In the new Java Prerelease Canidate, Fire Protection and Blast Protection have been nerfed, which is a bit rediculous. On Java Edition, the maximum effectiveness of Fire Protection for FireTick Damage reduction is capped at 60%, whereas on Bedrock Edition, there is no cap, meaning you can hit 100% With an instance of Fire Protection IV and an instance of Fire Protection III. Also on Bedrock Edition, Burning Time is 7 instances of Firetick damage by default where it is 15 on Java, meaning you take upto twice as much damage, bear this in mind.
Prior to the Prelease Canidate on Java Edition, one stack of Fire Protection IV would hit the FireTick Damage reduction cap of 60%. With this Prelease it is now required for you to wear four instances of Fire Protection IV to hit the cap of 60% on Java Edition instead of one due to the nerf, this was proven by Youtuber Phoenix SC
This is one of them instances where Mojang had a choice, to either have Bedrock Parity and buff Fire Protection by removing the cap to have 100% Firetick Damage resistance with two stacks of Fire Protection IV; or nerf it as well as Blast Protection into the ground, making Fire Protection and Blast Protection, just like Projectile Protection a situational enchantment, and making four stacks of Protection IV the only useful option (Making Protection IV even more so powerful), and they chose to nerf the enchants.Yet another game nerf that makes literally no sense.
Having one piece of Fire Protection IV (otherwise Protection IV) does still reduce fire damage by 80% instead of the maximum of 64% from four pieces of Protection, which is a major difference (you take 20% vs 36% of damage, a difference of 1.8-fold. Prior to 1.9 the difference was a lot less since reaching the max EPF for a specialized form of Protection only increased the minimum randomized protection from 40% to 52% (both up to 80%); that is to say, in 1.6.4 you are only guaranteed to survive a 44 block fall (52%) while since 1.9 you can consistently survive 103 blocks (80%), and 58 blocks in full Protection IV. Similar differences apply to fire damage, and just being on fire isn't really that bad when not only does the damage get reduced by even regular Protection but you can far out-regenerate it - try playing in 1.6.4 where you barely regenerate at all; one major takeaway I get from watching other play on my mod (which doesn't alter any of these mechanics) is just how much harder the old food regeneration system makes the game compared to modern versions, of course, I've never played newer versions so I'm used to it).
Of course, potions of Fire Resistance make the existence of Fire Protection a moot point as they confer total immunity to fire (if anything were being nerfed it would be them yet they have only buffed them over the years, e.g. increasing visibility in lava) and I've never intentionally used any specialized form of Protection aside from Feather Falling, the only one which is compatible with Protection, even going so far as to reject the "junk" helmets (mob drops) I enchant for 1 level if they get something else (or were already enchanted).
I even buffed them themself by making Protection IV reduce damage by a fixed 60% (which is a bit worse than the average of 40-80%, which is closer to 1.9's 64% since effective protection is nonlinear) and specialized enchantments reduce damage by 75% (close to the average of 52-80%, which is actually 52-100% before being capped, the major change being the much higher minimum), and reducing the per-level cost of Blast Protection from 4 to 2, or from 16 to 8 for level IV (this cost is added to the cost to perform any anvil operation, including repairs, so it has a major impact, precluding the ability to indefinitely repair more highly enchanted items), and fixed a bug with the knockback reduction (before Mojang fixed it in 1.19.4).
In the new Java Prerelease Canidate, Fire Protection and Blast Protection have been nerfed, which is a bit rediculous. On Java Edition, the maximum effectiveness of Fire Protection for FireTick Damage reduction is capped at 60%, whereas on Bedrock Edition, there is no cap, meaning you can hit 100% With an instance of Fire Protection IV and an instance of Fire Protection III. Also on Bedrock Edition, Burning Time is 7 instances of Firetick damage by default where it is 15 on Java, meaning you take upto twice as much damage, bear this in mind.
Prior to the Prelease Canidate on Java Edition, one stack of Fire Protection IV would hit the FireTick Damage reduction cap of 60%. With this Prelease it is now required for you to wear four instances of Fire Protection IV to hit the cap of 60% on Java Edition instead of one due to the nerf, this was proven by Youtuber Phoenix SC
This is one of them instances where Mojang had a choice, to either have Bedrock Parity and buff Fire Protection by removing the cap to have 100% Firetick Damage resistance with two stacks of Fire Protection IV; or nerf it as well as Blast Protection into the ground, making Fire Protection and Blast Protection, just like Projectile Protection a situational enchantment, and making four stacks of Protection IV the only useful option (Making Protection IV even more so powerful), and they chose to nerf the enchants.Yet another game nerf that makes literally no sense.
That makes fire resistance potions more useful than ever then. It's unlikely that a player will enchant all their armor pieces with Fire Protection as this means no extra protection from other common sources of damage which cannot be reduced or negated without potions, so this enchantment will be borderline pointless. If Fire Protection was not mutually exclusive with Protection (like Feather Falling, which specifically reduces fall damage), then a nerf like this would make some sense.
A helmet enchanted with Blast Protection used to be a great idea as damage from creeper explosions will be greatly reduced, but since that reduction is essentially nerfed, Protection is definitely the way to go.
A helmet enchanted with Blast Protection used to be a great idea as damage from creeper explosions will be greatly reduced, but since that reduction is essentially nerfed, Protection is definitely the way to go.
As far as I can tell, Blast Protection still is very useful - again, the only way to reach the maximum of 80% damage reduction is to use a specialized form of Protection and there is a HUGE difference (nearly 2-fold) between the maximum of 64% from regular Protection and 80% from the others and all they nerfed was their side-effects of reduced burn time and knockback (I haven't seen anything to indicate that they now only reduce damage by up to 64% / 16 EPF instead of 80% / 20 EPF).
For another example of how useful the specialized Protection enchantments are, a creeper deals up to 64 damage on Hard; this will penetrate diamond armor to the maximum of 80% of original armor points (64 / (2 + totalToughness / 4) = -16 armor points), so armor itself only reduces damage by 16%; full Protection IV increases this to about 70%, with 19.2 damage taken. With one piece changed to Blast Protection IV the damage reduction is increased to 83.2% and you take 10.75 damage, and you might take another point or two of damage from fall damage (as noted in a comment on this bug report they barely survived in full Protection IV but died from fall damage, remember that only until very recently (1.19.4) Blast Protection had no effect at all on knockback (while only reported since 1.16 this bug had been present since it was added*), yet many players still used it due to its direct protective effects.
