To preface this, I’m not a programmer, my understanding of coding is quite limited.
Unless I’m misremembering, Soldier and Arcanist (except OFF) lack skills that would be eligible to apply -% RR. Something to do with debuff type skills or some such. My question is: is that actually true? Is there really no way to circumvent that?
To begin with, let’s take the new mastery, Berserker. One skill in particular:
A war cry type skill with -% RR. Why can Bonechilling Cry have it but War Cry can’t?
But we don’t know exactly how Bonechilling Cry works, so let’s say there’s a mechanical difference that would require a full overhaul of War Cry, and would make it impossible for it to apply some of its current effect, like DR. Regardless, the game already has a very developed proc system. Devos, gear, all that stuff. And these procs can apply -%RR. They can even be bound to War Cry. So couldn’t War Cry simply become a two-pronged skill, with its normal effects on one part of it, and then an on-hit 100 % proc chance effect that casts a CoF-type curse on the target?
Another thing this got me thinking of is skills with unstackable auras. Wind Devils and Thermite Mines in particular. There’s a number of items that give these skills extra damage, but because of their non-stacking nature, these are hardly used as a core damage source. Thermite Mines in particular are basically ingored for their damage, even if a build has it consolidated into a single damage type. Do they actually have to be this way? Couldn’t they technically be split into multiple effects? One non-stackable aura that drops enemy RR, and then an attack (in the case of Wind Devils) or a ground effect (in the case of Thermite Mines) that stacks for each instance?
Is it technical limitations that prevents these skills from working like that, or is it that Crate could circumvent this but chooses not to?
-x% RR is a “true” debuff, requires an actual debuff skill template and then conferring a ticking debuff pseudo dot on target/or repeat application, ala aura on Mines or AoC
War Cry is just an instant “attack” aoe, it’s basically Judgment/Horn of Gandar
Bonechilling would probably be more like Siphon souls then or OFF
perhaps it’s better to think of ,(sry i don’t remember what Ceno said they were called, so might be mixing up terms ),“absolute”? debuffs, like flat RR, as more sorta like status effects (if that’s simpler?), can be applied by any attack and carries itself/own duration
Wouldn’t it then be as simple as changing the skill tag or doing whatever is necessary to turn it into a Bonechilling Cry type skill? The only part of the War Cry effect that would be problematic to carry over is the health reduction and that hardly matters.
ofc it would
but it also fundamentally alters how it works, scaling, effects, or something basic as devotion attachment
it’s not that devs can’t, they choose not to for reasons
heck they wouldn’t even have to change the base skill, they could probably just add a secondary effect application,
like how Heart of Wrath is on Judgment which is technically an aura so could carry debuff as AoC(depending on if it initially used attack or debuff aura template)
while i’m not exactly that familiar with modifiers or secondary mechanic applications/templates, i think it would be possible to “simply” add a secondary effect debuff to War Cry so it applied a curse on WC hit or something.
*pure speculation
it might just look weird/play weirder or feel thematically off with how base WC acts, and feels lot of skill stuff has been based on more basic stuff like thematic/gameism etc than pure mechanic limitations or qol/balancing
The AoC approach shouldn’t be necessary if they used the proc system to have the skill apply a secondary effect on enemies instead of the player. Cast CoF/WoP on hit kinda thing, something that can carry the rr debuff. It would be pretty neat to finally get Soldier and Arcanist divorced from that “but you’ll be playing this on a single RR class” stigma. Battlemage obviously eats it the most, but even in-mastery stuff like Discord Cadence just ends up being super iffy cause the mastary does nothing to help it along.
I feel like these are some of the final few “if only” gripes I have with the game. Absence of RR from two masteries which makes them dramatically less desirable as support masteries and inability to build around some skills because of their mechanics (Blade Trap, OFF, Wind Devils, Thermite Mines in particular; how cool would it be to play a mine-layer character; so many items with bonus damage and conversions, none of it useful).
that’s what i meant, was just using existing judgment/how as example of stuff already being possible in some way, not that WC should copy it with an aura proc
another simple way would just be to increase break morale scaling
If baseline RR is set at class -30 (25+avg couple bonus skill points worth) and assuming 25? flat from middleground devo, bump morale up to 55 instead near hardcap
it would still create a sorta parity and sole discrepancy would lie in double classes that get near 2x hardcapped RR for 35-35 or “exploit” %reduced RR augment, which isn’t the norm anyway
Arcanist would ofc remain the outlier, personally i’m fine with that, we can just add more raw damadz in its tree, nicely “thematic” bonus too
The problem is that only benefits phys builds. Phys is Soldier’s strong suit, it’s more the other stuff that Soldier undersupports. You can’t exactly juice Terrify instead either, cause it hits phys res as well and if you overbuff it, Break Morale becomes irrelevant. The main benefit of having -%RR would be that those tend to be more selective. Though I’m not sure, maybe it is possible to have reduced RR split into multiple types within the same skill (Elemental, Phys, and, say, Bleed).
We can and ofc Arcanist and Soldier are built with that in mind. The issue is what if Arcanist or Soldier is not your main mastery? What if you’re getting your damaging skill from another mastery? Arcanist and Soldier become rather unattractive as support, at least in terms of damage. Though I guess Spellbinder does somehow keep making it work.
bleed could be added to morale, terrify could stay the same
*to me it doesn’t seem like soldier needs or “should” have like 15 different or unthematic RR just because it makes stuff simpler or more qol
I’d rather ex fire blade arc gets buffed directly instead/whatever offbeat non “Physical” oriented dmg build gets fat modifiers instead of cheap “weird” RR.
Vit/Aether/elemental would all seem weird if it became that “obvious” included/natively supported just via RR (imo)
(but in general it’s also been my more recent take that “just adding RR” isn’t as cool as big numbers on items eg necro 1.6 debate)
),“absolute”? debuffs, like flat RR, as more sorta like status effects 
(if that’s simpler?), can be applied by any attack and carries itself/own duration