Family Name: GreenShadow_PT

Region (NA/EU): EU
Suggestions/Comments: This post is regarding Shai and possible improvements for the class. I think there are some possible improvements that could be done, some not urgent, others are. I will start with PvE. 

PvE

Try this - This skill is often just used as a filler, and not really good damage even considering its 100% Crit Rate on PvE, and One Two Three spam still being more powerful than actually using this skill. I think it could use a damage buff.

Sun's Fury - This skill is never used in PvE, and i dont think either in PvP that much too. It's damage on PvE is terrible, so i think it should have its damage upped, to allow more variety.

Earth's Tremble - This also suffers from the same issue as Sun's Fury, so also never used in PvE. It should have its damage upped along with Sun's Fury.

Skills needing a serious buff or a rework :

Gather Around! - This skill has a extremely weak vaccum, and its never used, with the exception of gathering at for example Forest of Seclusion Wolves/Foxes (where it actually works). This seems to have never been updated, and with the power creep, it became useless. It needs serious buffs to its vaccum aswell as a bigger AOE. To have an idea, this skill doesn't work for example with Gorgo Rock Belt snakes in Valencia, or Drieghan wild mobs. 

I will touch now regarding protections, which is i think something that the class lacks a lot, especially protected damage, therefore really hurting
the class.

Protections :

Try This - I suggest to add Forward Guard to this skill. This is a damage skill, yet, its just impossible to use it during PvP, being totally unprotected, and animation locked, which doesn't make sense, in my opinion.



Yippie - I dont understand why its completely unprotected, while every class has an protected escape skill, ours is totally unprotected, and rather impossible to use it. Keep in mind this skill is heavy on stamina, so my suggestion is adding Super Armor at the startup of the skill and for 2 more seconds, and then its unprotected.




Get Well - My suggestion is adding Super Armor to this skill, there isn't much to say regarding this one, but i don't see the reason for not having protection, also it has a long cooldown.



Go Away - The only CC Shai has, and totally unprotected. My suggestion is adding a Forward Guard to it. It's already hard to hit someone with it unless they are stuned, so i don't really see the issue.



Hop - Main movement skill. The problem i see is its stamina cost. I think it should have its cost reduced, would benefit in both PvP and PvE (Low-end Spots).

Hop while on Talent - Needs to be improved so it has same dashing speed as on Pre-Awakening kit. The dash is much slower while on talent, so a even bigger gap to be cced. Really needs to be improved.



Tuck and Roll - It's already an Super Armor skill, but my suggestion to it, is making the roll go longer distance, as well the ability to linger it, aswell as reducing its cooldown. 
Additional Notes : I came to the conclusion to improve this skill more instead of Hop, because its unviable to give Super Armor to Hop while off cooldown, as it would be oppresive when using Forest's Echo. Hop only needs it's stamina cost reduced.

S Block 

I think the class should have access to an S Block, in fact every class and spec should, its in my opinion a very basic thing, and i think unreasonable some dont even have a S Block.

Eat this - Down Smash
Twirl-Boom - Down Attack
Twirl-Three - Down Attack

Another related issue with down attacks is Shai lacking any downstate CCs, the only ones being "Try this" as a PvE float, "Tumble Wumble" a PvE bound, last not least, Go Away being a Float. So this is my suggestions regarding it :

Tumble-Wumble - My suggestion is turning into a general Bound that works both PvE and PvP, but loses its Forward Guard to compensate it, would give Shai access to another Downstate CC.



Earth's Tremble - This skill has a stun, but i think it could have a PvE only Bound or Knockdown, which would encourage more its use along a damage buff. But i'm not 100% sure on this one.

Other Suggestions regarding skills 



Over There and Sharing is Caring - This is a summon that Shai can use and lasts for 30 seconds before dispawning. While its invulnerable in PvE, its killable in PvP, making it pointless, due to many classes huge AOEs. This two should have invincibility in PvP too.

I think Twirl-Boom! needs a PvE bound CC for the Pit of the Undying. I'm a little tired of swapping out between both Twirl-Boom! and Tumble-Wumble or maybe one of the skills needs an bound CC? :>

I totaly agree with the frontal on [try this] and a somesort of buff to [earth tremor] and [sun's fury] to make them more usable in PvE and PvP 

and i would think that I-frame or super armor to [Yippee!] for even a short duration is absolutely needed as in its current state its just a novely shai's have instead of a usable skill in PvP.

