MRD
- Foresight: Increased Defence bonus to 40%.
- Enhanced Foresight: Shortens recast to 90s and also increases Magic Defence by 40%.
Foresight is a pretty poor ability because the mitigation bonus it provides is so low when taking the recast time into account.
- Skull Sunder: Additional effect altered: Front bonus: Additional enmity.
- Butcher's Block: Additional effect altered: Front bonus: Additional enmity.
Front bonus added so off tank or dps MRD/WARs can use their main combo without fearing pulling enmity from the main tank. Main tank MRD/WARs can still generate extra enmity by being in front so the only situation in which this has negative impact is where a mob is making a B line to someone else but there are other skills for dealing with that.
- Mercy Stroke: Replaced with [ Antagonize: 45s recast, Unleash a threatening roar that generates a great amount of enmity in a 5 yalm radius. ]
- Enhanced Mercy Stroke: Replaced with [ Enhanced Antagonize: Also reduces enemy damage by 15% for 8s. ]
Mercy Stroke is also a pretty poor ability and didn't seem to make the transition from 1.xx to ARR very well. Replacing it with an ability that provides "offensive defense" would suit the MRD/WAR play style, by "breaking" enemy damage instead of taking less damage themselves.
- Thrill of Battle: 60s base recast.
- Enhanced Thrill of Battle: Also shortens recast of Thrill of Battle to 45s.
Thrill of Battle is one of the great few long recast abilities a MRD/WAR has. It contains a heal which scales very well throughout the game and a health buffer to boot. Allowing the use of this skill more often would allow MRD/WARs to use it as a pseudo absorption shield for heavy hitting attacks like Mountain Buster and Tonberry King's Grudge.
- Storm's Path: Redesigned: [ Storm's Path: 50 TP / 15s Recast / Delivers an attack with a potency of 230. Front bonus: Additional enmity. (No combo action) ]
- Storm's Eye: Combo action: Storm's Path. Duration extended to 20s.
Storm's Path is in an odd position. The healing it provides is too little to make a difference, the TP cost is greatest of all the combo skills and is sits at the end of a combo, becoming replaced by Storm's Eye at 50. I think it is agreed by at least 90% of the MRD/WAR community that Storm's Path in it's current iteration has no place on the skill bar (at least at 50). Making Storm's Path into it's own combo starter and giving it a recast time would be a good way to differentiate it from the other skills. Changing the Storm's Eye combo action to Storm's Path would also open up a combo pathway for future "Storm" abilities in further content, controlled by the recast time on Storm's Path.
- Holmgang: Also increases damage to the target by 30% and reduces damage taken from the target by 30% for 6s.
Holmgang is a very situational ability and is nigh useless in most situations that matter. Once again the concept is "offensive defense" in that it acts as a defensive option tied into an offensive action.
WAR:
- Wrath: No longer provides a bonus to healing.
- Defiance: Additional effect: Increases HP restored by curative magic by 15%.
One of the big problems with WAR is that using your signature ability, Inner Beast, is not always a net gain of healing. That is because Wrath, the resource spent and required to use Inner Beast, also provides a passive healing bonus. Infuriate, the ability, helps to mitigate this problem slightly but it doesn't change that using Inner Beast can be a counter productive skill especially in late game content where the 15% extra healing you receive from magic will easily out heal the average Inner Beast heal.
- Unchained: Recast removed. Duration shortened to 12s.
I like to thing of this ability as a metaphor for modern DLC in the gaming industry. It provides you with nothing new, content that was cut away at the release and resold to you for a premium. In essence it is giving you back something you technically already had. Joking aside the recast time is way too long especially when using it requires precious Wrath stacks. By removing the recast and shortening the duration to 12s a WAR can make a conscious choice between self preservation (Inner Beast) or extra damage and enmity. With a low duration a WAR would have to potentially sacrifice all of their Inner Beasts to keep it at 100% up time, if such a thing is possible.
- Heavy Swing: Grants Wrath when used with Defiance. Grants additional Wrath if a critical hit.
- Skull Sunder: Grants additional Wrath if a critical hit.
- Butcher's Block: Grants additional Wrath if a critical hit.
- Maim: Grants additional Wrath if a critical hit.
- Storm's Path: Grants additional Wrath if a critical hit.
- Storm's Eye: Grants additional Wrath if a critical hit.
- Overpower: Grants Wrath when used with Defiance. Grants additional Wrath if a critical hit.
Aside from skill speed Wrath gain stays static at all levels of play. Inner Beast does not scale well enough into late game that it provides the power it does during leveling and early 50. Increasing Wrath gain through the use of a normally offense orientated stat, critical hit rate, provides the WAR with a means to increase the speed of Wrath gain. Even if Inner Beast does not heal as much in ratio compared to incoming boss damage at later game stages the increased use of Inner Beast (and all other Wrath spending skills) will serve to act as active pseudo mitigation similar to increasing block rate but in bigger spikes and bursts.