Defensive Posture morphs

Arato

So defensive posture... unmorphed it reflects the next magic projectile used against you and then as a passive benefit reduces block cost by 8% and increases block mitigation by 8%.

Now the morphs...

Defensive Stance adds a stun to the reflected magic projectile, and changes the block mitigation/cost to increases block duration by 2s and decreases block cost by 8% (wait what?), and Absorb Magic absorbs the next spell cast as health (does it still reflect?) and increases block mitigation by 100 (rather than a %) and decreases block cost by 8%.

I'm wondering if those changes to block mitigation/decreased cost are typoes for one.. and for another..

Does absorb magic still reflect a projectile? When I use it, it seems to give me a damage shield, rather than an effect that deals with the next spell used against you.

Arato

Okay so I tested it. It does NOT still reflect a projectile.. so if reflection is why you use it.. go with the stance morph not absorb magic. The damage shield effect is kind of weird, but you do get healed when you get hit by a projectile. The skill works.. it just has the typos in description, and I have no idea what is with the damage shield that turns 3/4 of your health bar purple.

Anzer

Thanks for testing that Arato, I'm almost to IV with Defensive Posture and was curious about the effect of the Absorb morph. Despite it not reflecting the spell back, I'll still be taking it, as I'm building a NB Siphoning (leech) tank.

Khizank

I morphed to Absorb Magic.

I also do not understand that thing with the purple bar - have you got any idea by now, @Arato?

Also, if I enable Absorb Magic and block an attack with my shield, I instantly die - even with 95% HP still full. Anyone an Idea, what I am doing wrong? Happened three times already. I will try to test, whether this only happens when blocking and a spell hits. But it's not that easy...
@Anzer, did you experience this effect too?

Anzer

@Khizank I just morphed the ability last night before I went to bed. I'll hop back on right now (just got home from work) and try to test that out. Sounds like a pretty vicious bug, though the Siphon tree has quite a few of those itself. :wtf:

EDIT: Alright, did some testing on mobs that did only melee attacks and skills (crocodiles), melee attacks and magic skills (hags) and only magic attacks and skills (imps). I didn't experience anything even close to what you've got going on, sorry. Only thing I can suggest is reporting it as a bug if you haven't already.

Arato

Yeah I never got any instant death hits while the effect was up.. in fact as I took melee hits like I said, I had some sort of damage shield on that is not in the description, but it disappears after a few hits, and then my red bar fills if I absorb a spell projectile.

Khizank

I had the effect on friday, as tank in the Fungal grotto against that spider queen. I activated absorb magic. Because I was hit very hard, I was healed (by a groupmate)- but this heal affected only the pink bar. Later, when the effect faded, it did not fill the pink part red, only the small red bar remained, which had 5% left, but almost full pink bar. Like, if Pink bar is used up, then you get healed, that "new" pink bar does not count as actual HP (or only the part, that was not healed).

So I tried to reproduce it yesterday. Seems that - if it was a bug - fixed. Or those times it was something different...

I saw something else while playing around with mudcrabs . When the pink bar goes lower, there still is a dark grey bar, that goes down at the same time like the red/pink bar - like temporary hitpoints or something like that. But it is hard to tell, if it really 'absorbed' damage... When the effect fades, only the red/pink bar remains as actual hitpoints. Whatever it is, it is not described in the text...

Edit: made it clear I was healed by a groupmate, sorry for being a bit unclear there...

Koensol

The absorb magic doesn't actually heals you, bit it gives you a health increase based on 110%? of the spell projectiles dmg. So the thing with the purple health bar is just that your health bar increased in size. I've got no idea for how long though. The tooltip doesn't mention it. Just like with so many other skills...

Khizank

@Koensol‌
You could be right about health increase. You can see the Duration, when you mouse-over on the icon in the "k" menu (at least if you morphed it...)

Btw, I edited my post above, to make it clear I was healed by a groupmate (not the skill). I would assume, that a heal from another player should not be lost when the Skill runs out.
Else, a Healer has real problems healing a tank that uses absorb magic, because he has no chance to see the real HP (seeing pink plus red as one in his interface).

Why does the description not match with what the skill really does? This really should be clarified...

Anzer

@Koensol @Khizank I don't believe this is the case. Testing the skill out while solo, the overlay bar seems to be the potential damage amount that the skill can absorb. I've only ever noticed my missing health regained by the mechanic, not that my maximum health was increasing.

On that note however, the skill does not seem to work against channeled spells, or it only works on the first tick of the channeling. I'll need to try testing it a bit more, but keep an eye out for enemies with channeled attacks. Also, the skill will absorb CC spells and cancel out, but with no health gain to yourself (of course, since the spell didn't do any damage). So be careful about which spells you're using the skill on.

Koensol

Anzer wrote: »

@Koensol @Khizank I don't believe this is the case. Testing the skill out while solo, the overlay bar seems to be the potential damage amount that the skill can absorb. I've only ever noticed my missing health regained by the mechanic, not that my maximum health was increasing.

On that note however, the skill does not seem to work against channeled spells, or it only works on the first tick of the channeling. I'll need to try testing it a bit more, but keep an eye out for enemies with channeled attacks. Also, the skill will absorb CC spells and cancel out, but with no health gain to yourself (of course, since the spell didn't do any damage). So be careful about which spells you're using the skill on.

I'm not entirely sure on the health increase either, but that is what I felt it did when I used it and the tooltip suggest this as well. But what I'm sure of is that it doesn't absorb channels. It only works on fired projectiles like magic bolts, fire balls, lightning balls, etc. No beams or channels or other spells.

Koensol

Actually it is ridiculous that so many people on this forum are arguing about the effects of abilities and are unsure if it is working as intended. The tooltips in this game are the worst I have seen in ANY mmo I have ever played. And I'm playing them for about 10 years.

Anzer

Koensol wrote: »

Actually it is ridiculous that so many people on this forum are arguing about the effects of abilities and are unsure if it is working as intended. The tooltips in this game are the worst I have seen in ANY mmo I have ever played. And I'm playing them for about 10 years.

Yes, the tooltips are pretty atrocious. It'd be nice if we saw a bit of QA proofreading on everything. One of the passives in the Templar Dawn's Wrath line (Enduring Rays) increases the duration of Danw's Wrath abilities. That isn't a typo on my end.

Arato

The tooltips are really bad.. right now I'm sitting on many ready to be morphed skills and I can't make myself morph them because the tooltips are so unclear. I respecced and left defensive posture at level IV ready to be morphed until everything is cleared up.

I don't understand the purple overlay to the bar still but I know it's not a health increase because I was missing health popped absorb magic, got hit with a magic projectile and it did in fact give back health that I had been missing. So the heal works.. but the way it affects block cost and block mitigation is still not clear, and besides, until I get reflective scale I actually want to keep the spell reflect aspect.

Cinbri

does Defensive Stance negate CC spells like Absorb Magic ? can't test it by myself

demonlkojipub19_ESO

Cinbri wrote: »

does Defensive Stance negate CC spells like Absorb Magic ? can't test it by myself

If you reflect a spell like crystal shards you wont get stunned by it.

Beega

The morphs are quite simple really, one returns the damage and the other absorbs the damage and changes it with 100% + health. Absorb Magick is great for Player versus Player especially on resources.

Stannum

Beega wrote: »

Absorb Magick is great for Player versus Player especially on resources.

IMHO for PvP reflect/stun morph is better. Cause of stun state.