Panda Small Improvement

I really like some of these changes. The changes to Milky Instinct and especially Refreshment are amazing.
The idea behind Triple Whammy is pretty good although might be a bit too strong to remove 2 MP with 2 AP for a spell with 3 uses per target. Compared to Sadida which has plenty of MP removal tools, it can remove 4 MP with 2 AP but only in line and with a 2 turn cooldown.

As for Cocktail and Pandemic, the idea isn't bad.
Cocktail seems like a very niche passive which I prefer that way to fit interesting playstyles.
Pandemic's change is really strong and a "% armor granted" might be a better change than reducing a percentage of CC damage.

if triple whammy gonna give -2mp ,it could be a nice way for panda to actually keep the bosses from moving,but its kinda annoying that it would be only casted on a stabilisedtarget,because if that boss dodges(like,if he resisted the mp rape and had enought mp to get away),the team mates wouldn't even be able to take him back to his spot (specially if its grozepin/croc boss,that he couldn't be carryed

i'd rather recommand make it give -2mp when the target hit a certain dizzy level

What about Pandemic instead reducing damage taken on blocks? Might not be as balanced as just extra damage reduced in close combat but.. I honestly think the pandawa takes low enough damage from stuff already.

I think the biggest problem it has is the inability to take MP from bosses and not being able to position them sucks too. Feca can TP a boss easily for 1 WP and 2 AP while moving along with the boss, and gaining 2 MP. They can even do it every turn. Panda, however, can't pick up many bosses, can't really move bosses that conveniently (outside of maybe triple whammy but it's garbage compared to feca's teleport) and our only (crappy) way to reduce MP from a target is by using 6 AP with Lactic Acid... which is either A: too expensive normally, or B: nearly impossible to use on most bosses because they can't be picked up (you'd have to use a mob, or a summon, or an ally standing next to the boss to do it which is, needless to say, not very convenient compared to Feca's MP loss glyph and leather plating which doubles MP costs...)..

We also can't debuff an enemy's final damage, or buff our allies' AP or damage or range... or make somebody immune to damage easily (karchamrak isn't going to work if the panda is too busy tanking the boss).

So even though I like some of the ideas you suggested, the biggest problems that the pandawa has extend much further than what you mentioned can even fix and it will ultimately make us AT BEST second rate (for boss tanking) to Fecas no matter what.

The biggest suggestions I can give to Ankama on how to make Panda (or just other classes in general) better at tanking bosses, is to allow the "tank" classes a way to move bosses as conveniently as the Feca can.

For Pandawa, that would be allowing them to use karchamrak on ALL bosses that aren't 3x3 sized. It might end up being a little overpowered, I'm not going to lie, but thats what has to be done if you want pandawa to tank a boss. Otherwise, the only other option is to have a second character to reposition boss which is just not team efficient.

Ontop of that, change lockjock to increase the maximum MP you can lock from a boss when they walk away from you. The way it is right now just isn't good enough.

And give all tank classes an efficient way to remove MP from boss targets.

In all honesty I think pandawa should just stick to not being a boss tank... we're good enough as mob positioners and at this point I've just accepted that we're required to have a feca for literally every boss at lv 170+

Another thing I'd like to point out is that I think pandawa should be able to like... jump around and run in the monster team being able to toss them around without much care for their own safety. This would be much easier if we could remain in the "Worn Out" state for much longer than 1 turn without holding the barrel (since it becomes inconvenient to lug it around). At the same time I don't want to remove the simplistic nature of just ending your turn without worn out to go to sober state. What if we could cast "Barrelhop" directly on the barrel, which would refund the 1 WP and instantly reset the cooldown on barrelhop (so that it can be used 1 more time that turn) and by doing this we lock in our Worn Out state so that it doesn't switch to sober if we end our turn without barrel that turn.

@Xillor

I agree with you. Everything past 170 is pretty much Feca based, and this is super sad. I think that if they allowed Pandas to move most bosses or at least the same stuff that Feca can move, it would be more than fair. The same goes for other tanking classes like Sacriers. They really have to take a look into that.

As for the Pandemic buff, I like the idea of increasing Block reduction, like possibly increasing the reduction from 30% to 40%, I think it would be nice.

The problem you mentioned with Worn Out, there is one possible way of working around it. Make Karchamrak have a secondary effect if cast from 0 range while carrying the barrel: directly drinks the bamboo milk, allowing the Panda to finish his turn without carrying the barrel and do not lose the Worn Out state. Another possible way is to give Ether the effect of maintaining dizzy or worn out levels without requiring the Panda to keep carrying the barrel.

As for the MP drain, this could be given to Bash Barrel by restricting it to 3 casts per turn. Everyone in the area would lose 1 MP then. The damage of it would have to be slightly reduced though.

allow mass charm to be used while holding the barrel

SCO

I like the general idea of these improvements.

And i also think that if boss can be moved by Feca then it should be moved by others too.
I can understand why some bosses shouldn't be push-able (to make their lock count for something), but making them impossible to swap just ruin the concept of sacrier's as tanks/positioners and making these same bosses impossible to be picked/thrown just ruin panda and nobody else really. There is really no logical reason why only feca can move these bosses. Either feca shouldn' be able to move them or everybody else should be able to move them too.

As for maintaining Worn Out - i think the whole mechanic of Sober/Merry/Worn Out is flawed in that you cannot maintain Merry nor Worn Out forever. Imo these states should just have 1 level that you maintain as long as you carry/not carry barrel.

