New Skill effect: Knock Back

Knock Back would basicly Push the foe a back a little and "stun" them for about the same length as Knock Down, so instead of being adjacent it would now be near by. Skills such as: Shove: Deals X damage and Knocks Back Foe, Whirling Defense: Initial effect Causes Knock Back to all adjacent foes, Whirlwind: Deals X damage and Knocks Back Adjacent foes, and some smiting as well as various other spells, Could also combo with Cripple and Cause Crippled foes to be Knocked Down.

Would this require anet to implement a new animation?

Most Likely.

Not animation for the skills(if that is what you mean)unless you want the knocked back character to tumble or something. But programming for sure, because after you get knocked back they will have to calculate what is going to happen depending on where you stand afterwards, like lava. It doesn't sound very hard, but it will change a lot of things in PvP and PvE too. Flaggers will absolutely hate that in GvG for isntance

I doubt it would be implemented but if it was it would give combat a nice little addition it needs. As for the animation I mentioned would be of the knocked back person stumbling back.

Diablo had knock-back as well as an interrupt to normal attack animations, this always makes be feel like GW is missing something.

Sounds a little bit like the Kurzick Juggernauts in JQ, knocking back foes and knock them down.

They Knock back? I never noticed.

I don't get why people still use this forum for serious ideas. Do you think anet has the staff & time to do anything other than a decent skill balance?

Or do you guys post these ideas for postcount?

Erm, would you like to explain what "stun" would do?
If it's going to be the same thing as knock down (no casting, no attacking, no moving), I see no need for it.

Sounds too much like Knock Down, but with a different animation. If it IS something different, then it becomes a huge balance issue. We already have enough issues with balance, we don't need to add more.

A knock back can be 'faked' in GW by forcing an enemy to shadow step and then knocking them down.

Some knockdowns in the game would be better if they worked that way, but adding entire new animations for the models it's probably out of the question.

just sounds like a disabling feature similar to KD that looks different. not to mention it would be annoying to implement the feature where the opponent is physically knocked backwards to be standing further away.

I find it rather cool and useable, especially the example with Whirling Defense. Maybe if the knock back just knocked foes back, like 'get away from me', so you could either run away yourself, or get an extra second to activate a skill.

Yes, all you, who surely know everything about how Anet work, you can easily find difficulties in implementeing the effect. But as an idea, and maybe something for Guild Wars 2, I find it viable.

/signed

With as bad as the terrain already is for getting someone stuck, this would only exacerbate that problem.

I had a similar idea, save for GW2 and knock people off cliffs. THIS IS ASCALON!

Wait, what?

Ok, let me get this straight. Warrior hits monk with a hammer. Monk gets knocked back. Now warrior has to run after him to hit him again, potentially slowing down his dps? Meanwhile, the monk is "stunned"? How stunned is he? Can he still move? Can he still cast? Is he interrupted like he would be by a knockdown? This seems to be a bit ill-defined.

But even with just the little you've mentioned, this would affect everything in the game and fundamentally alter the way it is played.

Effects I can foresee right off the bat:

- People bullrushing each other into walls to prevent them from moving or doing anything

- Lower dps for any melee using this new mechanic (since they have to chase after their targets)

- Tons of builds becoming ruined due to skills being changed to incorporate the new mechanic

- IMS becoming more important than before, and even becoming important in PvE

- Melee knocking targets out of their nukers' AoE

- Casters utilizing spells with knockback as yet another form of melee-hate

- People pushing their way past melee-based monsters (or vice versa) to get to the casters, eliminating body-blocking as an viable tactic in PvE

- Numerous monsters using knockbacks at once, pushing a single character very far away

- Parties getting spread out across an area due to being separated by knockbackers (to the point that they can't even be healed by their monks)

Plus, as a whole new mechanic, it would require a large degree of time investment in a game that is already near the end of it's lifespan (some would say it's passed it), as well as many skill functionality changes. It would open the door to untold numbers of bugs or overpowered builds (there wouldn't be the possibility for the proper testing that such a huge addition to the game would require). There's just too many unknowns.

And for what? You haven't given us a reason as to why this mechanic should exist or how it would make the game better. If you're trying to change the PvP meta, there are other ways to do it that aren't as fraught with danger. And if you're trying to change the PvE meta, you'll not only piss off a lot of people by invalidating so many old strategies and builds, but also most likely introduce more imbalance.

I've made a couple of suggestions that are pretty radical, but this is too far out there even for me.

/notsigned

Two thumbs way up!

This game doesn't have a z-axis so it would cause a lot of problems with programming

/notsigned

@reaper with no name
I never said this effect would happen with every attack only certain skills.
@The Drunkard you don't need a z-axis to push some one back a couple of steps. It's just like walking except in a forceful manner.

/notsigned

CC abilities are pretty annoying and only exist in other MMOs usually because of the large scale of the fights. For PvP (8v8) or PvE (8 players against 4-8 high level monsters) this isn't really necessary.

/notsigned. If it was going to be implemented it should have been done at the start of the game, not where we are now. Adding a new mechanic is unnecessary and would create a lot of new balance problems.

GW1 has no z-axis, built with it, can't change it.

GW2 will have z-axis, jumps, swimming, the works.

It will be better in Guild Wars 2, Charr/Golems will have something special to this ability.

I think this should just be the same animation as ROJ going off.

-IntrospectivePirate

GW

Cool idea, but we already have knockdown. If it offers pretty much the same effect, why bother? If you want to be a few steps away from your opponent, knock 'em down or snare.
/notsigned