Adjustments to Embrava and Perfect Defense

[Etrigan]

Regarding the two spells/Abilities here is what it boils down to, but this is just one man's opinion

Embrava:
Needs to last more than 90 seconds and less than 12.5 minutes with Perpetuance (Maybe 5-8 minutes while under the effect of perpetuance?)

Needs to still have regain as I can't tell you the last time I have seen a RDM or a /RDM use Convert (MP is plentiful and then some)

Perfect Defense:
Duration is the one thing that seems to be the issue at hand. The fact of dangling in front of us that 600 is the cap and therefore the best and not giving us a fighting chance to get it is just plain disrespectful.

If the Duration is shortened then make it absolute perfect defense. Too many times have members linkshells under Perfect Defense still fallen to ADL because of random move x, be it because he petrifies us or hits us with death.

We accept that shortcoming of (Almost) Perfect Defense because of the duration, so I believe it only fair that it become Absolute Perfect Defense in exchange for the duration length being cut.

[Dinh]

Here's an idea... DON'T CHANGE IT!

[ManaKing]

make way for new strats, about time those ones died

[Sargent]

OK, Serious face time.

Embrava: The Refresh effect is pointless. The current advantage to Embrava is casting it on the melee's, all stats granted by Embrava are melee heavy. Most of the playerbase would much rather see you nerf the Regain value to 2~3 than change it to Refresh.

Perfect Defense: The maximum you can get it to is 57 seconds since you can only get 542 skill in gear. Personally, I don't mind this change if the content is changed around it.

The problem is, it isn't.

ADL: After the change people will be applying PD as it splits. Even with this, lesser groups (i.e. less Relic/Mythic/Emps) won't be able to last more than one split. My suggestions:
- Decrease the AoE range so that mages can stand at maximum range and not get hit by the AoE attacks.
- Make it so you win as soon as you kill any ADL, no more of this random clone is the right one.
- Reduce the duration of Terror from Dynamic Implosion. It's a 90 second fight which is now a 60 second fight, and the Terror lasts 30 seconds.
- Create a cap on the number of players that can be instant-KOd from Tera Slash (i.e. 1)

Legion: This is less of an issue in terms of PD since people only use PD for Legion when they don't use SCH stunners. I think the content still needs adjusting, however. It should not be a case of mob TP moves can oneshot, or nearly oneshot everyone. AoE damage needs adjusting so you don't need the mob stunlocked or the melee to have PD on.

Just an added note: SP ability recast gear already exists in the form of Evolith augments. While using the appropriate AF2+2 piece, it's possible to remove around 10 minutes from the recast.

[Luvbunny]

Here's an idea... DON'T CHANGE IT!

LOL, the easiest solution for them would be not to change it, and change the battle content instead so that people don't even have to rely to PD + Embrava in the first place. This will create a more positive attitude from the players and put the developers in a better light, not to mention it will make the new director looks like a knight in shining armor, one that actually listen to what the players want. Their focus should be on POSITIVE, make the game more attractive, and spread out good news instead of bad news. If you must deliver bad news, make sure you deliver 5 amazing news for every 1 bad news, this will bury the bad news in an avalanche of positive feedback that soon people will forget that it is bad news to begin with.

[Ophannus]

The way I see it, other 2hrs only last 30s-1min, why should Embrava last any longer? BRD's lasts a while but BRD is a buff job and SCH isn't really.

[Chimerawizard]

The way I see it, other 2hrs only last 30s-1min, why should Embrava last any longer? BRD's lasts a while but BRD is a buff job and SCH isn't really.

Are you trolling?
Phalanxga, Regen V, Stoneskinga, Adloquim, Storm spells, enspellga.
Soulvoice: 3min duration
Astral Flow: 3min duration
Tabula Rassa: 3min duration
embrava isn't the 2hr, unlimited use of strategems and the ability to cast embrava/kaustra is the 2hr.
embrava: 5min duration (currently enhanced by perpetuance +7.5min)
kaustra: duration varies based on Dark magic skill.

[tyrantsyn]

The swap on embrava from Regain to Refresh is the biggest issue's. Swap it back and balance the Regain. That is the simplest solution and will make ppl happy.