*Source code from 1.6.4; the bug is that they handle the reduction as an integer, rounded down; it can only ever reach 1 if the level of Blast Protection is 7 or more (par1 is the proximity to the explosion, as well as how much knockback is applied, and ranges from 0-1):
public static double func_92092_a(Entity par0Entity, double par1)
{
int var3 = EnchantmentHelper.getMaxEnchantmentLevel(Enchantment.blastProtection.effectId, par0Entity.getLastActiveItems());
if (var3 > 0) par1 -= (double)MathHelper.floor_double(par1 * (double)((float)var3 * 0.15F));
return par1;
}
This shows the proper (and much simpler and easier to read) way to calculate it (I still only check the max level on any single piece but I could easily replace "getMaxEnchantmentLevel" with a method that returns the sum of all pieces and clamp it to 4, then e.g. 2x Blast Protection II would be the same as 1x Blast Protection IV; Mojang instead changed the factor from 0.15 to 0.0375):
public double applyBlastProtectionModifier(double knockback)
{
int level = CustomEnchantmentHelper.getMaxEnchantmentLevel(Enchantment.blastProtection, this.getLastActiveItems());
return knockback - knockback * (double)level * 0.15D;
}
One of the features I loved about Minecraft bedrock edition is you could nullify fire status effect near instantly if you had two armour plates with Fire Protection 4 on, in addition to eliminating the status effect so quickly, it would mean fire would not block your view as soon as you moved away from a heat source.
This increased incentives to use Fire Protection over the other Protection types. While I am not knocking the benefits of Protection IV, the problem with Protection IV is it is a jack of all trades and master of none, which may not provide as much protection as the other ones in some instances, but this made sense. On Java we don't have these benefits, which is why I don't use more than one armour plate with Fire Protection 4. Why would I bother when Fire Resistance potions grant immunity to fire anyway?
I think the game needs to go in the direction of increasing utility of the different protection types, so people don't just throw the same enchantments on every armour plate. It encourages understanding of the benefits and cons of each enchantment type and learning strategic gameplay.
Having one piece of Fire Protection IV (otherwise Protection IV) does still reduce fire damage by 80% instead of the maximum of 64% from four pieces of Protection, which is a major difference (you take 20% vs 36% of damage, a difference of 1.8-fold. Prior to 1.9 the difference was a lot less since reaching the max EPF for a specialized form of Protection only increased the minimum randomized protection from 40% to 52% (both up to 80%); that is to say, in 1.6.4 you are only guaranteed to survive a 44 block fall (52%) while since 1.9 you can consistently survive 103 blocks (80%), and 58 blocks in full Protection IV. Similar differences apply to fire damage, and just being on fire isn't really that bad when not only does the damage get reduced by even regular Protection but you can far out-regenerate it - try playing in 1.6.4 where you barely regenerate at all; one major takeaway I get from watching other play on my mod (which doesn't alter any of these mechanics) is just how much harder the old food regeneration system makes the game compared to modern versions, of course, I've never played newer versions so I'm used to it).
Of course, potions of Fire Resistance make the existence of Fire Protection a moot point as they confer total immunity to fire (if anything were being nerfed it would be them yet they have only buffed them over the years, e.g. increasing visibility in lava) and I've never intentionally used any specialized form of Protection aside from Feather Falling, the only one which is compatible with Protection, even going so far as to reject the "junk" helmets (mob drops) I enchant for 1 level if they get something else (or were already enchanted).
I even buffed them themself by making Protection IV reduce damage by a fixed 60% (which is a bit worse than the average of 40-80%, which is closer to 1.9's 64% since effective protection is nonlinear) and specialized enchantments reduce damage by 75% (close to the average of 52-80%, which is actually 52-100% before being capped, the major change being the much higher minimum), and reducing the per-level cost of Blast Protection from 4 to 2, or from 16 to 8 for level IV (this cost is added to the cost to perform any anvil operation, including repairs, so it has a major impact, precluding the ability to indefinitely repair more highly enchanted items), and fixed a bug with the knockback reduction (before Mojang fixed it in 1.19.4).
Here's PhoenixSC's testing with it (). As of 1.21 Pre-release Canidate 4, it takes Four Armor Pieces with Fire Protection IV to get 60% Firetick Damage reduction, instead of one (Which is capped at 60% in current versions of Java). I don't get why Java Edition is having these nerfed this way instead of having Bedrock Parity and removing the 60% Cap.
The problem with Protection IV is it is a jack of all trades and master of none, which may not provide as much protection as the other ones in some instances, but this made sense.
I think the game needs to go in the direction of increasing utility of the different protection types, so people don't just throw the same enchantments on every armour plate. It encourages understanding of the benefits and cons of each enchantment type and learning strategic gameplay.
This, basically this. Instead of nerfing, they should be working on increasing the utility of the other Protection Enchantment types so people don't have the 'Four Stacks of Protection IV or bust' mindset by giving them more utility. Blast Protection on Bedrock Edition does have a cap of 80% reduction of explosive damage compared to Java's current 60% (and soon to basically be 15% per armor piece with Blast Protection IV), and I've tested this cap with four Stacks of Blast Protection IV on Netherite Armor against a Charged Creeper at point blank explosion range. Half a heart of damage, that was it.
I feel Bedrock Edition is showing how said Utility can be implemented and Bedrock Parity should happen on Java with these enchantments instead of having them nerfed into the ground.
Minecraft's enchanting system is not intuitive. Far, far too many games fall for this. I don't know if it's because calculating a balanced and intuitive system is that hard (maybe it is) or because the thought is that "unique and complicated is good and deep". If anything, I'd say that because of how easy many of the caps are to hit, there's almost a "one size fits all" approach to enchanting, and this means any semblance of choice is gone which means this turns from a system of choices into a time sink for a predetermined bonus. So... why does it even exist then?
All that being said, I'm not sure if merely reducing blast protection and fire protection will do much? It comes off like the villager changes; it's a change that could work, but it would need more changes done elsewhere/around it to facilitate it or else it just comes off as a "wait, why?" change. And I'm not sure Mojang is planning to, you know... give the majority/entirety of the game a balance pass. So while these changes certainly aren't going to upset me, I am wondering why they are being done. Neither of them, and one in particular, seem overly broken to me?
Unfortunately, fire protection in particular is destined to be borderline useless as long as fire immunity resistance potions exist as they do.
