Fencer Archive

I am also posting this thread on the general discussion forum and other melee profession forums.

I know this is a bit late, seeing as some changes to make melee professions able to tank better are already on Test Center, but I feel that this is a really good idea and I would like to share it with you to see if you also like it.

IMHO, the primary reason that melee professions, or any profession for that matter, can't tank is that our HAM pools remain constant while those of the npcs/creatures we face get larger and larger. The original thought behind this was a pretty cool one. Theoretically, by removing the growing health bar from character development, experienced players could group with newer ones and still be able to work together effectively. In execution though, it doesn't work because it doesn't apply evenly to all things. We players get stuck with our 1k HAMs throughout our career while the npc's and creatures we fight gain bigger and bigger HAM pools, AND deal more and more damage.

My proposal is based on a stat that already exists in game - toughness. The various melee classes have a toughness stat associated with their particular type of fighting style - unarmed, one handed, etc. This is supposed to reduce the amount of damage that a player takes when using that particular combat style. I have not yet played any melee profession enough to really know how effective this is at higher levels, but at TKA novice, I have seen NO substantial improvement in my ability to take a hit. I don't know if this is a non-functioning stat, like the various evades are currently, or if it is a situation where the amount reduced does not scale compared to the attack rolls of npcs/creatures, like the current problem with counterattack. If you higher level melee professions could chime in on how effective it is at higher skill levels, that would be great.

Basically, my idea is to expand toughness so that ALL combat professions (and certain non- combat professions where it would make sense, like ranger) gain some toughness based on their skill with their chosen weapon, and also that melee professions gain a significant increase in their toughness, to relflect their status as damage takers. This would simulate the effect seen in most other MMOs of increased health when you gain levels, without actually increasing anyones health, therefore insuring that players of varying skill levels can still play together effectively. This would also reduce the current reliance on pets as damage takers, as ALL combat oriented professions will benefit from this.

I want to stress that the melee professions should have a tremendously higher amount of toughness than others, therefore making them remain viable both in pve and pvp situations. Kiting melee classes becomes less effective because the meleer can shrug off the blaster bolts coming at him, while a good ranged combatant can still gain the upper hand through clever use of tactics and specials.

I'm not going to go into the specifics of which profession gets how much toughness and at what skill levels becuase quite frankly, its not my job. I'm paying SOE, not the other way around. However, I feel that this is a really good idea because it would be relatively easy for the devs to implement, seeing as it is based off of a stat that is already coded into the geme, just underused.

So what do you think? Good idea or bantha poodoo?

sounds pretty good to me

only one bad thing: in organized pvp, it would take much longer to kill someone, therefore allowing them to get healed because their health, although still the same amount, is taking less damage. but i think the good outweighs the bad here, good post.

I cant imagine being able to tank better than I already can but hey, I'm all for anything that makes us even tougher. I really want something done about mind. I could care less about the other bars. It sucks that even as a Master, my mind is no better than it was the first day I stepped foot into the world. I can take a beating from 2 Enraged Rancors at once and come out on top or beat down 5 or 6 Bolmas at once like they are chumps butlet a novice with a gun spammind shots from 64m away and I'mdead in 2 shots.Ridiculous.

Toughness works fine and is an amazing skill. You take 1% less damage for each toughness you have. So a TKA master takes 57% less damage than someone without any toughness.

Now imagine if there is "Melee toughness" but not "1hand melee toughness"...hmmm.....