Scared for R42 Riposte Change

As it stands I am very dependent on this damage resistance to survive 4-5 skull areas. To make matters worse apparently these already scary mobs are going to get smarter and even more pack-like. Thinking about it, I'm honestly at a loss as to what I can do without totally changing up how I'm playing.

For instance, right now I'm using mostly chain with a bone helm and cloth gloves and it puts me at 13.1 resistance and 49.8 max % after passives but before defensive stance with a 2h sword. D stance at 80 skill raises that 13.1 by 115% (~27). Riposte is a little more than a 33% increase in my resistance and I definitely notice it.

Normally I'd just change it all up and go plate armor, but without Fireflies and Blind my damage wet-noodles because I can't hit anything reliably. Swapping to a Sword/Board has a similar wet-noodling effect + permanent focus problems due to truly needing many more skills to kill something. Blind and Fireflies are incredibly noticeable, in pure aoe situations (no riposte or similarly 1 target hitting attacks) I will kill the debuffed mob on average and his buddy(s) will still have >50% health. I've got 53 Dex with the Love devotional and no food. I'm not really sure what to do at this point because Riposte really was key here to allowing me enough damage resistance while wearing armor in which I could still cast basic spells. This doesn't even get into the problem of no more Strength of Earth, Air's Embrace, or death magic leeches for healing. Follow Through also won't even scratch the fizzle dent that plate armor ensures.

Right now the only thing I can see that might help is switching to polearms because of Defensive Positions. At the same time I think it'll probably provide the same resistance as Bulwark of Earth which is ~2.0 at 100 points and ultimately not a real solution.

What do you guys think makes sense here? I'm gonna grind out pure pooled experience tonight just to have a ~500k pool available to kinda "repurpose" myself as required.

 

What magic skills are you casting to require chain armor with cloth gloves and bone helm? Is fizzle still acceptable with full chain and the armor set bonus you will get from it?

 

It's the gloves that's the real problem. I would drop below 80% for the debuffs and death touch. And for whatever reason 80% really means like 20% when you REALLY need that heal.

 

I can try it out though. I'll need to get Follow Through probably to 80 though I think to work it. It goes up fast, at 45. I'll hunt down some cheap so-so enchanted stuff because I can't make my own yet.

 

i don't have any answers for you, but i'm worried about it too. there are a few skills with this 'use it after a specific event and get a bonus effect!' programming, and although i use a couple of them, i NEVER try to kick the bonus in. it's a neat extra if it works, but the skill has to be able to stand on its own without it and, as described, this one won't.

 

After using it I have come to the conclusion that this is horrid. I can't for the life of me tell if I parried an attack or one of the 4-5 enemies parried one of MY attacks within 2.5 seconds to take advantage of this.

@Chris - We need some kind of visual on all these "added effect if condition is met" variety of abilities. While some are easier to notice than others, it would be an immensely helpful QoL change going forward to have visual *proc*'esque visuals to know what is going on in the thick of craziness. Most of the other abilities stand by themselves even without taking advantage of the extra effect, but as @Alley Oop mentioned above, this one doesn't make sense to ever use outside the special circumstance and that circumstance is very difficult to see right now.

 

My suggestion about riposte is that it should gain a stack in that situation.

 

We could have,
-1. Audio cues. Successful parry could have a "clink" sound, while a successful shield block could have a "clank" sound. Dodging a blow could have a "woosh" sound of the weapon missing the target. Critical hits could be louder than normal blows. I think this might make the difference more than anything visual.
-2. Visual cues. For example, the Shield Bash skill has a kind of "bang" effect when used (currently bugged though), and a more minimal version of this could work for blocks and maybe for parries. Other types of subtle visual effects could better give cues to players.
-3. UI cues. For example, your riposte skill getting highlighted when it can be used to greater effect.

 

this. we have a green box when things can be comboed/stacked, and that's the same kind of situational cue.

 

Btw, even if you don't play in a way to purposely kick the bonus in, there are things you can do to increase your parry and increase your likelihood of a good Riposte. For example, get a sword with a high Parry value. What I hope for is we'll have specialized parrying blades like rapiers, poignards, bilbos, with high parrying value but maybe lower base damage.

Personally, I have both Parry from the Tactics tree and Riposte from the Blades tree, and Parry increases your chance to parry, so when I have both in my hand, I always try to use Parry before Riposte.

 

My problem isn't so much that I never parry as I also use the Parry skill, my problem is that I have no idea when I actually did so.

Audio cues would likely suffer from the same problem I have right now. I can read the parry floating combat text, just like I could hear an event cue, but it likely wouldn't differentiate between me parrying it or it parrying me. No real fix there.

The UI based cue I think would be best.

 

Riposte..only seems to work for me about 1-35 tries....I wait till I see the combat log that says "I've blocked an attack" in GREEN which I do a lot, I carry a shield and have that tree skill on then i hit Riposte...it misses about 80% or does so very little damage...Im only like 66 blades and 40 in Riposte but still the miss rate or "proc" rate is pretty low even on "green" creatures...just my observations only...

 

Block is not the same as parry.

 

The skill works. It is just extremely difficult to know WHEN you've actually parried something to use it. Until that changes I just can't use it.

 

Most games use a highlight of the skill where you get a clue you got a reactive. Would be nice to have for most players

 

@Trihugger, Here is what I would try and i just took parry and riposte both to GM. I find it to be situational at best so far. On armor, Go all bronze chainmail as it gives a dmg bonus. Work three different defensive options, Defensive stance to GM, Fortify defenses at least to 90, glancing blow and deflection to Gm.

I would also invest in the water magic, douse to 80 will give you resistance to fire magic which is the most used by mobs, shield of ice will also give you magic resistance and avoidance, take that to 80 as well. Get attunement to water via Blue Blooded and get the water elemental along with Soothing rain for heal over time (HOT). I dabbled in the death tree but will drop it as i get better heals from soothing rain and the water ellie.

Invest in the strenght buffs from the earth and heavy armor tree, the dex buff from the air tree and keep those up as much as possible while adventureing. The earth tree is helpful as well. Main thing I would do also is to keep two handed swords and raise body slam, bladed combat and thrust as soon and as high as possible. I believe in hit fast, hit hard and hit often. With body slam, you stun the opponent for 3 seconds and if you can get behind the opponent and thrust its two quick damage hits with double the chance for a crit from behind. Also consider asking Sara Dreygon for inputs as she was my mentor in swordsmanship and her advice has made a big difference. R/Boris/El Pirata

 

What's your damage avoidance at? I would try adding that in to the mix with Glancing Blow and Fortify Defense. I've always gotten much better results from damage avoidance compared to resistance.

 

A lot has changed since I made this post what seems like forever ago. I have basically given up on Riposte because I just can't devote the concentration to reading the combat log and discerning who parried who. I have gone a more avoidance skill route with full copper chain, although I'm starting to lean towards meteoric iron for the extra avoidance I'd get out of it vs copper. Pipe dream that's a long ways off for now as my enchanting/masterworking are both bad and the ore farming isn't done overnight.

Max damage avoidance right now sits at 30% and I do not have fortify defense yet. Just haven't been able to convince myself to start sitting afk somewhere changing stances every few seconds to raise the pre-reqs to it. I still have plenty of other stuff I can be doing and naturally gravitate towards that instead lol.

I'm probably not GM'ing anything for the time being. Stuff will get to 80 max and that's where they'll live until my exp/hour capabilities increase and deaths aren't so hateful in terms of a ratio of time lost as a result. Even with 80 fire resist and 35 fire attune I still eat 80 crit damage fire spells from hardened skeleton mages and my HP is ~450. That combined with their teleporting/"out of reach" buginess right now, I do die more than I care to admit to and have to soften the blow to maintain interest.

Thank you for taking the time to post and give me advice, I take it all to heart and test how I can work it myself when I play (outside of using Riposte, give-o up-o).