Teras Kasi 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?

Nice post.Its a good idea except when you say "all combat oriented would gain from this."Not all combat class,onlymelee class cause ranged are already overpowered compared to melee proffesion(ecpet tera kasi).

Character HAM remaining constant is a problem we face irl. Another solution: armor. This is a space age universe, surely we can make armor that stops the mere intrusion of fang and claw, no?

But, maybe that's what Jedi's will be...

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personlol wrote:
Nice post.Its a good idea except when you say "all combat oriented would gain from this."Not all combat class,onlymelee class cause ranged are already overpowered compared to melee proffesion(ecpet tera kasi).

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I agree, but most mobs in the game are overpowered compared to players, which is why everyone is running around with pets. Something needs to be a damage sponge or the game becomes a death-lottery. In most other MMOs, the tanking classes can take a lot more damage than others, but most classes can still take some damage. In SWG, nobody can take damage for very long before they go kaput.

I like the constant ham. And IMO it works just fine.

The problem I see in with handing out general toughness is that our DEVs aren't always the brightest group of geeks. I don't trust that they would distribute it throughout classes where it would seem logical, and in a way that prevents people from going hybrid to gather up as much as possible.

I like the way the Ideas are going on the test center, butI'll have to wait to see if they really are what I would like to see.

There was a thread on here a couple days ago explaining how Unarmed Toughness works. You won't be able to see a change because it works very gradually. Every point in unarmed toughness, according to the thread I read this on, is like an exrta 1% kinetic resist. So at 50 unarmed Toughness, you'll take half damage from melee. That's pretty good. I'm 1-1-2-1 and Master Brawler, so I have 29 unarmed toughness. It's not the greatest reduction in the world, but with my sliced up composite armor I can take quite a beating.