I don't like how the community seems to get upset at Mojang when they make a change with something that differs between Javva and Bedrock and don't choose the more broken one. Fire protection is borderline useless, yeah, but that doesn't necessarily mean the answer is to buff it. The problem with doing that in this case is that the competition to fire protection is eight minutes of complete damage immunity (to that source). So you'd have to make it compete with that. You can easily get stuck in a feedback loop of always buffing things if you become so resistant to nerfs because you think they are bad just because it's a nerf. A nerf is just a balancing change like a buff is. Whether it goes up or down isn't the most important thing; the important thing is the overall state of the game around it. Don't look at just the tree, look at the whole forest.
Minecraft's enchanting system is not intuitive. Far, far too many games fall for this. I don't know if it's because calculating a balanced and intuitive system is that hard (maybe it is) or because the thought is that "unique and complicated is good and deep". If anything, I'd say that because of how easy many of the caps are to hit, there's almost a "one size fits all" approach to enchanting, and this means any semblance of choice is gone which means this turns from a system of choices into a time sink for a predetermined bonus. So... why does it even exist then?
All that being said, I'm not sure if merely reducing blast protection and fire protection will do much? It comes off like the villager changes; it's a change that could work, but it would need more changes done elsewhere/around it to facilitate it or else it just comes off as a "wait, why?" change. And I'm not sure Mojang is planning to, you know... give the majority/entirety of the game a balance pass. So while these changes certainly aren't going to upset me, I am wondering why they are being done. Neither of them, and one in particular, seem overly broken to me?
Unfortunately, fire protection in particular is destined to be borderline useless as long as fire immunity resistance potions exist as they do.
I don't like how the community seems to get upset at Mojang when they make a change with something that differs between Javva and Bedrock and don't choose the more broken one. Fire protection is borderline useless, yeah, but that doesn't necessarily mean the answer is to buff it. The problem with doing that in this case is that the competition to fire protection is eight minutes of complete damage immunity (to that source). So you'd have to make it compete with that. You can easily get stuck in a feedback loop of always buffing things if you become so resistant to nerfs because you think they are bad just because it's a nerf. A nerf is just a balancing change like a buff is. Whether it goes up or down isn't the most important thing; the important thing is the overall state of the game around it. Don't look at just the tree, look at the whole forest.
Well, it seems the General Majority of the Community has spoken, since said nerfs have been removed in Java 1.21 Release Canidate 1 due to alot of Negative Community Feedback pertaining to them. Seems most of the Community has seen those now redacted nerfs as detrimental to the state of the game around those nerfs and has been incredibly verbal about it. I went as far to send KingBDogz a Tweet about suggesting Bedrock Parity for Java Edition with these enchantments to give them more utility instead.
If they want to rebalance these enchantments, they should have more Combat Tests to tweak them and recieve Community Feedback on them to be honest to see what the community likes and dislikes mostly as a consensus, I believe Jeb had the right idea with that.
Blast Protection on Bedrock Edition does have a cap of 80% reduction of explosive damage compared to Java's current 60% (and soon to basically be 15% per armor piece with Blast Protection IV),
You are misunderstanding things - as far as I've been able to determine there was no change to the actual damage reduction, only the "bonus" side-effects of reduced knockback from explosions and reduced burn time. as mentioned several times before, the knockback reduction of Blast Protection was bugged and never worked at all (with legitimately obtainable armor) until 1.19.4, yet it was often recommended to have it precisely because of the increased damage reduction from explosions (creepers knocking you down to as little as half a heart with only Protection IV, then the fall damage from the knockback finishes you off; even if this was not reduced by Blast Protection, or even increased (though Feather Falling reaches the EPF cap with only 2x Protection IV) you'd take far less damage from the explosion itself).
It'd also be really weird and outright bugged if they actually did cap the EPF to 15 (60%) when wearing Fire or Blast Protection - that would actually give less protection from fire and explosions than full Protection IV (16 EPF / 64%)! The only reason Protection even has a lower "cap" is simply because each piece only provides 4 EPF (Blast/Fire/Projectile Protection have 8 EPF, Feather Falling has 12; only these can reach the actual cap of 20).
Also, Bedrock still use the old armor mechanics from before 1.9, when the maximum randomized protection capped out at 96% with no armor penetration:
This feature is exclusive to Bedrock Edition.
For example, a full suit of diamond armor reduces damage from attacks by 80%—if each piece of armor also had a Protection IV enchantment (EPF 5 each), the enchantments would further reduce damage by 40% to 80% each time, for a total damage reduction of 88% to 96% (i.e., 80%, plus 40%-80% of the remaining 20%).
This also shows just how significant armor penetration even is - the minimum guaranteed protection of 88% in Bedrock is higher than the protection you get with even max protection netherite in Java 1.9+ against a point-blank creeper explosion on Hard (in this case 64 damage is reduced to 7.7 to 2.56 in Bedrock/before 1.9; on Java Edition 1.9+ 64 damage penetrates 12.8 armor points, leaving you with 7.2 (basically leather armor on Bedrock/before 1.9) or 28.8% damage reduction, of which enchantments reduce the 71.2% that gets through by 80% for a total damage reduction of 85.76% or 9.11 damage taken; this represents over 3.5 times less protection in modern Java Edition than the best case in Bedrock/older versions - not to be taken lightly at all, a charged creeper deals twice as much damage, yet you could still take barely half that of a normal creeper in modern JE!).
Also, if you only took half a heart from even a charged creeper then something is wrong with armor on Bedrock, or you were on Easy (they do as much damage as a normal creeper on Normal) or "point blank" meant "walked up to me before stopping and exploding" (my definition is "make a 1x1 hole in the ground and jump in it with the creeper, standing as close to its center as possible"). Another weird quirk is that any non-air non-liquid block, even a block like tall grass or snow layers, negates virtually all explosion damage (I remember summoning a creeper with some crazy high explosion power in 1.7 and I took almost no damage despite exploding next to me and leaving a massive crater because it (or I) was in tall grass, with no armor at all).
Minecraft's enchanting system is not intuitive. Far, far too many games fall for this. I don't know if it's because calculating a balanced and intuitive system is that hard (maybe it is) or because the thought is that "unique and complicated is good and deep". If anything, I'd say that because of how easy many of the caps are to hit, there's almost a "one size fits all" approach to enchanting, and this means any semblance of choice is gone which means this turns from a system of choices into a time sink for a predetermined bonus. So... why does it even exist then?