[Slvr_Stryker]

Hello!

As this topic has generated quite a large amount of feedback already, we will be doing our best to collect it all and deliver it to the development team.

A would like to, however, follow-up on a couple of things.

First, there is a question about the cap on summoning skill being 600 being a mistake; however, this is the correct number. While it might not be currently possible to reach this number, the development team set the cap to 600, so consider that there may be room to increase this in the future.

Next, keep in mind that these adjustments to Perfect Defense and Aura were made with the idea that all special abilities’ cool down timers will be shortened. With that said, during this week’s Test Server update we are also planning on making adjustments so that the cool down timer on current and new special abilities will be halved. (We are also planning to make it possible to cut this time even further via equipment and merit points.)

We understand that these adjustments will change the usage of these abilities and may cause inconvenience to some, and we apologize for this. We would like to proceed with these adjustments carefully, so we will be looking closely at the feedback we receive. Also, we realize that there are a good amount of people who oppose these changes, but we would appreciate it if you could post specific feedback about what would be the preferred method for going about these changes.

First off, thank you for the reply, and for letting us know that you plan on delivering this feedback to the developers. We're gonna hold you to it.

On the case of the "600 skill" tidbit, really the only thing we wanted to do is to let you know that SMNs are currently ~60 points away from that at the very least. All I can say about it is that there had better be plans on allowing more skill-based gear, especially since most of the gear I had listed pretty much covers every single slot one can equip.

Duration timers I don't think are the actual issue we have about it. All of us here understand that the special abilities are going to be dropped down to a minimum of a 30 minute recast, and adjusting the duration of these very powerful SPs was going to be understandable. Our only real issues were A: the content that downright *requires* these abilities, and B: the sudden change of Regain to Refresh on Embrava. I state again, there's plenty of ways to restore MP; TP is a much more restricted thing to regenerate. The biggest thing is the claws that Legion, ADL, Odin v2, and even Provenance Watcher have need to be tamed to *some* degree that isn't HP-based.

Probably the biggest thing you can do is suggest the in-house play testers and developers create their own characters, give themselves some pretty typical gear (I think a lot of us can safely say that full AF3+2 and 85-90 Empyrean weapons would be acceptable, but if not, have some of their GMs go out and look at the gear that people, from every country, actually wear when in combat, then select middle-of-the-road options that virtually everyone would have), and have them try these events legit, no invincibility or anything along those lines; first with the way things are now, then with the adjustments affected. Believe me, if they did that, they'd be able to see just what is wrong with the systems in place, and *why* we rely on things like Embrava and Perfect Defense, and why we're so up-in-arms about these changes/non-changes.

EDIT: Also, I want to go ahead and point this out now to the people saying "from 12.5m to 90s is lame!": guys, 12.5 is with AF3+2 hands Perpetuance. Under that same effect, the 90s suddenly transforms to 3 minutes and 45 seconds. ^^; It's still a huge drop, don't get me wrong, but it's not *that* brokenly severe.

[Heabea]

This is my challenge to the development team. With these changes in mind take 18people and fight these things 10 times each:
-Odin t2
-Arch Dynamis Lord
-Legion
-New Nyzul Isle
Then post your results and tell us how you feel afterwards...

While i'm not shocked at these nerfs (the PD one is warranted, too many SMNs mules with 10skill, My character included), and a scale back to embrava (if you are halving 2hrs, then half of 5 is 2.5!), i think it's more important to look at why we depend on such things. I'm sorry if you gotta perfect defense because even an aegis/ochain/burtgang pld can't withstand the mob for more than 2mins then there's an issue. And now all the rage is having mobs with added effect: death to their moves, how do you expect to win? Scaling back some mobs hp by 10% doesnt make alot of sense, if you could take off 90% already, chances are you could do the extra 10. If you wanna keep the embrava nerf as is and the mobs moves as is, drop their hp by 50%.

On a side note, thanks for totally ruining the main source of alexandrites with this... If no one can do NNI without a whole lot of luck (and a little bit of energon!) atleast allow us to enter salvage solo for the current tiers so people can farm it just like dynamis (i understand for the higher tier the minimum limit)

ps: sorry camate i know i'm shooting the messenger