc

...R4 - You have lethal just before your opponent would anyways, since you went first. So in a scenario where your damage is equal, there's no reason to use it, just whack them until you win if they aren't trying anything funny.

• +10 SKI for up to 5 rounds (12 with a spirit).
  

• Aged poorly with the advent of the Great Reckoning introducing scaled stats. Any sane Arbalest is going to have enough SKI to hit people, and odds are that's going to be slightly above soft-cap--meaning that +10 SKI is going to be around +4% hit in most scenarios.
  

• 5m to instantly recover the use of your Cannon skill and SA, costing 10 FP or 0 if you spirit it.
  

• Almost never worth using, even in the scenario given by the tips that suggest critting once without Fluer THEN reloading to make use of the 5m you're left with. You're likely better off making another attack than using this unless you desperately need to spam your Cannon skill.
  

(02-03-2021, 06:33 PM)Snake Wrote: I wish Arbalest had more emphasis on physical durability and being immovable, because that's the only power fantasy that's embedded into the class's theme that I can't live without Black Knight as a crutch.

Their offensive naturally is OP enough thanks to Buster Cannon anyway, and how bows have such an absurd hit rate.

I just wanna be that guy with a huge bow who takes a sword strike to the gut, it leaves a mark on their plating, then he points that unorthodox BIG weapon your way, throws a wink then BAM. Only your smoking ankles and boots are left on the ground. It's what I'd imagine from an Arbalest's theme.