[GSM]

So, as we all know, damage over time effects (henceforth called DoTs) are insanely annoying to deal with. There's only really two major cases talking about here, but it seems to share a common theme; it disproportionately affects some builds, does either too much damage or has too strong of an effect without too much counterplay beyond "choose a different race" or "just build elem. resistance/status resistance". While I will cover the reasons why this argument is flawed, what I really want to do is propose changes to the two biggest offenders.

Poison

To put it simply, Poison does too much damage as a baseline. The base level of Poison is usually around LV30 at high end PvP fights and PvE, which doesn't sound like a lot, until you realize base Poison does either 3x its base level, OR 10% of your max HP per turn, whichever would be lower. If you have less than 900 max HP, it's 10% of your HP, and if you have more, it's a flat 90. This isn't counting effects that are higher, like Spirited Wretched Oil, or higher end Wyverntouched bites, or Argent Fangs/Demon Drool.

This ALSO isn't accounting for damage increases that apply either to all damage or specifically to Poison effects, eg; Hunted, Fallcall, or Menov's Fang. With these, a good Hexer can quite literally stonewall out any options you have, and let you die a terrible death as you're Super-Poisoned and you just end up dying trying to make up for the free passive damage they get off instantaneously.

How I would fix it is at least halving the max damage Poison can currently do, and making Menov's Fang do the Poison damage that we see today (if not slightly adjusted/lowered), and to compensate for the immediate damage loss, extending the duration of Poison so it doesn't lose as much damage, so much that it's just spread more over time.

"But GSM," you say, "you can just play a Glykin, Wyverntouched, or Salamandra and just say no to Poison or take no damage from it!"

My biggest issue with Poison specifically is that there's only very specific counterplay against it, and half of the "counterplay" is just playing a race that doesn't take as much Poison damage or is altogether immune to the status in the first place. To which I say, that's not fun nor interesting, and I really sincerely hope that the argument of choosing a race other than those 3 races is shut down.

"Okay then what about building for Poison resistance?"

Snakescale is already insanely hard to farm for, let alone it only applies on cloth. It's hilariously bad to try and make a full cloth build just to resist Poison, and even then... full cloth builds are usually dodgy characters, who are already the most susceptible to Poison due to not having ANY status resist.

"Then do status resist!"

Hexer would like a word. It's not fun, not interactive, and basically a stat check to see if you get free damage off. Which, unless you're hyper invested in Faith and Sanctity and also have items on belt specifically to pump up your status resist, you're more than likely going to be inflicted anyway.

tl;dr Poison does way too much damage for how easy it is to proc, and the "counterplay" for it is just either building specifically against Poison or belting items to counter Poison, which isn't fun to deal with for any character.

Burn

Burn theoretically should be fine, since as a baseline it does very little damage. However, Burn has a devastating side effect of negating bonuses to DEF, including from APT, which is an ultimately game-winning effect. This makes an insanely strange side effect of fire mages able to entirely invalidate earth mages, for the sheer reason of lowering their actual stat by such a huge amount, for pretty much nothing. Which, shouldn't make sense in a narrative sense, and definitely effects the validity of earth enchantments to begin with.

The damage I'd say is too low, actually, but Burn has such an insanely powerful effect. I'd rather Burn reduce Physical Def% rather than the actual DEF stat, similar to Acid Rain from Tactician, or Fray, and Hellflame Uorate reducing Magic Def% as well, more than likely going to LV% or 10% each, if not 15% as a cap. This still gives value to Burn, but doesn't entirely shut down tanks and especially earth mages which already have a multitude of counters to look out for, and need to accommodate for.

"But you could just play a Salamandra or any of the 10 races that are naturally resistant to fire!"

Read the paragraph why I hate the same argument with Glykin and Poison.

"What about Fire resistance?"

I actually don't think the damage is the issue. The issue is the insanely overwhelming side effect.

"Status resist, then!"

Read above with the Hexer lines.

Honestly, if these changes do go through, or Poisons/Burns get hit, I would want to see most of the other DoTs get hit too, since it's... a very unhealthy playstyle, especially with the influx of new players coming in.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.