Running makes enemy attacks bypass the chance to hit formula and guarantees your character will get hit. This game mechanic overly punishes melee and generally makes them inferior to casters. I like the concept of a defense penalty when running, but being completely negated is too harsh.
The developers should change enemy attacks bypassing the chance to hit formula when running to instead a 50% reduction in defense. This change would go along way to adding more value to the defense stat while giving a boost to defensive-oriented characters.
The defense penalty exists for a good reason to prevent players from becoming close to impossible to getting hit by attacks, but on the other hand, there should also be an incentive to wear heavier armour types as well.
I brought up a system in the other melee balance thread to do something similar you suggested, but something like:
Light armour and shields receive the full defense penalty
Medium armour and shields receive a 65% defense penalty
Heavy armour and shields receive a 35% defense penalty
All other armour sources from items receive the full defense penalty
Also, characters in teleport animation (teleport, dragon flight) should be subject to the same defense and block chance penalties as running characters.
It makes zero logical sense to lose your armor’s defense just because you’re running; it’s a physical barrier, right? If I was unconscious and wearing sacred armor, a shot from a Fallen would still do next to nothing. Are you being more reckless? Of course, you are. Take away some of your Dex-based defenses, maybe even your shield. But not the base armor defense.
What about being flanked - shouldn’t this be more of a hindrance to one’s overall defense than running? I love it when my Paladin can block attacks he can’t even see.
My characters are always running, unless in combat. To be honest, I almost never notice taking any extra hits from melee attacks; ranged attacks are still being avoided as usual, even hear the ping off my shield sometimes.
That’s why the penalty only applies while you’re running and not walking. Running in this game in itself is unrealistically fast and needs to be counter-balanced because of this.
Are you serious??? When everyone and his dog can teleport with very little risk, we need to counterbalance running??? To be honest, running should increase your total defense, not reduce armor to the equivalent of a paper suit. It’s not like when you run that you become completely ignorant of your surroundings.
I guess the Paladin charge should let the entire screen hit him on the way through.
Thanks for the link. Tons of information; I’ll read it when I’ve got more time to digest it properly.
I guess I can see your point about running, but I’d rather see something like extreme stamina drain if you run too much rather than a complete disregard to armor. That being said, PCs are way too fast compared to monsters; even at early levels you can bypass most of the monsters without too much trouble.
I could get behind this idea, especially because of the way the armor mechanic works in D2: it is not a reduction for incoming damage, so much as a chance to completely avoid the hit altogether (basically the way “evasion” or “block” works in Path of Exile, not the way armor or blocking works in Grim Dawn…)
Hitting a moving target should be harder than a stationary one!
Defence mechanic is identical for casters and fighters. If anything it’s good for fighters because it applies both ways (running monsters will also get hit more often). Removing/reducing the running check will probably help casters more than fighters - they are more likely to kite monsters anyway.
Not sure why does this mechanic exists though, probably because kiting would just be too good?
What needs to be done about chance to hit mechanic is removal and/or reduction of block chances on monsters.
I could get behind this idea, especially because of the way the armor mechanic works in D2: it is not a reduction for incoming damage, so much as a chance to completely avoid the hit altogether (basically the way “evasion” or “block” works in Path of Exile, not the way armor or blocking works in Grim Dawn…)