Arcane Legends Skill System Feedback Wanted!

[GoodSyntax]

Hi everyone!

First, an introduction: I'm Fibus and I'm a Senior Game Designer here at Spacetime. I've been here for about a year now and in that time, I've worked on many of the AL features that you have all enjoyed. Going forward, I hope to continue that trend. One of my current projects is the AL Skills System update, which brings me to the focus of this post...

Over the last 2 years, Arcane Legends has grown and developed with tons of new content and changes. Now, we are taking the time to look back at what we have done and see how we can improve. As we have announced (read more at: http://www.spacetimestudios.com/show...s-Skill-System), on part of the game we're taking a look at is the skill system, including all of the various class skills. While we have certain metrics that we can look at to analyze skill usage, it is also important to get feedback directly from the community, since numbers don't come accompanied with explanations. We want to know how these skills feel to you as part of your builds.

So, we would love for you all to tell us what you like or dislike about your class' skills. Providing any explanations with your answers would be extremely helpful!

• What class do you primarily play?
• What are your current builds for PvE? PvP? (If your builds are precious to you, I also accept private messages )
• Which skills/upgrades do you like using and why?
• Which skills/upgrades do you dislike using and why?
• Any additional information you want to tell us (but please try to keep it skills related)

To get this thread back on track, here are my thoughts on the various Rogue skills:

Shadow Piercer
Good skill to have, great for jumping across a map, evading boss windups and general damage (in uncharged form). Upgrades, for the most part have little value, so most Rogues just unlock the skill and use their points elsewhere.

• Gouging Rush - Not a useful skill at all for elite or PvE focused builds. No value in PvP either, so this is a throwaway upgrade that very, very few people actually use.
• Shadow Absorption - I don't PvP anymore, so the possibility of a 10% heal in Elite Tindirin is laughable when you are getting one hit by scorns, shamans, snakes, etc. I get it that you need to balance PvP with PvE, but I would prefer a 25% heal in PvE and a 10% heal in PvP; at least that way, this upgrade would be a bit more enticing for elite-only builds.
• Rising Death - The added damage from this skill upgrade honestly isn't worth the skill point. I see people using this upgrade once in a while, but I can think of a dozen other places where a skill point would be better used. If this also cast a snare or stun, then, it would be an interesting upgrade.
• Leading Dagger - The 3-hit upgrade isn't very effective in elite, since it generally gets people into trouble by piercing into a mob, hitting a second mob, then returning back to the first mob just as he is winding up. Another issue with the 3-hit upgrade is that it usually causes you to aggro mobs nearby which you don't want to aggro. So, for elite, this upgrade is nothing but trouble. A better option would be to 3-hit the same target. At least this way, it is a sacrifice, because you lose the evasion aspect of pierce, which gets you out of boss windups, but you get 3x DMG in return.

Noxious Bolt
The best AoE damage skill that a Rogue has! Other than the Serrated Arrowhead upgrade working the wrong way (by taking away DMG instead of adding to it), this is a must-have skill for every PvE Rogue! The only upgrade I would like to see is a larger radius and increased number of affected targets (likely through a tree-style upgrade, so you have to unlock Strengthened Shot first).

• Lingering Poison - Super useful for solo Rogues. This upgrade almost requires the Fragmentation upgrade, since the two are so complimentary.
• Strengthened Shot - Again, a basic staple for solo Rogues. To be honest, I wish we would upgrade this further, but excellent as it currently stands.
• Fragmentation - Complimentary upgrade with Lingering Poison, a must have for elite runners.
• Serrated Arrowhead - This skill is bugged! Instead of adding damage it is taking away damage. Not sure what to say about an upgrade that costs a skill point to reduce damage...

Razor Shield
A good skill to use. Has value in PvP and PvE. Main drawbacks are the long cooldown and, depending on upgrades, can be an aggro magnet in elite.

