New dev discussion -1.4.4 Keep Siege: Successful Defense

Which you can find here. Or via copy paste power below.
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Upcoming in 1.4.4 is a new mechanic to Keep Sieges – the Successful Defense. This is meant to acknowledge the work of defenders in holding their ground, as well as presenting them with a clear and obtainable goal. Please note, the Successful Defense does not “Win” the zone, or reset the keep; what it does do is give the defenders a brief moment to catch their breath.

A Successful Defense is triggered when the Defenders destroy the attacking ram. When the ram goes down, the keep siege briefly shifts to a Successful Defense state to acknowledge the event. Defenders in the keep area are awarded the Heroic Defender buff, granting them the power to push back the attacking force. Once the brief Successful Defense stage is over, the Keep Siege goes back to the state it was in previously.

Along with the Successful Defense, Keep Foremen return to the battlefield. These venders now reside on the first floor of the keep, and will only accept Ordnance and Medallions. Foreman will sell you bundles of wood to repair keep doors, as well as give players the ability to order a New Outer Keep Door (for T3 and T4). Orders for a New Outer Keep Door can only be placed if the outer door is currently destroyed, there is no ram outside the inner door, and your realm is currently in control of that keep. When the new door goes up, the keep siege is pushed back to the “Outer Door” state, and attackers will have to take the outer door down again. Any damage done to the inner door is not repaired, however. If the defenders do not actively repair it themselves, it will stay in whatever shape the attackers left it when they were forced to focus on the outer door again.

Some important notes:
1) We are addressing the spam-crit bug which currently allows players to take down rams quickly.
2) Rams will have various layers of Armor Plating absorbing incoming damage, which must be burned through before damage can be done to the ram proper.
3) The Heroic Defender buff will fade prematurely if players stay outside of the keep area for too long.
4) Keep Foremen do not fight, but they can be killed. If a Foreman detects an enemy nearby, after he receives an order for a new door, he stops work on the door until the threat is gone. If he is killed before he completes the door, a new order will have to be purchased.

The Heroic Defender buff is designed to give the defenders a brief, but significant, leg up on the attackers. This serves two purposes: first, it gives the defenders the power to push back the attackers, underscoring the successfulness of their defense; and second, it takes the place of a physical defense-reward, by giving the defenders the ability to carve their own reward out of the hides of their attackers.

Currently, the Heroic Defender buff consists of the following parts:
* Movement speed increase
* Incoming damage reduced, and high resistance to incoming crits
* Increased chance of delivering crits (attacks & healing)
* Morale gain is increased
* AP gain is increased

These changes will be up on the Public Test Server soon, so be on the look-out for dates and times of testing phases. We want to make sure we get as much player hands-on time as possible so we can get as much player input as we can before this goes live.

[UPDATE] While final times and durations will be determined through more play testing on PTS, the current duration for Heroic Defender is 60 seconds - but is removed if you stay outside the keep area longer than 5 seconds; and keep's Successful Defense state is 30 seconds. Again, these times and durations are subject to change.
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