Diversifying Tanks

[waterboytkd]

Incoming big post. This would be a pretty major rework for WAR and DRK, with only minor changes to some defensives for PLD and GNB.

Paladin
Paladin Offense
- unchanged
Paladin Defense (all about % based damage reduction)
- Divine Veil becomes 10-15% damage reduction for 5-10 seconds, rather than a shield.
- Passage to Arms: the cone buff changes to “allies in the cone gain your block rate and block strength”, which, at 80, would be 100% rate with 20% (right?) strength. This is a buff for your teammates, though, so maybe give it a 50 Oath Gauge cost. If that’s too steep, maybe a 50 oath cost also reduces the recast to 60s?
- Cover: remove the Oath Gauge cost. This ability is so niche as is.

Warrior
Warrior Offense (now it uses Beast Gauge to keep up its buffs; the big hits have changed Combo Finishers)
- Change Beast Gauge functionality to: whenever you would have 100 or more Beast Gauge, reduced your Beast Gauge by 100, and refresh the duration of Storm’s Path, Storm’s Eye, and Thrill of Battle.
- Storm’s Path no longer restores hp or builds Beast Gauge. It’s now an attack with 100 potency, combo action: Maim or Mythril Tempest, combo potency: 350, combo bonus: gives a 10% haste buff for 30s.
- Storm’s Eye no longer builds Beast Gauge. It’s now an attack with 100 potency, combo action: Maim or Mythril Tempest, combo potency: 350, combo bonus: increases damage dealt by 10% for 30s.
- Thrill of Battle changed to “Increase your max hp by 5%, and restore the amount increased. Increase hp recovery via healing actions on self by 5%. 30s duration. 30s recast.
- Various other Weaponskill potencies are reduced to balance the haste buff from Storm’s Path. Heavy Swing 180, Maim 270, Overpower 120, Mythril Tempest combo 180.
- Gain Inner Beast at level 30 now. Inner Beast no longer costs Beast Gauge, has 100 potency, combo action: Maim, combo potency: 350, combo bonus: increases Beast Gauge by 30, combo bonus: restores own hp, cure potency: 250.
- The Beast Within only affects Maim now. Maim gains combo bonus: increases Beast Gauge by 20.
- Mythril Tempest no longer extends the duration of Storm’s Eye.
- Steel Cyclone no longer costs Beast Gauge, has 100 potency, combo action: Mythril Tempest, combo potency: 220, combo bonus: increases Beast Gauge by 30, combo bonus: restores own hp, cure potency: 250.
- Infuriate’s effect changes to “Execute up to 1 Weaponskill combo without meeting combo prerequisites.” The other aspects of Infuriate (including Nascent Chaos) remain unchanged.
- Inner Beast Mastery changed to “Using Inner Beast allows the immediate use of Fell Cleave.”
- Fell Cleave changes to an oGCD attack with 150-200 potency, and a 1s recast timer.
- Steel Cyclone Mastery changed to “Using Steel Cyclone allows the immediate use of Decimate.”
- Decimate changes to an oGCD attack to all nearby enemies with 50 potency, and a 1s recast timer.
- Onslaught loses its Beast Gauge cost, has its potency increased to 200, and its recast timer increased to 30s.
- Enhance Onslaught is gained at 78, granting a second charge of Onslaught.
- Upheaval loses its Beast Gauge cost.
- Inner Release’s first effect changes to “Allows the execution of Weaponskill combos without meeting combo prerequisites and nullifies Bind, Stun, Sleep, Heavy, and most knockback and draw-in effects.”
- Nascent Chaos now upgrades Inner Beast to Inner Chaos, and Steel Cyclone to Chaos Cyclone. Inner Chaos and Chaos Cyclone would not proc Fell Cleave or Decimate, respectively.
Warrior Defense (now all about using dumb amounts of hp + some self heals; still has some small % based damage reduction)
- Vengeance: Reduces incoming damage by 15%, and restore hp equal to the amount reduced.
- Holmgang: increase Thrill of Battle’s bonuses to 100%, and restores the amount increased, additional effect: Whenever you are dealt damage, restore hp to self equal to the damage dealt.
- Raw Intuition: Increases Thrill of Battle’s bonuses to 25%, and restores the amount increased.
- Shake It Off: Grants Shake It Off to self and nearby party members. Shake It Off effect: whenever you take damage, restore hp equal to 10% of the damage dealt, 10s duration, 90s recast timer. Dispels Vengeance, increasing the amount restored by 5%.
- Nascent Flash can be cast without an ally targeted, but only grants yourself Nascent Flash in that case. Similar in functionality to Dragoon’s Dragon Sight in how it grants Right Eye and Left Eye.

