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Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest news on Alpha Two.
Check out general Announcements here to see the latest news on Ashes of Creation & Intrepid Studios.
To get the quickest updates regarding Alpha Two, connect your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Tank Feedback
Spudler
Member, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
I managed to level a Tank to 15 this weekend in about 21 hours. Here are my takeaways
- Inciting Strikes is supposed to be a AOE threat ability but it is absolutely garbage as damage of ability is too low and as a result so is the threat it generates. Sheild Assault + Intimidating Aura is much more effective at generating threat
- Damage is a bit low for solo leveling, makes it so leveling on own isn't really an option.
- There isn't any hard taunt ability that forces a threat change. Makes it so tanks can't really taunt swap effectively
- I found it hard to tell how much courage I had in combat. Maybe find a way to make it more obvious/easily readable
As for how the class feels and how enjoyable it is, playing an ashes tank is extremely fun compared to tanking in other games. I felt as it was challenging at times but very powerful if you executed it right and the abilities and design flows feels really well thought out. Damage I take is very reasonable and makes situations tough but manageable.
- Inciting Strikes is supposed to be a AOE threat ability but it is absolutely garbage as damage of ability is too low and as a result so is the threat it generates. Sheild Assault + Intimidating Aura is much more effective at generating threat
- Damage is a bit low for solo leveling, makes it so leveling on own isn't really an option.
- There isn't any hard taunt ability that forces a threat change. Makes it so tanks can't really taunt swap effectively
- I found it hard to tell how much courage I had in combat. Maybe find a way to make it more obvious/easily readable
As for how the class feels and how enjoyable it is, playing an ashes tank is extremely fun compared to tanking in other games. I felt as it was challenging at times but very powerful if you executed it right and the abilities and design flows feels really well thought out. Damage I take is very reasonable and makes situations tough but manageable.
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Comments
In regards to the abilities I ended up trying most everything, but ended up with Tremoring Strike (Single target trip), Intimidating Aura and Taunt, and Ground Slam/Shield Assault after level 12, as my "main rotation", while also using a mace with stagger proc.
I skipped a bunch of the abilities, like Inciting Strike, Desolate and even Slam, when farming in a group, and even solo, because the mana cost just wasn't worth the usage, especially since they had no additional effect for my group, or myself to combo into.
From my experience threat seemed to be a bit weird, or rather delayed, in some cases. I could cast Taunt, which I know is not a hard taunt, but then only have the enemy swap to me after 3 - 5 seconds, even with me not hitting it further, but if the enemy got Tripped, it would immediately swap to me after getting back up.
I agree that courage is annoying to track around the icon, having it as a third resource bar or something that stood out more would be nice.
Overall though, the archetype had a nice flow to it, once you got used to it.
It plays a lot different than other tanks, I've tried in different games, so initially I was a bit confused, especially with the active blocking, but I ended up quite enjoying the Alpha Two version a lot.
Also, I've been asking to have the protect skill move as an automatic gain skill as is grit, iron will etc is... It could be a very useful skill. I just don't necessarily see players taking it over other skill choices.
I get what you are saying, I am not saying solo leveling as a tank should be optimal. It shouldn't be optimal for any class and atm it isn't. Group leveling is by far the best XP.
However solo leveling is still viable for a lot of other classes. I believe it should be as you are not always going to be able to find a group at all levels and at all hours of the day. It doesn't seem viable for tank atm as it takes a very very long time to kill a mob which is what this comment is getting at.
Tanks damage should still be lower than all actual DPS classes but I think it could be balanced better atm than it is.
The activation animation wasn't, it just created an untextured "egg shell" around you for a few seconds, but it did increase my mitigation when I looked on the character stats for Physical/Magical Defense, so I assume it works.
Never asked a party member if they saw a difference though.
This is the biggest change I think it needs. Should add a third bar to track courage.
I played around a lot with the reflect skill and besides the skills with active bars when enemies cast them it was hard to time the reflect skill well with normal attacks. Blocking or reflecting when the mob started their basic attack animation was too late for the active block or reflect skill to take effect. Could be a symptom of the server lag.