Earth's Embrace heal nerfed too much

[jmdx3]

The nerf from 4 to 1.35 is too drastic. I have 5 enhancement slots with Doctored Wounds IO and the heal/boost is barely a blip in the heat of battle. It makes this power useless. I rely on this power and others like it (hoarfrost, etc.) as an "oh sh*t!" power and use it frequently. The lowered cooldown is not worth the extreme nerf in my opinion. 

 

Anyone else feel the same?

[Glacier Peak]

Not at all. The power isn't meant to be used as an oh shit button. It raises max hp and can easily be perma'd, which makes Rooted's regen work even better. 

[AlienMafia]

I just finished leveling my stalker on redside and I do agree with OP. For a stalker perspective it feels too adjusted. It needs a little more.

[Vanden]

On 2/26/2022 at 10:12 AM, Glacier Peak said:

The power isn't meant to be used as an oh shit button.

 

True, now it isn’t meant for that, but it used to be great at it.

[Glacier Peak]

3 hours ago, Vanden said:

True, now it isn’t meant for that, but it used to be great at it.

I mean, you're not wrong, but the actual oh shit button was and still is Granite/Geode.

[Rudra]

Granite isn't much of an Oh *%&! button considering it is a toggle and it reduces both your attack speed and damage. More of an armor with lots of penalties.

[Naraka]

Maybe Stalkers/Scrappers could get the old version while Brutes/Tankers get the new version?

 

But I'm not versed in the set. Haven't played the new version.

[Bopper]

Gotta keep in mind the full list of changes.

 

Yes, the heal was reduced from scale 4 to 1.35 which did make for a nice emergency heal. However, the cooldown was reduced from 6 minutes to 2 minutes while the duration of the maxHP buff was only reduced from 2 minutes to 1 minute. So achieving perma Earth's Embrace is almost automatic, even in granite armor.

 

Also. The cast time was greatly reduced from 2.1s to 1.0s. So although there are more frequent casts it does not necessarily mean more time lost on those casts.

 

In the end, it just changed strategy a bit. Before, you might hold off on using it so that you have it in case of emergency, all the while not benefiting from the extra max HP. Now, you can use it proactively without much fear of it not being back in time when you need it next. It is unfair to call it a nerf (as it came with numerous buff), but more accurate to call it a strategy revamp.

[Troo]

On 2/25/2022 at 6:53 PM, jmdx3 said:

The nerf from 4 to 1.35 is too drastic. I have 5 enhancement slots with Doctored Wounds IO and the heal/boost is barely a blip in the heat of battle. It makes this power useless. I rely on this power and others like it (hoarfrost, etc.) as an "oh sh*t!" power and use it frequently. The lowered cooldown is not worth the extreme nerf in my opinion. 

 

Anyone else feel the same?

 

Good for you.

Gotta speak up or your uses will get steamrolled.

The folks in charge just disagreed with how you and others used it. (right or wrong)

(I'm not a Stone Armor expert.. the new design might also lean toward completely IOd builds rather than lower level or leveling builds.)

 

Edited February 28, 2022 by Troo

[Major_Decoy]

1 hour ago, Troo said:

(I'm not a Stone Armor expert.. the new design might also lean toward completely IOd builds rather than lower level or leveling builds.)

Not an expert either, but from personal experience, the new design is a whole lot more friendly to lower level builds. The recovery in Crystals is so helpful and the defense in Stone Skin makes it much easier to tank. Honestly, Granite feels less necessary and more like an emergency button.

 

Edit: I'd argue that the new design of Earth's Embrace is a lot more friendly to SO builds and leveling builds because you can perma-it without global recharge bonuses. You can't ignore the strength that +max health adds to +regeneration.

Edited February 28, 2022 by Major_Decoy

[Glacier Peak]

On 2/27/2022 at 3:44 PM, Rudra said:

Granite isn't much of an Oh *%&! button considering it is a toggle and it reduces both your attack speed and damage. More of an armor with lots of penalties.

I'm not sure if you're being serious. 

[Rudra]

Just reading the power on Mids. It is a toggle. It is an armor. It does have penalties. So yeah, I'm serious. I don't like the stone armor set, so I don't use it. Mids is my only reference.

[Vanden]

19 hours ago, Bopper said:

Before, you might hold off on using it so that you have it in case of emergency, all the while not benefiting from the extra max HP.