Dark Knight
Dark Knight Offense (dump your resources, don’t overcap)
- Big goal here is to alleviate craziness of opener, while making the later half of each minute a bit more interesting. This is accomplished by moving some of the “generic” oGCD attacks to the GCD, while moving Blood Gauge attacks to the oGCD. The mechanics for restoring MP and increasing Blood Gauge were set to keep DRK at about the same number of Bloodspillers and Edges per minute.
- Swap when Souleater and Carve and Spit are obtained (for thematic reasons).
- Carve and Spit is an attack with 100 potency, combo action: syphon strike, combo potency: 400, combo bonus: grants a barrier to self that absorbs damage equal to 5% of your max hp, combo bonus: increases Blood Gauge by 10.
- Add new ability at level 30, The Black Night. It is functionally identical to The Blackest Night, except the shield is only equal to 10% of your max hp. At level 70, this is upgraded to The Blackest Night.
- Dark Arts now also affects the MP cost of Abyssal Drain and Souleater (more on that below)
- Change Blood Weapon to a stance ability (not exclusive from Grit) that halts passive MP generation, but each Weaponskill and Spell that damages an enemy restores MP (300 MP). After level 66, each Weaponskill and Spell also increases the Blood Gauge by 5.
- Change Abyssal Drain to a Spell on the GCD with a 3000 MP cost. It’s an attack with potency 200 to target and all nearby enemies, Dark Arts potency: 400, additional effect: restore own hp equal to the total amount of damage dealt. Does not interrupt combos.
- Change Souleater to a Weaponskill on the GCD with a 3000 MP cost. It ‘s an attack with 300 potency, Dark Arts potency: 600, additional effect: restore own hp equal to twice the damage dealt. Does not interrupt combos.
- Change Quietus to an oGCD attack with 60 potency to all nearby enemies, 2s recast timer, still costs 50 Blood Gauge.
- Change Bloodspiller to an oGCD attack with 300 potency, 2s recast timer, still costs 50 Blood Gauge.
- Delirium has a new effect: increases to your Blood Gauge are doubled.
Dark Knight Defense (all about Shields, plus the % based damage reduction for magic attacks)
- Add new ability at level 30, The Black Night. It is functionally identical to The Blackest Night, except the shield is only equal to 10% of your max hp. At level 70, this is upgraded to The Blackest Night.
- Shadow Wall: gain a shield equal to 40% of your max hp. Duration 10s.
- Living Dead: Living Dead side remains unchanged. Walking Dead changes to: when Living Dead expires (either by duration or being reduced to 0 hp) gain a shield equal to the amount of hp lost during Living Dead. Shields last 10s.

Gunbreaker
Gunbreaker Offense
- Unchanged
Gunbreaker Defense (I’ll be honest, I don’t really get their theme. It seems like a hodgepodge of the other three--small % based, small shields, some healing over time?)
- To differentiate Nebula from Sentinel, change it to “reduces incoming damage by 15%, additional effect: grants a healing over time effect to self, cure potency: 300, duration 12s.” The HoT effect should be about 20% of your max hp.
- So a Bolide is a brilliant meteor, often one that explodes in a fireball. This makes the “I lose all my hp” part of the ability thematically on point, I guess. But is a 1 minute shorter cooldown worth losing all your hp? Maybe add a healing over time effect to it (600 potency, 15 seconds--this should be about 50% of your max hp).
- To differentiate Heart of Light from Dark Missionary, change Heart of Light to “creates a barrier around self and nearby party members that absorbs damage equal to 10% of max hp. Dispels Brutal Shell, increasing the amount absorbed by 5%.