Warrior Rework Idea

[Kalise]

The simple solution is to scrap the passive trait bonus. Passive effects are not exactly awe inspiring to start with.

Passive effects are equivalent to buff upkeep. It can be a way to shift gameplay. For example, currently due to the passive being tied to Gauge, we want to sit with at least 50 Gauge at all times and don't really want to spend any until we're about to over cap (Either at 100 or 90 (If about to use Path))

It frees up IB use and flexibility

Barely.

Now you get to maybe weave an IB in if its beneficial to do so instead of a FC. You still cannot save IB to use as a defensive skill like you can Sheltron/TBN because you're still going to want to get your Defiance stacks up ASAP to get the reward.

It's why my idea included the 2 gauges to begin with. Since, with IB using Defiance, it's a trade off, you lose its passive (In this case, it would be 10% max health and 10% healing received) to gain damage and max health (Which offsets the actual usage, and over time once getting the gauge spent back leads to an increase overall in HP)

IB is never competing with FC for resources. IB is never getting spammed whenever available for DPS output. You don't need to time things right as damage is coming to get the defensive bonus allowing flexibility in its usage.

My iteration isn't perfect and could do with more tweaks (Especially since how it ends up playing out is you alternate IB and FC as combo finishers...)

But the 2 major issues with trying to make Inner Beast akin to Sheltron and TBN are:

1) Inner Beast competes for resources with Fell Cleave. In most situations, Fell Cleave wins out in what you want to spend resources on. Attempts to change this will often either lead to IB replacing FC in terms of usage, or removing any flexibility in timing IB with actual damage effects.

See, TBN doesn't compete with Bloodspiller. In fact, it generates Bloodspiller resources when used correctly. This means that you don't have to decide to TBN OR Bloodspiller. You simply do both.

Same deal with Sheltron. It doesn't compete with Holy Spirit. It in fact gains resources for Holy Spirit.

2) Inner Beast deals direct damage. This means that freedom of usage results in the want to use it when available for DPS gain (Especially as it hits harder than any of our other attacks outside of Fell Cleave)

Again, TBN and Sheltron do not have this. Sheltron is close in that it creates an opportunity to Shield Swipe. But at the end of the day, TBN and Sheltron deal 0 damage unless you are using them to mitigate damage to gain the ability to use another skill.

This means that if you wish to rework a skill into being a Sheltron/TBN analogue you'd need to look at something like Infuriate. Wherein you use it to mitigate damage in some way and then it provides you with resources to use FC/IB. That way, the skill itself is not dealing any damage so you have more flexibility in its use, not wanting to use it outside of situations where you get it to generate resources.

The issue at that point becomes, what kind of WAR mechanic can be used to turn "Mitigation" into proccing Infuriate granting its resources?

As I've mentioned previously, it's hard to think of an actual mechanic involving WAR themed defenses. Unless they do a PLD and allow the Parrying of spells (Like they made spells Blockable) and thus WAR could become a Parrydin and get forced parry as a theme (Which is already shown via Raw Intuition)... Though if it was tied to Infuriate and it was still providing 50 gauge, that would be such a significant DPS increase so to make it so that you'd be spamming it for AA's from bosses rather than saving it for big damage spikes (Which is one of the notable things from Sheltron, its DPS gain is relatively minor, with Shield Swipe being only 100 potency and can be triggered naturally and the MP gain from Sheltron also being not particularly large)

It all ends up being pretty tricky to balance. When you have to try and make something unique (So you can't just slap TBN on WAR and call it a day. Even though TBN is the epitome of active mitigation, wherein its effective, it amplifies CD's significantly and it becomes a DPS gain when used against meaningful damage as opposed to if you spammed it against fluff), that is a DPS gain to make its use actually wanted, but not so big of a DPS gain that you explicitly spam it against fluff (Like boss AA's) or go out of your way to stand in AoE's.

I mean, here's some other ideas I've had for such a thing but have ultimately been unable to create a satisfying iteration for:

* Having the inherent ability where you "Counterattack" whenever you parry, dealing some amount of damage back to the attacker with then some "Forced Parry" effect (With RNG parries still occurring as well as Raw Intuition).

Drawbacks are: Ineffective against spell based attackers. Doesn't specifically target damage spikes and thus parrying fluff AA's will also trigger these damage procs.

* When healing yourself while injured (Lily generation mechanic of "While injured") you deal damage to nearby targets, with bonus potency the lower your health is. (Allowing IB to situationally be higher damage than FC)

Drawbacks are: Being healed/shielded actively reduces your damage output. You want to actively take damage to then heal it back up.

* A skill where you absorb a percentage of the incoming damage (Before mitigation) and then deal a counterattack for a certain potency (Increased by max health increases)

Alternative: Reflect a portion of the enemies damage back at them (Before mitigation). Damage dealt is capped at specific potency (Increased by max health increases)

Drawbacks are: Intentionally taking damage to deal more DPS. Fluff damage can be exploited for DPS gains.

Hmmm...

I think that final idea might have some usable design space, reflecting damage would certainly cause the desire to save it for hard hitting attacks. I think the question is trying to figure out where to place it in terms of cost, CD etc.

Maybe as a secondary Defiance spender? Where you then IB during fluff damage and then use this during spike damage? Perhaps as a sort of mirror to Upheaval as an oGCD 25 Gauge spender...

I will take some time and muse on this as well as prior skills and maybe design something.