By afkalmighty

The long awaited Karok, the Giant update is here.



-Shared Changes-

Perimeters : Karok’s damage percentiles and SP gains have been generally buffed. His damage output and SP gain was low compared to other heroes and thus has been improved but we do not plan to finish this in a single update and will instead balance it over time.

Stamina recovery – controlled gains : We tried to avoid giving Karok a way to recover a significant amount of stamina at once while addressing his issue with low stamina. This is because Karok doesn’t rely on magical skills but physical skills that are more realistic.

This is why we decided a sudden burst of stamina wouldn’t be fitting for Karok’s character and went with a route where he steadily recovers stamina by controlling the strength of his attacks.

For example, Battle Pillar Karok will maintain his new Mammoth form to fracture his enemies during combat. When he’s low on stamina, Karok can use War Stomp or Whirlwind. Karok can also switch to Rhino form to maximize his stamina recovery when he’s almost out of stamina.

We considered giving stamina when using Absorb Shock but that would make it mandatory and could become detrimental for Karok’s play style of non-stop attacks.

Clash – different effects depending on activation method : Clash can now apply buffs to Karok and his party members. Depending on whether the Clash was initiated manually or through stand-by method will change the kind of buffs the party will receive and the manual method buff will be better.

The gap between the two buffs won’t be significant since we intended this difference to be something to have fun with, not something enough for party members to demand manual Clashes. The key for Clash has been switched to the grapple key so this will act as a small handicap as well.

Focus on character identity – Giantborn, Giant Muscle : New shared skills that, simply put, will have a chance to decrease the damage Karok takes or increase the damage he deals.

Clash has been the skill that represented Karok’s identity the best but it has never been a central gameplay mechanic and had been more of a supportive mechanic. These new skills will also not be a central mechanic but will help set in the identity of Karok in battle. If this starts to play too much of a role in combat it will be adjusted accordingly.

*Battle Pillar and Cestus will also have non-shared skills that are intended to proc at a low rate.

Added customization sliders for face and body : While it is important to listen to user feedback when going through an aesthetic change, it is also important to consider if the changes stay true to the identity of the character in question. Karok is supposed to be a ‘hulking giant’ but his body proportions made him seem shorter than he actually is. We thought this did not fit well with his theme of a towering giant and added a customization slider for his body.

So you will be able to see a slightly slimmer Karok than before who still has the same overall appearance. His face wasn’t changed a lot since it expressed his strength well but we fine-tuned some of the rough edges while keeping the original style.

-Battle Pillar-

*sound and skill effects will be updated in a later date

The giant with his massive weapon – adding mechanisms true to Karok’s character : Currently using a combination of War Stomp and Crushing Sweep is highly effective. Stacking multiple effects through attacks is an interesting system but the repeated use of certain skills can get boring fast.

So the duration of the War Stomp effect has been increased to 4 seconds and each stack will rise up with each stomp (previously two stomps for one stack)

The radius for the attack has been increased as well and now can be chained from Bison Charge so it can be used against distant enemies.

Jumbo Stuck and Drop Kick are also affected by the War Stomp buff so they can be used instead of Crushing Sweep when you’re low on SP.

Wild Boar Shock – Crushing bones with a hefty blunt : Battle Pillars can now deal extra damage by ‘Fracture’ing their bones. Wild Boar Shock can add damage to smash attacks against targets with ‘fractured’ status.

If you succeed a Pillar Counter by using Jumbo Stuck, which is now tied to your grapple key, it will have a 100% chance to apply Fracture. The monsters of Vindictus are powerful beings that are able to heal fractured bones quickly but you can deal severe damage to them by using Wild Boar Shock before they get out of their fractured status.

Beast Form – the threatening aspect of beasts : One of the attack mechanisms added to compliment Wild Boar Shock are beast forms.

Beast forms refer to the group of forms Karok can take; Rhino, Bison, Mammoth. By simply maintaining a form you can get a variety of bonuses such as speed, damage, or stamina over time. There are also certain attacks you can use in each form but you can only maintain one beast form and they are removed during certain situations.

Grizzly Upper – A combo unique to Karok : Skills that can be chained to your attacks have been added. Some of them allow you to immediately change your pattern once they reach a certain rank. If used successfully they can deal huge damage but it won’t be easy even while using Absorb Shock in conjunction.