All that being said, I'm not sure if merely reducing blast protection and fire protection will do much? It comes off like the villager changes; it's a change that could work, but it would need more changes done elsewhere/around it to facilitate it or else it just comes off as a "wait, why?" change. And I'm not sure Mojang is planning to, you know... give the majority/entirety of the game a balance pass. So while these changes certainly aren't going to upset me, I am wondering why they are being done. Neither of them, and one in particular, seem overly broken to me?
Unfortunately, fire protection in particular is destined to be borderline useless as long as fire immunity resistance potions exist as they do.
I don't like how the community seems to get upset at Mojang when they make a change with something that differs between Javva and Bedrock and don't choose the more broken one. Fire protection is borderline useless, yeah, but that doesn't necessarily mean the answer is to buff it. The problem with doing that in this case is that the competition to fire protection is eight minutes of complete damage immunity (to that source). So you'd have to make it compete with that. You can easily get stuck in a feedback loop of always buffing things if you become so resistant to nerfs because you think they are bad just because it's a nerf. A nerf is just a balancing change like a buff is. Whether it goes up or down isn't the most important thing; the important thing is the overall state of the game around it. Don't look at just the tree, look at the whole forest.
I see where your issue with Potion of Fire resistance potion immunity comes from, it is true it lessens the utility of the Fire Protection 4 enchantment when fire immunity negates having to bother with that enchantment type, the problem is how do we fix this while not making the potion itself too weak?
Potion of Slow Falling is arguably just as powerful as Fire Resistance Potion is, because Slow Falling negates fall damage, not partially, but it does it completely until the effect ends.
But I don't see the same controversies about this potion being brought up, as using the same logic, Feather Falling IV has less utility as a result of Slow Falling. Phantom Membranes are not exactly difficult to farm, all you need is the insomnia effect and sky light requirements met, and you're good to go just as long as you were in the Overworld with difficulty set above peaceful.
If Slow Falling retained at least some of the fall damage, then there would be an inherent danger in not using Feather Falling IV on boots still.
I actually intend on building a Phantom Membrane farm out of some platforms on the final design of my castle build,
which I will be posting screenshots about. In hindsight I do see the ridiculousness in how beneficial slow falling is,
I would've been just as happy in not using slow falling potions for the build, I have not had to use even one potion for my castle yet,
and this is because I'm being careful, and I parkour off different sections of the rooftops to reduce the overall damage taken by falling.
Are you asking how I'd change fire resistance potions? Or what I think the community would approve of? Because those are two very different things, and I think appeasing the entire community is impossible. I think too much of the current player base has a kneejerk reaction based on emotion rather than reasoning. If something is nerfed, it's automatically bad in some people's books. It doesn't matter if it's so broken it's crowding out other stuff, and if the possibility for a more even playing field with more options being useful exists. They won't even give it the chance.
I think you know what my opinion on the fire resistance potion is too. I find it way too powerful, and I think it needs power removed from it because it crowds out fire protection (it's not the only thing doing that, mind you, but it definitely makes something that's already niche at best become almost entirely useless). I don't want fire resistance to be useless. And I don't want the option to recover from mistakes involving lava to be entirely removed either. Don't misunderstand me on that. I just want the threat to not be, you know... so easily and entirely removed for so long with so little effort. It crowds out other options. So I wouldn't remove it or make it useless, but I'd tune it down, and I'd make it a conscious choice of choosing between immunity or duration with the potion itself. Right now, the duration extension is "free" because there is no strength upgrade you're trading off for it.
Here's a rough example of what I think may be a good balance concept for it? I don't know what exact numbers would be (someone smarter than I am might have a better idea for that).
I'd probably have the base fire resistance potion reduce fire damage instead of grant total immunity to it. This would make it more appropriate to its name, and it might last anywhere between half a minute or a minute and a half. Keep in mind, this is just the base potion.
You could then upgrade either the extent of its effect or the duration like most other potions, turning it from a Fire Resistance (I) potion into either a Fire Resistance II potion or a Fire Immunity potion.
Upgrading the strength would change it a fire immunity potion, which does what the name implies (and what the current fire resistance potion does) but the duration would stay the same as the base potion.
If you upgrade the duration, then it either doubles or triples the duration, but the strength remains as resistance instead of immunity.
Therefore, it's an either or choice between extent of effect or duration of effect.
My reasoning is I'd try and balance it to where the immunity potion is safer for less adept players (or less armored/enchanted players), because it, you know... makes you totally immune to fire damage, but the longer duration resistance potions might be opted for if you have better armor with enchantments to supplement it. Even half a minute to a minute and a half (times however many potions you have, plus other stuff like armor enchants/health regeneration from being fully saturated) is more than enough to reasonably recover from any mishaps involving even worst case lava scenarios. As it is, I believe (?) you don't even need fire protection or fire resistance because health regeneration is so high that just regular protection enchantments paired with eating keeps you alive until your armor breaks. If ever there was a sign of how reducing the power of this potion wouldn't punish players too harshly, there it is. It's not even necessary as it is. So health regeneration, too, would need toned down (which in effect would give more benefit to what the enchantments and potions provide, so they would be getting an "indirect buff" by something else getting nerfed, and this is a good example of why having an automatic reaction of "nerf is bad" is sometimes shortsighted; you can't look at a nerf in a vacuum but you have to look at the overall playing field).
But that's just my concept and opinion. I don't know what numbers you'd need to use to achieve that vision, if you even could. It might just need to much rebalancing of other stuff.
As for the slow falling potion, I can't say much there because I don't even use those. It might make you immune to fall damage, but it has the effect of inhibiting your fall speed, and I personally don't like losing that control, so I never used them. An analogy for fire resistance potions would be if it made you move slower while under the effect of the potion, but you don't. There's also the fact that Feather Falling, unlike Fire Protection, is "free" as an enchantment because it doesn't conflict with something else you want more, so as a result you're going to use it anyway (unlike Fire Protection), so slow falling potions are pretty close to useless outside of the ender dragon fight in particular. So the situation with slow falling potions existing isn't quite the same as it is with the fire stuff.
But I don't see the same controversies about this potion being brought up, as using the same logic, Feather Falling IV has less utility as a result of Slow Falling. Phantom Membranes are not exactly difficult to farm, all you need is the insomnia effect and sky light requirements met, and you're good to go just as long as you were in the Overworld with difficulty set above peaceful.
