New Bulwark tree suggestion: Advanced Shield Defense

[Parcae2]

Bulwarks have few viable character builds, and, in spite of the class's theme as a defensive class, they are actually glass cannons capable of doing 5k or more damage with Assault but with few defensive capabilities. This tree is designed to remedy some of those problems. It will be available from the start, and none of the abilities scale with any stat, in order to make the class more viable at low levels (since it is a popular choice for newcomers to the game).

No names for the talents yet. Each point invested in the tree reduces overall damage modifier by X% to make Bulwarks deal slightly less stupid amounts of damage (since that conflicts with the class theme).

1. Block takes X% less time, reaching and capping at 100% at TL 5. Block should be a no-brainer according to the class description.

2. An additional, activated super-block (which takes a full turn) becomes available. In addition to whatever damage types the shield blocks by default, X randomly selected other damage types are also blocked.

3. In addition to the shield's base block, superblock blocks X%/level of all damage that would otherwise have gotten through the shield. Only affects damage types the superblock would normally block.

4. A blow that would otherwise deal more than X% of the bulwark's total life is ignored, instead causing a special disarm effect for Y turns that cannot be removed by infusions (type: Other).

Thoughts?

[Davion Fuxa]

Personally I don't see Bulwarks as being Glass Cannons or in need of additional defensive abilities. They could perhaps use some sprucing up in some of their lacklustre abilities like Repulsion and Last Stand but for the most part they are quite capable of holding out when they need too - especially once prodigies get involved.

[HousePet]

Effects such as the one in 1 should not be in an advanced category, if they are supposed to be a no brainer.

2 would be rather useless in its randomness.

A new category is a nice idea, but it shouldn't be there to fix up Block's issues.

[Doctornull]

Yeah I'm with HousePet on this one. The idea of a new defensive advanced category is good, but I don't really like these mods to Block.

At high levels your Block cooldown is low enough that you don't need a supplementary kind of super-block, either.

[ekeron]

I don't know if a new category would fit with the other weapons.
Right now, there are 2 categories for dual-wield, two-handed and shield.
Makes it feel that all three abilities are equally good.

I'd say that the problem is more like a lesser version of what two-handed maiming had.
Repulsion's knock back is bad for a melee character and last stand doesn't seem like it would mix well with step up.

Incapacitate(not good with names, sorry )
Disable your foes while they are vulnerable.

Improves counterstrike by applying disarm, daze, or confusion to an enemy that you hit during a counterstrike effect.
(Not sure if the negative effects are too weak or too strong.)

Thoughts: I thought of this as a sort of mirror to riposte. Improving counterstrike by helping it keep you alive.

Impenetrable defense
Temporarily switch to a fully defensive stance blocking everything that your foes may throw at you.
Reduces all damage by x% but reduces movement and attack speed by x% for x turns.
(If the trade-off is too big for the defensive boost, we could also make it protect you from some negative effects.)

Thoughts: It would be like a more extreme version of shield wall. Sacrificing offense for defense.

[bpat]

You should be able to counter with incomplete blocks with or without Riposte. Maybe we could add that to vanilla Block and give Riposte some of this stuff.

[Parcae2]

I like Ekeron's proposals better than mine.

[grayswandir]

Repulsion, or maybe as its own talent, could gain:
Do a shield bash against every adjacent enemy which has the Counterstrike status.

[ekeron]

How does the incomplete block work, anyway? Does it have to block a certain percentage of the damage or would stopping just 1 point of damage be enough? Does it get better as you put points in riposte?

@Grayswandir: How would that work? Does it accompany your normal attacks or does it only happen when you do one of the shield attacks? I feel that riposte's point is the # of counter strikes that can be inflicted. Even without incomplete block, pretty much everyone will want to put points in the skill.

Anyways, my thought for another ability that boosts counterstrike is that it would help define the bulwark more form other shield users. Maybe separate them more from sun paladins since then they would be defined by their skill at counter striking.

[grayswandir]

If you're surrounded, you can easily get counterstrike inflicted on 4 or 5 enemies around you, way more than you'll be able to hit. I thought a death-dance like attack that only hit counterstriked enemies would be fun and thematic. Otherwise they really don't get any multi-target abilities.

[Doctornull]

I like that idea for a more-limited Death Dance thing.

[ekeron]

That WOULD be super cool.

Let everybody get on your shield then, BOOM, blow them all to bits.

[notacorporal]

Okay, I have a couple of suggestions here, although the first one might be going against the grain.

1) Ranged Defence
If there is one thing a shield bearer should be especially strong against, it would be archers. Something that boosts ranged defence would be very appropriate, thematically. I suppose their current defensive skill set is as good against arrows as it is against melee, so this would be redundant.

One thing I find odd about the class is that so many of their abilities focus on retaliation. They are also surprisingly agile. It seems as though the main strategy they are given to deal with wizards is to rush in and hack them apart asap. Isn't this treading on the berserker's toes a little? Parcae's OP looks to me like a request for a more tank-like approach, particularly no. 3 extending the range of elemental blocks.

Other possibilities to defend against both archers and wizards:
Interfere with the Line-of-Sight rules somehow, although I have no idea how.
Confound ranged attacks, so they wind up hitting their allies. This would be difficult to justify, and far more of a rogue solution anyway.


2) Anticipate Attacks
Knowing when to block can feel like a crapshoot. Sometimes you are surrounded by melee fighters, you block and nobody attacks that round. Smoetimes you don't block and a Wyrm sticks its head around the corner and blasts you all in one swift action. At least thats they way it seemed when it happened to me. If you had more of an idea when an attack was coming, the decision to block (or retreat or whatever) would make a lot more sense. It also seems like just the sort of knack a bulwark would develop.

Without any experience players can only react to events. This gives them something to react to, and so makes the bulwark strategy a lot easier to grasp.

This is particularly aimed at new players (of which I am one) and I am interested to know how experienced players respond. Does this just look like like a bit of handholding for newbies, which would give no benefit to the experienced player?


PS, the Death Dance retributive strike would be super cool. I like multi-attacks a lot.