I'm going to reiterate the idea I've posted once or twice on different threads. I think stagger should actually be broken into two effects - DAZED and STAGGERED.Dennis wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 1:31 pm Gorth brings in an interesting issue with balance resource management and player actions. I think this is two problems, one of poor resource engagement and the latter of frustration by unable to act and this is something on both sides of the argument of mobile versus player.
If Shield Bash is reducing target balance by 15, and STAGGERED causes a further 5, one strike of a shield that hits will immediately disable all of a classes advanced maneuvers for more or less the entire duration of a fight. More means of generating balance or ways to mitigate this loss would be important. Between knockdowns, staggers, and balance reduction, higher balance moves become nearly impossible to reliably maintain during a fight.
You could implement endroll% calculations on balance loss, but flat staggerlock will continue to pose an issue of constricting player action economy. When two or more NPCs attack with these abilities, it can and has often chained into a stagger-lock. This might not always kill the player, but is frequent and frustrating. on the flipside, players can do this to NPCs which makes them staggeringly weak.
If that's an intended way to play, I think that it can generally be frustrating, especially if you're fighting against equally skilled opponents. In many traditional MMO settings, temporary immunities are conferred to allow for more engaging gameplay. You can add a variety of different CC to each ability pool so people can alternate between actions if needed.
For example: If shield bash balance reduction were based on endroll%, a guardian could shield bash and stagger an opponent to take away 5+variable balance. If two such guardians attempted this, the second would only benefit from his variable balance reduction on success, as he would see the target is stagger immune for a short period of time.
In summary, what I am saying is that one possible solution could be to adjust the balance reduction values of Shield Bash, STAGGERED, and knockdown based on end roll %, or to introduce additional ways for players to regain balance. I would recommend introducing them in a generalized manner, as this issue affects more than a single guild. Alternatively, you could introduce a temporary immunity to CC effects such as staggers and knockdowns after a unit has been staggered a certain number of times in a row, to prevent them from being completely unable to act during a fight.
If an ability that triggers stagger rolls under a certain amount of success, the DAZED effect should be applied (say for successful hits under 50% endroll), and the STAGGERED effect should be applied to successful attacks/hits over the threshold.
Dazed
I think Dazed should add 1 to 2 extra RT onto actions that generate RT, and perhaps apply a negative reroll combat rolls. I also think it should cause movement to generate 2 to 3 seconds of Travel Time, so that it's a bit harder to flee if someone has gotten a successful staggering-attack off on you.
Staggered
I would probably just cut down the maximum amount of time you can be staggered, but otherwise, I think if we get a "lesser" version of Stagger as described above, it's probably not as necessary.