Had some time at work today envisioning one of the tough losses from Warhammer Online: The Blackguard...
“Fools!” the armor clad Druchii general slams his scroll on the table, “I cannot imagine Malekith has decreed this himself! It surely is a forgery!” He points to the discarded scroll and then looks at you. Eyes ablaze with fury and nostrils flaring like a raging bull.
“Retreat and Decommissioned? NOW? When we are so close for victory?”
He slumps down and sits reminiscing his days as a Soldier for the Dark Elves.
I learned how I became who I am. I feed off of the pain. What does not kill makes me stronger. It is said Dwarves bear grudges against those that hurt them or their allies. The difference between us and them is clear.
I have no allies. I hate everyone.
Sure it behooves the Druchii to work with the Chaos fanatics or dumb brutish Greenskins, but only because they serve our ends. They are tools of our campaign. I simply hate them less than I hate the High Elves and their friends.
So how does my Hate really work in detail? Why not give a player the same mechanic a PvE monster gets???
For example the Blackguard does into battle against a tank, and healer. For simplicity purposes the base damage of the Blackguard (BG) attacks are 10. If the tank hits him for 5, his hate meter goes up 5 points. The BG has a 0.5% damage increase against the tank now. Suppose the healer heals the tank the BG is engaged with for 30. The hate meter goes up 30 points and the BG gets a 3% damage increase against that healer. He still has only a 0.5% damage increase against the tank. This might prompt the BG to go after the healer, because he has considerable more benefits to do so.
We also know that as a Tank, if you are ignored by an opponent, that opponent suffers a penalty. Blackguards get an additional benefit from this mechanic. Blackguards hate being ignored. So a Blackguard ignored generates some hate on his meter.
Blackguards are proficient in the polearms weapons. This is great because most MMOs favor the sword and shield combination. Blackguards don’t evade opponents (Swordmasters), don’t have the highest hit points (Greenskins) and don’t have the highest armor mitigation (Chosen/ Ironbreakers do). So how can a Blackguard tank?
Two components – 1st should be frustration. This means their longer polearm weapons these BG’s use enable them to jab and keeps an opponent at a distance. Melee opponents are unable to get their hot buttons to turn on because they seem to be out of range when fighting a Blackguard. The halberd can damage and push the opponent back. Very frustrating for players. As a defensive strategy, it generates hate for the monster and keeps himself from being harmed often. Knockdowns are also possible of course.
Blackguards also generate tons of hate from dps. Their hatred mechanic ramps up quickly by design and as a result they pour out a lot of damage to keep a monsters attention. So the overall group/raid strategy is to jab and push, then when hate flies up, slash for big damage. This should be tweaked to give Blackguards a good tank role comparable to other tanks.
Another neat ability might be Lockdown. The BG ties up an opponents weapon with his halberd. The opponent can’t attack and if he moves he may lose his weapon for a period of time. Opponents break the lockdown with a loss of Action points.
I picture the massive hatred attacks have animations including a halberd spinning behind his back, a spin overhead and combination crouch spin maneuver whirling his halberd on a low plane of attack. Lots of fun to be had!
Mastery lines
Path of Frustration – designed to boost defenses of the BG and irritate opponents with disruptions and “toggle off” an opponents hot bar.
Path of the Relentless – focuses on PBAOE damage attacks. Also they seem to have a higher magical resistance than other tanks.
Path of the Conqueror – focuses on hatred generation and suffers less from tank ignoring than other players. These are killer tanks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS7Y7T3thD4
Big set-back for me, too. Great write up.
Fri Jul 18 2008 3:08PMMMORPG.com writes:
Login or Register to post a comment