Blessing of Battle;
30 second duration

500 HP healed per 3 seconds

All Damage Reduction + 200

movement speed +10%

Super Armor

5 minute cooldown, requires 100% Spirit of Battle

I understand the intent of Blessing Of Battle is a catch-up for the weaker side. It is "when the prey is backed into a corner it strikes back against the predator." It gives an imbalanced fight opportunities for moments where the outmatched side can still make a strong play.  It is like in Mario Kart when the person in last place gets a good item to help them move up the ranks. The basic design idea is fine and potentially very fun.  

But it goes too far. It does more than what is intended by that design philosophy. It goes way too far. 



First, Spirit of Battle meter charges up towards 100%  as your members die, and charges DOWN as your members get kills.   

Second, Blessing of Battle is insanely powerful. 

Because of the above 2 points, the implication is that you want to die enough to secure 100% before worrying about actually killing your opponent. The Blessing of Battle buff is so strong that you are willing to completely subvert your own strategy to ensure you have Blessing of Battle available every 5 minutes. This is even true if you are the stronger guild in the match-up, not just the weaker guild.   

The strategy becomes - ignore every opportunity for anything other than to charge directly at the fort, get any small sum of damage on it and die. Team vs team fighting is counterproductive because if you actually get kills and win fights, it only hurts your overall chances because you rob yourself of the Blessing of Battle.  

Once you have the buff active, ignore the enemy and continue to blast their fort for 30 seconds unstoppable and uninterrupted. 

This is a bit twisted, as it does not introduce new complexity to node war, it reduces it. It removes much possibility and boils things down to minding the buff bar and using the buff as often as possible. In a literal sense, in that it reduces options simply by existing, it is a negative change to Node War, not a positive one. The shadow of Blessing of Battle looms over every moment of the node war and affects every decision made, and reduces it all to: "Get Spirit of Battle at all costs then use Blessing of Battle and get more benefit out of it when we use it than when our enemy uses it." That's how reductive it is, that's how pervasive it is. 

There is no counter-play to thwart the Blessing Of Battle when your enemy uses it. It grants movement speed, so you cannot command your forces to flee and scatter until it wears off. It grants full SA for 30 entire seconds, so you cannot stop them by normal combat means. The best counterplay funny enough is probably to hold your own 100% Spirit of Battle meter, and use Blessing of Battle reactively, in response to the enemy using Blessing of Battle.  

I think other people currently in the node war scene can articulate this better than me, with a more complete perspective. But *everyone* I talk to dislikes the current implementation of Blessing of Battle.  Everyone has one proposal that we all agree on, too. 

What do we propose?

PLEASE INCREASE THE COOLDOWN MASSIVELY. If Blessing of Battle was useable once per HOUR, not once per 5 minutes, that change alone would be enough to make it only work for huge moments but not compeltely twist and subvert the entire nodewar. Every 5 minutes means everyone changes their strategy to bend to the Blessing of Battle buff. but every hour means you only need to deal with it once or twice per war and its presence is not felt in every decision and strategy you make the entire war. Every 5 minutes for Blessing of Battle is far far far far too extreme. 

Thank you for reading & consideration.