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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Too many classes?
I'm sure there has already been some discussion on this topic so I wanted to gauge the communities reaction and thoughts around 64 distinct classes. Rift immediately comes to mind where during the first year all the classes had mostly redundant skills that made little to no sense. The balancing act became almost impossible. I haven't followed the game since, but I can imagine that it hasn't been easy for the developers or meaningful for the players.
This is also reminiscent of GW which did this quite well, although without the augmentation concept. I wonder how AoC is going make 64 meaningful classes. From my experience, I feel that things will settle on 3-6 core classes that everyone plays, perhaps another 5 or so that people off-sepc or use for some specific purpose and the rest won't see very much play at all. I hope that they take a lesson from the early days of WoW which required certain classes to accomplish tasks. Although annoying at times, it was a great way to keep everyone engaged in their class choice. I know I'm missing a lot of information here so this is all speculation for the time being.
What are your thoughts? Anything I'm missing that might be useful?
This is also reminiscent of GW which did this quite well, although without the augmentation concept. I wonder how AoC is going make 64 meaningful classes. From my experience, I feel that things will settle on 3-6 core classes that everyone plays, perhaps another 5 or so that people off-sepc or use for some specific purpose and the rest won't see very much play at all. I hope that they take a lesson from the early days of WoW which required certain classes to accomplish tasks. Although annoying at times, it was a great way to keep everyone engaged in their class choice. I know I'm missing a lot of information here so this is all speculation for the time being.
What are your thoughts? Anything I'm missing that might be useful?
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oh it's very simple. the tank/rogue first taunts the enemy and then goes stealth. this means the boss becomes a sitting duck, as it'll be searching for you. It's absurd idea, but it works.
[quote quote=13010]I’m sure there has already been some discussion on this topic so I wanted to gauge the communities reaction and thoughts around 64 distinct classes. Rift immediately comes to mind where during the first year all the classes had mostly redundant skills that made little to no sense. The balancing act became almost impossible. I haven’t followed the game since, but I can imagine that it hasn’t been easy for the developers or meaningful for the players.
This is also reminiscent of GW which did this quite well, although without the augmentation concept. I wonder how AoC is going make 64 meaningful classes. From my experience, I feel that things will settle on 3-6 core classes that everyone plays, perhaps another 5 or so that people off-sepc or use for some specific purpose and the rest won’t see very much play at all. I hope that they take a lesson from the early days of WoW which required certain classes to accomplish tasks. Although annoying at times, it was a great way to keep everyone engaged in their class choice. I know I’m missing a lot of information here so this is all speculation for the time being.
What are your thoughts? Anything I’m missing that might be useful?
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well, technically we have 8 classes which can be enhanced by another classes' skills when unlocked. some combo are definitely going to be helpful. like rogue is probably going to be very popular with DPS type groups, and you cannot change that. what you can do is enhance other skills to make them more popular. game balance is going to be an ever ongoing project, just cross your fingers and hope that the difference is not too great so you can play your fav. class without judgement. if no one is forced to change for the meta, then they are sufficiently balanced in my books.
What stands for Tank/Rogue you have to understand that the second class will really, like really mostly influence how your 1st classes skills work, so for example if you have a stun with shield on Q, as a 2nd class rogue it will possibly have a different annimation/style, or it will work differently on person- maby as a rogue with some sort of poison added and the skill won't lose it's core idea. It is like adding a scope to gun to have a more distanced aiming, or different kind of ammunition. Plus there might be a skill or two added from 2nd class choise, to add that kind of feeling your playing mix of both.
Although it can change duo to fact that game is in Pre-Alpha this is the main idea they have already presented(in discord aswell talking about one of the mage skills in video).
Absolutely. I don't think anything needs to be perfect about class balance, only that they have their own meaningful use. Even i if that's in a noncompetitive space. I just hope that they avoid unnecessary redundancy i.e. every class can pick a lock in their own way, or multiple abilities that all really do the same thing. I think AoC is going to be fantastic, but it's good to lookout for these things early.
<div class="d4p-bbt-quote-title"><a href="https://www.ashesofcreation.com/forums/topic/too-many-classes/#post-13035" rel="nofollow">Shieldwing wrote:</a></div>
Getting close to it and making that every class has its purpose is what I think should always be aimed for.
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Absolutely. I don’t think anything needs to be perfect about class balance, only that they have their own meaningful use. Even i if that’s in a noncompetitive space. I just hope that they avoid unnecessary redundancy i.e. every class can pick a lock in their own way, or multiple ablates that al really do the same thing. I think AoC is going to be fantastic, but it’s good to lookout for these things early.
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Indeed it's good to look out for this type of stuff early but in the same breath I think having 64 potential variations is exciting! Imagine a necromantic bard that sings the dead to life... or a Tank Archer that taunts large groups then attacks with an aoe that rains down on them. I think tomorrow will tell all.
plus with 64 classes i am sure you can find something you might think is usable in pvp.
as long as pve builds work well, are interesting to play and can do the content i am happy :)
<div class="d4p-bbt-quote-title"><a href="https://www.ashesofcreation.com/forums/topic/too-many-classes/#post-13035" rel="nofollow">Shieldwing wrote:</a></div>
Getting close to it and making that every class has its purpose is what I think should always be aimed for.
</blockquote>
Absolutely. I don’t think anything needs to be perfect about class balance, only that they have their own meaningful use. Even i if that’s in a noncompetitive space. I just hope that they avoid unnecessary redundancy i.e. every class can pick a lock in their own way, or multiple abilities that all really do the same thing. I think AoC is going to be fantastic, but it’s good to lookout for these things early.
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No you dont need things balance. Balance comes from each class having strengths and weaknesses. Some classes will be better in some situations than others. Some classes will be great in world PVP and crappy in 1v1, others will be good in 1v1 and crappy in world PVP. Some will be PVE focused while others PVP focused. No class should be good in all situations which is the way MMORPGS should be not like today's MMORPGs where one classes exactly the same as the next with no real uniqueness to it.