A Leveling System (Customization via Selected Skills)

[Saix 0]

All right guys, if you want to do some playtests real quick, then I propose this. Throw up a mock skill build on here so we can see how the skills are going to apply to your topics. Remember it is 2 points at level 1, then 1 point at each level afterward, so basically your level +1. Since this system will allow for some wiggle room as far as dealing more damage then normal, try to account for that with the Hp of your enemies. If we want to get good test numbers, we need to see some good examples of dealing damage and mitigating damage either through armor skills, blocking, or parrying.

I know my guild has an Ice Crystal run in the works, that will pit us against a Field Boss, so we will try to emulate something akin to a Floor Boss event as far as dealing with a large enemy with a big Hp pool. Should be interesting to see in practice anyway. I built the system based on an extremely simplified Table Top style of game mechanic, so I am hoping it will all progress easily.

Remember to post here with a little Skill Build so that we have something to reference number wise when we see your tested topic in action.

Happy testing guys.

[Saix 0]

Saix: Level 6 = 7 Skill Points

Non-combat

»

Passive

»

Combat

» Howl: 1

» Fighting Spirit: 1

» Spiritual Light: 1

» Parry: 1

» Battle Healing: 1

» Leather Equipment: 1

Weapon skills

» One Handed Straight Sword: 1

[9Lives 0]

9Lives Test Build:

One-Handed Curved Sword: 4

Parry: 1

Acrobatics: 1

Sprint: 1

[Saix 0]

So, after reading some of the comments I had, for whatever reason, missed on the second page; I felt the need to clarify something about how tanks work. I had seen a discussion in which tanking was equated to necessarily wielding a shield in the off hand. When I had sat down to do the skills, this was not my intention. So I wanted to explain something in that regard. A tank is any character who uses one of, or all of, the tank skills to hold the aggro of a monster. How that player chooses to go about mitigating the incoming damage is entirely up to them.

I play Star Wars: The Old Republic, and I have several tank characters. I have a heavy armor wearing tank who uses an 'energy shield' which is not as cool as it sounds, as it is just an invisible barrier around him. But I also have a Tankassin, a Sith Assassin specc'd as a Tank despite using the lightest armor possible. But the armor didn't matter, because Tankassin was an avoidance Tank. He didn't rely on armor, because was simply really hard to hit. I had said in my first post that I wanted to open all sorts of options for different party roles. I meant that, and that sentiment extends to the Tank role as well. You have 3 defensive options available, only one of which is actually a skill. So let's break it down, so that we all understand how it works.

Parry: A parry is a pretty basic combat tactic. Instead of blocking an incoming blow and meeting strength with strength, a fighter redirects the incoming blow with one of their own. Some people might consider this a form of 'aggressive blocking' as you are intercepting or striking their blow aside, essentially knocking it off target. It is not a block, in fact, as it is not halting or stopping the opponent's attack, simply redirecting it. For the purpose of this SAO System, Parry is a skill that will stay at rank one and allow a member to redirect an attack with one of their own. It is probably one of the safest defensive options as it will negate half of an incoming attack, with a character's equipment stats further reducing that damage as needed. It is a relatively basic concept, and in an in universe explanation it is aided by the fact that you are engaging a System Assisted attack with another System Assisted attack.

Block: Blocking is actually a little more difficult then one might seem. You see, when you block, you are taking the full brunt of your opponent's attack, just in a different place. Try blocking a punch with an elbow frame defense for a while. Sure, it doesn't hurt like catching a right cross to the face will, but your arm isn't going to feel all that good either. For the purposes of this SAO System, blocking is using your equipment to absorb incoming damage. That's right, you are taking that damage. SAO did not have a block skill, it simply revolved around putting your shield/weapon in front of you and stopping an incoming blow. What that means for the purpose of using your skills in Rp is that unlike Parry, the act of blocking is not necessarily a post action. You can block, and then attack afterward. It also means that unlike Parry, there is no automatic damage reduction. Your blocking ability all comes down to your equipment skills, and hopefully your equipment itself, provided I can get my Equipment Enhancement System up and passed through the GM's, haha. Blocking is a little riskier than Parrying, as you don't have the up front damage mitigation. However, it allows you to attack after defending, something that Parry will not.

