Rate That Class! Week 3

[Assailant]

Let's try to spice up the forums with a little rating game. It'll go by week. Week 3 will be...the Blackbelt!

Ranger: 7.8
Red Mage: 5.58

Rate (out of 10) in:

Solo Ability
Partying
Fun Factor

And then of course, average them together for an overall. I'll start.

Oct 1, 2009 18:46:08 GMT -6 Sur Realis said:

On a side note, Assa, why do you rate so highly for classes?

*shrugs*

Solo Ability: Um, well they do have a good hp gain. They do get Mantra. They really aren't for soloing though. They aren't all that fast, and they don't have the best armor in the world. As far as trying to solo bosses, have fun. 4/10

Partying: They're decent here I suppose. Bear Strength and Rush Attack is pretty good for killing smalls when training at the Monastery. They're usually pretty powerful in all parties before training near ToTE. 6/10

Fun Factor: Well I can't solo bosses. I can live without that I guess. What I can't live without is being able to train relatively quickly by myself. 5/10

Overall: 5

[Kumog]

Black Belt

Solo Ability - Out of the melees, they've got some good resilience if you build them right, however endgame their soloing is laughable. They CAN solo bosses (as shown by Captain Kangaroo beating down Grygasz, but it took lv 42 to manage it.) 6/10

Partying - Boost 3 makes Black Belt go crazy good, especially with their number of hits. Pretty good teammate in a good party now that the extra hits aren't junk. 8/10

Fun Factor - We get to Kamehameha imps. 8/10

Overall: 7/10

[Takahashi]

-= Black Belts =-

Soloing Ability:

Early on a BB's ability to solo depends largely on two things: Mantra (having it is good, not having it is not good) and durability (both in terms of defense and evasion). Mantra is a great help, allowing for a considerable amount of HP restoration per use. Once you learn Inner Will it can be used even more often. Admittedly it's no Cure 3 but it puts a BB solidly ahead of a Thief, Knight or Fighter when it comes to surviving.

In terms of durability, a BB's natural defense is lacking for most of the game; it's not until around TotE that their natural +3 vit a level translates into being able to absorb hits about as well as any heavy armor wearer aside from a Knight. Having a relatively low loss of evasion due to only having two armor slots is good, but without points put into agility a BB will still have a hard time avoiding physical damage as you get further into the game.

Compared to the four Mages and Dragoons (definitely) or Rangers (usually), BBs can't last as long on their own. Compared to every other class though, a BB has an edge due to Mantra. So overall, they're not great nor bad, just a little above average (i.e., a 6/10).

Partying:

Black Belts are relatively low-maintenance; a Barrier and/or Boost tends to be more than enough to ensure a BB can contribute to a party. Their mix of high natural attack speed (no weapon means not losing 4-8 levels of attack speed) and high natural HP growth (second best behind only Fighters) means you have a class that can consistently hit its target. That again means all a BB needs is damage augmentation (Boost gives better increases while Bear Strength protects against Weak in return for a lower damage increase).

A BB is never clearly essential for a party, but they're also never a serious detriment. As such, I give Black Belts a solid (if unimpressive) 7/10.

Fun Factor:

Once the novelty of AURABEEEEEEEEEM~ wears off, you're left with a class that is fairly pedestrian unless you're a martial arts nut. Pummel is a decent way to guarantee you hit your target, and with Inner Will it costs next to nothing to use. Rush Attack is good for when you absolutely have to hit your target and don't mind a damage penalty. Bum Rush... is also in a Black Belt's movelist, and I'll leave it at that.

To digress a bit, if you're a martial arts nut you can't go wrong with a Black Belt. The only thing missing is some sort of kicking attack, really. If you're not though, you might lose interest since again, there isn't a lot of flash when you play as a Black Belt aside from Aurabolt. I'm rather fond of Black Belt, enough so to where I place it above any other class on the fun factor scale. 10/10 to be sure.

[Sur Realis]

Mm... Black Belt.

Solo Ability AND Partying - Black Belts are in my opinion honestly INB4 FLAMING the only class that actually competes with the Thief in flat out suckiness. Of course, this is highly debatable; Black Belts have far more utility than the Thief, but for everything the Black Belt can do, another class does it better. Mantra? Cure. Aurabolt? Harm(Psychostorm, with the silly change of late). Rush Attack? Defonce. In fact, there are even times where I'd say the Thief is better than the Black Belt.

As Taka mentioned, it is not until late game that the Black Belt's Vitality makes up for their lack of armor; in reality, and even Taka has said so before, this does not actually happen until the late 60s. Currently, this amounts to around 15 levels of pure grinding at ToTE. Their only saving grace, then, is Mantra; which is still better than the Thief, but often it's not enough. If a Black Belt has to use Mantra, then chances are that Black Belt will spend more time defending for MP to use Mantra than actually attacking; limiting the Black Belt's only attacking to Counter, entirely luck based. Like a Thief. Black Belts are of the faster classes, but I've proven that Agility does nothing past turn order. Middle Demons, in ToTE, will always hit someone no matter what until they have more than 220 Agility. MORE. To dodge a Middle Demon 100% of the time a person would need over 4,000 Agility. Even Bolt, the so-called "King" of Thieves, known for his Agility-based build (and being a stupid fu-- I mean, hi Bolt ) will have roughly a 44% chance to dodge a Middle Demon with Hide active. That's pretty dismal. Most ever enemy in ToTE has similar attack speed, so even an Agi-centered Black Belt will rarely actually dodge attacks. Past the ability to go sooner, their agility does not really do much to help their survivability; not to mention Vitality being less-than-acceptable until later levels, Mantra just simply is not enough to survive at times.

