PDK Final Stand Cost

[Baron Saturday]

Been playing with and thinking about the PDK Final Stand ability, and it feels like something is missing. It's almost too easy to use - I find myself using it as a replacement for healing kits, rather than as a second chance at life.

Personally I feel like it could use some sort of associated cost, like a 5-10% rest penalty, to give using it a bit more weight.

How are other people feeling about this?

[PinataPlethora]

I agree it's crazy good if your front load your PDK levels, but with the average HP output I'm seeing so far, it looks like it'll be pretty piddly by mid epics, because of the cooldown. (Except for Valiant) You could certainly use it to mitigate kit use, but a fast moving group with upwards of 300 hp a piece will far outpace it.

I'd thought about this, myself, and considered suggesting that the hit dice progress through d4s, d6s, and d8s with PDK level 5, 7, and 9, so that it isn't as much of an infinite soloing tool at lower levels.

On the other hand, I'd be just as happy to see the cooldown bumped up to 10 minutes, like Divine Wrath or Lay on Hands, and much more powerful effects added. The way it is now, it feels like a convenience ability more than a last resort. With its potential frequency of use, I'd call it Most Recent Stand, because there's not much finality to its use.

I can't yet say how the capstone abilities will change that.

[WanderingPoet]

Final Stand does suffer from the problem of being really good at healing after a fight when your hit points are lowest, but too weak to really be useful to save someone. It'd be better to chug a Heal potion to save yourself than to use it.

On the flip side the level 10 Valiant/Protector abilities are actually early battle buffs instead, helping keep you topped up.

So when do you use it? Start of battle, after battle? Neither really works, and the spell is meant to help when you're losing. I definitely would like to see the skill do a much better burst of "Save people", a clutch save, rather than a top-up.

[PinataPlethora]

Casting time is also something of an issue, in that regard. If the fight is actually going badly enough that you need to use Final Stand, chances are someone is already going to be dead by the time you finish your mid combat hula hooping session.

[Astral]

The question is what really "saves" someone in a tough encounter?

Topping off their HP pool back to full should be a perfect example for a "save" right? well, not really. If your mage got dispelled and is surrounded by mobs, they will just get 100-to-0 again after you heal them. If your tank gets stunned you can heal them all you want, they will lose all that hp shortly as well.

Saving someone is about taking aggro away from them, granting them sufficient damage immunity, or ending the battle by killing everyone. Final Stand doesnt do any of those things so it remains a pretty good tool to save time and money by using less healing kits.

[PinataPlethora]

Saving someone is about taking aggro away from them, granting them sufficient damage immunity, or ending the battle by killing everyone.

Vanguard kinda sorta does that with stun, (although it sounds like that's broken right now) but still relies on having an exceptionally disciplined party capable of an orderly withdrawal.

It seems like Final Stand should give the party a very short burst of healing and buffs that can actively turn the tide, but on a longer cooldown so it isn't used on every other mob.