- Nov 8, 2020
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So I've never been a fan of fighter classes, because they are usually boring, require minimal strategy and easy rotations.
This is usually because fighter is the default class that newb joe signs up for and any hack can manage it, doing it well is a mark of some skill, but not a particularly high bar in comparison to more complex systems that go into other classes, which is just as well because tanks serve a very crucial role and not having a high bar means anyone can fill the vital function if needed pending they are playing the class.
With that said, this isn't the default here (being vampire), so the pressure to make that happen isn't as extreme or necessary, as such I'd like to see them have a more sophisticated system while still maintaining the role and theme.
Very clearly from the description a rage mechanic is already set for these guys, which is good. I don't think however, it should be tied to their health directly.
Instead a more complex balancing act seems more appropriate of managing health and rage seems like a better approach, otherwise you end up with tanks that run away, and that's no good. Health regen scales with rage, more rage = more percent which can be specc'd, and rage thresholds can also add damage to attacks, but lower strike rolls at a progressively worsening rate, making rage that is too high and not appropriately specc'd to be problematic since you'll miss your big hits (ie enter a frenzy state). Rage obviously needs a bleed off in combat and an accelerated decay out of combat so that the player is wanting to rage their way through enemies constantly. Basic attacks also don't cost or generate rage unless a berserk state (maximum rage level) is entered. Top and bottom rage bars will bleed slower than the others in both cases.
Maximum berserk rage applies large damage boosts, hefty attack negatives, but also has a chance to target other players in the range of their attacks. This is why you tank the boss away from the party
this can only target physical states, so you won't generally "kill another player" but you can mess them up, but alternately, if it's another revenant this can be a useful tactic to keep each other's rage up.
Ideally the goal is to make the revenant's casts more situationally aware so that the player manages their rage appropriate to the conflict and situation at hand favoring more or less rage generation in certain scenarios. I think the way to play this is the revenant wants you to him them as much and as hard as possible right up to the point where they die. This is reflected by the fact that they don't have nourishing mechanic like the others I've set up, but rather a rage meter.
Rage bars should probably have a good set of stages with something like the following: (note each stage needs to bleed off 1 at a time, though this is accelerated out of combat.)
Rage is generated by abilities and being damaged (not hit) by enemies. Abilities only generate so much rage so it's important that the revenant be not just getting hit, but literally taking damage as much as possible, striving to keep their health as low as possible to generate maximum rage, while still being able to pull away from heavy enemy telegraphed attacks so they don't eat it.
Stage 0: not enough rage generated, no special bonuses or drawbacks, very minor health regen
Stage 1: +x damage, minor health regen,
Stage 2: +x % damage, unholy rage aura activates, moderate health regen, from this stage forward any enemy killed by you helps generate rage
Stage 3: +x% attack speed, minor attack roll penalty, certain special attacks become enhanced, moderate+ health regen
Stage 4: Absolute berserk (usually used during boss battles or super tough elites), can target allies with aoe blows, can't use non attack powers except aura and warcry (ie, no sunder, no gaze, no ignore pain), aura effectiveness increased, major health regen, +x% attack speed and crit chance and crit damage, moderate attack penalty, moderate armor reduction, enrage is automatically cast when possible when not on cooldown.
The key to balancing this is that minor mook fights shouldn't generate a ton of rage, while prolonged boss battles should generate rage levels pretty quickly and sustain them. Additionally each rage level will see an increased level of dark red border haze/bleed, narrowing the field of vision for the player. This is still semi transparent and increasingly less transparent and aggressive as it progresses, however, the UI can't be covered by this. This makes situational awareness harder to manage the more rage they have generated, and of course, could be specc'd against or for to receive additional bonuses, ie, more aggressive focus and limitations = more rage generation or damage or similar, and less aggressive doesn't offer bonuses but offers greater situational awareness, all the way down to being lucidly bloodlusting (no camera border effect).
The key will be to manage between which stages of rage you want to be at for what effects, and poor situational awareness and management of this will get the character killed, or alternately lock them out of abilities they might want to use like sunder until their rage depletes enough.
While revenants are shown in heavy armor, I think it would be wise to make it possible to play a low/no armor spec as well, being that this could generate more threat faster and offer different play styles with varying risk v reward. This is of course, unless their armor is a naturally fused part of their body, which I suppose is a different direction/spec it could go in meaning that damage to the armor that is reduced before applied to health could have a portion of that generate rage as well. I also have the image in my head of an unarmored revenant that carries a large boulder they are chained to that also wields this as weapon similar to a ridiculously oversized flail and this just sticks out as a thing I need to see in game somewhere.
