Stop Damage blocked by players

Suggestions
#1

So as a dps, I know the feeling of having your dps blocked by a tank or someone who happens to move in front of my shots.

I want to put this on the table: Make it so damage can not be blocked by players.
Here are some things that I believe this change would help with:

  • more consistent dps in raids and dungeons.
  • Allows the tank to focus on his job without worrying about blocking dps.
  • stop ghosts from blocking dps.

Now, support type abilities would still be able to hit players (heals, decurse, shield …).

In battlegrounds, players on the same team can not block eachother’s damage.

  • this might even make tanks viable because people can hide behind their tank, idk as I never see tanks in battlegrounds.

As always, I am up for feedback and discussion.

3 Likes
#2

This gets brought up occasionally, and I got to say I disagree. It adds a nice mechanical challenge. (The exception for a melee dps might be some kind of Astral Projection - Phaser based class, but honestly the way I see shamans played is already pretty close to melee dps.)

For PVP, if anything, damage should be more blockable not less, with regard to Warrior tanks, it’d be better if their shield could actually absorb incoming spells and projectiles so they could actually tank stuff. For tanks in general though, paladin still seems like the third or fourth most played pvp class due to it’s maneuverability I think.

3 Likes
#3

This always gets brought up every now and then as Kala says. You need to build group cooperation to not block each-others attacks and adds good challenge. If you don’t want to have your attacks being blocked play shaman.

1 Like
#4

Heavily in favor of not removing. This is a unique part of this game. No other MMORPG I’ve played has had body blocking. With it in, it really emphasizes the skill based gameplay that makes this game wonderful.

#5

Honestly, I do not mind body blocking all that much. As someone said above, it is like an added mechanic which makes the bosses a bit more challenging, as well as the trash. This might be because I play a mage, but I feel it is good for the tanks as well, having to move around to help the DPS and healer out.

#6

Like everyone else has said here body blocking in dungeons/raids is part of the mechanics in the game and should stay.

Same goes for pvp battlegrounds, however in overworld pvp bodyblockong should be disabled for non pvp players simply because atm someone not engaging in a pvp fight and not having pvp on can block attacks from pvp players.

3 Likes
#7

Interesting to hear, I see where people are coming from and I agree with a lot of points made. In the grand scheme of things, I guess it is not a problem. As stated, it’s an addition that adds strategy and coordination.

#8

Only that some of the points in former, more controversial threads haven’t been brought up yet… for example that body blocking IS already turned off for the shots of one class, shaman, because it would make this class unplayable else. And if there would be any more close-distance classes introduced, ever, this will likely also be necessary for those.

Other than that I suggested same for the scoundrel class with its very special mechanics. There’s still hardly any scoundrels in the game who bother to learn vertical curves or are even able to do that, even if they try. Now as for horizontal curving (the intuitive way to play, advertised in the tutorial vid), if the tank positions himself to open a nice corridor for mages and rangers (which is indeed not an issue, tanks practice that since the OG) scoundrels easily hit the tank instead of smaller mobs. Or one of the group members which are also positioning themselves, neatly to the side, not blocking each others shots, like in the OG - only that there was not any class like this who might need a free space, and exactly there. Turning off collision with players would still not erase the challenge of horizontal curves - and hitting small mobs with those - but at least remove the futility of even attempting it, at many occassions, due to players standing in all the wrong spots.
Looking at log after log, especially of newer players, scoundrels are one of the lowest damage classes, still, with almost no incentive to practice much - since you won’t ever be awesome like mages. There’s real few exceptions actually doing decent or good damage (those do vertical curves, afais). Horizontally-curved bullets hitting group members or tanks is part of this problem. I guess way too few people are playing that class, regularly, to see it though.

#9

This isn’t the first time that this has been brought up and it certainly won’t be the last. In the past I even shared your view, however, now I know that damage being blocked by other players is an opportunity for you to get better at your class, and and opportunity for you and your teammates to develop your teamwork skills.

#10

On the side that it should stay.
As a musky, my shots are AoE, so even an attack orb i can shoot my tank with and it work. Lol.
Bard hardly aims.
Scoundrel can literally curve bullets, as metris so thoroughly pointed out.
Mages can move their spells while in flight.
Shaman is often so close it doesn’t matter.
Only one that’s at a disadvantage is archer, but only if they don’t position themselves correctly.

But, this is just my opinion and only on PvE, as I don’t PvP.

#11

For awhile I thought that body blocking added some strategy to a fight - and it does. But is it really worth it? Is it really challenging? Not really. Very few shots get blocked, usually during some kind of shuffling around and someone runs in front of you. The DPS loss is not 0 but it’s not that meaningful.

