New tank skill idea (in General)

Thinking about some of the lower level weapons, especially the dagger. Thought about a skill to make use of them.

Haven't got a name for it yet, but 'assassin' would kind of fit. The skill would be like a combination of UC and a reversed Bloodlust.

You would use a weapon, but as it is for close quarters, hand to hand, you could use a dagger. You would have a certain amount of evasion, but the skill would be linked to your DEX level, rather than your ST.

And although your weapon might be low level if your dex and skill were high enough you would increase your chances of killing the opponent. The killing power would be the skill, not the damage inflicted.

Dunno if that made sense or not; also don't know if there's a place for it in the game. Such a minion wouldn't be the main damage dealer, but more like a tank version of Decay.

How would the killing blow work?

I'd like it a lot, if it was like decay, and instead of doing low melee damage, you did 1/2 targets HP with a hit. ;)

Not sure about giving evasion though...

'Execute'

Same cost as Bloodlust. Has to be trained to 1/5 Dex to have full effect.

Training any amount of this skill gives a flat -25% phsyical damage reduction. In addition each attack made has a 'x'% (10? 15?) chance to cause damage to the target like Decay. 1/2 current HP, ignores AC/Protection/Endurance.

:)

Edit: Can be used with any melee weapon.

Flowing now! ;) Make it more like BL.

Skill ranges from 0% to 60% (at 1.0, when high enough compared to Dex), which is the physical damage reduction (an inverse to BL).

As the damage reduction increases, the chance to land an 'Execute' increases, and the percentage damage done increases.

Those two figures left for balance.

I like that. Mostly it came from thinking about low level weapons, and also about splitting tanks into different fighting classes - ie human, elf, orc, thief etc. I was thinking human and orc link their skills to strength, elf and thief/assassin link theirs to dex.

The reason I was thinking about evasion on this one was: if it creates a minion that can actually kill then something like evasion might help it fight alone as a single minon.

Nah, leave evasion out. Removing the reliance on Str for damage give dex more of an emphasis. Alowing for low Str (and the slight damage reduciton it gives)and high Dex to dodge. Give's DBs a nice niche as well, seeing as EB would be boot of choice with Evasion. ;)

Plus there are two evasion skills already, don't want to glut the skill lists with it. ;)

As for the low level weapons, last I knew Jon liked the redundancy, giving players a feeling of accomplishment from moving from a Rapier to great Axe to Exe.

I don't think anything will be done to make the lower weapons any more appealing. ;)

That's my slight liking for realism coming in. Knives are just as deadly as anything else at close quarters after all....

And I often see a couple of mages sending low level fireballs at each other down the road.....;)

And Two handed Swords can be 'Half-sworded' with a grip on the blade, to be used effictively in close quarters as well. ;)

This skill should cause a penalty to evasion after the first round of combat unless fighting against a one minion team, kind of like getting caught. An assassin isn't much good when seen. Also, the skill should work like the evasion or UC scale. It should be a number amount so that a low level enchanter with 20 dex couldn't just toss this skill on at .60 and have a chance to kill a high level ToA tank or something of the sort. This could open up a new support item like an assassins blade with a bonus to the skill or a 10-20% chance of instakill. Could call the skill "backstab" or "snipe". It could work with crossbows and bows in ranged and blades in melee. I love this idea. Makes playing a "darker" character possible.

I know you're looking for a rogue/ninja "backstab" type skill.... but it seems like a tank version of Finger of Death.

Shooto, much like a 20 HP minion with an AoI using a base Decay. ;)

Exactly what I was thinking, Sukotto...

Oh, and as for AMF veruses Decay, a 20 Dex E wouldn't have a hope in hell of landing this on a ToA tank, as it's still Dev versus Dex to hit, and you'd have to hit to have a chance of doing damage. ;)

It's not FoD. FoD was insta kill. This is a 'melee' Decay.

No AMF to contend with, but you still need Dex and PTH versus Dex+Eva and DB.

We don't need a tank FoD anyway, not while the ELB is as powerful as it is..

This isn't spam, I promise.

Yes, in an ideal situation, high dex and large weapon '+' and a ToA, it would be possible to get this to hit multiple times a round. And sometimes all would 'Execute'.

But Decay only hits once per round right?

As has been said many times, physical to DD damage isn't balanced around DD's one hit per round to physicals multiple. So this shouldn't be a problem.

:)

Weapon Finesse! Sneak Attack! Coup de Grace! All in one happy packet!

I wouldn't use the skill, but the skill doesn't sound too bad. Two weapon fighting would be higher on my list of cool junk, though. Even if it is pretty much entirely pointless on CB...

Ninja Pirate Monkey skill!!!

:)

1) Keen Swordsmanship. An increase in CTH in exchange for a decrease in damage done. The counterpart to Bloodlust.

2) Double Cast. A skill trained to 10% of the DD in order to cast twice per round, with each casting at 50% of the spell's power.

This would be useful against teams with PL and cases where a minion has very few HP left and you don't want to waste 300k damage killing a minion with 40 HP left. You exchange AMF resistance and some damage for increased damage efficiency.

--OBBQ, November 12 2006 11:12 AM EST

I had that Idea months ago except the minion killed the other player in a bar the night before the match!