Also, improve Shai's talent skill buffs to work if you're in the area with a bunch of uphills and downhills maybe? :)

Shais is in a tough spot for changes because she's on the lower end of balanced but still balanced. B4 nerfs she was on the higher end of the balance, almost OP. Losing Haze would have been enough but PA took the last great shai nerf way too far and now new players, low-end grind spots, crypt, and ash forest are better for other classes and playing shai is a net loss. As it is, the class should not be played by new players and isn't very defendable as a good option for old players. This is shown by how many old shai mains are spending most of their time off of shai which is very unfortunate for a class we all enjoyed for so long. I don't think the class is much of an enjoyment class because she suffers in both early and late game performance, nor is she a life skill-focused class because numerically she performs worse in life skills than nearly any other class. I would not mind if she did better in that area but right now, grinding is the only way to progress, and therefore I must focus my efforts where things count.

I'm at 316k and do lots of group content exclusively with 700gs+ players, I know that even without shai buffs my friends who are similarly geared outperform me without buffs. This is not to say buffs are weak, but I believe that letting Shais scale better in pve will not make her broken in solo and group but will help immensely for all players who are suffering greatly after the past nerfs. The accuracy will help fill the 25% accuracy and 25% dr shred we lost with haze without changing group performances since we usually hit caps anyway. What this change will do is let shais grind high-accuracy spots like crypt once more. Currently, she can survive in crypt but requires a ridiculous amount of gear to perform worse than other classes that have naturally high accuracy. Shai has to invest a lot more to maintain survivability and regain their nerfed accuracy and damage which amounted to a significant damage loss post-nerf, this made it unadvisable to play Shai whenever you have the gear to grind in Crypt. The OP's suggestions will help shai in minor ways without affecting group content.

Additionally, our current DPS rotation makes no sense. I would like it if the damage was increased to allow the following rotation:

It should be better in areas where the shai is mobbed such as ash, hexe, ash, and crypt but naturally due to low range is weaker at places like quint stars end etc.

For some reason, half of Shai's kit has insignificant damage. If this rotation were supported, shai would be a more complex and dynamic class while still having a nice fluidity across the rotation. This would also help prevent exploits and grant a more rewarding and fun experience.

Stick To Me would also be cool if it had some dmg for PvE because it has a long cast time compared to other classes like valk and witch. This skill is stationary and could use a small boost in performance but should not be made part of the rotation.

I would love a more interesting and fun rotation that allows shais to worry about their addons and buffs all while dealing damage which is the heart of what the class originally was about before our buffs got extended to 60s. 

To follow up on another issue the OP brought up:

I feel it deserves more discussion. The OP suggested making a toggle skill for Shais to have their buffs (similar to We Are Gonna Win). I agree this issue needs to be resolved, but I do not think it should be a toggle. The proper solution would be to make her buffs into a passive. This will allow the class to have buffs at all times and mainly use the songs to project her natural talent to others through music. I feel this way because Shai was not designed to be rewarded for having her music buffs. Instead, she feels like she was developed under the premise of always needing and having these buffs. If I am playing my Shai, I have to have my buffs up, making it more challenging to perform in many areas of the game where I might have died and then need to both spawn and rebuff before being able to do anything. This can be clunky to play around and very frustrating to play the Shai class, I think that if this bothers long-term Shai mains then it must be even less sensible to newer players who want to try out Shai.

It would be wiser to give Shais their buffs as a passive and then allow them to view a timer for their buffs on their buff bar whenever they cast their songs without receiving the boosts. The Shais should still be able to get the healing over time effect from Shout to the Sky but only for the period described in the skill description and not from this suggested passive, which should only provide the health-boosting attribute of Shout to the Sky. These buff bar timers will allow shai mains to easily track how long their party buffs are for allies in group content.

imo

Yippee! Should have no collision at least on the speed boost if not the entire skill.

