Three turns net duration is, as politely as I can say it, absolutely absurd. Especially if a player or enemy has enough MP to spam it. Shield bash is also overpowered. It provides better than weapon damage + a multi turn block buff EVEN if it misses. It should do one of damage OR block buff, not both, and absolutely nothing if it misses.
The stress dynamic is stringent enough without the constant failures at jobs. For giggles I did 50 weeks straight on Hunting and I think I succeeded MAYBE 10% of the time. (with 400 learning going in)
I wish there was a viable strategy against the Roman contender shield wall of invincibility cheat mode. Like maybe the loss of all defense buffs if the shield bash misses? Or shield durability? Or a fixed number of blocks per combat? Or the blocker must pick one body part per round to defend? Or maybe shield bash prohibits blocking instead of buffing it? Something... anything!!
Tebuilt my crew to have mostly dex and I've just finished 5 Roman contender fights in a row. In 5 fights, not one single damage dealing blow against a shield shield basher. Triple digit dex. NOT ONE HIT in FIVE fights. Block is a cheap I WIN button for the AI.
New experiment: rebuild all your characters, dump every point into defense, and every skill point into the defensive tree. Max defense boost, retaliation, and regeneration. Then do NOTHING but block. It might take longer, but unless AI has been coded with an advantage, I suspect its a veerrrrrrryyyyy slooowwwww I WIN button.
It COULD be an anomaly, but I'm now up to 55 Lama fights where I placed Max bets on. The first 40 I bet on Holy and lost every time (40 unholy lama wins in a row). I then bet 15 straight on Holy and lost every match (15 holy lama wins in a row).
Whoever said Holy Lama has an 80% advantage over Unholy was smoking something. In about 100 tests I'm round about 50/50. My dubious statistical anomaly is that I lost on every single match that I bet on (approximately 25% of the matches)
I still think railgun needs either increased fire rate, shorter reload time, or a bigger magazine, or a combination of all three. Its a curse later in the game.
itsmybirthday... use "Letter F". He's the dude in the old fashioned big wheel bike. It naturally tries to fall backward so its easier to pull off long front wheelies.