Sage Needs More Options to Generate Addersting

[AnotherPerson]

There are a LOT of skills you can't use more than 3 times in a fight. Are we supposed to remove all of those too? That's not a valid argument.
It's not about how often you can use a skill in a fight. It's about what gameplay derives from that ability and what it brings to your role.

It certainly is a valid argument if you remove the entire Reaper Enshroud, replace it with the Soulsow mechanic, and then call that a good gauge mechanic for reapers. The problem isn't a lack of addersting, it's calling that as a gauge that should only exist as the majority of the gameplay.

The whole point of addersting is as fulfilling to use as Soulsow and Harvest Moon when you want to use it properly. This is good for what it does, but not fulfilling if this should be the entire purpose of the gauge if it has very limited uses.

Certainly, having soulsow and Harvest moon is a great addition to the reaper toolkit, provided they have other things that also help with engagement. Healing is not engaging. There are strict limits to healing. No matter how much you optimize healing, you only start healing less. You don't use your healing tool as frequently when you get better - ergo you use your healing gauge less.

[EaMett]

It certainly is a valid argument if you remove the entire Reaper Enshroud, replace it with the Soulsow mechanic, and then call that a good gauge mechanic for reapers. The problem isn't a lack of addersting, it's calling that as a gauge that should only exist as the majority of the gameplay.

I think this is a fair point, but I wouldn't want to attribute too much importance to the gauge. As a reminder, the gauges were just added to provide visual clarity for skills that had stacks. For some classes those can be central to gameplay, and for others they just track items that could be in your statuses (stances, etc.) or stack counts on some skills. Addersting isn't on the gauge because it's something essential to the role. It's there for convenience and because there was enough room for it (and because they thought it was better to use than another stack/status). If we had a lot going and a bunch of other things to track on the gauge, they would just leave it as stacks/procs on your hotbar. (like how the dancer gauge doesn't track their dives)

[Saefinn]

I think it would not take much to fix this. I like the way we generate Addersting, but the problem is that it is inefficient and usually a DPS loss. Because you'll prioritise more efficient healing methods when they're available and you'll not use a less efficient healing method for a DPS skill when doing so is a DPS loss.

So either:
- We need to rely on that shield more ergo we generate Addersting more frequently
- We need the same method to be a DPS gain.

I feel the second option is likely easier to balance. Because hey, I'm sure other healers don't mind a boost to damage too, especially if some of their problems get addressed through it.

We could:
- Have Toxicon get a potency boost
- Have 2 types of Toxicon, one for single target, one for multiple, so the single target one hits harder
- Have Toxicon hit harder for the first enemy
- Have Toxicon become an oGCD

I am against the 4th option because I feel it'd feel more like a SCH weaving Energy Drain (which is 'eh' IMO) than say, a DNC, weaving Fan Dance.

And we wouldn't need more methods to generate Addersting, but incentivise us to use the existing method more. In a way, we'd also get a wider use of our healing toolkit, but it's rarer we use our GCD heals and there's the bonus of having an incentive of not playing "how low can you go?" which would alleviate some of the "healers don't heal" complaints, because you'd be shielding people a lot...and ultimately, that's what they're wanting us to do as Shield healers.

[Mykaterasu]

Personally I think that Taurocole was supposed to be the Addersting generator. Currently it has a raw heal AND mitigation on it, which means that at any given time you're wasting a part of it. If the heal was a shield instead, that gives an sting on break, that would make WAY more sense from a job design standpoint.

[SargeTheSeagull]

My take: Make it work like it does in PvP. Toxicon I is on three charges with a short cooldown and it’s OGCD, you can use it whenever, it doesn’t cost any resources. Any shield you apply or adder’s gall you use had a chance to generate a sting, the sting upgrades it to toxicon 2 that just deals more damage. Maybe the vuln it gives in PvP could just come from toxicon 2.