Did you seriously use lyrics from that terrible song for this post?
Cut me some slack, I've been on vacation. Gonna take a bit to get back into my game. Consider yourself lucky it's not more puns. If you've got a better title for a post about the downed state, I'm all ears.
Without delving into some more obscure music, I do not. Regardless I thought you were going to talk about the traits system or how healing and tanking is supposed to work in Tyria. Wouldn't the downed state fit into the latter of those two posts?
I am trying to cut down the size of these walls of text. I usually fail, but I try. That's not the main reason for this though, but I'll get to that later. Back to the task at hand - today's post is about the downed state and how it's different from what we're used to back in Azeroth.
I'd feel sorry for the human, but I can't blame the big guy for being mad about an axe to the groin
You mean being dead?
Exactly. For you or me, when we ran out of health, that was it. You were down until someone decided to resurrect you or you released your spirit to run back to your body. Until one of those two events occurred though, you were just sitting there staring at the floor.
So how many raid dungeon floors have you stared at over the years?
More than I care to think about. Hell, with AQ40, you could've shown me a picture of the floor and I would've been able to tell you what room it was from and probably where in said room. Man, I hated that raid...
Schadenfreude aside, what exactly is there that could be different in how dying works in Tyria? Seems fairly standard from a biological perspective: your body takes a certain level of punishment and once that threshold has been passed, you expire.
The difference would be that downed state I mentioned. It's sort of an intermediate state between okay and corpse. Picture it like this: you've been fighting for a while, but you're running out of steam. Something hits you and you go down, but you're not dead yet. You're hurting and not able to jump back into the fray, but you've still got some fight left in you.
In this example, that spot where you went down would be where we would run out of health and die back in Azeroth. That bit where you're on the ground and still fighting is all new for Tyrians.
So basically in Tyria, you just get this extended bit of health bar for combat then? Still able to do what you could before, but now you're stuck in place? That also doesn't address the fact that you're still out of health and dying. The way you've described it, you're basically just getting off a few extra shots while you're on the ground but you're still going to die.
Let's start with that first bit there. Yes, when you're on the ground, you can still attack your foes, but not the same as when you were standing. When you're downed, you've only got four attacks available to you. One of these is a shared shout skill to protect yourself and the other three are based on your profession - they're weapon independent. For warriors like me, we've got a shout to buff our comrades, rocks we can throw, and a type of last stand ability to bring us back up to fight. That last one may sound really powerful, but it has a catch: once it wears off, you're defeated. That's basically the equivalent of dead for us in Azeroth; you're stuck until someone comes over to revive you or you teleport back to a waypoint on your map.
Do you choose where I respawn at? Seems unnecessary if I'm running back to my corpse.
That would be true, if you were in fact running back to your body. With Tyria though, if you pay to respawn back at a waypoint, then you are back up and running. There is no need to return to where you fell unless you need to return there for quests or you just feel the need for vengeance. If you went down and you were finished in that area, you could decide to come back in town and save yourself the walk back to clear out your bags.
Sounds convenient. Back to the skills though - what do engineers have available to them in this downed state?
Wish I could tell you, but unfortunately I haven't been able to dig up those skills for engineers. Got them for the other professions though. Guardians get some holy type skills. Elementalists get an immobilize, a lightning attack, and a vapor form that lets them move their body if they want to get out of the fray or move closer to someone that can revive them. Similar stuff for the other professions.
Okay, you've described all of these attacks that you can do while you're downed, but that still doesn't address how you get out of said downed state. Is this just an extra way to put in some damage before you're in the same shoes as an Azerothian, waiting for a respawn or a resurrection?
Ah, but there is a difference here. Sure, you can be revived by your party members like we're used to. I believe this can be done in combat, though it's somewhat awkward given the time required. The reason you have those abilities available to you is because you have the potential to rally yourself back into the fight. Basically if you or your pet manage to kill something while you're downed, or even if you get experience for something dying while you're downed (say, from a monster that your party member managed to get the final blow on), you are rallied. This means you get a quarter of your health back, a second of invulnerability while you get your bearings, and whatever energy you happened to have when you were rallied. At this point you can return to the fray, though you most likely want to use your self-heal before doing so; 25% isn't one foot in the grave, but it's not exactly fighting fit. It's also possible that you could be rallied by your allies. Some professions have abilities that can rally nearby allies when they kill an opponent or some similar trigger.
I assume that these rallying effects have some sort of limiting factor, correct? Given how liberally most raiders use combat resurrection spells, I could see that being quite powerful.
It's definitely powerful, but yeah there's limits. For one there's a rez timer like we're used to. Basically the more you go down in succession, the longer it takes to revive you. Yes, there's always the rally effect for that instant revive, but you only have so many foes available to provide that rally and when you're down, your allies may going to have a harder time finishing the fight. If you keep falling down, they may not be able to avoid being defeated themselves. Still it does give you more options to get back into the fight other than stacking druids for combat rezzes or running back to the dungeon. Anything that reduces downtime is great in my book.
True enough. Anything else to add on this topic?
Nah, that about wraps things up. It's not a real stretch from the dying that we're all used to, but it is different enough that it should be addressed. Nothing like the healing and tanking stuff that I'm gonna have to figure out how to write.
And when can people expect that dissertation?
That one's gonna have to wait until we get some hands-on experience.
I was wondering when you were going to mention that particular fact.
You can't just come out and say these things. You have to build up to them - it's called showmanship.
It's called "burying it at the end of a post, so less people are likely to read it".
Bah. Anyways, what Med's talking about is a little trip we've got planned next week. We found out about a place that's going to give us a chance to have some hands-on experience with how stuff works in Tyria, so Med and I will be attending. Can't bring anybody else from the team for this trip (not sure where this "Seattle" place is but it's not cheap getting there), so it'll just be the two of us taking notes for this trip. We are however going with a couple of other people that are looking for a change of scenery from Azeroth, so we might be able to get some impressions from them once we're there. Personally I'm hoping to get some video while I'm there, but since I've never been to this show, I don't know how easy that's going to be. I'll definitely have some notes though, so be ready for that.
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