Last week, we went a bit more depth into how The Mage class works, and this week we will be going over the next most-requested cat class, The Tank!
The tank is one heckin' chonker of a cat, who's main role in the team is to absorb the hits you don't want your other cats to take, and control the positioning and movement of enemies so that they can't tear through your team with ease. Tanks have extremely high Constitution, which gives them a ton of max health and post-combat health regen, so they can take a beating and shrug it off after.
This is tank's Basic Attack. He lunges forward 1 space and then headbutts what he hits, knocking it back one space. Its a very important and versatile part of the Tank's kit, it helps him get closer to enemies while keeping the enemies away from your squishy team, and can cause extra damage if you can make the things you knock back collide into other things. Basic Attacks can be used once a turn for free, even if you cast other spells or used items.
Active Abilities
Active abilities cost mana to use, but you can keep using them as many times as you want during your turn as long as you have the mana to cast them. Here's a few examples of active abilities you might get offered when your Tank levels up. Each class has 50 active abilities in its arsenal, so this is just a small sample of all of the possibilities available.
Toss
Ok we showed this one off in the first post about active abilities, so I'm throwing this one in here again for free. Toss lets you throw something that is next to you to a tile of your choice, dealing 1 collision damage to it when they land. You can use it to get allies out of danger (if you're ok with them taking 1 damage), get enemies away from your team, deal the last point of damage to something, or even throw corpses to your teammates so they can get at the juicy loot inside of it quicker. There's always a use for Toss and its one of the Tank's quintessential abilities.
Mock
Mock lets you mock an enemy, causing it to immediately move towards you (as far as it can normally move, anyway). Come say that shit to my face! A useful way to get things next to you considering most of your skills are melee range.... and your basic attack pushes things out of melee range.
Suplex
Come on and SLAM!
(Suplex doesn't need an explanation. its Suplex)
Body Guard
Body Guard is a very low-mana-cost ability that causes the tank to get ready to swap places with an ally the next time any ally is targeted by an attack, letting the tank take the hit instead. He can handle it! Just watch that life total...
Barbed Wire
Lets you give 5 Thorns to something (an ally, an enemy, an object, or even yourself), temporarily until your next turn. Thorns deal damage to things that make body contact with the thorny character, which is USUALLY when something melee attacks it, but there are also a large number of abilities and passives that count as making contact, such as knock back collision, trample, body slams, and others.
Rock Crusher
Rock Crusher lets you body slam any rock on the map, causing it to explode and damage everything next to it! Get fucked, rocks!
Wait, we haven't explained Rocks yet, have we? Battlefields often have these small rocks placed on around that seem like decoration, but can actually be used as weapons. Rocks are sturdy and only take 1 damage at a time when attacked, but when attacked they get knocked back as far as they can and deal 5 damage on collision.
Earthquake
This is a cone shaped earth-element spell that deals low damage, has a chance to spawn rocks, and has a small chance to Petrify things that get hit by it. Petrify acts like a stun but also causes a character to count as a rock until its next turn (and behave like one as well). As an earth element spell, Earthquake also turns all the tiles it hits into dirt. A decent way to put out fires or fill water.
Passive Abilities
Passive abilities do not cost mana and don't need to be "used". As long as your cat has the passive, it just constantly effects them in some way. Here's a few examples of passive abilities you might get offered when your Tank levels up. Each class has 25 passive abilities available to them, so again this is just a small sample.
Chain Knockback
Collision damage you cause causes knockback. As a bonus it also makes all knockback you cause go 1 tile farther. If you line things up properly you can chain the knockback through the whole line!
Pet Rocks
All rocks you spawn are alive! Also you spawn one rock at the start of combat. Pet rocks take turns and can knock themselves into your enemies if they have a clear path. Fear the ROCK ARMY.
Cat-A-Pult
Cat-A-Pult causes all of your allies to have their movement ability replaced with Cat-A-Pult if they are standing next to you, which is an infinite range toss from the tank. He can send you anywhere you want to go! Just... don't get too deep into enemy lines without your tank nearby.
Positioning is a huge part of the combat in this game and there's no better class than Tank to take advantage of all the ins and outs and ups and downs of that.
Anyway which class are you most interested in learning about next? We still got Thief, Hunter, Fighter, and Cleric to go! (And Collarless...)
See you in 2 weeks with whatever class you wanna see next!
- Tyler