Roles
What's a Fox suppose to be? Well, it's suppose to be an Assassin/Melee DPS. Assassins are mobile, stealthy classes that either specialize in bursting people quickly, or poisoning enemies and causing general confusion in enemy ranks. Fox has a little bit of all of that, save for stealth (but stealth would not be good for PL. It would be extremely broken). The main problem with this is that Fox becomes a sort of jack-of-trades class. That said, Fox's poison is essentially.. pointless. It doesn't ACTUALLY hurt people. All it does is reduce their regeneration, which is great against Rhinos, but not useful against anyone else. But we all know how unfortunately weak Rhinos are in single combat, so even that isn't really a plus either. All in all, I believe Foxes got the short end of the stick for all content. It's the 2nd worst AoE DPS class, second rate single-target DPS, and no strong crowd control for PvE content.
Now, to the abilities. First of all, I REALLY like their mobility. It is very fun to dash around mobs constantly. However, there are some things in their ability set that just feels weak in general.
First of all, their defense buff. Thank goodness for the duration increase (Thank you SO much for changing it, STS!), but there's still one issue with it. Yes, it makes sense for Evade to let Fox jump out of roots, but let's be honest. It's not even a little bit practical. No one in their right mind would save the defense buff against the classes that normally kite (Elves and Birdies). Two solutions for that: Make evade grant a brief immunity to CC, or move the break out to a different ability. Maybe the dashes, or Fox Howl? Besides that, defense buff is good.
Next ability to look at is the heal. Why isn't fox's heal usable in battle, like every other heal? IF you want to give a pure DPS class a heal (I wouldn't, but hey.. I guess everyone else has one, so why not?) then why would it be different on Fox? As it is, it's just not that useful. Sure, it can be okay in PvE, but even that is debatable. Potions aren't that expensive, and much more efficient, and also usable when you're actually in trouble.
The only other thing I want to bring up about Fox's abilities is the fact that they don't do NEARLY as much damage as Mage or Birdy. Even if they did, both of those classes have good ways to stay alive (besides their normal defense buff). Fox is NOT a safe class at all. Sure, you can chase them.. Assuming you aren't perma rooted. Anyway, the point is, in my opinion, Fox needs a buff that actually impacts the enemy's damage in a meaningful way. -36 damage at rank 6 Fox Howl is most definitely not meaningful when people have about 150+ normal damage. A hit debuff instead of a damage debuff would be the way I'd go for that, but I can also see a stun/root working as well.
Itemization/Stats
Let's be honest, guys. The ONLY reason bears can get away with using 2hs in close range is the fact that they can debuff, stun, and dodge like crazy. Fox can't do that, and they most definitely can't burst people fast enough to make up for that. So what do most foxes do? Use all Str gear to compensate for the class's basic shortcomings (ways to stay alive while in the fight, namely). A class being forced to spec a stat that isn't something their abilities scale on in almost every level just seems wrong to me (cough, bears having zero hit buffs and scaling off a stat that gives no hit %). That said, I like PL's versatility.. I really do! I just want people to viably spec in their class's main stats and items.
Let's discuss! Post questions/comments below.
State of: Foxes (PvP)
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