According to the in game spell description, Shield of Fate rk3 is supposed to absorb 75% of any melee strike that would have landed for over 10,000. Furthermore, it is supposed to fade after absorbing 104,469 melee damage. I was AFK in Neriak just a few minutes ago, and came back to see a mob attacking my mercenary. I engaged in the mob, and was successful. I noticed my Shield of Fate rk3 buff was still on me. However, I noticed that the mob had attacked me for the following amounts, a direct copy/paste from my logs- [Thu Dec 12 16:13:14 2013] Garren C`Luzz punches YOU for 7108 points of damage. [Thu Dec 12 16:13:14 2013] Garren C`Luzz punches YOU for 6043 points of damage. [Thu Dec 12 16:13:14 2013] Garren C`Luzz punches YOU for 2317 points of damage. [Thu Dec 12 16:13:14 2013] Garren C`Luzz punches YOU for 3382 points of damage. [Thu Dec 12 16:13:14 2013] Garren C`Luzz kicks YOU for 1787 points of damage. [Thu Dec 12 16:13:15 2013] Garren C`Luzz begins to cast a spell. [Thu Dec 12 16:13:15 2013] You resist the Harm Touch spell! [Thu Dec 12 16:13:16 2013] Garren C`Luzz tries to punch YOU, but misses! [Thu Dec 12 16:13:16 2013] Garren C`Luzz punches YOU for 10608 points of damage. [Thu Dec 12 16:13:16 2013] Garren C`Luzz punches YOU for 10608 points of damage. [Thu Dec 12 16:13:17 2013] Garren C`Luzz punches YOU for 10475 points of damage. [Thu Dec 12 16:13:17 2013] Garren C`Luzz punches YOU for 10209 points of damage. [Thu Dec 12 16:13:17 2013] Garren C`Luzz punches YOU for 2317 points of damage. [Thu Dec 12 16:13:18 2013] You are healed by life-giving energy. You have been healed for 49273 points. [Thu Dec 12 16:13:19 2013] Garren C`Luzz punches YOU for 6576 points of damage. [Thu Dec 12 16:13:19 2013] Garren C`Luzz punches YOU for 2850 points of damage. [Thu Dec 12 16:13:19 2013] Garren C`Luzz punches YOU for 10475 points of damage. [Thu Dec 12 16:13:19 2013] Garren C`Luzz punches YOU for 7108 points of damage. [Thu Dec 12 16:13:21 2013] Garren C`Luzz tries to punch YOU, but misses! [Thu Dec 12 16:13:21 2013] Garren C`Luzz punches YOU for 6576 points of damage. [Thu Dec 12 16:13:22 2013] Garren C`Luzz bashes YOU for 1786 points of damage. [Thu Dec 12 16:13:23 2013] Garren C`Luzz punches YOU for 2850 points of damage. [Thu Dec 12 16:13:23 2013] Garren C`Luzz punches YOU for 10608 points of damage. [Thu Dec 12 16:13:23 2013] Garren C`Luzz tries to punch YOU, but misses! [Thu Dec 12 16:13:23 2013] Garren C`Luzz punches YOU for 10209 points of damage. As you notice, there are seven melee attacks that hit me for over 10k. I was under the assumption that Shield of Fate would have absorbed 75% of the damage of each of those attacks. You also notice that the first two hits are for approx. 7100 and 6400; if Shield of Fate worked like the description says, then this would have been the aftermath of the 75%... meaning that the mob would have been hitting me for 28k and 26k on those first two hits- which I do not believe is accurate. So I am a bit confused as to how this spell actually functions. Maybe someone smarter than me can explain. Otherwise, I am thinking that there might be something currently wrong with Shield of Fate, since it appears as though none of the melee attacks were actually being absorbed as how the spell description in game suggests...
I'm just throwing this out there since I've never played with shield of fate, but there is a check order for vie type buffs. I imagine the cleric merc buffed you with bastion of vie or rallied bastion. Maybe when you have vie on, the game checks against vie and not shield of fate.
I have been equally confused by this, but have made a few assumptions based on when I've seen it fire. There are specific messages when Shield of Fate functions. First it seems to work fairly consistently for spell damage. Melee damage not so much. The only time I have seen it fire for melee hits is on raid mobs. Based on the frequency, I would almost guess that it only works on hits that after the 75% mitigation is applied you still take over 10k damage, meaning it only works on hits over 40k thus mitigating them to ~10k hits. It very well could be working the same for spells, but most AE's are large enough (20k in this case) to trigger the effect with a hit over 8k at 60% mitigation. And it could be that none of this is remotely accurate, but it does fit what I have observed far better than the spell description.
