Meritorious Service, clarification needed on the tool tip.

RobbieRocket

So this set intrigued me in the past but as I only really ever used Replenishing Barrier I was not sure the resistance bonus would be so helpful.
[Long ago I used Siege Shield/morphs & Guard/morphs but dropped them as a group healer, I still use Efficient Purge in some vet Trials].

My questions regards the tool tip of the 5th piece bonus:
When you cast a Support ability, you increase the Physical and Spell Resistance of up to 4 friendly targets with 10 meters by 3010 for 2 minutes.

Normally, tool tips express a limit of those effected at any one time (for example, that the effect is cancelled or refreshed when a further Support Ability cast occurs) or that the effect can only occur once in x seconds, a cooldown in other words.

I would guess that this bonus either has a refresh upon a further Support Ability cast OR a cooldown of 2 minutes. The tooltip however, implies that you can in fact buff your entire group (12 in a trial, 24 + non-grouped players in Cyrodiil) just by standing there and casting a Support Ability over and over meaning a whole of bunch of you could have the bonus lasting collectively for nearly 2 minutes!

Has anyone got more information on this, has anyone tested it?
Is it a refresh, a 2 minute cooldown or spammable across greater than 4 targets?

TheDoomsdayMonster

Interesting...

This is pure speculation on my part, but I always interpreted it as the Resist Buff being capped at 4 friendly targets for a 2 minute time span...

I wish I could give you more information, but I have never tested this Armor Set...

RobbieRocket

So you mean that it has a 2 minute cooldown, in other words, no Support Ability cast for 2 minutes achieves anything regarding this 5th piece bonus.

This option appears the most obvious to me as well. I believe other sets state this in the tooltip, however (for example: This effect can only occur once every 2 minutes).

I may have to collect it and see...

Merlin13KAGL

"Up to four" implying a cap of four players maximum. So, I expect it would involve the 2 minute cooldown, as opposed to swapping the buff between various combinations of four people. I imagine it works similarly to how SPC hands out its buffs.

A third interesting question would be, can it stack? Since it's technically not a named buff (insofar as the tooltip is concerned, anyway), could two players in a four man group effectively add double the tooltip value to their groupmates if they were both wearing the set. (I don't expect this is the case, as it's probably its own named effect, acting similar to Ebon, in this case.)

EDIT: Question #4: If you activate the set with 3 of your four group members in range, then later activate again when member number comes back into range, does it add the buff to member four at that point?

RobbieRocket

Merlin13KAGL wrote: »

"Up to four" implying a cap of four players maximum. So, I expect it would involve the 2 minute cooldown, as opposed to swapping the buff between various combinations of four people. I imagine it works similarly to how SPC hands out its buffs.

A third interesting question would be, can it stack? Since it's technically not a named buff (insofar as the tooltip is concerned, anyway), could two players in a four man group effectively add double the tooltip value to their groupmates if they were both wearing the set. (I don't expect this is the case, as it's probably its own named effect, acting similar to Ebon, in this case.)

EDIT: Question #4: If you activate the set with 3 of your four group members in range, then later activate again when member number comes back into range, does it add the buff to member four at that point?

I can do away with the stack part. It WILL NOT stack. It becomes a named buff (actually all buffs are named and it is simply that different named buffs stack but like-named buffs don't).

So as you mentioned SPC, in the tooltip there is no name but it is SPC buff so it won't stack with multiple uses (either by one or different players' cast). This skill will be listed as "Meritorious Service" and so will not stack (either by one or different players' cast). It will of course stack with Lord Warden, Blood Spawn, Major Resolve and Major Ward, Minor Resolve and Minor Ward, etc.

I'm gonna predict 70% likely 2 minute cooldown, 27% likely refresh on new Support Skill cast, 2.5% likely it adds further players, 0.5% likely something else.

Tasear

Supposly it was fixed like be other ones so it won't stack. What I do worry is will it overlap of there is 4 people without the buff and reapply people with buff. This will have to be tested.


Still it lasts for 2 mins .... just imgaine stacking the effect with automated defense, lord warden and frost cloak. It would be decioius defensive gameplay.

RobbieRocket

Hi everyone!

