Bulwark on the Battlefield - Tank Alpha One Preview

🏰 Will you be the bulwark on the battlefield? 🛡

Meet the Tank, bastion of bravery, in our Alpha One preview: https://ashesofcreation.com/news/2021-02-09-bulwark-on-the-battlefield-tank-alpha-one-preview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZkkVKZ64Ns

Find more posts tagged with

Staff

Comments

McMackMuck

Neurath wrote: »

Third edit: Tanks don't normally have an Invulnerability at level 10. I think this is a broken skill. By all means, have an invulnerability but it should be at a much higher level.

I read it as only invulnerability if you are near to zero hit points. Damage mitigation proportional to missing hit points. More of a conditional invulnerability. We don't know the duration or CD either, so somewhere in 1-10th level may be fine. There's still time to fine tune it.

McMackMuck

mushin wrote: »

Please do fighter next.

I also want to compare and contrast Fighter with Tank. This is more interesting to me than Ranger, which exists alone in its ranged non-magical specialty field.

Hjerim

Arugan wrote: »

Hjerim wrote: »

Vhaeyne wrote: »

I think everyone will agree that Javelin is the best. If they don't they were not playing video games in the 90s.

The skill is excellent, but the floating rocks during the casting needs to go. They are really unnecessary and out of place - don't you agree?

I think additional animations should be part of the augments when you select your second class. So if you choose spellshield it will be a fire scorpion mortal combat feel.

Agree here as well!

But Tank without subclass or the Tank/Tank, Tank/Fighter (and so on) constellation should have no to very little magic about them - in my opinion.

Songcaller

McMackMuck wrote: »

I read it as only invulnerability if you are near to zero hit points. Damage mitigation proportional to missing hit points. More of a conditional invulnerability. We don't know the duration or CD either, so somewhere in 1-10th level may be fine. There's still time to fine tune it.

Yeah man, I understood that too. Ultimate Defence is the only skill which doesn't generate threat. The Devs didn't want Bards to be a Buff Bot and sit in a corner. Excess tanks in a raid will have to sit in the corner. Fights will be too chaotic if multiple tanks are generating equal amounts of threat. And, you can't not generate threat with all the moves except Ultimate Defence.

I still believe, aggro swapping will be difficult when wanted and not stoppable when unwanted if all the tanks fight. It is possible encounters in Ashes won't need more than a Main Tank but I had hoped for better variation and better challenges than simply 'Tank and spank'. I don't know if augments will remove threat generation, but, without a Taunt or Goad, reduced threat generation might mess up the threat tables.

Edit: I suppose, you could spam weapon skills rather than threat generation skills if you're an excess tank. Weapon skill trees shouldn't generate threat, though they will still generate aggro from the DPS. You could probably weapon swap into a Two Handed Weapon but I think your DPS would be suboptimal without main abilities to weave in-between. It is a mind bender really, difficult not to have concerns at this point. We've only seen up to level 10 skills too. The Tank might have main damage abilities which don't generate threat at a later level.

madecin1234

Hey guys. Looking good. I’ve been tanking in all the MMORPG I’ve been playing since 2006 and from what I see it feels like this will be a fun tank spec to play.

If I can, on the ability “ONSLAUGHT”, after you hit the the target , I would like to see an effect where you can see that you have gain an absorb shield. That would be cool.

On the “WEAPON TOSS” ability, I think the weapon should come back to the player after it hit all enemies. It would be more emmersive don’t you think? Cause if you toss weapon and it doesn’t come back, then how can you have a weapon after

Question : can you run / walk and use all abilities?

Good job!

Lore Dynamic

Omg! I have no plans on playing as a Tank in Ashes, but that Onslaught ability has got to be the coolest looking skill Ive seen in a game in YEARS!
Please give the animation team a raise for that. It’s so fluid, metal and hardcore.
Love it! ☠️🖤

akabear

I loved the tank ramming move in Dragon Age Inquisition and was really impressed when it was used in PvE to actually break through walls.

Songcaller

I believe the current skills also don't mesh well for a Ranged Tank. No ranged taunt and all skills are 'melee' skills. Not sure how augments would affect the transition between Ranged and Melee. I suppose you could just use weapon skills for Ranged Components but I keep seeing issues where Tanks will have to just use Weapon Skills and not the full roster of skills.

Edit: Ranged Tanks are a niche in PvE, but, Ranged Tanks would be less of a niche in PvP. I suppose weapon swaps will give Tanks ranged skills while the predominant disposition would be melee. I'm not sure how a Tank/Mage would perform, or a Tank/Ranger would perform. Would the dominant skills still be 'Melee' or would the Tank also have 'Ranged' potential.

Second Edit: I also don't see the Tank as able to hold Groups of Mobs. There is no scope for gleaning threat generated on multiple mobs unless you strike multiple mobs. The Tank wouldn't be able to hold aggro on multiple mobs unless they can strike all mobs in one go. Even then, high DPS could outpace threat generated. Not an issue if you have multiple tanks, but, I see conflictions between having a Main Tank and having Multiple Tanks in a Raid. For some encounters, One Tank will be sufficient, in other encounters Multi Tanks will be required. Balance between both of these encounters will be difficult.

Third Edit: In older games where I tanked, I had single target taunt and AoE Goads. I could also generate threat through charges, and pick up stray mobs. I could marshal the PvE Encounters and take on multiple mobs with enough heals. I see the Ashes Tank has a similar prospect in terms of charges and melee moves but I still believe Taunts and Goads should be invested into.

