Mythryn
Dalayan Master
The Q & A post had a question about the balance of these two styles, and Wiz suggested putting it into a thread, so here's the thread!
Per wiki (and I know its right, I wrote it myself with information given from Wiz), Loathing Guard is:
Loathing Guard: 20% increase to avoidance. Moderate to High stamina useage.
Also per the Wiki:
Blade Guard: Puts you into a guarded state, increasing your parry and riposte at the cost of your offhand attack. Requires 2 Weapons.
Now lets do the ups and downs of each style:
Loathing Guard:
UPS
An additional 10% avoidance over defensive style
DOWNS
Avoidance is totally random and unpredictable
Its only a 10% increase over defensive
It lasts about 6 minutes with buffs, where most fights can stretch over 11
The style comes in pretty late (level 45)
Blade Guard:
UPS
No noticeable stamina useage with buffs
Incredible increase to parry and riposte
The style comes very early in the game (level 20)
DOWNS
Not able to attack with your second hand, which is the slot for agro generating weapons.
Parry and Riposte are avoidance skills, which can be totally random.
Suggestions for Loathing Guard:
- Change it from an additional 10% avoidance to 10% mitigation, but keep the stamina drain. Warriors would still be the undisputed kings of mitigation, as their stamina-less style grants 15%, but SKs would actually surpass Paladains as tanks.
- Lower the stamina cost by 50%.
- Change to style to increase hate and blocking, as well as allow the player to block from behind, but only work while with a shield. This would fall more in line with the Paladin tanking style Guarding Blade (which is also slated for a change)
- Lower the stamina cost by 10-15%, but increase the avoidance by 8-13%.
The fact that most SKs I talk to, and even myself rarely ever switch out of style 3 to tank is a PROBLEM. The fact that a melee class gets a better tanking style is also a PROBLEM. Any other suggestions or staff comment would be much appreciated. But it really seems like the staff and the highend shadowknights on the server have gone back and forth on this issue, and only two changes have been made to the style (to my knowledge, one after it was first put in to lower its power, and one not too long ago by Wiz to lower the stamina useage)
Per wiki (and I know its right, I wrote it myself with information given from Wiz), Loathing Guard is:
Loathing Guard: 20% increase to avoidance. Moderate to High stamina useage.
Also per the Wiki:
Blade Guard: Puts you into a guarded state, increasing your parry and riposte at the cost of your offhand attack. Requires 2 Weapons.
Now lets do the ups and downs of each style:
Loathing Guard:
UPS
An additional 10% avoidance over defensive style
DOWNS
Avoidance is totally random and unpredictable
Its only a 10% increase over defensive
It lasts about 6 minutes with buffs, where most fights can stretch over 11
The style comes in pretty late (level 45)
Blade Guard:
UPS
No noticeable stamina useage with buffs
Incredible increase to parry and riposte
The style comes very early in the game (level 20)
DOWNS
Not able to attack with your second hand, which is the slot for agro generating weapons.
Parry and Riposte are avoidance skills, which can be totally random.
Suggestions for Loathing Guard:
- Change it from an additional 10% avoidance to 10% mitigation, but keep the stamina drain. Warriors would still be the undisputed kings of mitigation, as their stamina-less style grants 15%, but SKs would actually surpass Paladains as tanks.
- Lower the stamina cost by 50%.
- Change to style to increase hate and blocking, as well as allow the player to block from behind, but only work while with a shield. This would fall more in line with the Paladin tanking style Guarding Blade (which is also slated for a change)
- Lower the stamina cost by 10-15%, but increase the avoidance by 8-13%.
The fact that most SKs I talk to, and even myself rarely ever switch out of style 3 to tank is a PROBLEM. The fact that a melee class gets a better tanking style is also a PROBLEM. Any other suggestions or staff comment would be much appreciated. But it really seems like the staff and the highend shadowknights on the server have gone back and forth on this issue, and only two changes have been made to the style (to my knowledge, one after it was first put in to lower its power, and one not too long ago by Wiz to lower the stamina useage)
syduck:
