Champion's Oath/Reavers Bargin

20 minute reuse AA, stacks with all the class' other tanking stuff - warrior version is Warlord's Bravery:

Warlord's Bravery VIII - - 0s Target: Self
Duration: 48s (8 ticks)
Max Hits: 105 Incoming Hit Successes
1: Decrease Hit Damage Taken by 15%

there is an item click for warriors that does similar, but in the lineup of class abilities, that's the one. If the warrior's tanking just one enemy (presumably a boss), the hit counter & duration pretty much line up.

I'd say Warrior's Resolve is closer in general, just without any downsides and a shorter cooldown.

Resolve is closer in some substance, being also spa451, but there's a bit of shuffling on SPA is all. Knights have their shorter reuse Influence/Armor & Mantle discs on spa162, where warriors have shorter reuse things on spa451 (Dicho & Resolve). The structure of reuse time & stacks-with-whatever-the-other-is is more meaningful.

New record:
[Tue May 14 08:32:14 2024] You make a dark bargain.
[Tue May 14 08:32:15 2024] Your bargain ends.

didn't lose much Endurance to that one!

I only claim to be slightly above average but I would strongly disagree with never using those spells. In fact, I use them all the time in a lot of different spell sets. I'm often times chain casting 5 to 7 spells with Brilliant, Chastise and Upbraid as 3 of them.

The only downsides are the mana consumption and the "less aggro than other spells" on Chastise and Upbraid. The lowered aggro is an annoyance but if you're on top of things you can tank just fine using those spells.

Swinging a 2h'er while casting those generally gives a DPS decrease, unless you have spell casting burns running (Thunder of Karana, or are grouped with an enchanter/druid/etc)

So my 'post-patch' Reaver's Bargain lasted about 8 seconds today. Better than 1 second but still lacking.

[Mon May 20 08:41:45 2024] You make a dark bargain.
[Mon May 20 08:41:53 2024] Your bargain ends.


There was another time I used it when it lasted 18 seconds though.
[Mon May 20 06:50:37 2024] You make a dark bargain.
[Mon May 20 06:50:55 2024] Your bargain ends.


I think this AA would be a lot more useful if they just drop the second part of the ability altogether and just make it a 5% absorb from mana.

I tested Champion's Oath II on a NoS T1 mob and it was a waste of mana and endurance.

In this test case, Oathbound Bulwark II never absorbed any damage because no hits met the 31k threshold. When not absorbing any damage, the ability acts like a 30s promised heal that heals 56000 hp for 21060 mana. A poor 2.66 hp/mana ratio.

Compare that to Protective Acceptance Rk. II, which has a ratio of 3.34 hp/mana plus an effective 139800 hp melee guard.

The changes limit the use of Champion's Oath to (very) hard hitting mobs. In a hard fight, it would probably be the first ability to activate so that there's typically no penance and then use Marr's Gift to recoup.

not sure I understand the point of this post. A defensive AA isn't providing much value in older expansions? are you asking then to lower the hp threshold? that would be bad for anyone using it in current content. Champions Oath is great in LS group content. I've used it on accidental pulls that result in 3-5 mobs on me and it is noticeable help. I can see CO not helping much in raid content or in old content, but we should accept it for what it is, a usable defensive AA for group content.

My point is that I tested Champion's Oath II and posted by findings. I think it's a marginal ability. NoS is last year's level 120 expansion. I was testing Rank II, a level 115 (CoV) abilitiy.

CO isn't bad, especially if you pair it with a mitigation disc. It's not like super amazing or anything but a decent ability to use if needed.

Regardless, you are saying it wasn't effective because you never got hit for more than 31k. That's a good thing. Perhaps you would be getting hit for 31k if you were a level 120 with the respective gear and AAs. but again, if you aren't, that's a good thing not a bad thing. My paladin gets hit from trash in LS for 50k+. Did 1 expansion really nearly double the incoming damage to where you aren't getting hit for more than 31k ever?

When do we start to have a no gap mitigation rotation ala warriors? doesn't have to be as strong but tanking stuff without something running can be sketchy at times.

The broad opinion on knights versus warriors is that the ability to heal one's self to full ~every 3s is a fine capability to trade having higher uptime on variable degrees of mitigation for. It is a trade. Having that uptime available when working as part of a team versus the most strenuous tanking situations is what folks play warriors for, after all. Not that there's a ton of those situations, but that's neither here nor there.

From the other side, I'd like to have for warriors the full uptime on incoming heal (Penumbral things) & defensive procs (pal Preservation / shd Skin) self buffs that knights enjoy. Warrior versions of those have enforced multi-minute gaps via lack of crossover between duration & /disc reuse timers.