Defensive Targets

[starsailor]

Although Vanguard was/is a poor game in many areas, there was one thing which was a fantastic idea. That of defensive targets.

Basically you had two targets. One being the mob which you were attacking, and another which would be a member of your team, or yourself.

The idea being that you could heal without having to do the old swopping of targets.

The has the advantage that the game changes from working on shifting targets all the time to working on healing. You would still need to change between team members....

Just a though, interested to know what you think.

[Sabian-X]

personal opinion: it would confuse me more than help. Am quite adept of using the system as it is atm.

[Gwaihira]

there might be something to it, especially in a situation you need to focus on one fekllow particulairy. Like for example keeping the tank alive. I think it should be optional though because if you have keep up with the whole fellowhip it could indeed get a bit confusing since you have to keep switching anyway.

[Darkov]

In the options you can set skill forwarding, which basically if you have the mob targetted and cast heal, it heals whoever the mob is targetting.

Useful if you have one person taking all the hits, not so useful if you have off-tanks.

[Aelred]

Well if you are targeting a monster your heals land on yourself so there is some referred targeting however a minstrel is not a healer in the traditional mmorpg sense and has much more to do than simply spam heals (it is more like a bard/druid/shaman than a cleric in Everquest for example).

I wouldn't like to see this bought in, it will encourage too much lazy play from Minstrels and there are already too many who are happy to slack at the back ignore conjunctions and basically leech xp from groups.

Part of the attraction for me is that this game offers more than the usual tank/healer and dps possibilities that other games are limited by.

[Sabian-X]

Originally Posted by Aelred

there are already too many who are happy to slack at the back ignore conjunctions and basically leech xp from groups.

Just a side note. Conjunctions are especially difficult for healers as they cant move while playing. So if a conjunction pops up and the group needs 'red' you either have to move closer to attack range or keep healing the tank that may be dying and ignore the conjunction/press green.
Apart from that we are locked onto the health bars of our fellows all the time, because you dont wanna let the strength-stanced agro pulling hunter die, he'd get pi**ed at you. At lvl 30 I have 25 skills that I use more or less frequently, most skills only last 10secs. imagine that button bashing

I call myself quite a capable minstrel, but the conjunction is a toughy for us. would be handy to have a noise indicating a conjunction.

well, well. wasnt a side note after all

[Hejjin]

Originally Posted by starsailor

Although Vanguard was/is a poor game in many areas, there was one thing which was a fantastic idea. That of defensive targets.

Basically you had two targets. One being the mob which you were attacking, and another which would be a member of your team, or yourself.

The idea being that you could heal without having to do the old swopping of targets.

The has the advantage that the game changes from working on shifting targets all the time to working on healing. You would still need to change between team members....

Just a though, interested to know what you think.

Change your UI option, I always have the main tank selected and so I effectively assist him/her. This ensures that I am on the correct target and that I have the person selected that (usually) needs the most heals.

[Hejjin]

Originally Posted by Sabian-X

Just a side note. Conjunctions are especially difficult for healers as they cant move while playing. So if a conjunction pops up and the group needs 'red' you either have to move closer to attack range or keep healing the tank that may be dying and ignore the conjunction/press green.
Apart from that we are locked onto the health bars of our fellows all the time, because you dont wanna let the strength-stanced agro pulling hunter die, he'd get pi**ed at you. At lvl 30 I have 25 skills that I use more or less frequently, most skills only last 10secs. imagine that button bashing

I call myself quite a capable minstrel, but the conjunction is a toughy for us. would be handy to have a noise indicating a conjunction.

well, well. wasnt a side note after all

Hmmm

Aelred does not need to imagine the button pressing...s/he is a lvl 37 minstrel...

Personally as a mere lvl 35 minstrel, I have to state that I also miss some conjunctions, usually happens when I am in the middle of a Bolster and I am just outside of melee range. I do manage to make most conjunctions, but not all.

You may indeed have 25 skills, but you are not using all of them on every fight, imost of the time you will only be using a much smaller sub set of your songs / skills.

[starsailor]

Originally Posted by Hejjin

Change your UI option, I always have the main tank selected and so I effectively assist him/her. This ensures that I am on the correct target and that I have the person selected that (usually) needs the most heals.

I hadnt noticed that yet....thanks

[Gilmir]

As stated before, skill forwarding is really great.

It can be used either as an easy assist mode (target fellows and use your songs on their target) or for healing the person being beaten up by the monster.

Sometimes the second option is really interesting, as in situations when eg you have two guys losing health it's good to heal the one who will get whacked next. Doesn't happen that often in a big and diverse group, but after going on a drake killing spree with two champions I can say that it's useful sometimes. The other good thing being that it irritates less in case of a conjunction, as you don't have to switch targets to participate.