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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.
Getting Away From Stereotypical "Classes"
ArchivedUser
Guest
This is really big for me. When I see tank/dps/heals, it frustrates me. I think that I'd suggest a combat system that is more reflective and interactive with the world. I envision a system where you grow your class as you go along.
I picture having a sort of T shaped spectrum, but sort of on its side:
Light
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Balance ----- Realism
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Shadow
And, superimposed on this would be "melee, ranged, casting." You would then have subcategories within melee, ranged and casting, depending on what you do.
Light
Melee - Paladin-esque
Ranged - unique
Casting - priest-like
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Balance ----- ----- ----- ----- Realism: Melee - warrior, ranged: military archer, casting: telekinetic
Melee - kind of monk like
Ranged - hunter/ranger(in the explorative sense)
Casting - druidlike
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Shadow:
Melee - kind of death knight esque, shadow warrior who drains life with each hit
Ranged - stealthy sort of sniping assassin, poisons
Casting - warlock-like
All characters, even casters, would be athletic. You'd choose between a quicker, more dextrous character or a stronger character. You'd eventually want to strike the best balance. A strong archer might use heavy war bows with heavy pulls, and, likewise might have no problem switching to a hefty melee weapon.
So, you'd basically get access to basic skills that cover all bases right away, but as you specialize in one, one starts to go away, so you'll only ever really have a few abilities to use. You'd go out in the world and do different things to change your alignments over time.
Combat would ultimately be simple. There would be many trees, but few things you could do all at once. Utility bloat is a gross problem of many MMOs. Skyrim is fun as hell, and you just run around swinging a god damn sword most of the time as a "warrior." Yet you can make classes that emulate paladins, mages, rogues, etc. in your own sort of fun hybrid.
You might have the same attack do different things based on your alignments. A shadow warrior's attack might drain life in proportion to damage dealt, or do extra damage. A light warrior's attack might burn nearby targets and heal other nearby friendlies at once. An magical warrior's attack might freeze or set the target on fire. You'd get some new abilities for going deep into a tree: a shadow warrior might reanimate corpses. A telekinetic might blast people away.
A balance caster's sort of basic cast might just send an invisible force wave at the opponent, knocking them back, sort of like a telekinetic.
You might have one more spectrum, like an H bar, to help you determine your classes:
Strength vs. Dexterity on the physical, and focused vs. intuitive on the mental.
I.e. an focused realistic mental would be a mage, using fire and ice. An intuitive would be a telekinetic.
A strong realistic warrior would be a berserker. A strong, physically and mentally balanced warrior on the light would be as close to a paladin as you'd get. But, you'd have opportunities to invent new things, like a dextrous light wielding warrior.
This isn't an exact suggestion, but it's more of a generalized suggestion that would need a lot of refinement as to how you make a combat system that matches the way that this game develops. Again, the key to making this work is to make the overall number of abilities available at any given time pretty low.
I picture having a sort of T shaped spectrum, but sort of on its side:
Light
|
|
Balance ----- Realism
|
|
Shadow
And, superimposed on this would be "melee, ranged, casting." You would then have subcategories within melee, ranged and casting, depending on what you do.
Light
Melee - Paladin-esque
Ranged - unique
Casting - priest-like
|
|
Balance ----- ----- ----- ----- Realism: Melee - warrior, ranged: military archer, casting: telekinetic
Melee - kind of monk like
Ranged - hunter/ranger(in the explorative sense)
Casting - druidlike
|
|
Shadow:
Melee - kind of death knight esque, shadow warrior who drains life with each hit
Ranged - stealthy sort of sniping assassin, poisons
Casting - warlock-like
All characters, even casters, would be athletic. You'd choose between a quicker, more dextrous character or a stronger character. You'd eventually want to strike the best balance. A strong archer might use heavy war bows with heavy pulls, and, likewise might have no problem switching to a hefty melee weapon.
So, you'd basically get access to basic skills that cover all bases right away, but as you specialize in one, one starts to go away, so you'll only ever really have a few abilities to use. You'd go out in the world and do different things to change your alignments over time.
Combat would ultimately be simple. There would be many trees, but few things you could do all at once. Utility bloat is a gross problem of many MMOs. Skyrim is fun as hell, and you just run around swinging a god damn sword most of the time as a "warrior." Yet you can make classes that emulate paladins, mages, rogues, etc. in your own sort of fun hybrid.
You might have the same attack do different things based on your alignments. A shadow warrior's attack might drain life in proportion to damage dealt, or do extra damage. A light warrior's attack might burn nearby targets and heal other nearby friendlies at once. An magical warrior's attack might freeze or set the target on fire. You'd get some new abilities for going deep into a tree: a shadow warrior might reanimate corpses. A telekinetic might blast people away.
A balance caster's sort of basic cast might just send an invisible force wave at the opponent, knocking them back, sort of like a telekinetic.
You might have one more spectrum, like an H bar, to help you determine your classes:
Strength vs. Dexterity on the physical, and focused vs. intuitive on the mental.
I.e. an focused realistic mental would be a mage, using fire and ice. An intuitive would be a telekinetic.
A strong realistic warrior would be a berserker. A strong, physically and mentally balanced warrior on the light would be as close to a paladin as you'd get. But, you'd have opportunities to invent new things, like a dextrous light wielding warrior.
This isn't an exact suggestion, but it's more of a generalized suggestion that would need a lot of refinement as to how you make a combat system that matches the way that this game develops. Again, the key to making this work is to make the overall number of abilities available at any given time pretty low.
0
Comments
Besides, this game will have support classes to supplement the trinity so there will be bards and others that don't neatly fit within the traditional roles. In total, this game will have 64 classes, so you might find something you like. Here is the link to classes on dev page: https://www.ashesofcreation.com/class-list/
So, I'm still suggesting classes, but with more interest and nuance.
It looks like they're somewhat doing the same thing, thankfully.
If they were to introduce a split between light and shadow that would also split players into different factions and they don't want to do that.