I pretty much agree with the rest of your post, so I wanted to just highlight this point. Piercing Arrow is not strong, its a very poor skill that is seldom used in boss runs due to the charge time and how easily its interrupted, even though it does high damage. Lowering the charge time in some way and making it able to be fired in the air is exactly what would make it viable. There are also already very well defined multi target roles in relevant bosses where a mobbing playstyle would have advantages over single target; - Zakum (arms obviously, and potentially body if one can position themselves to be firing through mobs by the time PA reaches Zakum, and doubling as mob management) - Shao (no clone separation necessary, and firing PA through clones increases its damage when it hits Shao) - Horntail (being able to hit multiple heads at once would be incredible, can also hit wing/arm/head the same way Heros/DKs do) - CWKPQ (able to go bottom and shred melee bosses) I'm sure there are other instances where a multi target playstyle would be advantageous, these are just the obvious ones off the top of my head. Of course, this isn't the only way to make MM relevant again, but is certainly a viable one that would give them a distinction over BM and give them a role to fill. There are plenty of other QoL things that can be done too.
This not pointing last comment or any in specific, but ive saw many comments about ppl who say "this is overpowered" refering to a job or a skill and someone responding that its not only not OP and its in fact even a weak (job/skill) I would like to advice everyone to see the conditions where a skill is used a WHO uses it, b4 give it a category of OP or UNDERPOWERED. Ive withed decently equiped nightlords a ton of times with my drk, that nl could think :"huh..maybe nls arent as op as ppl think...maybe drks are.." but that withe was at shao, we didnt separate the clones and im even more funded that this nl...ofc i will withe him...that doesnt make drk>NL at all, it was just the circustances and fundings over the mechanics. Many ppl think that their personal experince is THE reality...and no, we have to think what are the circunstances around our experiences...a 4k NL will never withe a 10k MM...that doesnt make MMS OP, just THAT MM
pierce is very strong, can do over 199k in ideal cases. let me tell you about on paper vs. actually using it these instances -zak: you lose exp charging on arms vs. strafe/snipe. if you have any melee person in your party, they mow through the boogies in an instant. if the flying ones come out, you have to have a pierce charged, and hit them before anyone else kills the mobs. it's a waste of time. -shao: nobody is going to waste time in shao to charge pierce on mobs unless you're completely godly. it's a bad use of the 10 minute limit in there. in practice, it's foolish to use there -can't ht with my mm, but i see using pierce here as being just as bad as anywhere else, you need to focus quickly on single targets, not slowly on multi. pierce is not at all like being a dk or hero in this regard -cwk. pierce is only good here after the two ranged bosses up top are gone, and by then you only have a mob of at most 3, but more likely 2 mobs left, making pierce not worth the charge in either case the same reason you don't see sairs use or max torpedo early, is the same reason you don't see MM use pierce, even when it can potentially break cap, in bosses. pierce isn't the issue imo. if anything, and i've said this in my own thread. just the slightest hare less shorter charge time would be nice but i would so much rather be able to use it in the air, or if you get hit, than a reduced charge time. and if you think fp or even a neutral bird wouldn't help, i'm maxing fp currently for more passive boss damage and leaving pierce at one, because i've tried, and see no use for it in my build or style. the passive fp damage is much more useful to me. and by buffing pierce to have like no charge or something, MM are still maybe 20-30 levels behind BM. mm need max snipe, mmb, se, mw10, then pierce, before pierce gives them any return. bm just need to max hurricane and se and if the charge time is removed, the skill will be totally overpowered and broken, and i don't want that, and i like the numbers and way it is now except for not being able to release in air, or it getting totally cancelled after charging because you take damage
I think we're using "strong" differently. It is strong in regards to damage, but the skill in its entirety is weak. Thats kind of apples to oranges, Corsairs have a very good reason to stick to single target DPS as they're literally the best at it in a vacuum, MM is on the polar opposite side of that spectrum. I think we're partially agreeing here, but I certainly agree with all your points with PA in its current form. I'm speaking from the perspective of it being tweaked to be able to fire faster and not be interrupted on all my points. Otherwise ya, its just a waste of time. Also I was never disregarding birb for passive damage, just saying making it element neutral isn't really a significant buff to MM as a whole when there are many other glaring problems that should take priority. Right now, I'd 100% take birb over PA.
