Pain Suppression

[Acarin]

Tumble only negates about half an attack (enemy attacks again after 3 seconds) and the cooldown really limits it's utility. It's available to quite a few guilds and these guilds still use armor. Improved dodge is great, sure, but it's honestly hard to measure the impact. Blade slap is again, available to shar as well, and gives the same sort of defense that dual wielding weapons would have (i.e. 2 parries). It's great for brawlers because it brings them up to the same parry level that weapon users can have. I don't think that there's anything OP about brofist remaining, actually. The fact is, all of us will get hit. Pain suppression really only helps from an energy standpoint now so we can still take a nasty single crit and drop without it being impacted by this ability as it previously was. I'm not at all complaining. I love my brofist and his awesome brawling (even more than my Shar). I'm just saying that I think there's some sort of gap here that still needs to be addressed. It's a very sepcialized guild with no other talents besides unarmed combat. We should be really good at that and effective... This is both from an offensive and defensive standpoint.

Rias suggests that we should all wear armor. Unfortunately, this seems to interfere with the guild design AND penalizes our abilities, making improved dodge provide a tier lower benefit at least. The fact is, that we're going to get hit. I think some way to reduce that damage a bit would be great. Physical conditioning really only provides a real benefit against bludgeon damage. Great when sparing, but not as good for actual combat.

Since there seems to be no ability development going on outside of generalized abilities right now, maybe some sort of light metal-threaded cloth armor that does not impact improved dodge but at least works as well as soft leather could be added to the guild shop? Not that I really want to wear armor, but damage reduction becomes an increasing problem at higher skill levels...

[Jirato]

I'm not willing to disclose exact mechanics, but improved dodge is a VERY powerful skill. To the point where I lose sleep at night worrying that Rias will discover and nerf it. :-)

Just to get an idea... Both me and the training dummy have 500 to all skills. The dummy has improved dodge, is unarmored, and has 0 encumbrance.

You attack an animated training dummy with your unarmed strikes!

Real dodge roll was: 1012 with improved dodge.
fist (=) (M:725 vs D:725 P:631 P:631) Dodged!

Real dodge roll was: 130 with improved dodge.
kick (=) (M:725 vs D:725 P:631 P:631) 8 bludgeon damage - (right leg)

Real dodge roll was: 273 with improved dodge.
kick (=) (M:725 vs D:725 P:631 P:631) Parried!

Real dodge roll was: 759 with improved dodge.
fist (=) (M:725 vs D:725 P:631 P:631) Dodged!

Real dodge roll was: 470 with improved dodge.
kick (=) (M:725 vs D:725 P:631 P:631) 6 bludgeon damage - (left arm)

Real dodge roll was: 664 with improved dodge.
fist (=) (M:725 vs D:725 P:631 P:631) Dodged!

Real dodge roll was: 428 with improved dodge.
knee (=) (M:725 vs D:725 P:631 P:631) 13 bludgeon damage - (right hand)

Real dodge roll was: 129 with improved dodge.
headbutt (=) (M:725 vs D:725 P:631 P:631) Dodged!

So yes, Mr. Dummy had some unlucky rolls, but as you can see, it's possible to roll quite a bit over your maximum dodge with the ability. The more you have, the higher the bonus as well. Here are some exceptional dodges from the same dummy after I buffed it's dodge skill up to 1200:

Real dodge roll was: 1759 with improved dodge.
fist (-----) (M:725 vs D:1425 P:631 P:631) Dodged!

Real dodge roll was: 2095 with improved dodge.
elbow (-----) (M:725 vs D:1425 P:631 P:631) Dodged!

Real dodge roll was: 1540 with improved dodge.
knee (-----) (M:725 vs D:1425 P:631 P:631) Dodged!

Real dodge roll was: 2376 with improved dodge.
knee (-----) (M:725 vs D:1425 P:631 P:631) Dodged!

Real dodge roll was: 1824 with improved dodge.
fist (-----) (M:725 vs D:1425 P:631 P:631) Dodged!

[Acarin]

OK... that's nifty... comment about improved dodge giving an unknown benefit retracted....