Inquisitive: How the Devs Should Revamp the Class

In Inquisitive, Jovion discusses and debates issues of class balance, game design, community perceptions and other contentious subjects involving the Inquisitor class.

As many would know, Inquisitors as a whole is a dying class. This is due to the fact that Inquisitors find it very difficult to find a raid or nest spot nowadays as it is unable to distinguish itself from Saints.

What do I mean? You see, Saints have the ability to single-handedly make a run more "stable", you would have a much higher chance of surviving if you bring a Saint because of one skill: Holy Shield. I've been in a few runs with a Saint before, to put it bluntly, so long as the Shield was up, the party will almost never die, no matter what skill is thrown at them.The icing on the cake is the much bigger AoE radius of key support skills like Cure Relic and Healing Relic, allowing the Saint to perform both roles with less constraints with regards to the positioning of raid or nest party members.

This means that Saints are almost always guaranteed a slot in nest or raid parties, and because it brings all the same party buffs (blessings) and have a superior support skill set (healing, curing and Holy Shield) the Inquisitors are never taken as they have nothing unique they can bring over a Saint. Even if we bring superior DPS, we are still overall lower than other classes, as such, in the DPS slots, either a pure DPS class or a semi-DPS class with a unique support element like Elestras is taken. Inquisitors are left by the wayside.

In order for an Inquisitor to be seen as a viable pick without compromising the viability of Saints, the design paradigm of Inquisitors have to change drastically from a hybrid. There are three possible design paradigms I will be discussing after the jump and the possible ways to push Inquisitors towards those paradigms. The three are pure DPS, semi-DPS with unique support elements, and support.

Inquisitive: "Flooders" - The Case for Inquisitors in 60-70 Leveling Parties

In Inquisitive, Jovion discusses and debates issues of class balance, class design, game design, community perceptions and other contentious subjects involving the Inquisitor class.

Discrimination.

It is a thing in Dragon Nest, and many other MMOs really, with the exception of World of Warcraft. Specific classes or specialisations are conveniently ignored by party leaders because they are deemed inferior to an alternative choice. Class discrimination permeates through almost all PvE aspects of Dragon Nest, be it levelling, nesting or raiding.

For levelling parties in particular, clerics in general find it tough to get into a party. Saints, once a prized commodity every nest party begs for are suddenly shunned and tossed aside. Guardians, usually highly sought after as main tanks for raids, are also largely ignored when looking for a slot in "GM Hard unli". Crusaders are still largely ignored, to the surprise of no one.

And Inquisitors? Well, being clerics after all, we suffer from the same discrimination as all other cleric classes...