Why was Living Dead not removed?

[Danelo]

1) Keep as is but without the death and healing requirement or 2) Make it a 25% healing requirement and give a trait which allows the DRK to assist in the healing by way of Drain/absorb/dread spikes. It would almost be a tell in and of itself if WD phase opened up an outrageous drain, spell, or aura as a clue to healers, if they hadn't already known, to start healing. It is such a punishing and unrewarding ability as is. Not to mention the lack of an real heal ability in the DRK kit when you give a ability like LD is laughable - Here's lookin' at you Equilibrium or Clemency (Paladin is essentially a knight, right?... don't I have knight in my name too?).

[TouchandFeel]

they could also make it where it doesnt end early if your healed ... just saying.

They could ... but that would require decoupling the effects into a buff (can't die) and a debuff (will die) with the healing only affecting the debuff, which would then also change the invuln part not dispelling.

So while doable it's not just as straight forward as "reduce the healing requirement". That was my point, to consider the ripple effects of what was being asked for so there is better context for weighing that versus other potential solutions.

[GrindShack]

they should take superbolide and call it living dead and give gunbreaker something that binds the enemy like a holmgang but gunbreaker themed

[MPNZ]

You'd be surprised how many players have the chatbox hidden, especially on PS4.

Also, it's like a constant struggle between the mechanics on the screen, party status bars, enemy status bars, the ridiculous and extremely inconvenient boss HP bar, et cetera that we have to fit onto the screen. It's just such a mess and there is very little customization options or thought put into making sure players eyes aren't drawn to too many things on the screen at once, and it really feels like they only realize that there are actually players using the cross bar after the expansions launch...

Anyway, living dead is total garbage, and Bravely Defaults DRK skill "To Hell with You" is way better, and a tweaked version that takes aspects of both would be way more interesting

[Sylve]

But the whole 'you die if not healed' thing seems a bit much to me.

Well yeah. That's kinda why we have healers, isn't it? /s

Functionally speaking, Its pretty powerful. Not only do you have the initial 10 seconds of knowing you cannot die, then your Healers have 10 seconds after a fatal hit to save you.

Though I would be 100% on board with a Party UI tweak to make it easily known that Living Deads fatal effect is active. Maybe something like a reverse Shield effect (The new yellow overlay to show Shield HP), make it black and Healing the target clears it until its gone.
Come to think of it, They should do something similar for all the Tank invulns in general. Like placing a Shield icon over the HP to indicate that the Tank is presently immortal.

[aqskerorokero]

if the healer is focused on healing, the situation will never happen in the first place, blame dps metà not living death.

[GrindShack]

The issue is that its a punishing "oh shit!" button, where as the others are mitigation tools.

May as well be a INVICIBLE/Doom button. Player is immune to all damage as long as doom is counting down.

Even Superbolide on GNB only looks bad cause it puts you to 1 hp but you have a very potent Regen that you can cast on yourself quite often. so timing the 2 makes the 1 hp a non issue.

Most of all of the complaints across all jobs is raid utility, need more, or what is there is not effective.

Edit 1: Seeing as DRK is the poster child of the expansion lets give them... "Re-Raise" still called "Living Dead", long cooldown, short duration,
Still able to absorb tank busters, but no resources required just like all the other tanks.

Edit 2: SE could also use the old dark arts animation for the Raise animation so its "Job Identity" isnt lost. This would cut down on animation budget. and allow for just a number crunch.
easier edit than creating something all new.

[Danelo]

Agreed.


The sad truth is that any revamp to LD would be a win. Its just that bad of any ability. Even DRKs, who I think are fairly disillusioned about enhancements to their job, would more than likely agree. I normally wouldn't say this but there is almost NO downside to SE just taking a shot in the dark and picking out of a hat. 99% of their selections would be better than LDs current state.

[FallenWings]

I find it funny that all of the supposed rework ideas all constantly make Living Dead retain the god awful death penalty but Holmgang is largely unchanged because "6 seconds" is a worse penalty than "Extra Healer resource or DEATH". This sh*t really needs to go and people really need to let go of the skills "identity." No matter what the duration, a sizeable 6 seconds is enough for most practical uses i.e tank busters/90% of multi-hit tank busters. This then brings to light the ridiculous balance issue present. 180 >>>> 300 > 420 (Not to mention the tank with the strongest practical immunity also possesses the strongest Self Mitigation kit?? TBN and DM might edge DRK out but not by much considering their cost and drawbacks, again none of which WAR suffers in their own kit)

That aside I also want to dispel another disillusion people have with the skill and it's supposed upper hand of "20 seconds of effect" when in reality it is only ~9 seconds(Not 10 because you die at 10). The Living Dead status does absolutely *nothing* and the Walking Dead status is the actual point where the invincibility mitigation activates. You can very much leave a WAR/PLD/GUN "alone for 10 seconds" or when they get close to that 1hp where they would then activate their respective skill and have survived as long as the DRK who "fully utilized their Living Dead for the full 20s". The only real benefit is that the Living Dead effect activates that mitigation automatically for you.

In reality most uncoordinated groups wouldn't be able to utilize that "free no healer needed window" given by Living Dead, thus most DRKs just press the button the same time they would any other Tank invuln, negating the "10secs of Living Dead". Or in co-ordinated groups, tanks already simulate what Living Dead does and only press that button where the 100% mitigation is effective, when they're close to 1hp.

[Freyyy]

They should nerf Holmgang's recast time to 5min and change LD's penalty. Like, when you die instead of just stopping you from dying but still taking damage, you go invulnerable like GNB. Then either make the healing requirement about 50% of what it is or lower, or give DRK a mean to get rid of the debuff by themselves. Because let's be honest, Walking Dead is more of a debuff than it is a buff. And it's still the only tank invuln that is absolutely un-usable when doing solo content. It's not like you should need it solo anyway, but it's pretty funny when you think about it. All the other tanks can use their invulns solo except DRK who'd just end up dying like an idiot 10sec later anyway.

HG can stay as it is as long as it stays at 7min. I don't even understand why Yoshi finds it OP. Like, with such a long cooldown you'd expect it to be so powerful anyway, unlike Holmgang.