So Why is Threat Invisible?

[Dartagon]

To answer the OP question of "Why is threat invisible" is because it makes it more dynamic. It creates confusion, makes you think, and forces groups & individuals to assess their own strategies.

 

Having a number, bar, etc would take away the guesswork and would make it too easy. Part of the excitement of being a tank is being able to judge, without the need for a meter, if threat is needed, if it isn't. This also includes all other classes. They need to assess their own threat levels to make a successful run in any encounter. There is dps threat, healing threat, any action can "technically" produce threat. By simply walking up to a mob and being too close can be considered threat.

 

So if you had a bar, graph, number, telling you this, it would ruin some part of the whole dynamic of battle.

 

It makes the game harder.

[AsheraII]

As said, it is clearly visible without the need for numbers.

 

Less numbers make it more like playing a game and less like playing a spreadsheet.

This. Makes you wonder how people managed to clear raids without knowing threat numbers in Vanilla WoW, doesn't it? Well, some people just happen to be good players, and know whether to go all out or not, depending on the quality of their tank, mob/boss mechanics, etcetera. They learned this by actually PLAYING, instead of staring at a couple of numbers in whatever corner of their screen.

[Arutassin]

A UI implement with something similar to the Tidy plates: Threat Plates addon on for wow would be awesome. It isn't needed but could be useful. This should be a dev implemented UI change however and not a call for addons.

[Kryptoniic]

Look guys, no one's worried, okay? Can you all stop waving your tanking e-peens around?

 

The question is "What reason is there to have it invisible?"

 

The question is not "Who can boast the most about not needing it?"

 

Its an extra system that would need to be implemented, taking up development time and money. The money that could have been spent on this system was squandered on actors for their voices.

 

BW can not remove the glaring bugs an issues from the more important game systems, no time should be wasted on new buggy systems until they manage to make the rest of what they have work as intended.

 

2 reasons why its invisible.

Edited February 6, 2012 by Kryptoniic

[Radubadu]

WoW is the only mmo I've ever played that had a threat meter and I hate that part of it. If you need a threat meter you're a crappy tank. Edited February 6, 2012 by Radubadu

[Ironspeed]

I remember tanking Blackwing Liar with no threat meters. Those were fun times. Now, everyone needs a screen full of mods to hold their hands! World First, I would like to thank my healbot mod, my tankbot mod, and my dpsbot mod.

 

I also remeber tankswapping bosses, where if I remember correctly, OMEN was a pretty good tool (the friendly dragon buff boss, second on in there, you know, where the tank would die and the next "tank in line" had to get up there and be second on threat to make sure it was a smoth transition.

 

Now I understand the OP's question, I dont have a good answer, but a threatmeter isnt for the tank, it's for the other people.

 

Personaly since I'm playing this as a coop game (with my wife and our companions) so far, theat is pretty much not a issue, but I wouldent mind seeing things like this in the game, atleast for when I'm going to try out the DPS side, there isnt anyway to optimize your gameplay without some numbers (combat log is another thing), and no I dont buy the "look at the numbers over the mobs health and you'll know" argument.

 

Threat is invisible because bioware dosent have that or a combat log in the game that we can see..

[Rabrac]

Just be glad the enemies don't use strategy and attack the bastard in the dress first.

 

Yeah i believe that the whole threat mechanic is at the very least ridiculous. Say you fight against a powerfull Jedi Knight. He also has with him a healer companion. You as a player, who would you attack first? The healer of course!

So, why do all these people we fight in the game attack the powerfull Jedi Knight? Wouldn't it make more sense for "smart" AI to attack healers and sages first? This is a general problem with this mechanic. The AI plays a different game than the player, and that is immersion breaking imo. Most RPG's tend to suffer from this problem.

[Dartagon]

Yeah i believe that the whole threat mechanic is at the very least ridiculous. Say you fight against a powerfull Jedi Knight. He also has with him a healer companion. You as a player, who would you attack first? The healer of course!

So, why do all these people we fight in the game attack the powerfull Jedi Knight? Wouldn't it make more sense for "smart" AI to attack healers and sages first? This is a general problem with this mechanic. The AI plays a different game than the player, and that is immersion breaking imo. Most RPG's tend to suffer from this problem.

 

Except, the big bad jedi, keeps taunting you so you start raging and blindly attack him.

