Progress Update – Combat and Progression: Armor and Resists

Hi everyone! We’re here with another progress update for you this week as we march towards the Combat and Progression Update. In this dev diary, we want to talk about what should be a very important part of combat: mitigating damage.

In Pantheon we have two basic ways to reduce incoming damage. Armor, which helps you mitigate incoming physical damage, and resistances, which help you mitigate incoming non-physical damage. These two types of mitigations work both for players and for NPCs. Both stat types are primarily tied to equipment (although they can come from buffs as well) and should be one of the main reasons for players to consider upgrading their equipment as they level up.

Neither of these concepts are new to Pantheon – but our previous implementations of both armor and resistances weren’t really achieving the desired results, and there has been plenty of player feedback over the past year about that. So, as part of the Combat and Progression Update, we’re taking the opportunity to adjust the way these two game mechanics function.

Making Armor Matter at all Levels

Let’s start with Armor. Pantheon has several different types of armor items, ranging from cloth robes for spellcasters, to medium armor such as chainmail and scale mail, all the way up to sets of heavy plate armor. These items are meant to be a core component of the game’s itemization, and make up a large percentage of the loot, quest rewards, and crafted items found in the game.

Our old armor system was set up and balanced primarily around the idea of tank classes needing armor to mitigate incoming damage. This worked, to a degree. The problem, however, was that at low levels, the equipment was not really making enough of a difference to feel very useful. This meant we saw plenty of instances where players simply didn’t care about their armor value at all, even when soloing, unless the equipment also provided other useful stats. In many cases, the best defense is a good offense, but we still want defense to matter to our players.

This problem also made balancing the damage output of our NPCs very difficult. If we made the NPC do enough damage to threaten a tank in heavy armor, anyone else who got hit by that NPC didn’t stand a chance. This put us in a situation where everything either had to hit like a truck, or basically just be solo fodder, with nothing in between. It was clear that we needed to change something.

What’s Changing for Armor and Physical Mitigation

Going forward, the amount of damage mitigation provided by armor is going to scale based on the level of the opponent the player is fighting:

• At lower levels, armor upgrades are going to feel very meaningful for players – even if they are wearing cloth or leather.
• At higher levels, the numbers get bigger, and players will want better armor (or better armor-enhancing buffs) to help mitigate that incoming damage.

From one level to the next, the change is gradual, but what this will mean is that upgrades will matter for the armor values that they provide, along with any other stats that may be present on the piece. Even for non-tank classes, the damage reduction from armor will still be important for many situations, and will now be potent enough to make a visible difference in those situations.

In some cases, players may be confronted with meaningful choices to make – do they take the piece with higher armor values to help them handle incoming damage better, or do they take the piece with lower armor values, but better stats, to benefit them in a different way? In the past, the answer was almost always to take the piece with a lower armor value, but it should now be a much more nuanced choice under the new approach.

These changes also apply to armor value granted by buffs. A buff that gives players additional armor value will now make a noticeable difference in how much damage they can absorb when they are hit.

There are a few other aspects of these changes that should help make for some interesting gameplay: First, these armor changes apply to NPCs as well. Higher-level NPCs will naturally mitigate more damage than their lower-level brethren. This means that abilities that help reduce an opponent’s armor will be very useful, especially in tough group encounters. Secondly, these changes give us more flexibility around tactical effects in combat. A tank, for example, may gain an ability that temporarily increases their armor mitigation, allowing them to reduce the damage they are taking for a short time. Likewise, some high-level damage abilities might gain an armor penetration component, meaning that they would bypass some of the armor present on the target.

This new approach to armor will help make the items that players find while leveling up much more useful and meaningful through the entire level range of the game. Instead of slapping on that new armor piece and feeling like nothing has changed, there should now be a meaningful impact from pursuing armor upgrades.

Adding Value to Resistances

Up until now, our game’s resistances have not felt very useful to players. It required a large amount of resistance to make a meaningful dent in the damage taken from elemental attacks and achieving that resistance required players to utilize a combination of gear and buffs. As a result, only the most well-prepared groups really took advantage of the system, and most players simply ignored it, especially at lower levels.

In the Combat and Progression Update, we are adjusting the damage mitigation from resistances in the same way that we are adjusting damage mitigation from armor. This means that at lower levels, even a few points in a resist value will have a meaningful impact. As players level up, they will naturally want to pursue higher resistance values to help mitigate elemental damage. This will help make items that carry resist bonuses more compelling, as well as buffs that provide those bonuses.

Resistance vs. Vulnerability

There is an additional component to our resist system that will also come into play here. A negative resist value will now cause the target of an attack to take additional damage from the corresponding type of attack. For example, if a player is fighting an enemy and can apply a debuff that reduces its fire resistance to a negative number, the player’s fire-based attacks will hit that enemy much harder as a result. This makes resist debuffs potentially an extremely powerful offensive tactic, and an important way that different classes can synergize with each other in combat. It also means that players may need to be prepared to deal with hostile debuffs that get applied to them and make them vulnerable to attacks, especially in tough group fights.

These changes (along with many others) will be part of the Combat and Progression update and will be available on our Public Test Realm when it opens. We encourage all of you to jump in and provide feedback when the time comes.