~First And Final Line Of Defense V2.0~

Merit adjustments are SB: -2 seconds a merit, Rampart -4 seconds a merit.

Rampart needs new testing, you gain the "Rampart" buff upon using - "You are taking reduced damage."

*Edit* Digest says it is now DT-, we just need to figure out the %.

Guessing they will be treating it as a different source of dt.

If no one does any serious tests I'll mess with it some for a rough number after I try out Sirin.

Preliminary Atonement enmity results.

Firstly, take this with a grain of salt. I'm testing atonement.. with atonement. I see no indications so far that the damage formula has changed at all. So this is probably accurate, but... /shrug. Needs to be confirmed.

With enmity+/-0 in gear Atonment appears to be 300CE/900VE at exactly 1k TP(Used sekkanoki) So 1200 TE. The VE value is approximate as I haven't nailed it down absolutely. But that's the most likely number right now. I'll try to put together a post on the actual test data, and refine the ve value later.

The 3k TP enmity modifier is still x2, so no change there.

I am... Underwhelmed. It's basically foil enmity wise. Except less useful cause it can only build hate on one mob, and requires TP. Yes, has an enmity mod. But that's a *1 at 1k TP. you're only going to get a little bit outta that due to TP bonus and overflow.

There's also Burtgang's Atonement enmity+ to consider but you could already get most of the way to the gear enmity cap, so unless that's a separate term,you won't be getting full potency out of it.

Perhaps I'm being overly pessimistic in my assessment but I don't feel like this is going to warrant a shift to TP gain focused tanking. I mean, it's at least worth WS'ing now. But I don't think you can justify not casting other spells to focus on TP gain at this level of enmity. Spellcasting and TP gain do not play nice with each other.

I'll probably want to give it some more thought, and more math once I've slept.

Anyway, I think I'll try a real fast rampart test then sleep.

I can't even express my disappointment except with this sentence, without going into a very long rant.

Ok, so Tiny samples, but. Rampart.

This appears to be a dmg reduction in a separate term from PDT/DT.

4k needles on 2 targets, with 50% PDT. Dmg taken 750.
that's 4k/2 for 2 targets *.5 for PDT for 1k dmg. Then *.25 for 750.

So it looks like 25% dmg reduction in a second term.

Second test.

2k needles on a single target, 68% PDT. 480 dmg taken
2k*.32=640. 640*.75= 480.
So -25% dmg in a second term works out here as well.

I'd like to do another test with no PDT, as well as test on magic dmg and breath dmg later.

Neat thing. Burtgang+Rampart = -76% PDT, exceeding Epolatry's PDT slightly, for as long as Rampart is up at least.

Addendum. Since Rampart no longer gives a def+ buff, it no longer overwrites cocoon. Very good.

So basically Rampart good, Shield Bash nice, Divine Emblem, good.

Atonement poop.

While I had my hopes that they'd make Atonement good... I also kinda expected them to not fix Atonement because Atonement.

Nice use for Rampart is helping people survive W3 Mijins if you're taking PLD to W3. 140s downtime with merits/relic head means you can always have it up when a NINs around.

Agreeing with Martel. It looks like Rampart is seriously strong.

Whatever the term is, Paladin now has a really strong mitigation/hate ability with a 1:00 duration and a 2:40 reuse timer with proper gear/merits. Really neat.

True to their word, they significantly improved Rampart, and with the SB changes, I've pulled merits out of that and put them into Rampart for the first time. The only improvements I can see for it are a slightly longer duration, 1 minute base, so 1:30 with Relic head on a 2:40 cooldown, and improved enmity generation on activation.

Fun bug if you try to activate Rampart while it's in recast also. You'll have to go back in time 51 years to use it again.

10k needles with burt+rampart did 2402 so it's 75.98% PDT total. This is inline with Rampart being a multiplier applied after other DT sources.

Also I just survived 10k needles solo.

Assuming R15 on Burtgang is a separate multiplier, then a 3k Atonement would be 4800 TE if I understand correctly. More or less 2/3rds of an Invincible on a single mob wouldn't be terrible if you're just getting TP from taking hits anyway.

Thinking on it, what is the dispel rate when using relic hands? I didn't see anything on any related pages.

Never seen it resisted, at least that I noticed anyway.

Does Rampart now give -PDT or is it -DT ? Wondering because that would make Aegis MDT- II effect pretty much useless while it's up.

Haven't tested the magic/breath side but based on current tests, it's an additional multiplier AFTER all your DT/DT II. So with what tests we've currently done, it'd apply after and in addition to Aegis. The description suggests its DT not just PDT. So it'd have very little effect with Aegis since your MDT/MDTII would apply first.

Have to properly test, of course.
Here's me messing around with 25% PDT +/- rounding.
4k needles with Rampart and then 10k without. Still follows the 25% of the damage you would take after DT is applied rule.


