Earthkin defender Safeguard

[Skeletor]

I've got a friend playing his Earthkin defender, and we tried using safeguard.

The duration is too low to be meaningful, it doesn't even last an entire fight. 20% damage reduction is great on paper, but if it's only applied for 30 seconds then it's a lot less damage than you would expect blocking, and you're wasting 3 feats to make to upgrade the quality of those 30 seconds.

It now lasts just 5 rounds, and if you're tanking, you should expect to be doing it for a long while, not just a short moment.
He chanced it for mounting resistance, a much more useful and permanent bonus whenever on defensive stances.

[Archnon]

Just want to echo this one. When this class first came out, most people were excited about the DI potential. Here was a lawful heavy resistance/immunity build alongside the chaotic barbarian. It seemed like the tradeoff was less damage than a barb but a lot more immunity and staying power. However, the reality was just a lot less damage than barbarian. Safeguard is something that could be tweeked a bit to really make the class shine in that staying power regard.

1.) Make it an instant action, ala rage... Losing a round on a class that kills somewhat slowly already is brutal. It really makes the whole thing not effective.
2.) Reduce the cooldown time for epic levels. So 1 round cooldown reeduction per epic level. Most builds that go epic, go 15 or 16. That would mean your cooldown time would drop slightly, by like 30 seconds. ...... or reduce the cooldown time with feats, say, 2 minutes for first feat, 1:45 for second, 1:30 for third.

If that makes it too powerful, require the 3rd feat to impact allies or increase the con requirement.

Really, just making it an instant action would be a huge bonus. That would actually make it effective and worthwhile.

[a shrouded figure]

I would also agree, in that currently EKD is in need of some love. Hopefully a contributor gets wild hair and gives it some TLC in the future.

[xf1313]

I was excited about this class when I saw it on wiki. Thanks for the feedback, other say the banner is limited as well. There I thought the dmg reduction was permanent... make the special abilities active whenever EDK is Shielding someone! Or else Paladin may tank a lot better.

[jomonog]

Agree on the need to have a look at safeguard but want to add that it would be good if EKD got some of its old epic bonus feat list back as you feel a bit railroaded into taking the new feats when it would be better sometimes to just have epic prowess or an EDR feat instead

[a shrouded figure]

Whew… finally nerfed these OP Earthkin defender bugs… Lolol. All for bug fixes, but totally shoulda added some buffs while you were under the hood!! *grins*

[Archnon]

Whew… finally nerfed these OP Earthkin defender bugs… Lolol. All for bug fixes, but totally shoulda added some buffs while you were under the hood!! *grins*

Going to just echo this!

[jomonog]

Stance is now bugged though, turns off if you take damage

[Archnon]

Is that what it is. I wanted to test it out on PGCC, I thought it was dropping because I was being dispelled or breached!

[Sincra]

I posted in the other EKD thread but just to make sure, temp hp is causing the experienced drop off and I have a fix in the pipe.

[Tikin]

Hey there!

I have a ED, and I find the greater safeguard to be almost great ... I say almost because when it's really needed, the fact that the icone doesn't show if the cooldown timer is finished or not kind of negates (for me at least) the ability to use its full potential, as it's way too hard tofollow the combat log when it's going that fast.
And of course, this is the kind of moment you can't risk to waste a round to something that won't work, so that makes the effective cooldown longer for me.

I imagine you guys have not found a way to make it so that this icone will work like the other ones that have cooldowns, but if someone has an idea to fix that, or even to "go around the problem" in some way, it'll really be a boost to this feature's value.

One solution would be to make it an instant action. I understand in what way it's way more potent this way, but the large amount of "1 round actions" needed to take on the character (Aegis has the same kind of issue, but given it's one feat, it's a very potent one as it is imo) to have the "epic wall" aspect it seems to be aiming at, really work against the "Greater Safeguard" (3 feats, 1 round action, duration 30s ...) in the end. So, if it's a balance issue, is it possible to consider lowering some numbers ?

In any case, thanks for your attention and your work !