Evasion: Most fighters will tell you that outright evading an attack is the hardest form of defense. I work in a bar, I break up fights all the time, so I can tell you a lot about how most fights go down. Usually bar fights start from one side or the other thanks to the classic sucker punch. A punch gets thrown out of nowhere, and is very hard to outright dodge. Most fighters will tell you that the key principle to evasion in a fight is to keep moving erratically and keep your opponent from being able to get in a clean shot. Really talented fighters can slip shots by bobbing and weaving from side to side, but that takes a great deal of talent and training time to really develop. For the purpose of this SAO system, Evasion works in conjunction with the sprint stat, and allows you to better evade incoming attacks. Against most random monsters in a non GM topic, that would involve just rolling a six or higher. Against a GM controlled opponent or another player, that would involve beating their attack roll. Evasion is the riskiest of the defense attempts, as failure means eating the full measure of damage, minus whatever your armor would reduce. However, success means completely evading the incoming attack/damage, so some might consider it a fair trade off.

Which one of these approaches to defense makes for the best tank? Honestly, any one of them would work. So long as you are comfortable with the role and confident in your ability to stay alive despite having the attention of your enemy, any one of the 3 defense types will work, whether you plan on knocking attacks back with your own, blocking them with a shield or sword and relying on your armor to mitigate the damage, or dodging incoming attacks with lightning speed; its all up to you.

[Nikki Styx 0]

Nikki Styx Test Build

Level 7 = 9 skill points

Passive:

» Tracking

» Detection

» Acrobatics

» Sprint

Combat:

» Parry +1

» Battle Healing +1

» Light Metal Equipment +4

» Light Shield Equipment +1

Weapon skills :

» One-handed Assault Spear +2

So damage with a spear would be 2 as a base hit.

Critical would be 4?

Damage absorption would be 3 (1 minimum in shield, and 2 (Or is it 3 with the 1 minimum?) in Light armor for 4 skill points (1.60 Rounded up))

Battle Healing Would be 1 (1 minimum for 1 skill point)

I think that's how I am to understand it.

On one last note or point I noticed. With bock no longer taking an action roll, like attacking, parrying or evading, it stands to reason that one could block, mitigating damage through their equipment values, and battle heal at the same time.

[9Lives 0]

wait so are you saying that:

blocking an attack gets the bonus of the shield and doesn't take an action?

parry doesn't get the benefit of a shield but takes your post action?

dodge takes a full action, doesn't get a shield bonus and if you fail you take full damage?

that sounds completely unbalanced. thats basically saying that you can block every attack and then use a sword skill right after it. but if you try anything else (but blocking) you will take more damage and not get to make a post action. I don't agree with that at all. that makes everything but blocking with a shield useless.

[Shard 0]

To be fair, the other system requiring a shield isn't exactly balanced either.

[9Lives 0]

i never said you had to have a shield to be a tank. i simply said an effective tank build would include a shield because of its damage mitigating bonuses.

now what's being proposed is a Soaking system where you take the damage and reduce it through the armors ability which i support but to say that you can use a shield to further soak damage without needing an actions is too much. to soak with the shield should take an action because your bracing yourself for the attack and further reducing the amount of damage your going to take. the roll would determine if you were braced for the attack, had the shield in the proper position, and withstood the impact. to say you can do all of that as a free action then launch a sword attack is way to powerful of skill.

Parry needs to use an action because its a computer assisted attack just like any other sword skill that targets the attacking weapon instead of the enemy. the end result of a successful parry (in real life) is that you have cause the blade to miss you by diverting its motion away from you. since the attack is still hitting your weapon you will suffer some minor injury which is why this too is damage reducing not eliminating.

Evasion however is not something that can be trained. Evasion is just the players real ability to move out of teh way. it is buffed by sprint because that skill increases your movement speed. how fast you move is directly related to how quickly you can get out of the way of an attack. like the block and the parry it should take an action . its main strength is that success means you took no damage. however unlike a shield or parry which has its own stat and items used that can benefit their stats (shield and weapon enhancements), its much more difficult to get evasion to higher levels. to do so would mean reducing the bonuses to damage mitigation means that the armor is less effective if the evasion fails.

[Saix 0]

dodge takes a full action, doesn't get a shield bonus and if you fail you take full damage?

that sounds completely unbalanced. thats basically saying that you can block every attack and then use a sword skill right after it. but if you try anything else (but blocking) you will take more damage and not get to make a post action. I don't agree with that at all. that makes everything but blocking with a shield useless.

Uh, no. Dodge doesn't get a shield bonus, as you are trying to dodge, not block with a shield; but I never said anything about not having your Equipment Bonus. If you fail to dodge the attack, you are getting hit yes, but your armor hasn't sudden disappeared and will soak what damage it can.

