Stances

Can someone clarify exactly what a stance is. Is it just another name of an ability like hex, spell and signet? Does it have any restrictions specific to it being a stance ... for instance signet's take no energy.

Thank you



- Iczer

In this game, the generic name for the kinds of things you're refering to here are "skills", and yes, stances are another kind of skill, like a spell, enchantment, signet, etc.

Stances are ongoing effects, similar to hexes or enchantments in that regard. However, you can only have one stance at a time, activating a second cancels the first (like preparations in that regard).

Frequently they have some cool effect, but alas, frequently they have a recharge time so long that they aren't worth a skill slot for some tiny period of cool effect, IMHO. (I believe this is was Sausy refers to as a skill's efficiency. The efficiency of most stances bites the wax tadpole.) There are notable expections, however...

Isn't it like where its an actual stance your character performs and it like has some effect on you or your party or whatever?

Awesome info, Thank you.

- Iczer

Of course.

That's about it, yep. You only get one stance, using one stance then another replaces the former stance with the later. A stance is generally a defensive buff (although some have some offensive uses or side-effects or affect your character in some other way, like Frenzy or Mantra of Inscriptions or things like that.). And they're just another type of skill. The only thing you didn't mention is that a stance is self-cast only. Unlike an enchantment you can't use it on another teammate, just on yourself. Oh, and they have instant casting times.

Yep, that's efficiency. The amount of time you get the benefit of a skill divided by the amount of time it takes to get that benefit again. Or simply, duration over recycle time. For a damage dealing spell or a heal, it's not all that important. But for an enchantment or another buff it can be critical. The closer to 100%, the better, because that means you can have that helpful bonus running constantly. Anything over 100% means you don't need to cast it as often as you can - as long as it's only on a single target, of course. Efficiency isn't always the best measure of things. Something like Reversal of Fortune or Ether Renewal has awful efficiency but the benefit you get over that brief amount of time makes them worth it. But, for skills that would cause healing on damage or add AL or cause you to steal your enemy's energy when you cast, the longer you have that effect, the better. The higher a duration, the more benefit you'll gain, the less energy you'll spend for that benefit, and so on and so on, so a skill that gets a longer duration gets more "efficient", by and large.

Note this also holds true for hexes, conditions, and other debuffs, too. It's just you want that harmful effect on your enemy as long as possible. It's a rough measure and an inexact one, but it does help point to how useful a particular duration-based skill can be over time.