Best Of

• Played and liked the most - Fighter
  I'm probably biased here since the traditional greatsword/heavy armor is something i very much enjoy. I like the various tools that fighter has that lets them gap close and deal consistent damage.

• Played and disliked - Tank
  I don't really feel like I have much impact as a tank, I am capable of soaking up some damage, as well as taking some aggro. But I can't really do anything well in that regard. I feel like this wouldn't be as bad if i was able to choose to either go full tank, full aggro, damage, or a little in between. In its current state it feels unintended.

• Combat feels very disconnected, its hard to explain but i'm feels like there are almost "stages" to the game. Sometimes i'm traversing somewhere. Then I finish that, I get to an area to gring and every engagement is the same in that I run up > do my combos > kill > repeat. Once i'm done or had enough, I go back to my traversing "stage". Nothing is really happening in between or during these "stages".
  
• There is very little reason to want to change my positioning, fall back, making space etc. An MMO where I thought this was very well done was the likes of Guild Wars 2. Combat was always about movement, just using your skills typically forced your character to move a short distance while also causing damage to the enemy('s). Overall it felt very smooth and combat encounters bled into the movement and traversal of the world.
  
  Additionally I think Ashes could really improve on the formula, a big issue that Guild wars 2 had was the vast majority of enemies would just run at a static speed towards you. Having a variety of npc speeds and even tatics for movement could really add a lot of dynamic behaviour to the game. even breaking it down into broad strokes like "beast characters move fast and will try arc around you" vs "giant's will slowly lumber towards you in a straight line". This also allows you to mix and match behaviours to give a breadth of potential encounter situations that can be put across the world.

• Group combat and grinding sessions are very much the same. But they feel even more robotic. They are a bit more interesting due to the friction of having to compete with other players for spots but overall it just feels completely static. There are some situations where depending on your class and the consistency of your party. You could reliably set up an macro to loop through your combo and just not move or even be at the computer. Which I don't feel is very good design or even intended.

• Additionally every class having the exact same animations and skills for weapons doesn't feel very good, not only from the immersion angle where a physically weak mage swings a the same speed and precision as a fighter, but also that a lot of weapon skills overlap a LOT with what each class would pick if they use that weapon.
• Personally I do like the idea of every class being able to use each weapon, even if they aren't good at it. But right now i feel like it isn't in a good state. I'm not sure what the solution is but I know that when I do pick up any weapon right now, I don't feel like it has any "identity". If that makes sense.

• Cleric when defenses like mitigation and blocking actually work to keep people alive against overtuned DPS classes and their broken penetration/manaburn because you get to do your job instead of watching people get folded like an omelette despite building nothing but survivability
• Cleric when defenses don't work, for obvious reasons
• Active blocking is a joke even with updated shields, dodge rolling got nerfed to hell along with momentum so you are a sitting duck against anyone with a steady internet connection and gear comparable to yours
• The core features and gameplay elements aren't exactly missing, they were given to bard because cleric plays like half a class whereas bard plays like a class and a half

Rogue main, barred changes will remain so.

Can't play bard nor warrior. Bard requires too much skill switching, warrior requires stance switching, both of which I loathe.

I would love it if we could get momentum back on the rogue dash, and also if we could replace the mandatory selection of poison in the skill for an unlockable poisons skill that allowed the use of all poison types, or even to have itemized poisons instead, and make alchemy have a skill tree for poisons which is something I always dreamed about in WoW.

Group combat varies depending on the size of the group. Small scale (group v. group) it's quite enjoyable and relatively easy to find your role and mission, like getting rid of clerics or rangers, or enemy rogues.

Big scale (Raid v Raid and bigger) it's considerably harder. Any well coordinated group will typically focus you faster than you can get rid of a single target, due to the high amount of AoE heals, and at that point your effectiveness wanes and you must focus on diversion tactics with AoE kick trips, smokes and caltrops, focusing on being a catalyst for a coordinated group charge.

All of the above to say, is that while the rogue excels in small scale combat, it is much harder to perform in bigger settings, which could hurt it's viability long term.

In grind sessions rogue feels good enough with poison and bleed cleaves, it is quite effective against three star enemies, but against smaller targets it can feel lackluster as your biggest AoE damage sources are dots, which don't really matter against small targets, so maybe some work on it's base AoE abilities could make them feel better to use.

