Gladiator boosting suggestions

[Reika]

As said in a different thread, making GLD block normally wont fix the gladiators current usefulness. Once, Storm's Path was cross-classable, and it was a good AOE enmity generating damage attack that classes that could tank could use. Now that it is just MRD, something has to be done with Gladiator. While MRD can spend 1500 TP to do extreme damage and higher enmity in aoe, a gladiator has about nothing that can counter that or even come close. I suggest either Making Riot Blade AOE And slightly more enmity generated (and possibly increased damage potency since it depletes TP and pacifies), or adding slightly more potency and increased enmity to Circle Slash, or both would be better since Riot Blade Depletes all TP and pacifies. Riot Blade can definitely use the boost because it takes all TP and prevents use of any other weapon skill for 15 seconds. The point wouldn't be to do more damage than MRD in AOE, it would be to hold ENMITY in AOE against other peoples' AOE damage or heals. Even a wide-volley can take enmity away from a Gladiator against multiple targets. ALSO.... I don't think it has been considered at all, but War Drums Is a pretty useless skill for 5 ac and 40s Recast. It too can not generate enough enmity to keep hate off of a healer or aoe damager. Suggest its recast be reduced to 20s and slight increase in enmity, or greatly increase its enmity generation. Another silly skill, Cadence, Should Increase Enmity generation for not one attack, but for a set duration.

Please most any other suggestions you have.

[KRose]

I think in general I'd like to see more of GLA's skills have an increased enmity modifier like Phalanx. I don't know that Riot Blade needs to suddenly be AoE, but it'd be nice if the damage on it was higher since it pacifies you.

I think Circle Blade could definitely use a potency/enmity buff.

I think War Drum probably loses a lot of it's effectiveness at 50 (I'm only 37 on GLA) with the amount of damage the others are doing. It'd be nice to see it just have higher enmity overall even if they kept the cooldown the same. It would be nice to see that get lowered as well though.

Cadence works for like 20 seconds right assuming you don't execute a weaponskill in that time. Rather than it just working for your next attack it'd be pretty cool if they had it work for the entire duration. Then you could theoretically spike your hate right off the bat by using it in conjunction with Warmonger/WarDrum, Circle Blade II and stuff. GLA seems fine 1 vs 1 (from what I've seen by playing on my PGL and ARC so far) but in the strongholds it was a mess. I've actually been with a GLA that did really well at the Ixali stronghold, but there wasn't a MRD in the party.

[Physic]

ehhhh too based around emnity calculations, i would prefer more mechanic based skills, As far as AOE, i think its ok if glad is second in AOE heat to mrd, but they should be 1st in single target hate.

Another possibility is increase their dmg options, or increase the utility of block skills,

Other possibilities, include buffs for the party that also increase enimity, A gld can be worthwhile if he gives everyone in front of him a defensive or offensive buff

increase the dmg of phalanx, or add effects, like DOT Defense down, or attack down.

ambitdexterity needs to make the block rate extremely high or last longer.

Another thing is monster distribution, they need to make it where glads increase in defense is worthwhile, they should have some hard hitting monsters, that a glad can maybe get hate on, but probably wouldnt want to, whereas the gld might love it.

Another possibility is make gld more technically superior, as in by responding to certain cues, increases its potential dramatically, the tools are there with on block manuevers, but the effects arent noticeable enough. MRD is a master at the brawl, but a gladiator should be excellent at a thinking mans technical fight. Give glad some more DMG based on how well they are tanking.



just some rough ideas, the execution is up to them.

[Reika]

I think in general I'd like to see more of GLA's skills have an increased enmity modifier like Phalanx. I don't know that Riot Blade needs to suddenly be AoE, but it'd be nice if the damage on it was higher since it pacifies you.

I think Circle Blade could definitely use a potency/enmity buff.

I think War Drum probably loses a lot of it's effectiveness at 50 (I'm only 37 on GLA) with the amount of damage the others are doing. It'd be nice to see it just have higher enmity overall even if they kept the cooldown the same. It would be nice to see that get lowered as well though.

