[Ryu-Kazuki]

Chaos » Tue Apr 21, 2015 6:36 pm[/url]"]

Neus » Tue Apr 21, 2015 12:19 am[/url]"]Stalemate does kind of fit into a category of does and doesn't, since it negates the attack, but it triggers when you are targeted for an attack. As for whether or not Ghosthand should stop it, maybe so? The hand slot is rather important and if you're willing to give it up to stop one skill then I think that's okay.

Except that you can also give up the hand slot to get a weapon that won't be Stalemated. Honestly, it seems like too much of a nerf to Stalemate to let Ghosthand bypass it; instead of people having to work with the consequences of a single weapon type, they can just swing it without a care in the world. While it might be going against the physical tank class, there's enough tricks to make the guaranteed bypass brutal. (Excel weapons, Power Gradation, Ether Invitation, empowered Riposte, Checkmate....) Mind you, most of those skills can be used with weapons that can already completely bypass Stalemate to begin with.

P.S. Kensei is well-equipped with skills that can bypass Stalemate's crap AND get around the Black Knight's defense. How you are unable to work with that is beyond me.

Ghosthand or not, you have the setback that you can't normally use your main or a weapon, unless you have Ghosthand or a sub-weapon. You can't say someone's just swinging their main weapon without a care in the world when that hand slot could be used for other defenses or something. Either way, you have to make a sacrifice. I don't see Ghosthand doing much harm by nullifying this skill since there's still other ways to defend against these weapons.

Or we could turn Ghosthand into another version of Nihilist and make it cancel the wearer's effects too.

Ghosthand already bypasses Riposte, and everything else, so why wouldn't it bypass Stalemate? It doesn't make sense for it to make an exception for one skill (unless you snuck your way into it too, Wraithguard).

Stalemate also only blocks three weapon types. So an Excel Lion with Sharp Claws or a custom part can pretty much act just like a sword and do about the same damage if charged properly.

Excel weapons are usually junk unless you find the right material / quality.

Power Gradation is understandable, but then again, if your Power Grad gets blocked every time, not only is it useless, but you're also wasting FP and extra M.

EI is a capped, static damage (that as far as I'm aware, can be reduced with defenses).

Riposte can only be increased by certain factors, and still be defended against in certain ways. So Kensei may have some slightly better damage, but would it matter when you get noped every time it gets proc'd because Stalemate procs every time it does?

Most of the mentioned skills are basic attacks that use STR as a formula, and can be reduced in damage, which is what BKs are designed for.

With the way Stalemate works not, there's honestly not much point in getting certain other skills because you can pretty much shrug off most damage from the general melee populace. I'm not saying Stalemate itself needs a nerf, but having a weakness for it, isn't a bad thing either.