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Having both an Offensive and Defensive target at the same time
I don't know how many of you played Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. But, despite it's many flaws. This is one thing that it really had going for it.
You could have both an offensive target, which your attacks and debuffs would go to. And, a defensive target. Where your heals and buffs would go to. At the same time!
This in turn made healing a hell of a lot more fun and interesting, as you could attack the enemies and heal your tank without constantly switching targets. This made healers an essential part in not only keeping people alive. But, being involved in setting up the DPS combo's and debuffs against enemy targets.
It also gave us the Bloodmage and Disciple classes. Which were some of the coolest healing classes that I've seen. This class didn't have much in the way of straight heals. They focused on leeches. They had to damage the mobs to leech health from it and transfer it to their defensive targets. The Bloodmage was, obviously, a mage. Specializing in magical ranged damage. While, the disciple was more like a healing monk. That fought and healed with melee attacks. Kind of like a healing monk. Instead of mana, they built up a different resource. Called Jin.
These were extremely innovative classes that you simply don't see these days. And, I believe that's mainly because of the lack of the lack of the offensive/defensive target mechanic.
I think that Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is going to have this mechanic in it. Since it's made by the same creator. But, I would absolutely love to see this in more games. It made for some awesome classes that kept a broken game alive for much longer than it deserved to be.
You could have both an offensive target, which your attacks and debuffs would go to. And, a defensive target. Where your heals and buffs would go to. At the same time!
This in turn made healing a hell of a lot more fun and interesting, as you could attack the enemies and heal your tank without constantly switching targets. This made healers an essential part in not only keeping people alive. But, being involved in setting up the DPS combo's and debuffs against enemy targets.
It also gave us the Bloodmage and Disciple classes. Which were some of the coolest healing classes that I've seen. This class didn't have much in the way of straight heals. They focused on leeches. They had to damage the mobs to leech health from it and transfer it to their defensive targets. The Bloodmage was, obviously, a mage. Specializing in magical ranged damage. While, the disciple was more like a healing monk. That fought and healed with melee attacks. Kind of like a healing monk. Instead of mana, they built up a different resource. Called Jin.
These were extremely innovative classes that you simply don't see these days. And, I believe that's mainly because of the lack of the lack of the offensive/defensive target mechanic.
I think that Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is going to have this mechanic in it. Since it's made by the same creator. But, I would absolutely love to see this in more games. It made for some awesome classes that kept a broken game alive for much longer than it deserved to be.
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Comments
This system give more incentive to be a healer, as you're not just stuck targetting a tank or various party members, popping heals throughout the fight.
I should also note that this also works great for tanks and dps builds. Tanks can target their healers or high hate dps and use defensive buffs/rescues on them. Some dps may even have "hate pushers" to increase the tanks hate with certain abilities. For instance, in Vanguard, Psionisists had an ability to not just reduce their aggro, but to transfer it to their defensive target. Helping the tank maintain control of the mobs. It really was a great system, and I wish more games would use it.
It's not overpowered if the abilities and classes are well balanced. It's just extremely useful and makes underused classes more fun to play. And, it was used in a game with a pretty harsh death penalty. And, it was extremely common to wipe to trash mobs in dungeons with a bad pull. So, it's difficulty balanced it out.