I think a 20% nerf to skill damage is perfectly reasonable. Skills shouldn't hit extremely hard, be aoe, and CC the mobs for 1ap(cough, battering ram).
Good to see that error3 and me aren't the only ones smelling cheese there.
I just think it's important to remember that melee should be stronger than magic or it becomes pointless. It's already easy enough to just teleport mobs into elemental fields and watch them die, with no risk to your party. If you can't solo as a melee character, what good is it?
While I tend to agree here, the current issue is that warfare abilities are 88mm flaks in the convenient form of a button. As it is, melee is indeed stronger than casting both in terms of AP costs and sheer damage, and it is totally broken.
As per the teleporting enemies into elemental fields, Phoenix Dive can be horrendously broken if an oil barrel happens to be nearby your targets. An exploit I use with Phoenix Dive:
1 - Pick up an oil barrel whenever you see one and keep it in your inventory
2 - The moment a fight begins, have your character with the highest initiative place 1-2 barrels on the ground and telekinesis them nearby the foe
3 - Warrior's turn: phoenix dive nearby the barrels
4 - If it doesn't make any enemy nearby the barrel suffer from critical existence failure (which happens 95% of the time), it still removes almost all of their health in just one turn.
5 - Enjoy your 2 turns of fire invulnerability, plus a teleport effect to boot.
Almost all of my fights have been won just by using this strategy, bar Alexander and the jester in Braccus' vault.