[Calsetes]

Back when I played MMOs, we didn't have all these fancy gauges and stuff to see everything about an enemy! If we were taking, we had to MANUALLY see if the guy was hitting us! And we were damn happy to have that ability, too! And we had to go careful with our DPS, because you could easily rip off the hate if you were stupid about it! And healers, don't get me started about healers - always going with their whining and complaining about people ripping hate off the tanks! It's like these people want their game to be nothing but looking at meters or something!

 

..... Seriously though, I don't really have problems when I tank, unless the people in my party are SERIOUSLY unwilling to change their not-working tactics. Mark that guy as CC, mark that guy as who I, the tank, will attack, and you DPS guys go after those weak guys - this gives me a chance to build hate while you clear the chaff from the healer. Yup, because all that strategy I just said TOTALLY means "jump to the guy that's shocked and not moving and use Force Sweep or Mortar Volley."

[Tarrent]

This is an absurd oversimplification* that doesn't answer my actual question.

 

I know... that was terrible.

 

This thing needs omen and/or threat indications in the default UI. Bliz' default UI has that stuff nowadays.

[Lheim]

This is an absurd oversimplification* that doesn't answer my actual question.

 

Much like a map book would substitute for a fancy GPS addon on your car.

[Joonbeams]

Except, the big bad jedi, keeps taunting you so you start raging and blindly attack him.

 

This point and Rabrac's earlier slightly distort the issue. "Threat" can come from both damage and from healing (and buffs/debuffs). So it makes sense, whether an NPC or real player, to attack the player generating the most threat. Sometimes that's the healer, but most commonly it's the DPS/tank. The game actually tracks this. So if a healer is becoming real effective, the healer will generate more threat, and ultimately aggro (if he/she tops threat list and is generating more threat than current player drawing aggro).

 

As for taunts, those make sense too for AI. First, most bosses are immune (just like real players). Second, the taunt only temporarily builds enough threat to allow you (usually the tank) time to build up and maintain aggro. This is why only tanks, and rarely a DPSer, should taunt. It's dealing with a mechanic in a game where the player at the top of the threat list (which should be tank) is not drawing aggro because he/she's not generating enough threat - usually 10% more than current aggro, to displace the current player drawing. A taunt basically says "hey, I'm the one generating the most threat, you should be attacking me." If you taunt and you aren't top of the threat list, the aggro you draw will be short lived anyway.

[Littletza]

WoW is the only mmo I've ever played that had a threat meter and I hate that part of it. If you need a threat meter you're a crappy tank.

 

Remarks like these that would label you as a crap player.

[pjskull]

What game came with a Threat meter that was not an add-on?

 

(Serious question, not sarcasm. I have never played a game that came with a threat meter as a part of the original software...)

[Maoxx]

Well skip a threat meter.....what about just showing us Blue colored text that shows individual skills threat? At least then a tank would have something a little more meaningful to look at when they tank.

[Ortof]

I don't see the "absolute" need for one. I am an Arsenal Merc. I can pull agro off of our tanks if I choose to or if we are in a nuke phase of w/e. With that said, I manage my deagro throughout my rotation. I am conscious of my rotation IE if I have been getting boned on my unload reproc so I am hitting Tracer more than usual, I will back off a little on tracer and throw in some rapids.

 

It's rare now that I pull any agro off of them at all with just being aware of what I am doing. Being mindful of what one is doing makes a huge difference. Even if it were a healer. A healer shouldn't just spam huge heals, that would pull agro right. Timing and the type of heal go along way.

 

Would it be easier if I had some digits to tell me where exactly I stand when in a fight? Ya. Would it be even easier if my entire screen flashed red with a warning popping up in front of my eyes? Well, ya. Is it an absolute necessity to have it? No, just my humble opinion though.

Edited February 6, 2012 by Ortof

[DarthBloodloss]

Why do we have an invisible game mechanic? It's like not being able to see health or resource bars. What possible reason could there be for this?

 

Some bad answers I want to head off at the pass: "I can kinda sense where my threat is based on how hard I'm hitting things." Unless you're an robot, no you can't. You just can't. And even the robot would need to know all the threat values anyway, and we just don't have this information. You might have a vague notion of your threat, but this is the whole problem I'm on about. Why not just show us like heath or resources?

 

"See?! This is why they need to give us mods!" No, they just need to show us the values in game like every other value; health, resources, resolve, cooldowns... again, why is this one value singled out for invisibility?

 

Is wow the only game that had threat meters? I never played wow or any game with them, but seems pretty unnecessary

[FinalHeavenZero]

i'm more concerned with threat management

 

dps gear scales up

 

survivability goes up (but aggro management doesnt)

[Pinguaq]

I want to see threat meters pls.