Unarmed Combat, Pillar Toss, Grizzly Bump – The joy of unique skills : Karok throwing his Battle Pillar then engaging in hand to hand combat is fitting with his character theme but it isn’t something we want to see being done repeatedly during combat.

Throwing had been mostly needed for SP gains but that has been adjusted so that players are no longer required to do Unarmed Combat for SP.

Focus has been shifted away from Unarmed Combat itself and directed to taunting enemies bare-fisted or throwing the Battle Pillar. Thus the recovery buff from Pillar Toss has been removed.

This is because the buff forced competitive Pillar Karoks to use Pillar Toss excessively. Now Clash will be improved while Karok is bare handed, the old effect from War Stomp can be used with Pillar Toss, and Karok can quickly reach his pillar by using Grizzly Bump.

-Cestus-

*sound and skill effects will be updated in a later date

Boxing with a unique weapon – addition of skills and improving visuals : The original concept of quick movement, burst attacks, status management will stay the same. But as player skill and gear improved, the previously challenging gameplay started to get stale. Which is why we added new skills to mix things up.

Clean Hit – An attack with perfect accuracy : Just like Giantborn which was introduced earlier, Clean Hit has a chance to proc during attacks. This skill was added to improve visuals and the feel of combat. So it doesn’t effect the combat mechanism of Cestus much.

Overflow – overloading your blast gauge : A skill that is activated by using Raging Volcano. This will overload Karok’s Cestus gauge which will cause Big Bang Attack and Blasts to multi-hit. There a critical downside to it though. You won’t be able to use Blast skills for a while after so it might be better for inexperienced players to pass this skill.

J.F. Blast – keeping enemies in check while looking for an opening : This skill decreases your gauge by 1 stack but in return gives you stamina. You can use this by pressing your kick key instead of your grab key which is the usual for Blast skills.

There can be situations where you have more Blast gauges than intended or you suddenly have the need for a lower stack Blast effect. In the past you had to use your gauge and start over but now J.F. Blast will allow you to use a lower stack Blast when needed.

Its stamina recovery also makes it useful in situation where you need the extra stamina. Once you reach a certain rank you can chain Blast right after J.F. Blast in order to get a lower stack Blast effect immediately.

Ducking – a multi-purpose evasion and distance closer : Ducking can be used as an extra evasion and dash smash after Weaving. Dempsey Roll can be used in conjunction with Ducking as well. The new evasion is faster than Weaving and can be used in multiple situations thus increasing Cestus Karok’s mobility. Ducking can be used with no stamina cost during Gigantic Strength which can further improve the speed of combat for Karok.

Dempsey Roll – an endless flurry of attacks : This skill will make you feel like playing a boxing character while used with Ducking. But, as mentioned before, Cestus’ blasts are still the central attack mechanism and Dempsey Roll will not be used as Cestus Karok’s main attack.

You can maintain the old furious attack style of Cestus and use Dempsey Roll in certain situations to receive beneficial effects.

-Other improvements-

SP skills

First of all, SP gain has been increased so that SP skills can be used more often. Furthermore, some SP skills have had their SP costs reduced or has stamina recovery added to them. But SP skills will not become a central part of Karok’s action. His core mechanisms from basic and smash attacks will be enough to provide fun for the player. SP skills will be a supportive presence along with the core mechanism.

Skill requirements

Many of the new skills have been put in the high level range. This is to prevent an imbalance between the required exp and AP which could occur if we were to add the new skills in the lower level bracket. Another thing considered was the loss of joy from learning a new skill in higher levels.

On the other hand, we designed the skills so that they can change the activation method of the skill when they are in higher ranks so that skill ranks will have more impact for players. For example, Whirlwind can be chained with Rhino Gore at rank 5. This connection will help when using Grizzly Upper and Beast Form. AP consumption and required level is subject to change in the future.

Addressing unblockable attacks

Battle Pillar’s evasion skill can be ranked up. Each rank will decrease stamina consumption but more importantly, it will increase the distance of the roll. This should help with avoiding unblockable attacks.

As for Cestus, they have the aforementioned Ducking added to their arsenal of skills.