Please fix protect

If you're not gonna get rid of it (even though you should) over some silly nonsense of it being "too iconic" then for mog's sake make it actually useful and intuitive. Right now its useless. Most players argue its reduces damage. but by how much? we don't bloody know.

Right now its broken and as healers we deserve a better version.

You may be don't know, but others do.
+15% of current defense values.
You are welcome.

If Protect is so iconic... Where is Shell?

But Yeah, being a mandatory cast at the start of any and all instances just makes it a chore, and it basically becomes an additional weakness penalty after being raised.

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Originally Posted by Charred

You may be don't know, but others do.
+15% of current defense values.
You are welcome.

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No need to be rude. I'm well aware of its flat bonus. However its un-intuitive. like Seraphor said its basically a second weakness penalty. It clogs up cross roles and should be done away with or at the very least be made better.

It's a free fire and forget buff. What's the problem?

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Originally Posted by Transient_Shadow

No need to be rude. I'm well aware of its flat bonus. However its un-intuitive. like Seraphor said its basically a second weakness penalty. It clogs up cross roles and should be done away with or at the very least be made better.

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Better version...how? In dungeon content, that 15% boost helps when you have tanks doing wall-to-wall pulls. Make protect any higher than what it is, and it becomes a very mandatory role action. There are healers who will cast protect at the start of an instance, and then immediately switch out to a desire role action. It's not as if you need to keep protect on your role action the entire time.

I'll admit, I'm confused about the second weakness penalty. Can that be explained?

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Originally Posted by Biridan

It's a free fire and forget buff. What's the problem?

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You could remove it entirely, increase all defenses by 15%, and functionally thered be no difference.

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Originally Posted by KaivaC

Better version...how? In dungeon content, that 15% boost helps when you have tanks doing wall-to-wall pulls. Make protect any higher than what it is, and it becomes a very mandatory role action. There are healers who will cast protect at the start of an instance, and then immediately switch out to a desire role action. It's not as if you need to keep protect on your role action the entire time.

I'll admit, I'm confused about the second weakness penalty. Can that be explained?

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Its already a mandatory skill. Most dungeons won't start until the healer uses protect.
Like you said, they then have the hassle of changing their role skills.

It's a weakness penalty because that 15% additional defence becomes a baseline, and when you die, the healer isn't likely to stop and recast protect until the fight is over, if at all.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

Its already a mandatory skill. Most dungeons won't start until the healer uses protect.
Like you said, they then have the hassle of changing their role skills.

It's a weakness penalty because that 15% additional defence becomes a baseline, and when you die, the healer isn't likely to stop and recast protect until the fight is over, if at all.

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I ... see....

I don't have a counter argument for the weakness penalty thing. I don't agree with certain things, but can't really argue against the logic either.

But in regards to protect itself, wouldn't making it stronger turn it into a broken skill? I might have to wait for the OP to respond, though, as I'm waiting to see what exactly they think should happen with protect. I imagine that with all encounters in the game, simply lowering the damage by 15% (this includes up to Savage and Extremes), would be a bit more work than what the devs are willing to do.

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Originally Posted by KaivaC

I ... see....

I don't have a counter argument for the weakness penalty thing. I don't agree with certain things, but can't really argue against the logic either.

But in regards to protect itself, wouldn't making it stronger turn it into a broken skill? I might have to wait for the OP to respond, though, as I'm waiting to see what exactly they think should happen with protect. I imagine that with all encounters in the game, simply lowering the damage by 15% (this includes up to Savage and Extremes), would be a bit more work than what the devs are willing to do.

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Fixing something doesn't mean making it more powerful. It needs some kind of functional change.

Perhaps reducing it's duration and making it instant cast, basically becoming part of a healer "rotation" (if there is such a thing) instead of a one-and-done skill.

Another thing they could do is introduce Shell. Have Protect mitigate physical damage and Shell mitigate magical damage, and make them mutually exclusive.
The problem with this however is you then have two mandatory role skills instead of one.

The real problem is that Protect is a role skill at all really. It should have remained a WHM job skill, with Shell, as instant cast mitigation spells that the WHM has to 'dance' around depending on if incoming damage is magical or physical, which would give WHM a unique instant cast mechanic to weave between GCDs. Then balance this with similar but different mitigation skills on the other healers, or increased healing potency to account for a lack of Protect.
But apparently 'balance' means 'homogenisation'.