If Slow Falling retained at least some of the fall damage, then there would be an inherent danger in not using Feather Falling IV on boots still.
Fire resistance potions grant you immunity to a source of damage that is only a significant problem in the Nether. On the other hand, fall damage is a danger present almost all the time and in all three dimensions. Potions don't stack, which means they occupy lots of space in your inventory, so it's unlikely a player will be carrying any except when they are in dangerous situations, such as while exploring the nether or during the ender dragon fight.
In terms of reducing damage, Feather Falling IV is more effective than Fire Protection IV, and more importantly, not mutually exclusive with more desirable enchantments like Protection as said in the previous comment. On the topic of effectiveness, a combination of Protection IV and Feather Falling IV is usually enough to save you from dying of falling into deep ravines in the Overworld and the Nether, which happens so frequently and quickly that you won't have time to drink a slow falling potion or have enough reaction time to splash one (and even if you did, you probably won't lose more than a few hearts anyway). In other words, fall damage can be effectively reduced by enchantments, and fire damage cannot.
And of course, as for mega-builds, most players have an elytra on and fireworks in their hotbar. Paper and gunpowder are easier to farm than phantom membranes.
With the ender dragon fight, most players are almost guaranteed to be knocked high up into the air, to a height which even the combination of Feather Falling IV and Protection IV cannot prevent death. Although you could pearl back down, most non-speedrunning hardcore players prefer using slow falling potions for extra caution. Slow falling potions are also often used in end cities because of how high you can levitate with a few bullets.
In terms of reducing damage, Feather Falling IV is more effective than Fire Protection IV,
Per piece, but all enchantments are subject to the same cap; Protection IV has 4 EPF per piece, Fire/Blast/Projectile Protection have 8 EPF, and Feather Falling has 12 EPF, while the sum of all pieces is capped at 20, including e.g. 3 pieces with Protection and one with Fire/Blast/Projectile Protection, or two with Protection and one with Feather Falling (or just two pieces since it isn't mutually exclusive, which is where I think the biggest difference lies):
When a player or mob wearing armor is subjected to damage, the EPFs of all applicable enchantments are added together, capped at 20, and then damage reduction is cappedEPF / 25, giving a maximum reduction of 20⁄25 (80%) at EPF 20.
Because of the caps in the calculation, it is possible to achieve maximum protection against specific types of damage with just three pieces of armor. For example, two pieces of armor with Blast Protection IV (EPF 8 each) and a single piece with Protection IV (EPF 4) would give a total EPF of 20 versus explosions. Any additional EPF would be wasted against explosions (but might be useful against other types of damage, if applicable).
Fire resistance potions grant you immunity to a source of damage that is only a significant problem in the Nether. On the other hand, fall damage is a danger present almost all the time and in all three dimensions. Potions don't stack, which means they occupy lots of space in your inventory, so it's unlikely a player will be carrying any except when they are in dangerous situations, such as while exploring the nether or during the ender dragon fight.
In terms of reducing damage, Feather Falling IV is more effective than Fire Protection IV, and more importantly, not mutually exclusive with more desirable enchantments like Protection as said in the previous comment. On the topic of effectiveness, a combination of Protection IV and Feather Falling IV is usually enough to save you from dying of falling into deep ravines in the Overworld and the Nether, which happens so frequently and quickly that you won't have time to drink a slow falling potion or have enough reaction time to splash one (and even if you did, you probably won't lose more than a few hearts anyway). In other words, fall damage can be effectively reduced by enchantments, and fire damage cannot.
And of course, as for mega-builds, most players have an elytra on and fireworks in their hotbar. Paper and gunpowder are easier to farm than phantom membranes.
With the ender dragon fight, most players are almost guaranteed to be knocked high up into the air, to a height which even the combination of Feather Falling IV and Protection IV cannot prevent death. Although you could pearl back down, most non-speedrunning hardcore players prefer using slow falling potions for extra caution. Slow falling potions are also often used in end cities because of how high you can levitate with a few bullets.
Another downside of Ender Pearls is their chance to spawn Endermites, which while not dangerous on their own, they can be a problem if players are high up on a structure bridging over from an End City tower to a Boat, without Slow Falling potion, it is indeed possible to take fatal damage from a fall even with all of the maximum enchanted gear, Protection 4 and Feather Falling 4 combined.
There are situations where Slow Falling Potions are not just a luxury, but vital to ensure success. But they must be used sparingly, as I had cautioned a friend during our own End Expedition, once they run out, Ender Pearls become our only fall back plan, but because of the aforementioned Endermites and their ability to knock players off of bridges, it's a risk some players would be unwilling to take.
I'm not so sure I'd be willing to risk it myself without Slow Falling potions available, true it can be done, but you need to be crafty about how you use Ender Pearls and make sure to keep the Shulker's alive until you're above the boat before Ender Pearling inside, and if your aim is off and you run out, you're probably screwed unless you have a totem of undying.
In the new Java Prerelease Canidate, Fire Protection and Blast Protection have been nerfed, which is a bit rediculous. On Java Edition, the maximum effectiveness of Fire Protection for FireTick Damage reduction is capped at 60%, whereas on Bedrock Edition, there is no cap, meaning you can hit 100% With an instance of Fire Protection IV and an instance of Fire Protection III. Also on Bedrock Edition, Burning Time is 7 instances of Firetick damage by default where it is 15 on Java, meaning you take upto twice as much damage, bear this in mind.
Prior to the Prelease Canidate on Java Edition, one stack of Fire Protection IV would hit the FireTick Damage reduction cap of 60%. With this Prelease it is now required for you to wear four instances of Fire Protection IV to hit the cap of 60% on Java Edition instead of one due to the nerf, this was proven by Youtuber Phoenix SC
This is one of them instances where Mojang had a choice, to either have Bedrock Parity and buff Fire Protection by removing the cap to have 100% Firetick Damage resistance with two stacks of Fire Protection IV; or nerf it as well as Blast Protection into the ground, making Fire Protection and Blast Protection, just like Projectile Protection a situational enchantment, and making four stacks of Protection IV the only useful option (Making Protection IV even more so powerful), and they chose to nerf the enchants.Yet another game nerf that makes literally no sense.
