Quote Originally Posted by Ninster View Post
To illustrate what I'm getting at, I'm trying to figure out what value certain cooldowns have, both defensive and offensive. So let's say we theoretical abilities that boost stats by 20%.

What's better?

20% increase in skill speed/spell speed or attack speed?
20% increase in damage dealt or attack power or main offensive stat (STR, DEX, INT)?
20% decrease in physical/magical damage taken or 20% increase in defense/magic defense?
20% increase in healing or 20% in healing received?

Furthermore, what is the exact effect of stacking cooldowns (talking less theoretical now, of course)? Rampart and Sentinel, for example (20% + 40%? Or 20% then a 40% decrease from THAT?). Convalescence from Paladin and Divine Seal from White Mage? Blood for Blood and Raging Strikes?
- An increase in Attack Speed has a much larger effect on attack frequency than an equal increase in the Skill/Spell Speed stats.
- Increasing damage dealt should be a greater increase than the main stat increase, as there are more numbers determining damage than just the main stat.
- Decreasing damage taken is a greater effect than an equal increase in the Defense stat. Rampart reduces more damage than Foresight.
- In terms of benefit, increasing a healer's healing dealt is equivalent to giving the entire party an increase in healing received. This is in comparison to a healing received buff which is only applied to a single player in most cases.

Buffs in this game tend to be multiplicative.

Defensive Cooldowns: It is your second guess. Rampart decreases by 20% and then Sentinel decreases the already reduced damage by 40%. So it's a decrease of 52%, not 60%.

Healing Recieved/Dealt: You lose no benefit in stacking them. If Pally has 20% heals recieved and White Mage has 20% healing dealt than Pally will get a 20% bonus on the White Mage's adjusted heal for a total of a 44% increase.

Offensive Buffs: Same deal as Healing. They're best when used together.