Champion System Ability Review - Page 10 (2024)

Nerouyn wrote: »

It takes combat from something I'm in control of and mutates it into some kind of freakish slot machine.

That's why I don't like critical chance either. The bonus damage is something nice to see but unless I can count on it triggering, I will not focus on it in my builds.

It's a side note, and has little to with the thread's topic, but critical hits should be skill based rather than luck based. I only know of 5 instances where critical hits have been successfully implemented as skill based systems and I am doubtful they can be implemented into ESO within 6 months.

• FPSRPGs and FPSs in general inflict critical damage for striking weak points. For humanoid enemies, this is the head. For other beasts and monstrosities, it may be a pustule, eye, mouth, etc. Borderlands is a good example of this system.
• Parrying an enemy is a system I have only seen in Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2 and Bloodborne, which involves timing a parry to deflect an opponent's strike mid-swing. A successful parry leaves the opponent open to a riposte a.k.a. a critical hit.
• Positioning based criticals have been implemented by the same games above as well as others, most recently Black Desert Online, which are predominantly backstabs. Get behind an enemy and attack to initiate a backstab, scoring critical damage (Souls/borne series). Or receive a damage multiplier such as for Back Attacks in Black Desert Online. Black Desert Online also has Down Attacks, which are a separate multiplier for attacking CC-ed enemies.
• Counter based critical hits have been implemented in several series, including the Souls/borne series, though they are not critical hits there. Attack an enemy while they are in the middle of an action (presumably an attack) to score critical damage. Megaman Battle Network has implemented this under the name of Counter, and a successful Counter will deal double damage and stun the enemy. In the Souls/borne series this is referred to as Counter Damage and has a separate multiplier for each weapon, starting at 10% increased damage scaling up to 50% increased damage; the target must be in a non idle and non staggered/stunned state for counter damage to be inflicted.
• This last method of scoring critical hits I have only seen implemented by the mod Duke Patrick's Archery - Heavy - Light Weapons - H2H - Combat Magic for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Armor Gaps. With this mod installed, aiming for gaps in an opponent's armor will allow the strike to ignore Armor Rating and the subsequent mitigation. The armor gaps to aim for are matched closely to the graphical gaps on the armors themselves, though a default of the various joints is used for non-recognized, non-vanilla armors.

Of these critical hit systems, Positioning and Counters are the most feasible for ESO. The game's aiming system is not setup for Weak Spots or Armor Gaps, and a new maneuver is required for Parries. Positioning will require the server keep track of player facing, something I do not think it currently does judging from block arc (360 degrees) and detection radius (seems to be a circle).

Counters may be easier to implement, as the server can check if the player is on the global ability cooldown when taking damage. Counter windows are not necessarily for the full attack animation/cooldown. i.e. Counters are successful in Megaman Battle Network when hitting the opponent during the several frames of windup, when the attack is being prepared; this can be as short as 1 frame. The server can check if the cooldown timer is over 0.5 seconds to deal Counter damage or some similar value, requiring precise timing and reaction on the attacker's part.

When replacing the luck based critical hit there will be the issue of critical chance modifiers, which are abundant in set effects, potion effects and abilities. Aside from replacing these modifiers with other current modifiers (weapon damage, spell damage, max stamina, max magicka, max health, stamina recovery, etc.) they can become modifiers to critical damage. Small modifiers. And the Weapon/Spell Critical Rating stat on character sheets can change to show Weapon/Spell Critical Modifier. Damage Shields can also be changed to crittable or partially crittable, reducing critical damage. The reason Damage Shields should stay noncrittable currently is because of how prolific critical hits are. With critical hits moved to a skill based system, their occurrence is reduced and predictable (player controlled), rendering the hard counter overkill.