Having one piece of Fire Protection IV (otherwise Protection IV) does still reduce fire damage by 80% instead of the maximum of 64% from four pieces of Protection, which is a major difference (you take 20% vs 36% of damage, a difference of 1.8-fold. Prior to 1.9 the difference was a lot less since reaching the max EPF for a specialized form of Protection only increased the minimum randomized protection from 40% to 52% (both up to 80%); that is to say, in 1.6.4 you are only guaranteed to survive a 44 block fall (52%) while since 1.9 you can consistently survive 103 blocks (80%), and 58 blocks in full Protection IV. Similar differences apply to fire damage, and just being on fire isn't really that bad when not only does the damage get reduced by even regular Protection but you can far out-regenerate it - try playing in 1.6.4 where you barely regenerate at all; one major takeaway I get from watching other play on my mod (which doesn't alter any of these mechanics) is just how much harder the old food regeneration system makes the game compared to modern versions, of course, I've never played newer versions so I'm used to it).
Of course, potions of Fire Resistance make the existence of Fire Protection a moot point as they confer total immunity to fire (if anything were being nerfed it would be them yet they have only buffed them over the years, e.g. increasing visibility in lava) and I've never intentionally used any specialized form of Protection aside from Feather Falling, the only one which is compatible with Protection, even going so far as to reject the "junk" helmets (mob drops) I enchant for 1 level if they get something else (or were already enchanted).
I even buffed them themself by making Protection IV reduce damage by a fixed 60% (which is a bit worse than the average of 40-80%, which is closer to 1.9's 64% since effective protection is nonlinear) and specialized enchantments reduce damage by 75% (close to the average of 52-80%, which is actually 52-100% before being capped, the major change being the much higher minimum), and reducing the per-level cost of Blast Protection from 4 to 2, or from 16 to 8 for level IV (this cost is added to the cost to perform any anvil operation, including repairs, so it has a major impact, precluding the ability to indefinitely repair more highly enchanted items), and fixed a bug with the knockback reduction (before Mojang fixed it in 1.19.4).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
That makes fire resistance potions more useful than ever then. It's unlikely that a player will enchant all their armor pieces with Fire Protection as this means no extra protection from other common sources of damage which cannot be reduced or negated without potions, so this enchantment will be borderline pointless. If Fire Protection was not mutually exclusive with Protection (like Feather Falling, which specifically reduces fall damage), then a nerf like this would make some sense.
A helmet enchanted with Blast Protection used to be a great idea as damage from creeper explosions will be greatly reduced, but since that reduction is essentially nerfed, Protection is definitely the way to go.
As far as I can tell, Blast Protection still is very useful - again, the only way to reach the maximum of 80% damage reduction is to use a specialized form of Protection and there is a HUGE difference (nearly 2-fold) between the maximum of 64% from regular Protection and 80% from the others and all they nerfed was their side-effects of reduced burn time and knockback (I haven't seen anything to indicate that they now only reduce damage by up to 64% / 16 EPF instead of 80% / 20 EPF).
For another example of how useful the specialized Protection enchantments are, a creeper deals up to 64 damage on Hard; this will penetrate diamond armor to the maximum of 80% of original armor points (64 / (2 + totalToughness / 4) = -16 armor points), so armor itself only reduces damage by 16%; full Protection IV increases this to about 70%, with 19.2 damage taken. With one piece changed to Blast Protection IV the damage reduction is increased to 83.2% and you take 10.75 damage, and you might take another point or two of damage from fall damage (as noted in a comment on this bug report they barely survived in full Protection IV but died from fall damage, remember that only until very recently (1.19.4) Blast Protection had no effect at all on knockback (while only reported since 1.16 this bug had been present since it was added*), yet many players still used it due to its direct protective effects.
*Source code from 1.6.4; the bug is that they handle the reduction as an integer, rounded down; it can only ever reach 1 if the level of Blast Protection is 7 or more (par1 is the proximity to the explosion, as well as how much knockback is applied, and ranges from 0-1):
public static double func_92092_a(Entity par0Entity, double par1) { int var3 = EnchantmentHelper.getMaxEnchantmentLevel(Enchantment.blastProtection.effectId, par0Entity.getLastActiveItems()); if (var3 > 0) par1 -= (double)MathHelper.floor_double(par1 * (double)((float)var3 * 0.15F)); return par1; }This shows the proper (and much simpler and easier to read) way to calculate it (I still only check the max level on any single piece but I could easily replace "getMaxEnchantmentLevel" with a method that returns the sum of all pieces and clamp it to 4, then e.g. 2x Blast Protection II would be the same as 1x Blast Protection IV; Mojang instead changed the factor from 0.15 to 0.0375):
public double applyBlastProtectionModifier(double knockback) { int level = CustomEnchantmentHelper.getMaxEnchantmentLevel(Enchantment.blastProtection, this.getLastActiveItems()); return knockback - knockback * (double)level * 0.15D; }TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
One of the features I loved about Minecraft bedrock edition is you could nullify fire status effect near instantly if you had two armour plates with Fire Protection 4 on, in addition to eliminating the status effect so quickly, it would mean fire would not block your view as soon as you moved away from a heat source.
This increased incentives to use Fire Protection over the other Protection types. While I am not knocking the benefits of Protection IV, the problem with Protection IV is it is a jack of all trades and master of none, which may not provide as much protection as the other ones in some instances, but this made sense. On Java we don't have these benefits, which is why I don't use more than one armour plate with Fire Protection 4. Why would I bother when Fire Resistance potions grant immunity to fire anyway?
I think the game needs to go in the direction of increasing utility of the different protection types, so people don't just throw the same enchantments on every armour plate. It encourages understanding of the benefits and cons of each enchantment type and learning strategic gameplay.
Here's PhoenixSC's testing with it (). As of 1.21 Pre-release Canidate 4, it takes Four Armor Pieces with Fire Protection IV to get 60% Firetick Damage reduction, instead of one (Which is capped at 60% in current versions of Java). I don't get why Java Edition is having these nerfed this way instead of having Bedrock Parity and removing the 60% Cap.
This, basically this. Instead of nerfing, they should be working on increasing the utility of the other Protection Enchantment types so people don't have the 'Four Stacks of Protection IV or bust' mindset by giving them more utility. Blast Protection on Bedrock Edition does have a cap of 80% reduction of explosive damage compared to Java's current 60% (and soon to basically be 15% per armor piece with Blast Protection IV), and I've tested this cap with four Stacks of Blast Protection IV on Netherite Armor against a Charged Creeper at point blank explosion range. Half a heart of damage, that was it.
