Protect and Shell!

They seem to do nothing. After a previous patch in November, there is no noticeable effect from protect or shell. I don't know if this is intentional or accidental, but I would love for protect and shell to work again ;_; Thanks! Upsetting having so few buffs a caster can cast to benefit people and then it not actually be a benefit...

Are you sure they're not working? I could swear I can detect a difference with them up, although perhaps it's just ridiculously marginal an effect right now for some reason..

They work just fine - They're not as effective as they could be but they do indeed work, I notice a difference but with the unbalanced nature of player vs enemy attributes it's not a huge resistance boost.

My only problem with them is that they don't last long enough, as compared to FFXI. However, ever since I got the two buffs on Conjury, I can agree that they do work fine to me!

only problem i have is the differance btween tier 1 and tier 2 spells are negligable.

Alright, so I'm not crazy afterall.. I thought they were working. Though yeah, I agree they could be more effective.

Most responders are too low of a rank to notice the difference beyond the person who has both tiers of the spells. There is NO REDUCTION<---- It is more coincidence than the buffs working. If you fight Grass Raptors, an adventurer would notice that his or her ranking up has more of an effect than shell. At rank fifty, a raptor's breath deals the same amount of damage before and when casting shell. If you are fighting Dodore and his minions, if you cast shell, him and his minions shadowsear/scourge2 deal the same damage with and without the buff. I have noticed shell considerably lowers my resistance to his spells! Where the occurrence of a partial or complete resistance is reduced greatly, especially on shadowsear. At this point, the only protective ability that reduces damage is emulate. You can continually say that you notice a difference, but two damage reduction is not a benefit. That is wasted mp that you can use on future cures. Unless SE's brings back the functionality of the protective spells shell and protect, I will not use them or ever use those spells. My research of fighting multiple different types of monsters with shell and without using it are far greater in worth to me than your opinion as a rank 17 conjurer who has neither the background or the experience that I have gained.

You said they didn't work at all, more than one person has said they work but just have very minimal an effect - almost pointlessly minimal. There is a difference, and no one is disagreeing that it should be changed.

It doesn't work. The only thing that works is that the spell casts when the casting time is, the animation goes off, and the hit from magic/physical attacks causing the animation works properly as well. I don't care what someone says who is rank twenty minus. It doesn't work. People who claim it has a minimal effect need to remove all of their mnd and use shell and see what it "does" and then let it wear off and see what it does. The only thing they see is the calculation being random, which it is for a few varying degrees.

Protect doesn't actually raise defense you can see on your stats. I think that would be a nice addition.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jovy

only problem i have is the differance btween tier 1 and tier 2 spells are negligable.

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This seems to be true for every single spell with multiple tiers. There's really no point in using the higher tier spells unless you don't mind using the extra MP.

As for Protect and Shell specifically, they were working nicely til that November patch and Shell got a massive nerf. Protect feels the same, but Shell is definitely not what it once was. It was pretty powerful before but personally I feel like it was nerfed just a little too much.

^ what he said.
I miss how protect raises your actually DEF and being able to see it go up like in XI. I know this is not XI but I believe that it deserves to be in game either way.
ppft. as well as ATTACK+ buffs raising your attack stats. (:

Ok. If protect and shell doesn't work, then you try tanking an NM like the buffalo and see what happens without it. The spells work, just not as effective as you and others would like. Don't bring this up in In-Game Bugs thread though unless you have hard evidence/proof that something in the code is wrong. Total waste.

@ApplePie
I'm sorry to have to break this to you, but your game level really is not relevant. Neither is the number of enemies you've defeated, or how well you play the game. What matters is the manner in which the testing takes place, and one of the necessary parts of good testing is to observe what happens in all situations, not just at the top-end of the game.

What we need is for you to post up details of these battles; grab some of your combat log data and post up what kind of stats you and your gear have. Raw numbers will go a lot further than just saying that you've done it in terms of being helpful.

Greetings ApplePie!

The thread was moved over to General Discussion from In-Game Bugs since it's more related to feedback/suggestions. Thanks!

- Xophious

I never cast it since november except when I am in party because if I don't they'll complain and I'm too lazy to explain