Some Jester Questions

Kurdock

So today I changed my class to Jester. I was drawn to it because of how it's said to be a class that requires a lot of creativity. I enjoy experimenting and testing out things, so I decided Jester was the way to go. Anyway, I have a couple of questions.

- How good is an unartied jester? I don't have money to spend on artefacts, so its highly unlikely I'll get any. Also, I want to get involved in competitive PvP, so would this be easy to achieve without spending $$$?

- How should I distribute my lessons? I am already converting the credits I gain from levelling up into lessons. Right now I have Chariot in Tarot and Juggling in Pranks. I want to have some lessons to spend on Puppetry as well because its a very intriguing skill.

- Would it be plausible for Jester to play a more offensive role in group combat? While we have a big arsenal of supportive abilities, are stuff like Death tarot/Jack in the box recommended to be used in group combat?

- As an unartied player unlikely to get tri trans, what would be the best kill strategy to go for in 1v1s?

- What stats are most important for a Jester? I currently play a Rajamala Enforcer, and the extra Constitution helps bashing a lot, but as I said I'm more interested in PK and raids and stuff.

- What Tarot abilities should I be using more often? Those cards are limited so I'd rather invest more on the more important cards.

- If I ever get credits for winning a competition or something, what artefact should I buy?

- Can someone show me a list of defenses I should have up as a Jester? Is it good to have acrobatics/juggling etc in exchange for the mana/endurance drains?

Thanks for your help!

Kiet

- Unartied jester is one of the top unartied classes in the game. Other than squishiness (mitigated by con spec), jester has no issues unartied

- You ideally want tri-trans, but trans tarot last if not possible.

- Jester is a support class in group, if you can pull of a jitb in a group you would've probably won anyway.

- There's no 'best' kill strategy for jester, that's why it's such a complex class. There's no change of strategies when artied either. I suppose the simplest would be locking them with axes.

- Con is the only stat for jester

- Universe, star, hangedman, aeon, hermit, tower, sun, priestess, fool.

- Shield of absorption

- Slipperiness is the only free def you have, I think. Can't remember if devil tarot lasts long for jesters, but if it does, keep that up too. Juggling/acrobatics/balancing are only for when you're actually fighting, and only for the classes that are affected by it (though of course juggling you'll always use). Arrowcatching for raids depending on who you're fighting (you'll always want it on vs Hashan who has a lot of serps, but not always vs Targossas)

Kurdock

Kiet said:

- Unartied jester is one of the top unartied classes in the game. Other than squishiness (mitigated by con spec), jester has no issues unartied
So we can still fight decently against other artied classes?

- You ideally want tri-trans, but trans tarot last if not possible.
So Pranks first, Puppetry then Tarot?

- Jester is a support class in group, if you can pull of a jitb in a group you would've probably won anyway.
Well its always great to get a kill in, haha.

- There's no 'best' kill strategy for jester, that's why it's such a complex class. There's no change of strategies when artied either. I suppose the simplest would be locking them with axes.
Ok.

- Con is the only stat for jester
Would Dwarf do fine, then? Can't imagine a dwarf doing jester acrobatics, haha.

- Universe, star, hangedman, aeon, hermit, tower, sun, priestess, fool.

- Shield of absorption

- Slipperiness is the only free def you have, I think. Can't remember if devil tarot lasts long for jesters, but if it does, keep that up too. Juggling/acrobatics/balancing are only for when you're actually fighting, and only for the classes that are affected by it (though of course juggling you'll always use). Arrowcatching for raids depending on who you're fighting (you'll always want it on vs Hashan who has a lot of serps, but not always vs Targossas)

Omor

Kurdock said:

Kiet said:

- Con is the only stat for jester
Would Dwarf do fine, then? Can't imagine a dwarf doing jester acrobatics, haha.

That mental image is hilarious.

Kiet

- Yes, that's the point of being a good unartied class

- Pranks puppetry tarot sounds fine. You really kind of want avoidance/survival too though

- Jester's a support class in groups, not sure what to tell you.

- Dwarf's fine, any race works for jester, really, but dwarf is especially good.

Kurdock

@Kiet Oh yes, one more, what would be some good traits? I already have Nimble for my level 30 trait slot. Should I go for Robust next, for the increased constitution?

Kiet

Nimble's mandatory, after that probably robust and last sticky stirrups, definitely knife thrower as a minor.

Kurdock

Kiet said:

Nimble's mandatory, after that probably robust and last sticky stirrups, definitely knife thrower as a minor.

