Update 4th job skill changes

Introduction
Hello Royallers,
Over the past months we have looked at existing feedback regarding certain mid to end game classes and asked your suggestions for some of them in dedicated threads, specifically for Paladins, Shadowers and Buccaneers.


Skill changes TL; DR
The following skill changes have been made with the valentine 2019 patch:
- Fighter Axe Mastery lvl 20 from 60% to 75% Mastery
- Fighter lvl 100 and 110 2H axes Tavar and Dragon Battle Axe have received a weapon speed reduction to normal (6)
- Shadower lvl 30 Boomerang Step boost base power from 500 to 600
- Shadower lvl 30 Assasinate 'charge' mechanic removed and boost base power from 600 to 950
- Marauder Transform no timer cooldown, takes Magic rock to cast instead
- Buccaneer Super Transform no timer cooldown, takes Magic rock to cast instead
- Buccaneer Demolition lvl 30 boost base power from 400 to 500
- Buccaneer Barrage lvl 30 boost base power from 230 to 330
- Buccaneer Dragon Strike lvl 30 boost base power from 810 to 900
- Paladin (and Mages) Elemental weaknesses to bosses (and body parts)


Selecting and confirming the jobs to buff
To get an understanding of the situation we set out to make a comparison of all non-mage jobs by calculating what kind of damage per second (DPS) they would be doing with their main 4th job skills at two stages in a player's lifespan, at lvl 140 and lvl 200. The comparisons have been made with the same weapon attack equipment and expected tops, bottoms, overalls, weapons, untradables, buffs and base stats in their ideal situation (disregarding time taken to dismount / rebuff / reposition after taking damage), in short: the funding for the lvl 140 comparisons and 200 comparisons for all non-mage jobs is the same to make a fair assessment.

We put the results in the following graph:


What we can take from this graph is that most of the classes with same funding and equipment range between the 130k DPS on lvl 140 and 250k DPS on lvl 200 marks under these circumstances. We decided to make this our aim for the classes that seem to be suffering below this threshold.
We expected the Night Lord and Corsair with battleship cannon to range above the target in their ideal situation and they will continue to do so.

The damage dealers below the 130k and 250k DPS tresholds that we buffed are:
Hero (2h axe), Paladin (elemental wise), Shadower (Boomerang Step / Assassinate), Buccaneer (Barrage / Dragon Strike), Buccaneer (Demolition / (Super) Transform)


Buff Summaries
For the aforementioned jobs and skills we tried various approaches on how to make them slightly better but not too strong and without a complete overhaul. We decided on the following:

Hero (2h axe)
For 2h axe Heroes we looked at their weak points opposed to 2h sword Heroes. Due to swing and stab differences in axes as weaponry axe Heroes have a wider difference in minimum and maximum damage range than sword Heroes do. To correct this we tweaked the mastery percentage from 60% to 75% to make up for the difference compared to swords. Other than that we made sure that the maximum attack speed with axe booster and speed infusion can be obtained by the highest level 2h axes as well by making them the same attack speed (6) normal as their sword counterparts have.

Paladin (elemental wise)
Paladins gave us the opportunity to explore more with an RPG game mechanic buffing both their main attacking skills Blast and Charged Blow when used correctly. While some bosses, demi-bosses and boss body parts were already weak to elements we completed the list to our best ability.
The following is a list of all the bosses, demi-bosses and their body parts including which element they are now weak to (this change also applies to Mages using those elements):

