Robot's Deconstruction Hour: Trickster
Aug 3, 2016 13:12:05 GMT
Seya, Nocturne, and 2 more like this
Post by Robot on Aug 3, 2016 13:12:05 GMT
Overview: Trickster is the seventh and final class in PTU 1.05's battling style classes. Trickster is an excellent addition to many builds as a battlefield options sort of class, it looks to be better as a dabbler to meet the needs for the remainder of a character's build, then a primary focus for feature selection. This gets back to my personal view of 'damage wins fights', but Trickster has a creeper OP feeling about it. Where everything goes according to plan, and suddenly SURPRISE! Placement of hazards, and use of your scene and daily abilities are extremely important when turning tricks. The class favors Pokemon with access to hazards, blessings, or boosts, that have higher skillvalues to take advantage of the class' core feature.
Pros
-Options, Options, Options.
-Fitting for many builds, feature selection determining the mileage and direction the class takes you.
-Action economy very strong.
-Very strong /Scene and /Day effects.
-Hazard field of dreams.
Cons
-Abilities limited use or run on AP. Utilizing improved action economy via the base feature will hemorrhage your AP totals.
-Rapid Spin, Whirlwind, Haze, Take A Breather, Full Heals, Berries, several pokemon moves, and the Medic class make your life difficult.
-Like Commander, very feature heavy to get the full package. Unlike Commander, don't actually need everything to make it work.
Base Feature: Allows your Pokemon to Dirty Trick or Manipulate after they land a Status Class move, or an enemy triggers one of your hazards at the cost of 1 AP. The potential combinations with this ability alone are too numerous for me to even get into (between attacking status moves and the six options provided by this feature). That said, since the followup maneuver is considered to automatically hit, triggering this effect off of hazards removes one stage of RNG. Leaning on hazards also gives Trickster it's area control, an enemy passing through these risking blind, vulnerable, or infatuate just attempting to reposition. Never underestimate an effective use of this ability.
Bag of Tricks: Lets you have two out of four available Trickster Techniques, and is ranked 2. Two of these options are Scene x2, two spend AP. The Scene x2 Abilities are Mind Games which lets you change any volatile status to Suppress or Infatuate, probably the best options with the status playtest. Also makes the target vulnerable, all it requires is landing a move with the social keyword. Shell game is the other, which allows your Pokemon to move it's hazards, and switch them to Toxic Spikes, Spikes, or Stealth Rock. Or all of them on a single square that you then push people into. There's the damage, three ticks of HP plus toxic. Escape Artist requires you to be adjacent to two enemies to get a benefit, and if that's what's up you're probably already out of position. Impromptu Trick lets you throw out hazards as attacks of opportunity, if anyone should ever make the mistake of provoking from your Pokemon, it is very very strong. The two Scenex2 abilities are must haves, the AP spenders can be skipped.
Stacked Deck: If you are going to make someone saltily suffer a slough of statii, make them suffer longer and harder for an AP. Hitting an enemy already under the effects of a status lets you make them lose more HP, struggle for a turn after succeeding on their save, or eat a small accuracy and evasion penalty. As with my other guides, a small penalty to accuracy and evasion is lame. On top of that, Mind Games allows you to just outright make an opponent vulnerable. ALL THE EVASION! That said, adding another 5 hp loss to the damaging statuses on your opponent makes them bleed out that much faster. As AP spenders go, Trickster is about a lot of small numbers and battlefield control, Stacked Deck can be kept or left. The extra slows on your crowd control statuses are particularly nasty, especially when combined with Paralyze.
Flourish: Your status attacks can crit, giving you a small benefit. The tick of temporary hitpoints is the ideal option, giving Trickster more opportunity while poison or your other statuses of choice do their work. If landing a two stage stat lowering attack, makes it three stage which is fun, especially landing Screech on a Burst 2. If you find yourself feature starved, Flourish can probably be left behind. If you are running a critical range stacking build, your status moves crit on the same range your damaging moves would. This means you can increase that range by up to 6, to better reap the benefits of this feature.
Encore Performance: Daily x3 and what doesn't it do? The best use of this ability is to use a +2 Stage boosting move, into an immediate At-Will DB 10-12 attack, or more if you PPUp an EoT move. It can place more hazards, boost a combat stage, increase blessing usages, place more hazards, make weather last longer, do your homework, babysit your kids, make dinner, and get you that promotion. Encore Performance is a must for any Trickster.
