On the recent Shad buffs

Hi all, I'm Tim/Blu301. I have a level 181 shad here on ML and I just wanted to provide some feedback on the recent shad buffs

To sum it up - I think the shad buffs were just right. As it stands now (without the party having SI), it seems that shad solo target DPM is insignificantly lower than like-leveled warriors, and even slightly higher than the warriors we have some levels on. Though we are still a bit lower in terms of solo target damage when a warrior has SI, this makes sense, as shads have other perks like high avoid and accuracy to make up for our mediocre solo target damage. For those reasons, we shouldn't really be stronger than warriors with like-caliber gear + SI anyways (as much as it pains me to say it).

People have even joked about shads being OP when I whited at certain bosses recently... While I think that statement is still quite a stretch, I truly think the playing field is more even, and there is sooo much more appeal to making a shadower now because we are no longer liabilities in regards to solo target DPM. It makes shad possibly the best starter attacking class because we don't need to wash much and are quite cheap to fund.

All things considered, the skill buff to Assassinate was as perfect as it could be. Not large enough to make us OP, but not little enough that it didn't make a noticeable impact. Thank youuuu

Now, I don't mean this next part to complain in any way - being an active 4th job shad, I'm so very thankful for the changes that have been made. But I thought I'd highlight some potential suggestions for the future that would further even the playing field without giving us unfair advantages:

- Increasing the horizontal range of Assassinate - seeing the attack range increase to blast for Pallys, I think it makes a lot of sense to slightly increase the horizontal range of Assassinate. There are several situations in which it is unreasonably difficult for a shad to use Assassinate including Zakum top left arms, Horntail left head (during body stage), and Toad 2nd body (when the Toad does its wave attack, I need to be standing nearly in the center of his body to hit since the hitbox shifts wide left). During Zakum top left arms and Horntail left head, we have to be standing on the very edge of the ledge down to pixels in order for Assassinate to hit, and if we get knockbacked we have to reposition which is quite difficult. This change would just make things more comfortable for us.

- Allowing Assassinate lines to be affected by Sharp Eyes - I realize allowing shads to benefit from SI may be over-the-top, but I think it also makes sense to let Sharp Eyes affect our Assassinate lines to further even the field. It seems that we are the only class in which Sharp Eyes has no effect on our main attacking skill, so in bossing the disparity in DPM increases by a good margin when we are the only ones still doing the same amount of damage. I think this change would make it fairer for shads during bossing without adding any unfair side effects.

- Debatable - Decreasing the cooldown of Smokescreen by 4 seconds per SP point. This would lead to an 8-minute cooldown at max level 30, whereas the cooldown currently remains 10 minutes regardless of level. I think this would be a great but not game-breaking change that not only benefits the entire bossing party, but also makes running with a 4th job bossing build more interesting (as in maxing Smoke before other skills like Shadow Shifter or Taunt). As it stands now, each SP for smoke simply increases the time of effect by 1 second, and every few SP increases the area of effect by a decent margin. A separate idea I've heard being floated from a friend was letting smoke provide status condition immunity, such as skill-lock or seduce. It would be cool if shads gained value in bossing like HT if they understood animations/timers and could Smoke just before an incoming mass seduce.

I don't mean to demand more changes after we have already been buffed, but just thought I'd reiterate these suggestions for the future (I'm sure you guys have thought of them already).

Thank you so much to the staff and balance team for your constant efforts to make ML the best private server out here. I really appreciate all of you f4

-Tim