I feel Bedrock Edition is showing how said Utility can be implemented and Bedrock Parity should happen on Java with these enchantments instead of having them nerfed into the ground.
Just seen this, so in Java 1.21 Release Canidate 1, these nerfs are being removed due to community feedback, good. Glad Mojang is listening.
Minecraft's enchanting system is not intuitive. Far, far too many games fall for this. I don't know if it's because calculating a balanced and intuitive system is that hard (maybe it is) or because the thought is that "unique and complicated is good and deep". If anything, I'd say that because of how easy many of the caps are to hit, there's almost a "one size fits all" approach to enchanting, and this means any semblance of choice is gone which means this turns from a system of choices into a time sink for a predetermined bonus. So... why does it even exist then?
All that being said, I'm not sure if merely reducing blast protection and fire protection will do much? It comes off like the villager changes; it's a change that could work, but it would need more changes done elsewhere/around it to facilitate it or else it just comes off as a "wait, why?" change. And I'm not sure Mojang is planning to, you know... give the majority/entirety of the game a balance pass. So while these changes certainly aren't going to upset me, I am wondering why they are being done. Neither of them, and one in particular, seem overly broken to me?
Unfortunately, fire protection in particular is destined to be borderline useless as long as fire
immunityresistance potions exist as they do.I don't like how the community seems to get upset at Mojang when they make a change with something that differs between Javva and Bedrock and don't choose the more broken one. Fire protection is borderline useless, yeah, but that doesn't necessarily mean the answer is to buff it. The problem with doing that in this case is that the competition to fire protection is eight minutes of complete damage immunity (to that source). So you'd have to make it compete with that. You can easily get stuck in a feedback loop of always buffing things if you become so resistant to nerfs because you think they are bad just because it's a nerf. A nerf is just a balancing change like a buff is. Whether it goes up or down isn't the most important thing; the important thing is the overall state of the game around it. Don't look at just the tree, look at the whole forest.
Well, it seems the General Majority of the Community has spoken, since said nerfs have been removed in Java 1.21 Release Canidate 1 due to alot of Negative Community Feedback pertaining to them. Seems most of the Community has seen those now redacted nerfs as detrimental to the state of the game around those nerfs and has been incredibly verbal about it. I went as far to send KingBDogz a Tweet about suggesting Bedrock Parity for Java Edition with these enchantments to give them more utility instead.
If they want to rebalance these enchantments, they should have more Combat Tests to tweak them and recieve Community Feedback on them to be honest to see what the community likes and dislikes mostly as a consensus, I believe Jeb had the right idea with that.
You are misunderstanding things - as far as I've been able to determine there was no change to the actual damage reduction, only the "bonus" side-effects of reduced knockback from explosions and reduced burn time. as mentioned several times before, the knockback reduction of Blast Protection was bugged and never worked at all (with legitimately obtainable armor) until 1.19.4, yet it was often recommended to have it precisely because of the increased damage reduction from explosions (creepers knocking you down to as little as half a heart with only Protection IV, then the fall damage from the knockback finishes you off; even if this was not reduced by Blast Protection, or even increased (though Feather Falling reaches the EPF cap with only 2x Protection IV) you'd take far less damage from the explosion itself).
It'd also be really weird and outright bugged if they actually did cap the EPF to 15 (60%) when wearing Fire or Blast Protection - that would actually give less protection from fire and explosions than full Protection IV (16 EPF / 64%)! The only reason Protection even has a lower "cap" is simply because each piece only provides 4 EPF (Blast/Fire/Projectile Protection have 8 EPF, Feather Falling has 12; only these can reach the actual cap of 20).
Also, Bedrock still use the old armor mechanics from before 1.9, when the maximum randomized protection capped out at 96% with no armor penetration:
This also shows just how significant armor penetration even is - the minimum guaranteed protection of 88% in Bedrock is higher than the protection you get with even max protection netherite in Java 1.9+ against a point-blank creeper explosion on Hard (in this case 64 damage is reduced to 7.7 to 2.56 in Bedrock/before 1.9; on Java Edition 1.9+ 64 damage penetrates 12.8 armor points, leaving you with 7.2 (basically leather armor on Bedrock/before 1.9) or 28.8% damage reduction, of which enchantments reduce the 71.2% that gets through by 80% for a total damage reduction of 85.76% or 9.11 damage taken; this represents over 3.5 times less protection in modern Java Edition than the best case in Bedrock/older versions - not to be taken lightly at all, a charged creeper deals twice as much damage, yet you could still take barely half that of a normal creeper in modern JE!).
Also, if you only took half a heart from even a charged creeper then something is wrong with armor on Bedrock, or you were on Easy (they do as much damage as a normal creeper on Normal) or "point blank" meant "walked up to me before stopping and exploding" (my definition is "make a 1x1 hole in the ground and jump in it with the creeper, standing as close to its center as possible"). Another weird quirk is that any non-air non-liquid block, even a block like tall grass or snow layers, negates virtually all explosion damage (I remember summoning a creeper with some crazy high explosion power in 1.7 and I took almost no damage despite exploding next to me and leaving a massive crater because it (or I) was in tall grass, with no armor at all).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
I see where your issue with Potion of Fire resistance potion immunity comes from, it is true it lessens the utility of the Fire Protection 4 enchantment when fire immunity negates having to bother with that enchantment type, the problem is how do we fix this while not making the potion itself too weak?
Potion of Slow Falling is arguably just as powerful as Fire Resistance Potion is, because Slow Falling negates fall damage, not partially, but it does it completely until the effect ends.
But I don't see the same controversies about this potion being brought up, as using the same logic, Feather Falling IV has less utility as a result of Slow Falling. Phantom Membranes are not exactly difficult to farm, all you need is the insomnia effect and sky light requirements met, and you're good to go just as long as you were in the Overworld with difficulty set above peaceful.
If Slow Falling retained at least some of the fall damage, then there would be an inherent danger in not using Feather Falling IV on boots still.
I actually intend on building a Phantom Membrane farm out of some platforms on the final design of my castle build,
which I will be posting screenshots about. In hindsight I do see the ridiculousness in how beneficial slow falling is,
I would've been just as happy in not using slow falling potions for the build, I have not had to use even one potion for my castle yet,
and this is because I'm being careful, and I parkour off different sections of the rooftops to reduce the overall damage taken by falling.
