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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Tanking and their Tools
So from the stream yesterday they confirmed a VERY interesting point.
<blockquote>Tanks don't NEED Shields to be viable</blockquote>
As someone who is into lots of medieval stuff, it always annoyed me to see a plate armor user using also a shield, which is redundant in most cases. So that statement made me happy.
But for the System side, they mentioned there will be evasion tanks, control tanks, shield tanks and that your subclass will also be important what kind of tank will there be.
So this get's me really excited.
I often times end playing a tank, but the gameplay is, depending on the game, sometimes boring and just a taunt fight to stick the enemy to you face while you are not much more then a health sponge for your healers. With this news there might be active mitigation tanks that will outperform the passive mitigation tanks of old
I for sure will master the way of the Polearm Tank!
<blockquote>Tanks don't NEED Shields to be viable</blockquote>
As someone who is into lots of medieval stuff, it always annoyed me to see a plate armor user using also a shield, which is redundant in most cases. So that statement made me happy.
But for the System side, they mentioned there will be evasion tanks, control tanks, shield tanks and that your subclass will also be important what kind of tank will there be.
So this get's me really excited.
I often times end playing a tank, but the gameplay is, depending on the game, sometimes boring and just a taunt fight to stick the enemy to you face while you are not much more then a health sponge for your healers. With this news there might be active mitigation tanks that will outperform the passive mitigation tanks of old
I for sure will master the way of the Polearm Tank!
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Comments
Tanks are so important and special ❤️
Give meh a big Guts tank :0 please xD
Give meh a big Guts tank :0 please xD
</blockquote>
here you go ;)
<img src="https://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/megaman/images/7/7e/Guts-DozerMM2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20101123051932" alt="" />
That implies doing the same thing over and over.
You dont need a player to do that...just a script.
Give meh a big Guts tank :0 please xD
</blockquote>
here you go <img alt="????" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.2.1/svg/1f609.svg" />
<img src="https://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/megaman/images/7/7e/Guts-DozerMM2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20101123051932" alt="" />
</blockquote>
._. Not quite what I had in mind but close enough lol xD
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/C72EpWY.gif" alt="" />
But any who I do like the fact that their will be more to tanks then just a basic shield tank!
two hands swords here I come :D
and I agree they need more interaction then just taunt and wait for Cool down and taunt again...
1. No need for rotation = spamming your best skill
2. Cooldowns = rotating the best skills on cooldown
You are bound to have skills you prefer to others and I bet there are gonne be cooldowns, that forces rotations. And thats totally okay, as long as the encounters force you to break rotation because..well.. you want to stay alive, keep someone alive or have objective X to consider.
if your best skill should be used anytime its available then its bad balanced. the best skills should have a reason to be used and not just when it's off cooldown. Example a skill that mitigation huge amount of damage for 5 seconds with a cooldown of 30 seconds. you don't spam stuff like this, you time it with incoming big hits. Another example are skills that alter the battlefield in say positioning collision objects. You don't put them down on cooldown, you put them down in the right situation
@Enrif
Good points. I am also of the opinion that if skill is the aim then you need to me using the right skill, in the right place, at the right time, against the right adversary.
That means skill use would be unpredictable/situational rather than predictable/compulsory.
Rotations imply that their is some compulsion to use a specific skill or pair of skill.
I would be questioning how well balanced those skills are, if everyone finds themselves using them all the time in favour of others.
That's not to say some skills might suit one version of a tank better than a different version of a tank.
Such tuned skills will inevitably lead to a bias.
And that's a good thing, as it means different kinds of tanks will behave very differently and increase variety.
They plan to break down each component of tanking to it's core concepts and then build interesting ways of achieving the same effect.
I think some of the core concepts to tanking is:
1) Effective HP.
2) Team damage mitigation.
3) Crowd control.
I'm interested in seeing how they go about bringing these core concepts into life through various mechanics.
They plan to break down each component of tanking to it’s core concepts and then build interesting ways of achieving the same effect.
I think some of the core concepts to tanking is:
1) Effective HP.
2) Team damage mitigation.
3) Crowd control.
I’m interested in seeing how they go about bringing these core concepts into life through various mechanics.
</blockquote>
hmm...thinking about it, yeah those 3 are the core concepts of tanking
though i would add as number 4) Knowing the Mechanics
i really hope they will give tanks good tools to identify dangerous enemy skills and loose mobs without being to obvious (red circle on the floor) or to read any extra sources (dungeon journal)
That's an interesting idea, I think 4) knowing the mechanics can apply to all classes, but more importantly to tanks. Steven did say that they don't want too many telegraphs, maybe only for the really important one that aren't easy to recognize. But they want players to learn the monsters mechanics through careful observation and trial/error.
Let's hope they incorporate other ways to aggro generate then. Such as warcrys, or a simple skill that throws sand in the enemies face to cause them to rage at the thrower. Downside is the sand will be directional so you have to aim at the eyes.