Elemental Knight Improvements & Changes

[old barn]

EK suffers in term of utility and DPS when compared to DD and AS. But instead of simply buffing the DPS output of EK, I would like to suggest to make it more dynamic and fluid to play, with the goal to reward good gameplay with a boost in DPS output and survivability, and most importantly, making it feels fun and cool to play.

(sorry for the multiple part, i dont have nitro)

1) Changes to the skills

Remove all the Instill skills and just include the bonus into the skills directly (with some further buffs on the numbers).

Dynavolt Smash
Before: Damage – 1800%
After: Damage – 2400%

Blazing Assault Slash
Before: Damage – 1000%
After: Damage – 1500%

Shattering Windmill
Before: Damage – 300%
Shatter Damage – 1200%

After:
Damage – 500%
Shatter Damage – 1500%

2) Change to gameplay mechanics

Using any of Close Combat skills now reduce the cooldown of Elemental Knight skills (-1 second maybe? maybe at link 5/10 too i guess).

Instead of using the Instill skills, which are now removed, players are granted a buff after using Elemental Knight skills (and the graphical effects from the removed Instills, those are cool). The intend is to use these buffs to grant more power to the Close Combat skill set. While actively rotating Close Combat skills to reduce the cooldown on Elemental Knight skills. (you can only have one elemental buffs at a time. Using another skills will overwrite the previous one)

Dynavolt Smash
Using Dynavolt Smash grants “Piercing Thunder” – For 10 seconds, adds 3 piercing and bonus damage to the next Close Combat skill used. Allows the use of Int and Adv lightning magic, casting magic will consume the buff for a fully charged magic

Blazing Assault Slash
Using Blazing Assault Slash grants “Surging Flame” – For 10 seconds, adds splash/range and bonus damage to the next Close Combat skill used. The next used Close Combat skill has a chance to burns the target, reducing their damage and causing damage over time (kind of like red music circles). Allows the use of Int and Adv fire magic, casting magic will consume the buff for a fully charged magic

Shattering Windmill
Using Shattering Windmill grants “Biting Cold” – For 10 seconds, adds bonus damage and slow effect to the next Close Combat skill used. Enemy takes more damage from the next physical attack (similar to rage impact). Allows the use of Int and Adv ice magic, casting magic will consume the buff for a fully charged magic

Dauntless Defense
Using Dauntless Defense grants “Steadfast” – The effect of Dauntless Defense carries on for 5 seconds after use. "Steadfast" will be consumed when players are hit with instant death skills, and reduce player's health to Deadly instead of death. (for example, those stupid death circles and debuff at raids. man those sucks really bad)

General Skill Changes
Allows Dynavolt Smash/Blazing Assault Slash/Shattering Windmill to be used without a target. This would greatly contribute in making EK dynamic and fluid to play, which equals to fun. This also allows you to pre-emptively buffs your next Close Combat skills (idk why one might want to do this, but im sure there will be a niche use of it lol. For example, using Dynavolt Smash as an emergency i-frame maybe? Double BSA leaps does sounds like too much).

I think of EK as the 'beginner'/easiest" arcana, and with these changes, EK might not be the best at DPSing, but it offers survivability, mobility and debuffs with decent DPS for new-ish players as well as people who just like to unga bunga with melee.

That’s my suggestion on how to make EK shinier among the arcanas. the numbers are just a suggestion and sorry for any bad english lmao.

bonus - reuse the Instill skills animation as an idle when equipping the Elemental Knight title

[spark birch]

I like this, especially the part with the skills themselves now giving you the effects of the (rightfully) yeeted infusions. I think additionally the skill cds could stand to be made lower (possibly adjusting the buff durations accordingly?).
the one thing I'm not too sure on is the dauntless defense effect, since its purpose is to counter something that probably shouldn't be in the game to begin with, considering how consistently poorly instant kill attacks are executed in this game -- if they're going to be done lazily and/or without regard for how the limitations of the game engine and client affect gameplay, don't do them at all. with that accounted for, I think some kind of overall tankiness buff (such as dmg reduction or, even cooler? a dmg absorb shield based on the dmg taken during use of the skill) or a cdr effect (reduces remaining cd of ek skills by x seconds), or both, would be better. can have it protect against instant kills when nexon learns how to code instant kills you can actually reliably interact with just by being good

[old barn]

tq for your reply my fellow mabingo enjoyer. Hmm, maybe Dauntless Defense could just get the effect of this technique? instead of applying to party members, it only applies to the player. no one ever use this forgotten technique anyway lmao (to my knowledge) https://wiki.mabinogiworld.com/view/Shield_(Technique)

this would also force nexon to revamp the actual technique to not suck too much 😎

[spark birch]

(actually forgot that existed lol)
honestly you could even give it the party protection part. possibly rescale it to work as a short cd though, like how it currently is.
actually I've hardly even used that technique enough to even remember if it gives stun and knock back immunity or not......

[old barn]

no worries, this technique is THAT forgettable lmaoooo. heres to hoping that nexon staffs actually read and considers these suggestion

[old barn]

on the point of making the skill cds to be lower, im not sure how low one can achieve with all the bonuses (erg/link 10 arcana) + the suggested new mechanic (lower cd by using CC skills). i can see though that it might have the unintended consequence of making EK/CC to be ping dependent like archery 😂

[spark birch]

oh true, maybe just one or the other between lower cd and cdr effect

[gilded sentinel]

Just to let you know they're already planning a EK revamp. that includes skill cooldowns. same with HS. they didn't change the function of the skills though just time cooldowns and increased the dmg

[spare rune]

there are 3~4 seperate updates we've yet to get
1: s5 buff many close combat skills in general and provides some great changes that better allow both EK to be more viable

2: this month in KR (this will be far away for us) crom bas and tech duinn were far more heavily reworked to be far less cursed and physical dps and especially melee is far more viable and work in more situations

3: next month in kr is another dedicated buff to EK but also HS

4: (this is moreso an extension of entry 2) glen bearna is getting reworked with similar principes to entry 2 but also getting an elite mode

in 2 & 4 (tech duinn, crom bas, glen bearna reworks ) they are forcing many enemies who did things instantly to have enforced wind up times and warning as well as attack indicators

and reworking a lot of the more unfair mechanics to be far more fair

as for instills however they did say in the EK rework (kr has yet to get) they are going to rework instills but did not say how yet

[spark birch]

thats great but I like this one

[dawn pilot]

Linking similar Elemental Knight Change suggestions together for ease of convenience:

• https://discord.com/channels/278742874097582081/1222255298895675482
• https://discord.com/channels/278742874097582081/1229274041546702909

[paper tusk]

I think Dynavolt could be faster executed. Dauntless Defense should have a taunt mechanic and not only increase or reflect the damage, but also expand in range when getting hit.

I look up to Sren, the craziest EK