Feedback:User/Bernado/Tactics supporting the team

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While most Tactics skills still are underpowerd even after the latest skill update, simply buffing them would be likely to make monks using Stances to defend themselves overpowered while not helping Warriors much, as they are resilent enough in most situations anyways. Thus my obvious suggestion is to make Tactic skills support the team more than they currently do, either taking the approach of the last buffs and adding an offensive component or by extending the effects to affect other allies.

1 Adrenaline2 Recharge time - Elite Skill. For 4 seconds, while you are wielding a melee weapon, the next attack against target ally is Blocked. When this skill ends you gain 1...3...4 strikes of Adrenaline. This skill has half the normal range and, if you have less than 5 Strength, cannot target other allies.

    • Lowering the duration makes this skill much more active, while giving it the ability to protect allies makes it much more useful and making it a skill allows the usage of a stance like Rush to get to the threatened ally in time and still be able to time the block after Auspicious Parry is recharged.
    • Changing the skill not to be a stance anymore also makes it less effective to just spam it on recharge, if one goes for the Adrenalin gain, as reapplying won't trigger the end effect anymore.
    • The limitations are meant to make the skill less attractive to Paragons or Spear Warriors.

2 Activation time4 Recharge time - Signet. You gain 82...154...172 Health and other adjacent allies gain 41...77...86 Health. You have -40 armor while using this skill.

    • A change aimed at making Tactics affect other allies more.

5 Energy25 Recharge time - Skill. For 8...14...15 seconds nearby foes move 50% slower, while you are not moving. Protector's Defense ends if you deal more than 10 damage with a single spell or ranged attack.

      • While it still gives a defensive bonus, if the user is not moving, this version of Protector's Defense can be used offensively to reduce kiting while the user is attacking instead of moving, too. Abuse by monks becomes less effective, as they can't kite, when they want to use the effect of the skill.
      • The ending condition should prevent most of the usage on midliners while not preventing Warriors from building adrenalin from range.

5 Energy¾ Activation time20 Recharge time - Skill. For 1...5...6 second[s], all damage dealt to other allies adjacent to you is redirected to you. Protector's Defense ends if you move or hit with a spear and can't affect more than 2 other allies.

      • This version has a more unique effect, but is much harder to balance and more likely to produce gimmicky builds and frustrating situations.
      • If multiple instances of this overlap each other the damage ist divided equally among the users.
      • The second ending clause makes it impossible to circumvent the drawback by using a spear to attack from range.

The shouts in the Tactics line in their current functionality are difficult to balance, as simply buffing them would mean strengthening a passive buff, which isn't considered good for the game. Because of this it seems like the logical approach to make the shouts more active by giving them a short duration, better effect and making them targeted instead of affecting the whole group. The latter also lessens the danger of paragons abusing the shouts.

5 Energy8 Recharge time - Shout. If there are more foes than allies within earshot target other ally moves 50% faster for 1...4...5 second[s] and gains 15...23...25 health per second while moving. This skill ends if that ally attacks or uses a skill. If you have more than 4 Strength you gain 2 Energy.

    • Basically a conditional combination of Dash and "Fall Back!". It allows the target to escape attackers while at the same time gaining a nice amount of health. The condition should be easy to fulfill for frontliners, while mid- or backline probably will have problems using the skill outside of critical situations. The energy gain is there to make it usable for primary Warriors.

5 Energy12 Recharge time - Shout. For 0...2...2 second[s] and 1 second for every 10 ranks in Strength, target other ally and all nearby allies gain +50 armor against incoming projectile attacks and a 20...44...50% chance to block projectile attacks while wielding a shield.

    • Some scaling with strength to make it not more viable on warriors than on paragons. The block chance gives it an advantage over "Watch Yourself!" and helps against ranger interrupts.

4 Adrenaline5 Recharge time - Shout. For 2 seconds and 1 second for every 10 ranks in Strength, target other ally and all adjacent allies have +10...42...50 armor.

    • Some scaling with Strength to make it not more viable on warriors than on paragons.

The two Ripostes offer themselves for implementing offensive characteristics into Tactics skills. While there is the threat of them being used for spiking, the long duration they have to be activated beforehand should make it easy to either predict the exact time a spike will happen and react accordingly or attack the user once to make the skill trigger at an unwanted moment. I also changed the damage to be more in line with the critical hit of a sword at the same attribute level.

5 Energy10 Recharge time - Skill. For 8 seconds, while you have a sword equipped, you block the next melee attack against you, and this skill ends. When this skill ends, if you are wielding a sword, one adjacent foe is struck for 5...41...50 damage and begins Bleeding for 3...21...25 seconds.

4 Adrenaline - Skill. For 8 seconds, while you have a sword equipped, you block the next melee attack against you, and this skill ends. When this skill ends, one adjacent foe is struck for 5...41...50 damage, if you are wielding a sword.

Gladiator's Defense in it's current form essentially is nothing but self defense against melee and in no way flexible. Thus, offering no utility, it is undesirable as an elite skill. When thinking about a way to make it viable, a mechanism depending on the type of the selcted target came to my mind.

5 Energy12 Recharge time - Elite Skill. For 0...4...5 seconds, while you are wielding a melee wepon, target ally has a 50...70...75% chance to block. Whenever a melee attack is blocked this way target foe or the attacker suffers 5...29...35 damage. This skill has half the normal range and, if you have less than 5 Strength, cannot target other allies.

    • I intended the skill to be able to either target a foe, in which case the block chance is applied to oneself, or an ally, who receives the block chance then, while the damage is dealt to the attacker like in the old version.
    • In this version the skill serves a dual-purpose: First it can be used to send damage to the other team, when attacked, second it offers defense to oneself or other characters.
    • The limitations are meant to make the skill less attractive to Paragons or Spear Warriors.

Disciplined Stance was nerfed because of monks, but isn't viable for primary warriors at all, which I tried to change:

5 Energy15 Recharge time - Stance. For 0...5...6 second[s], you gain +8 armor and a 25% chance to block for every adrenalin skill you have (maximum 3). If you use an adrenal skill Disciplined Stance ends and you gain 1...2...2 adrenalin.

    • In this version the skill basically has the same defensive functionality as before it was nerfed for warriors, but is quite useless for monks, who don't use half of their skillbar to defend themselves, in which case their healing and damage preventing capabilities suffer badly.
    • I added the adrenalin gain to give it an offensive touch, as pure defense is barely wanted by warriors. The need to cancel it with an adrenal skill to get the bonus is intended to hinder the usage with defensive adrenalin skills, of which the majority recharges when used.