In MMOs, and particularly fantasy MMOs, it’s become a given that the holy trinity will exist. You know: tank; healer; dps.
It gets a lot of ridicule from players, particularly those who fight PVP, as ‘everyone knows’ that real players ignore tanks and kill healers, then dps.
There are a several causes of the problem, if problem it is. The first is an attempt at balance that allows the tank to resist damage means that character is gimped in some other ways. You can be REALLY resistant to damage, but as a consequence you cannot heal and you cannot do damage — or at least, nothing significant.
The second cause is the artificial identification; EVERYBODY KNOWS what a tank looks like and what a healer looks like and so on and so forth.
The third problem is gamer’s god-like point of view; players get a relatively unobstructed view of all enemies thanks to third-person view.
Notice something here: I don’t have a problem with the ‘holy trinity’. Two of the three are REAL LIFE – the tank and the dps. In squad through army tactics Patton’s dictum is gold: grab them by the nose and kick them in the ass. The tank is the nose-grabber. He’s got to simultaneously be enough of a threat to be credible AND require the opponent’s full attention, but able to withstand the beating he’ll take while everyone else gets into a flanking or rear position for a quick and easy kill. The only fantasy part is the ‘heal them quick’ capability.
So if I don’t want to break the holy trinity, why this post’s title? Well, what I want to break is the artificial belief that the AI is being stupid by ignoring the holy trinity. While I’m at it I’d like to break some of the more mind-boggling elements, of course. I’ve mentioned almost all these points in my “if’n I were a game designer” posts, but I’ve decided to go through the points again specifically in this focus.
One of my model baselines is that everyone can potentially do everything. Wearing armor has penalties for everyone, just more for those casting magic. If you want your healer dressed in the heaviest plate and bearing a sword and shield, well, more power to you (you’ll need it). Thing is, this kills the second point completely and hampers the first. It is no longer obvious which opponent is the healer. At the same time it’s pretty apparent that THAT GUY IS ATTACKING ME!! (Ouch, my nose.)
Another model I’d include – and this one I don’t think I’ve mentioned – is that I’d love to kill the God View. No, let’s not make everyone go to periscope view (first person view). Instead make a ‘simple’ programming modification. If your character does not have line of sight to a target, you cannot see that target. I don’t think I’d go quite so far as to black out EVERYTHING, but certainly if your character can’t see the enemy then you can’t, either. Even if the healer is wearing robes this goes a LONG way to protecting him. (Can you see spells moving? I say only if you can see arrows flying. If one, then the other.)
Finally, and least, I’d think HARD about any “threat generation” abilities that might be given. Now I’ve got a model that makes this possible – bear with me because again it’s got some real-world basis. Let me start with that and how it gets modeled.
It is HARD to defend against one opponent and attack another. It can be SUICIDE to ignore an attacking opponent capable of seriously hurting you to try and chase down someone “over there”, but it can be done. So here’s the deal: I’d insert a small “focus” element in the combat system. You have a little better defense against your target; against the enemy you have focused upon.
Now we can add a couple of tank effects that aren’t too imbalancing. First there’s the ability of tanks to deal with more than one foe. For this: there’s a tanking skill allows defensive focus on more than one foe at a time. Second there’s the “pay attention to me” element: If the tank “shouts”, the targets of the shout are MORE vulnerable to damage from the tank if they don’t keep him focused.
In other words I can ignore the tank and go for what I think is a healer, but now instead of just losing 5% damage protection I’m actually 5% more vulnerable – 10% net. (Numbers are examples, actual models may need different ranges).
Turn your back on that infantry unit facing you to catch the armor unit before it attacks and you may be in a world of hurt from the infantry you ignored.
Now mixing this up I expect some degree of rock-paper-scissors. Armor resists this but slows you up making you more vulnerable to that – whatever this and that are in the end.
Bottom line, I’m not bothered by the trinity concept. I’m bothered by its exaggeration and I’m bothered by players who haven’t realized the reason they are able to ignore it is they’re at a remove with a god-like view of the situation. Tighten that up and, well, it makes sense — more sense.
Mental Meanderings 