So if you're at 50% DT, Rampart is effectively giving 12.5% DTII

so 1000-1999 is 300/900 does that mean that 2000-2999 is 450/1350 and 3000 is 600/1800 or is it just multiplicative with current enmity past 1999?

I think the answer you are looking for is no. It's another tool in the box if you happen to be playing PLD instead of RUN (for whatever reason), but it's not game altering nor will it fundamentally change any strategies. It's got much more utility than the one-time magic shield from old Rampart, that's for sure. Between Majesty and Rampart, Shield Bash, & Divine Emblem, PLD is in a slightly better spot than previously.

Super good against divergence nins, especially paired with PLD's ability to main heal a pt with a little refresh. PLD already has a niche where it can solo heal a pt, giving you setups like PLD BRD GEO COR DD [RDM/SCH/DD]. This works in a lot of fights where Yagrush or Cleric's Torque aren't super valuable.

PLD does better damage than most people give it credit for. Less than a RUN, yes, but it's actually pretty respectable. Rampart being a real hate tool now, Divine Emblem being a real hate tool now, Shield Bash being both a hate tool(It's 450/900) and a fairly reliable dispel. PLD can do a decent job keeping hate against top tier DDs right now. Relic+3 is actually very good WS gear if you're tanking. It has stats PLD is lacking in attack and accuracy as well as good HP and a lot of enmity and the enmity matters more than you'd think since your WS numbers are generally going to be on the low side more often than not. It's an extra 45 enmity in your WS set.

Again, the key here is not being super ailment heavy to the point where 1-2 /whms casting -nas/erases will struggle. If you can recognize these fights, PLD comps can actually be better. You have a PLD, who will do more dmg than your WHM, a DD who's doing more dmg than the RUN, and another DD, who you're bringing anyway. Or the RDM+PLD out do the RUN in damage between Dia3, the RDM meleeing, and the PLD meleeing.


I generally prefer RUN for most things but PLD can enable some crazy ***right now, especially if you let PLD main heal. I think PLD still needs some work but it actually got a lot of tools this VU and with the Majesty VU even if Atonement is still terrible. As an example, last month's Ambu you could just bring a PLD and skip the WHM, bring another DD, and just have the PLD cast CureIV a bunch and then use cover on the top DD after the inevitable Sand Trap.

Can you really get 1:30 duration on Rampart on yourself, as PLD? Maybe I had it, but then lost it? ...I'm using relic head too and am only getting 60s duration. How are you getting 1:30?

It's SDT. Same as Valiance/Vallation on RUN, but for all Damage Taken, not just a single element/damage type.
Assuming it's more than just SPDT... which given the description is a fair assumption.

Its basically the same as Barrier Tusk on BLU, but Barrier Tusk doesn't stack with phalanx. Anyone checked if Rampart stacks with phalanx?

No, you can't. 60 seconds is the max duration, that was a hypothetical wish that will never come to pass.

You can certainly have both buffs up at once.

And I see no reason why the actual effects wouldn't work together, but I didn't use phalanx for my dmg testing cause I wanted pre phalanx numbers. This can be verified later.

That reminds me, I know I mentioned this somewhere already, but no def boost from rampart means it doesn't freaking overwrite cocoon anymore. Yay.

I got a bit sidetracked here but as I was checking things about rampart I noticed something...

The Fast Cast+ effect from a Iron Will merits... is only active when wearing the relic head while with rampart up. You can't just use rampart with relic head augment, then swap to another head on cast. You have to wear relic on cast with rampart active to get the FC+.

It's more like Latent effect Rampart: Fast Cast+ than an actual enhancement of the JA itself. You can even activate the JA without the head, then put it on after and get the FC on cast.

4/5 Iron will merits
25% gear haste
+37% gear FC
Ramp up. Relic locked in: 1:42 reprisal recast.
Ramp down, Relic locked in 1:50 recast.
8 second recast difference.

used rampart with relic head.
Rampart up.
Removed relic head(swapped with another 7% haste head) and cast 1:50 recast...

Maybe this was obvious to some, but the phrasing on all the wiki pages made it sound to me like it added the FC effect to the buff. Not that it was a freaking latent effect on the relic head.

I've retested Atonement's 1k TP CE/VE using non Atonement methods.

It's definitely 300CE/900VE. I can get into the details of the testing if needed, but I don't really feel like writing it all up atm. And I doubt anyone really has much issue with these findings.

This also confirms that Atonement's dmg formula is completely unchanged, and atonement remains a valid enmity testing method without the need for adjustments.

I guess one of the next things I need to test is the exact nature of Burtgangs Atonement: Enmity+ augment. As the nature of that mechanic ties into the maximum enmity potential of Atonement.

For how much testing you've done for the community, I don't think anyone is going to argue against your findings. Thanks Martel.

This is consistent with basically all SCH JSE. Is this new from this patch or...?