The reason that Blocking and Evasion don't take a move action is because we are trying to balance the PVP aspect of the board. If every attempt at defense requires a full post action, then whoever attacks first has the major advantage. Because any attempt at defending yourself takes your complete move action and gives them the opportunity to simply attack you again in the next post, and so on and so forth.

[9Lives 0]

i didn't say anywhere in my post that armor has disappeared. if the whole point is to make this balanced for pvp then all three options need to be free actions. lets look at numbers:

damage mitigation

block

roll: no

mitigation: armor bonus + armor skill + shield bonus + shield skill

Parry

roll: yes

success: armor bonus + armor skill + weapon bonus + weapon skill + ½ Parry

fail: armor bonus + armor skill

evade

Roll: yes

Success: no damage

Fail: armor bonus + armor skill

what this says clearly is that on the one option of the three that does not require a roll you will always get full bonus. there other two you are stripped down to just armor if your roll fails. now parry may look nice cause it has one extra modifier but since each of the skills requires you to have point a point in it, two players that are the same level would have the same amount of skill points, ie, regardless of how they spent their points the parry would not make their defense any better and they still have to roll while the block doesn't. If this was just about canon then i could understand why parry would need a roll and not block, because parry is a system assisted skill. however evasion was not. A failure to a someone who uses evade means a lot more because unlike someone using block or parry, the evasion user is most likely going to be using lighter armor meaning they will receive less damage reduction when it when their roll fails. I know that the ability to not get hit is very powerful and no one wants it to be a free action because that would be unfair. it could all be balanced if blocking was made to be the same as the other two.

block

roll: yes

Success: armor bonus + armor skill + shield bonus + shield skill

mitigation: armor bonus + armor skill

which is saying if you failed the roll then you just didn't get your shield in the right position and it didn't help stop the attack.

now as for PVP:

how is it fair that a person who uses block can take another action but a player who uses evasion or parry is stuck on the defensive? why not just use another die to determine the defensive roll. if we don't want to put code in for another die we could just use the crafting die 1-6 fail defense, 7-12 success. i never like the idea of defense and attack in one post being the same die. it means if you miss your defense you also miss your attack, or if you critical your defense you critical your attack. that way i can see it be free for the player to choose their own style and still be fair in pve and pvp

[Nikki Styx 0]

Isent blocking just basically allowing the hit to go through? But like in any RP, you choose to have the hit land either on yer arm, or torso or head. In the case of blocking you choose to have the strike land on yer shield, in which normal damage soaking based off of stats (Armor skill, armor bonus, shield skill, shield bonus) occurs?

Nikki Chooses to take the hit. Her damage and is mitigated by her bonus. I write it in as it hit her shield.

Just because you get hit does not mean any bonus you have be them skill points or upgrades to yer items don't disappear. the damage mitigation would occur. If my total damage mitigation was 4, and someone hit fer 5 well I can block all day... 1 damage will get through per strike.

Im just speaking from experience with other MMO's and RPG's now. The shield still adds defensive bonus's to the players stats, allowing them to mitigate further damage, whether they can block or not. For example in warhammer online, I played a tank. There was no skill to block, but you could equip a sword and board style. With the shield equipped it would add to my overall armor rating allowing me to further mitigate damage. I think what is trying to be said here is that since in SAO there is no block skill, that the shield simply applies additional point to damage breaking, and if a player chose to hold the shield up (As most people would do) it was just that, the choice, but would make no difference from choosing to raise a leg or arm in stead(It would just look goofy to raise ones leg instead of a shield)

[Saix 0]

Well said Nikki, I was in the process of posting the same thing albeit in a pointlessly longer and more detailed way, haha.

block

roll: no

mitigation: armor bonus + armor skill + shield bonus + shield skill

Parry

roll: yes

success: armor bonus + armor skill + weapon bonus + weapon skill + ½ Parry

fail: armor bonus + armor skill

evade

Roll: yes

Success: no damage

Fail: armor bonus + armor skill

what this says clearly is that on the one option of the three that does not require a roll you will always get full bonus. there other two you are stripped down to just armor if your roll fails. now parry may look nice cause it has one extra modifier but since each of the skills requires you to have point a point in it, two players that are the same level would have the same amount of skill points, ie, regardless of how they spent their points the parry would not make their defense any better and they still have to roll while the block doesn't. If this was just about canon then i could understand why parry would need a roll and not block, because parry is a system assisted skill. however evasion was not. A failure to a someone who uses evade means a lot more because unlike someone using block or parry, the evasion user is most likely going to be using lighter armor meaning they will receive less damage reduction when it when their roll fails. I know that the ability to not get hit is very powerful and no one wants it to be a free action because that would be unfair. it could all be balanced if blocking was made to be the same as the other two.