This is where I would have to disagree with Taka about Black Belts being low maintenance. Every class except Dragoons are high-maintenance, when you get down to the dirt. Dragoons are the only class that has a reliable source of survivability, that far outpaces other classes. Considering the Black Belt's low WP gain, Mantra is hardly enough by the time they actually get it; by Level 30, in Ice Caves? All it will do is prolong death. This combined with their fairly low attack makes it almost as painful as Thieves to deal damage. (Pummel will only add about as much damage as Backstab; however, Pummel does have that 1/50 chance that it will be a MORTAL WOUND and deal far more damage.. which isn't good enough to rely on). The rest of their skills are very situational. Rush Attack is the only other skill I've actually seen used, and mainly for Dust Devils or Air Elementals. The Black Belt will have to waste MP to hit these, while the Thief can actually brute force their way into hitting them, with their naturally.. uh, godly dexterity?

Bear Strength, I will have to say, is the least useful skill ever. Even Thieves get more out of camouflage. Speaking of camo, Kija did you remove it from Sur Realis' skill list yet? I don't want to accidentally use it anymore. While the ability to buff themselves would normally be an excellent augment, it, in my opinion, is not worth the 6 MP. You can actually get more damage from that many pummels instead. Perhaps the only time it has any use is Mona, simply because of the free MP refill.

Ultimately, I feel the Black Belt is luck based, similar to the Thief; the lucky bastards (ie. Kumogfag) will counter every enemy that attacks them; the unlucky people (me) will absolutely suck. In my opinion, they rival the Thief in suckiness. Their extra utility is very situational and more often than not simply prolongs death or could be replicated by every other class in some form (Chop, Frenzy, Jump, Hide/Backstab vs. Rush Attack), (Chop, Slash/Retort, Jump, Hide/Backstab vs. Pummel). The main thing that makes the Black Belt unique is the passive Counter. Not as good as Retort, but it is always active once it is gained, and therefore they were the only class that could solo during a crash.

Score - 4/10

Fun Factor - Again, fun factor here depends. The Black Belt and Thief fun factor is related to Dragoon and Ranger fun fact, really; you can say the Black Belt is to a Ranger as a Thief is to a Dragoon. Those that find Rangers and Dragoons cheap and crappy might actually enjoy the Thief and Black Belt, and vice versa. Personally, I'm a bit in the middle.

Score - 6/10

FINAL SCORE - 5/10

[Kyou]

Tch Realis is too hung up on the agility at ToTE being useless (which I disagree on if you have fast and slow spells at your disposal), not everything is a middle demon, and up till mona, agility is one of the best defensive attributes you can use.

as for BBs
Solo ability - depends on the build. Agility will keep you alive through many fights in the game, till you hit the later parts of IC. Another way to go is to add on to that already impressive Vitality growth. Mantra is nice too, however its extremely expensive till you get inner will, and while you have to defend untill you can mantra again its still an improvement over the other melee classes who can ONLY defend or rely on a cure from someone else. Countering is a good bonus too. As long as your not ambushed, blasted by magic, or fighting a boss fight, you should be fine on your own, of course, only Dragoons and Blues can expect to handle those scenarios with ease. But less than 4 enemies? No problem 7/10

Partying - I think they're great for partying, not as strong as a knight, but I'd put them in second place as far as damage goes untill the better weapons are available (well, third behind jump). Bear Strength, while expensive, is the second best damage augmenter in the game (boost 3 wins out) and can't be removed with weak. It also a frees up a turn for your party. Same can be said with Mantra, being able to cure yourself keeps your mages on the offensive, or buffing, or healing someone else in dire need. 8/10

Fun Factor - Probably on of the strongest classes early on, and Aurabolt has its moment (imps and the golems in DM). About mid way you get countering, which is nice. Later on it kinda sucks, because all your skills are expensive. But then you get Inner Will (best ability for BB imo) and its fun again as Mantra only costs 2 MP, and Pummel replaces your normal attack with only 1 MP cost. Rush Attack is handy in IC, and I use Bum Rush to 1HKO ES's and other insanely fast creatures of the PoP. I've always enjoyed BB's 9/10

Overall 8/10

I'll add the 2 that were already done when we've finished the last one.

[Taterz]

solo 5/10

unfortunately the kamehameha wave isn't enough to kill things dead. i never took a BB to the PoP, but judging from the previous statements i'd say yea, the defense is an issue until endgame. plus the good old fashioned lolmagichitzu so hp will surely whittle down to remove your bear strength.

party 6/10

bear strength + rush attack is pretty much the only reason i give them a 6. they're like rangers in that their defense stays low for quite some time until you give it the work needed to pay off. however being able to pretty much guarantee a row dies is pretty awesome.

fun 10/10

dude, you get to punch things, you can even punch the damn air! 10 here, no doubt.

[Speedy mc Speedy, Infamous DG2]

Solo Ability -
Good stats, powerful punches, decent agility. All around good characters if nobody is on to help you drive enemy faces into the ground.

Partying
With the fact they can hold up they're on, dodge a few attacks, and do great damage, BB's are peices of a party that should not often be passed up.

Fun Factor
Heheheeeeh. HADOU-Shot-

[glow=red,2,300]Rating - 8/10[/glow]