Abilities can be cast to lower effect without appropriate rage but will be minimally effective unless that is specc'd into to increase values (making armor builds a good choice in that case).
The ground work for fighter classes is long established, so I won't go into much detail other than where I think it might diverge.
Generally speaking they need extra buffs on all large melee weapons and be able to spec into that to be more effective than average. They should probably be skewed towards favoring large, heavy weapons.
They need a warcry to generate initial rage that also rally buffs players in party experience range with a temporary (maybe 10 sec at base or so) bonus to physical attack and defense rolls this also alerts all local enemies and generates threat.
Enrage as cooldown ability, X% of the damage from the last blow you took (within 3 seconds) is restored, no rage cost and generates additional rage on top of what you would have gotten initially proportional to the damage restored. This is the bread and butter mechanic that allows them to ensure they are generating more rage than damage taken. Can be specc'd into
Ignore pain: the reverse of enrage, the next attack within 3 seconds is reduced in damage by X% of your total health (specced for greater and possible duration). This cuts the incoming damage you take but reduces the rage you generate, additionally you can cast this before a hit and still follow it with enrage for any damage you did take. In this case, the enrage will only calculate the damage you actually received, not the total hit.
They need a devastating blow telegraphed attack that eats a lot of generated rage, this is likely near the end of a rotation after you've applies other statuses (slow, bleed, etc, anything that lowers their defenses) so it doesn't miss. Landing this blow effectively has a chance, if the target is killed to buff the revenant with "covered in viscera" which provides additional rage over time during it's short duration. Speccing this can add additional effects, viscera chance and properties, etc.
harrowing gaze, this is a basic taunt maneuver that locks the focus of the target, generating a large amount of threat and costing minimal rage but requires loS. speccing here could increase threat generated and damage from the target, which can be useful if the target isn't doing enough damage to generate enough rage, essentially cause them to purse the revenant with supernaturally induced rage, careful use of stacks here will keep the revenant generating more rage than them, and thus eating all their damage while chipping their health. Essentially they get a rage that gives them tunnel vision on the target. In a PvP sense this migh lower the lighting of everything except the target and the revenant, making it easier to focus on them and harder to focus on anything else, especially since tab targeting is likely not a thing here. The total lighting change would likely depend on the potency of the casting revenant, which a weaker cast dimming other things slightly to especially potent casts practically blacking out everything else for the duration for the player.
Sunder armor as standard, costs medium rage, removes X% armor from armored targets.
Charge as standard, eats some rage, probably shouldn't cost more than a warcry generates at base. specs could increase gap distance close, speed and knockdown %
Execute as standard, operates on non boss enemies below a certain health % threshold and does +ridiculous percent damage, also depletes rage unless they reach a blood frenzy state on the rage meter, at which point it generates rage. This allows them to clear large groups of trash. A failed execute always generates rage but can only be attempted when the target is below a certain health percent.
Whirling cleave as standard, they use their weapon to swing in a wide arc or spin depending on the weapon. Generates high threat and damages enemies in a wide arc, costs minimal rage.
Unholy rage aura: at a certain stage of rage the aura automatically activates for better or worse and can have a wide variety of effects depending on how they spec the aura. This might provide buffs to allies, debuffs to enemies, enhance damage, extra attack speed, health regen, status effects, all sorts of stuff, but it won't be active till they reach say a stage 2 rage, additional stages can stack extra slotted effects they have specc'd in. More potent effects require higher rage slots and the base one they start with is probably more health regen.
Additionally these abilities will not only be enhanced by advanced rage states, but some abilities might become more potent.
As an example, the warcry could be specc'd to incite fear if X rage level is achieved. This is of course, has ups and downs in that you'll have less incoming damage which is good and bad depending on the circumstance.
Rage auras can also be specc'd to cause a weapon to apply an additional selected damage type with appropriate animation (ie fire makes your weapon appear on fire, etc.)
Revenants are not being built with much in the form of outside combat abilities for the sake of their lore concept making them consumed with rage, making non combat stuff a non priority.
revenants can also spec to generate combo levels faster than other classes.
I had considered adding a debuff if they are at zero rage too long out of combat, but I'm not a huge fan of player punishment mechanics and decided the punishment is they need to build their rage from 0.