now as for PVP:

how is it fair that a person who uses block can take another action but a player who uses evasion or parry is stuck on the defensive? why not just use another die to determine the defensive roll. if we don't want to put code in for another die we could just use the crafting die 1-6 fail defense, 7-12 success. i never like the idea of defense and attack in one post being the same die. it means if you miss your defense you also miss your attack, or if you critical your defense you critical your attack. that way i can see it be free for the player to choose their own style and still be fair in pve and pvp

First off, remove the 'Shield Bonus' and 'Armor Bonus' metrics from the above formula. While I had proposed the Equipment Enhancements, they have not been reviewed or hinted at being put into place, so including a Shield Bonus and Armor Bonus to this formula is going to skew the data.

Lets break action down again.

Parry: you are using a skill to deflect a skill, cutting the damage in half automatically upon success, then letting your equipment further reduce that damage. Why is it useful? Because it mitigates half damage up front, letting your equipment reduce that damage further. Is it a powerful defensive tool? Sure, is it risky? Sure, you are essentially going to have to rely upon your equipment to save your skin if you miss. What makes this using your Skill Action to defend a worthwhile strategy? The fact that as you are taking half damage, you are dishing out half damage to whatever opponent you parried from. Your defense is essentially helping you mitigate damage, while dealing damage to your attacker. This makes Parry unique among the Defensive skills in that it is one move, not a defense followed by a counter. You don't need to pause and wonder how you can launch your counter attack, because you already did, it was how you defended yourself. You don't need another attack action in your post, because you are a boss and already did as you simultaneously defended yourself. How would the Equipment Enhancement stuff I proposed help out a Parry Attempt? Easy, Accuracy to ensure the parry lands, Sharpness to do more damage as you parry, etc.

Can I attack after this?: No, you attacked as you defended, and will do half damage to your opponent. Their own Equipment Skills then mitigate damage they take.

Block: You stand there and take the hit like a champ, relying completely on your invested equipment skill points to mitigate damage through your armor equipment and possibly a shield. You have zero up front damage mitigation, unlike Parry, and zero chance of evading the attack entirely like Evasion. Relying upon the block skill means that you are planning your skill points defensively or at the very least balanced for attack/defense in the long haul. You will need to keep increasing your armor stat, because enemies will do more damage and other players will be increasing their damage through Weapon Skills. Unlike Parry, you don't just drop a point in and continue on your way. If you want to be able to block and mitigate damage, you will need to invest points in the various equipment types you use. Right now, that means the shield tank is probably the most viable, as it has that little extra bit of damage mitigation. If the Equipment Enhancement stuff I had proposed goes through, players can choose to use their weapons to block, and Enhance them with Durability to add damage mitigation that they would otherwise lose by not using a shield. (i.e. Shard using his Two-Handed Sword) Once you block and take your damage, you can then try to dish out a little payback. Is blocking over powered? No, I do not believe it is at all. Look at our health pools, even if you are taking only 1-2 damage per hit, that means that a mid level player can expect to only take 5-10 shots before their HP is used up. Their is no magic solution that is going to take care of half or all of your damage, you will be hit, and unless you are attacking something extremely low level or have fantastic stats and/or the Equipment Enhancement stuff goes through and you build some tank armor, shield, and/or sword; you WILL be taking damage. How does the Equipment Enhancement stuff come into play? Durability, it helps mitigate even more damage, something that a Blocker will need since they are still taking damage.

Can I attack after this?: You just stood there and got hit, I hope you want to attack back after that. Nobody likes being a punching bag.

Evasion: Evasion means you side step, duck, or otherwise evade the incoming attack. It's probably risky, but hey, success means you avoid ALL incoming damage. Getting that Evasion bonus up means investing in the Sprint Skill, and like all the other non Perma-Rank 1 skills, that means it will take time. Sure, some of that can be mitigated if the Equipment Enhancement stuff goes through by Enhancing Armor or Weapons with Quickness, but it is still going to take time. Just like a blocker is going to have to take time to build up those Equipment Skill levels. Also, and this is just a side note, but even if you want to run an evasion character, there is no rule, written or unwritten saying you have to be using light armor. Whether or not a player chooses to invest points into their Equipment Skills is another matter. It really comes down to how a build is going to function. Placing all your points into Sprint and hoping for the best each time you roll, with next to nothing in your Equipment is likely going to hurt if you ever miss a roll. Likewise, investing points evenly between the two means that your chance of evasion is lowered, but you have a better chance of surviving a failed evasion type. How does the Equipment Enhancement system come into play here? Quickness directly boosts your chances of successfully evading an attack, and durability enhancements increase your defense in the event you fail.

