I'll go ahead and throw what changes I might like to see on WAR into the mix as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shurrikhan
Optional Background Changes:
- 1. Any abilities that are mutually exclusive by stance can be bound to the same slot. They will be swapped in automatically when their respective changes. By default, Fell Cleave replaces Inner Beast and Decimate replaces Steel Cyclone upon swapping into Deliverance.
- 2. Accuracy and evasion have been revised. Hits are now percentile in nature, rather than purely hit/miss. Rather than a 5% deviation in hit damage, this deviation now acts upon the accuracy curve. This is a quadratic curve based on how above or below your accuracy is, given enemy evasion. As such, the soft-cap for accuracy is lower, but the hard cap is extended and the range between, usually considered excessive accuracy, can at least indirectly contribute to critical strike damage.
- 3. Blocks, dodges, and parries have been adjusted. Blocks and dodges each reduce incoming damage based on the defender's AP (Guard) and the attack's accuracy based on both AP and relative accuracy (Deflection). Dodges only reduce enemy accuracy, similarly to Deflection (Evasion). These three stats can now all be found on tank gear and are a listed defensive stat. Parry stat has been removed. Guard has the additional use of increasing damage necessary to cause interrupts and increasing status effect resistance. All three scale well for each job, though Guard is slightly preferred for trash and utility. DRK can be considered to make the best use of Evasion of the three tanks.
- 4. Spell Speed and Skill Speed have now been merged into Speed, which affects Attack Speed, indirectly increasing auto-attack rate, and the damage of oGCDs (by less than Determination or Critical Strike, but more than the contribution of Skill/Spell speed on DoT damage.)
- 5. Traditionally 10% mitigation weaponskills (Delirium, Dragon Kick, Rage of Halone, and Storm's Path) will now also briefly suppress the enemy (up to 9 seconds), reducing their attack power by a flat amount based on your own relative to theirs. At level 60, this may total for up to about 1500 damage. This total damage is virtually the same on weak vs. powerful targets, but fades more quickly on powerful enemies. This effect is stated in terms of "X% Suppression" or "Y Potency Suppression". "Suppression" alone = 100% suppression. [Potency -> attack power reduction coefficient TBD.]
- 6. Defiance, Mantra, and Convalescence now increase the healing done by abilities and Lifesteal.
- 7. "Absorbs % of damage as HP" has been simplified in to "%Drain"
Now for WAR itself:
- 1. The cooldowns of Defiance and Deliverance reduced to 8s and now scale with (Attack) Speed.
- 2. Defiance now decreases damage dealt by only 20%, down from 25%. (Unchained is therefore only worth ~25%, down from 33%.)
- 3. Vengeance now increases your AP based on damage taken and mitigated. Doubles Deflection and causes mitigation to deal damage back to the attacker.
- 4. The damage of Inner Beast now increases your Defense and Magic Defense based on your %HP and Heals you based on %HP missing. Potency increased to 375, but no longer immune to Defiance's damage reduction. Paired with Unchained and Berserk, this is a serious CD.
- 5. Steel Cyclone now has a 40% Suppression effect (Steelshock) for up to 4 seconds and doubles your Guard for 3 seconds (Steelguard). Steelshock and Steelguard strength are both increased by your current parry chance. Potency increased to 250, but no longer immune to Defiance's damage reduction.
- 6. Raw Intuition now increases parry chance and strength based on the combination of potency dealt and mitigated.
- 7. Thrill of Battle now changed to Warcry, which has two additional effects:
Warcry: Increases enmity in all nearby enemies. Increases your maximum HP by 15%. While under the effect of Warcry, you and nearby party members gain 5% Drain, which extends maximum HP to up to 10% of your own HP. While active, you can re-cast to consume stacks for greater effect. Wrath: further increases your maximum HP by 1% per stack. Deliverance: increases Drain by 1% per stack.- 8. Fracture DoT potency increased from 20 to 25, but TP cost increased from 80 to 90. Total cross-class potency increased from 220/230 to 250/260. Traited potency increased from 300/310 to 350/360. TP/Potency virtually unchanged. Now worth using on pre-60 DRG, once per GB on PLD, and situationally on NIN. Faint indirect increase to Monk dps, especially if Goaded in compensation. More worthwhile at high-stacks in Deliverance, and now worth using even during low-stacks. This adds a bit more flexibility, but also more bonus to being in Deliverance for high stacks, while generally increasing WAR's lacking DoT damage.