Cadence works for like 20 seconds right assuming you don't execute a weaponskill in that time. Rather than it just working for your next attack it'd be pretty cool if they had it work for the entire duration. Then you could theoretically spike your hate right off the bat by using it in conjunction with Warmonger/WarDrum, Circle Blade II and stuff. GLA seems fine 1 vs 1 (from what I've seen by playing on my PGL and ARC so far) but in the strongholds it was a mess. I've actually been with a GLA that did really well at the Ixali stronghold, but there wasn't a MRD in the party.

I think Riot Blade does need to AOE. With all tp cost and pacification, a GLD couldn't out-damage a MRD's Storm's path anyways. As MRD in a stronghold, I can gather up a bunch of enemies, get them in front of me, and do 1 of 2 of my frontal-cone basic attacks and have 3000tp right off the bat. then I can do Storm's path right after which takes half of that. Theres no pacification for that and it is a 10s reuse. wait 10s, do it again, then do the other frontal-cone basic attack and be back at 3000tp. A MRD can get off 3 or so Storm's Path WS before a gld can even get the TP to get off 1 Riot Blade in a multi-enemy situation.

And Cadence works the same way as Raging Strike or Ferocity. After your next Skill that targets the enemy (doesn't work with heals) it goes away, but doesn't effect auto attacks.

[Reika]

ehhhh too based around emnity calculations, i would prefer more mechanic based skills, As far as AOE, i think its ok if glad is second in AOE heat to mrd, but they should be 1st in single target hate.

Another possibility is increase their dmg options, or increase the utility of block skills,

Other possibilities, include buffs for the party that also increase enimity, A gld can be worthwhile if he gives everyone in front of him a defensive or offensive buff

increase the dmg of phalanx, or add effects, like DOT Defense down, or attack down.

ambitdexterity needs to make the block rate extremely high or last longer.

Another thing is monster distribution, they need to make it where glads increase in defense is worthwhile, they should have some hard hitting monsters, that a glad can maybe get hate on, but probably wouldnt want to, whereas the gld might love it.

Another possibility is make gld more technically superior, as in by responding to certain cues, increases its potential dramatically, the tools are there with on block manuevers, but the effects arent noticeable enough. MRD is a master at the brawl, but a gladiator should be excellent at a thinking mans technical fight. Give glad some more DMG based on how well they are tanking.



just some rough ideas, the execution is up to them.

It has to be based around enmity calculations, since GLD isn't suspost to have extreme damage, but higher damage mitigation. If the GLD Weapon skills start doing too much damage, then there wouldn't be a use for MRD, so instead, increase the enmity they generate. It has to be done without making the other class useless, which the dev's aren't doing too well at right now...*COUGHARCHERVSLANCER*

[Fiosha_Maureiba]

I think that Spinstroke should get a larger damage bonus when attacking the enemy not engaged with the Gladiator. The reason being is that a Gladiator that is not getting enmity does not get to take advantage of their higher HP, defense, and shield. So a Spinstroke dealing more damage could serve as a way for Gladiators to do extra damage and get some of that enmity back.

And maybe have Cover be able to function as long as we're in proximity of the ally. Enemies love to dance around these days and it can be quite difficult to tell if Cover is functioning when you're standing on top of your ally and enemy at the same time.

[Rentahamster]

Glad needs to be able to parry and block at the same time, for one thing.

[Fiosha_Maureiba]

Kind of following up on the OP's post.

War Drum
1) Reduce action point cost to 3.
2) Reduce cooldown.
3) Increased enmity generation, ideally to match an unbuffed AOE worth of damage.
4) Generate TP for each target affected by War Drum.

Provoke II
1) Make Gladiator exclusive.
2) Significantly boost enmity generation, ideally to where people would feel comfortable starting the battle at the same time instead of a gladiator getting a head start.

[Brannigan]

Just throwing out ideas to procrastinate. I think 1.20 and/or Paladin will fix most of Gladiator's problems, but it's fun to play pretend:

One thing I think will be important for the future is being able to go from 0 hate to top of the list instantly. This lets you switch tanks easily or recover hate after a mid-battle rez (after all, we do have chainspell and rebirth in this game). They could make Spinstroke 2 sword-only, give it a longer recast, and have it put you at the top of the hate list.

