peterthepan3 wrote:Balance should revolve around people playing competently within a group setting.
That being said, I do empathise with concerns brought by you and others from the NA. It is painfully dead at times, and scenarios barely pop. However, how do you faciltiate to the NA lot while not having an overbearing effect on overall balance, too?
Will 'fixing guard' (I don't think it needs any fixing, personally) really bring about more people? We have to be realistic, too.
Peter,
This has always been my goal. How do we facilitate low pop times without having an effect on overall balance. I think there are MANY ways to do this with guard, which is why I am looking for community feedback, rather than just saying "this is the way". I have proposed several ideas that I dont think would break guard... There are MANY ways to do this. As I have said multiple times on multiple previous pages. This is how I see it.
In "competitive" 6 man groups - nearly everyone has guard. 2-2-2 teams, between 2 tanks, easily can swap guard to any target being focused. So for the sake of argument, guard in this example has near 100% uptime on any group member.
This, is ONE of the biggest advantages premades have over PUG groups and why premade groups will ROFL stomp all over nearly ANY pug group - Guard.
So why not seek to make guard work more like this for PUG groups - which will have NO impact on premade groups? In fact, one could argue that making guard an aura, actually moves UP the skill ceiling since now you have to coordinate punting 2 tanks to nuke 1 target, or KD 1 tank (outside guard range) and punt the other.
I have thought about this A LOT, and the solution I like the most is this:
"Guard: You prepare your defenses, ready to intercept any damage meant for an ally within
25 feet of you,
increasing your chance to defend against all attacks by 10%." (obviously change of text requires client control, but this would be akin how I imagine it)
So this is an AoE aura, with a selfish benefit (10% more chance to defend) which encourages ALL tanks to use this. Basically this selfish benefit will make it so all tanks will cast this ability and have it up 100% of the time. Now, if a tank wants to guard, he merely just runs NEAR his target and now with a 25 foot "requirement" it actually makes it harder to have this applied to all group members at once. Adding 10% chance to defend, also helps with taking too much damage, and the 25 foot aura also will mean it will be much harder to see your full party in that range. 25 feet also makes punts stronger, since it creates a longer "run back" period to get within range of 25 feet.
What this DOES allow now, are MDPS who are not "coordinating" with the tank, so maybe start assisting off a tank and staying near him (rather than it being on the tank to stay near the MDPS) to get guard. There becomes (now) a way where that MDPS has some level of "control" where he can get guard. This removes 100% of the blame on the tank for not using it.
Now, why does this help NA times? Because right now, NA players are more on the "fringe" of high population times. So, for instance, many times when I get a chance to log on on weeknights, I will check the webpage and see 200-300 people online (versus 3-4x that number during peak times). When I get on, very few people are on my friends list, and very few are on my guild page. Point being, lower pop times, NA players are FORCED to play without a full group. Now, since I play a tank, we always have a tank, but when I played MDPS, trying to find a GOOD tank that used guard was a HUGE pain in the ass. So I often had to play without one. Speaking from experience personally, and talking with MANY NA friends, who would solo or Duo Que as MDPS or RDPS or even healers... people got sick of getting rolled by a premade group, or a coordinated group, who used guard, and assisted, when they look around and see 3-4 tanks in the SC, all of which are 2H, stacking STR, and not using guard. Maybe casting it on an ally, but not then staying within range...
Its an EXTREMELY common problem, which leads to rage quits and people not wanting to play. As I said, I have two NA friends who have rage quit, uninstalled, and are not playing in the last 2 weeks alone, because they got sick of solo or duo Queing and people not doing their role... One was a Sorc, the other a Mara. Now we can all "ROFL a Mara QQd blah blah" yes, Mara are very strong, maybe OP, but play a mara in SCs solo, without guard, and you will melt FAST. As a sorc, not having a frontline, is what caused the other friend to quit.
Now, when we were ALL on, it was pure bliss. Another NA buddy is a DOK, I am a Chosen/BG, and so we had a nice little 4 man with 1 heal, 1 tank, 1 MDPS, 1 RDPS. Was easy to do ANYTHING. But if I couldnt play, or DOK couldnt play.... We literally created a facebook chat just to coordinate play times, but over time zones and schedules, it didnt always line up....
Anyone on EU times wont understand this. You type in LFG and there are several players who are not half bad who will join you... But not late nights. This is where many NA players find themselves and due to the selfless guard mechanic that is SOOO critical for success in combat... it truly makes for a miserable experience.
So tell me, what would be the negative impact or how would it "break" the game if guard worked how I suggested above?
- 25 foot aura, active for any group member, tanks 10% increase chance to defend attacks when active.
(Side note: A secondary way to encourage this, would be modify the tactic "Focused Offense" to make it so GUARD "increases your damage by 25%" however your chance to defend attacks is reduced by 10% OR... maybe "Guard's effectiveness reduced 25%, to make it a 75%/25% split) so even this encourages the "DPS Tanks" to use Guard. Just another IDEA...
I think this would create a much more "friendly" solo Que experience, where all tanks will run guard all the time, players can choose then to stick together and get the benefits of guard or not - but now its on the guard-ee to get guard for himself NOT the tanks job.