hate-meter
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Behind the Mask: Pointing fingers and assigning blame
When I posted about teaming roles last week, I really wasn't expecting the feedback you guys gave me. Some of you insisted that the holy trinity was dead, others told me that healers can do just fine if they only have heals, and still others told me that tanks are useless. Some of you also commented that Archetypes make decent tanks or that spread stats are a bad thing. I wish I had time to make a detailed rebuttal to all the comments, but information comes first! This week, we're going to talk about Champions Online's threat mechanics. Originally I was going to talk about tanks in general, but that is such a huge topic that we're just going to have to break it up into bite-sized chunks. I talked about threat mechanics a long time ago, but some things have changed. This is particularly relevant because the two adventure packs are on sale right now, and if you're a free member, you really owe it to yourself to pick them up. They're that awesome, and you can explore the game's more interesting team content for a tiny fraction of the price. When you try them out, you'll have this guide to tell you about how big team engagements work and why your Inventor faceplants every fight. You may even be able to stop it...
SOE provides further clarification on EQ2's Fighter revamp
Whether you're fully behind them or not, the changes to EverQuest II's hate system are quite significant and will have an impact on gameplay for all classes, not just the Fighters. Testament to the enormity of the overhaul is the fact that SOE has put out yet another summary of the changes, available on the EQ2Players community site. This latest clarification does not get quite as specific as Aeralik's take last week, but it does include an explanation and pictures of the new hate meter, which will form part of the standard UI when the patch goes live.If you have aggro on a mob, your meter will show the figure '100'. For everyone else, the closer their number is to 100, the closer they are to pulling a party foul and stealing aggro. This makes it much easier for DPS and healers to see when they are in danger of drawing an NPC's attention, and they can either remove themselves from the fight for a while, or hit a de-taunt ability (which has an instant effect on the hate meter number). The EQ2Players write-up also includes a list of the changes to fighter's abilities, but for a more detailed analysis and community feedback, Aeralik's thread is where you should head.