Great, thanks for all your help. I already have nimble and knife thrower

Finkle

I wouldn't do sticky stirrups.  If I recall correctly cannot use the bonus dodging activated skill while mounted

Kiet

Acrobatics stacks with mounting unless that's changed in the last few years.  Mounted jester impossible to hit.

edit: It DOES give less of a benefit when moutned tho (it's like half the effective + dex) but being mounted means you still end up with more overall dodging

Finkle

Checked with a nut.  You're right.  My bad!

Guess I was thinking of weaving or something different.

Sena

Weaving is the same as acrobatics, it's half as effective while mounted.

The only time someone might have worse dodging while mounted is if they have low riding skill or the limbcrusher trait along with weaving/acrobatics.

Aylek

With sun tarot changes + fool I would be tempted to take expert diagnoser for a few things.

Kiet

How would expert diagnoser help with your own self-healing? Do you mean because tree penalty isn't as big? It's not really big enough to worry about anyway.

Texel

What arties would you recommend for Jesters?

Kiet

SoA, shackle if that's still unnerfed (no idea if it is or not at this point), tanking arties

Antonius

Con, bracelets, sip ring, shield of absorption, health regen are always good choices, regardless of class. Classes like Jester don't have any real offensive artefacts so you can focus purely on defensive ones.

Shackle got nerfed, though still a useful artefact to have. Balloons pop instantly if you inflate them with mass up.

Kiet

Shackle still a nice convenience artefact now, then, but I'd get tanking arties first.

Texel

I'm assuming mass suicide mice is not a viable combat tactic?

Armali

Suicide mice makes the aeon shot into juggle lock extremely lethal.

Kesher

WTexel said:

I'm assuming mass suicide mice is not a viable combat tactic?

Unartefacted, we can only have two armed at a time before having to educate and arm two more - both consume balance, I'm pretty sure.  Suicide mice are amazing, though.

Aylek

Kiet said:

How would expert diagnoser help with your own self-healing? Do you mean because tree penalty isn't as big? It's not really big enough to worry about anyway.

I mean expert diagnoser would be useful to use against your opponent to check for things...

Kiet

Well yeah but how is sun tarot related

Kurdock

Another question:

Should I just focus on trans pranks first, or should I embrace class and pour a few lessons into Puppetry? I heard stuff like paralysis in puppetry are powerful.

Cooper

Expert diagnoser slows down your tree tattoo. Sun and fool mitigate that so it's not as dangerous. 

Kiet

Right, that's what I asked but I wouldn't skip on expert diagnoser if I felt it benefited me anyway was my point. That said, I don't believe jester needs it as much as other aff classes in general

Aylek

Kurdock said:

Another question:

Should I just focus on trans pranks first, or should I embrace class and pour a few lessons into Puppetry? I heard stuff like paralysis in puppetry are powerful.

Depends what you're trying to achieve. For PVP I'd argue that having a mix of things is better than straight up pranks, though its not going to be brilliant either way till tri trans, requiring a mix of abilities across the skills to achieve decent results.

Straight hunting I would say get up to priestess in tarot and then straight pranks, for PvP there's not really a "perfect" balance (ie for some classes you could say get up to X and you can do Y) for Jester, its more get up to X in skill 1, Y in skill 2 and Z in skill 3 and you can do a number of different things.

Are you likely to get enough credits in the near future to pump any lessons into the other abilities if you poured them into pranks right now?

@kiet with regards to expert diagnoser I think its rather useful for Jester - saves you a load of fashions to check for a certain aff to see if its stuck or not. Lot harder for a jester to get back 20 wasted fashions than it is for a serpent to regive curare/kalmia etc.

Kurdock

@Aylek As I said in the original post I'm unlikely to be spending money on credits. Right now I'm hoping to get credits from less conventional methods although only god knows how much grinding it will take.

Anyway I learnt till webbombs in Pranks and Throttle in Puppetry.

AB THROTTLE doesn't actually say how much fashions it uses though, so does it use none or what?

Aylek

Throttle requires 1 fashion, uses 0 in room, 1 out of room from what I just tested.

Aylek

Quick question of my own - I always thought Daggers were the quickest to throw though with some testing I've seen handaxes may be quicker. Anyone able to confirm this?

Kurdock

Aylek said:

Quick question of my own - I always thought Daggers were the quickest to throw though with some testing I've seen handaxes may be quicker. Anyone able to confirm this?

One experienced jester told me the other day that handaxes are the best for throwing.