This is a consolidated post containing my suggestions for how I think Succession Valkyrie could be changed. Currently, the utility and support of the specialization is almost nonexistent and eclipsed by even the crippled version of her awakening spec--not to mention the other support focused classes in the game such as casters and awakening Dosa.
Her animations are slow, AoEs small, and combos rely on unprotected skills to deal optimal damage.
On top of this, she has some of the worst mobility in the game - gated behind cooldowns on short-range dashes - when the game as a whole is trending towards moving faster.
These suggestions are also mirrored in the BDO Class Hub feedback project discord.
Reworking the "hidden" Sidestep skill for Succession Valkyrie
Currently, one of Succession Valkyrie's main issues is the lack of movement both in combat and otherwise. One possible solution would be to rework the Sidestep skill(A/D+RMB) for Succession Valkyrie.
This skill isn't listed anywhere on the page, but could be added to Evasion similar to how Succession Warrior gets a Prime:Evasion skills.
An idea for this would be to put a short Cooldown on the Invincibility effect of the skill, but allow it to always move a much greater distance for better repositioning. Lengthening the dash can also make the Invincibility more reliable for those who don't live on top of the server.
Allowing Sidestep to be used to cancel more skills
Regardless of the above suggestion, I believe Sidestep should be allowed to be used out of more skills than currently.
A good example is out of Prime: Sanctitas de Enslar. Currently, something Awakening Valkyrie has over Succession is the ability to cancel their version of this skill by holding Q+A/D+LMB to immediately cancel the ending animation with a (short) Invincibility.
Extending this functionality to Succession will help improve her odds in 1v1 situations against grab classes, especially.
Righteous Charge Rework
To address part of Succession Valkyrie's mobility issues, I would like to suggest adding a Prime: Righteous Charge variant to the class.
This rework would be similar to Awakening Valkyrie's Hastiludium rework: Allowing the input for Righteous Charge to be held down so that the dash continues.
This would also include adding a protection, such as a Super Armor, onto Righteous Charge to make it more viable in general for staying protected while moving around. The tradeoff for this would be sacrificing the dash -> grab engage Righteous Charge is currently used for.
Adding additional SA effect to Breath of Elion
One of the issues Succession Valkyrie faces is that Awakening offers more Support and Utility options over Succession.
One of the big ones(especially before the healing nerf) was the ability to give themselves and allies 3 seconds of Super Armor with Breath of Elion.
I believe this functionality should be added to Succession as well, such that she's able to assist her allies better in the middle of combat. I think this better suits the playstyle she leans towards of staying in the middle of a fight as long as she can.
Reworking the Succession 100% BSR
Currently the 100% BSR does very little damage, has a relatively low range, and does a short Crowd Control effect. On top of this, the animation is very long so often the Succession Valkyrie is forced to take fatal damage if she uses it.
My suggestion would be to improve the range and survivability of the BSR - adding self-healing and Damage Reduction while using the skill so that it's less likely that the user will die while casting it.
I want to keep it differentiated from the Awakening 100%, which is often used to set up massive kills, and still gear the 100% BSR for Succession towards being a defensive or supportive BSR.
PvE Damage Improvements
Simply put, the damage Succession Valkyrie deals in PvE is a fair bit lower than that of other classes despite her ability to stack additional AP with Shield Chase and Sancti/ Severing. If her mobility is improved, she'd likely feel much better than currently, but a moderate bump to the damage of "filler" skills such as Glaring Slash, Shield Throw, and Severing Light would likely help how smooth she feels in spots that demand high, single-target damage.
On top of this, the damage of Judgment of Light III's "second hit" damage is very low for the length of the animation.
Increase the Speed of Prime: Just Counter to match that of Absolute
Currently the skill Prime: Just Counter trades the speed and convenience of Absolute: Just Counter for slightly longer range and a Slow effect.
However, following the nerf to slows, there's even less reason to use this skill over its Absolute variant due to the strength of a high-speed, protected CC which has multiple hits.
My suggestion to fix this would be to increase the speed of Prime: Just Counter to match that of Absolute, but keep the Stiffness CC only on the first hit of Prime: Just Counter to compensate.
Equalize the Speed of Sword of Judgment
Currently, using Sword of Judgment after certain skills will skip to the 3rd hit of the animation. However, the speed of this 3rd hit varies based on what skill is used prior.
To improve the convenience of using this skill in both PvE and PvP, I would like to suggest unifying this third hit animation to the fastest possible animation regardless of which of its preceding skills is used prior.
Here are some examples of the different preceding skills and the speeds at which they flow into Sword of Judgment's (SOJ) third hit.
Slow
Gladius Gloriae -> SOJ ( F -> S+RMB )
Righteous Charge(on hit) -> SOJ ( W+F -> S+RMB )
Shining Dash(on hit) -> SOJ ( Space after certain skills -> S+RMB )
Counter(spin hit) -> SOJ ( S+LMB -> Space -> S+RMB )
Celestial Spear -> SOJ ( S+E -> S+RMB )
Celestial Smite -> SOJ ( Shift+X -> S+RMB )
Purificatione -> SOJ ( W+C -> S+RMB )
Faster
Glaring Slash -> SOJ ( S+LMB+RMB -> S+RMB )
Fastest
Sharp Light -> SOJ ( Shift+LMB -> S+RMB )
Severing Light -> SOJ ( LMB+RMB -> S+RMB )
Divine Descent Buff
With the introduction of Awakening Dosa, the special effect of Succession Valkyrie's Divine Descent has been completely eclipsed.