I cant count the number of times at Hexe where an undead either crawled out of the ground or loaded in directly in front of me, completely shutting down yippee! and leaving worse off than having never even used it. Also had a christmas gift spawn directly in front of me and shut me down before I even began moving in this same way during Christmas event

The ability to cast Twirl-boom from Yippee! would look great animation wise and make the horrible wind up/down time for Yippee! 50% better in PvE

Also toggling WGW on/off should have no animation. There is no logical reason for the shai to summon their drums and do that dumb animation for 3 seconds to enable/disable except that maybe PA doesnt want people to use it. It was already a barely used skill and PA even wasted what little dev time Shai has gotten recently to.... give WGW a sidegrade. Take that stupid animation off from enable/disable and let shai decide how they want to cast their awakening spells in the moment rather than being locked into a mode

Also yes pls rebalance our skills so that its worth using them. Twirl-Boom should just be a baseline skill at this point.

I agree with your points. I would absolutely agree that for the talent attacks, the reason they're never used is because for one, they make you extremely vulnerable because once you start it's hard to stop and secondly the time it takes to transition into it is enough time to make it not worth it on its own.

The transition between standard to talent and back is time consuming an the only way around it is to hotkey a skill. If it weren't for that shortcut i don't think i would have patience to play shai. "C" needs to be instant. Likewise so does bongo drums etc... I never use those attacks because if i do, i will most certainly die.

Another issue with shai is if you buff too quickly "ASDF spacebar" for example you will not buff your party mates or at least maybe one or two of the buffs will apply but not all. This is some type of desync issue and should be resolved, because I find myself having to wait half a second between buffs just to ensure other people will get it.

Likewise, if you're within at least "2 bars" of the radar then you should get the buffs. The desync is bad and it's hard to follow around the party to keep them buffed.

To add to this, you have no idea what buffs they have. I would like to be able to visually see what buffs my partymates have that are class-specific AKA Shai. That way i know if i didn't buff everyone right.

Oh and the talent weapon needs to go. It needs to be like every other class if her "roleplay" and "lifeskill" perks are given to every other class eventually. She can be a legitimate class like any other. One way to go about this is to maybe have succession and awakening where one is specific for buffs/pvp and the other is for PvE / grinding. Because let's be honest here, shai is slow. Her little legs can't run very fast and using the boomerang is very limited as it only consumes very few of your stamina. I'm level 35 stamina and skateboarding is only good until maybe around 70% then i can use the booster to give a bit more distance. Except skateboarding does nothing for grinding. Instead for grinding you hop around consuming an excess amount of stamina. She needs to consume less stamina and it needs to be faster. Basically once she slows down at the end, she needs to jump forward again without waiting as long. She can't compete against most if not all other classes in a grind spot, she gets overgrinded easily.

+100 on rebuffing time because it's honestly dreadful. If you're playing solo you have to constantly rebuff yourself and others. It's hard to play catch up when your party members are a Musa and a Lahn. Where did they just go? IDK i'm a shai. I'm not superman, I'm a turtle. Rebuff timer should be at least 5 minutes. In PvP it doesn't matter because you're constantly dying anyways.

Her silver / hr is so low compared to other classes. People like to flaunt about how much they make here and there and my shai despite my best efforts doesn't come close because I can't move from mob group to mob group like other classes.

I also agree wholeheartingly that Yippe! (skateboard) shouldn't collide with other players or mobs at full speed. If anything, you should be mowing down the enemies. Other players can just stand there at bosses and you'll trap yourself and perhaps die as a result. Some world boss attacks are so dangerous to shai because she can't get out of the way on time if you're attacking melee.

Sorry for the rant, I've been pent up for a while and needed to let it all out hahahaha!

This and so much more this! I hadn't even thought of Yippee issues or how WGW should be the real toggle, that makes too much sense.

Oh also

Shai Succession could be nice..

Awakening Shai is one of the most unique classes in the game, largely due to their Awakening Tree group buffs. Trying to stuff passable balance for the other aspects of the game on top of this single spec hasnt been working out so well..

Releasing Shai Succession would allow Shai players to play Shai as a more interesting and balanced class free from the shackles of their group balance.

Why is it that casters have 2 different specs to cast magic, gauntlets have 2 different specs to punch things, (most) melee classes have 2 specs to stab and slice things, but the class with the most unique Awakening tree in the game has to attempt to balance the entire game around a niche toolkit, and simply accept not participating in parts of the game?