[Guard Mechanic] - Discussion/Changes?

[NSKaneda]

Nonetheless, Guard in it's current form is boring gameplay. I would love to see it changed into a more active skill. This would force any tank to think about how to position themselves properly during battle and when to use it (use guard, use cc or any other skill?).

Keep an eye on party hp bars. Keep an eye on healers, casters and enemy dps. Change guard and taunt accordingly. Keep an eye on guard range and your position in relation to enemy (always front) and guarded team mate. How's that not active gameplay? I admit it doesn't take much skill but it's far from boring when **** hits the fan

Cone based (90deg) on a 0-3 sec CD.. I'll let our resident forum warriors ponder about it.

Sounds like "Hold the line" to me

[Satoq]

Keep an eye on party hp bars. Keep an eye on healers, casters and enemy dps. Change guard and taunt accordingly. Keep an eye on guard range and your position in relation to enemy (always front) and guarded team mate. How's that not active gameplay? I admit it doesn't take much skill but it's far from boring when **** hits the fan .

We're talking about guard as an ability. We're not talking about playing as a tank or your role during combat.
Turning Guard into an active skill would make tanking more interesting and definitely more challenging imho.

Anyways like I said... Guard, boring in it's current state.

[peterthepan3]

Effective, though, and does its job. Even the slightest change to it will radically change the game and necessitate a balance overhaul.

[th3gatekeeper]

Nonetheless, Guard in it's current form is boring gameplay. I would love to see it changed into a more active skill. This would force any tank to think about how to position themselves properly during battle and when to use it (use guard, use cc or any other skill?).

How, I don't know. Will it work? No clue. It would be a game-changer though.

Cone based (90deg) on a 0-3 sec CD.. I'll let our resident forum warriors ponder about it.

Anyways.. Guard doesn't take that much skill right now. Unless you have a hard time tracking healthbars and/or don't have a clue how and who to prioritize during combat.

Just a wish. Probably not feasible.

This was along the lines in what I was thinking when I made this post. Less of a passive "put it on this guy and follow him around" and more of an active ability with a CD.

Just throwing something out there:
"For the next 5 seconds you guard all allies within 60 feet of you splitting all damage with them" on a 10 second cooldown.

It just seems (to me) that guard is just not a FUN mechanic. There arent any hard counters to it besides KB, and while it doesnt require much skill to use (I agree with everyone) its also NOT being used by the majority of players that I come across.

Someone else threw out the idea of making guard have a CD between recasting it. Thats an interesting idea... Makes guard swapping a little harder.

I was also mulling over the idea of being able to cast guard on more than 1 person and how that could work... Which would be interesting as well. Make you think more about it though as you could eat a TON of damage very quickly...

[peterthepan3]

People not using it doesn't equate to guard needing a rework.

[Tankbeardz]

These threads are almost as bad as the x-realm ones. Guard is one ability that sets this game apart and promotes active group play. I'm all for pugs and pre-mades being separated in queues...but I'm against almost every other single thread about removing advantages for groups. This game was built around that concept and people are always ready to jump on the nerf bandwagon before coming up with real solutions. I would lean towards another solution like making guard severable (long cooldown or morale). This wouldn't change the mechanic...it would just make tanks have 1 more thing to worry about. Guard is about utility...not whether it's boring or not...tanks who have a clue have more to worry about than most and its definitely not boring for them...

[Arbich]

Someone else threw out the idea of making guard have a CD between recasting it. Thats an interesting idea... Makes guard swapping a little harder.

This would favor groups with voice-comm. And I don´t see how it would involve more skill.

I think guard is ok as it is now.

An possible idea about making it an active instead of a passive skill, could be by make it a short duration skill and give guarded player a debuff. Example: You activate guard on a player and share the damage with him for 20sec (or less, if you switch guard again within the 20sec) , the guarded player gets a debuff that he can´t get guarded for 30sec (starts when applying guard). So in best case the guarded player can´t be guarded for 10sec.
You could also give every tank-class a different debuff to encourage different tanks in groups (so you could circumvent the debuff with clever guard-switches)

[th3gatekeeper]

An possible idea about making it an active instead of a passive skill, could be by make it a short duration skill and give guarded player a debuff.

This is interesting. I like this idea. You activate guard and for the next 20 seconds, split damage. An easy way instead of a debuff is just put a 20 second CD on Guard, making it so you cant swap it to another target.

So you blow guard on an ally, and in theory you can even keep it up indefinitely as it lasts 20 seconds, and CD of 20 seconds. But as an active skill.

But this makes it so you cant swap to someone else, which would force a second tank to keep their guard ready to activate it on someone.

This seems like it would be a higher coordination skill to group play, but make it less impactful for PUG games and more FUN as its now an active skill to use. So in a PUG group, you see someone is guarded, you instantly swap targets and that solo tank, cant adapt as quick - making the big deciding factor in that fight.

With this adjustment to guard, would you increase the range slightly to make it easier to put on someone? Like 50 feet?

[peterthepan3]

If pugs can't use guard in its current form (for the reasons you purport to be responsible ), then how will they use a version that requires even more coordination?

[th3gatekeeper]

If pugs can't use guard in its current form (for the reasons you purport to be responsible ), then how will they use a version that requires even more coordination?

Well for 1 its seen as more of a "1 time use" ability so its much easier to be aware of when its used and if its working or not. When its passive the "out of sight out of mind" principle comes into mind. A PUG wont even bother casting Guard because frankly, guard is such a short range and he isnt going to follow that person around. However if that 2H tank SEES a guy infront of him taking a beating and Guard is seen as a proactive "active" ability, I think there is a HIGHER chance he might use that to soak up some damage.

Also, its not that it necessarily gives PUGs an easier way to use it, but right now in SCs you get 1 good tank who can guard swap, and its basically GG. PUGs are not coordinated so its not like an opposing good DPS can get players to swap target and FF with him. Forcing that 1 tank to be committed to guard just 1 target for 20 seconds allows other players to have the time to swap targets and have that window to burn someone down with an HD. I can think of my time in playing Mara and how frustrating it would be smacking at someone who is guarded, swap targets and even call it out with a buddy who we were Duo Qing with, and the guard gets swapped. I mean kudos to that tank for playing exceptionally well, but it was frustrating not being able to have a full coordination where we could super punt the tank away, or have ease in FF targets.

So I think it diminishes the impact 1 good tank can have in an SC in total, and at the same time, increases a skill gap for GOOD 6v6 gameplay as now 2 Tanks will almost be mandatory for guard coordination.

It also adds more perceived FUN to the game being an active ability that is cast with a CD. Eventhough in reality its not much different, its the active perception that makes it more fun. I mean how lame are KOBS/Chosen and auras right now? You cast it once and its done. While I think having to twist was overkill, there is a middle ground that could make the class more FUN - but thats a different topic.

So I think making Guard an active ability does everything for everyone:
- Diminishes its role in PUG SCs
- Makes it more "FUN" to use - more intuitive anyways.
- Keeps a high skill cap for coordinated groups.

I honestly cant think of a bad downside other than it is an overall "nerf" to guard but only a slight one which is why I had suggested possibly increasing the range to 50feet, so its a nerf in some aspects but a buff in others... Overall I do think this would make it more fun (IMO) to play - if guard were an active ability.