As for Critical Rate -> Critical Modifier, the stat can be shown as 1XX% or XX% in the character sheet, representing the multiplier for base damage as a percentage (i.e. 150% or 50% for the current modifier). The base value for Critical Modifier will need to be tweaked in accordance with how large the window for Counter is. The larger the window, the lower the base value. For example, if the window is 0.7 seconds (check if cooldown > 0.3) then the base Critical Modifier is 110% or 10% because it is very likely to deal critical damage. A window of 0.1 seconds would have a base Critical Modifier of 170% or 70% because it is very unlikely to deal critical damage. Critical Rate bonuses from sets and other sources will use the same formula as currently with an added multiplier within the range of 0.2 to 0.5 (100% Rate = 20% Modifier, 100% Rate = 50% Modifier). Using the examples of base modifiers above, the maximum Critical Modifier for the 0.7 second window is 130% (0.2) or 160% (0.5) and for the 0.1 second window 190% (0.2) or 220% (0.5). These maximum values do not take into account Champion Points or Mundus Stones (Thief and Shadow, specifically). As the average DPS Critical Rate is around 60%, for the same windows there will be Critical Modifiers of 122% (0.2), 140% (0.5) and 182% (0.2), 200% (0.5), respectively. The added Critical Modifier from sets and other sources is at the discretion of the Combat & Itemization Team in regards to how much of an advantage building around critical hits should yield. A multiplier beyond 0.5 is feasible but advised against for the x1.5 and x2.0 modifiers achievable ingame result in plenty of extra damage.

Side note over.

Move along, citizen.

Implementing a counter system as described above will change the pacing of combat. During combat, the attacker will wait for the defender to strike and attack a split second afterwards to land within the counter window. Because the cooldown is a universal 1 second, the attacker will always strike within the counter window (dealing critical damage) assuming both attacker and defender are striking as often as the 1 second cooldown will allow. To prevent critical hits, the defender will pause their assault for a split second to get the attacker's rhythm offbeat of the counter window. Since the cooldown prevents attacking faster, the attacker will respond by also pausing a split second to correct the rhythm. The overall effect is a slightly slower, more deliberate pace to combat.

If the counter window is relatively large and the critical modifier relatively low, the above pace change will not happen because either most attacks will be critical or the extra damage is not worth the added layer of skill. A critical modifier of 110% is just such a relatively low value, however I cannot say at which percentage the advantage (critical damage) begins to outweigh the disadvantage (paced attacks).

The issue of channeled and cast attacks was not mentioned in the original draft. The counter window for such abilities can be for the full cast/channel time, for the standard window after casting or follow the same rule as instant abilities (window starts after activation/button press).

Having the counter window be the full cast/channel duration punishes using such abilities without caution. This would be ideal to balance powerful cast/channel abilities by making them much riskier to use. Things such as Crystal Fragments spam, Puncturing Sweep spam and Wrecking Blow spam will become hazardous, and the result will either be more diverse attack patterns or a lower TTK. Cast/channel times are considered bad by the playerbase because they restrict attack and/or movement speed, yet we still see them spammed. They have to be either very powerful abilities or the only worthwhile abilities available to use. So making the counter window for the full cast/channel duration is either finally balancing a foo strategy or discouraging the use of the only useful abilities.

Placing the counter window after the cast/channel has finished puts the caster in danger for a longer period of time because on top of also be potentially interrupted or CC-ed, if the cast/channel is successful the caster then becomes more susceptible to damage. Again, a way to balance a foo strategy, but it also makes the ability less fun to use since the caster is punished for using it correctly.

Treating cast/channel abilities like instant abilities is the safest route, as it increases the hazard of using cast/channel abilities without making them more hazardous than other abilities. This implementation also rewards players for interrupting swiftly, as the bash will score critical damage on top of the bonus interrupt damage. It will not discourage spamming cast/channel abilities like the first implementation, though.

Depending on how many other useful abilities there are, the first or third implementation of counter windows on cast/channel abilities is optimal. The first discourages use of foo strategies and more diverse attack patterns, but if the alternate attacks are not there, the implementation will result in faster TTK as players continue to spam cast/channel attacks.

This counter system also provides a slight incentive to use basic attacks more as they do not trigger the ability cooldown, not creating a counter window.