Can I attack after this?: The Great One once said that you should float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, what that means in this area is that you should go ahead and attack back, it makes your awesome dodge that much more awesome.

---

This whole system is supposed to add options, options for you to build your character to attack and defend however you want. Every one of the defensive options either has a chance of failure, or will not mitigate all incoming damage, maybe even both.

That is makes Block so much different from Parry and Evasion despite not having to 'roll' like the other two, the fact that you will not escape damage unharmed.

If it is a good idea to use the Crafting Dice for a 'counter attack' roll for Parry, then let's do that. I noticed in one of the PVP threads I read by Zelrius, that he had already been doing something similar.

[Hunter Yagami 0]

I like it though, I WOULD like to see personally a One-Handed Axe Skill. Like Hatchets and small axes, would be fun to even see a dual wield Axe capability for tanks.

[Saix 0]

I like it though, I WOULD like to see personally a One-Handed Axe Skill. Like Hatchets and small axes, would be fun to even see a dual wield Axe capability for tanks.

When Kirito fought Rosalia's Titan Hand Guild he did go up against an opponent wielding a battle axe, two to be specific. It is believed that this was a mistake on the animators part as only one player would have dual wielding capabilities. However it does show that axe skills did feasibly exist. The reason I did not include them is because no information exists about their sword skills, much like Argo's Claw weapon. Seeing as we cannot make up our own Sword Skills at this time, weapons for which no Canon Sword Skills exist, such as the axes and claw, are sadly not included on this skill list. I have been working on some expanded Skills for some of the weapons that have only one or two Skills to see if maybe we can pass a few extra attacks through the GM's for these weapons, possibly for weapons like the axes and claw as well.

[9Lives 0]

I just had a more realistic idea of blocking. But I understand that blocking in mmos is something that the character doesnt activly do. By that definition I have no argument. However in most mmos I have played its still rolled to see if things like shield bonuses, evasion, and such have aby effect. I never played wow so I cant speak about it but all the others had a "Chance to block or evade"

Anyway if group consensus is blocking is not an action then ill go with it. I must have mis understood parry cause I didnt get that it did damage back at the attacker. And if we want to use the crafting die for evasion and still get to attack afterwords then I have no argument about it either.

Can I ask though why anyone woukd block at all? As stated, If a person with heavy armor and a shield can roll evasion they have the chance to not take any damage, and if it fails they automaticly get the same reduction as if they had blocked. So why block? Why would everyone not try to evade every time? As we have it now, theres no disability in speed or agility to using heavy armor and theres no speed bonus to using cloth. That makes one build clearly better than every other option. Heavy armor, shield, evade.

[Saix 0]

I just had a more realistic idea of blocking. But I understand that blocking in mmos is something that the character doesnt activly do. By that definition I have no argument. However in most mmos I have played its still rolled to see if things like shield bonuses, evasion, and such have aby effect. I never played wow so I cant speak about it but all the others had a "Chance to block or evade"

Anyway if group consensus is blocking is not an action then ill go with it. I must have mis understood parry cause I didnt get that it did damage back at the attacker. And if we want to use the crafting die for evasion and still get to attack afterwords then I have no argument about it either.

Can I ask though why anyone woukd block at all? As stated, If a person with heavy armor and a shield can roll evasion they have the chance to not take any damage, and if it fails they automaticly get the same reduction as if they had blocked. So why block? Why would everyone not try to evade every time? As we have it now, theres no disability in speed or agility to using heavy armor and theres no speed bonus to using cloth. That makes one build clearly better than every other option. Heavy armor, shield, evade.

Mainly because that is a lot of points you are spreading around. If you are really trying to raise your chance of evasion, but want to keep the high armor and shield bonus; that is three Skill Trees you are simultaneously putting points into. That is not even counting trying to pump points into a specific weapon or non-combat skill. That means to max them out, and go for maximum damage mitigation and nothing else, you would need to be level 29. As far as how I had envisioned the system to work, going into a parry or evasion attempt would null your shield bonus. Leaving just the Equipment bonus in play. Not to mention that some of the popular two handed weapons such as the Two-Handed Sword or Katana have no option of equipping an off hand item like the shield.

