Report 1520

Report #1520
Skillset: Cavalier Skill: Guard
 Org: Ur'Guard Status: Completed Nov 2016
Furies' Decision:
Solution 1 - cooldown.
Problem: Problem: The Cavalier skill Guard is quite useful and fitting
thematically for the skillset, but there are some issues with it. It provides a
free wounding strike without effort from the Guarding Warrior (albiet to a
random bodypart out of 7 potential spots) for full wound application. It can hit
more than once per enemy combo, so classes such as monks are excessively
impacted by this.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #1: Change guard self to have a 15s cooldown minimum.
 Additionally add a line to show the attack is from
 guard "As you attack $person they <rest of attack>
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #2: Reducing wounds caused by rataliatory strike by half
 (6 instead of 12)
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #3: Removing wounds from the retaliatory strike but
 retain current proc rate for an additional damage
 swing with venom application.
Player Comments:
---[Shango on 11/13 @ 04:00 writes]:
Note there is no real issue with Guard Other that any have noted at this time.
Targets protected causing the skill to proc, result in a random retaliatory
strike onto the attacker on some random bodypart (one of 7 potential points),
when said attacker is more than likely not the target of the Cavalier/Warrior
doing the protecting in question. Hardly a game changer there. Guard Self
however has some issues with allowing for unfair bonus wounding on part of the
Cavalier not shared by any other specialty of Warrior, and has those small buggy
issues mentioned above to contend with as well. Hence the need for this report,
suggestions for other fixes are more than welcome also.
---[Shedrin on 11/13 @ 04:14 writes]:
Preference for Solution 3. Guard self adds a ton of wounds 1v1, but in groups
it's much less powerful, even with the increased proc rate due to various
factors.
---[Wobou on 11/13 @ 07:38 writes]:
I support solution 3. I haven't seen or heard of any issues with guard other
either but have seen first hand how effective it is 1v1. I would also request
that guard be given a unique message of some sort. Currently there is no great
way to differentiate a normal strike and a guard proc (at least when I've seen
guard self proc), the only way to tell is if the guard message happens to be in
the middle of other attacks but that's costly to interpret and prone to error.
---[Shango on 11/13 @ 07:51 writes]:
Bear in mind that as it is, unless the Guard strike happens to hit one of the
particular bodyparts required for their insta (Chest AND Gut AND the target
impaled, one of the few specs requiring two Critically wounded locations whereas
others need only one at Crit, even AL need just one at Crit and two at Heavy),
the wounds provided really don't do much effectively for the kill method at all.
Maul, the other kill method other than Skewer described above, is based on limbs
being broken and two mangled...which again requires sufficient wounds on the
targets limbs to ensure two broken limbs and two mangled before that method can
be utilized. Overall, while Cavalier has a slightly greater capability to add
'free' wounds with the Guard ability as is, they also DO require significantly
more Wounds applied than any other spec to pull off their kill. So if Guard is
removed because it's adding wounds too fast, than those other kill methods may
also need to be tweaked to be less strenuous in requirement to maintain balance.
Which may be preferred since that brings the method of wounds applied back into
the Cavalier's sole control rather than random chance from free wounds applied
to a 1/7 random bodypart, with a roughly 1/5 chance of being hit to retaliate
probability. No one really likes RNG after all, and was why Warriors got
Overhauled in the first place.
---[Shango on 11/14 @ 04:11 writes]:
Suggestions made to me for replaced Solutions, changing it so the hit rate is
only once per 30s, reducing wounds applied to half wounds instead of a full hit,
or removing wounds but leaving the hit/venom, rather than just blindly removing
the skill entirely
---[Dahlla on 11/14 @ 05:08 writes]:
Solution 1 seems fair.
---[Wobou on 11/14 @ 05:09 writes]:
With the new suggestions I support solution 1.
---[Shedrin on 11/14 @ 20:21 writes]:
New Solution 1 seems fine, this both reduces the power level and rng aspect,
while keeping the flavour.
---[Aeldra on 11/16 @ 12:41 writes]:
I think solution 3 would be alright, I can also get behind solution 1.
---[Shuyin on 11/19 @ 06:53 writes]:
Solution 1