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What's so bad about Old Scratch?

AuthorMessage
Gunner's Mate
May 02, 2009
253
Recently I've noticed allot of disdain for old scratch. I would like to know why does the majority of players hate him? Old scratch is able to hit 5 opponents at once, 9 if you upgrade improved mojo blast, plus give him mojo rising and he can hit his initial target multiple times. His accuracy may not be the best, but he can be pretty devastating when he hits, so there's that. I also like his backstory, how the dark crawler originally gave him his powers to begin with, but his mentor papa legbones (a water mole obeah) helped him harness his powers and upon meeting you, learns to use his powers for good, not evil.
Petty Officer
Nov 05, 2009
68
flash33 on Dec 16, 2012 wrote:
Recently I've noticed allot of disdain for old scratch. I would like to know why does the majority of players hate him? Old scratch is able to hit 5 opponents at once, 9 if you upgrade improved mojo blast, plus give him mojo rising and he can hit his initial target multiple times. His accuracy may not be the best, but he can be pretty devastating when he hits, so there's that. I also like his backstory, how the dark crawler originally gave him his powers to begin with, but his mentor papa legbones (a water mole obeah) helped him harness his powers and upon meeting you, learns to use his powers for good, not evil.
Old Scratch does not get mojo rising he gets Improved Mojo blast, Mojo Echo, Witch hunter, Counter spell and Cowards bane.
Ensign
Jan 05, 2010
30
I haven't noticed any complaints about Old Scratch or the Witchdoctor class, However when it comes to companions you are less likely to receive a witchdoctor than any other class. Old Scratch is the only witchdoctor I have for my companions.

Careless Chris Eastwick
Musketeer Lvl 38
Bosun
Sep 08, 2008
388
I in particular do not like witchdoctors in general. They have very low accuracy, and a very low dodge. In any crew set up, it seems rather certain for me that the witchdoctor companions would be the first to go, if they happen to become the prime target of a boss or other mobs.

They are, stat wise, inferior to all other classes. Yea, they can hit more than one single mob at a time, but in my opinion, that does not justify the horribly accuracy rate and the attacks missing half the time. And if anything, the musketeers easily have double the accuracy, and miss even less, and can attack from a distance as well.

Major Mojo may hit multiple squares at the same time, but that is incredibly situational, therefore not something I keep him on top of my list for. Since he does have Mojo Echo x2, he is the last person on my "relentless" list, so it is not like he is at the very bottom of my companion list. Once summons have been improved, and actually become useful, Old Scratch will most likely be bumped up to a higher spot.
Gunner's Mate
Oct 05, 2012
273
flash33 on Dec 16, 2012 wrote:
Recently I've noticed allot of disdain for old scratch. I would like to know why does the majority of players hate him? Old scratch is able to hit 5 opponents at once, 9 if you upgrade improved mojo blast, plus give him mojo rising and he can hit his initial target multiple times. His accuracy may not be the best, but he can be pretty devastating when he hits, so there's that. I also like his backstory, how the dark crawler originally gave him his powers to begin with, but his mentor papa legbones (a water mole obeah) helped him harness his powers and upon meeting you, learns to use his powers for good, not evil.
Since you won't figure this out on your own, he practices black magic. All that stuff witchdoctors do is nothing but dark power.
Ensign
Aug 29, 2009
34
I personally love Old Scratch for the reasons you've listed above. He's great. Just because he doesn't do a lot of damage doesn't mean he's bad. He can hit up to nine enemies (as stated before) at one time. He's really good in my opinion.

~Sly Wolf Laveer, Level 30, Swashbuckler.
Community Leader
Scratch is one of my favorite Companions too. Part of the problem may be that he's the last of our major companions to get a promotion, so that he falls behind the rest of our crews power-wise until then. Most companions are like that though; they get a lot better once they pick up more talents with a promotion.

