Concise Tank Balance Changes

[Chrono_Rising]

Retaliation was just another button and I frankly don't miss it in its old iteration. It is no different to me than current Dark Arts: Hit button, more potency. The damage reduction was just a bonus, but given the high uptime, we can just assume that all bosses moving forward are balanced with the assumption that current Retaliation will be used and prevent just as much damage. Same as we can assume all bosses moving forward are balanced around the lack of Strength and Int Down, and Damage Down from the Tank combos that are no longer present.

You can of course "balance content" (a claim I have never seen justified anywhere) by removing player choice and just build it in, but there were numerous examples of how you could use reprisal both defensively and offensively in HW, particularly in savage content, and that choice and planning was what gave the skill flavor and made it enjoyable. Was it perfect? No, but it did give dark knight flavor over the options on paladin and warrior.

But from a flavor point it is basically Haymaker. It's a defense trigger with a defensive debuff.

Haymaker: Nearly ever used, when used has little effect.
Reprisal: used as often as possible unless there were strategic reasons to hold it.

Two abilities which can be generalized into a similar general statement doesn't make a similar flavor, just as food and dirt are both just an arrangement of atoms yet I prefer putting food in my mouth.