Don't Ghost Me, Bro!

I know, I know. This should be in bug reports. I'm going for exposure.. OK?

So, I have long been frustrated with Ghost of Jacob Marley's passive because of the fact that it Ghosts your guys "if they would die." I thought I could double-dip on the survival skills and play Jacob alongside a Forge set. If your toon reaches 1, Forge should trigger. Right? Your toon "wouldn't die," because it would still be at 1 HP. That's not dead!

In practice, this beautiful logic went to pieces. At least half the time (or more often...) my Forge set would fail to trigger alongside Jacob... Jacob would trigger instead and my guys would get Ghosted instead of receiving a Perfect Health Shield.

That's grievance #1.

Ok, so shiny new red Ed: Navigator. I went for him. Because, why not?

Navigator has this skill where when he gets to 1 HP he gets Ghosted and revives your amigos de la arma. I'm not about to play him with Forge (burn me once...), but I did think I'd give him a whirl vrs. Baphomet alongside a blocker. So here is my Navigator, I've got a toon with Nifs, and sitting right next to Navigator is a near-full-health Gunner Pharaoh Dog King with no PD showing (PD should be impossible, anyway) and also like a myriad of buffs. A METRIC myriad. And Navigator... GETS GHOSTED.

What the what? How did my Navigator "get to 1" if damage "that would reduce his health below 50%" should be soaked up by my Dog King? Alternative question, what is the point of the "revive your friends" clause of Navigator's passive if he allows himself to be Ghosted willy-nilly while his friends are still alive? It seems to me that LoTB is a Ghost-happy game, and somehow the ability to get closer to permanent death is getting preferential treatment by the code. (Navigator is seen as about to be killed.. game is like, "better Ghost him so he doesn't die!" And THEN Dog King's passive is seen, but it's too late? Maybe?)

I don't really know what I'm saying with that last sentence. But I will close with a repeat of my original sentiment:

Don't ghost me, bro!!

The "when your toon reaches 1 HP" is supposed to only trigger once per battle (maybe, could also reset on revives but that's unclear if that's bugged or intended behaviour) so double dipping with Forge means you would just get a perfect health shield while ghosted (which seems pointless as health is irrelevant while ghosted). The damage reduction of forge is still a nice thing to have before that though.

As for the fight against baph, I can't say what's happening there as I don't have blackbeard yet and I mostly just auto pilot with my proven teams and I have enough of those that I burn through all of my SoB with no need to build new teams.

The Forge trigger doesn’t go off at all with Jacob in my experience. There is no Shield, and no stopping at 1 health.

And, I disagree. Forge is supposed to stop you from dying at 1 hp; Ghost is supposed to trigger if you would die otherwise. If you’re saved from dying at 1 HP, you haven’t died and “wouldn’t die.” This is what should happen:

1) Health dips to 1 HP. Forge triggers, you get a Perfect Health Shield.
2) The next attack heals you, your health goes up.
3) Presumably, your opponent finds a way to remove the Shield. Your health dips again.
4) Instead of dying, Jacob full heals you and applies Ghost.

This is what actually happens:

1) Jacob full heals you and applies Ghost. Forge is never triggered.

Incidentally, I also have no need to build new teams ^^. But I do get enjoyment from tinkering. The fact that I have teams that work that I’m not using is neither here nor there.

This happens with the magus Valhalla maiden too. By the description of her passive, it looks like she grants innate soul protect to all allies. It triggers before forge does and she has been useless to me because of that.

Kudos on the Maiden already. I have not been so patient (or is it, so aggressive?).

But, yes: thank you! I have long been wary of Forge and Ghost effects. However, I never expected Ghost to trigger before Blocking. When that happened, I knew it was time to say something.

Could we also agree that Ghost itself is an outdated Buff and needs a rework? or even could be eliminated? As soon as I read the Navigator max passive I got disappointed by Ghost triggering effect.

I almost passed on Navigator for that same reason! Figured he could be played with Yggs or Blockers or Yggs and Blockers for some utility. Alas...

Soul Protect also spoils The Alchemist’s fury.

Ghost and dark ghost never seem to work right for me anyways so I'm all for a revamp/elimination. I actively avoid toons that use them.

Next skills to come:

1. revive allies from ghost
2. ultimate ghost (can't be revived)
3. talisman with disable ultimate-ghost or immune to ultimate-ghost
4. cosmic talisman with transform all ghost effects into perfect health

Ultimate Ghost? Is that like the difference between Nearly Headless Nick and Sir Patrick Delaney-Podmore?