Paladin Mantle Suggested Rework

It's too early to tell about archetypes as they're only in the beta, but so far it feels like the Paladin doesn’t have a core mechanic (Winded, Marked, Corrupted) to play around. While Mantle is the “key” Paladin ability, it doesn’t change your playstyle at all, making the Paladin feel like it lacks an identity. This is my suggested change to Mantle. I will be using the MDA Framework to show what this change would do.


Mechanics:

Mantle of the Bovemists:
Holding shift and casting War Scream will activate Mantle. Attacking or casting a spell will disable Mantle.
While Mantle is active, you will gain damage reduction (max. +60%) that quickly deteriorates 12% per second. While Mantle is inactive, Mantle will regenerate at 3% per second.

Dynamics:

• The new skill equates to ~54% damage reduction for 1 second every 4 seconds.
• It is inefficient to use the entire mantle. Using it all is roughly 30% damage reduction for 5 seconds, but takes 20 seconds to recharge. Using only the strongest parts nets 54% damage reduction for 5 seconds over the course of the same 25 seconds.
• Due to the short duration and attack/spell disable, it is best used when blocking a strong attack that is worth losing DPS for.
• Because of 2 points shown above, it is best to turn off the Mantle ASAP after whatever attack you want to block.
• Despite the fact that it is best not to use it all the way, there are cases where it is necessary to have the damage reduction now rather than later, which means that players will have to weigh how much they want to use.
• Paladin becomes better at tanking “burst” damage actively, while tanking “consistent” damage passively through Rejuvenating Skin
• Due to Manachism, you are likely to regenerate mana while Mantle is active. This means that when you toggle off Mantle, you can unleash a heavier counterattack.

Aesthetics:

• The urgency to turn it off as soon as you don’t need it makes playing Paladin more exciting. Timing when to activate it also becomes key, which creates anticipation in players.
• Having to make split-second decisions on how much of the mantle makes it more skill expressive and fun to use, rather than extra damage reduction every 20 seconds.
• Flavor-wise, it feels cooler actively blocking an attack rather than passively reducing damage since it feels like holding up a shield or concentrating on a barrier.
• Mantle lets you deliver retribution if enemies attack you while it is active, while Brink of Madness and Rejuvenating skin gives you a really strong last stand. Feels very much like a noble chevalier.

The intended result is shaping Paladin's playstyle. Instead of just playing like a normal warrior that gets resistances every so often, it becomes more focused on timing and judgement. Judging whether stunting your future resistances for extra resistances now is an important split-second decision that Paladins will have to make constantly, changing the playstyle and adding more skill expression while still keeping the identity as "The Tanky Warrior".

The cons of this change is that for one, it could feel bad when you mess up and have to wait a long 20 seconds before you can use your key mechanic. For another, since Mantle already is a key part of Paladin, stuff like Shield Strike and Stronger Mantle would have to be reworked as well, meaning that it is a lot of extra work to change an already functional archetype. Finally, Paladin currently serves as the most noob-friendly archetype, and attaching an important core mechanic to it could intimidate new players.

Anyways, that is my suggestion. TLDR: Mantle should be a toggle that you can choose when to use rather than what's basically a passive.

 

wrong place... here is the discussion for 2.0: https://forums.wynncraft.com/forums/discussion-general-feedback.132/