What would you like a CON weapon to do?

[LordoftheMeme]

Let’s have a discussion beyond PTR and expertise.

Considering that all weapons scale with stats apart from CON, a CON weapon would be a different play style entirely.

What does a CON weapon do?

Right off the bat, it would be a weapon that should not be able to have meaningfully scaling damage stats. The benefit of CON is being healthy, not having great damage output. It should accentuate having health and resistances, not cover the weaknesses of such a play style.

Tank weapon? Hell yeah. Just like how healers have gotten a Void Gauntlet as a 2nd weapon that helps them do their role efficiently, let’s have a true companion to Sword and Shield.

Secondary scaling / damage scaling? Very probably needed, unless we’re okay with a very niche weapon being in place. If it’s a magic weapon, maybe have it go off Focus? Potentially this makes tank-healers very strong in world PvP, which is not super fun to play against. Intelligence tanks sound cool, too.

So, should it be a crowd control weapon? Probably not. Without more resistance stats, too many crowd control options create frustration when opponents cannot play the game. The rapier’s Riposte is to me the best form of “hard” crowd control - it punishes opponents for spamming abilities, and has a vulnerability for the rapier player as the opponent gets to freely reposition if they anticipated it.

Buffs/debuffs? I really like the 10% dmg / resist split in top tier passives on Sword and Shield. As long as one is not significantly better than the other, options like that make group play more interesting and require co-ordination to use properly. More abilities that work better in groups.

Self-healing? I’d rather see more mitigation rather than self-healing, but weapons without self-healing are miserable.

Ranged or melee? While ranged tanking sounds interesting, most enemies in the game run right up to you. Unless you could fix enemies in place, a tank weapon does not really have a benefit from being range, especially if it’s a low CC option.

I think then, a buff/debuff weapon is the way to go. It could drain your health to boost your party / lower your max health to provide a boost (doesn’t have to be damage, can be CC resistance, healing strength increased, etc!). Possibly as a magic weapon, it can have the appearance of creating armor/constructs to assist you. That’s an idea, make an actual decoy Pylon, instead of Ice pylon ending up being a decoy by accident 75% of the time.

What could it look like?

When I first joined the game and I my friends told me there was an ice gauntlet, I imagined it as a big icicle punchin’ machine. Obviously it’s not that.

I do like the idea of having TWO gauntlets, so let’s call it Twin Gauntlets and pick an element. We have every magic type taken except Arcane, and this doesn’t sound particularly Arcane. I picture Arcane as a spellbook? Short of introducing another element (it could easily be Earth), Arcane could be magic that constructs protective barriers for your party.

That’s what I’d like to see - The Twin Gauntlets, capable of deploying decoys of your character, armoring your team, and being a big sturdy punchin’ object.

Anyone else have dreams for tank weapons?

[Radford]

I like your idea of a decoy tank utility given positioning and the knockabout tanking can entail.

My wish would be to have other types of utility item as second slot also with movement or other styles of ability - a grappling hook for climbers allowing get to places or entangle a for a time , a cloak allowing camouflage or stealth for a limited window, an ocular to increase armour pierce or aid ranged for heavy burst single weapon builds, belts allowing jumping or improved climbing , a symbol of summoning allowing pet play.

These could be interesting secondaries or just add options, fun skills and different types of mobility and diversity to the play - of course the question of balance is always an issue but having fun utilities is part of a growing world in my view and having to learn to counter such the fun of the game as well as making different fun ways to traverse the world.

[LordoftheMeme]

Yes! I’m worried that the grappling hook would be insanely better as a mobility option (no-one else has vertical mobility) - but a cloak to help you drop aggro to get an enemy to go for a decoy. Not sure how strong stealth is in PvP, maybe it could confuse foes / leave a decoy, a là Mirage in Apex Legends? All cool stuff.

Let’s refine it -

Left Hand tree is decoys / minions. this is where CON scaling is great, they can have health based on yours! We could consider splitting what FCS scaling would actually do, maybe FCS is just straight damage for adds. This let’s healers in solo play have other options, as a bonus. So one ability is tank / decoy minions/clones , one ability is damage minions, and maybe the last one let’s you sacrifice a clone/minion for a boost (or health restoration?)

Right Hand Tree is Arcane Power - maybe CON makes the effect stronger, but FCS makes effects last longer. Stealth cloak, a damage boost for the team, and maybe a single use damage block for people near you? Can let you avoid big damage effects or something.

[Azak]

Wouldn’t it be simplier to just have the sword to scale off of str/con instead of str/dex… it is the tanking weapon.

[DragoBelsazar]

I would like not have to rely on fantasies to motivate myself still playing S&S.

1.) Damage is weak. No one is at risk facetank a tank.
2.) Once your shield is depleted you are dead. Shield is not as strong as you might think. Often times a dodge would be the smarter decision, but if you do that as S&S, you have to do it with >51% stamina else you lose your block mechanic for over 4 seconds and you are dead. It is some immobility losing your block mechanic. You can animation cancel with dodge, not with block.
3.) You are right, we have no good choice 2nd weapon while performing tank role. You are right, all weapons without self-healing are miserable. ATM the real tank is still the healer over 2 months now.
4.) If you fight against wise enemies, they kill all around you and you the last. You are no harm and no support. Once all are dead, you can wait until your shield is depleted and you are dead too.
As it is now, you are only needed in PvE. In Invasions, OPR & Wars you are a burden. Just roll out a Great Axe…
Just think about it. You can heal yourself every 45s for less than what a healer can heal you every 4s. The healer can do it to himself and to others. There could be a rework to Defiant Stance scaling with CON, make it a heal able to heal yourself and others like single Target heal of Life Staff. Call it Last Stand and lore wise motivating whatever. But this would change the meta, that tanks are tanks and not healers. And it would solve the problem that if the enemy ignores you, you would still have an impact healing your mates. ATM there are no paladins. This change would add one. If it is scaling with CON, you are sacrificing damage. Sounds fair to me.

[LordoftheMeme]

Yes, that’s another excellent suggestion.

Or maybe split Sword and Shield into Sword skills, and then the Shield can be solely CON scaling and can be combined with other weapons - I’m hoping Hatchet, Spear and hopefully a future flail or something.

[Youkai]

Reflective shield strength.

Barriers.

Health sacrificing blood magic spikes.

Damage over times, such as poisons and diseases.

[Tonktz]

id love to see some kind hand to hand or martial artist.

[LordoftheMeme]

Yes, I started with just brawler’s gloves as my initial idea. A big meaty CON tank just getting up in someone’s face. Maybe a DEX/CON weapon could be like, Martial Artist’s Wrappings, just to get a flurry or something involved.