 

This doesn’t make any sense. If you didn't need the heal, you didn’t need the +HP, either. You didn’t lose anything by saving it for emergencies. It’s not like Brutes or Tankers are in a lot of danger of getting one-shot because they didn’t have the boosted HP. Scrappers and Stalkers, maybe.

[Major_Decoy]

Granite is kind of a perfect "Oh Crap" button. The recharge is short enough that you can turn it on and off when you need it, it's a massive boost to resistance and defense, and the penalties are severe enough that you don't really want to use it all the time.

 

Unstoppable is crap because you never need it for three minutes. It lasts long enough that you kind of forget that you activated it and sometimes you'll be mid fight when it fails.

[Troo]

17 minutes ago, Major_Decoy said:

Granite is kind of a perfect "Oh Crap" button. The recharge is short enough that you can turn it on and off when you need it, it's a massive boost to resistance and defense

 

does this mean Granite is the new MoG but with penalties?

[Bill Z Bubba]

20 minutes ago, Vanden said:

This doesn’t make any sense. If you didn't need the heal, you didn’t need the +HP, either. You didn’t lose anything by saving it for emergencies. It’s not like Brutes or Tankers are in a lot of danger of getting one-shot because they didn’t have the boosted HP. Scrappers and Stalkers, maybe.

 

You're correct in that it never made much sense but tons of folks did it anyway. They do the same with Blaster /Nrg Energize and it makes no sense to do it there either.

[Bopper]

1 hour ago, Vanden said:

 

This doesn’t make any sense. If you didn't need the heal, you didn’t need the +HP, either. You didn’t lose anything by saving it for emergencies. It’s not like Brutes or Tankers are in a lot of danger of getting one-shot because they didn’t have the boosted HP. Scrappers and Stalkers, maybe.

Sometimes if you have the +HP, you don't need the heal.

[Major_Decoy]

Yeah, the +HP is something like a difference of 15 HP a second on my Invulnerability tank.

[jmdx3]

This may seem like a noob question but what is "perma"-ing a power and how do I do it? Is it like having Practiced Brawler on auto-fire?

[Rudra]

When a power's recharge is faster than its duration, it is "perma". So yes.

[Glacier Peak]

13 hours ago, jmdx3 said:

This may seem like a noob question but what is "perma"-ing a power and how do I do it? Is it like having Practiced Brawler on auto-fire?

Perma is short for permanent, which more of an implication than a fact. In order to do so, a power (usually a click based) is activated.

 

Edit: "Either the duration+activation needs to be more than the recharge or the recharge needs to be less than the duration+activation." ty Zag

Edited March 2, 2022 by Glacier Peak

[Glacier Peak]

On 2/28/2022 at 4:56 PM, Rudra said:

Just reading the power on Mids. It is a toggle. It is an armor. It does have penalties. So yeah, I'm serious. I don't like the stone armor set, so I don't use it. Mids is my only reference.

That is okay. Granite Armor is really the best defense and resistance providing toggle in the game, so there are penalties attached to it. Also keep in mind it was originally designed in Issue 1 during the legacy days of the game, before set bonuses, IOs, temporary powers, or Incarnates were around. Now the penalties can largely be offset while maintaining all of the benefits. That's why some of the changes were made to the set recently. 

[Rudra]

1 hour ago, Glacier Peak said:

Perma is short for permanent, which more of an implication than a fact. In order to do so, a power (usually a click based) is activated. The duration of that power PLUS its activation time needs to be equal to or less than the amount of time it needs to recharge in. 

Are you sure it isn't the other way around? If the power's duration and activation time is less than the recharge, then you have to wait for the recharge to finish to use again.

[Wavicle]

On 2/25/2022 at 6:53 PM, jmdx3 said:

The nerf from 4 to 1.35 is too drastic. I have 5 enhancement slots with Doctored Wounds IO and the heal/boost is barely a blip in the heat of battle. It makes this power useless. I rely on this power and others like it (hoarfrost, etc.) as an "oh sh*t!" power and use it frequently. The lowered cooldown is not worth the extreme nerf in my opinion. 

 

Anyone else feel the same?

Don't use it as an oh shit button. Granite is your oh shit button. Instead, keep EE up all the time, use it in advance.

[BrandX]

2 hours ago, Wavicle said:

Don't use it as an oh shit button. Granite is your oh shit button. Instead, keep EE up all the time, use it in advance.

 

I always feel this is a mistake.  I feel the best time to use it, is when it will heal that damage you just took.  So you get the heal AND the extra hit points.