I say block firebreaths. Many magical tales involve knights braving dragons and their firebreaths, so why not do it here? Also, an additional phyiscal resist to the shield armor value in PvM. So what you have is pure dexxers who are actually valuable in PvM, 4-5 can slay even an ancient wyrm which should be rewarding for so much people playing together. This also promotes playing together.
Have you done math before? 25% of 200 skills = 50. 25% of 300 skills = 75. Do you really think someone should have a 50 to 75% chance to reflect magic for 300 skill points? In PVP, this is far too powerful. If this is a PVM ability only, I can at least begin to stand behind the idea. I would suggest a resource requirement. Either the shield takes extreme damage (10-20% of it's current durability for example), a large hit to Stamina, or a cool-down time (can only be activated once every 2 minutes for example) Brave knights wouldn't be called brave if they went into a fight that was low on risk. Reducing damage from fire breath to shield-users does nothing but reduce the "bravery" aspect of it.
PFR, a knight trying to melee a dragon is brave enough in the world of UO. Without the firebreath, it will still cast spells and hit for some good damage. I am just trying to find something that helps this skill to be used more, and thought of fairy tales that make basis for fantasy role playing games like the one we are playing. If not block completely, half the damage.
If you have 100 parrying, 100 tactics, and 100 resist, what is the average? A very high number for not only negating damage upon yourself, but also sending it back to the caster. You can't compare your parry idea to special weapons, because they are totally different aspects. Adding a "bash" move for Parry would be more inline with special attacks, reflecting spells (as oppose to negating spell damage) is not even in the same boat as the current special attacks.
Chance of magic damage absorption for pvm only with GM resist and parry is something I'd be interested in. Shield with parry and reflect skill based reflection of melee or magic damage is not something I'd be in favor of. My opinion is parry absorbs and blocks.
I am for... No impact to PvP in any way No impact to magic be it reflection, absorbtion, or any other -tion. That is what magic resist is for. Minor increase to armor value VS npc's Minor increase to absorption %chance No additions that would allow a player to stand toe to toe with a dragon directly due to having armed a shield with GM parry I do not want to encourage Tamer meat shield bots. .
I too can easily get behind some PvM related changes for shields! I really like the consumption of the item. There should be a message like "Your shield absorbs a powerful attack" so you know if it's losing health faster than normal. Adding anything to PvP with shields must require near unanimous approval from our PvPers. I though it might be a good idea to require any PvP shield related bonuses to only come into play if ONLY the shield is held (i.e. if you get a special reflect, you can't be doing any offensive attacks) For example, if we add the bash affect, you can only have your shield equipped, and there is a delay before the skill is ready (2+ seconds) after you equip only a shield. If you have a sword and shield, and unequip the sword, you have to wait at least 2 seconds before any type of bonus could be used. This could allow PvP'ers to analyze what their opponent is planning. Perhaps make heater shields 'two handed' so that when you equip them, you can only have the shield equipped (no weapon).
Yes please! Here is my 2gps on the subject: Before even going into all the special crap with magic and special moves, lets get the basic stuff fixed first. % to block/damaged blocked should be adjusted per shield, ie. bucklers can block more often but not absorb large amounts of damage, where a heater is can take large hits but block less often. I do not believe this is currently in game, but rather parrying just increasing the armor of shields based on skill..which should not change. Now onto the craziness! Parrying with a shield equiped and coupled with resist should never completely reflect spells at any %...this would be stupid OP in both pvm and pvp, rather I feel that it should split the damage between the target and caster based on whether they are npc or player. Some equation where parrying, reflect and tactics(I say this so that it pertains to melee based characters, and we don't have a bunch of mages getting parry only to mitigate damage) are factored in to get maybe a X% chance to reflect Y% damage of the spell back per pvp, and X% for pvm...all based on a cool down system. This way if a mage gets reflected damage, they know they are safe to dump on the target for X amount of time without returned damage. Special moves, I like the idea of a bash, which could be activated(stun punch/disarm) or simply X% chance to strike the attacker on a block...similar to the chance to get a special strike with a 2h weapon...this way with faster shields(bucklers) you may get more special attacks in and maybe better off for a pvp?? Also rather then go the special move route it could be as simple as when a shield is equiped you get X% increase to your 1h strikes, topping out at say 5%. Just a few of the ideas I have for parrying at the moment, I hope parrying does get a buff in the near future!!
I totally agree with everyone that arming a shield should provide a 0% penalty to PASSIVE mana regen.
Great ideas so far... I would never suggest parry be tweaked to the point a 3x warrior can (resist, tactics, parry) block or absorb as much damage as a dragon with constant use of the vet skill. My opinion is parry doesn't need a special move especially in the period that UOR is based. Just tweak it so it helps the warrior class be a viable choice for mid level mobs. I agree with above posts that standing toe to toe with a dragon 1v1 shouldn't be possible but with a second healer very possible. I'm not for drastic changes I really appreciate the staffs slow and steady approach when making changes. Passive meditation with wooden shields and have the same regen penalties as wearing metal armor when equipping a metal shield.
Forgot to add some sort of resistance to poison strikes would be a neat idea...at the moment farming any kind of arachnid(dread, avangers) and some reptiles(ophid knights??) is pretty impossible as a melee without carrying a keg of cures After thinking about it, parry is a defensive skill, maybe we should shy away from offensive additions to it(reflect/special strike) and focus on more keeping the wielder alive longer.
Would these stamina costs be toward total or current stamina? If against current stamina then total refresh pots make those costs trivial.
