Making 'Holy Cross' (crusader/paladin) builds viable
Description
Much like with how OriginsRO applied the rework to traps to make it a viable build, I'd like to suggest reworking Holy Cross, an ability that was mostly useless up until renewal (after they made it do 2x damage when using two-hand spears).
Holy Cross' as an ability is pretty straight forward, it's a single-target double-hit forced holy element skill that is affected by ATK. However, with a 450% multiplier, it's barely stronger than Bash - which can be used with any element, and it has a whooping cost of 20 SP for a single target skill (Bowling Bash costs 22 SP, for comparison purposes).
The suggestion I'd have wouldn't be to bring in the renewal 2x damage with 2h-spears. That is purely a leveling option for Crusaders and Paladins looking to reach 3rd job quickly, it also disables pretty much every shield ability Paladins have access to by forcing them to use 2h Spears. While I believe that could be an option, here's what I'd like to suggest instead:
Holy Cross does 2x damage when the user isn't riding a Peco OR (not and, no double dipping the bonus) when the user is using a two-hand spear.
Rationale
The suggestion above gives Crusaders and Paladins 2 options:
Playstyle 1: You can ride a peco, forego the shield abilities, and go for the Spear Quicken (2h spears) build that we've seen multiple times on renewal servers. This is faster in terms of attack speed and mobility, but less sturdy than the next option.
or
Playstyle 2: You can forego the peco, keep access to the shield skills and use it with 1h spears/swords while being able to benefit from Guard, Shield Reflect, and Defending Aura, of course, again, at the cost of lower movement speed (no peco riding). Slower, bulkier option which would benefit more from end-game gear.
At 2x damage, Holy Cross damage range would be 8k-12k (no consumables) against targets that take from 150-200% more damage from Holy, depending on the target's DEF (and whether the user is using ice pick, brocca, or similar weapons).
In-game applications
A primary concern here would be "is this going to be OP"? Here are some implications and applications: • Holy Cross doesn't change element, it's always Holy, which heavily limits where it can be used • Holy Cross IS affected by weapon effects such as Ice Pick, Brocca, etc • Holy Cross still costs 20 SP, 2 SP short of an AoE ability with similar potential + access to virtually all elements (Bowling Bash).
So is Holy Cross hitting 12k on an extremely well geared character "OP" when Bowling Bash can do the same, + AoE, without the need for as much gear (because LKs have access to damage buffs such as Concentration [Spear Dynamo], Aura Blade, etc)? Personally I don't think so.
Here are some calculations using rocalc.com on a high-end geared Paladin using this build with all buffs on: rocalc holy cross build test
Select your target, double the damage you see on the combat simulator, check fight duration, it's really just comparable to already existing skills - especially Bowling Bash, but it's single target.
Of course you can play around with the stats too, getting more AGI, etc.
The gear factor
Of course, this would enable a new way to play Paladin/Crusader, in which case they'd also seek out strong weapon options. The build is also accessible for all ranges of gameplay, including low-funding (by using 2h spears and letting go of Shield skills), to high-end funding, by using Brocca, Ice Pick, Curved Sword, and more commonly used options by Lord Knight.
Spear Quicken (2h spears): balances itself out due to the fact that we don't have access to any extremely strong two-hand spear in the game. So yes you can make it attack faster and have your peco but also, end-game options with a shield (and without the peco) can "outDPS" spear quicken, again, at the cost of lower movement speed.
Possible skill builds:
Here are some possible skill builds to show that this is still very limited and doesn't allow Paladins to "have it all" in any way.
Final Paladin builds:
Holy Cross + Battle Chant (no peco): https://skillsim.irowiki.org/pld.html?103cFkFHFbn1bqdnGK
Holy Cross + Rapid Smiting (no peco): https://skillsim.irowiki.org/pld.html?10anbncKlfHFbnas1dnbx (This is an interesting one, giving the paladin a strong Holy element attack and still access to a Neutral option, which can help in some maps where not all enemies are weak against Holy)
Spear Quicken Holy Cross (Paladin): https://skillsim.irowiki.org/pld.html?10anbncA1GAakGScqdnGK
Crusader leveling builds:
Holy Cross + Shield Boomerang (no peco): https://skillsim.irowiki.org/cru.html?103cKlfGAbn3fY
Spear Quicken Holy Cross (Crusader): https://skillsim.irowiki.org/cru.html?10anbncA1GAakGSacfY
Favorite enemies and farming places
Of course, the biggest limitation here is the fact that Holy Cross is forced Holy element. That by itself is already a huge balancing point to the entire build.
There might be more places than these below but, talking about "where would I use this build", here are some examples:
- Geffenia (Succubus, Incubus, Abyssal Knights)
- Geffen Dungeon 2 and 4 (Nightmares, Succubus, Incubus)
- Odin Temple 2 (Frus, Skogul)
- Pyramid 4 and 6 (Isis, Ancient Mummy)
- Sphinx 5 (Anubis)
- Glast Heim maps (Raydric, Dark Frame, Evil Druids, Wraiths, Khalitzburg, Skeleton Prisoner, Zombie Prisoner, etc)
- Niffelheim maps (All targets)
For upcoming content:
- Abbey Dungeon (All targets)
I probably forgot more options but I think I covered the biggest range of leveling and farming options where this build would be used. The list is still very short, compared to what some other classes (Bowling Bash?) can do.
Final comments
This is just a suggestion to enable a different way to play the class using a skill we already have access to and that, currently, is barely ever looked at beyond being just a pre-requisite for other abilities.
This would enable both a one-hand & shield ground crusader playstyle, without a mount, as well as enhance the existing two-hand spear (spear quicken) build by giving them an actual hard-hitting ability.
So what do you think? Do you think this could be a fun, non-game breaking way to add an additional build option like it was done with Traps for hunters and rogues? Feedback is appreciated, I'd absolutely love seeing this come true for sure, but regardless of whether it does or not, it's just a suggestion, please don't crucify me :p