Quote Originally Posted by Archwizard View Post
Just food for thought I guess.
I'm a bit biased towards even rarely used utilities, such as Repelling Shot (if it actually functioned decently) or even Earth Tackle (again, if the iteration itself had merely been decent), but I see your point here.

Though, more than that, I generally prefer that if something is badly situational, but at least impactful in that rare situation, it ought to remain... situational, rather than sacrifice its rare efficacy just to append an animation or button-press to some other capacity.

In this case, especially, I'd rather have simply seen RDM have additional melee forms and skills that would replace their ranged casted options when within melee distance of enemies. These would in some cases, or points in macrorotation, be situationally inferior (as they're compensating for mobility, a bit more decisive utility in some cases, and more immediate damage), but would nonetheless remain options, leading up until Enspell as a means to spend the B/W Mana generated. In that way, Displacement remains significant just for easily moving in and out of range, since your distance would actually... matter.

Not sure how relevant it will be, but I remembered another thought-snack of my own from a few months ago which revolved around a Phalanx trait. But first, mechanical context:
  • Block and Parry are returned as (hidden) stats and now, like Stormblood Critical Hit, increase both the efficacy and chance of Block and Parry.
  • Block and Parry now also diminish damage taken by a small flat amount based on weapon damage or block strength. Percentile mitigation reduced to 15%. This and the percentile mitigation are affected by Block and Parry stat.
  • Given main-hand and shield item level, Block and Parry now mitigate for identical amounts. Paladin just has a passively doubled chance of RNG mitigation.
  • New mechanic - Guard. Guard instantly generates a massive amount of Block or Parry (hidden stat), generally well in excess of 100%. You can consider this influx of Block or Parry stat as almost a damage-absorption barrier. As damage is absorbed by Guard, the Block or Parry stat granted will diminish in kind, thereby taking from both chance and potency of
  • New mechanic - Shield. Shield guarantees either Block or Parry until having absorbed damage up to its given cap. It therefore has no aspect of chance. Shield generated is increased by base Block or Parry chance.
  • Guard and Shield effects will always apply Block for Paladin and Parry for all others.
Phalanx, then, would generate rapidly and continuously fading Guard from spell damage inflicted. CaC would then convert this to Shield, which would not begin to fade until 3 seconds after your last physical attack, while Displacement would then convert lingering shield back to Guard and extra deal damage based on the amount converted.
So, you're a relatively sturdy (albeit pet-less and low-CD-throughput) caster, with guaranteed mitigation on melee approach that can be converted to damage when not consumed by would-be physical damage taken. That seemed relatively RDM-iconic to me.