Ability Design

ArchivedUser

I'll just come out and say it, I wasn't too thrilled with the abilities described in the Twitch on the June 30th. So I think there are ways to improve it, especially thematically! A reason I say this is because it felt like some abilities talked about were something that seemed like a hybrid class should have. The cleric in particular felt like something all over the place with abilities that don't resonate well.

I'll start with the tank. I feel like most of what the tank's abilities have kinda have magical overtones. Summoning earth walls, and protecting people by holding your shield above your head doesn't make sense unless magic is involved. I feel like the basic tank class should focus on his ability to parry and block damage not necessarily project to others yet. The class abilities that do that can be a flavor of choice with the secondary you pick or you can be the boss tank with tank/tank.

Clerics had weird abilities that don't fit well to me, I think they should be focused on healing and divine based control or attacks, not ways to do competitive damage with damage dealers unless they go into a secondary for that. Dealing damage to heal allies is fun but probably should be something from a secondary class because having that for the base class would seem to take away from secondary class choices. Cleric/cleric should probably have divine thematics not rotate life energy thematics like some sort of blood healer.

I don't think rangers and mages had very many problems but arcane shot probably should be ranger/mage, I'd focus ranger/ranger on poisoned shots and traps personally.

Did anyone else feel this way? Sorry if this is not articulated well I wanted to type it better but I'm in a hurry.

Edit: Yes I know it's early gameplay stuff and we haven't seen it yet. I just want to voice this stuff now before it's too late! I'm still excited for the game!

ArchivedUser

I see your point. The problem the DEVs are facing is unlike most MMORPG games with 8-12 classes, Ashes will have 64 classes resulting from a combination of the 8 archetypes. In my mind it will be quite some time before the skills and abilities have been fully worked out.

On top of that, there is very little in the way of guiding lore right now. Granted, IS will know much more about this internally, but at the moment they might be keeping some things guarded so as not to create the wrong impression. 

We do know that the Ashes world is a magical world, so I expect everything will be tinged with magic. Also there is a strong divine influence on the world, so this will add a further twist to how classes build out with augments from their religion.

But, I do agree with you. The presentation on the 30th seemed a little bit ad hoc. I wish they had time to go into things in more depth! But... we have one or two more years, so there's plenty of time for that

ArchivedUser

I think that the skills they had spoken about were great, the cleric is a disciple of balance is what they said, you have to take life in order to give it away, it feels very synergistic to me.

ArchivedUser

I had mixed feelings also till I thought about it for a while.  First off as  @ lexmax stated. it is early and I'm sure they don't/cant/won't show their full hands.  They would be foolish too do so imho.  We are lucky that they are willing to share all that they do atm.  No other game has ever done this.

From what we all have heard the class and ability system is going to be wide spread with choices to be made.  We have no idea really what the main abilites of a class will be or how any one of the secondary choices will effect your primary class.

Another point I would like to make is that I haven't known one cleric in 20 years who did not also have the ability to do some damage.  If they did exist they leveled up as pocket healers only.   I might not feel right about having to take life from one form to heal another but the Gods do work in mysterious ways as they say. 

ArchivedUser

Thus far they have put out the very basics of a few skills there is so very far to go in the evolution of this game. What has been put forward now I dare say will be very different to what will be at launch. The early alphas will have the basics of how the combat systems will run and that is where the feedback from us will start and it is up to those who test the game to give constructive feedback. For it is with constructive feedback that we as a community may have some input into developing a fun engaging combat system that we can enjoy.

ArchivedUser

I've written up what was said on the stream alongside threads for each PAX class detailing their skills for easy reference https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/34059/information-pax-classes-and-skill-types#latest

I actually reaallly like the the skills that all the classes have (especially as a pvper). I can already foresee cross class combinations that will be amazing to see in battle.

I see that Ashes has a lot of focus in working as a team and learning that best play will come from groups working together to work out effective combinations imo:)

Remember the skills for PAX are a small selection of what we'll have in Ashes. We only have the Primary ARCHETYPE at pax and preset weapons.

I can't wait for PAX stream already