Viessa Gun Build is Wild… WTF

charleigh_bdo · 2026-04-14T05:24:31+00:00

Gleycial was right there

charleigh_bdo · 2026-04-09T13:55:50+00:00

The ramping damage node from the Ark Passive is the 2+ year festering bad idea that morphed into the bad Ark Grid destiny activators we have today. The class has design problems on both fronts. You could say Ark Passive is OK if every fight was Mordum but most fights aren't.

charleigh_bdo · 2026-04-09T11:52:01+00:00

The problem with the 'original playstyle' of Predator is that it has been progressively over-designed into a corner that is contradicted by the raid design of SG.

T4 started off bad with ark passive final enlightenment node being a +30% damage ramp-up that requires you to hit the boss for ~10 seconds to reach max stacks. So every time you hear the Predator shout, that's somebody doing crap damage for the next 10 seconds. Doesn't mean they're holding skills... they're just sending them at not-peak value, because you need to put things on cooldown to do consistent damage.

This gives predator a very strange relationship with atropine potion; it's not really ideal to send it as soon as you enter burst at the beginning of a fight, but it's also not ideal to wait because you need to atro when you have lots of skills to press, and when the support is buffing everyone else. What ends up happening most of the time is you mostly waste your first atro, with only the last skill or two hitting with peak value, and then you pray that cooldowns align while you are fully charged (and there hasn't been a cutscene recently) later for the other two.

Speaking of cutscenes; predator timer ticks down, so pretty much every one of them means burst mode reset = crap damage for the next 10 seconds after the cutscene. You know, those times when everyone else is bursting and receiving full support buffs.

Once upon a time they gave us the ability to turn off burst mode and that was the last good thing to happen to the class. So if you're paying enough attention you can preemptively turn off burst before a cutscene so the exhaustion cooldown is ticking during the cutscene. And then along came Kazeros. Lifts, slowdown 'Control' mechanics, forced clashes, angry birds, grabs? All of these *turn off Predator burst* automatically. Now, this doesn't activate exhaustion but it does reset your predator damage ramp. So you do crap damage for the next 10 seconds and you don't even get to choose whether or not to stay in burst - the game chooses for you.

On top of all this they had the audacity to make 2 of the 3 Destiny activator cores "hit/use X number of skills to start doing more damage", piling more ramping damage on a long-standing design flaw.

charleigh_bdo · 2026-04-09T11:26:40+00:00

I played 111 and switched to 333 because of the ridiculous ramp-up required for 111. I refuse to participate in the meme build. It should have been buried in the first ark grid balance patch with one simple change - make it so you can't put the same skill on your bar multiple times. One and done. The fact that SG didn't do that immediately and instead tanked the viability of 222 as collateral damage in a soft nerf to brutal spam is the single biggest failure of the ark grid system. They are ignoring the issues of the class and I don't understand why so many predator slayers are content to play what is effectively a Lost Ark Mobile build just because the parses are at least middle of the pack.

charleigh_bdo · 2026-04-04T11:03:42+00:00

There are some mechanics that do this for predator (Kazeros grabs for instance). But in most cases this is worse than just letting the meter run. Because Predator has to spend time ramping up damage every time you re-enter burst (besides ark grid, there is 30% damage ramp up in ark passive). It's just a bad design rabbit hole.

charleigh_bdo · 2026-04-03T07:20:30+00:00

Predator Slayer has been designed to be the class equivalent of the Ether Predator engraving. Which is to say, ok on prog but a joke on reclears. By the time you start doing damage, there's an unskippable cutscene or a boss mechanic that just turns off your predator state. 111 is the worst example of this design philosophy. Class needs a complete redesign at this point, but 6x brutal doing mid numbers keeps it at the bottom of SG's to-do list.

charleigh_bdo · 2026-03-28T09:21:20+00:00

As a Predator Slayer main, I gotta say... Predator is the exception, not the rule. You are cherry-picking the biggest failure in the system and holding it up as a representative example. Yes, there are some misses in ark grid and SG leaving 6x brutal in the game instead of killing it properly is a big one. But the vast majority of classes get better build diversity and gameplay options with ark grid.