There may also be some disappointment among Beta players who remember a stronger version of Scratch there - but he was relatively overpowered back then. The live Scratch may seem weak in comparison to the crazy-strong version they remember, but he really did need to be taken down a notch or two for game balancing.
Chatroom Moderator - Pieces of Eight Radio
Community Leader
I like Scratch! If I had any one problem with him, is he misses a lot, and no way to boost his accuracy that I have found (other than boosts/spells).

When he criticals he does quite a bit of damage, and mojo echo follow ups are cool too.

IF he doesnt miss....
Dr Zeppers (aka Silent Sam Stern)
Piratey parodies I like to make.
I be a crazy pirate for goodness sake!
Artist & Admin of Skull Island TV
Ensign
Feb 07, 2009
4
The whole skeleton thing is bothersome. He shouldn't be walking around nagging us about evil and telling us what to do. He should be in the ground and his spirit should have passed on to the other world. With that being said, he is pretty awesome when you first get him! Probably the best companion because of his ability to summon an extra helper and being able to hit multiple enemies. But then he becomes useless... Probably around cool ranch. The skeletons he summons die in one hit and his mojo barely scratches the enemies. He definitely gets better after his second promotion and I do keep him in my top 5 since his promotion. I just don't really care for the walking/talking skeleton.
Community Leader
He's great at first, then not so great, then okay after the second promotion. I mainly like him because he has my favorite voice in the whole game. I guess I just like being called "O Captain, my captain". I just imagine a room full of poetry students standing on their desks. Inspiring!
Host of the Talkin' the Plank Podcast, where we talk about Pirate 101 every Friday!
Bosun
Aug 21, 2009
358
I play with Old Scratch but hate that he can't be trained targetting as he can miss a lot.
Captain
May 13, 2011
564
i saw that witchdoctors can also use bone chant and even stronger undead ending up summoning a wyvern. why does scratch stay with a lvl 6 minion? fix that. cant complain about accent btw ("captain my captain")
Petty Officer
Dec 16, 2010
74
When I first started out with Old Scratch he was horrible. His accuracy and his damage was horrible. However, after he promoted at level 25 he got extremely better. He hits 100 regularly and his accuracy has improved sooo much better. I also saw a level 50 with Old Scratch promoted to he final promo (For Now Probably) he looked really cool, and I can't wait to see his stats
Captain
May 02, 2009
525
Shiningfantasia on Dec 16, 2012 wrote:
I in particular do not like witchdoctors in general. They have very low accuracy, and a very low dodge. In any crew set up, it seems rather certain for me that the witchdoctor companions would be the first to go, if they happen to become the prime target of a boss or other mobs.

They are, stat wise, inferior to all other classes. Yea, they can hit more than one single mob at a time, but in my opinion, that does not justify the horribly accuracy rate and the attacks missing half the time. And if anything, the musketeers easily have double the accuracy, and miss even less, and can attack from a distance as well.

Major Mojo may hit multiple squares at the same time, but that is incredibly situational, therefore not something I keep him on top of my list for. Since he does have Mojo Echo x2, he is the last person on my "relentless" list, so it is not like he is at the very bottom of my companion list. Once summons have been improved, and actually become useful, Old Scratch will most likely be bumped up to a higher spot.
Hey, Shiningfantasia, one time I saw a witchdoctor with an accuracy of 150, so their accurcay isn't all bad. And yeah, Old Scratch's minions are too weak for the worlds he gets them in. On two of my characters, they both promoted Old Scratch after they made it to Mooshu and his level 6 minion became a level 15, but its stil weak compared to level 36-50 mobs.
Petty Officer
Sep 18, 2009
52
Old Scratch used to be fairly decent, but try him against a high dodge rate enemy and he can go a whole battle, 5-6 rounds, without ever hitting one. Add that to the fact that if an area staff attack misses ONE foe in that area, it misses them ALL, and he becomes semi useless. I still have him in the middle of my line up, but he has moved down about 6 notches since he met buffaloons.