I'm a support player.
First time I play bard I say "yea nice, I just hope they will make the possibility to play it with physical (like iss enchanter)"

Then you add the skill with 45s reuse who boost the song power... I'm not ig to push 1 bouton every 45..i want help with somethings else.

So now I play mage and wait for summoner.

-Are there any combat systems or mechanics you feel need more development or refinement? Please explain.

As a tank, Active block (Guard) is not fun. It slows down gameplay to a crawl, since you cannot do anything else while Guarding. I recommend removing Guard as a universal ability entirely and returning that element of class identity to the tank class in the form of a classic rotational ability that greatly buffs block chance. Another interesting option would be to let specific Tank abilities (like shouts and certain 1-handed attacks) be useable while Guard is up.

I'm in the summoner waiting room. I've always enjoyed minion master types in games, and if the execution matches the vision laid out originally, it's hands down going to be my favorite iteration.

Class Resource = Divine Power, Courage, Advantage, etc
Class Mechanic = Sagas, Traps, Elemental Empowerment

Which archetype do you find the most fun to play? Why?
I think Bard, Rogue, and Fighter are the archetypes that present the most fun gameplay.

I think the kits of the Bard and Rogue are the most cohesive, with many of the spells having interactions within its own kit. Both Bard and Rogue also have solid fantasy pillars that they are built around, with Bards having Songs, Dances, and Melodies, and Rogue having Traps, Mobility, and Ailments such as bleed/poison. Additionally, both Rogue and Bards have fun class mechanics with Traps and Sagas.

Fighter on the other hand, is lacking in the diversity of its fantasy, but makes up for it with the fluidity of its kit, which gives it an edge over the other archetypes.

Which archetype do you find the least fun to play? Why?
I think Tank, Cleric, Mage, and Ranger are all lacking when it comes to class mechanics that are comparable to Sagas or Advantage/Traps (or they just have none at all).

Mage has fantasy pillars to some extent (Fire/Ice/Lightning), however, it does not feel like you get enough vertical power for these fantasies to meet players expectations. A lot of players want to be an Ice Mage, or a Fire Mage, however, only 3-4 abilities exist for each element, and players are pushed to use all the elements, which dilutes the fantasy. I also think the Mage is lacking a fun class mechanic.

Cleric feels very 1 dimensional. The skills are mostly just holy healing spells. I think it needs more diversity, such as including unholy spells, and perhaps a class mechanic/resource that responds to holy/unholy elements of the kit.

Tank has a lot of problems. Its kit feels the least cohesive out of all archetypes. Its identity gets eroded from the universal skills (primarily active block). Its class resource feels very bland, and it really does not have any class mechanic. Players should be able to achieve the class fantasy of block tank, mitigation tank, evasion tank, etc through their choice of abilities. The abilities should also have more interactions within the kit, and there should be a larger diversity of status conditions rather than just trips or staggers.

Are there any combat systems or mechanics you feel need more development or refinement? Please explain.

Universal skills feel like system bloat to the combat system. I would rather these abilities get fragmented and tuned for each archetype individually.

Weapon skill trees are very boring currently, with most weapons just providing the same options.

Many class resources feel copy/pasted across the different archetypes. Courage, Divine Power, and Momentum just feel like simple builder/spender resources that give some stat increases. Its ok to have this type of resource for 1 archetype, but when almost half of the archetypes have it, its a bit boring. Advantage is more interesting.

tl;dr:
Rogue = good
Bard = good
Fighter = improve skill diversity
Mage = create class resource, revamp class mechanic to allow for vertical element gameplay
Cleric = revamp class resource, create class mechanic, add unholy abilities
Tank = revamp class resource, create class mechanic, add inter-archetype interactions, diversify status conditions/CC-types, design the kit around fantasy pillars

Systems = remove universal skills/stamina and send these back to individual archetypes. revamp weapon skills to be more diverse.

Depraved wrote: »

every single game is "not for everyone". The difference is ashes actually tells you so.

This is more or less correct, Yes.

But Ashes will be HARD-LINE in the Aspects Sir Steven wants in the Game at Release and "how" the Gameplay will be - and "how" Groups of Players will be able to influence the World.

It will be different from most Games out there - if not all Games.

No matter how People nag, beg, or complain.

The Machine Spirit of your Graphic Card is strong - but even then,

the (true) Alpha shows it's nasty, true Colors. Until things are optimized - Chaos has it's slithering tentacles all about the PTR and sometimes also Live(?) Test Servers.