Quote:
Originally Posted by roofle
this reminds me of guardian, only it costs 3 times as much mana, takes much longer to cast and recharge, and is elite :P
that answer your question, dunhart?
The effect lasts a little over twice as long (up to 11 [+2 with 20% mod] seconds] as guardian, which warrants a 10 cost.
Tack on 25% more frequency, a bonus to AL, and then 5 more energy and 1 second casting time and you've got Shield of Deflection.
Is it worth it? I don't know really.
Scaled with guardian, it's definitely balanced. That much is true. It enables you to avoid attacks as effectively as a stance, and recycles fast enough to recast it indefinitely.
However, it works against Divine Favour. You don't spam it, and Divine Favour was definitely made to work well with spam spells, turning every 2 spells into an extra orison of healing for no extra cost.
With such a high cost, and the long duration, it's not quite as easily interchangeable as Guardian. With Guardian, you simply switch allies and recast every 5 seconds on whoever needs the attack blocking. With this, cast it on yourself and they'll probably switch targets and waste your protection enchantment, something just as bad as over-healing.
Shield of Deflection is probably a spell intended for a secondary monk enchanter.
Edit: Let's take the idea of scaled spells to the extreme for a moment-
Uber Guardian
Enchantment
Cost: 25
Casting time: 3
Recharge: 25
For 25 seconds, target ally has a 50% chance to block attacks.
The effect is nice, sure, but the enchantment is costly, difficult to recast when removed or needed elsewhere, and more easily interrupted.
It simply doesn't have the quick interchangeability people desire in monk spells.
And in the end, I think that Shield of Deflection is hazardously close to being the same way. It's certainly not the extreme my hypothetical skill is, but you get the point.