This is usually because fighter is the default class that newb joe signs up for and any hack can manage it, doing it well is a mark of some skill, but not a particularly high bar in comparison to more complex systems that go into other classes, which is just as well because tanks serve a very crucial role and not having a high bar means anyone can fill the vital function if needed pending they are playing the class.
With that said, this isn't the default here (being vampire), so the pressure to make that happen isn't as extreme or necessary, as such I'd like to see them have a more sophisticated system while still maintaining the role and theme.
Very clearly from the description a rage mechanic is already set for these guys, which is good. I don't think however, it should be tied to their health directly.
Instead a more complex balancing act seems more appropriate of managing health and rage seems like a better approach, otherwise you end up with tanks that run away, and that's no good. Health regen scales with rage, more rage = more percent which can be specc'd, and rage thresholds can also add damage to attacks, but lower strike rolls at a progressively worsening rate, making rage that is too high and not appropriately specc'd to be problematic since you'll miss your big hits (ie enter a frenzy state). Rage obviously needs a bleed off in combat and an accelerated decay out of combat so that the player is wanting to rage their way through enemies constantly. Basic attacks also don't cost or generate rage unless a berserk state (maximum rage level) is entered. Top and bottom rage bars will bleed slower than the others in both cases.
Maximum berserk rage applies large damage boosts, hefty attack negatives, but also has a chance to target other players in the range of their attacks. This is why you tank the boss away from the party
this can only target physical states, so you won't generally "kill another player" but you can mess them up, but alternately, if it's another revenant this can be a useful tactic to keep each other's rage up.Ideally the goal is to make the revenant's casts more situationally aware so that the player manages their rage appropriate to the conflict and situation at hand favoring more or less rage generation in certain scenarios. I think the way to play this is the revenant wants you to him them as much and as hard as possible right up to the point where they die. This is reflected by the fact that they don't have nourishing mechanic like the others I've set up, but rather a rage meter.
Rage bars should probably have a good set of stages with something like the following: (note each stage needs to bleed off 1 at a time, though this is accelerated out of combat.)
Rage is generated by abilities and being damaged (not hit) by enemies. Abilities only generate so much rage so it's important that the revenant be not just getting hit, but literally taking damage as much as possible, striving to keep their health as low as possible to generate maximum rage, while still being able to pull away from heavy enemy telegraphed attacks so they don't eat it.
Stage 0: not enough rage generated, no special bonuses or drawbacks, very minor health regen
Stage 1: +x damage, minor health regen,
Stage 2: +x % damage, unholy rage aura activates, moderate health regen, from this stage forward any enemy killed by you helps generate rage
Stage 3: +x% attack speed, minor attack roll penalty, certain special attacks become enhanced, moderate+ health regen
Stage 4: Absolute berserk (usually used during boss battles or super tough elites), can target allies with aoe blows, can't use non attack powers except aura and warcry (ie, no sunder, no gaze, no ignore pain), aura effectiveness increased, major health regen, +x% attack speed and crit chance and crit damage, moderate attack penalty, moderate armor reduction, enrage is automatically cast when possible when not on cooldown.
The key to balancing this is that minor mook fights shouldn't generate a ton of rage, while prolonged boss battles should generate rage levels pretty quickly and sustain them. Additionally each rage level will see an increased level of dark red border haze/bleed, narrowing the field of vision for the player. This is still semi transparent and increasingly less transparent and aggressive as it progresses, however, the UI can't be covered by this. This makes situational awareness harder to manage the more rage they have generated, and of course, could be specc'd against or for to receive additional bonuses, ie, more aggressive focus and limitations = more rage generation or damage or similar, and less aggressive doesn't offer bonuses but offers greater situational awareness, all the way down to being lucidly bloodlusting (no camera border effect).
The key will be to manage between which stages of rage you want to be at for what effects, and poor situational awareness and management of this will get the character killed, or alternately lock them out of abilities they might want to use like sunder until their rage depletes enough.
While revenants are shown in heavy armor, I think it would be wise to make it possible to play a low/no armor spec as well, being that this could generate more threat faster and offer different play styles with varying risk v reward. This is of course, unless their armor is a naturally fused part of their body, which I suppose is a different direction/spec it could go in meaning that damage to the armor that is reduced before applied to health could have a portion of that generate rage as well. I also have the image in my head of an unarmored revenant that carries a large boulder they are chained to that also wields this as weapon similar to a ridiculously oversized flail and this just sticks out as a thing I need to see in game somewhere.
