So...... What was once one of my favorite Exotics, a niche Exotic, a strategic Exotic, a roleplay Exotic, a balanced Exotic- has effectively broken the game thanks to the pairings with Praxic Blade (which is far more problematic than S-Holds, and is arguably the single strongest Exotic we've ever seen). I really struggle to care for Strongholds anymore, given how abused and widespread it has become. The niche it once fulfilled has been blown wide open, thanks to Prismatic and Praxic Blade breaking the game. So here's a quick thought on rebalancing this Exotic Armor piece- Simply put, the Exotic [b]drains[/b] Sword Ammo when blocking. The excuse? It is converting it's own energy into Restoration. This would quickly bring this Exotic in line, reduce the skill floor and increase the ceiling simultaneously. The older iterations of Strongholds actually demanded timing with blocking to actually harbor any benefits from it. This effectively prevents infinity blocking through activities. If one wanted to take it a step further, [i]Perfect Guard[/i] could be placed on a rather aggressive timer, more akin to OG Strongholds. This would once again increase the demand for proper timing and not infinity blocking. Just some quick thoughts on this Monday.......