Riddle of Earths' change was unnecessary.

Would have highly preferred if RoE was nerfed to 10 or even 5 percent damage reduction but kept the charges and 30s recast. I really liked being able to consistently do something about incoming damage.

I'm not very hopeful given recent design trends, but I wish the devs would revise this change. More active self-mit for other jobs would also be cool to see in the future.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reinhardt_Azureheim

Ransu, I know that in theory it was broken, but what I am asking about is where Monk broke something in practice that other melees would be at a significant disadvantage without mitigation available as similar to Monk.

There are two instances that I can think of in EW where RoE gave me actual "advantage" over the other melees: in P8P1 on week 1/2 at 613 ilvl it allowed me to take the poison drop without additional mit or healer resources, and it let me live consistently on DSR Intermission even if undermitted. It was also very strong on the LL phase in TEA, namely on the second protean waves. It's now arguably stronger on the last two due to being easier to time. You could also claim that it was really good for P7 DSR due to netting so many uses throughout or some tank auto memes, but the new RoE is just a tradeoff in the sense that it's better on every individual mechanic that's not an auto as it actually lasts longer, you just don't get to use it as often.

The 6.3 nerf didn't really target/remove any of these use cases as the ability still gives you actual hard mit. I also doubt that the reason was any tankbuster sharing memes, since Third Eye remains in the game. What the patch did make RoE worse for was general raidwides/damage, especially the bleed spam raidwides in the current tier, but it's questionable whether or not having a monk would actually save healer resources. The melee survival tools also (still) aren't balanced at all, and won't be as long as Life Surge and maiming gear remains as DRG's form of sustain, but to be honest I don't think they need to be balanced. Monk had a really strong mitigation tool, while having, out of all the melees, the most limited disengagement tools (which also aren't balanced), fairly restrictive weaving windows during brotherhood, the least damage on demand, the best mobility tool in thunderclap, etc. Utility doesn't have to be equal, let the jobs shine at different areas to promote variety, balance only becomes a problem when you have a job having the least tools while also dealing the least amount of damage by a considerable margin.

In closing, this change made RoE become a very uncanny button to press due to the enormous opportunity cost; for example, in the latest Ex we have a sequence of mechanics doing raidwide damage followed by a double tankbuster, and if a tank dies the tb is often on me: it doesn't feel good not having RoE for the tb, but also doesn't feel good saving it for a "might be" case. I don't think this will encourage people to using it even if it's now easier to use, especially considering that it was a very flexible button that just felt good to have. And we don't have many of those buttons left in the game, so the change just feels sad.

Honestly, I like half the change. I didn't like that the old one would drop off so quickly which made it harder to use, especially if you're running high skill speed. BUT I think the 120 second cooldown is excessive, especially when you compare it to reaper. They can put up Arcane Crest every 30 seconds, and when their shield breaks, you regen the whole party, not just yourself.

I don't want an exact clone of that skill, but it is significantly better than riddle of earth now is. I'd take riddle of earth as it is now, but with the cooldown adjusted to be in line with arcane crest, or they need to increase the cooldown on arcane crest. And I'd add in shade shift to that conversation since I do think the defensive cooldowns of melee jobs should all have the same cooldown time.