Ok this is my piece. I wrote part of it somewhere in other thread but.
First of all i play my first playtrough on hard + expert mode. I have 3 fighters (me, edair and pellagine). Edar is specialized in engagement so he can take 3-4 engagement at once. My main fighter is dude who hits accurately with spears and pellagine is damage dealer with her great sword.
Currently lvl 6 heading to twin elms. So forgive me if i say something wrong (which can later be corrected by my experience). I did not took part in beta. After i will finish PoE i will do full review of problems and good things beside that piece.
These are my thoughts:
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Engagement system works when you fight small groups but it introduces problem with bigger groups.
In bigger groups where each fighter has like 2-3 or more enemies per fighter they are essentially locked down completely from movement because....
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Engagement attacks are either too strong or too easy to hit. Currently engagement attack even when you have high deflect, armor and even with some equipment hits almost 100% of times if not 100%. This means that even if you knockdown one enemy there are other 2 that will hit you like mule when you will try to move out. Which leads us to...
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No movement abilities, skills, whatever. Once fighter is lockdown there is no system that would allow him corrections or simply having lower chance to get hit by engagement attack. Yes like
Anthony Davis said there are debuffs that would give you a window or interuptions but they work well only in small group fighting. When you cast something that stuns enemy and your fighter fights with 4 people then ther is little chance it will stun all 4 of them. Yes there is knockback available as character developement ability but you need to resign from something else to get it and it's main advantage is not engagement braking but disabling enemy and giving you bonus to hit and it is 2 per encounter which is low.
There is no 5 foot system that would allow you move away slowly from engagement. There are no skills like tumble that would give you huge bonus to not get hit by engagement attacks and finally there are no skills that will move away people like mentioned already bash or push.
How to fix this.
Biggest problem is that game is RTwP. Which means everything needs to work from both same time and every angle. This is something we can't naturally fix without releasing different game (tim cain game hint hint)
But you can:
Implement abilities and modals easily available for almost all classes.
Back it up with character development abilities and passives.
Defensive Movement
---modal---
This modal slows you down to 20% of your movement speed but allows you to move while engaged.
While flanked your enemies receive 150% of flanked bonus.
You attack rate is down to 50%
decription:
Why 20% ? Because if you allow 100% character would simply run away past every enemy from engagement. With 20% it works more like 5 foot system like in ToEE. Allows for adjustments and corrections to formation but disallows running past enemies
Why flanked ? This disallows moving slowly past enemy group to reach for example enemy back line. So you will need to be extra careful not to get flanked because you will be locked in place (like now). This may seem couterproductive but remember that this allows moving where in current PoE system moving means 100% hit on you. Flanked bonus means they can hit you more but it is still % chance so if you have high deflection they will rarely hit you.
This way every enemy you fight will be still fighting with you while moving and you won't be able to brake away engagement if you fight with group.
At same time it will give abilit to brake down engagement to characters that are fighting 1vs1. So for example mage fighting with somebandit will be able to get close to your fighter and from there fighter would engage enemy and you will be able to move away from engagement without engagement attack with your mage.
This is ideal skill to step away from engagement sphere while not being actively attacked by enemy.
But that is not the end. You will be able to buff that modal in various ways
upgrades:
- Movement speed drink. If you drink it you will have more than 20% movement speed. Naturally it won't be 100% but closer to 40-50% but it will double your movement rate and essentially help you position yourself faster. Naturally spells like haste and so on work the same way.
- Advanced defensive movement trait from character development. It will allow you to move at 35% rate and while flanked it will only give 120% of bonus hit for enemy. Naturally to get it you will need to lose something else.
- Defense passive while moving trait from character development. While in defensive movement charater get additional deflection.
- Counter passive from character develelopment. You have 15% chance to do a counter attack while in defensive movement. For example 15 of 100 enemy attacks will be countered with hit (not graze) of your weapon.
-etc. Many possibilities.
Tumble
---ability--- 2-3 per encounter--- instant---
This ability gives you way to move quickly short distance in straight line with only 20% chance of receiving engagement attack.
You can't tumble wearing armor above light armor OR tumble reach depends on armor you wear. best reach with no armor almost useless with heavy armor.
Tumble only works on enemies engaged with you.
Tumble gives bonus to hit for enemies and auto engagement attack if you finish tumble in enemy engagement ring. This doesn't work if enemy is flanked.
It would probably more costly to implement since it would require animation. Without it, it'll will look weird.
It gives you ability to set point and tumble away to it. Mind you this ability should have short lenght. So for example if you are engaged with 2-3 different enemies you can tumble away to point behind their backs but you won't be able to tuble away to have huge distance. So if you won't imminently move away you will be still engaged. Tumble doesn't stop other enemies from engagement attacks so while tumbling away they have 20% hit chance for their engagements attacks and if you land into engagement ring on enemy that enemy has 100% guaranted engagement hit on you.
upgrades:
- more tumbling. Gives you additional 2 tumbles per encounter. character development trait to get.
- longer reach. self explenatory also character development trait to get
- advanced tumbling. 0% chace to hit while tumbling still you get hit 100% if you finish your tumble in someone engagment ring.
Rush
--ability-- 2 per rest--not instant---
Character sets point or enemy and rushes toward him movingaway/knocking back enemies on its way.
If character might is greater than enemy might it will knock down enemy at half duration of normal knockdown. If might is lower it will move away enemy from its way.
If enemy has other enemy behind him while moving away this enemy also will be moved away corresponding to 1st enemy direction.
The lighter you are moving away enemy is shorter.
If your might is lower than half of enemy might or condition then rush stops.
Engagement attacks only from enemies not affected by this ability (for example enemies behind you or enemies with long weapons).
If target is enemy that enemy will be attacked with knockdown at better accuracy rate than normal knockdown with longer duration
Reach of that ability depends on character armor. The heavier the armor the slower and shorter your bullrush is.
Reach of that ability depends on character shield. The heavier the shield the slower and shorter your bullrush is
Effectiveness of that ability depends on armor. The heavier the armor the better bull rush is.
Knockback duration of that ability depends on shield. The larger shield is the better knockback is.
Without shield you have lower knockback chance.
Character movement speed is as fallows:
Heavy armor - 120% movement speed
Medium armor - 140% movement speed
Light armor - 180 % movement speed
No armor or clothing - 220% movement speed
Description.
The heavier you are the more Rush looks like a bull rush and it works way better in ton of enemies situations where you need to move in to someone moving away few enemies on your way possibly knocking them down.
The lighter you are this moves looks more like close in attack for rogues or swashbucklers to fast close in to your target like mage or something nimbly moving between foes. It is move better than Tumble but it's cost is per rest instead of per encounter.
This is also especially good ability for heavy fighters so 2 per rest also works here.
This move has one con. If you start it while flanked your enemies you have behind your back will get 100% hit. For heavy fighter it is not something dangerous as being flanked usually means like 1 enemy not 3. But for light fighters or rogues that hit may take 20% or more of your life so this is where you can chain Both Rush and Tumble. So tumble away from engaged position while being flanked to safe place and then use rush to quickly close in to enemy back line.
This 3 moves alone would help a lot with movement in combat. I love how things are per encounter/rest in PoE (great idea !).
I have several other different ways to fix engagement mechanic but i need more time with PoE and finish it first.
