The new abilities look fantastic but the speed that florang surfing moves in the game is not enough to count as an escape nor is it capable of doing so in a protected manner. As a result, any shai using this ability will be chased down and easily dispatched by an enemy. If this skill is meant to be an escape then it needs to be protected. In every case this skill needs to be longer and faster. My measurement for speed requirement is that it should be viable for use as transportation between the two rooms in hystria 7 elten rotation shown below:

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxxqfWEyLR_oOySRCxSiRhMuEAcAGgnRjD

The tornado ability appears to be very interesting but it would be nice if it would push back enemies in pvp to allow shais to create room or push enemies off of allies if they get CC'd. I'm told the damage is very favorable against monsters but I'm not certain it will fit well in our damage rotation since twirl boom is a very similar ability that already fills the role of both a damage nuke and animation canceling ability. Perhaps changing this to more of a support utility would be superior for our class.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Even as non-shais, this community podcast covered all of the issues and frustrations we need to be fixed. 

https://youtu.be/DOdyQISQ5HA?t=11693

Please give Shai players a sense of progression on the class and provide a definitive end-game goal for the class. Currently, we have many different builds which all feel awkward and clunky. We have AP Shai who is constantly told she doesn't exist, even though she does due to overdone pvp restrictions. DP Shai whom is hated by all PvPers but plays a vital role in protecting ground yet is slowly slipping away due to power creep and anti-evasion dp shredding abilities. Then we have the Life Skiller Shai who is presented as glory and savior to BDO Life Skills but is actually having to work harder for life skills than any many other classes in life skill content.

Just an added bit about why the DP Shais area of denial via bongos: Despite being oppressive to enemies and thoughtless to the Shai, it serves an important purpose in providing gaps for allies to manuever and equalizing players gear in fights. RBF is a good example of how this is good, whenever an enemy is pushing into the spawn then it is Bongo Joe the shais job to hop out there and start disrupting enemy offensives and punish them for over extending into what should be allied controlled space. (Sheer numbers game) An example of a counterpoint would be an enemy shai engages inside the allied space with their bongos BUT because all Shai have misty haze and significant slows then we can sufficiently disrupt this practice by applying our debuffs. Thus DP Shai despite being oppressive is actually balanced simply by having 1 Shai who knows how to properly engage in the removal of bongo Shais. As she is slowly pushed out of the game then weak guilds who are oppressed will have no barrier between them and the enemy nor area through which they can gain an advantage because the Shai who use to fill that role will die easily from anti-evasion dp shreds. I would really like to see a passive 20% evasion to counteract some of the new additions such as sage debuffs. Misty Haze can be increased to shred 10% additional evasion to balance this addition if necessary.

We enjoy the PvE changes but if this is all that happens then this will be a failure that all Shais will remember and future Shai players will question why we didn't ask for more. I for one do not want to be standing by saying we could have asked for more but didn't because we thought it would be rude given that this was the first time we were included in the balance changes.

Please, we love this class and just want a good support class in BDO and have a dream donkey but the class is just not very good at it. AP DP and Life skill Shais would all love to have more support songs.

To give you an idea of songs we don't have but could enjoy. A song that increases jump height. Songs that boost ship turn/firing speed/sailing speed, songs that boost other life skills or actions, tasks. Healing, we would love to be able to heal more often. 
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We also want Dream Donkey, it's silly but it is also a part of who Shai was originally said to be and there are those of us who see it as a part of the class culture. We have so many scary and wonderous mounts in the game, having a simple fun and unique one doesn't seem wrong. Thus Shai players would like to welcome back the once-lost Dream Donkey as a permanent addition to the world of Black Desert Online, to be an exclusive mount to the Shai Class. It could even unlock skills based on Shai achievements such as getting to C- rank musician or V Artina Sol or Florchestra Musical Instruments. So much can be done and I hope we can look forward to working together in making a more enjoyable BDO.

Thank you all so much!

NA pretty much f-d over Shai, I am a Shai main and I hope that they give more love and respect and TLC to the Shai but as long as it is in the West, the Shai is just labor.

I could infer many topics which you could be talking about from censorship to the PvP centric 'DFS' culture that the North American region finds very fond. However, to avoid assumptions due to ambiguity, could you elaborate on what North America does that makes it difficult and laborious to play on the Shai Class?

So first I would like to say that I am pleased that the developers changed their minds and included Shai in the rework. However, we still need some long-overdue changes for Shai to make her a complete class.

First off, I would like to address the skills/abilities that Shai has been excluded from:

Level 63 Passive – Shai is still missing one. Why does every other class get a passive for reaching level 63 but Shai gets nothing?

S-Block – Another skill every class has except Shai. This effects our PvE as we have to group up mobs and either have to run around in circles like an idiot or stand still and hope we can tank all the damage and not die.

T3 Addons  - Shai has 0x T3 Addons, please give her at least one.

Blackstar Awaking – Shai was excluded from having a Blackstar Awaking weapon as her Talent weapon is “unique”. However, this is causing Shai to miss out on the extra Monster Damage that a Blackstar provides. Having a “unique” weapon shouldn’t cause a class to miss out on upgrades like this. Many have suggested in the Shai discord to have an item similar to Garmoth’s Heart that can upgrade the Sol to have the monster damage stats of a Blackstar. Something like [Obsidian Artina Sol] / [Obsidian Fiery Artina Sol].

Now, here are some of the issues I have with Shai:

Heals – Shais main heal [Get Well] is terrible. Its cooldown of 1m 30s is too long and unprotected, meaning most of the time Shai gets knocked out of the animation and wastes our main heal.  Also, Shais 3^rd rabam heal needs fixing. She cannot use it on herself and when throwing it at allies the skill usually misses due to its awful hitbox.

Elvia Skill – Shai’s talent kit is meant to be used for support as its skills are buffs/debuffs. So why is our Elvia skill in this kit? The majority of the time, if a Shai drops an Elvia weapon, she will take the Florang, as the Sol doesn’t provide much except the Elvia skill and flute/lute effect % of a PEN Sol. Please move Shai’s Elvia skill to her main kit, as this is where she does damage. I suggest copying her new tornado skill with the relevant effects (fire, electricity, water) would be a perfect Elvia skill.

Mobility – Shai got a new Florang Surfing/Skating skill to help with her mobility problems. Yet this skill is completely unprotected, uses up too much stamina and can only be used every 15 seconds. We need some form of protection on this skill. Give this skill protection, but let Shai use this skill off cooldown unprotected. Shais have been asking for this skill since it was released on BDO Mobile, however what we got was a budget version – here is the skill on mobile for those who haven’t seen it: – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGtom8_9nok

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Shai has lots of other issues that need some love in the future:

Shai’s Donkey – Please allow Shai’s donkey to have more skills and increase the speed so that this is a valid mount choice for Shais. Also, a “dream donkey” enhancing system would make some Shai mains extremely happy.

Shai’s Censorship on NA/EU – The censorship is awful. I agree that Shai’s need some form of censorship as their character model does resemble a child, however the leggings to her knees and covering her shoulders is ruining most of her outfits. Please adjust her censorship to still be child-friendly, but altered so it doesn’t ruin all her outfits (e.g. remove sleeves that cover her shoulders and replace with tank top sleeves), also adding some of the pearl pyjamas/underwear options that Shai has on KR Servers would be amazing.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lastly,

Shai’s Purpose – What is Shai meant to do in Black Desert? We understand she was an experimental class, but it’s been years since her release and PA have still not decided what to do with her. Is she a roleplay meme class that plays music and rides on a donkey all day? Is she a lifeskill class that chops trees? Is she meant to be a support class for party content PvE? Is she meant to PvE only and be excluded from PvP?

Please decide on what the future is for Shai, because after years of release it is still an uncomplete class that feels ignored by the development team.

If Shai has taught me anything is to wait until you're level 63 before splurging on the cosmetic shop because what you want as a main is different than what you should be using as a main. I was hoping that there would be a degree of balance between her and other classes but unfortunately that wasn't the case and I spent like $200 on all her costumes. She's still adorable but she serves no purpose other than looking adorable. I really want to main Shai and hope that PA understands that there's a subculture of Shai fans who want to see her potential realized. I like how they are improving her but it's a very small improvement to where she should be.

I hope they make shai a solid class, she have buffs yes but the buffs are usless when u have such an malus on pvp.

Solo play must have a opinion for all classes, not only "excluded shai".

I agree with a lot of what has been said and a point I would like to expand on; Yes shai was an experimental class, It’s brought people into the game that wanted more laid back approach to the game, people that may not play BDO otherwise.

She was easy to learn and fine at lower levels, She could level (at lower levels) via life skills and gently exposed you to BDO… She was never taken past that point.

When she was release, I believe it was stated that shai had enough ability that she would not fall behind. Has that promises been fulfilled?

As someone pointed out, some of us spend a lot of cosmetic, We supported that class and the ‘experiment’ and not it’s not gone as planned, we are left to suck it up. Would this mean we should not trust PA in such situations?

I have explained in another thread how shai could be what it is now and how it can expand and change in later level, using the talent system. This means you are taking nothing away from anyone, and letting the players that wish to take the class to higher level, the ability to fully unlock shai. The peoples just using her as a processing alt, they need not worry.

She is already a different type of class, So a late game Quest to unlock another SOL, and abyssal SOL that change things up for shai, to become more comparative is not a strech. Its can have is own story line explaining the process, and how a shai became so strong.

You have excluded her SOL from normal BDO system (tagging, black star), so it is free for such a special process.

(the original thread on this topic was named ‘Next step for Shai [without destroying what it is])

PvE changes sounds good. I dont see the need to be able to defend my spot on shai as she is a supporter and not ment for 1v1 and thats ok. Would be nice tho to get a offical shai rock paper scissor game for duels.

But whats up with pvp? All buff changed are only for the shai, not her team. Also unprotected movement skill? Unless for pvp!

What shai needs for pvp:

-Protected movement to engage and disengage and keep up with the team

-a Q or at least an S block

- evasion/dr passives. We are the one class that is "forced" to play full DP builds in PvP Content and have not a single buff to our tankyness. 

-better evasion offhand like ninja

-a better heal. Make it on the same level as wizzards heal or protected. Also the rabam heal should heal ourself too. 

-make it easier to jump fences in siegewar

With this changes shai wouldnt change the overall balance, vut would be able to survie longer and actual escape. 

Also pls add a DP build specific cap on all capped content. We literal cant play normaly there

Shais waiting patiently, based on a few hours of testing footage in streams. I still feel there needs to be more done for Shai's survivability to avoid being destroyed by higher damage and accuracy coming from reworked classes.

The florang surfing needs a shorter cooldown, slightly more mobility and a longer length. Protection would be nice.

We still need more support skills, buffs, better heals, something, and late-game purpose or sense of progression. At the moment your gear doesn't affect most of the class. If you're AP then you die so fast that buffs don't get off often. If you're DP then your florang lacks utility so it is rarely used outside of Eat This (bonk). 

So, we need either scaling on our buffs for ap/dp OR new skills that have scaling which would be preferred since some of our buffs are strong already.