As you will see in the video below when a player has both barkshield and Spiked, the 2nd buff from the gloves (+x% damage) won't activate until barkshield stacks are consumed. That causes the gloves to not function as intended, as in many cases the player can stay in a prolonged period with the reduced damage only and never activate the damage buff which is the main reason many players want those gloves.
In the short video below you can see me entering combat with 5 stacks already active from spiked gloves, and even tho I get hit from mobs several times the defense buff remains while bark shield icon is on. After the barkshield stacks are consumed it functions properly and switched to damage buff.
Here for any additional information you might need and thank you for your time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CljtSJtyBU&feature=youtu.be
Comments
First, the gloves work as indented with Paladin blue shield and yellow temp hp so it's not a general issue with shielding. It only gets affected by barkshield which absorbs damage for you and it's a different function than shields.
Second, the glove description says "when you are struck" and not "when you take direct damage" or anything else that would indicate it should work differently.
Keep in mind we are talking about the spiked defender and not the shielded defender which have the opposite function which I assume is needed for tanks.
If it works different way than you wish, it still can be the intended behaviour.
edit: "Whenever someone attempts to deal damage to you one charge of Bolstered Bark is consumed." See the wording?
Either the gloves have to be consistent with other shields and temp hp too (Paladin DC etc) and not ONLY the barkshield enchant, or it's not functioning as it should when used with barkshield. It can't be both ways.
Regardless, if the devs say it's working fine the tooltip should change to "when taking actual damage" or something and whoever is using those gloves will use something else.
Either way we will know the truth (hopefully soon)
But hey, that might be a bug as well. I seriously do not usually know what is intended and what is not. Generally it is hard to tell apart a systematic bug from WaI as any logic was lost through the constant evolution. This game has a lot of effects that are not quite as simple and intuitive as one would wish.
As to what is indented, yes there are some cases that no one can be 100% sure apart from the developer that created the "function" as to how it should perform or not, but in several cases we can apply common sense and reasoning as to how some things should function, and so when an item states "when you get struck" it doesn't mean "when you get damaged", and tho the two can be considered as cause and effect they are not the same.
Barkshield prevents me from getting damaged (losing hp) and not from getting hit and so it should not be a condition (and actually the only condition at least as far as my limited testing goes) for the gloves to be activated or not. If the gloves had issues with other temp hp and shields too I would consider it as intended function but still would ask here nevertheless if it should change or if it was an oversite.
Regardless, the topic is only about the gloves / barkshield interaction and not about intentions so I think it's best to stay in topic.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
we just ask for an answer, if this disturb you so much, use YOUR LOGIC and just don't read
It does work independently from battle, as the stacks start to accumulate when it is equipped, not when you enter battle or get hit. You also do not need to expend ALL the charges, simply take any amount of dmg over what the barkshield can absorb in a hit(I do this all-the-time as a barbarian with bloodletter).
The reason no one from the dev team is answering is that it is working as intended from their perspective. That being said, a response would be nice, just to have it on the record and not have to have this conversation again.
I think the damage to be absorbed by Bark and not activate would go against the tooltips of the items.