Fortification fix?

[HarveyMilk]

Problem: Fortification on bosses keeps melee too low compared to spell dmg.

Solution: If it's already a magical thing, why not make it count toward spell crits also?

Another mechanic change: Why not add fort lowering effects to more things, including sunder, crippling strike, a ranged pre attack and a stacking spell (not just the fvs pre proc-based effect, it's too random). Maybe even a weapon type.

Vorpal weapons could now also lower 5% fortification per vorpal hit. And it could go back to the old insta-kill, if the enemy has 0% fortification. And of course, I'd love to see most enemies have at least 25% fortification. Sure, it's nice as a rogue that no enemies have it, but is it realistic? And if they give a way to counter it, then no one would complain that more enemies have it.

Of course all these fort lowering effects should be given to enemies, making the game more dangerous, especially for lower hp player toons. That, in my opinion, would be a good thing: a survivability nerf for casters that get focused on by enemies.

Thoughts?

[HarveyMilk]

I'm always wanting some other mechanic besides 500 point disintegrates on bosses to make enemies dangerous (including bosses). More fort lowering effects that go both ways, maybe even ways to restore fort besides waiting out the effects, would add a new dimension to the strategy...

Of course artificer/crafted buffs and debuffs for fort would be an interesting addition too...

[DragonTroy]

Problem: Fortification on bosses keeps melee too low compared to spell dmg.

Solution: If it's already a magical thing, why not make it count toward spell crits also?

Another mechanic change: Why not add fort lowering effects to more things, including sunder, crippling strike, a ranged pre attack and a stacking spell (not just the fvs pre proc-based effect, it's too random). Maybe even a weapon type.

Vorpal weapons could now also lower 5% fortification per vorpal hit. And it could go back to the old insta-kill, if the enemy has 0% fortification. And of course, I'd love to see most enemies have at least 25% fortification. Sure, it's nice as a rogue that no enemies have it, but is it realistic? And if they give a way to counter it, then no one would complain that more enemies have it.

Of course all these fort lowering effects should be given to enemies, making the game more dangerous, especially for lower hp player toons. That, in my opinion, would be a good thing: a survivability nerf for casters that get focused on by enemies.

Thoughts?

as someone who has seen how ridiculous the damage an arcane caster can display, i must agree. its simply not fair to have a one sided nerf thats supposed to challenge an entire party/raid

you're ideas are all pretty much what i would suggest as well, except maybe tying in the 'spell fortification' as we'll call it, with spell resistance, since its the same basic idea, a way to avoid spells

[HarveyMilk]

Well, fortification is a way to avoid crits. So, for simplicity sake, I'm asking for fortification to just apply to criticals from all damage types. Spell resistance (which rarely applies on damaging spells anyway) would be a separate matter.

[Kinerd]

It would be a start, but melee rely more on criticals than casters. To take two extreme cases: a Kensei TWF khopesh would drop to about 66% damage against 100 fort, while a caster with Superior whatever Lore and maxed enhancements would only drop to 73%. If he or she only(!) has Major Lore, it's 78%. Plus, casters never get sneak attack, which can be worth 5% of a melee's DPS with just Tharne's.

With the unimaginative and obnoxious increase in boss HP, it's also worth mentioning that a lot of melees could have trouble keeping all their various buffs going for the whole fight, giving them a de facto blue bar.

[-Zephyr-]

With the unimaginative and obnoxious increase in boss HP, it's also worth mentioning that a lot of melees could have trouble keeping all their various buffs going for the whole fight, giving them a de facto blue bar.

And what do you think about the actual blue bars ? More HP = more pots ? I'm not hoping in a raid thinking "Cool, only 15 pots and I can out-DPS every melee for 5 extra minutes.
The increase in HP is the way casters are affected. In the non-sustainable aspect of their DPS. I honestly can't imagine a caster sustain 100% his DPS in any elite raid post-U11...