Sleight: Allows you to use a status move as an interrupt twice a scene. If it doesn't target enemies, you can proc the extra standard at-will from Encore Performance. If it does, it is treated as if it's backed by Infiltrator. Not anything else to say about it really, it's good.
Pros
-Options, Options, Options.
-Fitting for many builds, feature selection determining the mileage and direction the class takes you.
-Action economy very strong.
-Very strong /Scene and /Day effects.
-Hazard field of dreams.
Cons
-Abilities limited use or run on AP. Utilizing improved action economy via the base feature will hemorrhage your AP totals.
-Rapid Spin, Whirlwind, Haze, Take A Breather, Full Heals, Berries, several pokemon moves, and the Medic class make your life difficult.
-Like Commander, very feature heavy to get the full package. Unlike Commander, don't actually need everything to make it work.
Base Feature: Allows your Pokemon to Dirty Trick or Manipulate after they land a Status Class move, or an enemy triggers one of your hazards at the cost of 1 AP. The potential combinations with this ability alone are too numerous for me to even get into (between attacking status moves and the six options provided by this feature). That said, since the followup maneuver is considered to automatically hit, triggering this effect off of hazards removes one stage of RNG. Leaning on hazards also gives Trickster it's area control, an enemy passing through these risking blind, vulnerable, or infatuate just attempting to reposition. Never underestimate an effective use of this ability.
Bag of Tricks: Lets you have two out of four available Trickster Techniques, and is ranked 2. Two of these options are Scene x2, two spend AP. The Scene x2 Abilities are Mind Games which lets you change any volatile status to Suppress or Infatuate, probably the best options with the status playtest. Also makes the target vulnerable, all it requires is landing a move with the social keyword. Shell game is the other, which allows your Pokemon to move it's hazards, and switch them to Toxic Spikes, Spikes, or Stealth Rock. Or all of them on a single square that you then push people into. There's the damage, three ticks of HP plus toxic. Escape Artist requires you to be adjacent to two enemies to get a benefit, and if that's what's up you're probably already out of position. Impromptu Trick lets you throw out hazards as attacks of opportunity, if anyone should ever make the mistake of provoking from your Pokemon, it is very very strong. The two Scenex2 abilities are must haves, the AP spenders can be skipped.
Stacked Deck: If you are going to make someone saltily suffer a slough of statii, make them suffer longer and harder for an AP. Hitting an enemy already under the effects of a status lets you make them lose more HP, struggle for a turn after succeeding on their save, or eat a small accuracy and evasion penalty. As with my other guides, a small penalty to accuracy and evasion is lame. On top of that, Mind Games allows you to just outright make an opponent vulnerable. ALL THE EVASION! That said, adding another 5 hp loss to the damaging statuses on your opponent makes them bleed out that much faster. As AP spenders go, Trickster is about a lot of small numbers and battlefield control, Stacked Deck can be kept or left. The extra slows on your crowd control statuses are particularly nasty, especially when combined with Paralyze.
Flourish: Your status attacks can crit, giving you a small benefit. The tick of temporary hitpoints is the ideal option, giving Trickster more opportunity while poison or your other statuses of choice do their work. If landing a two stage stat lowering attack, makes it three stage which is fun, especially landing Screech on a Burst 2. If you find yourself feature starved, Flourish can probably be left behind. If you are running a critical range stacking build, your status moves crit on the same range your damaging moves would. This means you can increase that range by up to 6, to better reap the benefits of this feature.
Encore Performance: Daily x3 and what doesn't it do? The best use of this ability is to use a +2 Stage boosting move, into an immediate At-Will DB 10-12 attack, or more if you PPUp an EoT move. It can place more hazards, boost a combat stage, increase blessing usages, place more hazards, make weather last longer, do your homework, babysit your kids, make dinner, and get you that promotion. Encore Performance is a must for any Trickster.
Sleight: Allows you to use a status move as an interrupt twice a scene. If it doesn't target enemies, you can proc the extra standard at-will from Encore Performance. If it does, it is treated as if it's backed by Infiltrator. Not anything else to say about it really, it's good.