Dreadnought or Juggernaut class (offensive tank)

[Manofdusk]

I've been wracking my brain for the past 2-3 days trying to come up with a set of mechanics for an Offensively themed tank.

I have:

Knight: Uses taunts and special guard commands
Guardian: Uses and manipulates Barriers
Monk: Excels in evasion and counter
Paladin: takes all damage in the form of a DoT and uses Cover
Death Knight: Focuses on life steal to sustain
Rune Knight: taunts and absorbs magical energy to release powerful attacks

so now what I'm looking for is a "Tank" type class that focuses on offense (either Dreadnought or Juggernaught. I can't fully decide which). Preferrably without overlapping too much with the berserker.

Has anyone ever designed a "Shock Trooper" type character before? One that was just too much of a threat to be left alone by foes? I'd also have to figure out how precisely to make this character draw the attention of enemies (I'm using Yanfly's battle system so I'm not sure if Tgr even works with it). I'm also playing with the idea of giving this chagacter higher max hp and hp regen passives.

 

[The Mighty Palm]

I havent made a character like this but it sounds highly reminiscent of the Protector class from Etrian Odyssey. A character with pretty good Offense and Defense stats but skills built around support. Like raising the defense of the party, raising elemental resistance, provoking enemies to draw their attacks, raising their own defence to wall said attacks, and so on. A pretty good character to have in a party but if theyre on their own you'd be in trouble.

 

[M.I.A.]

"Tank" classes don't inherently have to be classes based on Physical attributes, much like your Rune Knight & Death Knight.

I once had a Mage "Tank" that specialized in Defensive barriers, but could also hit really heavily (but most skills had high costs/cool downs).
This class also gained a ton of special "taunt" affect armor that drew and maintained aggro. Get creative with it!

In my current project, I have a Necromancer-type magic class that can perform as a "Tank".
He uses a summoned Undead warrior that can act as an additional target with taunt while also performing a basic attack each turn..
And while all that's going on, he can continue to cast an array of debuffing spells onto foes.

Another approach to create this offensive machine could be to pick an element, and design a bunch of skills around it that enhance physical attributes. Or several different sets that are accessible depending on which element is selected.

Example 1 :
Job Class: Sky Warrior / Cavalier
Element: Lightning
Skills:
1) Lightning Rod - Absorbs all Lightning type magic 3 times, then unleashes all the absorbed DMG x2 onto a random foe.
2) Shocking Grip - Binds an enemy to the Sky Warrior. The Sky Warrior can only attack the selected foe, and the selected foe can only attack the Sky Warrior.
3) EMP - Discharges all MP to deal DMG equal to MP Lost to all foes as Lightning DMG.

Example 2:
Job Class: Gladiator
Element: Healing
Skills:
1) Nullify Pain - Increases MaxHP by 50%, Also increase Target Rate by 50%
2) Grit-n-Guts - Once per battle, if HP drops below 10%, the Gladiator rushes into the fray! As long as the Gladiator stays alive and below 10% of his MaxHP, every successful normal attack and normal multi-scope attack will 100% CRIT.
3) Down, But Not Out - If the Gladiator is the last Party Member not KO's, all normal attacks have a chance to hit 3 times.

I hope you find this helpful!
-MIA

 

[KayZaman]

What are difference between Juggernaught and Dreadnaught?

 

[Milennin]

The Paladin in my game, RTP, has an ability that makes enemies attack her (taunt-like). Another skill she has, deals damage back to all enemies, equal to the amount of damage taken while under the effects of that ability and then restores half of her max HP. Basically, she soaks up damage, and when she's getting too low on HP to take anymore hits, or when she's built up enough damage, she'll strike all enemies at once while healing herself back.

 

[ShadowHawkDragon]

When I think juggernaut, I think of the guy from X-men. He is strong but not super strong, then he begins to charge forwards. As he builds up momentum he becomes both stronger and tougher, becoming near unstoppable if he isn't stopped fast. Its due to this that my image of a 'juggernaut' is akin to a raging rhino, and so whenever I design such a class I always carry over some of these traits.

In a turn based setting...
He starts off fairly weak, a bit tougher than a 'squishy' but not super tanky.
Each time he uses an offensive ability he both becomes stronger and more resilient, building up to tremendous powers.
However use an item or defensive ability, or get stunned and its back to square one.
He could even have an ability or two which sacrifices all of his built up 'tension' for a super move.

 

[Manofdusk]

@KayZaman nothing really, just the name itself (trying to decide which is more suitable)

@Milennin I like that. I was already thinking of giving him the Mhp Hp critical passive (which boosts max hp based on missing hp). Adding in a passive that "stores" damage taken to be released in one big blast could be very cool.

@ShadowHawkDragon building on Milennin's idea, I think it could work very well for many of his other abilities to function off those as well, perhaps adding in yet another passive that builds a "combo multiplier" each time you perform an action that buffs the power of further actions.

 

[UnicornsVomit]

Juggernaut sounds like a guy that'll shake off damage while a dreadnaught sounds like it's ready to purge for the emperor.

 

[Wavelength]

This is a weird question to me. A "tank" is usually a character who focuses on taking hits because {A} they can absorb hits better than their allies can, and {B} their damage contribution is not as valuable as their allies' so when this character gets hit and needs to defend (or gets KO'ed) you have lost less DPS. The concept of an "offensive tank" seems to go against concept {B}, and if a high damage character can also be concept [A], that leaves me to ask: what is this character's weakness?

Thinking to League of Legends, where nearly every character archetype you can think of is represented, there is a group of melee characters informally called "Juggernauts", who are capable of both dealing and soaking a lot of damage, but they are slow and easily kiteable (and rarely have supportive abilities for allies). The idea is that the Juggernaut needs to outplay their opponents with good positioning, or receive speed boosts from allies (usually "Enchanters", who focus on empowering their teammates), in order to close the gap with their enemies and wreck them with their combination of high offense and high defense. Among the Juggernauts are Garen and Darius (who have huge pools of health and can shred enemy defenses over a few seconds and then follow up with high-damage execution skills if they can remain in range), Vladimir and Swain ('drain tanks' that have lower Max HP pools but deal medium-high damage and absorb health from enemies as they do damage), and Mordekaiser (who is just a complete design failure).

That's harder to pull off in an RPG, though. If you're using an ATB, you could give your "offensive tank" high ATK and DEF but low AGI, and therefore they look like an offensive tank, but in practice their offensive potential is probably undermined by the low number of turns. If you have some sort of positioning mechanic, or some way for ranged enemies to pepper the offensive tank with arrows before the tank can close the gap, then the low speed could work as a counterbalance for really good offense and defense potential. Status effects can even handle this role of "disabling the Juggernaut" in a turn-based battle, but that requires extremely good design skills - you'd have to work within a very small pool of statuses which each allow for tactical play and counterplay. Alternately, giving the tank a few offensive skills that are highly conditional (such as "deals heavy damage to all enemies below 50% HP") will mean that the tank character's offensive potential can be seen and felt by the player, but the tank character is not always good at offense.