Maybe I haven't played enough, but when I see that my Highwayman's self-buff (Take Aim) is like +5 ACC and +5% CRT... that's just pure shit. How could that possibly be worth it compared to doing damage or killing off an opponent.
And yeah, I'm more talking about the self-buffs and -ACC debuffs for opponents. Status effects like Stun/Bleed/Blight are great.
Ah, so it's just you not understanding the full scope of the mechanics, perhaps, especially about +crit. Allow me to explain a few things, using the highwayman as an example:
1. First off, I'll admit that buffs and debuffs start off on the weak side, but so does everything else in terms of Rank 0 skills. Everything has a low Accuracy, low healing, low buff/debuff rates. Get a few ranks into those skills and they suddenly become game changing.
2.. Take Aim grows in power as you rank it up - at Rank 4 (what my one and only Highwayman is sitting at right now for the skill) it does +7 Acc and +8 Crit%, now you may look at that and say, "it's pure shit", but when you use that in conjunction with the Jester (at a similar Rank of +4 for Battle Ballad) which will do +3 speed, +6 Acc, +5 crit, suddenly your Highwayman (in a single round) has +13 Acc, +14 crit%, and +3 speed. Throw down another layer (since everything stacks) of Battle Ballad, and that's now +19 Acc, +20% crit, and +6 speed on the second round.
20% crit in two rounds (without a second application of Take Aim).
"Pure shit". Mmhmm.
3.. As your light burns low, your chance to loot increases but so does your chance to critically hit, so couple that with the already high increase in critical hit at Rank 4, and any additional +critical hit chance trinkets you find, suddenly you've got a fairly high critical hit chance.
4. Dishing out a critical hit will reduce stress on your party (vice versa, receiving crits increases stress), so a higher crit chance = higher chance of reducing stress.
5. Higher accuracy + higher crit rate = reduce monsters to nothing really quickly. I've had battles last an additional round, sometimes max two after just a single round of buffs.
You really want to see what a badass damage dealer can do with buffs? Get a Hellion in your party, teach her Adrenaline Rush (+dmg%, +accuracy, cure bleed/poison), buff the shit out of her with the Jester's Battle Ballad, and find her Hell's Hairpin (+15% dmg, +5% crit). Get a Vestal to reduce enemy dodge with Illumination (starts at -20 dodge, goes to -30 dodge), and watch as your Hellion never misses and crits a 1/3 of the time.
Low light, high ranked skill runs are the fucking
best!
And remember, everything stacks. EVERYTHING = DoTs, buffs, AND debuffs.
) to watch.
