Well, I have made this topic to set my frustration and dissapointment free. I am kinda low lvl (just 47 for now, and dunno if I end up here) but its fairly enough to make some statement.
Where to begin?
- CON is totally, crappy low. 30 is just riddiculous. Humans Warriors got 43 and they can spend them on DEX or STR so, even the fact that Female Kamael has higher, 35 DEX doesnt mean anything. Or wait, it means that they cannot use any dyes!! (anyone would cut their DEX points to add it to STR or CON?).
Another thing that is connected with low CON is low HP ( just a lil bit more than mages <(@.@)< . And of course susceptibility to shock, stun and so on. So how does pvp with stun-having players look like? Had some, most looked almost the same (fe. with PR, 3 lvls lower than me, both C grade, I had resist Stun buff): Stun (unsucceesfully), Hit, Hit (critical), Stun (succeded), Hit - and I am dead. During this pvp my moves looked that: Twin Shot, Hit, Real Target (was close enough to use it), Hit (critical), Hit, Twin Shot (broken by Stun) - I am dead. PR had more than 2/3 HP left. Any comments?
Another Thing is pvp with Dagger. In closed space Arbalester is dead almost for 100%. In open space things changes. Just simple hit and run (as long as you dont get Freezing Strike). When the dagger gets to your back, ur dead.
PvP with mages is just n/c. Even having Magic resistance buff doesnt help a lot. In pvp with nukers the thing is to kill em fast or they will nuke you to death. Arbalester doesnt have stun or silence, so it wont stop mages from nukking. What can she do? Just hit and use dmg-dealing skills. But because of Crossbows low p atk (another minus), just simple hitting is not enough! Pvp with mages in moooost cases result in death.
- Next disadventage is speed of crossbows. Very slow bows turns to slow crossbows, but why the hell slow bows turns to just slow crossbows? Its unfair! I have just around 30 more atk speed than PR, but my p atk is almost 2 times lower, wtf? Compared also shooting speed in duel, just little difference :confused:
- What else? Souls ... its just pain in the *** !! Soul Gathering skill is fine, but has long reuse time. Body to soul gives just max 5 souls at top lvl and has a lil bit too long reuse time! In mass pvp it offten turns out that u cant use any skills, cus no souls are left (and that happens fast in mass pvp) and then with your low p atk, become almost useless.
- I have to mention some useless skills as well,
1) traps for example. What are they used for? Siege? Traps explode too fast (it would be better if u had the control over when to blow it, but u hadn't). Fire trap has some delay and gives little damage. Totally stupid. Although dunno about the rest of em, but cant imagine laing a trap in the middle of pvp (until the setting lasts nanoseconds, but it does more).
2) Decoy (at first glance it looks cool, but the clone has too low hp (same as the owner), casting lasts too much (in pvp u lose half of ur hp in the meantime), and u have to be close to the rival so the hate can be used (in pvp with dagger that close distance means immediately death).
- There is also 1 additional thing I have been cunfused by so much. Why the heck Arbalester need so much INT for? I understand that if u turn to a SoulBreaker, u get a lot of magic skills and high INT is recommended. But what does Arbalester need it for? Its a big waste of statistic points. She does not have any magical skills that would recquire high INT !!
Thats all for now. I feel some kind of relief and would be really greatfull if you share your feelings and opinions here as well (not only that pessimistic). Some tips, tactics about pvp could really help as well. And hidden advantiges u discovered (high DEX, speed skills, no mp use, Real Target and just a lil bit faster shooting are obvious). Although I have made so gloomy statment, I really hope that Final Form, the lvl 79 skill, is worth exping and the next cronicle, Kamael Plus will bring some boost for Arbalester.
I'm using +STR/-CON dyes for PvE. If something bites me and I should start PvPing - yes, I will be taking points out of DEX. There's plenty of it to go around, and the main concerns with DEX (accuracy and runspeed) are accounted for with arbalesters.
If you really think you shoot almost at the same speed as an archer because you see the same attack speed value, I don't think anyone can help you. =P
The root trap has turned out pretty ok thus far - it has nice range, and people moving around it manually lose time.
The stat points really are an unfortunate situation - but the same goes for elven/dark elven fighter classes.
For the INT value : Imbue Dark Seed is a magical skill, and right now is the skill i use EVERY TIME i can. At lvl 64 my arbalester was able to Anchor Galaxia and Golkonda (lvl 79) easily at almost every attempt. Right now in PvP i only have problems against S Graders for Imbue Dark Seed to land.
For Decoy : Root your target and set your image near him. Its target will be switched constantly to the image while you shoot at him.
ummm Gunbow firing speed for a kamael is almost twice as fast as the bow it was converted from... o.0
Are u sure it depends on the speed of the to-convert-bow? Just asking. I converted akat (very slow) to crossbow, the weapon I got had status: Slow. Then I converted Light Crossbow (slow) to crossbow and I expected to get weapon with status: Normal, but the converted weapon had also status: slow. Dunno really :eek: Enlight me please ;)
Edit: Btw, in stats I had the same atk speed with akat-crossbow and light crossbow-crossbow
ATM, I have a 41 Soulbreaker and only done some equal leveling PVPing. I know I'm not entitled to say much about them until I see the high level PvP action myself.
One of the big factors that pushes people away from the Kamael is their incredibly low CON. Since stun and HP is pretty much God in L2 PvP, it makes kamael highly undesirable for anyone that does PvP. (It's not fun if you get stunlock to death, where's the fairness and fun in standing there and doing nothing?)
Not everyone will have access to the S80 and raid jewels. It's no difference of how everyone not have access to the endgame items in WoW. I am pretty sure less than 10% of the entire L2 population can get their hands on the stun resist jewel and S80.
