The two transfers in Relentless and Aegis Shield are great; they’ll likely see bountiful use - especially Relentless (likely the best buff of the group).Relentless - Offense (Lvl 2000)
+0.15% per point of Damage is transferred to Attack (casting level can be adjusted from your Preferences)
Aegis Shield - Defense (Lvl 2000)
+0.15% per point of Defense is transferred to Armor (casting level can be adjusted from your Preferences)
Avenger - Offense (Lvl 4000)
+0.03% per point boost to Damage when an opponent hits you (Max 5)
Soul Guard - Defense (Lvl 4500)
+0.1% chance per point that an attack that would otherwise defeat the player instead has their hit points reduced to 1
The following skills will also become available on the Player Skill Tree:
Allied Frenzy - Defense (Lvl 3500)
Increases the level range that Assist works by +1 level per point
Guild Berserker - Offense (Lvl 3500)
Increase the effectiveness of First Strike, Nullify, and Breaker in GVG Only
Gambler - Special (Lvl 3500)
+0.1% chance per point that a random stat will be tripled while all other stats are halved at the start of combat
Healer - Defense (Lvl 4000)
+0.01% per point chance that players health will fully restore after any given combat round
Others have already touched on Avenger a bit, and I’ll say the multiplier looks fine from 175-203 given BE bonuses. 5.25% to 6.09% increase in A STAT while defending doesn’t seem like too big of an issue. The wording at the end “(Max 5)” is likely throwing players off a little, but I read it as something akin to SSI charges and the buff would work for 5 incoming attacks.
You’ll notice the all caps and bold of “a stat” instead of copying “damage” directly, and it’s because others have already stated it: we don’t need more damage. Damage is usually the last thing we need, if we’re being frank. While switching the increase to attack to help combat the oppressive “let me just slap this defensive set on” era that we’re in, I could see a benefit to armor if it came down to that as well, however, there are better options to helping armor survivability. My initial reaction here is to change the damage boost to an attack boost. Priority stat order for this: Attack > Armor >>>>>>>>> Literally Anything Else
Soul Guard is interesting in help potentially combat being 2% OHKO’d in some combats, but this is injecting another RNG buff into an already RNG heavy aspect of PvP. While it isn’t detrimental to the outcome of a combat the way that GS, HG, Dispel, etc. are, I can only imagine being lucky enough to avoid SOME of those chance buffs to have my opponent survive with 1 HP from Soul Guard, have Healer proc, get Soul Guard to proc again, get healed again, etc. If I was playing FS in the passenger seat of a vehicle on the app and that combat happened, I’d throw my phone out of the window. Again, while Soul Guard isn’t necessarily that big of an issue by itself, it’s another layer of RNG on an already multi-tier RNG fest. Disclaimer: It ain’t real fun.
Allied Frenzy: Ummm - does anyone even use this or assist? I don’t think I’ve seen either of these on anybody. (From the XMas box)
Guild Berserker being added to the tree at 175/203 levels automatically invalidates the composed potion level of 70. Longer duration from potion? Sure, but…why even use the buff? It doesn’t…do anything? It doesn’t actually increase the enhancements above the cap of 100%, and most gear is going to get the noted enhancements to 100%, anyway.
Gambler - RNG fest again. Not much to say here - there’s trade-off for massive bump, which is good, I guess?
Note: Gambler, Guild Berserker, and Allied Frenzy all immediately going on the block list. 0 reason to use them in any content whatsoever.
Healer is good - perfect levels coming in just a bit under composing levels. Well done on this one, too.
Now comes underlying issues with the majority of these being PvP buffs - the PvP community (and aspect) has been in shambles for a long while. Things have become stagnant and it’s because there’s largely an “objective best” set to use, which should never be the case. Sure, you can build for stuff situationally, but for offline or general use, when I have access to buffs that immediately say “nope” to a specific buff you’re running (Looking at you Dispel Curse), then it starts to make things dull. I know I can go to most PvPers in offline sets and say “oh, they’re likely in a form of a defensive set.” While it’s fine and well to use a defensive set for that purpose, it’s because it’s “easy mode” when compared to other options. Def/Dam with barricade and a dispel activation with flinch + fumble is almost the “win button,” and PvPers don’t want a “win button,” we want competition.
While I’m grateful for the listed buffs (save a few which could be replaced with other options, IMO), the tweak from damage -> attack for Avenger and other tweaks to other buffs are needed for things to be healthy again.
Edited by Toreth, 01 April 2022 - 03:52.