Post by drunkensolamnic on Oct 10, 2017 0:21:23 GMT -5
So in my last attempt to try to address the underwhelming performance of the Block-Tree feats Overwhelming Odds I failed rather epicly. So with more time and a clearer head to think of it I'd like to try to address what I was trying to say with a better idea for implementation.
So when we previously had minimum armor increases on the server it was heavily favored towards heavy-armor and if I remember correctly, could be gotten from too many sources. This allowed it to be stacked too readily. For the sake of this discussion, i'm going to focus only on the abilities PCs can take and not on the properties of armors and metals they can use. This is because of the limited availability nature of those metals, and the fact that any source of minimum armor via gear comes with a penalty to block and/or dodge values, which offsets its usefulness as a "always better to have more" item.
I'd like to suggest that we reintroduce access to minimum armor in the Block line. This makes it equally accessible to all melee PCs, no matter what combination of weapons and armor they use.
To do this I suggest replacing the current progression of Defensive Recovery, Point Man, and Overwhelming Odds. Currently Point-Man seems generally useless except as a unique synergy tool to be combined with Domino-Slam. However it should be noted that for some reason unknown to me sword and shield style remains incredible unpopular so it is unlikely this will be combined. The other branch option option Overwhelming Odds offers extra progression of Block, but only against being significantly outnumbered (and I think from experience the progression is neither fast enough nor perhaps is the radius to count foes large enough) to the point that without adding more block attempts higher quality blocking is largely irrelevant. Thus I suggest the trees be changed to this, to make it a line of feats to increase the vitality of our poor out numbered line-fighters:
Defense Recovery 1 and 2 - Unchanged, You can almost consider this to be an ability point tax.
Point Man 3: While in Block Mode - Recover stamina 15% Faster, take 15% less cumulative damage. Gain 1 minimum armor and 1 maximum armor.
Point Man 4: While in Block Mode - Recover stamina 20% Faster, take 20% less cumulative damage. Gain 2 minimum armor and 2 maximum armor.
Point Man 5: While in Block Mode - Recover stamina 25% Faster, take 25% less cumulative damage. Gain 3 minimum armor and 3 maximum armor.
Overwhelming Odds 3: While in Block Mode - Recover stamina 15% Faster, take 15% less cumulative damage. Gain 1 minimum armor, +1 if being attacked by 5 or more creatures.
Overwhelming Odds 4: While in Block Mode - Recover stamina 20% Faster, take 20% less cumulative damage. Gain 2 minimum armor, +1 if being attacked by 3 or more creatures and an additional +1 if you are being attacked by 5 or more creatures.
Overwhelming Odds 5: While in Block Mode - Recover stamina 20% Faster, take 20% less cumulative damage. Gain 3 minimum armor, +1 if being attacked by 2 or more creatures and an additional +1 if you are being attacked by 4 or more creatures.
This gives Point-Man a more general bonus as an every-fight line to take, and Overwhelming Odds becomes the "human wall" line. This should be a very nice quality of life adjustment.
In worse case scenario abuse of Full Plate, Heavy Armor with Adamantine + Tower Shield with Adamantine, + T5 Heavy Armor Defense + T5 Overwhelming Odds, I believe this will set the server maximum achievable Min-Armor score to: 15 + a situational 2.. Which at level 100, i'm certain will not not out-shadow other options due to the usefulness of dodge and block which adamantine steals from PCs.
Doing it this way also evades the issues we had before of PCs being able to achieve too much minimum armor early on as these bonuses can only be achieved at level 45-50+ and even then its +1.
So when we previously had minimum armor increases on the server it was heavily favored towards heavy-armor and if I remember correctly, could be gotten from too many sources. This allowed it to be stacked too readily. For the sake of this discussion, i'm going to focus only on the abilities PCs can take and not on the properties of armors and metals they can use. This is because of the limited availability nature of those metals, and the fact that any source of minimum armor via gear comes with a penalty to block and/or dodge values, which offsets its usefulness as a "always better to have more" item.
I'd like to suggest that we reintroduce access to minimum armor in the Block line. This makes it equally accessible to all melee PCs, no matter what combination of weapons and armor they use.
To do this I suggest replacing the current progression of Defensive Recovery, Point Man, and Overwhelming Odds. Currently Point-Man seems generally useless except as a unique synergy tool to be combined with Domino-Slam. However it should be noted that for some reason unknown to me sword and shield style remains incredible unpopular so it is unlikely this will be combined. The other branch option option Overwhelming Odds offers extra progression of Block, but only against being significantly outnumbered (and I think from experience the progression is neither fast enough nor perhaps is the radius to count foes large enough) to the point that without adding more block attempts higher quality blocking is largely irrelevant. Thus I suggest the trees be changed to this, to make it a line of feats to increase the vitality of our poor out numbered line-fighters:
Defense Recovery 1 and 2 - Unchanged, You can almost consider this to be an ability point tax.
Point Man 3: While in Block Mode - Recover stamina 15% Faster, take 15% less cumulative damage. Gain 1 minimum armor and 1 maximum armor.
Point Man 4: While in Block Mode - Recover stamina 20% Faster, take 20% less cumulative damage. Gain 2 minimum armor and 2 maximum armor.
Point Man 5: While in Block Mode - Recover stamina 25% Faster, take 25% less cumulative damage. Gain 3 minimum armor and 3 maximum armor.
Overwhelming Odds 3: While in Block Mode - Recover stamina 15% Faster, take 15% less cumulative damage. Gain 1 minimum armor, +1 if being attacked by 5 or more creatures.
Overwhelming Odds 4: While in Block Mode - Recover stamina 20% Faster, take 20% less cumulative damage. Gain 2 minimum armor, +1 if being attacked by 3 or more creatures and an additional +1 if you are being attacked by 5 or more creatures.
Overwhelming Odds 5: While in Block Mode - Recover stamina 20% Faster, take 20% less cumulative damage. Gain 3 minimum armor, +1 if being attacked by 2 or more creatures and an additional +1 if you are being attacked by 4 or more creatures.
This gives Point-Man a more general bonus as an every-fight line to take, and Overwhelming Odds becomes the "human wall" line. This should be a very nice quality of life adjustment.
In worse case scenario abuse of Full Plate, Heavy Armor with Adamantine + Tower Shield with Adamantine, + T5 Heavy Armor Defense + T5 Overwhelming Odds, I believe this will set the server maximum achievable Min-Armor score to: 15 + a situational 2.. Which at level 100, i'm certain will not not out-shadow other options due to the usefulness of dodge and block which adamantine steals from PCs.
Doing it this way also evades the issues we had before of PCs being able to achieve too much minimum armor early on as these bonuses can only be achieved at level 45-50+ and even then its +1.
