Slagar
Dalayan Adventurer
Druid Relic DS:
Duration: 600 ticks (60 minutes)
Slot 1: Damage Shield of 45
Mage Relic DS:
Duration: 1800 ticks (180 minutes)
Slot 1: Damage Shield of 43
Slot 2: Increase Resist Fire by 40
I guess I don't play a tank, (or a mage or druid for that matter, so really this is all just opining) but as I understand it, the relic druid DS almost never gets used if the mage relic DS is available. Even if you aren't planning to do anything that does fire damage, you're probably still going to stick with the mage DS just on the off chance that something will do fire damage to you in the next 3+duration inc hours. The fact that the mage DS has triple the duration and an extremely useful resist buff makes the druid DS kind of a ridiculous concept. Also, the FR buff makes the spell basically indispensable for all classes in any situation where FR will be important, whereas the druid DS is really only has a use for tanks, and for the occasional situation where the rest of the raid/group will be taking melee hits. And even for the tank, the spell damage mitigation that comes from +40 FR (to say nothing of the longer duration) makes the +2 damage per hit on the druid spell seem pretty pointless.
It seems to me that a few things ought to be changed to make them more balanced:
1) Make the durations identical. I am not sure what reason there is for the mage spell to have so much more duration than the druid. I suppose mages don't get the spell-casting reinforcement AAs that druids get, but doesn't the fact that priests get the AAs and casters don't mean that priests are supposed to have longer duration buffs? I'm not sure if it would be better to make both spells last 3 hours or make them both last 1 hour, or maybe split the difference and make them both last 2 hours. Really the important thing balancing wise is that they have the same base duration.
2) (more importantly) Give the druid DS some kind of secondary effect, like the mage DS. I'm not sure what exactly would be balanced, but maybe something like a chance to proc a small self-heal when hit. Kind of like a BP proc. Or maybe even just a HP regen or AC component. Something that would give the spell some situational utility that would give people a reason to use it over the mage's stacking-friendly FR buff.
It might be the case that a secondary effect like the ones mentioned here would make the druid DS preferable for tanks, whereas the mage DS will remain situationally useful for everyone else. That seems kind of reasonable; at least on raids the druid DS will get put to good use, and groups deciding what kind of buff-bot to load for a DS will be more likely to prefer the druid DS for it's benefits to the tank in cases where the FR on the mage DS is unlikely to be useful for anyone else.
If both spells had their own useful secondary effects, I think it would also be perfectly reasonable to equalize the damage of the two spells. I'm not sure whether it would be better to increase the mage spells damage or decrease the druids, but either way it's only 2 points of damage, so it's really not that important.
Duration: 600 ticks (60 minutes)
Slot 1: Damage Shield of 45
Mage Relic DS:
Duration: 1800 ticks (180 minutes)
Slot 1: Damage Shield of 43
Slot 2: Increase Resist Fire by 40
I guess I don't play a tank, (or a mage or druid for that matter, so really this is all just opining) but as I understand it, the relic druid DS almost never gets used if the mage relic DS is available. Even if you aren't planning to do anything that does fire damage, you're probably still going to stick with the mage DS just on the off chance that something will do fire damage to you in the next 3+duration inc hours. The fact that the mage DS has triple the duration and an extremely useful resist buff makes the druid DS kind of a ridiculous concept. Also, the FR buff makes the spell basically indispensable for all classes in any situation where FR will be important, whereas the druid DS is really only has a use for tanks, and for the occasional situation where the rest of the raid/group will be taking melee hits. And even for the tank, the spell damage mitigation that comes from +40 FR (to say nothing of the longer duration) makes the +2 damage per hit on the druid spell seem pretty pointless.
It seems to me that a few things ought to be changed to make them more balanced:
1) Make the durations identical. I am not sure what reason there is for the mage spell to have so much more duration than the druid. I suppose mages don't get the spell-casting reinforcement AAs that druids get, but doesn't the fact that priests get the AAs and casters don't mean that priests are supposed to have longer duration buffs? I'm not sure if it would be better to make both spells last 3 hours or make them both last 1 hour, or maybe split the difference and make them both last 2 hours. Really the important thing balancing wise is that they have the same base duration.
2) (more importantly) Give the druid DS some kind of secondary effect, like the mage DS. I'm not sure what exactly would be balanced, but maybe something like a chance to proc a small self-heal when hit. Kind of like a BP proc. Or maybe even just a HP regen or AC component. Something that would give the spell some situational utility that would give people a reason to use it over the mage's stacking-friendly FR buff.
It might be the case that a secondary effect like the ones mentioned here would make the druid DS preferable for tanks, whereas the mage DS will remain situationally useful for everyone else. That seems kind of reasonable; at least on raids the druid DS will get put to good use, and groups deciding what kind of buff-bot to load for a DS will be more likely to prefer the druid DS for it's benefits to the tank in cases where the FR on the mage DS is unlikely to be useful for anyone else.
If both spells had their own useful secondary effects, I think it would also be perfectly reasonable to equalize the damage of the two spells. I'm not sure whether it would be better to increase the mage spells damage or decrease the druids, but either way it's only 2 points of damage, so it's really not that important.
