Is the Trickster Vocation just bad?

[Glorious Magnificent Ducksu]

So I unlocked the Trickster vocation and decided to try it out. Immediately did the Midnight Oxcart mission where the game gives your pawns an icecream headache and you're forced to fight a bunch of guards on your own. The Trickster is 100% unable to do any damage. Like at all. I completed it by literally throwing my pawns at the enemies. I dont think any other vocation can have its effectiveness so easily stripped by "plot"

People will say "But you can use Effigial Essence to possess an enemy and have the other enemies attack it" which is true, except the NPC you possess now has the biggest hateboner for you when you do that, and if you get even sneezed on your illusion disappears and all that aggro it was holding across multiple enemies is now on you. This seems like it would be a cool class if this was an actual multiplayer game and you didnt just rely on 3 Pawns with brainrot that stand around and do nothing

[1CMF]

Yes. It is "interesting" but highly flawed. It has a great buff for pawns, it can trick targets into jumping off ledges and dying, and it can exploit agro by placing a mist form in the air where most mobs can't reliably hit it.

Yet it can't do anything on it's own.

I think if they changed the possession function to have that target not keep chasing the player down and started to swing around wildly, hitting both friends and foes, then it would be more viable. Also the mist form should be more persistent if the player is hit. Any tiny flinch and you lose your main mechanic and have to run in circles trying to summon it again.

Doing no damage is kind of bad, but doing indirect damage may be more reasonable.

[Chicken Jockey]

I've been having a fine time with Trickster. It's fun tricking enemies into running off cliffs, or positioning your phantom somewhere enemies can't reach it, so they're just completely unable to do anything as your pawns destroy them.

Originally posted by Glorious Magnificent Ducksu:

So I unlocked the Trickster vocation and decided to try it out. Immediately did the Midnight Oxcart mission where the game gives your pawns an icecream headache and you're forced to fight a bunch of guards on your own. The Trickster is 100% unable to do any damage. Like at all. I completed it by literally throwing my pawns at the enemies. I dont think any other vocation can have its effectiveness so easily stripped by "plot"

That's weird, I did this as Trickster and my pawn immediately cast Maelstrom and sucked all the guards up into the stratosphere.

I assume you could just take off your weapon and punch the guards to death, regardless.

[Kriya Takagi]

the class plays exactly like a pure support. there a certain way to play that vocation. those who have played the support classes in some of the older mmos of the past will understand its dynamic. its not a bad vocation its self just takes a different way of thinking/playing it. dont go into it thinking you gonna face bash the mobs. gotta sit back cc mobs and buff your pawns as they will be the heavy hitters of your party. your buffs to your pawns and tricks you places on the enemies are your biggest assets. basically you are the puppet master that controls the field of battle without actually doing direct damage yourself

[Chicken Jockey]

If you're using the Trickster weapon you get from the Sphynx, occasionally you'll get 50k gold from hitting enemies.

[SiFi]

Its garbage. Fun garbage? Maybe, that depends on what you find fun. Usfulness? Pretty much zero. "IT CAN TANK!" So can fighter/warrior while ALSO doing damage and taking less damage.

[Chicken Jockey]

The game is so easy, do you really need to be doing damage?

[Usagi-chan]

No, you are

[NPC.dat]

Trickster makes me have to think. Me like giant swords and smash cut.

[Plank]

Originally posted by Mayhap:

The game is so easy, do you really need to be doing damage?

kinda since pawns seem get challenged when you play trickster, fights took twice as long when I rolled as a trickster.

[SiFi]

Originally posted by Plank:

Originally posted by Mayhap:

The game is so easy, do you really need to be doing damage?

kinda since pawns seem get challenged when you play trickster, fights took twice as long when I rolled as a trickster.

Fights ONLY took 2x as long? Mine took around four to five times. Trickster turns a pack of 5 goblins into a potential game over scenario...

[Keldrath]

No it's as strong as any other vocation it'll ez mode dragons and drakes and dullahans and whatever you can think of.

[Chicken Jockey]

Originally posted by SiFi:

Originally posted by Plank:

kinda since pawns seem get challenged when you play trickster, fights took twice as long when I rolled as a trickster.

Fights ONLY took 2x as long? Mine took around four to five times. Trickster turns a pack of 5 goblins into a potential game over scenario...

This sounds like an issue with your pawn setup honestly. Fights are still over in the blink of an eye when I play Trickster. Only exception being against golems, as my pawns couldn't figure out to just break the medals.

[Doom_Cookies]

Trickster's fine, though it may not be enjoyable for everyone. Its biggest problem really is quests that strip you of your pawns.

It doesn't even lack damage, just its damage comes indirectly through your pawns. Aromatic Resurgence not only buffs your pawns' damage dramatically, it also makes them hyper-aggressive (they really focus on going all out on the enemy, even moreso than the Go! command) and completely immune to death. That's right, for the duration of the buff, your pawns can't be downed. It takes my team of pawns under a minute to destroy a dragon.

Other skills I always keep in my loadout are...

Suffocating Shroud will aggro everything to your illusion (or you), seemingly by applying a hidden debuff that hard-locks illusion/you as their target for the duration (Provocation augment is a waste for Trickster, btw), so you just use it once in a while.

Tricky Terrace is a beautiful crowd control spell for small targets - they trip when they walk over it. You can basically keep everything on the floor as long as you want. Great for buying time to resummon your illusion if it dies.

The maister skill, Dragon's Delusion, easily knocks down just about any large monster (aside from dragons, ironically) in 1-2 uses. It also makes smaller targets run far away, making it easy to just disengage them if you don't feel like fighting at the moment.

If you're playing Trickster and damage seems to be low, then your pawn setup needs some work. Ditch the mage - we both know you have one. You don't need one as Trickster. Your pawns can't die, and you should rarely ever be getting hit. Taking a mage just lowers your damage, really. Just haul around a handful of healing items, instead.

I took a Warrior built for knockdown, a Thief with Skull Splitter and Implicate (for harpies), and a Sorcerer who liked to do nothing but try to cast Maelstrom (which is a shame, since I recruited him for Augural Flare, but whatever works). Zero problems with anything unless I'm foolish enough to let myself get hitstun locked by multiple enemies.

If you really want something more to do in battle, grab some tomes and bring them along. Anodyne and pretty much the rest of the Mage skill kit is available in tome form, and the city near where you unlock Trickster has a book store. Since Trickster has decent Magick, the vocation can make good use of them.

[Darrie Alman]

Yes

[★Brosef]

It's easily the best tank vocation in the game however your pawns lack the skills to properly capitalize.