Best Of

Ninjutsu, a "cast" ability for Ninja in FFXIV. To put it simply, Ninja has 3(+1) buttons you can press in different combinations to prepare 7(+2) Ninjutsu, which you then unleash with the Ninjutsu button. It's a fun little minigame for the fingers, and feels more like casting than most of the magic classes in MMOs. And as a side benefit, it saves some hotbar space since it condenses 9 abilities into 5 buttons.

Ride the Lightning, a movement ability for Elementalist in GW2. I liked it just cause it was a really good mobility spell, fast and responsive, does a little damage. And crucially, it could be used with or without a target, so you can get max distance without a target, or quickly gap-close and stop at the target. Worked really well in action-camera mode.

Afflatus Misery, an instant-cast nuke for White Mage in FFXIV. Everybody loves this ability. It's just a really chunky nuke, that you are rewarded with after using 3 "Afflatus" heals. I have to explain a little though... Because of FFXIV's heavy focus on DPS and GCD economy, it normally feels bad to waste time with GCD heals, and other healers try to stick with oGCDs instead, when possible. But WHM, being the simplest healer, has two core healing spells on the GCD (Afflatus Solace and Afflatus Rapture), which they use all the time. And this was the devs solution to allow WHM to cast those GCD heals and still get damage out of it. So basically, Afflatus Misery makes the healing kit feel more satisfying, despite being a super simple nuke on it's own. Also, did I mention it feels really chunky? (Good visuals and sound effect are important. For all of these. Of course.)

Honorable mention to the dozens of other "finisher" abilities you get as a reward for doing a rotation correctly. It's a good paradigm. Never gets old.

What is the best ability or spell you’ve used and why?

For AoC best spell I have used is probably Prismatic Beam. Its very versatile, making you choose what is best for given moment, its visually poping and has great synergy with your whole kit.

Which spells or abilities stand out the most to you from games you’ve played in the past?

For other games I especailly ones focused on party play probably whole Ragnarok Online has great set of spells for every class allowing you to spec to different builds, preparing you for different encounters and keeping your spells very in line of your class perserving its identity.

What made them special to you?
Its great how everything work together there, everyone has their role in a party and you aren't locked to one, each class by respecing can be used to something else but not to ridiculous degeree.


What would be your perfect spell system?
What AoC has is a great start but I would love to introduce some twists and turns for spells. Like modify slots? Runes that would change how your spell works, that could have different rarities. For example Multiply Fire rune that could be slotted to fireball that would make it split into multiple fireballs or even Fire Rain that would change the spell from beeing cast from in front to be directed on the ground and make it rain

I love fire spells and DoT spells. I love flashy and powerful.

Two things comes to mind. Lost Ark. The spells felt big, powerful, and they were beautiful. Even if an attack isn't strong, it can still feel epic to use. As a mage I actually like sticking to one element (Fire) instead of being forced into all the elements. That's just not the immersion I enjoy most of the time.

Seperately from flashy fire magic spells, Functionally something I like is DoT and Consume DoT spells. D3 Witch Doctor you could apply lots of DoT and then consume them to do all the damage at once and Nuke. It's such a awesome feeling. And if you don't Nuke, things still die their slow DoT deaths while you kite. GW2 also does DoTs well where something like the Necro can apply all the DoTs instead of just one type. Seeing your enemies health bar filled up with DoTs and ailments always feels so good and watching those little tics fly by the tens or hundreds.

I'd say that the most curious ability is mage blink. Teleportation makes the most fun, in all games. After all it allows for curious tricks with its mobility, even if it's usually carefully managed to avoid bugs and terrain clips.

I've played many games, and Warrior (Fighter) was always the kind of frontline character that might solo most of the content, relying on potent damage, mobility and defence. They rarely excel in either, but won't be toppled easily by others. The best representation was the ability of warrior to wield dual-wielded and dual swords, changing their attacks based on the type of weapon. It might even be one type of weapon; just split it into two parts. That was epic. Like Varian Wrynn in WoW, for supreme example, so to say.

Still, as I only play Fighter in Alpha Two, I might point out that the class is too squishy here for its role. I believe a Fighter should be a frontline warrior who is feared (in close quarters) by all.

And Blood Fusion shows that, albeit partially and somewhat imbalanced against large crowds, but otherwise with little use considering its CD.

Currently, it is just a lifesteal-based class that can do little compared to other DPS. The spin attack isn't exactly satisfying for me, even if it's kind of a canon in RPG.

Half of the warrior kit seems disjointed, and only bleeding + bloodfusion seems viable. I think it's just one extreme.

The attack that reaches you regardless of distance, even if they're supposed to be melee, makes a form of Celesity, for example, even less viable.

I can see the potential, though, so keep it up.

Hoarfrost has been one of the most satisfying abilities on mage so far. When the game is stable connection-wise. The instant gratification of the spell instantly going off and having an immediate impact feels amazing, especially when there are so many enemies that you are flooded with damage number values. An ability that feels incredible is Vanish from Rogue in World of Warcraft, this allows the rogue to use a cooldown to re-enter stealth regardless of combat status. This feels great because it allows rogue to continue to have a valuable impact in combat while at the same time being able to be used as an escape tool in sticky situations. When an ability is versatile it adds a lot of depth and skill expression, it becomes harder to balance as anything that is versatile in nature will be more overloaded; but the main thing is being able to show skill expression in combat. If you are unable to discern in terms of skill level in the class a "poor" X class player from a "good" X class player, to then even a "fantastic or pro" X class player then as much as you think there is skill expression. There truly isn't.