Since 3.0 physical damage barriers ( a few in particular ) have been hilariously broken. I know the staff is aware of it and has pretty much said there is nothing to be done until the combat rewrite. But its been years..... At the last Wyvern Trials I watched a juvenile wyvern ranged trader going against a circle 200 thief, paladin, and barb and took 0 damage thanks to chalice and IC. There is only 1 magic barrier I can think of that is THAT effective. Aether cloak blocks all TM spells, except it has the drawback of also removing the ability to cast TM as a user. Veil of Ice also blocks TM spells, however magic users do not get completely shut down due to being able to dispel. So they have counters available. Spells that completely shut down magic are also signature.

IC as a spell available to every magic user through sorcery already which shuts down weapons. There are multiple damage barriers that exist that reduce weapon damage, regardless of skill, down to tickles. Stacked with any other damage barrier makes you pretty much immune to physical damage. Where is the drawback? Where is the counter?

The state of the game right now heavily favors magic. Which is expected since all but 2 guilds are included in magic and can dip into other guilds spells. Where does that leave the other two?

I know I know, depending on the GM they don't care about pvp... well it's in the game.... you hold events for it.. some things are buffed / nerfed directly because of PVP. Some thought should be put into at least evening the playing field so it is not a lopsided mountain.


Rant over,
Thanks.

Hey, Traders! Mark this day on your calendar, because you guys have ARRIVED! Somebody thinks you're OP! I know the three of you have been waiting for this for a long time now, so this has got to feel good. Take a lap around around the track and soak up that applause - you've EARNED it!

In all seriousness, though, it's been stated by a few different GM's that barriers are considered to be performing way too well. We can't make the Barrier Review happen any sooner, but I would suggest that if the people who do Wyvern Trials want anything resembling a fair fight, they would ban barriers that you cannot natively cast. I would also support making IC a signature spell as a temporary measure as well.

- Saragos

Okay, here's a real suggestion for how to balance IC a bit:

Give the effect a bit of a cooldown, based on mana/potency. At minimum strength, IC will block a hit every ~20 seconds. At maximum strength, it can reform at take effect every ~8 seconds.

I think that would still be a very strong spell without making the user so invulnerable to physical damage. PvP opponents could get a real hit in between the IC defense reforming. Given that mages can use several other physical wards on top of IC, I don't think they need to have this powerful effect apply on every single hit as well.

Just make it an Empath signature.

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It's been a long time, but I once had a quest prize deemed OP and nerfed after the fact. It can be done if staff has the will to correct a mistake.

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