The biggest trade-off I see isn’t in favor of ranged DPS, but actually the increased ability to introduce melee DPS that isn’t constantly in the way of ranged. In the current game, if there were melee DPS, they typically would have to stack on 1 spot and all ranged on the opposite (or the boss would have to be large enough - but thinking about stuff like blocking ranger weak points, etc…). This is a kind of awkward forced positioning and would do more harm to exclude melee DPS out of sheer convenience. You could argue “oh they can just improve their teamwork!” but will they really? Will the melee DPS be so good that it’s worth bringing them? Will they have some kind of unique, valuable support mechanic that dealing with positioning with them in a fight is worth it? Will this not annoy the hell out of rangers?

Melee DPS would put increased stress on musketeers probably, as to not hit the wrong target. So that kind of coordination will still be required.

In consideration of melee DPS, I actually am pro-removing these hitboxes. Though, I might suggest keeping it a thing for players who have PvP enabled (can’t shoot through body-blocking allies etc).

That said I also suggest making an option to enable allied damaging(non healing/buff) projectiles too close to your face to disappear entirely from your screen and possibly play with audio levels as well. That way as a melee there isn’t just 100 projectiles going through your screen.

#12

No they would not, the trade off is competing with mages or shamans which even if you can do that much damage a lot of fights would make it hard to get consistent damage like Mines second boss or flat out impossible for the class like Mist keeper. People would rather run ranged dps.

No… Just bounce heal.

#13

Will the melee DPS be so good that it’s worth bringing them?

Yea, rhetorical.

Yes/no, consider melee potentially running all around you in a shuffle. Organization will minimize this but it would effect coordinate with healers to some extent.

#14

A little bit, but charged shot is extremely effective and has a wide range. It won’t really be a problem for the healer unless the boss is shorter than players or something. Also, bringing this up again cause I feel people are overlooking it but high-level shaman play is already basically melee DPS.

#15

not much at all, muski can AoE heal and bards passivize can AoE heal tho its crescendos(that need a cooldown buff to be more usable as a proper healer) track so there fine (as long as your vit stat is the lowest in the party or your health is low enough that they go to you)

#16

I said melee classes would have some implications for healers, not necessarily vast implication. This is in contrast to ranged dps who’s projectiles would simply zoom through allies.

#17

Like I like it and dislike it at the same time the body block. Yes it gives players a higher skill ceiling since they gotta avoid hitting people on the other hand it is a big big block to creation of new melee classes which there would be a lot viable ones - warrior zerker tree with some nice damage, Thief with daggers to make combos or multilate and so on. Maybe make only chosen classes body blocking certain projectiles as a compromise? xD But in the long term it feels like a hindrance in development in my opinion.

#18

It’s all or nothing because it would be weird and not intuitive to have “some classes immune to projectiles, others not.”

2 Likes
#19

Also they’ve been consistently trying to bring all the classes in line with each other, including capping archer rate of fire and nerfing mage’s triplicity. Adding in any class that would give a ‘higher skill ceiling’ wouldn’t be conducive to this, especially since last I checked nobody can bring scoundrel’s DPS in line to keep up with the others in terms of player skill yet.

#20

Not to mention many bosses it would be counter productive to bring a melee DPS as apposed to a ranged DPS as they would not really be able to do things without dying or loosing a lot of dps such as Sewer Slime, Mutated Rat, Airship Boss 1, Minotaur, Gorgon , Abandoned Mines Boss 2 , Mist Keeper Raid boss 1, Raid boss 2 , Raid boss 5.

The reasons why are as follows:

Spoilers 
1. Sewer Slime

Self explanatory, the boss is kited for the entire fight and melee dps will die if boss swaps agro to them.

2. Mutated rat

Boss is tanked in the poison, Melee dps would die really quickly or need to hop out before death loosing a lot of dps.

3. Airship Boss 1

Boss has to be re positioned occasionally due to poison pools loosing dps and causing potential death for melee DPS.

4. Minotaur

Orbs exploding on the tank would hit a melee dps wherever the stand killing them, they would have to move away from the boss loosing dps.

5. Gorgon

Melee dps cannot get the add without potentially causing a party wipe. This is the one in this list where it would be acceptable to bring a melee dps but it still has flaws with the play style.

6. Abandoned Mines Boss 2

Melee dps has little time to dodge magic missile, pools can cause melee DPS to stop attacking due to properer placement. This is the other one where it would be acceptable to bring a melee dps but still has flaws with the mechanics of the boss.

7. Mist Keeper

Melee dps could cause damage to the tank during yellow mist, during green mist the melee dps cannot attack at all, slams would be hard to get out of, if the class does not have a movement ability then it would be impossible to get out of the slam once you see it start to be cast, the only other option is to jump out earlier loosing even more dps.

8. Raid Boss 1

Add has a poison pool which could kill melee dps. Boss is usually kited on hard mode.

9. Raid Boss 2

Similar reasons as to why shamans are not good on the fight. It takes a long time to switch to the adds when boss starts to glow and vice versa, the melee dps can cause shockwaves really close to the tank which can be hard to avoid to near impossible if not called out.

10. Raid Boss 5

Melee dps cannot hit the add well as it constantly moves. Melee dps have to travel a longer distance to the circles which could cause party wipe. This boss is also sometimes kited on hard mode.

1 Like