mod16: Fighter Discussion

[Ziek88]

Well the time has come. Information has hit preview. The knee jerk outcry I have seen from most is "Guardian Fighter is Dead!" I must say I strongly disagree and am extremely thrilled to see the direction it has gone.

I dove in to Fighter on preview today and it feels very much like what some of us long term tanks remember as the good old days.

First some general information.
Shield mechanic no longer drains while up unless attacked. It is still stamina based however your stamina is based on how much HP you have. There are many ways to bolster it's recharge and efficiency. We also get a secondary version of shielding. Instead of Tab being a threat mark it is now "Dig In" We gain 360 shielding but can't use abilities during. How that benefit changes based on which path we chose. The feats are few but seem to have a greater impact. Largely augmenting a certain ability to be enhanced or behave a bit differently giving some diversity in how people play.


First lets talk about the tanking path "Vanguard"
All of the encounters are heavily built around high amounts of threat generation and forcing enemies to want to punch us more than everyone else. Rather than doing damage by hitting hard, we do damage by becoming painful to hit. The reflect build of mod 1-mod5 was easily the absolute most fun tanking I have ever done in this game. That build died in mod6 and appears to be making a return in glorious splendor. This path instantly gives you a +30% defense boost which is 15,000 defense. There are other mechanics to instantly pop you up another 20%. It shouldn't be to hard for a tank to hit the defense cap and then build up the other stats needed. There are also abilities that bolster the parties defense. This should be a damage mitigating, rage inducing damage reflecting machine.

Stat priority for this path: Accuracy --> Defense --> Crit Avoidance --> Deflect --> HP. ArmPen may sneak in. Deflect may fall out. Ignore rest.

Accuracy: 24,000
Defense: 64,000
Crit Avoidance: 24,000
Deflect: 49,000
ArmPen: 24,000


Now the DPS path, "Dreadnought"
This one will move faster than the tank path. It still has shield mechanic but is focused on mitigating damage as needed and then retaliating with gusto after stepping out from the shield. This reminded me largely of how the GWF functioned in mod1-5. Not as high damage but extremely self sustaining and durable. Many old boss fights sent someone off alone to handle either a mob or a boss while the party battled another part. That is what this feels like it is meant to do. It has some built in self healing. This looks like it will be a new experience in DPS that hasn't been seen in this game in a long time.