A tank swap changes who owns the boss's focused attack after a defender takes a costly hit or debuff. The boss must signal its target and allow a reachable handoff; otherwise the next hit punishes a player unable to transfer attention. This demo shows the ownership change, both health pools, and the failed-handoff outcome.
At 0.70 seconds Kern marks defender 1. A committed buster at 2.20 seconds deals 35 damage once, leaving 65 health and one vulnerability stack on that defender.
Reduced motion disables autoplay. Scrub to 0.70, 2.30, 3.20, 3.55, 4.65, and 5.55 seconds.
Specify target ownership, claim timing, vulnerability duration, hit identity, damage on fresh and repeated targets, failure recovery, and how the handoff is signaled.
Treat boss focus as a single owner with a stable target ID. Announce the first owner, then make the claim action and ownership confirmation visible. Decide whether a buster locks its target at warning, cast completion, or contact; this demo snapshots the owner for each hit, not every animation frame.
The first hit applies one vulnerability stack and 35 damage. A fresh owner takes 35 from the second hit; the same owner would take 95 from 65 remaining health and fall. Resolve one target once per unique hit ID, reject duplicate callbacks, and specify whether protection or cleansing can change the result.
Give the second defender ordinary travel and a claim window before the next lock. Test late claims, missing defenders, simultaneous claims, expired stacks, disconnects, and reset. Show owner, stack, and both health pools without depending on color or voice chat.
A hidden threat-table change makes the second buster look arbitrary. Move the focus marker and line when ownership changes, and hold them long enough to verify the new recipient.
Redirecting one attack to a protector does not necessarily transfer boss ownership. Model attack interception and ongoing focus separately; state which one the encounter requires.
Tune cast interval, claim delay, walking distance, and debuff duration together. The second defender needs time to reach and hold the correct place without an undisclosed mobility skill.
Document whether a claim after target lock affects the current or next attack. Decide how to recover from a dead or absent owner, and prevent rapid ping-pong claims from hiding the threat.
Record encounter ID, hit ID, owner at lock, target ID, vulnerability before and after, damage, health, and claim timestamp. Rewind and replay to confirm deterministic ownership and no double application.
Kern plants for a heavy strike against the marked defender. A rune remains around that defender as the second steps forward and draws Kern's focus. The repeat lands on the new owner, while the first has a clear recovery lane.
Use a moving focus glyph, separate health numbers, a vulnerability ring, attack contact, and a readable claim path. The same rule can work with explicit taunt, positional threat, or a scripted handoff if the chosen rule is communicated.
A tank swap changes who the boss continues to target. A guard can intercept one marked strike while the original target remains selected. Darkest Dungeon's Swine Prince illustrates the latter: Wilbur marks a hero and Guard can redirect an attack, but that is not an ongoing aggro swap.
In Anabaseios: The Ninth Circle (Savage), Ascendant Fist marks and strikes one tank, applying Physical Vulnerability Up. The other tank must take boss focus during the cast so later auto-attacks do not punish the vulnerable recipient. The encounter uses continuing threat ownership rather than the demo's two isolated pulses.
Gastric Bloat stacks on the current tank; a tenth stack triggers a lethal explosion. The second tank takes aggro before that threshold, but the previous tank's damage bonus can pull it back. This makes post-swap threat control part of the mechanic, beyond simply moving a marker.
Wilbur marks heroes and the Swine Prince attacks marked targets, as the fight clip shows. A separate Guard action can redirect a direct attack to another hero. This is a useful 2D contrast: attack interception changes the recipient, but does not hand over continuing boss aggro.
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