Air Shield users

It's so sad that they keep introducing items that provide extreme power and then nerf the skills to make up for it.

 

Rapid Fire too.

 

Ah, yeah. That too.

 

In order to be effective as an archer, it looks like bandit gear will absolutely be a requirement now (not that it isn't already).

 

Well, at least Elgarion is setting it up so we can pattern it.

 

If you knew how much it actually does compared to crafted Leather/Heavy armor. This +45% weapon damage compare to the +25% of full bronze seems OP, but the actual +20% difference is simply another variable in the formula.

I can't recall the exact results of our testing I had done with a guild mate on the armor, but it ended up being a very slight increase. Sure, there was an increase, but enough to go all crazy about it? Maybe not.

If I recall, you would basically take you weapons damage (ex. 10-31 on a Legendary cutlass, might be slightly off there). From there, you take that number, and multiply with the sum of all sources of weapon damage increase, so for an archer : The main Innate + Gear

So let's take someone who has 140% weapon damage from his passive, and see the difference in the formula between Uncommon bandit gear and the approx +25% weapon damage from a leather or heavy set

So ex 1, normal gear :
Min : 10 x (140% + 25%) or 10x 1.65, so your min hit is 16.5. That is for a 2 tick auto attack, for auto attacks, your min damage is 70% of that (so 11.5).

Max : 31 x 1.65 = 51 or 35.7 on an auto attack.


Ex.2 (bandit gear)
Min : 10 x (140%+50%) or 10 x 1.9 = 19 or 13.3 on an auto attack
Max : 31 x 1.9 = 59 or 41 on an auto attack.


Obviously to all of this there are a few more multipliers that come into play such as Strength, which has a variable impact, any defensive proc, crits and what not, but it goes to show you that if you can barely afford uncommon bandit armor, you would be going from a base damage of 11-37 to a base damage of 13-41 for changing from regular gear to uncommon bandit gear (this means an uncommon chest + any rarity of the remaining 4 pieces.)

Like I said, there are variables missing, so the impact can be more noticeable the higher your stats and skill levels are, but this is for the top 10% more than any of us.

 

Then I'm really missing something because I see archers in ERG chewing through enemies like a Phalanx weapon system.

 

Charged attacks generate more damage per stack, making them do more damage this way, and much more the more stacks the weapon can charge. Also all the different buffs will affect this. Like I said, many things will change these numbers, but the base damage works this way.

Having slain the clockwork dragon with my record time being 1:34, pretty much any weapon can chew through things like a Phalanx weapon system, but you need the right gear investment, consumables, and skills.

 

These people that I'm talking about are not charging their shots, just spamming as fast as they can.

 

And are you looking at their Auto-attack numbers or skill damage numbers?

 

Both.

 

Air shield is described “Summons a shield of air that grants additional air attunement and also blocks all damage at the cost of great concentration”. I would think an air shield would lose its power for mele or weapons users by definition - it reads to me like a caster only shield. But in fairness I am a caster only so my use seems natural to me where others (most) play differently so they have different expectations.

Air shield means no CF so ironically air mages are slow casters - since we cannot use CF it should not take down air shield. Torpid is hard enough on us!

 

The "great concentration" part means that it sucks your focus in order to block damage. Also, air magic is intended to complement ranged combat, just like earth magic is intended to complement melee.

[edit] Also, you can use Spellbinder's Stance. It's not as good as Chaotic Feedback but better than nothing.

 

Thanks @Barugon i use Spellbinder but it is no where close to CF / sadly

 

It looks like @Chris will cap Shield of Air at 0.2, so thanks for that solution.

 

@Barugon is that change certain? I have not seen anything from Chris, and I hope that no such decision is made. It would be a huge disappointment to me. I have been an air mage for as long as I can remember. I have invested more xp into my air tree than is prudent. Because I wanted to get me air shield and air skills to the highest level possible. I wanted to get my air shield so I could survive almost anything. While my focus on air shield means I cannot kill many, many things - but I was supposed to be able to survive. My air shield is 173, my air special is over 140 and all my air skills are over 150. If I cannot get to .1 with my dex gear, I would be devastated. I have worked hard for years investing in gear and my skills to get to .1. I hope not to learn that will be taken from me. I built my entire avatar around my air shield. I am useless in PvP - that is ok, the chaos tree always made my air avatar useless in PvP. It bothered me my shield could be taken down (despite a 6 stack with my air attunement over 450) with a simple chaos spell. And it bothered me my devotion to air magic made me unable to use chaos magic - the post powerful tree - at all, as using chaotic feedback drops my air shield. So I worked hard and grinded xp by the billions (literally) to make an air mage I can solo stuff with. I cannot do damage like a fire mage - I cannot do archer damage to jobs either. But with my stun (my rapid discharge - an expensive innate skill that adds stun to my air spells - is over 160) and my air shield I was able to stay alive and kill high level mobs.

I know people complain about archers using air shield. But when I read the description of air shield I think it improper to allow archers to use air shield (it is supposed to require great concentration to keep it up - thus the focus cost vs health cost when damaged) as you cannot concentrate on an air shield while running around and shooting a bow.

Anyhow, I hope to learn this cap at .2 is not a real change. .I worked really hard to get to .1. In both gear and xp. And since my air shield makes me useless in PvP, so it does not therefore impact any other player, taking that away from me and anyone else who worked hard to earn that right would be very very disappointing. Persistence means we keep what we earn. I earned my air shield - and I hope to be able to keep it. If anyone knows for sure this change is to be made please let me know.

Sorry for the long post. I have been playing Shroud a lot (for me) lately. And I have been really happy building up my air mage. Robert is not able to PvP. But Robert can solo content and stun many things, a power I enjoy and earned by collecting gear and xp. Imagine the effort it takes to get air attunement to 450 plus? That is without air attuned food. I do not want to learn my years of effort are to be deleted by a change. Zero transfer rate I understand cannot exist. I can actually get to zero now, but the math is broken so you actually take physical health damage (despite zero transfer rate) even with full focus. But .1 should be allowed. Why? Because I earned it, and my having to hurts no one.

 

Indeed this is true, however in discussions last stream also in Twitter sounds like because of the cap they will most likely boost attunement which will up your spell dmg in air as a trade off.

I agree imo this shield should be more oriented towards casters. Only reason Archers use it is because of the choice of artifacts that give them more power at a cost of HP, as well for the Dex boost through the attunement gain. If it was me Id make it so that Tactic beserker stance pops the shield off which would balance things out as the trade off of power vs taking dmg which is what most other classes have to endure the options. it would for sure change archery. Alternative is to bring all other classes dmg in line to be closer to what archer is. however casters pure ones have a constant issue. there are mobs that are almost 100% resistant to magic which handicaps those that play pure mage like myself. where physical classes don't have that that limitation as there is no 100% physical resistance mobs yet...

 

.1 transfer rate sounds fair enough for a hard limit.

 

Im at .9 with a sun build and almost invincible vs a lot of mobs. with combat regens - instruments, food, skills , and bard even .1 is too low imo. if Catnip wants to balance it would be much simpler to alter focus regens which would stop the invincible.