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Reworking Combat Stances (Full Atk/Def) to affect Mages and removing the "Guard Drop" mechanic. Thoughts?

Zazeros

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Hey everyone,

I'm looking for some honest feedback on a combat mechanics change I recently implemented on my server.

As we all know, Tibia has three classic combat stances: Full Attack, Balanced, and Full Defense. But after digging into the TFS 0.4 sources, I realized how the exact math works, especially a hidden mechanic that might go unnoticed by many players.

Here are the native values:

  • Full Attack: 100% attack and 100% shielding.
  • Balanced: ~83% attack and 120% shielding.
  • Full Defense: 50% attack and a massive 200% shielding.
However, Full Def has an interesting catch. If you launch an attack while in Full Def, the game assumes you "lowered your guard." For that turn, your defense drops from 200% back to 100%, but you still suffer the 50% attack penalty. This means that if a melee player is hunting solo on Full Def, they are constantly attacking and dropping their defense to normal levels anyway, making it almost a trap.

With that in mind, I'm proposing two major changes and I'd love to hear if you think this is a cool tactical layer or if it ruins the classic feel:

1. Reworking Full Defense for Melees
Because the "lowering guard" mechanic feels like a flaw in modern gameplay, I decided to remove it. To balance this out, I changed the numbers: Full Def now cuts your attack damage by 50% (same as before), but it gives a constant 150% shield defense that does not drop when you attack. This makes Blockers and Tanks much more viable, as they can actually keep their defense up while helping with life leech or damage.

2. Bringing Mages into the System
This is the controversial one. Mages traditionally create their characters and instantly lock them in Full Def forever, because their spells and wands aren't affected by stances. I want to change this to force actual decision-making.

Now, stances affect magical damage (wands and spells) as well:

  • Full Attack: 100% magic damage / 100% defense.
  • Balanced: ~83% magic damage / 120% defense.
  • Full Defense: 50% magic damage / 150% defense (constant).
If a mage wants to survive a heavy combo, they will hit like a wet noodle. If they want to drop a huge UE or SD combo, they need to expose themselves in Full Attack.

To compensate mages for losing their old "free" defense, we could even tweak the balancing further, for example, making Full Attack actually give a buff (like 120% magic damage) instead of just 100%, adding a real high-risk/high-reward element.

Does this make sense? Would this completely break the feel of the game for players used to old-school mechanics, or do you think it adds a good layer of strategy for PvP and boss fights?

Thanks!
 
I think what the real tibia did is the best way to go. Remove them altogether. They are not intuitive. A better approach is the real way. Use spell stances
 
@Sorky
Hey, thanks for the replying.
But, I don't think I get what you mean, what does the real Tibia do? Remove them altogether?
 
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