Are you asking how I'd change fire resistance potions? Or what I think the community would approve of? Because those are two very different things, and I think appeasing the entire community is impossible. I think too much of the current player base has a kneejerk reaction based on emotion rather than reasoning. If something is nerfed, it's automatically bad in some people's books. It doesn't matter if it's so broken it's crowding out other stuff, and if the possibility for a more even playing field with more options being useful exists. They won't even give it the chance.
I think you know what my opinion on the fire resistance potion is too. I find it way too powerful, and I think it needs power removed from it because it crowds out fire protection (it's not the only thing doing that, mind you, but it definitely makes something that's already niche at best become almost entirely useless). I don't want fire resistance to be useless. And I don't want the option to recover from mistakes involving lava to be entirely removed either. Don't misunderstand me on that. I just want the threat to not be, you know... so easily and entirely removed for so long with so little effort. It crowds out other options. So I wouldn't remove it or make it useless, but I'd tune it down, and I'd make it a conscious choice of choosing between immunity or duration with the potion itself. Right now, the duration extension is "free" because there is no strength upgrade you're trading off for it.
Here's a rough example of what I think may be a good balance concept for it? I don't know what exact numbers would be (someone smarter than I am might have a better idea for that).
I'd probably have the base fire resistance potion reduce fire damage instead of grant total immunity to it. This would make it more appropriate to its name, and it might last anywhere between half a minute or a minute and a half. Keep in mind, this is just the base potion.
You could then upgrade either the extent of its effect or the duration like most other potions, turning it from a Fire Resistance (I) potion into either a Fire Resistance II potion or a Fire Immunity potion.
Upgrading the strength would change it a fire immunity potion, which does what the name implies (and what the current fire resistance potion does) but the duration would stay the same as the base potion.
If you upgrade the duration, then it either doubles or triples the duration, but the strength remains as resistance instead of immunity.
Therefore, it's an either or choice between extent of effect or duration of effect.
My reasoning is I'd try and balance it to where the immunity potion is safer for less adept players (or less armored/enchanted players), because it, you know... makes you totally immune to fire damage, but the longer duration resistance potions might be opted for if you have better armor with enchantments to supplement it. Even half a minute to a minute and a half (times however many potions you have, plus other stuff like armor enchants/health regeneration from being fully saturated) is more than enough to reasonably recover from any mishaps involving even worst case lava scenarios. As it is, I believe (?) you don't even need fire protection or fire resistance because health regeneration is so high that just regular protection enchantments paired with eating keeps you alive until your armor breaks. If ever there was a sign of how reducing the power of this potion wouldn't punish players too harshly, there it is. It's not even necessary as it is. So health regeneration, too, would need toned down (which in effect would give more benefit to what the enchantments and potions provide, so they would be getting an "indirect buff" by something else getting nerfed, and this is a good example of why having an automatic reaction of "nerf is bad" is sometimes shortsighted; you can't look at a nerf in a vacuum but you have to look at the overall playing field).
But that's just my concept and opinion. I don't know what numbers you'd need to use to achieve that vision, if you even could. It might just need to much rebalancing of other stuff.
As for the slow falling potion, I can't say much there because I don't even use those. It might make you immune to fall damage, but it has the effect of inhibiting your fall speed, and I personally don't like losing that control, so I never used them. An analogy for fire resistance potions would be if it made you move slower while under the effect of the potion, but you don't. There's also the fact that Feather Falling, unlike Fire Protection, is "free" as an enchantment because it doesn't conflict with something else you want more, so as a result you're going to use it anyway (unlike Fire Protection), so slow falling potions are pretty close to useless outside of the ender dragon fight in particular. So the situation with slow falling potions existing isn't quite the same as it is with the fire stuff.
Fire resistance potions grant you immunity to a source of damage that is only a significant problem in the Nether. On the other hand, fall damage is a danger present almost all the time and in all three dimensions. Potions don't stack, which means they occupy lots of space in your inventory, so it's unlikely a player will be carrying any except when they are in dangerous situations, such as while exploring the nether or during the ender dragon fight.
In terms of reducing damage, Feather Falling IV is more effective than Fire Protection IV, and more importantly, not mutually exclusive with more desirable enchantments like Protection as said in the previous comment. On the topic of effectiveness, a combination of Protection IV and Feather Falling IV is usually enough to save you from dying of falling into deep ravines in the Overworld and the Nether, which happens so frequently and quickly that you won't have time to drink a slow falling potion or have enough reaction time to splash one (and even if you did, you probably won't lose more than a few hearts anyway). In other words, fall damage can be effectively reduced by enchantments, and fire damage cannot.
And of course, as for mega-builds, most players have an elytra on and fireworks in their hotbar. Paper and gunpowder are easier to farm than phantom membranes.
With the ender dragon fight, most players are almost guaranteed to be knocked high up into the air, to a height which even the combination of Feather Falling IV and Protection IV cannot prevent death. Although you could pearl back down, most non-speedrunning hardcore players prefer using slow falling potions for extra caution. Slow falling potions are also often used in end cities because of how high you can levitate with a few bullets.
Per piece, but all enchantments are subject to the same cap; Protection IV has 4 EPF per piece, Fire/Blast/Projectile Protection have 8 EPF, and Feather Falling has 12 EPF, while the sum of all pieces is capped at 20, including e.g. 3 pieces with Protection and one with Fire/Blast/Projectile Protection, or two with Protection and one with Feather Falling (or just two pieces since it isn't mutually exclusive, which is where I think the biggest difference lies):
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
Another downside of Ender Pearls is their chance to spawn Endermites, which while not dangerous on their own, they can be a problem if players are high up on a structure bridging over from an End City tower to a Boat, without Slow Falling potion, it is indeed possible to take fatal damage from a fall even with all of the maximum enchanted gear, Protection 4 and Feather Falling 4 combined.
There are situations where Slow Falling Potions are not just a luxury, but vital to ensure success. But they must be used sparingly, as I had cautioned a friend during our own End Expedition, once they run out, Ender Pearls become our only fall back plan, but because of the aforementioned Endermites and their ability to knock players off of bridges, it's a risk some players would be unwilling to take.
I'm not so sure I'd be willing to risk it myself without Slow Falling potions available, true it can be done, but you need to be crafty about how you use Ender Pearls and make sure to keep the Shulker's alive until you're above the boat before Ender Pearling inside, and if your aim is off and you run out, you're probably screwed unless you have a totem of undying.