Ambush revison.

[Classikal]

-Grants an accuracy bonus to melee and ranged attacks from behind an enemy.

-Each additional increase placed into Ambush increases melee and ranged accuracy by 3, up to 15 with full merits.

Having an accuracy bonus from behind a mob could be some what nice under certain situational aspects of the game, but under 90% of the things you would do you would be better off with merits into something else.

An accuracy bonus from behind a mob is somewhat redundant on THF since Sneak Attack and Trick Attack provide almost a 100% accuracy bonus.

And as far as melee strikes go, I have plenty of other ways to enhance my accuracy to the point that one of the other Tier 2 merits would easily benefit me more to merit them over Ambush.

You have Assassin's Charge which give you an automatic Triple Attack every 15 min(or less with merits).

Feint, which gives a huge drop in the mobs evasion for a small period of time.

Aura Steal, which allows me to attempt to steal a buff from a mobs every 15 min(or less with merits).

Any of these other 3 Tier 2 merits would be much more valuable to go into than Ambush.

What I wanted to propose was, what if you changed it to provide an attack bonus, critical hit or critical hit damage bonus instead of an accuracy bonus? At that point it would easily make it comparable to the other 3 merits category choices, you could tweak the attack bonus so it's not too over-powered. Anything but accuracy would probably make it a lot more worthwhile than it is at the moment.

Now you don't need to use my idea exactly, it's only a thought. But I really do believe Ambush needs a revision of some kind, because at the moment it is a very mediocre job trait.

[Insaniac]

I agree. Ambush is a poop merit. If I were to change it to something reasonable that some people might actually merit..

Option 1: Works just like overwhelm but from behind the mob or behind a party member.
Option 2: +2% crit rate and damage when behind the mob per merit.

[Classikal]

I agree. Ambush is a poop merit. If I were to change it to something reasonable that some people might actually merit..

Option 1: Works just like overwhelm but from behind the mob or behind a party member.
Option 2: +2% crit rate and damage when behind the mob per merit.

Option 2 isn't too bad an idea, Option 1 might be a bit much though seeing as how THF already has a damage bonus move from behind. It's called Sneak Attack. Though I wouldn't mind having more damage bonus, I highly doubt they would do that.

[Mavrick]

Option 2 isn't too bad an idea, Option 1 might be a bit much though seeing as how THF already has a damage bonus move from behind. It's called Sneak Attack. Though I wouldn't mind having more damage bonus, I highly doubt they would do that.

Well how about this:

Turn Ambush into a job ability

Ambush
Recast: 3:00

Disc: Lowers target's critical defense and critical evasion.

Each additional merit increases the potency of effect by 1%.
Base Critical Defense Down -5% (caps at -9%)
Base Critical Evasion Down -5% (caps at -9%)

Notes:
- Duration of effects: ~90s

- Ambush does not deal any damage.

- The accuracy of Ambush (like dancer's "Steps") is dependent on the THF's main hand weapon and target's evasion.

- Ambush Stacks with Sneak Attack and Trick Attack.

- When paired with Sneak Attack, the potency of "Critical Defense Down" is doubled.
ie: Critical Defense Down-9% will become Critical Defense Down-18%. (Thus the target
will take +18% more damage from critical hits.)

- When paired with Trick Attack, the potency of "Critical Evasion Down" is doubled.
ie: Critical Evasion Down-9% will become Critical Evasion Down-18%.

- Since Ambush does not deal any damage, stacking it with Sneak/Trick attack means the THF would be sacrificing the damage and enmity transfer bonuses originally offered by SA/TA. I think its a fair trade off for increasing critical hit rate and damage for party members by a significant amount. And would allow THF to stand out more in serious battles.

Ok.... maybe critical eva-18% and critical defense-18% is too powerful, if so the potency of effects could be lowered to something still meaning full like ~12.5%.

[Yarly]

Aura Steal, which allows me to attempt to steal a buff from a mobs every 15 min(or less with merits).

attempt every 5minutes, and chance to steal increases with more merits but will at least dispel an effect.

[Babekeke]

They were obviously low on ideas for THF tier 2 merits.... and it was probably a friday afternoon, the team had been told THF merits had to be finished by the end of the week. Someone said how about an accuracy bonus from behind? The sensible guy pipes up with "don't THF have enough trouble trying to get behind a mob for Sneak Attack, without giving them a merit trait that requires positioning", but the team leader told him to shut up and said it will have to do.

[Karbuncle]

I have an Idea! No.. No wait, no i don't.

That said, I like Maverick's Idea. Its clean... Helps out the entire party, Seems really nice. I look forward to never getting it.

[Saiken253]

Kinda sad that what you said, karbuncle, has become our mentality with this game T-T