Cross-Class - System = Is it Cancer?

[bass9020]

That said, it rarely existed as a permanent buff in previous iterations; in others, it could be consumed by other actions, could stack, had limited duration, had variable effectiveness and/or success chance, etc. While the spell, by name, may have been a necessary hat-tip, it certainly need to be one of the least interesting forms imaginable.

Too bad they didnt make protect the bubble shield Y'shtola uses. AST could have gotten something else!!

[Shurrikhan]

Too bad they didnt make protect the bubble shield Y'shtola uses. AST could have gotten something else!!

Unless stepping on the toes of a more integral spell like Adloquiem (in whatever similarly modified version that might be), just having it be a short, costly buff that significantly increases defense would have been fine.

Or you could have introduced it as a sort of "Guard" mechanic, wherein it adds temporary, damage-removable bonus defense that causes further mitigation as a percent of defense. It could be as high as double defense for the first hit, but the more damage it thereby intercepts, the more quickly that bonus percentage fades. (If you want it to intercept as much damage as possible, use it over a series of light attacks, but if you need it to survive a strong hit, then make sure it's a fresh buff that you're blowing all against that one attack.)

If mana alone is too small a limiter, then you could even insert a resource cooldown, wherein it can charge up to a certain seconds' count of use, and damage intercepted or duration done negates from that charge to result in a variable cooldown.