ToBF - beef it up or throw it out? (in General)

The CoBF was one of the most interesting items in CB1 when it was introduced. And that continued into CB2. The change/nerf of it into the ToBF should have been a good thing, seeing how it lost all the penalties the Cloak had. Plenty of people have listed what's wrong with it, so I won't bother with that here.

I'd like to see it buffed up some - remove it's FB reduction perhaps in favour of more damage output? Maybe give some bonus to st/dx/UC to give that UC a boost?

It has the potential to fit into so many different strats but it would do nothing but bring down most of them, . If it performs as badly as it does in comparison to other tattoos, is there much point to it anymore?

Or is it that other tattoos are just that bit more overpowered than they should be? Perhaps that's the real question I should be asking?

One mans buff is the next mans nerf...

But the ToBF needs something.

One of the biggest bonuses with the Cloak version was you could wear it with a MgS. You can't now.

the FB reduction sucks eggs anyway

I'd like to see Evasion stacking fixed, so that the ToBF + Db's and evasion could become the flying wall that could make things a lot more interesting, I'd use one in front of a FB mage assuming FB prot wasn't removed

Throw it out.

Or, bring back the CoBF ;)

Novice, the Evasion from the ToBF stacks fine with a pair of DB s. It's just they don't stack with the skill. :(

It's the skill that's redundant and should be buffed.

While we're at it, BL needs to be nerfed. It's too good as it is. Double weapon damage for only 1/4 Strength in XP.

I think it could be interesting if the ToBF blocked or reduced the damage from one round of ranged. I was just thinking that a halo of fire hot enough to damage an opponent might be able to burn up an arrow or melt some bolts. This could tweak the ToBF without completely changing it, especially since the amount of reduction could change based on level.

Give Archery it's ranged damage bonus back and make the ToBF reduce ranged damage?

I think the concept is sound. The main complaint I hear is that it is underpowered. So the best solution would be to change the formulas for damage resisted and dealt.

Since mages have a weakness in AMS, it would be nice if the ToBF was a real weakness for meleeists.

My experience with the ToBF (lvl 720 to 492K) makes me think that it needs to have something done with it, though I'm not sure what. As it is, it only works effectively for one or two strategies.

LOL Unica, maybe you might want to find out if the one and two strategies you talked about can do much better with other tattoos. Even ROE can do you better than ToBF :P