Incoming Guardian Love Pt 2 & 3

Xelgad has been paying close attention to feedback on his Guardians: Requesting Feedback thread on the EQ2 Forums. His response to this feedback includes some additional tweaks we might see as a result of ideas submitted by players. These changes are expected after Game Update 57.

You can read his comments after the jump…

From July 16th:

Thank you all for the feedback so far!

Just to address one general point, we’re trying to take a more subtle approach in adjusting this class. Instead of making one or two drastic changes, we’re going for maybe a dozen smaller fixes and upgrades that result in a more balanced and better working Guardian. These fixes and upgrades will go beyond just utility. In that sense, it’s good to hear that these changes won’t immediately make Guardians desirable for every raid, since we certainly don’t want utility to be the driving force that gets Guardians into raids. Furthermore, please remember that “Got Your Back” and “Cripple” are still Echoes of Faydwer Advancements and need to be balanced as such. The fact that some of you like the “Got Your Back” change while others still prefer other options is a sign that the proposed change is in the realm of balance.

To clarify, the current plan for the Cripple debuff is a 75% reduction to target’s riposte damage. While we’re aware that Guardians are immune to riposte damage at end game, we still see a situational use for the debuff in cases where it’s dangerous or impossible for scouts and healers to position behind the target. The added damage component is not insignificant and has a very low chance to miss. More feedback on this would be welcomed.

While some of your other suggestions may make it in game, we especially like the idea to upgrade Guardian Sphere, since it could be a great way to provide some defensive utility that would be useful in heroic content. The tentative plan is to change Guardian Sphere into a group buff that grants all non-fighters a 50% (at master) chance to stoneskin. The Guardian will have a 25% (at master) chance to stoneskin him or herself. The casting time has been reduced to 0.5 seconds, the radius has been increased to 35 meters, the duration maxes out at 20 seconds and there is no limit on the number of stoneskins that can trigger during the duration.

From July 19th:

To clarify, the intercept portion has been removed from Guardian Sphere.

We have many more changes on the way. Here are some of them, but this list is still not complete.

Stability Tree:

• Enhance: Intercept now gives 2% damage reduction per point in addition to the reuse reduction.
• Enhance: Moderate now grants 1 crit bonus per point instead of additional hate gain reduction.
• Enhance: Rescue has been moved to another tree and replaced with Enhance: Call of Shielding, which increases the effectiveness of that buff by 5% per point.
• Enhance: Reinforcement has been moved to another tree and replaced with Enhance: Call to Arms, which increases the effectiveness of that buff by 7% per point.

The “Crippling” tree has been replaced with a new tree titled “Aggression.” This new tree is intended to provide extra threat generation, especially in cases where the Guardian doesn’t have full hate buffs.

Aggression Tree:

• Enhance: Provoke, which grants 7% potency to the taunt with each point.
• Enhance: Shout, which reduces the reuse of the ability by 0.4 seconds per point and improves the resistability by 2% per point.
• Enhance: Hatred, which offers 2% hate mod per point.
• Enhance: Rescue, which is the same as it was in the Stability tree.
• Enhance: Reinforcement, which is the same as it was in the Stability tree.
• Shoulder the Burden, which is a 10% hate siphon that can be placed on any group member.

Other AA changes:

• “Double Attack” in the Guardian tree has been replaced with 3% chance to flurry and has been renamed to “Flurry.”
• “Bind Wound” in the Warrior tree is now a 100% heal (still out of combat).
• Enhance: Plant now increases the duration of the ability by only 0.4 seconds per point (see below).
• “Aggressive Nature” now increases the threat generated by Hold the Line by 5% per point instead of adding a threat proc on blocks (see below).

Class ability changes:

• Recapture now lowers the threat position of non-fighters in the Guardian’s group to the target encounter. While that effect is only groupwide, the raidwide effect that increases the threat position of other fighters is still present. The reuse on this ability has been increased to 45 seconds.
• Iron Will now grants a reduction to snare effects on the Guardian in addition to the Stamina buff.
• Plant has been redesigned. It is now a blue AE target lock with a small threat component. The base duration of the target lock is 6 seconds with the level 90 master. The base casting time remains at 1 second, and the recast is still 60 seconds.
• Hold the Line now has the “Aggressive Nature” effect automatically built into the ability. It’s as if you spent the 5 AA points in the Shadows tree without actually having to spend the points. “Aggressive Defense,” a Berserker ability, recieved the same change.

Keep the feedback coming! The discussion has obviously shifted beyond just utility, and we’re looking for feedback on all of these changes. Any other suggestions for the class are welcomed as well, but understand that we are focusing mostly on more general changes rather than class or AA ability changes to solve the survivability problem.