Investigative Reporter Roo is on the case! This is the first in a series of interviews that Babel intends to release – with the release of each new TRANSFORM Job, Babel intends to do an interview with one of the top players in Korea of that given class, inquiring as to what their thoughts on their new transformation is. First up, for Dimension Witch, is our very own Risque! Pardon my poor English, as this is the only interview that will be done in English – the others will be in Korean, then translated into English.

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총잡이아저씨:
Hello, Risque! How are you doing with the new job change?

Risque:
Hi Roo~ Pretty good, I’m just exhausted from trying to get everything in order. As you know, I spent a good chunk of the evening developing content for Babel, so I’m tired now, haha. I just tried doing a few 1v1s, and I’m quickly getting used to Dimension Witch. But she’s honestly really different from Battle Magician, so I’m just trying to integrate my old experiences with the new ones.

총잡이아저씨:
Okay, I’ve see you’ve really been waiting for BtM’s new job path! What makes you that enthusiastic about BtM?

Risque:
Well, to be honest, when I first decided to play Battle Magician, I wasn’t expecting to get into it. In fact, the only reason I made a Battle Magician was to take advantage of the event back in the winter where you could get a rare cash avatar – I was really hoping to win an Alice Wonderland avatar for my Elemental Master! However, the more I played her, the more I realized that she was really the opposite of how she was advertised to be: whereas most people considered her this mindless brute-force character, I found her extremely strategic with a huge number of gaping flaws.

For instance, she still – and this is true as Dimension Witch too – doesn’t have a combo that works in PvP. Her skills were weak, her catching ability was subpar, her mana management was bad… But somehow, she had a really appealing concept and set of tools. I found it really entertaining for me to devise strategies to overcome her shortfallings, despite Battle Magician being considered one of the worst classes in Korea. For me, that was what made Battle Magician fun: finding unique ways to let her strengths shine in face of her crippling weaknesses.

총잡이아저씨:
Ohhhh, Okay, so you think Battle Magician’s current position in Elsword is rather low in the sense of efficiency, then, can you tell us about one of your strategy of playing her well? Like, which skills should BtMs should take advantage of?

Risque:
Aerial combat is an important role in Battle Magician’s repetitore, for sure, especially in team games. Whereas every Aisha can take advantage of this strategy, Battle Magician is particularly effective at it. Aisha really gains the advantage when trying to initiate clashes with other players in the air, thanks to her increased recovery speed especially compared to the males – and Battle Magician has the all-important Speed Accelerator to enhance that. Too many times, I find that Battle Magicians do not take advantage of that skill: the additional attack speed that it provides will be a godsend for you in both offense and defense.

The key issue with Battle Magician is that she has no true combos that she can rely upon. zzz only hits once out of three times in lag, permitting your opponent to counter, and >>zxx is too easily jumped out of – it can only truly work on Chung, or people with very low attack speed (relatively). Thus, the key is to use your aerial capabilities to increase the number of combo chances you get, rather than relying on lengthy combos.

However, just waving your staff around won’t win you the game. But this is where Battle Magician’s other two trumps come in: Magical Makeup and Energy Spurt. Magical Makeup is excellent in field domination, whereas Energy Spurt can really pack a punch against players you normally can’t dent. The key thing to keep in mind is that both have their pros and cons, and it is important to make a very snap judgement about which to use. For instance, while Magical Makeup can dominate a field for the full duration and potentially provide you with enough MP to greatly multiple your initial investment (important since BtM has trouble getting MP), it also gives your opponent enough to one-shot you if they are a male, wasting your investment. Similarly, Energy Spurt is all-or-nothing: once you’ve spent the MP, you’re forced to go uphill to recover it all again.

총잡이아저씨:
Okay, so your advice is to make wise decisions! What is BtM like in dungeons?

Risque:
Considerably stronger, actually! Well, to be honest, she still doesn’t match up against the ranks of the stronger dungeoners, but she can definitely hold her own. While she needs to use Magical Makeup to match the damage output of say, VP, she has very fun gameplay and interesting skills to carry her through. Energy Spurt is a very nice field wipe too if you have the skill note!

총잡이아저씨:
Oh, I see. Finally Dimension Witch has been updated today. What has changed compared to BtM?

Risque:
She’s gotten some interesting assets! First, let’s take a look at her new combos. I have mixed feelings about >>xx… Since the original hit was changed from a Fireball to a Starball with considerably slower speed and shorter distance, it’s removed her main defensive feint. In exchange for a weaker feint, however, she gains intense mana regeneration: each hit of the second part of >xx will regenerate 5 MP, which is quite insane considering Dimension Witch’s previous difficulty in gaining MP in PvP. Her other combo, the mana bomb, is very flashy and cool looking, but ultimately, it has very limited practical use as it uses up a knock-up counter – the only possible use would be if you were stuck in a pincer attack, and even then, it’s very subject to luck since both of her activator magic circle combos require a long time to set up.

Her active is really interesting, but it’s not so good for me, a foreign player. Even with the slightest bit of latency, the appearance of the orb is delayed by two seconds. Even Eve’s summons, which can conventionally lag for foreigners, activate instantly for me. So thus, it’s not something I can really make use of, which is a pity. I’m sure you natives could use it much better, though!

As for her other skills… While her 100 MP has been getting some acclaim for its wide range and ease of comboability, my personal feeling is that the damage is too low. Yes, it’s a very spammable skill… But ultimately, it takes so many casts of that hammer to defeat someone, and that MP could easily be channeled into a stronger skill.

Similarly, her 200 MP is somewhat subpar in PvP. Its maximum hits of 11, which bumps the skill up to 3300% or so (still rather subpar damage considering it’s physical), can only be achieved if you have your opponent in a corner. Otherwise, it only deals around 6 or 7 hits, assuming little lag – in lag, it only deals 3 hits. Surely, Guillotine is a lot more consistent.

총잡이아저씨:
Would you consider Dimension Witch’s playing style similar to Battle Magician’s?

Risque:
In some ways, not a lot has changed. She will be relying on Energy Spurt and Magical Makeup for the majority of her damage still. In other ways, however, she has been granted more tools – now she can actually regenerate MP quickly outside of Magical Makeup thanks to her >>xx combo! Her new combo that grants additional Space Impact hits can also greatly improve her damage, while locking players into her originally leaky combos – the hits stun, which I like a lot. Downwards teleport is another very useful tool she has been given, although honestly, I would prefer just to drop down manually from a platform since I know how to V-Step. Finally, again, her active has some very interesting uses… Assuming that you can time it properly!

총잡이아저씨:
Tell us about her new passive skills, are they helpful?

Risque:
I like them! Magical Staff gives Battle Magician a well-needed damage boost in her combos. Now, she can truly be called the Aisha class who excels most at comboing (until VP decides to whip out Hell Stone, of course). Furthermore, that stun that the Space Impacts give can be really helpful in bridging combos, since it has a very high activation rate of 10% – you might have given up hope on a zzz loop, and then the passive will kick in to prevent your opponent from escaping!

Advanced Teleportation is somewhat helpful too. While I find it difficult to take advantage of the very short two second damage boost from teleport, as I mostly use teleport defensively, I like how >>zx’s damage has been greatly enhanced. The invincibility frame has been very helpful too! I had a ShG freeze me in the middle of a >>zxx, completely missing me with his Dread Chase. Downwards teleport, however, isn’t that useful for me – Aisha has a really fast drop speed, so I don’t tend to use Teleport in going down, only up.

총잡이아저씨:
And, tell me about what you think of her appearance? You know, many people have been anticipating Dimension Witch as Aisha’s new style :)

Risque:
Haha, personally, I was a little disappointed. When I first heard “Witch”, I was really hoping for something really cool and bad-ass like VP. However, it looks like KOG is trying to pander to the Korean Girls who like to treat Elsword as a dress-up game. -_- Her new pose makes up for it, though! I love how it looks, it looks really heroic. The one thing I do dislike, however, is how frilly her Magical Makeup looks… Humm, maybe I’m going to start favoring Energy Spurt over Magical Makeup in PvP now.

총잡이아저씨:
Hahaha can you suggest us a combination of avatar that would work for Dimension Witch’s new pose?

Risque:
Yes! That pose is extremely authorative looking, so I feel that avatars that look like uniforms work extremely well with it. For instance, ElOfficer, or my famous Captain Avatar.

총잡이아저씨:
Thank you! This is end of my questions. Do you have anything to tell to those who want to start playing Battle Magician or Dimension Witch?

Risque:
Hmm. I think, just be very careful about what you’re getting into! Don’t be fooled by her cute appearance, she’s really not the type of class that you can excel with if you rush ahead foolishly. Conventional strategies really don’t work that well with her – you need to be very adaptive and level-minded to play her well, as unless you’re fighting really easy opponents or dungeoning all the time, there’s no easy way to play her. But don’t get discouraged! She might not be as strong as VP, but she’s certainly very fun.

Thank you for your time today, Roo!

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Next up is Night Watcher! Stay tooned for our new interviewee when the class is released!