Idea Why play Elf?

Honestly, I see elf as shooting into a crowded flagroom when the chemist steals to put him out. That's really the only purpose. It's offense is weak, it's defense is pathetic, and it's escape method is limited. Can elf get the wall climbing sword while soldier gets the wind element?

 

Elf was a good idea on the drawing board (partially) but it's really just a bandaid class to 3 of the most hated things in CTF (pyros / soldiers / archers) and is just a more complicated class than mage. Although it can be useful in capping (and only capping as I have seen so far) as shown by @Vanence , it has such a high skill curve that it turns away new players before they can become skilled (or as skilled as you can get) with elf.

 

If I understood the class idea good (maybe I'm wrong) elf was meant as a support class, not a class to get that high k/d ratio. If you look at its abilities, you can mostly find ways to assist your team, only the pure element is offensive. Further, you should just find it with helping your teammates.

 

I love playing as elf to jump from high areas do a 360 shot and then feather jump right before I hit the ground. This kit is basically a nerfed soldier and archer all up In one

 

so u ken lef et teh ppl whu dye frum u

 

Wot u say?




Translated: Sew yew cahn laff att tha peepul whue dyeh frumm yew?

 

new mayn u gut it al wong

 

(tl;dr elf is a good class, you just have to use it very well)

@Septembers I'll break this down point by point.

How many ninjas have a positive k/d? Or assassins, or medics? Elf isn't about killing people, it's about playing a game called Capture the Flag. Archer does both very well, though most people choose the killing people option.

I see Earth Element as a support weapon, while Pure is offensive. Earth is merely for slowing people down, 1) to escape them (works sometimes), 2) to deter them from pursuing your flag carrier, and 3) to slow down an enemy flag carrier and give your defense a chance to catch up. It all works if you're a good shot.

Indeed shooting the Wind Element doesn't do much but let you troll your friends; otherwise I'm not really sure why the ability exists, other than that all of elf's tools are bows aside from the sword (and steak and compass -.-). But horizontal flight--as opposed to soldier's vertical flight--overcomes its uselessness in ranged form. And archer's knockback is severe and unnecessary; all you have to do is bat people away with your sword, quickdraw a couple shots, and run away or keep shooting with elf.

When dropping into flag rooms, Resistance I is the difference between life and death for me. Also, the effect spreads out with a radius of I believe three blocks--whatever it is, the circle is pretty big--and gives allies Resistance, extinguishes their bodies, and puts out fires on the ground (which medic does not do unless it's by hand). It's great for support: for example, clearing a path for a flag carrier when a pyro decides to flintspam, and not needing to be accurate when extinguishing allies from a distance.

Here's how I break that down in my head. Pure Element = archer. Earth Element = medic webs. Air Element = soldier. Water Element = medic, arguably chemist buffs. But I don't believe these aspects should be compared to similar functions of other classes. Elf is its own class because it uses its weapons and tools differently. Pure Element = self defense or saving a teammate's life, not headshotting from a bird's nest. Earth Element = ... okay I'll give you that one. Air Element = increased-speed horizontal travel, which can propel you through a crowd of people and out of a flag room. Water Element = long-range, large-area fire extinguishing, as well as a small degree of teammate buffing.

A mere sacrifice to keep the class from being OP. It's not that hard, really; use your air wisely.

I would like to argue that elf is an exponential improvement to mage, though unfortunately mage can't be removed from CTF very easily at this point. So it's kind of a flying, completely fair and balanced mage. May not exactly be unique, but works for me at least.

Perhaps the shield could use a little something done to it; archers have all the time in the word to dodge at long range, mages can easily strafe, however it's useful against pyros who have explosive arrows. But really, I see nothing wrong with the other mechanics. Even a kind of subtle adjustment like the strength of Resistance may well upset the balance of the class.

Kind of reks the archery associated with elf. Also makes it impossible to shoot over objects with an arc. For archery newbies, though, seems alright. Imo it's just better to keep it normal.

Long-range chemist support. o-o

I think that would involve the arrow vanishing into the enemy, then respawning on the other side of the enemy, and continuing its trajectory, which I believe would be a major matter of ping. @NomNuggetNom has proved me wrong before, though... (lol got rekt when he did)

That really does seem like a good idea. 1.9 offers a Glow Effect, that could be incorporated.

I apologize for being pretty negative throughout this thing. It's nothing personal, I'm not directly offended by your opinion of elf, I'm just making an effort to defend the class and advocate its strengths. As @kevshadowslayer said, elf is a pretty tough class to use to its full potential. It seems to shine only when it's used by the pros. Perhaps it simply is a high-skill-requiring class, or otherwise a KDR-plummeting fun class. But I will have to say, I suppose aside from the regular-pvp heavy, elf is the only class in CTF which requires real mastery and skill to get anything productive out of it. Archer can bowspam and camp, chemist can potspam, soldier can infinitely scale walls to flee from attackers, but there's real work to be done when you're using elf.

 

Well, elf is okay if you are good at playing as it. But it's pretty hard to be very good at it.

 

You main elf and you see no reasons to play it..?

 

Personally I think elf could use a buff but the reason I play it is out of all the classes I find it the most fun, maybe that's because I don't own own it and so don't play it as often. Btw I imagine most won't read the buff suggestions.

In terms of buffing it I'd propose: (I don't suggest all 3 to be implemented together but maybe just one could make the class better)

Health regen ability? Maybe take a mix of ninja and assassin when elf does damage blocking a projectile it takes that health. So say you block a mage dmg spell you receive 3 hearts (maybe receive less in healing then you would in damage). Furthermore this could be taken one step further to a more op level where if elf doesn't have 5 steak killing an enemy using block gives back a steak - this proposal would be to make it more of a mage/pyro/chemist counter.

Quicker arrows? This one could be op if anyone remembers how quickly pyro used to be able to fire and take out enemies but since elf can't insta-kill it might be okay. Often I don't see the point of using the earth element arrow because if I'm using it to chase a flag-carrier I find by the time I fire it would of made more sense to chase them with wind element. Similarly with putting out pyro fires and using wind element to push enemies away they just don't work quick enough. - this would just mean elves elements are more effective.

Pure element? One of the best ways I've found to use elf is a dwarf flag room, if theres maybe 2 dwarves and a ninja, fingers crossed I can take out the ninja and then am able to take out dwarves using the pure element. Only problem is there's an aware chemist/medic healing or even just several patrolling defenders this is impossible. The idea basically here is just to ramp up pure element a bit more. - This one isn't as solid but might be still be a good solution to make elf a better offensive support.

 

Some fixes I would implement:

Pure Element: Make it so that you can take 2 shots to get the additional stronger shot instead of one-and-done.
Earth: Make is so that left clicking it applys the effect around you. Also should go off on any power shot.
Water: Same as Earth, make it give small amount of regen as well. (perhaps give fire res?)
Wind: Make the knockback from the thing stronger, when you attack with it.

And perhaps give Elf speed I.

 

Necro