You both are misunderstanding how it works. It absorbs 75% of the damage of a hit that is over 10k. Example: 1) You are hit for < 10k damage It absorbs nothing, you take 10k damage. 2) You are hit for 10k damage It absorbs nothing, you take 10k damage. 3) You are hit for 20k damage The first 10k of the damage is not affected by Shield of Fate. It absorbs 75% of the damage over 10k, (7500), you take 12500 damage total. In short, it is supposed to prevent being 1-rounded by mitigating big hits, but not allowing you to tank because it doesn't mitigate smaller hits. It works -great- for helping to mitigate damage AEs, (but not DoTs!), but not so much for melee. A raid mob that quads for 40k will result in 17.5k x4 hits = 70,000. Sure, 70k is a lot better than 160k, but the average raiding caster isn't max geared and sits around 90-100k fully buffed. That means if you aren't fully buffed, at max hp, with no DoTs when you get hit by that raid mob, you are still likely to get rounded. Not to mention the fact that since it is a single buff, it will almost -always- be used up by spells long long long long long before you are in danger of being summoned and taking melee damage. I brought up both of these points to Aristo during Beta, suggesting that it be made higher than 75% (90% or 95%), and that the spell be split into two buffs, one that absorbs melee and one that absorbs spell. He did not agree with me.
Thanks Beimeith for the clarification. That makes a lot more sense than what the in game description says...
What a huge dissappointment. It should mitigate the entire hit over 10k by 75%. Did they forget that those hits always come in fours? or that the dang thing would wear off really fast anyway? What the hell does mitigating just what's over 10k accomplish? taking a death-touch from 2seconds to 3?
Assuming a 40k hitter are mostly raid mobs ( a few exceptions ), the caster should be fully raid buffed. I currently buff to 120k, but lets say 100k for a nice even number. Also assuming Rank 3. Round 1: 40k x 4 hits mitigated by 75% = 70,000 with 14k left on the shield. Round 2: 40k x 4 hits. First is mitigated by 14k for a 26k hit then the next 3 are at full. And you are dead by hit #2. Round 1: 40k x 4 hits mitigated by 90% = 13K+13K+13K+17K ( shield wore off and could only absorb 23k of the last hit ) for a total of 56K Round 2: 40k x 4 hits not mitigated. Again, you are dead by hit #2 First example, 17.5+17.5+17.5+17.5+26+4=dead Second example 13+13+13+17+40+4=dead In a more realistic example, where you aren't getting hit for max constantly, the 90% threshold will be used up much faster, leaving you with no protection sooner. I know it is somewhat counter-intuitive, but lower thresholds can actually be better in some cases. I know this thread was about Shield of Fate, but this is also huge for Umbral Auspice ( even more so ), which was originally a 50% threshold rune, but was changed in the last days of beta to 75%. The 50% was a much better number as it allowed the rune to last longer, thereby flattening damage spikes for longer. The 75% makes it not much better than normal runes like Xolok.
Anyone have advice on which order to utilize this with runes? Or does it matter? What I've been doing is casting sof then spellguard, then self rune. My thought was to let sof absorb what it can and have the rune catch what it can't. I'm not sure that buff order effects how it works.
It's a very useful rune. Just not for the purpose you have in mind here. If you expected to be able to tank named and raid mobs with it - I don't know if you should be more disappointed in the spell of yourself. But against trash in CotF this spell is wonderful. You get hit for 10-11k every time, which allows your healers to adjust their healing to an easy flow. No more dying to random spikes. Raid trash too (e.g. An End To Fear, part 1). While you still can't tank the spawns, the difference in survivability is very noticeable. SoF easily saves you long enough to drop aggro. And on raids with big AE DD this spell is simply amazing. Enough said. And yes, it does stack with ENC Legion of Xolok and both of our other runes. Shield of Fate is a great new addition. Complaining about a gift like that is... unwise.
It's a good addition, but it could be better, especially if the spell and melee mitigation was split into two separate buffs.
Then they would most likely make them not stack with the other similar runes, and we'd be begging to move the effects to different slots right now instead of enjoying it. If 14 years of EQ teach us anything, it's not to look a gift horse in the mouth.
What you are asking for is very similar to the Enchanter AA "Improved Reactive Rune". The ability gives you two buffs, one for melee and one for spells (goes to short duration window and stacks with SoFate). I don't know what other runes would have stacking issues if it was split into two buffs. Regardless, the spell is awesome for raids (and some group content). It would be nice if in the future we received an upgrade that also absorbed DoT damage. I may be wrong but I believe only Enchanters have a DoT mitigation buff currently. If anything, one of the best applications I have found for the spell is eating DTs