Fourth Edit: Not sure if we can 'Kite' Mobs or not. A ranged Tank would be able to 'Kite' a Mob if it is possible. It is the niche protocol I expressed earlier. Raids do often use Ranged Classes to 'Kite' Mobs, but, a Ranged Tank could perform all Tank Roles, even 'Kite' without the need to use a 'weaker' class. I only bring this up because in terms of contestation/PvP in a boss area, you would have to 'kite' the boss to be able to PvP effectively. You could keep the 'Tank Group' on the boss and the rest of the raid could fight in PvP but it would be nice to have options and not be forced to PvP in an outnumbered position every time.

Fifth Edit: I've assumed the stuns could hold multiple mobs for a time. I'm also not sure if some Mobs will have stun resistance. You could Javelin up to 5 mobs in a consistent manner, I suppose you could hold multiple mobs in such an approach, but, I'm not sure if Stuns are broken on damage, or, if stun locks are enabled. It is difficult to provide feedback on actual potentials when I do not know the prerequisites. All of my feedback is from my history as a tank and how I have related the current Tank Skillsets into my tanking experience.

Sixth Edit: A 'Guard Function' would be good for PvP. Guard Functions divert percentages of damage from a guarded target to the tank. Would need to be rather short range though. Guard Functions are normally single target and often enable a Tank to protect vulnerable targets. A Guard would make Tanks more viable in PvP alongside a Taunt/Goad.

Ryfaen

Javelin should be called Harpoon.

Javelin: a light spear thrown in a competitive sport or as a weapon
Harpoon: a barbed missile resembling a spear that is attached to a long rope

Tacualeon

I liked Ultimate Defense.
Can we have the shields rotate around the character before vanishing?
Can the shields have a more physical and opaque silluete?
Can we have a metal sound effect at the finish of the animation to confirm we are now armoured?

Can we make the animation for Resounding Smash keep one feet in the floor while changing weight distribution and stepping forward? The right legs falls at the same time as the axe.
Rotating hips mid-air looks weird and that's not how humans move or generate power.

Similar issue with the Mage fireball. Even if it is magic, or a paper ball in a videogame.
There is no intent, conviction or will to hurt with a double spin. That's not how we generate force or throw things.
Even for the sake of show, some things are so intuitively ingrained that we know something is off.

Throwing things to hurt other things is human 101. Double spin is anthropomorphic unnatural and the aesthetic value doesn't pay off imo.

Sloppy, but I did it with the best of intentions

petdcat

My hope is that we will have an option when selecting our secondary to create an "evasion tank". Relying less on being a rock, and more on being hard to hit. Similar to what the original LoTRO Warden was (which out the gambit mechanism).

Every game has the tons of armor, come hit me tank--but I would like to see the option for evasion/mitigation tank. Something that is less of a rock, or a Mac truck, and more of a swirling dervish that is lithe, difficult to hit, and involve creating hate-kiting-picking up addsm relying less on armor and more on evasion/deflection.

I believe that such a tank would be more in line with the Vaelune who are desert bred. Lets face it, if you live in the desert you are not going to want to wear 40lbs of metal on your body. I have been involved in full contact Medieval combat in Phoenix in the summer. Trust me, full Gothic plate is not an option at 110 degrees in the shade.

The idea being that combat does not devolve into someone standing in one place holding something while others wack on it with sticks but allowing the tank to be more dynamic.

Rhuell

I agree. There's potential for numerous styles of tank to be employed in Ashes. A few general examples of what could be done:

Tank/Rogue, Tank/Ranger: Evasion Tank
Tank/Tank: Traditional brick wall.
Tank/Cleric: I could see a similarity to Brigitte in OW where the tank heals themselves and possible others whenever the strike an enemy or use a skill. Of course, not on par with a cleric primary, but effectively supplemental.
Tank/Summoner: I'd like to see a less robust tank capable of summoning shields or minions capable of acting as alt tanks that can take heat off of the main tank as well as the rest of the party. This may be less effective in large raids where you already have alt tanks, but it'd still be neat imo.
Tank/Bard: Buff tank. Give your allies the encouragement they need with well placed, and timed, strikes and skill usage.
Tank/Fighter, Tank/Mage: I believe would work best as either high (for a tank) damage tanks, or, and this is my preference, tanks that use their innate combat abilities to hinder and debilitate the enemies, a.k.a. cc/debuff tanks.

Anyways, just a few stray thoughts on how I think the tank role could see some effective, and impactful diversity.

Rhuell

Internet problem

Rhuell

Sorry

perseus01

Hey guys. Love the Onslaught ability.

JoeInTheDark

As a tank of other MMOs such as WoW and ESO, I am very excited!! Im loving what I see so far.

Snarky

In general, the game looks great but I am disappointed with the tank class as it is shown here.
I would much prefer the tank to be a pure fighter class with abilities centered around martial prowess. The preview here looks to me like a powerful mage/elemental/summoner.
The weapon toss only makes sense if he/she magically summons a weapon and then throws it and it is the same with the magic javelin. The moves all have fire/explosion effects that are distracting and way over the top and most importantly belong to a mage/fire elemental class IMHO.
The only one I thought was okay was the onslaught rush ability as that is based around a physical ability but please remove the fire.
All the fire and explosions are fine if they come from an appropriate combination of other classes who use magic.
Keep up the good work and hope you can use the feedback.

Anonymous332

The effects shouldnt be flames imo (magic) unless it was a Tank Mage. Shockwave'ish effects are more fitting for melee said earlier in this thread.

zammwich

Onslaught looks really nice, The other abilities feel like the animations are far to fast and don't have a lot of weight to them. Like when they jump after the weapon toss I feel that's not a very tanky stance. They should feel more grounded and sturdy when they do there abilities. I feel like many of the animations I've seen in previews could benefit from being slowed down a little bit. Not trying to be negative! Love many things happening just trying to be constructive!

Child Item