I saw some of the T1.5 notes for kamael. Their new skills sound alright on paper but I don't think it'll be the saving grace for them.
Yes, stand beside an SR and fire your gun bow. You'll shoot about 3 to an SR's 2 and have the 3rd fired before the SR fires the 2nd with the same weapon. If you've ever played an archer you'll notice how much faster an Arbalester is.
I duo constantly with an archer - every time I actually see her (of course the stupid archer doesn't have to run into 400 range to start attacking... T.T WTB 600 range on real target!), she seems to be taking a break between shots. =P
My feelings towards Arbalesters? A bit of disappointment.
Their benefits and tricks are greatly outweighed by their drawbacks. CON is a bit unreasonably bad, I can have gladiators rooted for the entire fight with binding trap and still lose to them because my crossbow can't outdamage slow and infrequent ranged sonic attacks. Arbalester damage just isn't there, they need to either get more from their passives or have higher attack speed to be competitive.
It's a fun class to play, binding trap and decoy are excellent, but they're neutered far too much to be competitive against many other classes. Yeah, I'd like some extra range on Real Target too, it sucks having to take a couple shots before I can get in close enough for it. With the Arbalester, those extra hits can potentially lose the fight for you. I don't quite get Soul Shock, it seems to be more effective and long-lasting in pve for me, but I would like to test it more.
I feel they could have been more, they had some great ideas, but the execution is just really terrible.
Well, all Kamael seem to be getting a hand up in CT1.5 - here's to hope. Would be good if soul mastery really went up to as high as something like a 90% chance of recovering a soul on crit later on - 30% is just too low. ;3
My oppinion about Arbalester...
Is a difficult character to be played and specially from people who dont see the alternative kind of fighting of this class. Just like the title of the 3rd proffesion of Arbalester (Trickster) the way to play is tricky. Low CON dont bother me (i have one Arbalester just 1 lvl before A grade mastery).
Why dont bother me? because Arbalester have the most perfect skills for escape. Traps: binding (root), slow, Flash (aoe stun) work so nicely and specially with Flash trap the enemy loses target too. Another skill that noone here comment... Warp! another? Soul Shock (makes your enemy run away) another? Real Target (and as some people call it Surrender to Arrows lmao) Bleeding shot (yes is usefull too) and the skill that makes most of the damage and the critical chance of the skill is too high Twin shot.
Want more skills? Ultimate Escape (it is one combination of Ultimate Evasion AND Dash) and ofcourse Decoy (the hp of it increases in every level skill you master).
So... thinking all those... the low CON kinda goes away of your mind... and yes i pvped with Berzerker of same lvl and mage (spelsinger) 2-3 lvls higher, and with bladedancer around 68++ and i can say that if we were the same lvls.. they would be dead so fast...
So... for me Arbalester is one exellent character and good for all PvP and PvE.
I decided to go on with Arb, getting use to it. But gotta 2 questions: Anyone has the source of how Real Target skill is changing from lvl 1 to lvl 2? I know that the range is changing, but what more?
Second, how the f*** can I get Ancient Book Divine Inspiration? @.@
Well it is not landing 100% and is bad that the system dont show it. I noticed on the mobs that i xp that when it does not lands the damage i do is much less than the damage with Real Target landed. They should fix that because ok in pve i dont care so much if it will land or no but in pvp... you must know if your target resisted....
Well, that's kind of shock for me :eek: I really belived that it lands everytime, I even started to show off :confused:
To be honest, everytime i compared pre RT hit nad post RT hit, the second one was always! higher. Maybe its due to strong dmg diversity of hits :(
And whats the difference beetwen RT lvl 1 and 2? Does it increase dmg like 15%, 20% or what?
And, again, I agree with you about the command system, should be fixed asap :eek:
RT lvl2 increases the chance to land and yes i notice change to the amount of damage. I remember when i had lvl1 and i was testing my damage with and without and well RT1 give to me one extra of 100-150 damage on the mobs. Now with RT2 i always have 250+ damage on the mob.
Unfortunately i did not calculate my criticals and the damage i say that i calculated was always with RT and berzerkers skill violent temper on.
Now with the extra stats the majestic light gives, my hits are just awesome on pve and in pvp i did not test but 700 damage to tank 75+ with twin shot (i dont know if RT landed lol) sounds really good ^^
Soon when I will have enough ancient adena i will try play with dyes on me but still i believe that this character should not use dies no matter the low con it has.
dont land 100% , actually the system message dont tell you when it land . you can notice in your damage if landed or not
K, made some checkings ingame today. Now I am sure that Real Target land rate is 100%! Landed on RBes 10-12 lvl higher than me EVERY TIME . And thats why the message system does not inform you if rt landed or not, cuz what for if it land rate is 100%?
ok you will make me take screenshots and post :) but well since i have lvl 3 now i have to chek it again.
The sure thing that i tested and yes looks like landing 100% is the Dark Seed. I used it on raid boss 9 lvls higher than me and yes it landed both times and the raid got both times paralyzed (not for long time but was good).
i'm loving my arbalester so far. she's only lvl 46, but she seems to level fairly fast. as far as Real Target goes, i think i saw it not work maybe 1 or 2 times i've used it out of the maybe 30 times i've casted it. so not too bad. it does seem its 100% but i would hazard a guess around 95% :P
my only gripe so far is the long cooldown on some of our skills. but other than that, its not too bad. my crit damage makes up for the lack of p.atk compared to true archers, and binding trap helps with getting a sticky situation under control. if you ever wanted to make a "range" fighter, give Arbalester a try, though warning, it only starts to get fun after lvl 40 in my opinion.