DPS classes do Damage. Healers Heal. So far, so good.
The role of Tanks isn't that simple though. They are there to support other classes.
The scenario scoreboards give a measure of Damage Done and Healing Done. How does a tank measure his or her impact on the result?
The only obvious measure available to a Tank in a scenario is damage done. Tanks commonly stack strength and use a two-hander to maximise their offence. Forums are full of screenshots and boasts about topping the charts and doing 200K damage or whatever. I can't really blame them either. There's nothing else to boast about.
When a scenario finishes and I scroll down to the bottom of the scoreboard to see my damage only just topping that of a WP who did 10K damage but 200K healing I can't help but metaphorically sink into my chair and glance around a little to make sure no-one's looking my way. There is little glory for a support Tank.
Solution
Add an additional column on scenario scoreboards alongside Damage and Healing, let's call it Protection.
Protection would measure the reduction of incoming damage to party members and, importantly, party members only, not to the individual player.
This would not be exclusive to tanks, but a new score for all players. Let's look at some examples. Lancelot is your friendly KotBS and Teclis an Archmage.
- Mitigated Guard Damage - Lancelot is guarding Teclis who gets hit for 800 damage. Lancleot takes 50% of that so is hit for 400. Armour mitigates 75% of that so Lancelot has been hit for 100 damage and mitigated 300 that otherwise would have hit Teclis. Lancelot scores 300 Protection.
- Avoided Guard Damage - Lancleot takes a guard hit from Teclis of 500 but that shield he's so fond of blocks it completely. 500 Protection for Lancelot.
- Buffs - Teclis buffs Lancelot's resists and reduces the damage from an incoming Gloombolt to him by 150, earning Teclis a 150 Protection.
- Debuffs - Lancelot has a weapon that steals 80 strength from enemy players and as a result Teclis gets hit by 100 less damage. 100 to Lancelot.
- Absorbs - Teclis puts a bubble up around Lancelot which absorbs 650 damage. 650 to Teclis.
You get the picture. Any ability that directly or indirectly reduces damage to your team mates is totalled up as Protection in a new column on the scenario scoreboards.
This gives every class increased reason to use their protective abilities but in particular will emphasise teamplay and encourage and reward Tanks who play a support role which, in my opinion, will be for the betterment of the game for everyone.
And don't forget that Teclis could be removing Sorc DoTs as well. 800 protection for Teclis!
ReplyDeleteI like Teclis.
Would silencing people or interrupting them count as protection too? And for how much? Like on Dex, I have an AoE interrupt. I can stop 5 BWs from casting many (insert "Pit of Shades" equivalent here) would I earn like a billion points?
What about those knockbacks that don't actually do much like Lancelot's knockback that only interrupts the first spell but leaves me free to cast whatever while I'm going up like a sky rocket and down again like pidgeon poo? Would count significantly less than those infinately long staggers I suppose.
And why am I getting so excited about this idea? :)
I started to think about "scoring" CC but it's be a lot less simple... so I stopped thinking.
ReplyDeleteAny ideas??
Seems unfair then to scorte for the tanking's tank mitigation and not score for interrupting potentially deadly spells. But if you attributed a score equal to the dmg prevented it could get like, unmatchable. But, reversibly, all the healing prevented by a stagger could get to reach the thousands but is impossible to calculate.
ReplyDeleteMaybe a set value for each person interrupted and also for second per person staggered.
Working out the Protection score for an interrupt would work. You could work out how much potential damage the ability would have hit if not interrupted. That would work out, and it could be zillions!!
ReplyDeleteWhat would be much more complicated though is if you silenced a caster for 4secs - how would you know what abilities they would have wanted to cast in those 4 seconds and on which targets? You couldn't.
Yeah that was my point on the stagger too. Which is why I suggested something like a score per second that you silence/stagger/whatever a player.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea, but it sounds a bit complicated to actually get into the game. Ultimately, the scoreboard already shows the 3 stats that matter imo, the final scenario score, team kills, and team deaths. Everything else is fluff if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteI know where you're coming from Ted but I diagree with you. If I've read btw the lines correctly on your blog you are a v.high-end player, RR80, and typically play in co-ordinated groups where your specs and gear are setup to support the others in your group.
ReplyDeleteBut I don't play to that level, ever - even in guild premades, we usually just try to balance the group and roll with what we've got. This is a fairly decent guild I'm talking about. And I would imagine this is the norm in the game,
In non-high-end groups, and all the way down to PuGs, the focus on only damage and healing in a scenario scoreboard means it's a damage vs. healing race and players will not be encouraged to focus on anything else but that.
The Da Score add-on shows your mitigated damage as one of several additional stats for scenarios. It doesn't seem to be on Curse anymore, but you can probably find it else where (send me a PM in game if not).
ReplyDelete~Readda