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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.
Will AoC follow the Tank/DPS/Healer meta?
Will it follow the World of Warcraft meta where you'll need a tank, healer, and DPS for parties Or will it be a party free for all where every class is or can be self sufficient in their own roles like in BDO or Guild Wars 2?
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You have the Tank class which is the tanking
You have the Cleric class which is healing
and then you got 6 other classes who can do...stuff
I want to know what makes the Tanks, Tanks.
Since there's not much out about character customization as far as leveling and skills go or if there's going to be a point system involved or skill trees, it might be too early to have this question answered, even simply.
I think the reasons WoW is so popular (besides the content and storytelling) is the amount of choice a player had when playing just one class i.e. Druid could heal, tank, melee DPS, and ranged DPS. Death Knight can Tank and DPS, Priest can Heal and DPS... and I wonder if the game will center enough around that meta or will it just be some party free for all where it's more about individual player skill, which tend to make tanks and healers obsolete, rather than party dynamics which rely on a diverse and specialized classes.
few streams before that you can make a mage tank but a tanky tank will still be the best tank.
It would make the game much more exciting at least ^^
http://aocwiki.net/Category:Q&A
(for general light skimming)
http://aocwiki.net/Classes
http://aocwiki.net/TheLazyPeon_Q&A_2017-05-09#.5B36:32.5D_Will_Ashes_use_the_holy_trinity_of_Tank.2C_Healer.2C_Dps_or_perhaps_something_else.3F
(for quick mention of the trinity)
Links don't appear due to the black background of the forums. Just hover the mouse over those blank areas lol.
Tanks for example will be more tanky and don't need evasion.
On the other hand you could have fights where a healer has to heal less, but help out in dealing dmg?
As I understand it, someone playing tank - healer - dps is kind of the group make up that they're intending when they come up with the ideas of how to put together events/dungeons etc... but that means very little when you start to throw in all of the other things that go to make up your character.
And yes, when it comes to grouping with randoms, that's going to be the mix you'd be aiming for, but we've got to start forgetting about making assumptions about what each 'class' can do:
So what will affect your characters:
So far we know:
Primary and secondary skills.
But then you've got religion.
Social groups
Weapon types (no restriction by class)
Race
Armor
Node type you're invested in
The skills that you end up with will be made by your own playstyle, so I'm guessing that grouping will through 'types'
(Now I know little about combat strategy and my ignorance is going to show here, so please forgive me, I'm just trying to give an idea of what I mean and how I believe it's going to work)
If your group so far is made up of a healer who'se built themselves for healing over time and a support who's wonderful at reducing damage,
you're not going to want a tank with a shield who's a glass cannon whose strength is in avoidance, but falls to pieces if tapped once.
You're going to want a tank who can get sliced into pieces bit by bit, take it and give it back to them. More endurance than power.
Ok, so I've probably made a muppet of myself, but I hope you can see.
Yes, there will be the trinity.
But no, not all Tanks are made the same, not even all tank-tanks will be made the same.
I believe a new language will grow up, something like: 'crit-healer', 'hot-healer', 'group-healer' etc etc.
For exemple Tank can have several branch specialization depending on races with offensive style, support style, parade/block style etc
Our game is stat oriented, which means that your stats relate to your abilities... your damage, your chance to land something. It's a stat oriented game.
The races have different values for stats so some races are going to be probably the meta race when it comes to a certain class. That doesn't mean that classes are restricted to race - you can be any class in any race. So there is no race locking for the classes.
We want players to be able to experience the game as the type of class you want to play with the type of race you want to as well. And races are also going to offer certain flavors to all the classes - certain racial augments that are available for your primary skills associated with an archetype. Let's say for instance you want to be a Tank.
There are different types of Tanks: There are Tanks who are really good against magic or good against physical damage. There are Tanks who are evasion Tanks. There are tanks who are straight damage mitigation Tanks. There are reflect damage Tanks. There are aggro-oriented PvE Tanks. There's a lot of different types of a class. Classes can play specific roles out in the game. So, there may be a meta for what race combination with that class is good for which role you're wanting to go, but at least it leaves a diversity among that specific class with all the different races.
after looking again at the archtype description i think we will have for the most part a 4(5 if you distinct melee from ranged dps) role system
Tank - Tank
Cleric - Healer
Fighter, Rogue - Melee DPS
Ranger, Mage - Ranged DPS
Summoner, Bard - Support
the second class doesn't give skills, only augments. The Tank/Cleric may get some selfheals but he will not act as a downgraded healer.
The same way someone with the tank as secondary class will not really be able to perform the tank role. The person may get tankier, which has it's uses in PvP, but for PvE you don't want a Mage/Tank, but a Tank/Mage
Rogue can also be support.
Now that the archetypes will have classic utility abilities, we will have significantly more roles than we're used to playing.
What we should be hoping for is enough variation in the tasks that we don't need to rely on the Trinity so much. Tasks and dungeons shouldn't have to be hyper focused on combat.
The devs have said that max party is 8. That doesn't mean that all 8 archetypes will be imperative to complete most dungeons.
The Trinity is the minimum must-have classes to complete the average dungeon.
Rogues, Locks, Mages, Hunters were all stuck doing only DPS.
I don't know if you played WoW prior to/up to the Cata launch, but they actually took away a great deal of the diversity in classes by restricting us from hybridizing. Yes, a druid could still tank/heal/melee deeps and ranged deeps, but couldn't hybridize within those builds. That inflamed me, let me tell ya! From that point everything came down to the min-max version of the holy trinity and completely eliminated the ability to build a class that could function in a support role; no longer could a holy-dedicated priest call upon some of the shadow aspects, so on and so forth. If you went BM, you went only BM. Legion has gone even further with that.
I think that's one of the things I'm looking forward to with Ashes, honestly, is the ability to theorycraft and build off-kilter specs and make them viable.