[dev1032] - Similar Skills + Skill/Buff Duration + Passive Class-Only-Skills

1. This could be a general issue:
-too many skills seam useless
-rank II Skills (especially WS) are only slightly better
-a lot of the high rank abilitys are worse than low ones

Worth mentioning:
The abilitys that grand you a evading, parrying, hitting (and so on) bonus for one succesfull evade, ...are totaly useless.
The battles - even the solo ones - are far too short. An ability like that isn't effectiv at all in such a scenario.

2. (Maybe only a Gladiator issue).
-you have a ton of usefull, very similar skills that could never be used in one fight.
-far too many short duration actions and skills.

Just an example for my last point.
Here is a Gladiator Only list of usefull but very short lasting skills:

-Aegis Boom II
-Outmanouver
-Guard
-Deflection
-Rampart II
-Provoke II
-Still Precision II
-Obsess II
-Cover
-Cadence
-Sentinel (The Fifth!! 20sec Defense-Bosst Skill)
-Tempered Will

This mean, if i want to use my full potential as a gladiator i have to use 10 buffs constantly during and after/before battles, making the first ones dissapear while the last ones are beeing used.
The best way of fighting is therefore using only 3-5 of your own (10+) class skills, because there is no time to use them and if you use them, they don't last long enough.
(Same goes for every other class i played)

In my opinion 2 things are very important for skills in general.
1. Skills have to get (significantly) better with every Class Rank and especially with every Skill Rank.
2. Abilitys always should be a help for the player and not blend in others or rival against very similar skills.

The missing spots left after deleting similar skills, could be filled with unique, class specific passive skills like in FFXI. I think it was a great way to give every class a unique touch.

For example.
Gladiator could get 1 Mag.Def and Defense boost with 20, 30, 40 and 50.
Marauder an Attack and Parrying Bonus (maybe HP, too)
Pugilist could get Attack, Evasion (maybe TP, too)
Thaumaturge Mag. Attack + Precision
(and so on...)

But it does not has to bee exactly like that. The Passive skills could be used in a more FFXIV-Like way, increasing certain Skills, like the passive Rank 30 Class Skills we have now.

Its kind of like this with mages also.

Tier 2 spells are almost just as good as Tier 1, I could prove this very easily. And Ancient Magic I dont even understand, if its supposed to be supier than both Tier 1 and Tier 2 well it is not, its dreadful. It also takes 30 seconds to DEBUFF (not cast) and by that time you could of killed it with like 3-4 Tier 2 spells lol

Pro/Shell/Shock etc Tier 2 are defiantly an improvement.

Obviously healing spells increase and that is about it, dont get much else lol. Even tho my bar is full, my entire second row is all the buffs (pro/shel etc) along with silena/paralyna/poisona which barely get used, my third is just things like tranquil/exaltation/guild skills which barely get used now due to guildskills being rubbish and mp stuff replaced by mp regen. And my first bar is half cure spells and Absorb spells, got like 1 aoe spell XD

Random thought on changing buffs....

Buffs don't expire on time. Once you activate them, they're permanent until either you deactivate them, or you get a status that deactivates them. Instead of time, they take up a chunk of your stamina gauge, effectively lowering the maximum. Different buffs lock out a certain amount of the gauge, with lower level buffs locking out less than higher level buffs. This forces you to balance what buffs (and levels of them) you have up with how frequently you want to use attacks.

You could also make it so that a buff cast by its native class takes less of a chunk out of the recipient's stamina bar than one cast by someone who just cross-classed it.