As for skills improvements - Bamboozle cast on Panda who carry barrel should pull towards it; Ether should make panda drink from pocket-bamboo (bambootle) to maintain current state without barrel; there should be passive that make Splash of milk heal on initial hit on barrel, to improve the healing. Karchamrak shouldn't be limited to line, but should be changed to use per turn and cost no AP, to make panda spend their turns on skills after, say, 2 throws, since timer is 30 seconds only; barrelhop cast directly on the cell with barrel should summon that barrel to pandawa's hand instead of making panda jump (the barrel hop, not the panda hop, get it? heh). It still let panda jump close to barrel the same way they can do it now. Bottomless barrel should make barrel recover litres when it is not carried. Also i think that picking up barrel should trigger drinking it at the moment you pick the barrel, not at the end of turn if you carry it. This is however my personal preference as i think it would be more convenient to change states like that, within the same turn (also because panda's love of bamboomilk should make them drink the milk right away without waiting). Milky breath and flaming burp should also be usable while carrying barrel and their aoe should turn into cone sized (hitting 9 cells total), with the use of litres in barrel to enhance their power. Also Milky Wave should have no los requirement when casting on barrel. The ability to pull someone towards barrel is missing the potential if you cannot see the barrel behind the enemy that you'd want this enemy to be pulled into. It could become nice live-saver tool and another convenient way to move allies out of danger (faster then jumping to the barrel, walking to them and throwing them away).

Also i think that other allies pandas should be able to use other allies barrels too, in the same way allies elios can move other allied elios portals.

...
Eh, when i said all that i realized panda actually need so many changes that it would count as revamp.

So everyone, I made a deeper suggestion on a google docs sheet. I will copy paste the introduction and summary of changes. These are deep changes to elemental spells (no changes at all to passives or active support spells). Feel free to ready and comment!

Click here

Pandawa back in the days

One of the beauty of this class when it first came out was the reasoning behind the way they had to fight. The fire spells could only be used if Pandawas were within 1 cell from their barrel, the reason for that is that they had to use the liters from the barrel to cast fire spells (use alcohol). The water branch played similarly, they could only cast their spells on the barrel, consuming the alcohol to inflict area water damage. On the other hand, the earth branch could only inflict damage by carrying the barrel. This way of playing made sense and it was one of the joys of playind pandawa, ideally. However, pratically it did not work. These limitations made the class weak and hard to play and Ankama decided to abolish this gameplay. I am sad about it, because this gameplay had such a great potential! It could be improved in every way.

Suggestion

This is one of the reasons why I am writing this suggestion. The idea behind it is to bring back this old Panda gameplay and merge it with the current gameplay. I am not going to go as restrictive as they used to be, though, instead I will bring the possibility of adding two different gameplays for each one of the three branches. The modifications mainly impact the elemental spells and they are not going to completely change it, let’s say that it will make it more dinamic and versatile. Only some of the passive skills are changed to adjust to their new possibilities.

Summary of Changes

1. Fire spells, with the exception of Flaming Burp, now inflict single target and ranged damage and apply different kind of states. However, if the Pandawa is found within 1 cell from his/her barrel, they consume some of it’s liters to change the spell and inflict area of effect damage.
2. Water spells, with the exception of Milky Breath, now inflict single target and ranged damage or healing. If cast on a barrel the spell becomes area based and consumes some of it’s liters.
3. Earth spells, with the exception of Triple Whammy, inflict high single-target and close combat damage. If cast when carrying the barrel, the spell consumes some of its liters and infliters either area damage or self buffs (the pandawa consumes liters to enhance their resistance, for example).
4. Triple Whammy, Flaming Burp and Milky Breath can be cast both when carrying and when not carrying the barrel. Each of them will have different effect in each of the states.
5. The panda gameplay is now based on area and single target damage. Therefore one of their passives is revamped: Refreshment now increases single target and area of effect damage. It’s name changes to “Versatility”.
6. Some of the spells will have three effects for throwing barrel, normal and barrel (Explosive Flask, Splash of Milk and Lactic Acid).
7. Dizzy: -0.5% to critical hit per level on enemies. Goes up to level 15. On allies it increases critical hit by 0.5% per level.

Yes please, I'm begging for an AoE passive! Please Ankama. 
 

This is subte, yet incredibly well thought out! Love these Ideas, and would hope to see them implimented! Great post  

I like the modifications to the "versatility" passive — but let's be clear: adding 160 ST and 160 AoE damage is exactly the same as adding 160 general damage, so it's a bit silly. 

Otherwise, this is uniformly a nerf, not a buff. Pandas aren't great damage dealers anyway, and they severely lack WP regen. Adding spells that cost WP is a bad change. Nerfing the AoE of all branches is a bad change. Lowering damage (!!) of AoE attacks is a bad change, because pandas have very few final damage buffs, so they already lack compared to other classes. Nerfing mobility with Dairy Springer is a bad change. 

Also, spells that require throwing a target or the barrel should be balanced to include the 2ap required for karchamrak (so a 4ap throw should be balanced for 6ap worth of damage).

Right now pandas are very much OK in the damage department. They're decent for AoE attacks, but weaker than the true DD classes. They excel in mobility, map manipulation, and some aspects of tanking. I like the idea of adding some additional effects to barrel / non barrel versions of spells, and (let's face it) pandas do have some really crappy attacks (LMF yuck). But...I'm inclined to say scrap this whole plan and start fresh.

I normally think of your suggestions as well-thought-out These, however, are seriously damaging to a pretty well-balanced class. Let's talk about bringing other classes up to par, and fixing the small problems, rather than making Pandas totally worthless as anything but support.