Aggro Management?

[TheDrunkenDwarf]

Taunt/Rescue has it's roots going back to text MUDs. The ability to rescue another party member that is about to die or isn't as suited to tanking is a key strategy in Vanguard. Given our desire to see combat involve less pulling and often involving fighting multiple mobs at one time, rescue/taunt is very important. – Aradune

You will have a lot of ways to gain agro, from attacks that build agro (but may not be as damaging) to abilities that will garner you some additional agro on a successful hit, etc. you will not have the "Place myself at the top of the hate list" button though.

We will also give you abilities that you can use when you do lose agro, because it will happen. Rescues are a type of ability that protective fighters get to help them defend their allies. These allow you to take the place of the target, either blocking the damage or, at the least, taking the damage themselves. There are a variety of different rescues, some easier to perform than others, some that even return some damage.

Intercepts are given to the offensive fighters, because it may fall to them to play the protector role as well. These allow them to ward off attacks using attacks. This is not easy to do and if the offensive fighter fails, the intended target still takes the damage.- Talisker

This looks like a great system! It's not just a matter of pressing your taunt hotkey, but also taking action to put yourself in the path of attack (rescue/intercept).

Hopefully it will allieviate the boredom of having a "main tank" yet still allow a way for heavy fighters to do their job and protect the rest of the party.

Thoughts?

[Havelock]

I am *really* excited to try this system out - I hate being a taunt bot, and although WoW gave us a really neat warrior class there is a lot of room to grow. I expect Vanguard to raise the bar very high in the aggro management department.

[Eclipse]

Finally a system that revolves around absolute chaos. I'm with Hav, this excites me like no other game ever has. I'm also quite excited to see what secondary abilities each tank has access to and how it will affect their gameplay in regards to agro.

Rescues, perception, and what seems like an emphasis on preventing dangerous situations instead of just fixing them once they have already happened. I like to read too much into things, but this is what I see.

Perception and countering/rescuing, knowing what's about to happen and having the abilities to counter-act it...as opposed to just "hitting taunt" for example once the situation gets bad.

Things like this are going to make Vanguard a fantastic place for tanks.
I can't wait.

-Eclipse

[Jabari Dreamchaser]

While I will miss the additional reading time... I suppose it is worth giving up for an awesome combat experience. I will survive... somehow. :roll: