Knights of the Blazing Sun
This installment of the lost Warhammer Online profession goes to the Empire’s vaunted Knights of the Blazing Sun. My first worry about this profession is when Paul Barnett announcement them in a podcast at the Mythic Christmas party. He described them as a class for someone to play a tank role for Empire and that was about it. They seemed to be a profession that was a necessary evil for Mythic. They are tanks, but what can we do to make them stand out?
Tanks in other races are pretty bland in the MMO world. They either have high hit points, or have high damage absorption. At least in WAR we could try something else. KOBTS were thought to fill a role as group buffs via shouts. This is fine and dandy but we can elaborate more.
While many MMOs use “stances” for melee characters, few have tried formations as a method of gameplay. What I propose is similar to a City of Villain Mastermind character who can lay down a device which emanates burst heals in a small geometric area of effect.
What could happen is the KOBTS decides which Formation he wants. And then a geometric shape seen only by his party is outlined on the ground. Party members inside this shape gets the benefit. Those who are not, don’t. The shape is located behind the KOBTS in general and moves with him.
Of course there can be variants on this mechanic such as a stationary formation buff that can give residual benefits allowing the Knight to move elsewhere.
So while the KOBTS won’t be able to soak up damage like a Black Orc, or dance through a battlefield like a Swordmaster, He will use his battle formations to keep himself and his party at peak performance and a lean mean fighting machine.
Even more important is raid formations. Knights should be able to access raid formations from Generals as tactical options. Raid buffs!
As an interesting nuance, Knights may be made great by giving them a party evacuation skill. Retreat! This skill would provide everyone behind the Knight a 50% speed increase without any AP loss. The Knight expends all his Morale and AP to fire off the skill A morale and AP minimum must be required. In return 75% movement buff for the Knight and a 50% speed for the rest. There is a penalty is group members leave this formation. This penalty is not only because a solider didn’t follow orders, but to prevent abuse in battle. Its whole design is to get the party out of an area and regroup. How it would work is the Knight might be in a middle of a battle going bad. Use up his morale and execute Retreat. Then the party behind him has a 5 second boost to run. The Knight can maintain the boost by running in front of his party and keeping the Retreat buff behind him. This retreat is not without limits. A knight in retreat that is snared is prime pickings, because his whole party will run out of the area and be debuffed. The knight is also weak because he has no action points or morale..
The last item I propose is a deviation from Everquest 2. It is heroic opportunities. I propose the Knights use a system of Battle Commands that give the party a chance to do some heroics. This could be easily implemented in the morale system. While most players build up morale to unlock their big hit, Knights can have up to 3 Heroic Opportunities. 1/3 morale, 2/3 morale and Max. When morale reaches this point, the Knight can execute a Heroic Opportunity. A Special battle Command perhaps. Each character will have one of his ability bars light up its borders. If the character hits it then a special effect may occur. It may take a combination of abilities to unleash something fantastic, enough to turn a tide of the battle. Mythic can keep those combinations under lock and key for players to decipher. No need to create a HO icon by which everyone takes a turn to hit an ability. If the ability is part of a chain a different animation on the UI can be seen. Maybe a purple fire. When a player sees this it means the battle command is part of a chain and players should wait until it is their turn to fire it off. When the purple fire goes red. Mash the button within a short period to keep the chain going.
We want this to be easy to use, difficult to master, but FUN always.
Masteries
Path of Glory - focuses on heroics. More combinations are available to them allowing magnificent effects. A Knight well versed in Battle Commands could not only save a party from impossible odds, but perhaps turn defeat into victory.
Path of Honor - For those Knights who enjoy party buffs. They are experts in battle foormations. More formations are available to them and the general foramtions are perfected to be even more potent.
Path of the Commander - a hybrid of the two above paths, has access to some of each, but never as competent as a specialist. Commanders really shine with Raid buff enhancements.
MMORPG.com writes:
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