Rage of Halone and Riot Blade both could use some changes. Removing the pacification from Riot Blade would be great. I'm not sure what they could do with Halone - increasing the damage bonus from missing HP would help, but I think it'd still be lackluster at best. Maybe attaching some kind of group buff or an Obsess-like effect to it (deal more damage to that target temporarily but deal less to everything else) would help.

Cover could use some extra functionality.

A LS mate of mine had some ideas for making Obsess function similarly to Marauder's Steadfast Stance in that it'd change up the properties of your WSes, that'd be cool.

War Drum should be like 0 AP because really, come on.

[Tetsaru]

Well, here's my thoughts:

The way that enmity is set up now, all it takes is a large spike in damage or curing in order to yank hate right off a gladiator tank. Here's the problem:

All the other Disciples of War - Pugilist, Lancer, Archer, and Marauder (especially Marauder) - all generally do more damage than Gladiator.

Disciples of Magic - Conjurer and Thaumaturge - can both do sudden bursts of damage with their spells, as well as cure for large amounts of health, especially now that Cure spells can crit now (at least, according to a friend of mine who normally uses Cure III to heal around 800-900 and then got a crit heal for around 1200).

In order for a Gladiator to even come close to holding hate, they have to level up many other jobs to learn moves and traits, such as War Drum, Taunt, Intimidation, etc., which is really stupid, in my opinion. I can pop Provoke II, Taunt, Disorient, War Drum, Heavy Slash, Heavy Stab, AND Riot Blade while wearing my Sentinel's Sabatons and having Intimidation set that give +Enmity and STILL sometimes cannot get hate over other people who are actually doing their jobs like they're supposed to. I also use Phalanx II from time to time, but it becomes useless if the enemy's not focused on me, or if I don't get any blocks, which has also become a problem after the last patch. I've even gone so far recently as to make a Dated Maddening Dagger (which gives +25 Enmity now, by the way) and Maddening Potions to try and see if I can hold hate easier with it than with my Ul'Dahn Scimitar or Cobalt Winglet, but I have yet to test them.

That said, here's what I would like to see happen in the future:

1 - Give Gladiator an exclusive move similar to Provoke/Taunt/War Drum/Disorient (or adjust the existing moves) that IMMEDIATELY forces the enemy's hate towards you for a set amount of time, regardless of enmity. All the HP, defense, vitality, and moves like Sentinel/Rampart etc. a Gladiator has are completely useless if you can't get the enemy to focus on you instead of everyone else.

2 - Allow Gladiators to block AND parry to lessen or negate damage. If other DoW's can parry and DoM's can use shields to block OR use two-handed weapons to parry, then GLA should be able to do both as a tanking job.

3 - Adjust existing enmity algorithms so that Gladiators can tank more easily, other damage-dealers can keep doing their job without fear of pulling hate, and healers can use that desperately needed Curaga II to save everyone without getting KO'd immediately afterwards. I suspect this is already being worked on, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

4 - Get rid of Riot Blade's Pacification effect and Rage of Halone's casting time. There's no need for them when other moves like Storm's Path can do a LOT more damage.

5 - Intimidation needs to be a Gladiator or Sentinel trait, not a Marauder trait. Marauders should be hitting things with their axes for tons of damage, not tanking. Same could be said for a lot of other moves, like Speed Surge, Taunt, Decoy, etc. that would be PERFECT for a tank, but are instead wasted on other jobs that don't really need them as much. I don't mind playing as other jobs everyone once in a while, but I shouldn't have to level all the other combat jobs to 40+ just to be a decent tank. Put some of this stuff on Gladiator, or even better - Sentinel, since it doesn't have that many moves anyway.

6 - Add more gear and/or materia that improves enmity, parrying, and block rates. I'd love to see something like a Blood Sword (all auto-attacks you perform heal you for the same amount) or some armor set other than the Sentinel gear that gives as much enmity as the Maddening Dagger, for instance.