Multishot Timer

[Capita]

Hey Devs.

The new Multishot is extremely counterintuitive. Nocking one arrow every 15 seconds is quite tedious in practice.

Multishot > wait 15 seconds > Multishot

It's not fun at all. Why not just make it like Trifurcate and instantly nock both arrows, but put a 30 second timer on it? Considering the majority of us use Multishot as an opener, it would be much easier to just hit the button once and then buff up instead of hitting it once, buffing up, and hitting it again. The 30 second timer would still prevent people from spamming it mid-combat.

I understand this would make it like Trifurcate, but Trifurcate's long timer duration sets Multishot and Trifurcate far enough apart that Trifurcate will still be useful for the extra DPS on tougher mobs.

[Serdapi]

Are Archers really complaining about a 15sec recast double attack? You 30sec recast on triple attack would be a nerf from the current set up. In 30seconds currently I can fire 4 arrows, with your way I can only fire 3. If you are pulling with Multishot now, its pulling like with barrage from ffxi. They changed the way hate works so starting with Multishot isn't as smart anymore.

Think of the alternative, they could have removed Multishot from the game. Multishot is not the end all be all of Archer, we are still the top DD class and got our ws dmg buffed. Also if you are hitting Multishot + buff then waiting to hit Multishot again you are slowing your DPS. Archers were not nerffed.

[Capita]

Are Archers really complaining about a 15sec recast double attack? You 30sec recast on triple attack would be a nerf from the current set up. In 30seconds currently I can fire 4 arrows, with your way I can only fire 3. If you are pulling with Multishot now, its pulling like with barrage from ffxi. They changed the way hate works so starting with Multishot isn't as smart anymore.

Think of the alternative, they could have removed Multishot from the game. Multishot is not the end all be all of Archer, we are still the top DD class and got our ws dmg buffed. Also if you are hitting Multishot + buff then waiting to hit Multishot again you are slowing your DPS. Archers were not nerffed.

It's more for solo play, really. It's our opener. I don't know any ARC who didn't open with Multishot. That's also the tradeoff. Pressing it once for a triple attack every 30 seconds and getting rid of the double attack every 15. Yeah, it'll be a nerf, but wasn't that the whole point of putting such a timer on it in the first place? It'll be a nerf to party play, sure. ARCs had trouble managing aggro anyway. It'll allow us to control DPS to something more manageable, while also taking away the tedium of having to wait 15 seconds to press it again while waiting to open on a mob in solo play.

[Bethor]

Are the archers still getting a huge fuckload of hate while using buffs mid-fight? ~_~

[Capita]

Idk. Haven't played in a party yet.

Anyway, main reason for this is that I've always hated how Multishot worked. It's 3 shots, sure. But you use 3 abilities to do it anyway (Multishot, Multishot, Light Shot). Every other game I've ever played that had a Multishot was one button, fairly long cooldown relative to other offensive abilities, fires 3 shots. 3 abilities to use an ability that shoots 3 times is extremely counterintuitive.

The only advantage it had over just firing 3 Light Shots manually is that you could use those 3 shots before the fight even began, thus making it an opener. Of course, on-hit buffs affecting every shot was great too, but if you buffed and nocked arrows midfight while soloing, you'd take even more hits than if you were to just spam Puncture until the mob died.

And before someone comes in and says, "hurdurr pressing 1 button to nock both arrows makes it ezmode," how many times did you actually use Multishot manually before you made a macro to nock both arrows for you?

[Serdapi]

Haven't played in a party yet

This is the main problem with your statements. Yes for solo play Archer might have taken a hit, but for solo play cures are now to mp demanding. So if you are playing solo it does hurt your ability to do so, but this is a multiplayer game, its meant to be played in groups for the most part. Yes this does hurt your ability to solo but it doesn't stop you completely.

Balancing a class for solo play usually is not as hard as balancing for party play. Archer is meant for party play and so far in this patch I have not seen anything done to hurt Archer in that way. Heck we can even run away easily now with the way Quickstride works.

Archers at 50 in a party had no problem with hate before the patch unless you were spamming self buffs like a mad man. Now they've made it easy on you by showing you were you stand on the hate list pretty much.

[Capita]

This is the main problem with your statements. Yes for solo play Archer might have taken a hit, but for solo play cures are now to mp demanding. So if you are playing solo it does hurt your ability to do so, but this is a multiplayer game, its meant to be played in groups for the most part. Yes this does hurt your ability to solo but it doesn't stop you completely.

Balancing a class for solo play usually is not as hard as balancing for party play. Archer is meant for party play and so far in this patch I have not seen anything done to hurt Archer in that way. Heck we can even run away easily now with the way Quickstride works.

Archers at 50 in a party had no problem with hate before the patch unless you were spamming self buffs like a mad man. Now they've made it easy on you by showing you were you stand on the hate list pretty much.

Yes, I'm aware that this is a multiplayer game. I played FFXI hardcore since it was released, so I'm quite acquainted with party mechanics. That said, I'm no longer a teenager and I have a lot more responsibilities now, so a lot of the time I have no choice but to solo. Believe me, if I could party, I would. I much prefer it over soloing.

But I would like some form of balance, not just with solo and party performance, but with the tedium. Like I said, my worry was never about this so-called "nerf," since I don't actually believe we were nerfed. I just really dislike the Multishot mechanism this game uses.

Ah well, it's not like we can't work around it like we did in FFXI with /ra. But having to make a macro for something to function equally for both solo and party roles is just putting a band-aid on the problem.