Sticks & Stones: Taunt Will Never Hurt Me
February 13, 2008 – 7:18 pm
Taunt. Taunt is what makes the PvE world go round. It is the cornerstone of tanking for MMOs everywhere. Aggro pulling DPS classes take it for granted. Healers praise it as it saves their behind. It has come a long way since the first MMOs. It started out as simply something you spammed to generate hate or aggro and evolved into an ability that instantly put you at the top of a creature’s hate list and forced it to attack you for a couple seconds. However, throughout it’s existence there is one thing it has never been: a PvP asset. Click your taunt button all you want at a fellow player and the biggest reaction you’ll get is probably from someone on your own team calling you a noob. WAR is changing all of that. That’s right, Taunt will now not only be a staple of the PvE world but it might actually end up being one of a tank’s greatest PvP skills as well. Straight from the Black Orc skill list thanks to the guys at War Resource:
Skill name: Da Challenge
AP Cost: 50
Range: 0-65ft
Description: A shout that taunts your target, making them hate you more and reducing the damage they deal to everything else by 50% for 30 seconds.
If you haven’t guessed yet, this is a very big deal for the tanks of the world. This is the equivalent of finding out something your grandmother gave you for Christmas was actually worth money. As great as this is for tanks everywhere, it probably won’t do what many people are thinking it will do. In numerous forums I’ve seen this referred to as a way to make someone attack you. This is probably, sadly, not going to be the case. The odds of your average player even noticing he was taunted let alone finding and targeting the person who taunted him are pretty slim. You’ve probably noticed on a large portion of the time people PvPing around you fail to notice their target it being chain healed by a healer standing off to the side or they are being nuked by a caster standing a little ways off. If you play WoW you may see things like healers failing to notice Unstable Affliction, trying to cleanse it off and getting their rear handed to them or a bunch of people swinging wildly at a bubbled paladin even though there is a non-immune target standing 5 feet from them. I haven’t exactly decided why these people do things like this. I don’t know if it’s laziness, the fact they are probably watching T.V. or blaring music, or if they just flat out have no idea what’s occurring around them. As long as they are having fun I guess it should be ok but for their teammates it can be… upsetting. Even if they did notice they were taunted and knew who did it, would they really stop attacking your healer to switch and attack the screaming behemoth dress like a Panzer tank? I seriously doubt it. They still have a better chance of killing the healer that is taking 50% less damage then killing the armored giant with his own personal healer, and if this isn’t the case then there are other issues that need to be discussed.
What will most likely end up happening is this would be another addition to a PvP tank’s arsenal of “ways to make the squishies not so squishy.” There are abilities that will increase an ally’s armor for a certain amount of time as long as you stand near them. This is the basic concept taunt will operate on. You may not be able to force your opponent to turn and face you but at least you can hinder his ability to scatter your healer or caster buddy’s remains all over the battlefield. This coupled with the Black Orcs “dirty fighting” combo abilities should be enough to, if not decimate your opponent or force him to turn and face you, at least make him curse your name and wish you were never born.
Even though it might not be what you hoped for, I for one can’t wait to try to tank a player for once, and failing that, make their life miserable.
-Bo
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9 Responses to “Sticks & Stones: Taunt Will Never Hurt Me”
“It started out as simply something you spammed to generate hate or aggro and evolved into an ability that instantly put you at the top of a creature’s hate list and forced it to attack you for a couple seconds.”
I’m not sure I would say that taunting has evolved over the years since it seems to shift back and forth between the two. In fact, many games have both types of taunts. Overall we’ve only seen lateral progression in this game mechanic.
The most evolutionary change taunting has ever seen is actually WAR’s pvp implementation. It would be great to see the same evolutionary process make its way around to other systems.
By Keen on Feb 13, 2008
That is correct, however, I was refering to the evolution of the skill’s design. The fact that people still implement the original mechanic is irelevant since the evolved mechanic exists.
I do agree 100% with your last statement. However, balancing that implementation for systems already in existance would create major issues.
By Bo on Feb 13, 2008
I heard a rumor that when a player is taunted that the taunted player would have do doubt that he was being taunted. Something that would not be a akin to the curses of wow. However, as you have said if they are oblivious to a bubbled pally how much more obvious can you be?
By Pandar on Feb 14, 2008
To be fair I friend of mine reminded me that City of Heroes/City of Villains did have a taunt that worked in PvP. It would force the target to attack the tank. It went as far as redirecting attacks that you had already started (ie: switched targets in the middle of casting). I didn’t put this in the article because at the time I wrote it I couldn’t recall if that was a bug or actually part of the game design. The only time I really recall it being annoying was during a short time after the release of CoV when Brutes/Tankers still had a taunt effect still attached to all their attacks. This was honestly the only period of time I had ever been taunted (or atleast noticed it). During that period of time it was horribly annoying and beyond overpowered.
By Bo on Feb 14, 2008
I have to say I like the direction that WAR is going with taunt. I think to do it the way that CoV had it at one point is to much. The game actually made you target the tank, which could be very disorienting. Now some might say thats a cool thing because hey you should be paying attention or whatever, but that doesnt to me present a fair challenge. I can appreciate making the target take 50% less damage, but having your camera thrown around because someone taunted you is to me a bit unfair.
Yeah, stuns, mezzes, and what not may make you not be able to do anything at all, but atleast you have a better notion of what the heck is going on.
By Nasko on Feb 14, 2008
Yeah, my major concern is know who the hell taunted you. In a scenario it may not be that hard but imagine trying to figure out who taunted you during a city siege where a crap ton of folks are everywhere? I hope there is a very clear indication like an extended middle finger icon hovering over the tank or at least an arrow pointing down with the words, “Come get some!” blazing over it.
By Ted on Feb 14, 2008
I think the question is, would you rather know who taunted you or simply the fact that you have been taunted in this situation?
By Snafzg on Feb 15, 2008
I was thinking about this problem earlier, on how to know who taunted you.
Whipping your camera around is just annoying, so perhaps a very obvious visual cue visible only to you would be better.
For example, the black orc who taunted you could appear to be on fire, or perhaps 10 feet tall, or any number of temporary model tweaks allowing you to pick out the challenger with a quick glance, even in crowded scenarios like a city siege.
Again, these visual changes would be visible only to whoever was taunted, letting them decide if they care to continue on as before, but doing half the damage, or if they want to rush the challenger.
By Knash on Feb 17, 2008
i’m sorry i can’t provide a link, but i guarantee reading that at least one tank’s taunt in WAR not only reduced the damage that the taunted target could do to anyone but the tank, but also increased the damage of the tanks attacks on the taunted target by 20% until the taunted target hit the tank 3 times.
That seemed perfect in my mind. So long as its clear who taunts you, it would very much be in your best interest to hit that tank as soon as possible, before something like a 2hander chosen tears you a knew one with his +20% damage buff.
By Estorak on Jul 9, 2008