Demonstration of Faith

[Jedd]

<DIV>Great spell but I am beginning to think it's bugged (or designed this way on purpose). See if you have noticed this:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Damage done to you that your ward absorbs always tends to be quite a bit higher than the actual damage you would get if you didn't use the ward. It's hard to tell but in general this seems to be the case as far as I have noticed.  Has anyone noticed this or is this by design maybe? Just seems off a bit and I wanted to see if anyone else felt this way about it.</DIV>

[Deadmea]

Ward is like a buffer BEFORE your armor... so it doesn't take into account your AC and Armor at all. That's why the damage done to it is always higher.

[Jedd]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Deadmeatt wrote:<BR>Ward is like a buffer BEFORE your armor... so it doesn't take into account your AC and Armor at all. That's why the damage done to it is always higher.<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> Thanks. But that seems out of whack to me.

[Edyil]

<DIV>If you look at it that way, then its very out of whack.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If we rune ourselves before we go into battle and reduce our armor to zero, we are basically subjecting ourselves to max damage (or worse) on every single initial hit.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Now on some mobs, that perfectly fine (solo).  But on others, that actually gives us more damage than goin in just straight up AC.  IF... IF... if that is the case, the Shaman have something to really complain about.</DIV><p>Message Edited by Edyil on <span class=date_text>12-04-2004</span> <span class=time_text>04:05 AM</span>

[Trucalib]

I don't see this as a problem at all. Look at it this way. A ward is basically an HP shield, that absorbs every single hit for a (period of timenumber of HP). If you have say 100HP and a shaman tosses a 50HP ward on you, you'll now have 150HP. Your original 100HP won't even be touched until the ward is used up, basically causing any character with a ward to become temporarily invulnerable. The 'catch' is that ALL damaged is absorbed by the ward. Damage doesn't even reach your armor, so AC isn't taken into account. Therefore, when the ward is up it appears you are taking more damage. But in reality you aren't taking any damage... the shield is taking all of it. Every spellskill has benefits and weaknesses. Some here think Shamans and anyone else using wards instead of heals are gimped. I haven't collected any data but I'm certain SoE has taken these 'migitation' concerns into question. ie Giving a shaman a 50hp-ward that costs 5 power, where as a cleric is given a 40hp-heal costing the same 5 power. Sure the character with the ward is 'hit' with more damage, because the lack of AC migitation. But I am certain the Shaman's ward is much more power efficient.And as another example. Imagine for an instant you a gnome wizard. Small and powerful but only sporting 200hps, compared to 700-800hps of a tank. Now add in the fact that you're only wearing very light armor, around 100AC, rather than 900AC on a tank. Your team engages a group and for some reason you unload your pool of power on a mob that isn't being taunted or attacked by the MT. You can't do anything to stop this now enraged mob from beating the living snot out of you, because you've wasted all your power. The tank can't pull aggro back, because of the immense amount of burst damage you put forth. Sure the cleric is packing a mega-800hp heal. But that heal isn't going to do squat, cause the mob is bashing the crap out of you and filling your tiny 200hp bar will only add a few excruciating seconds to your life. What is NEEDED is a way to absorb all damage and multiply your HP pool large enough to give the tank time to taunt that beasty off you. Lets say a Shaman in your group has a uber-800HP ward. Now, instead of needing chain healing, you only need one ward to boost your HP up to 1000 and a small heal to get your 'real' health back up before timedamage causes the ward to drop. Wards weren't created to replace heals, it was created to minimize the need for heals. Just like stuns interrupt caster damage, wards interrupt melee damage. Some classes find wards much more useful than others. In theory I believe, a monk-shaman duo could handle a lot tougher mob than a guard-cleric combo. Sure the guard has higher ACmigitation and would take less damage per hit... but is hit more often and would require more healing. A monk has higher avoidance and would would get hit less often... but would take more damage when hit. A shaman's ward adds to a monk's avoidance while also increasing hisher theoretical HP pool. Where a cleric's heal can only replace the HP the guard is being damaged for.