Cut support skills in half.

[Own]

Probably the biggest problem with adding in support skills is that they require so many skill levels and charge levels of balancing. When realistically next to no one is going to devote five gold points into a support skill when the real aim of the game is killing enemies flashily. Support is there to support.

And really, support skills are only necessary because at a certain point you need a place to dump your excess skill points - after you get 3 attack skills you're sitting pretty comfy with a build.

If Protect operated like:

Uncharged: +DEF bonus to yourself.
Bronze Charge: More +DEF bonus to yourself and allies.
Silver Charge: More +DEF bonus to yourself and allies, plus the first instance of damage you take after casting Protect while Protect is active is halved.

That seems simple enough without having to worry about some epic gold charge to toss into the mix.

 

[Ren]

Probably the biggest problem with adding in support skills is that they require so many skill levels and charge levels of balancing. When realistically next to no one is going to devote five gold points into a support skill when the real aim of the game is killing enemies flashily. Support is there to support.

And really, support skills are only necessary because at a certain point you need a place to dump your excess skill points - after you get 3 attack skills you're sitting pretty comfy with a build.

If Protect operated like:

Uncharged: +DEF bonus to yourself.
Bronze Charge: More +DEF bonus to yourself and allies.
Silver Charge: More +DEF bonus to yourself and allies, plus the first instance of damage you take after casting Protect while Protect is active is halved.

That seems simple enough without having to worry about some epic gold charge to toss into the mix.

I think it depends on how popular multiplayer experiences are in the end with Grindea. Some people really like to play support roles and so they would be focusing their points in that area while damaging abilities would be secondary to them. Not because it is the most effective way to play, but because it is the way they like to play in multiplayer scenarios.

 

[Harquinn]

I personally feel that Support skills should be as impactful as Attack skills for those people who like to play support.

When you cast Protect, it shouldn't just give a bland little Defense steroid over a long duration, instead it should have a BIG effect over a very short duration, like providing a shield that absorbs XX damage, and at higher charge levels the shield explodes and knocks back enemies if they pop it, or a few seconds of high % mitigation to be popped just before a big burst of damage hits you or your party with a thorns effect based on the mitigated damage.

Haste shouldn't be a small bump to attack and cast speed, when cast, the party ought to just go to 11 for a few seconds, gaining a massive boost in movement speed, melee attacks triggering a Shadow Clone-esque secondary swing, and cast charge times are cut by a large %.

These should be powerful skills that allow a support player to deal just as much damage as any other player, his weapons just so happen to be the other party members, and his dps is equal to how much extra damage the others deal under his shepherding eye.