Abilities can be cast to lower effect without appropriate rage but will be minimally effective unless that is specc'd into to increase values (making armor builds a good choice in that case).
The ground work for fighter classes is long established, so I won't go into much detail other than where I think it might diverge.
Generally speaking they need extra buffs on all large melee weapons and be able to spec into that to be more effective than average. They should probably be skewed towards favoring large, heavy weapons.
They need a warcry to generate initial rage that also rally buffs players in party experience range with a temporary (maybe 10 sec at base or so) bonus to physical attack and defense rolls this also alerts all local enemies and generates threat.
Enrage as cooldown ability, X% of the damage from the last blow you took (within 3 seconds) is restored, no rage cost and generates additional rage on top of what you would have gotten initially proportional to the damage restored. This is the bread and butter mechanic that allows them to ensure they are generating more rage than damage taken. Can be specc'd into
Ignore pain: the reverse of enrage, the next attack within 3 seconds is reduced in damage by X% of your total health (specced for greater and possible duration). This cuts the incoming damage you take but reduces the rage you generate, additionally you can cast this before a hit and still follow it with enrage for any damage you did take. In this case, the enrage will only calculate the damage you actually received, not the total hit.
They need a devastating blow telegraphed attack that eats a lot of generated rage, this is likely near the end of a rotation after you've applies other statuses (slow, bleed, etc, anything that lowers their defenses) so it doesn't miss. Landing this blow effectively has a chance, if the target is killed to buff the revenant with "covered in viscera" which provides additional rage over time during it's short duration. Speccing this can add additional effects, viscera chance and properties, etc.
harrowing gaze, this is a basic taunt maneuver that locks the focus of the target, generating a large amount of threat and costing minimal rage but requires loS. speccing here could increase threat generated and damage from the target, which can be useful if the target isn't doing enough damage to generate enough rage, essentially cause them to purse the revenant with supernaturally induced rage, careful use of stacks here will keep the revenant generating more rage than them, and thus eating all their damage while chipping their health. Essentially they get a rage that gives them tunnel vision on the target. In a PvP sense this migh lower the lighting of everything except the target and the revenant, making it easier to focus on them and harder to focus on anything else, especially since tab targeting is likely not a thing here. The total lighting change would likely depend on the potency of the casting revenant, which a weaker cast dimming other things slightly to especially potent casts practically blacking out everything else for the duration for the player.
Sunder armor as standard, costs medium rage, removes X% armor from armored targets.
Charge as standard, eats some rage, probably shouldn't cost more than a warcry generates at base. specs could increase gap distance close, speed and knockdown %
Execute as standard, operates on non boss enemies below a certain health % threshold and does +ridiculous percent damage, also depletes rage unless they reach a blood frenzy state on the rage meter, at which point it generates rage. This allows them to clear large groups of trash. A failed execute always generates rage but can only be attempted when the target is below a certain health percent.
Whirling cleave as standard, they use their weapon to swing in a wide arc or spin depending on the weapon. Generates high threat and damages enemies in a wide arc, costs minimal rage.
Unholy rage aura: at a certain stage of rage the aura automatically activates for better or worse and can have a wide variety of effects depending on how they spec the aura. This might provide buffs to allies, debuffs to enemies, enhance damage, extra attack speed, health regen, status effects, all sorts of stuff, but it won't be active till they reach say a stage 2 rage, additional stages can stack extra slotted effects they have specc'd in. More potent effects require higher rage slots and the base one they start with is probably more health regen.
Additionally these abilities will not only be enhanced by advanced rage states, but some abilities might become more potent.
As an example, the warcry could be specc'd to incite fear if X rage level is achieved. This is of course, has ups and downs in that you'll have less incoming damage which is good and bad depending on the circumstance.
Rage auras can also be specc'd to cause a weapon to apply an additional selected damage type with appropriate animation (ie fire makes your weapon appear on fire, etc.)
Revenants are not being built with much in the form of outside combat abilities for the sake of their lore concept making them consumed with rage, making non combat stuff a non priority.
revenants can also spec to generate combo levels faster than other classes.
I had considered adding a debuff if they are at zero rage too long out of combat, but I'm not a huge fan of player punishment mechanics and decided the punishment is they need to build their rage from 0.
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