I just thought I would conclude this thread by posting the results of me acquiring and using the set.
Thankfully I'd accumulated Tel Var enough (84k) and used 20k on specific pieces (all Impen armor) plus a further 36k on random boxes (as I needed a 1h weapon and a couple of infused pieces).

The set refreshed upon use of a Support Skill.
Upon each cast a random (?) 4 people are chosen from those (including self, but not always self) within 10 metres.
So, for example activating a Support Skill in a group of 24 with everyone standing right next to me gives the bonus to 4 players (likely myself) and then activating a Support Skill 5 seconds later (with the group still there) will reset the timer and most likely apply the effect to a different combination of 4 players. Often 1 or 2 are re-selected. The number with the bonus at any one time is 4. The way in which players are chosen is unclear, it could be random, there may be factors involved. I have seen this kind of stuff with Healing Ward.

The set works very well and although I had to juggle a skill (I ended up removing Structured Entropy), I could place the Support Skill (in this case, Efficient Purge) on my 12-piece bar so that I never need to lose the Meritorious Service bonus.

I am a Magicka-based Templar healer and lead war groups of the size 12-24. I run 1h&Sh on front bar, Resto on back bar. Combined with Lord Warden and Robes of Transmutation (and obviously healing hard) I am the focal point for my group, Transmutation is up all the time on players I heal (rather than having the 5-piece bonus dropped on 11-piece bar which is unfortunately inevitable when combining Robes of Transmutation with many other sets) and Lord Warden is up in any combat that involves a group of any threatening size. Adding Combat Prayer to the equation I am buffing the group 4k to 8k resistance (physical & spell) along with 1304 critical resistance, +8% damage, minor mending, movement reduction on enemies, etc, blah, blah....

The direct comparison to the set I swapped out (Kagrenac's Hope, which by the way had beaten out several other sets such as Healing Mage, SPC, etc.) is...

Downside vs Kagrenac's Hope:
I officially lost 25% resurrection time (along with a Magicka gain of around 2k for each resurrection), lost 93 spell power and lost 129 Magicka Recovery, plus had to slot a Support Skill on my front bar. I also lost 800 resistance (both physical and spell) due to not being able to have a Heavy Armor Chest in Reinforced (Kagrenac's is craftable) even though I still manage 1HA and 1MA with the Monster set.
Upside vs Kagrenac's Hope:
The postives are that I gained 3k resistance (spell & physical) most commonly on myself as well as 3 other players for 2 minutes, having Efficient Purge in sieges or when being poisoned by bow NB's is a real bonus. I also gained around 200 Max Magicka due to not needing Reinforced on chest (I could of course have Reinforced Head and then the Resistance difference would be 400 worse instead of 800). The Magicka Recovery loss is actually completely cancelled out by the Support Skill passive which gives 10% Magicka Recovery for slotting a Support Skill. Finally, a massive boost was that I could visually see Transmutation proc-ing on so many group members (whereas before it was proc-ing only from my front bar, due the need to have Kagrenac's on both). The 25% resurrection time loss is not much really because the Templar Skill passive and Support Skill passive come off of the 5 seconds first making the 25% add up to less than 1 second difference.

All in all I have finally improved my Battle-healer leader character role set-up, something that I have been working on for a while. I am sure other classes and group roles could wear it too, it would be interesting to see if someone else using it would apply the bonus exclusively to 4 other players who do not have the buff so that 8 in the group can get it. The Support Skill cast can seem strange at times and the bonuses jump between players each cast but it is always 4 players within 10 metres and in group v group combat these are the ones fighting with me, I have noticed the effects of it and others have commented on their improved survival.

Incidentally my base resistances (I have some CP in Light Armor Focus) of 24k (Spell), 21k (Physical) on front bar (1h defensive trait & Shield) and 19k (Spell), 16.5k (Physical) on the back bar are usually buffed to 34k, 31k, 29k, 26.5k with Lord Warden, Meritorious Service, Focused Rune (Templar Skill), Combat Prayer (Resto Skill) and Roll Dodge (see CP passive). I have a Critical Resistance of 3.6k with Robes of Transmutation up. Not bad for wearing 2 Light Armor sets (5LA & 3 jewelery), plus a Monster set (1MA, 1HA).

Meritorious Service, when configured optimally, a very good set!