Again, as I had intended for this Leveling System and an Item Enhancement System to work fluidly together, that can somewhat be mitigated by building your Equipment to suit your purpose and help you achieve your goal via the Enhancements. I believe that this is balanced fairly in the fact that Item Enhancements will only carry you as far as you have invested in that specific Skill. A Sharpness 4 weapon will still only improve your stats by 1 if you only have 1 point invested in your weapon skill, and vice versa for all the other Enhancements.

[Hunter Yagami 0]

When Kirito fought Rosalia's Titan Hand Guild he did go up against an opponent wielding a battle axe, two to be specific. It is believed that this was a mistake on the animators part as only one player would have dual wielding capabilities. However it does show that axe skills did feasibly exist. The reason I did not include them is because no information exists about their sword skills, much like Argo's Claw weapon. Seeing as we cannot make up our own Sword Skills at this time, weapons for which no Canon Sword Skills exist, such as the axes and claw, are sadly not included on this skill list. I have been working on some expanded Skills for some of the weapons that have only one or two Skills to see if maybe we can pass a few extra attacks through the GM's for these weapons, possibly for weapons like the axes and claw as well.

I understand its not cannon, but why don't we have perhaps a system where players can use a template to make NEW skills. Yes I know and understand everything we go off of is mostly based off of wiki links and lists provided by other people, but if this were a DEDICATED forums say on crunchy roll or aniplex forums they would have a strict code. I mean when I signed up I read that this was SAO in general, but different. The way I see it so far is nothing is different, shaking things up by creating OPEN SOURCE (non Unique or "extra") skills would be entirely possible to do. These applications would of course have to be approved by staff to use, but would allow a more creative flow to things here.

As I was in a bit of a hurry earlier I did not get to include this, but leveling skills...What I am used to in other rp's is leveling skills through Word Count (example: Leveling your one handed skill required 200 words to gain a level).

Leveling can be simple enough to put in depending on the system. Going by posts and benchmarks is fine, but to obtain sword skills besides outside sources (such as Quests or Events) there should be a way to purchase said skill with enough Col (provided character could in fact buy it). Or a leveling system that gives "slots" at certain levels. In retrospect I have even seen Word Count used in more hardcore forums.

These are just my ideas and stuff I have seen work, but of course this is decided by everyone not just me. Hope this comes to a head and we can all move on though.

[Nikki Styx 0]

Now onto a different subset of the blocking mechanic.

So we have come to a consensus as to whether or not blocking takes a roll or not. It is no roll, just choosing to take the hit. That being said. Battle healing. So long as no retaliation is made, so long as no attempt to fight, parry, or cause damage, or do anything that would roll the dice is made. It should in fact activate and go through correct? I am of course thinking of the episode in which Kirito displayed his battle healing, taking multiple shots, and still managing to heal so long as he didn't actually attack.

[Saix 0]

Now onto a different subset of the blocking mechanic.

So we have come to a consensus as to whether or not blocking takes a roll or not. It is no roll, just choosing to take the hit. That being said. Battle healing. So long as no retaliation is made, so long as no attempt to fight, parry, or cause damage, or do anything that would roll the dice is made. It should in fact activate and go through correct? I am of course thinking of the episode in which Kirito displayed his battle healing, taking multiple shots, and still managing to heal so long as he didn't actually attack.

Yes, it will not have a roll, and it will allow the use of Battle Healing. I believe that since both Blocking and Evading do not use any type of skill, both would allow usage of Battle Healing if no counter attack is made, or no other skill is used. This will be essential I believe for characters trying to play the Tank or Forward Roll, as they are able to reduce incoming damage and try to keep their HP from slipping too far. After all, since at least SOME damage is unavoidable we want to have an option to stay in the fight for when those really long boss battles draw on without having someone else willing to switch a battle weary tank out.

[Nikki Styx 0]

And that then does allow tanks to do just that with less fear of death. If their job is just to take the hit they can. A tank really shouldn't be attacking anyways, there focus should be on absorbing impacts. In my opinion anyways.

Ive also come across an interesting thing the beta thread we are doing for the system. Hate is not so much a factor as we would have previously thought. Attacks are made towards whatever player, but they are not auto connect to target. they are physical, and driven by their own trajectories meaning that even if the boss was attacking one player, a tank could stand between the player and the boss and absorb the hit. Allowing the other player to attack after the boss strike. A proper tank will put themselves in the right place to take the hit.