Spoiler

Boss	Mob ID	Weakness
Capt. Latanica	9420513	Holy
Headless Horseman	9400549	Lightning*
Manon	8180000	Ice*
Griffey	8180001	Poison*
Pianus	8510000	Fire*
Pianus	8520000	Fire*
Bigfoot	9400575	Fire*
Black Crow	9400014	Lightning*
Leviathan	8220003	Ice
Dodo	8220004	Fire
Kacchuu Musha	9400405	Ice*, Lightning*, Holy*
Papulatus Clock	8500001	Lightning
Papulatus	8500002	Holy
Female Boss (Anego)	9400121	Lightning*, Holy*
Margana	9400590	Holy
Red Nirg	9400591	Lightning
Rellik	9400592	Fire*
Hsalf	9400593	Ice*
Lilynouch	8220005	Lightning*
Lyka	8220006	Poison*
Zakum1	8800000	Lightning
Zakum2	8800001	Ice
Zakum3	8800002	Fire
Zakum's Arm 1	8800003	Holy
Zakum's Arm 2	8800004	Holy
Zakum's Arm 3	8800005	Ice*
Zakum's Arm 4	8800006	Fire*
Zakum's Arm 5	8800007	Lightning
Zakum's Arm 6	8800008	Lightning
Zakum's Arm 7	8800009	Ice
Zakum's Arm 8	8800010	Fire
Krexel (2)	9420521	Fire*
Krexel (3)	9420522	Fire*
Wulin Yaoseng	9600025	Ice
Bodyguard A	9400112	Fire*
Bodyguard B	9400113	Ice*
Horntail's Left Head	8810000	Lightning
Horntail's Right Head	8810001	Fire
Horntail's Head A	8810002	Lightning
Horntail's Head B	8810003	Ice
Horntail's Head C	8810004	Fire
Horntail's Left Hand	8810005	Lightning
Horntail's Right Hand	8810006	Fire
Horntail's Wings	8810007	Ice
Horntail's Legs	8810008	Holy
Horntail's Tails	8810009	Holy
The Boss	9400300	Fire*
Castellan	9400408	Poison*, Holy
Castellan Toad	9400409	Lightning

Mobs marked with an * were already weak to this element before the change, these were kept in tact to avoid confusion

Shadower (Boomerang Step / Assassinate)
We wanted to make Shadower more viable besides relying on a third job skill that can cost them a large amount of mesos every time they attempt a boss battle. There are already plenty of jobs that require you to use one skill to attack so in order to keep Shadowers interesting we wanted to include both their 4th job damage skills.
To make that happen we buffed the base damage of Boomerang Step and Assassinate in addition to removing the 'charge-up' requirement that Assassinate used to have while the character is in Dark Sight. This allows the Shadower to use Dark Sight, Assassinate and Boomerang Step in rapid succession for their optimal DPS without breaking the bank in meso droppings for Meso Explosion.

Buccaneer (Barrage / Dragon Strike)
We chose to make the combination of Barrage and Dragon Strike a more competitive DPS option as it was near the bottom of the DPS chart by boosting their base damage to be in line with the 130k and 250k DPS targets of our tests.

Buccaneer (Demolition / (Super) Transform)
Other than Barrage and Dragon Strike we also felt like Buccaneer lacked a permanent mobility boost. Some skills can only be used in (Super) Transform and we wanted to give you the ability to use them without having to worry about the incredibly long cooldown where you could only be transformed 33% of the time you were fighting. We did this by removing the cooldown of the skills Transform and Super Transform and adding a Magic Rock cost to it. This way you can choose to Transform when you want or stay Transformed for the extra mobility and option to use the otherwise limited skills.
In addition to that we made sure that the 4th job skill Demolition got a base damage boost to fit into the projected DPS targets of 130k and 250k respectively.


Conclusion
With these changes we brought the damage output of the classes closer together to our 130k DPS and 250k DPS targets as can be seen in this graph:


Disclaimer
While we tried our utmost to balance and test these changes out according to community and nostalgic core-gameplay standards please understand the following:
- As with any update we release this one is subjected to change based on feedback or 'broken' mechanics as well.
- We chose to review the most requested jobs and skills in this update first, feel free to leave feedback for other suggested changes in the feedback section of the forums.

Please let us know what you think or whether you would like to learn more about our choices!

 

Reformatted charts for colorblind people:

Spoiler: old situation

Spoiler: new situation