• Whirling Razors - For the most part, you pick up Razor for this upgrade in particular.
• Bleeding Cuts - This is the aggro magnet upgrade. Bleed does very little damage in return for making everything in the map hate you. This upgrade is used on blender builds, but it is nothing but trouble in endgame elites.
• Increased Duration - This upgrade is bugged! Add this upgrade removes the benefits of the Spinning Freedom upgrade, so, effectively, these two skills are mutually exclusive.
• Spinning Freedom - Great upgrade that is useful in both PvP and PvE (especially in Nordr and Tindirin)

Aimed Shot
Any endgame Rogue, PvP or PvE, that does not use this skill with all upgrades needs to respec.

• Accuracy - Yes!
• Critical Shot - Yes!
• Deadly Focus - Yes!
• Shatter Armor - Yes!

Entangling Trap
I know some Rogues that use this skill effectively, unfortunately I am not one of them. It is just hard for me to justify using, what is effectively a crowd control skill, when the most important aspect of this skill can be so infrequent.

• Adept Construction - Great upgrade if you are a Trap user. Personally, I would like this to be a higher chance, thereby making this upgrade a bit more worthwhile.
• Razor Wire - This upgrade has limited value, since bleed does so little damage and causes so much aggro.
• Combustion Tank - Useless upgrade. I honestly think an auto attack does more damage in almost all scenarios. A far better option would be an AoE stun with an AoE poison.
• Net Retraction - THIS is the reason why you spec this skill in the first place. Unfortunately, the pull is unreliable and infrequent. I would really like to see this be a 50% or 75% chance of a pull.

Shadow Storm Shot
Completely useless skill. Only worth considering for Rogues at lv15 or lower that do not PvP and primarily run tombs. Miniscule damage in endgame elite, so if you see someone running elite with this skill, leave the map!

• Spreading Shadow - Not worthwhile because the damage from this skill is pathetically low and doesn't affect enough targets as it is.
• Shadow Focus - Because the base damage is so low, adding 25% more on critical doesn't help much, so this would be a waste of a skill point.
• Dark Damage - I use this upgrade on my lv15 Tombs Rogue, but honestly, even if it were 40%, the damage from this skill doesn't approach what you get from Pierce, Nox or Aimed.
• Shadow Touch - Again, I use this upgrade on my lv15 Tombs Rogue, and it is somewhat effective if I can group enough mobs together, but even still, it feels like I'm just throwing mashed potatoes instead of an "arcane arrow of darkness"

Shadow Veil
An extremely useful party buff best used in pure, elite parties. Unfortunately, with the inability of the system to correctly stack DMG and Armor buffs, elixirs completely wipe out all value of this skill.

• Masked Presence - Terrific upgrade! But, this upgrade cancels out armor passives, and elixirs will cancel out this upgrade, so again, best used when running elites pure.
• Combusting Decay - See Combustion Tank upgrade on Entangling Trap.
• Shadow Absorption - Terrific upgrade! Again, cancels out DMG passives, and will be cancelled by any DMG elixir. In a pure environment, this and Masked Presence are the primary reasons for getting Veil in the first place.
• Lingering Fumes - Because this skill has such a LONG cooldown, this upgrade is almost a necessity.

Combat Medic
This is a PvP focused skill, it has absolutely no value in elites. No pure PvE Rogue would ever use this skill. My biggest gripe with this skill is the scattered, random locations of where the packs end up falling. One would think that a Rogue with pinpoint accuracy would figure out how to take some packs out of her pocket without making it a game of pick-up-sticks.

• Effective Packs - Terrific upgrade that is a requirement of any PvP centered build.
• Trauma Surgeon - Another great upgrade for PvP Rogues. Gives you just enough of an HP recharge to go and find the packs that scattered all over the place.
• Extra Packs - If you choose to get Combat Medic for PvP and you don't get this upgrade, I'm not sure where you are putting the skill point. This is an essential upgrade.
• Good Medicine - Many PvP Rogues use this upgrade. I, personally, never did when I was PvPing, since the other upgrades provide about 100% HP anyway. If you are taking that much of a pounding that you think you need this upgrade, you are probably just putting off the inevitable.