First off I do need to preface this that I'm far from an expert in the meta of Alb small and 8 man group makeup as these are just my thoughts of a mid player rolling a friar for fun.
I originally rolled a friar because I thought it was an interesting class and because I was surprised at how few high RR friars existed on the server. After I got to 50 I soon found out why. As many people on Alb are aware I'm sure, anything a friar does can be done better by another class. Clerics provide as good or better buffs and healing while armsman provide as good or better damage and peeling ability. This isn't a post about me complaining about not getting into groups because I fully understand why a friar would be passed over, it makes sense. Rather it just feels to me that in the context of small and group rvr the friar needs some love or to put it differently the friar needs a proper reason to be considered as a viable alternative to a normal alb group makeup.
Problem: Highly desirable 8 second stun (Stunning Wrath) is at the end of a 3 style chain.
It's hard enough to hit the second style in a chain no to mention the third. I feel like this style is really basically wasted but it has a lot of potential to increase desirability of a friar.
Suggested Solution:
I'd suggest that this style, Stunning Wrath, be instead the followup to "Holy Staff", the back positional snare. That way, while not as good as slam, this still provides friar's with more utility and more to bring to the table for alb groups. It effectively changes a style from being a "dead" style to one that's widely used in the right situations. Also, in situations where this style chain is initiated, presumably peeling a tank, the friar would have a high chance of getting off the second style, especially with a fast 3.0 staff.
Problem: Evade follow-ups have a lower growth rate than the opener even though they are harder to hit
Current:
Note that this is the same pattern with "Counter Evade" and "Friars fury" except the GR for counter evade is .94 while the GR for Friar's fury is .88.
Suggested Solution:
I'd advocate to bump the GR values for these followups to reward landing them. Such as something along the lines of .95 for Friar's ally and 1.0 for Friar's fury (both up from .88).
The last thing I would suggest would be to look into bumping the overall damage for the friar positional styles. As the class is a hybrid healer I wouldn't say it should be to the level of a zerk, savage or valewalker (roughly 1.2 to 1.4 growth rate) but I think it would be reasonable to bump those to around .9 for the positional opener (from .7) and around 1.0 for followups. The idea behind this would be that while the tanks of albion are tougher and provide great peeling, a friar would provide the group with a "tank" that sacrifices toughness for some decent peeling and acceptable damage.
I originally rolled a friar because I thought it was an interesting class and because I was surprised at how few high RR friars existed on the server. After I got to 50 I soon found out why. As many people on Alb are aware I'm sure, anything a friar does can be done better by another class. Clerics provide as good or better buffs and healing while armsman provide as good or better damage and peeling ability. This isn't a post about me complaining about not getting into groups because I fully understand why a friar would be passed over, it makes sense. Rather it just feels to me that in the context of small and group rvr the friar needs some love or to put it differently the friar needs a proper reason to be considered as a viable alternative to a normal alb group makeup.
Problem: Highly desirable 8 second stun (Stunning Wrath) is at the end of a 3 style chain.
It's hard enough to hit the second style in a chain no to mention the third. I feel like this style is really basically wasted but it has a lot of potential to increase desirability of a friar.
Suggested Solution:
I'd suggest that this style, Stunning Wrath, be instead the followup to "Holy Staff", the back positional snare. That way, while not as good as slam, this still provides friar's with more utility and more to bring to the table for alb groups. It effectively changes a style from being a "dead" style to one that's widely used in the right situations. Also, in situations where this style chain is initiated, presumably peeling a tank, the friar would have a high chance of getting off the second style, especially with a fast 3.0 staff.
Problem: Evade follow-ups have a lower growth rate than the opener even though they are harder to hit
Current:
Figure Eight
After Evade
.9 growth rate
Friar's Ally
After Figure Eight
.88 growth rate
Note that this is the same pattern with "Counter Evade" and "Friars fury" except the GR for counter evade is .94 while the GR for Friar's fury is .88.
Suggested Solution:
I'd advocate to bump the GR values for these followups to reward landing them. Such as something along the lines of .95 for Friar's ally and 1.0 for Friar's fury (both up from .88).
The last thing I would suggest would be to look into bumping the overall damage for the friar positional styles. As the class is a hybrid healer I wouldn't say it should be to the level of a zerk, savage or valewalker (roughly 1.2 to 1.4 growth rate) but I think it would be reasonable to bump those to around .9 for the positional opener (from .7) and around 1.0 for followups. The idea behind this would be that while the tanks of albion are tougher and provide great peeling, a friar would provide the group with a "tank" that sacrifices toughness for some decent peeling and acceptable damage.