First issues with defensive stance:
- Mobility
A fighter who is a protector of a group has to have the ability to reposition himself to respond to a change in combat situation. While the dwarven wall concept is great on paper it doesn't really work in practice as a defender. - Scaling
The current DS concept does not provide any scaling and falls into the original paladin concept of 5 lvls (sneak immune) for all benefits. The ED has a small scaling factor in terms of the inherent x/- Dr, it doesn't effect the ds in anyway, moreover the defensive stance concept works against the ED inbuilt Dr by providing AC instead. - AC vs DR economy
In all cases at present on arelith being 'not hit' is far superior to being able to 'soak' damage - DS buffs
The CON buff tied to defensive stance will get you killed, the ST buff is rarely usable as any front liner will be capping their ST buff. At higher levels the stance ends up being a +2 saves only due to ability caps and is easily surpassed by ImprvExpertise in terms of defensive capabilities - Stacking
Stacking of AC from DS with ImprvExpertise is too powerful - No customization
Looking at the highly successful Barbarian rework you can notice how a core ability of the class can be improved with epic feats. In the ED case the core ability is 'static' and becomes more like a splinter with the core being focused more into the passive DR of the class, passives should not be a core of a class. - Time to turn on
Should be instant
1 Defensive Stance being a scalable and a core ability
2 The ED will be a master of defense for a group
3 The player will have the ability to customizer their character
4 The stance to be useful in both pve and pvp situations
Proposal: Defensive Zone
- Activation - Instant Action
Activating of Defensive Stance creates a 20 yard radius defensive zone centered on the location where the character was standing. The zone radius is visible to everyone through the white aura vfx. - Deactivation - Normal Action
If the ED is within its Defensive Zone he can deactivate the zone as a normal action, if he runs out of the zone without deactivating the Defensive Stance, the zone is removed and the ability is placed on Cooldown of 45 seconds. - Zone Auto-Guard
Any characters up to 8 yards from the ED who created the zone are - guarded by the ED. At level 10 of the ED this also applies to summons - Zone Buffs and Scalability
All of the buffs coming from the defensive zone are scalable every 3 levels (starting at Ed lvl3) and capping at Ed lvl 18. Buffs apply only when within the zone and unless noted otherwise only to the Ed character.
Movement Speed Increase: 10/20/30/40/50/60
Temporary Hit Points: 50/70/90/110/130/150
DamageImmunity(Physical): 5/10/15/20/25/30 - Customization
At epic ED levels the following additional feats are available to be chosen. All of the chosen feats allowed to be activated separately only one stance can be activated at the same time
Battlerager Stance
Standard Defensive Zone AND - 6 AC, Temporary Hit points doubled, Bite back damage (counted as +4) = (Ed lvl)*2
Elemental Stance
Standard Defensive Zone AND all party members within the zone receive 20/30/40 elemental damage immunity
Stone Stance
Standard Defensive Zone AND all party members receive a bonus to Discipline equal to ED discipline: 30/60/90%
Spellwarder Stance
Standard Defensive Zone AND all party members receive a bonus to Saves equal to 2/4/6 and SR of 22/26/32