- 9. Storm's Path now has the additional effect of Suppression. Potency reduced from 250 to 240.
- 10. Storm's Eye potency has been slightly reduced, from 270 to 250.
- 11. Maim strength has been decreased from 20% to 15%. Potency has been increased to 200.
- 12. Defiance and Deliverance stacks both additionally increase attack speed by 2% each.
- 13. Thrill of Battle now already gives its full strength by default. The level 44 trait, Improved Thrill of Battle, has been changed out for Rampage. Rampage causes any attacks which make a critical strike to briefly give increased 2% attack rate. Parries have a chance equal to your crit chance to proc the same. These stacks form and fade individually. Maximum of 3 stacks.
- 14. Decimate now extends your status effects on enemies hit by 15% of their original duration. Potency reduced from 280 to 260.
- 15. And of course, Equilibrium's self heal has been reduced from 1200 to 900 to compensate for Defiance's now contributing to ability heals. 10% weaker normally, 5% stronger with Convalescence.
That's pretty much the gist of it. More swaps. More reasons to swap. More chaotic. More reasons to hold onto stacks at times. More attractive Defiance abilities. Equilibrium a bit less reliably powerful, but has better synergy. Inner Beast more versatile (usable before or after a hit; better for soloing). High potency move dynamics (value over average moves) reduced indirectly. Some CD-based support added (only because I'd add so much more to PLD and DRK). That's about it. It's a really, really solid job as is, that does most of what I like to see in a tank. The way Defiance tank benefits both lag after and extend beyond its stance is really attractive to me. Simply reducing the Defiance gap slightly is enough for me.
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As for PLD:
Ideally, I'd like PLD use two completely new resources, that it sort of transfers from side to side--Zeal (Sword) and Ardor (Shield)--where either stance still has some use for either (DMG or mitigation) function. Swaps are done by charging (channel), and can be as short as 1s or as long as 5s. Support vastly improved. A bit more tactical. Still capable of 'shedded scales' sort of CD play, but with more synergy between Oaths and CDs. Rampart and Sentinel now have additional effects. Awareness revised. Tempered Will improved. Bulwark's CD shortened and synergetic effectiveness vastly improved (can now be considered, in part, the PLD's, albeit inferior, method of triple-zerk Fell Cleaving, via Shield Oath and high Zeal). Cover improved. Divine Veil replaced by Inspire, which acts a bit like Dark Arts, and a bit like a mass-CD share (can be consumed via oGCDs or CDs). Shelltron replaced by a self- or party-castable Aegis. Now the iconic interception tank, and sort of the Bastion. Although its self-heals are inferior to the other two in many ways, the one you'd expect to be able to take heavy damage without heals the longest. (Lighter periodic or constant damage fall instead more to WAR (the holdout tank) and DRK (the killing field tank) respectively.)
And DRK:
DRK I'd like to use a stacking resource, Steel, along with two simultaneous ones -- Blood and Shadow, and as hard to immediately identify as a tank; there's nothing free, not even in the form of mitigation cooldowns (these now cost resource, and are variable cooldowns - meaning usable early, less efficient, or late, bonus efficiency, but such that use on time still remains optimal). All three resources can be used for damage, mitigation, enmity, or support, to varying degrees. The DRK works by manipulating and building resources for key points in the fight, choosing whatever resources they think will best be usable to build up to those later resources based on the smaller points of interest in the fight. Its incredibly free-form, and simultaneously intuitive and complicated. Added several theatric areas, and a few means of support. You could (half-jokingly) give a particular DRK a sub-job name depending on their favored builds (now an aspect that applies in combat, not just to a tiny degree of secondary stat differences) and playstyle. Power Slash, Delirium, and Souleater have been revised. Grit is instant, far more dynamic, and has an initial, channeled effect (unlike PLD, swaps to stance instantly, then channels additional effect after based on resources, rather than building additional resources by converting Zeal<->Ardor and then swapping to stance). It has no immediate % mitigation, but instead influences different abilities and resource behaviors. Darkside TBR. All jobs end up with their different, fluid, relatively quick swaps.
Saw that, noted it, then somehow forgot about it. Sorry about that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Duelle
Understood, then. Wasn't sure at the time if you were dead set on the bypass, whereas you had extended the base swap CD from 10s to 15s, which seemed like it'd make swaps pretty risky at times, especially due to Fracture. (Not sure why I didn't think about that when mentioning weaponskill mitigation. Too busy thinking of it as MNK dps, I guess.)Quote:
Originally Posted by Duelle