Parry

Nexus Discussion Fighter
1

So one thing that seemed a little odd to me was parry.

It seemed more like something that should be a passive ability, not an active. Then functionwise it was just a better version of circle that could potentially allow you to stunlock something. I think moving forward it may be a better passive ability. You could add in another taunt ability for fighters if you want, but as long as they keep circle or somr variation i dont think you need both parry and circle doing the same thing.

That said parry as a passive could function as a dodge or partial dodge chance. Perhaps it deflects 50% damage at low levels, then upgrades at 10 to deflect 100%. At 15 it could evolve into riposte and add a counterattack on top of the dodge. Which on a side note I am thinking you add riposte to thieves as well and have them get it earlier, perhaps at 10 with backstab do they can have a small chance to dodge those vital strikes off a missed backstab.

Speaking of passive things, adding a block value to shields could be interesting. It could also open up options to add abilities like shield slam (maybe for paladin as a way to draw aggro so they could be viable tank class as well).

2

Talking to Vaskung about the parry/riposte idea he suggested that instead of making it level based, you could make it based off weaponskill level, which would be pretty cool.

In fact maybe you could combine the two. Maybe parry and riposte become available at the respective levels, but the % on which they trigger could be based off weaponskill.

Weaponskill progression was:
Unskilled, Skilled, Experienced, Refined, Ace, Adept, Expert, Specialist, Master, Grandmaster

If I remember correctly, might be missing one.
You got doubles at Expert, triples at Specialist, quads at Master, quints at Grand. Really you got nothing at the lower weapon masteries and it felt like kind of a long grind to get multis. Generally if you leveled without dying too much and actually got approved for 15 you prob were just hitting expert around the time you hit 15.

Anyways if you gave fighters something else that scaled off weaponskill it might feel even more worthwhile. Lets say you got access to a 50% parry at 5, a 100% parry at 10 (that replaces the 50% one) and then gained riposte at 15 as another ability. Lets say the numbers looked something like this.
Unskilled- Parry 0%, Riposte 0%
Skilled- Parry 2%, Riposte 0%
Exerienced- Parry 4%, Riposte 1%
Refined- Parry 6%, Riposte 2%
Ace- Parry 8%, Riposte 3%
Adept- Parry 10%, Riposte 4%
Expert- Parry 12%, Riposte 5%
Specialist- Parry 15%, Riposte 6%
Master- Parry 17%, Riposte 8%
Grandmaster- Parry 20%, Riposte 10%

Or you could have riposte scale a lil better towards the end and have parry cap at 15% and riposte end at 15% for Grand

3

I actually like that mechanic a lot. I’ll work the equations this weekend.

4

I believe it was Unskilled, Basic, Skilled… Maybe?

5

I think your right. I had a feeling i was missing one. I almost forgot refined but I was sitting there like…I KNOW something was between experienced and ace…it didnt look right. Finally I thought of it.

6

Definitely makes more sense to be based on skill, but, wouldn’t it apply to all melee weapon wielding classes? However, naturally fighters would excel at it?

7

Well one thing I was thinking that if fighters are going to be the premier tanks, which they essentially were the best tanks in most situations you want to give them something useful for tanking. With not using thac0 for the armor I’m not sure exactly how the numbers are going to be crunched with armor this go around and if armor is actually going to give the mobs a chance to miss you like it used to, or if its just going to give a flat damage reduction. If it doesn’t provide the additional mitagation from dodging then I think it would be fine to add in dodgelike mechanics to aid the tanks. I don’t think it would really break anything.

I just didn’t want to homogenize the classes too much by giving EVERYONE parry, parry was a fighter only mechanic to begin with, just an active instead of the passive I’m suggesting it become.

But I was also thinking that other classes could get stuff too, for instance I was suggesting giving monks a dodge ability, which in function would be just like parry, but you could maybe make monks dodge based off dexterity or level or something. Perhaps paladins could get a bonus to shield block that could allow them to block additional damage or have a chance to block the damage completely. That way were as fighters may be the premier class with weapons, paladins may be the premiere class for using shields, keeps things kind of flavorful.

Barbarians should be relying on their strength and not so much their skill, so if you wanted to add some kind of mitagation for them, you could give them a chance while berserked to shrug off partial damage, or if they take a hit that would kill them while berserked, it instead sets them down to 1 health and gives them a moment to react. Ignoring their death for a moment, if you will. Something that fits the class more than just giving everyone parry.

8

Monks did actually have dodge. And it procced A LOT. Thats why we were fairly decent offtanks. In some main combats, especially vs hybrid magic using mobs sometimes we would be asked to main tank because we got WAY less damaged by the spells. There was an innate bonus to monks to receive a way less damage from spells and effects from elements /magic ranging from 20 to 40% less. While fighters or bersekers would consider twice before tanking any magic using creature, my monk would just dive in with no worries. Parry did stun the mob for a good while which would give the team some precious 6-8 seconds of relief in combat. I think that we should be very careful into adding new mechanics for specific classes. It will involve a lot of play testing and balancing. But one sure Im pretty sure dont give dodge to other melee classes, that was monk exclusive and what made them fantastic and unique as offtanks.