Melee vs Ranged.

Sure, there's currently a lot of opportunities to cleave 2 heads at once currently. Too much cleave would nullify the additional DPM advantage as you quickly reach a state where you need more flexible single target damage (generally against MH, where range can become an issue in some cases) but having one cleave to speed up the run by being able to cleave 2 heads during favorable cancels is fine in the current meta as long as they know where to position. Any head damage is good damage; most bishop genesis damage is spread out among all the parts and due to magic cancels bishops generally contribute pretty pitiful heads damage over the course of the run. It's a bit of a risk as unfavorable cancels (alternating cancels or excessive double cancels) will nullify the advantages cleave brings to the run but on average a single cleave should be able to pull similar or sometimes even higher numbers than their single target counter parts over the course of the run (accounting for parity in gear strength and levels)

 

It's more of a gamble for them to provide higher DPM. On average, the single cleave should be outperforming the 4 single target attackers on the run (it's not uncommon to see 13m+ for a skilled DrK in HT whereas even 10m dpm for a highly geared NL is considered impressive). If 6 man HTs were trying to optimize, in theory they should be bringing in a strong cleave to each run, just as most 6 mans try to bring a Bucc for TL.

It may feel lackluster to you but a 30-40% DPM advantage is quite significant and imo definitely falls under the realm of them excelling.

 

One of the biggest tragedies of Shad is how insanely good Smokescreen can potentially be but how worthless it is in practice due to the requirement to play around switching up party members and the complete inability for many players to effectively do so. It's funny; most players tunnel on the ability for runners to do effective DPM in fights like PB, but in reality runs wipe by the simple fact that most players just lack the ability to leave and join party in a timely fashion.

Making Smokescreen an expedition buff instead of a party buff is something that has already been suggested in other threads, but would immediately skyrocket Shad priority in PB during critical phases (notably RB). Granted, this doesn't fix the issue that such utility could be easily muled but... alas, that's what happens when you have an indestructible class with group utility that doesn't do any damage.

 

Yeah it's an unfortunate side effect. I don't really think there's an "easy" solution to making Shads more important in the meta besides buffing their damage (which imo doesn't seem problematic on paper?) but they're hardly in a bad state as is. They can still easily find their way onto a PB squad if they really want to.

 

Imo trading smoke duration for expedition wide benefits would be incredibly worth it at high levels of play but I’d imagine there’s a lot of Shads who don’t care about endgame that would be annoyed. Even a 5-10 second duration would be incredibly powerful in PB if expedition wide. But a damage buff would also likely suffice and be easier to tune as well as not negatively affect Shads outside large expedition play

 

tbh, i have a friend that im trying to convince to join maple, and he seems interested in shad. but i dont think i can really recommend that job because how hard it'll be to get into some bossing runs.

 

Just let your friend play what they want to play. In reality if they’re a dedicated player that wants to do sweaty content they’ll need to go through the motions of making multiple characters anyways, and in all likelihood they won’t be a sweat lord and their class won’t matter at all

 

thank you for the insight. i think shad will be a great character for someone starting out maple for first time because savage blow is THE COOLEST 2nd job skill. and the dashes in 3rd job is fun too. maybe im over-worrying about him choosing shad.

 

thats true. hoping shad will be a good gateway, and then he'll see what other jobs do (though none is as flashy as shad early on)

 

I remember someone proposed (I'm not sure if it was first post about that, but maybe it was here: NON-MEME potential shadower buffs | MapleLegends Forums - Old School MapleStory) about giving a chance to crit while on smokescreen. I liked the idea, but instead of giving a crit chance to whole party (as suggested), I think it could give a really high crit chance only for shadowers. Maybe that would help to buff it's dpm. Making it a better party buff is also an option, but that should be carefully adressed since can just raise the amount of shad mules.

 

isnt the simplest way to buff shads and avoid people muling them.....just to boost either their dmg?

 

Yeah, but thing is if it adds to whole party in a significant amount, I can see people using mules, specially cuz shads dont spend many potions.