Just when you thought Crossbows couldn't get any bigger than your character in Maplestory, the Ballistician class is here to prove you wrong.
The Ballistician, an Archer class, is an ideal archer role to fill in the empty Job Change slot for Archers who don't want to choose Marksman or Bowmaster as their go-to job change class. The Ballistician wields the mega Crossbow that Marksman can only ever dream of having cover their entire character, the Ballista. Ballisticians attack extremely slowly but the damage is deadly. Many skills disable movement while being used, much like the con of using a realistic Ballista, but that only makes the class more challenging to play than it already is. The Ballista fires bolts in arcs which may leave your character "defenseless" if you fire bolts too high to attack targets that are further away, but thankfully the Ballistician isn't all bite (as seen in the upcoming list of skills).
While bows give a speed boost stat, a Ballista does the opposite and gives a speed debuff due to the weight. All Ballistae give a standard -30 movement speed (basically cancels out Archer Mastery's speed boost, bringing it back to 100% movement speed)
Main Stat: Dex
Secondary Stat: STR
(Main) Weapon: Ballista ("SLOWER (9)" Attack Speed)
(Secondary) Weapon: Ballista Mount (not an actual riding mount but the thing that stands it up and allows easier aiming)
Skills (2nd job example)
Ballista Reinforcement Max Lv:1 (Passive)
Adds wheels to the ballista for easier movement and fortifies the area around the ballista. Movement speed +10 Max Movement 140.
Damage Intake - 10%
Aiming Max Lv:1 (passive) While equipped with a ballista, holding shift + directional keys up and down will raise or lower the ballista's angle of fire. While the ballista is aimed higher than 45 degrees (80 degrees max), damage intake -10%. While the ballista is aimed lower than 46 degrees (10 degrees minimum), damage dealt is increased by up to 35% (+1% damage per 1 less degree starting at a 45 degree angle; the lower the angle the more damage dealt)
Ballista: Mastery Max Lv:10
Ballista Mastery +50%
Ballista Booster: Max lv:10
Increases ballista firing speed by 2
Soul Arrow: Ballista Bolts Max Lv 20
For x seconds consume no ballista bolts (ballista projectiles).
Detonating Barrage: Max Lv: 20 Hold the skill key to launch a single explosive bolt at a designated location. Delay: about 2.5 delay with default attack speed and approx -.2 second delay per additional attack speed. (Can't move while riding)
Damage: 600% damage upon impact up to 3 enemies in range. Explodes after 1 second upon impact and deals 220% splash damage 2 times on 6 enemies.
Final Attack: Ballista Max Lv: 20
Proc Rate: 40, Damage 200%
Ballista Charge: Max Lv:10
Using the commands <<(left) or (right)>>, Dash and ram the reinforced ballista to knockback enemies
Physical Training (Passive) Max Lv: 5
STR+30, Dex + 30, Movement speed + 10.
Feedback?
I'm trying to not describe it as a Wild Hunter clone despite a few similarities, specifically the mounting part, so please don't point out what's already been said.
Edit: Changed the "Riding" part to simply changing the visual of the ballista to have wheels for easier movement.
Comments
This could honestly make a good bossing class of archer IMO
Maybe add in a skill with those molten rock throwing catapults?
I would almost imagine having the ballista rolling behind or in front of your character, instead of actually carrying it around.
Interesting concept, but unless that class gets a crap ton of attack speed, I wouldn't advise having it start at 9. 8 should be the lowest.
That could be the lv 170 hyper attack skill or a 5th job since it would be over powered to have like 80 arrows hit the entire map.
Hmm, maybe it could work like one of those RWBY weapons where it just folds into itself and breaks physics and then when in combat it unfolds into a ride-able ballista on wheels, like a mount?
About the attack speed thing, I'm thinking Ballisticians would have a hold down bossing skill where it looks like Arrow Platter, so maybe it wouldn't matter? Mobbing with only a basic +2 speed boost (booster plus another self buff that gives +1 attack speed) wouldn't be too bad, it'd be like playing Cannoneer before Nexon gave him 3 red bulls, and it'd be up to the player to obtain additional Atk Speed boosts from potions abilities and what not. They could do what they did with 2 handed axes and blunt weapons by giving all lv. 100+ ballistae +1 attack speed stage higher than the ballistae below level 100, but I kind of intended to design the class as a slow attacking class to add uniqueness to it as being the "slowest" attacker in Maple, despite being publicly viewed as a trash aspect, because the class would also deal the most damage per shot.
Just my two cents, but I'd recommend building it as a class with slow attacks that deal a lot of damage, but also a crap ton of lines to make up for it being slow. It makes sense too, I don't care if you're Lucid or the Black Mage. Getting impaled on a giant ballista bolt would hurt.
Just a fun skill I just thought up would be having a skill where you shoot a bolt/quarry that explodes into smaller bolts upon impact. It'd be a slow attack, but there would be a lot of lines.
I could see the lines being something like: Main bolt deals 450% 10 times, smaller bolts would deal 300% 5 times (assuming there's 5 smaller bolts)
As a MapleStory class, their functioning can be similar to how the Mechanic class works. When the player needs to engage in combat, the Ballista must be active in order to use their skills.
Nexon also has something like this in the past, with that being one of the moon bunny events where you were forced to operate a ballista and shoot balloons. Here's an image I found while googling the past events:
Ooh but what if it was like that Hwacha thing that allows you to spam hurricane for 80~ shots and have a "reload" cooldown?
[Saturn Barrage] (Derived from Saturn Missiles): Modify the ballista to fire 30 shots continuously at around 3 shots/second (rate of fire not in description). Let go of the skill to stop attacking. Any remaining arrows decreases the time to reload the skill. [Passive]: Reload 1 arrow for the Saturn Barrage skill every second.
We could go with a "Snipe" alternative, however, with the aiming requirement the class needs it would be kind of hard to perfectly aim a single shot bossing skill that could miss- but i think if we allowed the Ballistician to see where he was aiming by dimming the screen except for a slim arc-shaped line that allowed you to see where the arrow was going to land, it would be easier to implement.
I actually based this suggestion from Fire Emblem since it was one of my favorite games.
I also really wanted the ballistician to operate as a mount rider but didn't want it to be too similar to mech or wild hunter. But if people are fine with it being a mounted attacker then I would be willing to describe the class as more of one. (it also fixes the problem where the Ballista is located on the character. Simply, it only appears when mounted)
Unfortunately that's not really how Hwacha's work. It's just a ballista that fires multiple bolts at the same time. I don't think that we need another hurricane archer, we already have plenty of them.