@enochvey:I believe there are less than a handful of rentable dam reduction gear and none that are nearly as easy load as that set. I don't think 15% dam reduction on any set is balanced comparably to elite tier dam reduc, although it does address the intended purpose of the class.
I can't speak for this wipe, but last wipe there were 2 sets of gear that I know of which had a limit dam bonus. This was in addition to the less than a handful of single items that gave the same bonus. Yes, the unavoidable fights were/are significantly harder than the bare minimum of what must be done to load the barb set, but they also didn't have the 2x rng issue I spoke of earlier after the fights were done.
Keep in mind, my perception of the difficulty involved in this is based at least in part on the fact that, I am still learning the faster way to check the barb load. Currently, I have to face smash my way though most of the zone on my own to even check the load. This is not easy on a barb, and takes a significant amount of time for someone who only plays that class. As you know, the zone itself offers little else for a larger group to come in and take the same face-smashing path, so if I want this set, I have to do it on my own, or find people willing to sell me the items! My perception may change some once I learn the faster way, and don't have to spend as much time checking for each chance to fail 5 out of 6 turn-ins if looking for the limited item.
Now before the idea of making a thief or another character to check the load easier comes up, I will pre-emptively say that it makes little to no sense that a person should be required to use one class to load an item for another class set. Ideally, the whole solo load thing would involve some sort of barb-only access thing and require the barb to have decent gear/ranks beforehand. Sort of like neraka arena, but barb-only access and balanced in relation to the value of the set. Sort of like omen for shamans, but not requiring the prep beforehand since omen doesn't decay once you get it :P
I agree that rentable dmg reduction wasn't easy to come by before those two sets I spoke of, but even with those two sets only two more people in the entire mud were able to get it. Now, at least one of those sets has been deactivated, and the other I have not been able to check yet, but I am assuming it has been deactivated as well. We didn't have a bunch of tanks rolling around last wipe with limit dam gear because of those sets, and now at least one of those limit dam sets is gone.
Adding limit dam to one class set, with a limit 1-2 chokepoint, is going to produce about the same number of limit dam tanks as the now deactivated set(s) had brought into the game before. Now adding limit dam to all tank, or potentially tank class sets yeah, I can see how that could overflow the mud with near-invincible tanks and devalue single, or even multiple ellite tanking items.
But as it stands, the only two classes I see right now that putting the limit dam on makese sense with are paladins and barbs. Paladins got it, and while I'm sure there is some reason, or several reasons why it wasn't included on the barb set, I guess I just disagree that 1-2 more limit dam barbs on the mud (even when/if not me) is going to break things.