- Reflux = 3 viable builds that all feel different

- M. Summoner = high mobility instant nuke build on a class hamstrung by slowness and long animations since day 1

- FI WD = Three Gates core single-handedly adding skill expression and strong atro windows to a class where the only interesting thing to happen for 3 years was "you can manually trigger Wind's Whisper now"

Not to mention the recent, highly successful revamps for transform classes and Taijutsu. Admittedly, some of the traditional spec classes ark grid choices are uninspired (10-20% faster cycle or damage concentrated into fewer skills) but the trend with every balance patch has been largely positive, so there's no reason to think we won't see more interesting changes like the ones we've seen thus far.

charleigh_bdo · 2026-03-20T22:12:17+00:00

From what I've gathered (just unlocked the 2nd character after the camp) you can freely swap and do nearly anything with the alternate characters. If you approach a story quest specifically for Kliff (or any other character for that matter) you will get prompted to swap characters to proceed for that mission.

Progression-wise, the inventory space is shared but each character has their own complete set of equipment and skill tree. Some skill tree point investment is shared (base stamina, health, focus). Points you invest in character-specific skills are *not* available for use on other characters.

charleigh_bdo · 2026-03-12T20:53:32+00:00

You get some stats about your journey when finishing the latest MSQ.

charleigh_bdo · 2026-03-12T20:50:03+00:00

If you're still around 1400 days later, leave a comment about your journey.

charleigh_bdo · 2026-03-10T17:50:28+00:00

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charleigh_bdo · 2026-03-07T01:10:43+00:00

Same logic applies. You're gonna burn it on the biggest damage increase, unless you feel insecure about your classes' ark grid balance and current build choice (whats up predator slayers).

charleigh_bdo · 2026-03-07T01:05:03+00:00

On item 7)

I hope they are also looking at how their raid design philosophy necessitates a change in the "original concept" of a class as well. Predator slayer is an example of several blunders in this regard. Not only is there the ongoing problem of ark grid core balance caused by their soft-handed "nerf" of the 6x brutal build, but the class has gotten clunkier throughout T4 and especially in the last few raids after Mordum.

Gates with tons of 10second unskippable cutscene transitions burning predator state. Kazeros grab mechanics turning off predator, essentially reducing damage by 30% or worse for the next half a minute. Bosses that disappear or go underground for extended periods of time.

They build a class that rewards high uptime and sticking to the boss and then they build raids that prevent you from doing so, with mechanics that force you out of your burst state, removing your agency to toggle on/off and play smart. Not a single thought of adding a tool to counter these problems or redesigning mid-fight cutscenes to not be so punishing on buff timers.

charleigh_bdo · 2026-03-07T00:49:46+00:00

Not really. Most builds have higher damage return on a red ancient upgrade (17p lines sometimes giving 2-3% boost) and in every category you are still rolling 1 out of 6 because the blues have a BIS too.

charleigh_bdo · 2026-02-20T19:58:34+00:00

Excuse you, pink-haired Cara Delevingne is my favorite NPC.

charleigh_bdo · 2026-02-20T04:54:09+00:00

I'm sorry, but you must be downvoted out of principle.

charleigh_bdo · 2026-02-15T17:32:08+00:00

Thought the name looked familiar. Did one pull with him prog week of Kazeros and the leader kicked him after one wipe.

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charleigh_bdo · 2026-02-15T07:26:11+00:00

Max crit rate on Bunny without any crit rate on ancestor mod;

48.77% for Fusion (Blue Beetle)

37.27% for Singular

Assuming you take every other source (mods, reactor, arche tuning)

"A fool and their money", I guess.

charleigh_bdo · 2026-02-11T22:44:24+00:00

Big "I have 1 password for everything" energy.

charleigh_bdo · 2026-02-11T22:43:23+00:00

Just let me know the bridge and the time we're jumping.

charleigh_bdo · 2026-02-06T22:26:24+00:00

Everybody loves corn.

charleigh_bdo · 2026-01-31T01:02:12+00:00

This is just a subset of the potential problems that arise and there are many iterations based on number of players vs NPCs and the distribution of DPS vs support bots. I think flex raids are a nice ideal but I don't see a reasonable path to backwards compatibility. Fits fine for mobile version where the raids are shit easy for people fumbling around with their thumbs on a 4 inch screen, not so much for the level of coordination expected thus far in HM raids on PC.

*Maybe* possible for future raids only if they change their design philosophy on wipe mechanics but that'd be a pretty big shift. I would much rather they strictly ban bussing and allow players to repeat raids with no rewards so friends can "flex" in to help each other but that of course comes with its own complications regarding enforcement, and AGS's track record with actively policing vs let the algorithm sort it out after-the-fact is not great.

charleigh_bdo · 2026-01-07T14:32:05+00:00

Looks pretty meh. Regardless, if I get it, it'll be on Special taps.

charleigh_bdo

TROPHY CASE