What if Sheltron was...a GCD ?

[Reynhart]

Last night, I had a nostalgic urge to look back at 1.x

Yes, I know the game was quite flawed and a chore to play, but I still have the feeling that some of its ideas were great.

Along those ideas, I remembered that, in the early days of 1.x "Attack" and "Guard" were real actions that you could launch.

And it made me thinking...since PLD is supposed to be sturdier but with a lower DPS to compensate, what if we could reliably Block incoming attacks. And for that, we could make Sheltron a GCD.

This way, you could decide when you want to block, at the cost of some damage, and thus, some enmity. With its 30s cooldown, Sheltron is already up for every (physical) tankbuster the game throws at you, so it would change much on that part. In fact, it would be designed to add more average mitigation inbetween big hits.
The interesting idea, for me, is exactly that you have to chose what you want to do with your next GCD. If you "turtle" too much, you take the risk of losing aggro, and you reduce your DPS by a fair margin. But if your party is in dire shape, you could spend some GCD to lessen the burden on your healers (And recover some TP, since Blocking could cost around 40 TP), or allowing them to spend more GCD to DPS.

As for the MP recovering effect, you could either reduce it (around one tenth of current value), of transfer it to Bulwark.

What do you think ?

[Typhoria]

Unless it gave a boatload of enmity I don't think it could be viable. Plus with how most progression groups pushing dps, PLD would be completely phased out since its damage is already lacking in comparison.

[Reynhart]

Unless it gave a boatload of enmity I don't think it could be viable. Plus with how most progression groups pushing dps, PLD would be completely phased out since its damage is already lacking in comparison.

There are times when you have a wide margin on enmity and you can spend some GCD without losing your target.
And the idea behind increasing PLD defensive prowess is to allow others (mainly, healers) to deal more damage as a compensation.

But yes, it could use some tweaks on top on that, like the enmity modifiers on PLD...which is already an overlook, now that we don't spam RoH anymore.

[Carstien]

Hmmm.

I like the idea of being able to block at will but the off gcd part of it means you lose no damage.

What it would need is a modifier proc for an attack coming up. Maybe the next shield Swipe procced by a successful Sheltron does double or even triple damage.

It would be decent damage, unspammable due to the cd on shield Swipe and emnity friendly. It may be either a small dps gain or a small loss but either way it would add depth. Now you have to know when to sacrifice a GCD for the block.

[Kitfox]

1000 potency counter block on GCD, yes please.

[Reynhart]

I like the idea of being able to block at will but the off gcd part of it means you lose no damage.

Being off GCD means having a cooldown, which Sheltron already has, and a short one at that.
The idea is to allow 100% uptime 100% blockrate. In the long run, it would be a huge mitigation, so the GCD part is kind of a tradeoff.

What it would need is a modifier proc for an attack coming up. Maybe the next shield Swipe procced by a successful Sheltron does double or even triple damage.

What could be interesting is to give an effect where after a succesful block with Sheltron, your next weapon skill ignores the damage penalty of Shield Oath (A "counter" buff).
So, by going back and forth between one Sheltron, one WS, one Sheltron, one WS, etc...you wouldn't lose that much damage.

[Martin_Arcainess]

Sounds too OP to me in terms of Deference if I could block every single attack coming my I would equip Shields with higher block strength the mitigation side would be a little too much and I would like to do more then ST, SW repeat in a fight.

[Reynhart]

Sounds too OP to me in terms of Deference if I could block every single attack coming my I would equip Shields with higher block strength the mitigation side would be a little too much and I would like to do more then ST, SW repeat in a fight.

But if you use every single GCD to block, you're not attacking, you're not stunning, you're not using Flash, you're not putting the Strength debuff, etc...so basically, you''d be a burden to your party.
With this, being a good PLD would be knowing when you need to block and when you need to attack, depending of the flow of the fight or the situation of the party.

As for the "higher block strength", it would already be a thing with the current 30s Sheltron...if ilvl didn't trump almost everything.

[Carstien]

Being off GCD means having a cooldown, which Sheltron already have, and a short one at that.
The idea is to allow 100% uptime 100% blockrate. In the long run, it would be a huge mitigation, so the GCD part is kind of a tradeoff.

What could be interesting is to give an effect where after a succesful block with Sheltron, your next weapon skill ignores the damage penalty of Shield Oath (A "counter" buff).
So, by going back and forth between one Sheltron, one WS, one Sheltron, one WS, etc...you wouldn't lose that much damage.

You ignored most of my post, then put forwards an idea that essentially was the same you ignored but with a twist.

Congratulations, you're probably the most ignorant person I've ever seen on a forum, ever.

[Reynhart]

You ignored most of my post, then put forwards an idea that essentially was the same you ignored but with a twist.

Not quoting =/= Ignoring

I answered the oGCD part of your post...then build upon your interesting idea of adding a damage boost.
The "twist", and what, IMO, would make it more interesting, is exactly to not limit this damage boost to Shield Swipe, and to not giving it during Sword Oath, which is already an amazing damage boost.

There, I edited the post to quote you twice. Happy, now ?