Currently it is a 1minute CD for a 5% All Special Attack buff for 10 seconds. The uptime of this effect for Awakening Dosa is much higher, and takes some of Valkyrie's identity away from her.
To compensate, I'd like to suggest increasing the duration/effect and/or decreasing the CD of this skill.
Improving the Glory of Enslar "E-Buff"
The E-buff, Glory of Enslar, is not very impactful in most content and bordering on useless in PvE.
This is especially considering that Succession Valkyrie's closest counterpart, Succession Warrior, has a similar E-Buff that grants 20 more DR, Accuracy Rate, and Movement speed as well.
My suggestion is to increase the amount of DR granted by Glory of Enslar, as well as give it Critical Hit Rate to alleviate the need for Celestial Spear during the buff, and improve the health over time portion of the buff for improved survivability.
Bug Fix - Ultimate: Celestial Spear following hit-count patch
The Flow for Celestial Spear, Ultimate: Celestial Spear, provides an additional instance of damage for Celestial Spear. However, following the patch which reduced the hit-count of skills, it will now no longer provide this effect if another skill proceeds Celestial Spear too quickly. This still uses the cooldown of Ultimate: Celestial Spear, but provides none of its additional effects.
This can be reproduced especially by using Severing Light or Prime: Purificatione immediately after Celestial Spear.
Hot-Take Rework Suggestion - Borrowing from Shadow Arena
This suggestion is more of a rework to how Succession Valkyrie works by borrowing aspects of her Shadow Arena counterpart, Venslar.
In Shadow Arena, Venslar was able to switch between an Offensive and Defensive stance. When applied to the BDO version of the character, I think it could work as follows:
- Offensive Stance improves the Aggressive aspects of the Valkyrie: granting higher Attack Speed, Damage, and Movement.
- Defensive Stance improves the Supportive aspects of the Valkyrie: granting higher Defense, more CC's, and better Support.
This would more closely align with Succession Valkyrie's ability to be flexible and adapt to any combat situation she finds herself in. It would give her the ability to get into a fight quickly, and stay for longer once she's there.
This rework would be including my prior suggestions to rebuild Succession Valkyrie into a class that can fit into any situation and composition to offer help to her team.
To differentiate this from a class like Awakening Drakania, the stances would modify the skills themselves depending on which stance they're used in - rather than having a separate set of skills to be used while in that stance.
For reference, here's some links referencing the Character Profile page for Venslar in Shadow Arena:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1226470/view/2524779700593471848
Succession Valkyrie has been left as a wallflower for far too long. She needs her time to shine.
And I like the concept of the aggressive and defensive stances!
Also, Succession Nova was booted from her throne as sson as she as placed there and has been languishing in the mud for far too long. So many other classes were buffed, and she as usually neglected. Let her star shine again, PA!
Edit: I just used a PEN Tuvala Awakened Lahn at Sherekahn night, where she shredded the spirit. Compared to TET Blackstar weapons and PEN Boss armor Succession Valkyrie, who gets badly hurt and barely wins.... Same level, better gear, worse results........
C'mon, PA........ Why does a tank do worse when taking damage?
Awakening valk needs just as much love, if not more. They completely gutted the class with recent nerfs. The heals need to have their cooldowns cut in half. Purificatione needs to be reverted to the heals it had previously. Cancels need to be corrected. Damage output needs to be buffed, as they screwed it up with the hit changes.
At the moment, awakened valk is a completely unplayable class in PvP, aside from the occasional BSR. It's always sucked in PvE, but has gotten significantly worse.
Valk have been left behind seem like they are trying to make you play new class so they can get you to spend more real silver I only play Valk I have other toon all they were for when the game first started were for storage then i play them though the quest line but not to use more energy. Valk has been hurt a lot with the last nearf but what else is new i am waiting now for skill to cool down that i did not have to before and you can really feel it
I know this class is dead and all, but it would be nice to feel like it has supporty skills. With the current cooldowns on them, it feels like I can do a support skill once a month. Don't even care for them to like 10% effective compared to their current values
My Musa burns the midnight-oil just to be able to buy Valkyrie Blackstar/Fallen God gear so she can barely compete, where Tuvala-Tims shine with other classes, like Lahn, Warrior, Zerk........
Even then, she needs the "buffs" to regain her SP, which she burns through so fast.... only Dark Knight rivals how fast she burns through skill resources......
And these "buffs" have such long cool-downs, they're unreliable while grinding.........
Man, I feel bad for people who main Valkyrie. I can use her in select circumstances, and I have a blast, but to use her as a main............
I couldn't do it. Especially now.
PS... Prime Severing Light needs to be like Warrior's mirror skill, not having a long cool-down. That would be quite the consolation.
Valk are a class the they do not care about anymore it all aboout the new toons they bring out that fly around and toss stuff not like old time where you had to stand up and fight just show they want you to buy new stuff. Spen more real money that all they think about now not the fun we use to have now it all about upgrade.