Class specific utilities?

ArchivedUser

I can't think of a better word for it but will there be class specific utilities?

I'm thinking more specifically of things like mages in WoW can teleport to major cities or open portals for other people. Maybe rogues can use their stealth to steal and access places that others can't? Maybe Clerics are the only ones that can revive people on the spot for free? Rangers can tame wild animals? These are utilities, not necessarily for aiding in battle but aiding in general life.

I like things that give class individuality and sometimes even give people a service to offer. "We need to find a Mage to portal us to x" for example. I've played a lot of MMOs and one that stands out was Guild Wars 2. I've racked up a lot of hours on GW2 but one of the biggest issues I had with it was practically zero class individuality. Everyone could do damage, everyone could tank, everyone could heal, everyone could solo anything. There was never any "we need a healer for this dungeon" because there weren't any. Outside of battle there was practically no difference either (with the possible exception of Mesmer who could create portals). It really didn't matter what class you played because they all basically had the same role anyway.

Give me a reason to want to make more than one character. I like the idea of classes having a purpose, not only during battle, but outside it too.

ArchivedUser

I'm sure that people will be making alt characters because of how the crafting system works. I believe that on the current crafting system you have small amount of skillpoints you can use on your skilltrees. That will result on that you might not be able to craft that max level shield If you choose to focus on weapon crafting for example. This is a good way to force people to trade and communicate/assist with each other. Making alts is another solution for lets say solo players for example.

ArchivedUser

I would hope so, and I really think that they will be doing this. The whole team seems to be pretty fluent when it comes to MMORPG's, and I get the vibe that they really want to encourage variety group play. I also remember in a video before where Steven was showing off some gameplay and stated that he was in a "well balanced group" (paraphrasing).

ArchivedUser

DAoC had stealth classes that could climb walls of keeps in pvp to get inside and attack from inside the fortress while the group attacked from outside. that is a cool class utility :)

ArchivedUser

Looks like utilities are (also) linked to items (last nights twitch remarks related to the spyglass). Not sure those items/utilities are class bound.

ArchivedUser

Obviously there will be crafting reasons to make alts and such but I wasn't really talking about that :p

In terms of actual group play, yeah I like I when you need certain roles to balance a group out. A warrior/Mage for example would be good at DPS but shouldn't be able to tank particularly well or keep himself alive without a healer. You should need DPS roles,tanking roles, healing rolls, buffs etc..

@Velish That's what I'm talking about! Stuff like that :D Stuff that only a rogue can do. I've always liked the idea of mages being able to teleport you and other people (ever since runescape haha) to locations and cities. Obviously that would be pretty redundant if they allowed fast travel but without it it becomes a pretty powerful tool (I hope they don't add fast travel btw. I prefer being forced to explore. Fast travel is too tempting haha).

ArchivedUser

Ah well stealth has been confirmed for rogues and on one of their videos mage floated over an cliff using magic so I bet that other classes will be getting some class specific skills aswell.

ArchivedUser

True, but what could you do with those things? I mean stealth is a tricky one anyway because it's very advantageous in battle as well. But could a rogue use stealth to sneak past guards and maybe enter areas that others couldn't? What could they do outside of battle?

As for the Mage float thing.. fair enough you could use it to float over a gap but is that all? Could they cast it on their allies? Could they use it to levitate up or down? Floating over a gap is hardly the ability to teleport to another city. I guess there was a similar thing in WoW that could be cast on yourself or allies that slowed your rate of fall so you could get down from high places without taking fall damage. Maybe it will be similar to that?

That's the kind of stuff I'm looking for. When I see mages in films and books they can do a lot more than just shoot fireballs. They're very useful for a lot of things outside of just fighting. That's the kind of Mage I want to play :)

ArchivedUser

[quote quote=20616]DAoC had stealth classes that could climb walls of keeps in pvp to get inside and attack from inside the fortress while the group attacked from outside. that is a cool class utility <img alt="????" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.2.1/svg/1f642.svg" />

[/quote]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehx6mQ-EiW4

ArchivedUser

With the prominence of water in AoC you can bet someone will have a water breathing buff. At least I hope it's not a trinket ability.

ArchivedUser

That would be cool too actually! Or at least an alchemy potion for it. I love alchemy having more use than to restore health/stamina etc. Although I hated Archages crafting system they did have water breathing potions that lasted about half an hour. They were useful.