Elements to be Implemented in the March 27th Version Update

[Sarick]

We cannot really comment yet but they seem to know what they are doing, and they said they'll reduce the def penalty so we can only hope it will do something. As such, you can expect at least 400+ defense otherwise in their exemple you will still take double damage.

If we assume that CC will get you the same damage taken as currently with their exemple though, they should give it 500 def... Maybe they have ways to cap ratio at 2 for CC. But if that's the case it would make CC+berserk game breaking.

These DEVS damage changes will probably break counterstance even if they reduced the drop in armor rating. The point of counterstance was to increase offensive output capabilities after being directly targeted from physical damage while decreasing defensive capabilities as an equal trade off. If it's as broken as I think it will be then when you put up counterstance you won't gain the benefit of enhanced offense because you'll be dead or receive to much damage from using it.

What could've been done instead:

It would work fine if they just made counterstance completely drop all evasion capacity. So with it up you can't evade any physical attacks at all unless you successfully counter or guard them. Dropping defense is has always been silly because the armor and protect spells that provide the defense are static defense. They should have nothing to do with a job ability unless you remove actual gear. The reductions from job abilities should be reduced from status bonuses or skill traits not directly armor related.

When you use the job ability both defensive protections you have up suddenly become less then air defense (they become air gel armor). It's like you've taken off all your armor and start fighting nude (defense wise). With evasion loss it benefits monk more on higher level enemies where evasion is worthless anyway. This version harm/help them more vs lower level enemies depending on how hard they hit but still it's a more realistic approach.

How would it work? On lower level enemies you'll either get hit at full normal damage, guard or counter but never evade with it up. It's basically a mental shift to invest more into countering then evading any type of physical attacks. If you can't successfully counter/guard or you'll always get hit.. This is where the high HP's come into play as a buffer.

Guardstance would be a opposite to this by dropping the ability to counter at all while giving those bonuses to physical damage reduction and/or guard success rate with 100% damage reduction when successfully guarding. The 100% physical damage reduction might seem a bit high but, if you figure in the fact that you wouldn't be countering which blocks 100% physical damage and causes respectable reverse damage it's clearly an acceptable trade off.

Alternatively, take all counterstance accuracy + counter bonuses and augment them towards damage reduction and guard skill proc rate. So your native counter ability/traits would instead augment your guarding abilities without making you lose normal basic attacks or evasion in the process. These counter bonuses would instead be used totally defensively and result in a fair offensive/defensive balance mechanism.

These two changes would also differentiate the defensive and offensive capabilities of monk allowing for them to change the offensive and defensive stances only when enemies attack them directly.

What this might also effect are players who solo /dnc and don't upgrade their defense. Basically the effect of your dancer cures might no longer be enough to sustain you without separate backup healing if your fighting any enemy remotely higher level then you. It may push players back into the days when we needed a full party to effectively fight even match or higher level mobs.

So for players comfortable with easy mode soloing or low manning NMs they should expect to get a rude awakening when enemies become progressively stronger and require more skill then we're used to. We'll obviously need full time tanks now not monks. I tried to explain this to people inside my linkshell before this announcement but was brushed off like it'd never happen now it's already in progress.

From an optimistic standpoint at least H2H is receiving the one handed adjustments. Did they increase the output of 1 handed weapons or decrease the caps on 2 handed to equalize them? I hope it's not the latter then H2H might take a hit damage wise vs the 12.5% increase you mentioned. If that happens start seeing duel wielding warriors instead of great axes again.