Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
I can think of two ways that the hybrids could work in that system. Either they would have flexibility yet be inferior in the specific, like being able to off tank or off heal, but be inferior compared to someone who chose to specialize in one, Or if i chose Tank as my primary archtype, i do so with the understanding that in some way, tanking will be my goal throughout that characters lifetime. And however that is accomplished will depend on what sub class i choose. Of those two i prefer the second.
I agree with the posts by Damokles and ravnodaus that primary classes should have their own roles and that the description of these roles are not just limited to trinity: tanking, healing and dps. Every class could have a one or two of i.e. the following strengths: CC (could even be further split into, slow, stun, sleep etc.), buffs, debuffs, mobility, single target, AoE, sustained dps, burst dmg, ranged, healing (Cleric), tanking (Tank).
Secondary classes would then modify or add skills to your character related to the strengths of that class. Players can then choose which strengths given by the primary and secondary class they want to specialize into using, talents, augments and gear. Like Caeryl mentioned I would expect a cleric with a secondary tank class to at least off-tank, if prepared with the appropriate gear, talents and augments, but then not being able to heal as effectively unless respecced/regeared. I would expect a rogue/mage to never be able to heal or tank, but maybe build more towards either AoE or single target damage or even CC. A Fighter-Tank would be able to dps or (off-)tank depending on the build. This way not every primary-secondary class combination can do everything, but you still have freedom to build your character in various ways depending on the needs of the content. I think respeccing should be relatively easy / unpunished (like just going to a town) and in my opinion class swapping should then be impossible. (Aside from that you might be able to try a few secondary classes for a short time before locking them in)
The usefulness of the primary-secondary class combinations also depends on the content, like some people already mentioned. For bosses that does a lot of magic damage you might want a Cleric with Mage or Bard as their secondary class or for a boss fight that consists of two individual bosses a character with the secondary Tank class could be great as an off-tank. Also for doing quests with some friends you might not need a full tank or healer but a Summoner-Cleric would be able to heal your friends if needed.
Just my opinion, let me know what you think or if I missed something that might be a problem with this approach. Cheers.
Although there should be a limit on what they can and cannot tank. You should require a real tank (Guardian) for a dragon boss for example.
Quite some time ago you've mentioned unique tricks for each archetype. For example Ranger could cover tracks and Mage could make invisible paths come to light. These unique tricks should stay unique to that class. However, don't make it so that you cant continue a dungeon because you don't have a Ranger. Having one should give ~small extra rewards after you find the secret path and open an extra chest for example.
This was all PvE focused suggestions. Now if we get to the PvP part... It's more of a teamplay. Every 64 class should have something unique to bring to a raid... Somehow...
A primary tank should be a better tank than any other class who's secondary is a tank. A Paladin(tank/cleric) should be a better tank than an Apostle(cleric/tank), while the Apostle should be a better healer than the Paladin. Could an Apostle tank for a party doing quests or missions... sure why not. Should they be able to tank for a flashpoint or instance... I don't think so. Now could a Dreadnought (fighter/tank) tank for a flashpoint or instance? Sure. Should a Dreadnought be able to tank for a raid or nightmare/hardcore version of a instance or flashpoint? No. Now you could "off tank" for crowd control or be used briefly when tank switching is required, but your primary is a fighter, not a tank. I believe a Dreadnought in full plate might be even with a Paladin in lets say half plate, mitigation and health wise, but they just wont have the same skills and abilities so wont be able to keep aggro as a tank does.
As a tank, I shouldn't be able to deal as much damage as the typical DPS class. Does that mean leveling will take me longer than other classes due to the XP time to kill ratio... yup. Because of this, I would secondary into a DPS class while leveling and then switch to a different secondary for end game content or as needed by my guild.
I think the primary and secondary classes are a great idea, but being able to swap between classes (as in FF) basically made my character no more or less valuable than any other character. The only difference between everyone was the visible appearance.
In an ideal world, everyone would perform as the class and role they're supposed to. Tanks would tank, etc. But in reality, MMOs never have even class distribution. You always have more Warriors or Mages than you do Priests or Shamans. The desirable classes for Raids and other group content are desirable because you can't find any bugger playing that class. Unless someone in your group volunteers to do it. Which means potentially levelling a character they don't find fun just because they need to fill a role in their guild.
MMOs often remedy this by allowing classes to perform multiple roles, ie Warriors can spec into Fury for DPS, Prot for Tanking, etc. So another class can fill a role if needs be but won't be as good as the specific class that specialises in that.
An MMO I absolutely fucking hate is FFXIV because it just pigeon holes you into your class and you can't do anything but one thing. It's pretty bland And that thing gets dull after a while. But also, you can swap to any class you want provided you level it. Which also takes out a necessary social element of MMOs because you can just do everything except group content yourself. And group content in FFXIV is pretty lackluster as is. You can't ask around the forums or in game chat for a guy to fill that niche you need because you can just fill that niche yourself. More convenient but far less social. You never meet anyone new playing FFXIV. Nearly all the social aspects of an MMO are absent.
I think the thing to remember is that MMOs should not be too convenient. Back in the EQ days, downtime was such a long, horrific time. But you passed it by socialising and meeting new people. Having experiences you wouldn't normally have in a themepark MMO with a rush towards loot. I'm not saying downtime should be as long as EQ but it should exist even though it's an inconvenience because it forces a player to try new things they wouldn't normally do. Such as fishing, housing, interacting with towns and such. And the same goes for classes too. Don't make it too convenient.
I've waffled on, my tl/dr is this: Allow flexibility in Class makeup, but also make Roles matter so Players don't feel the need to wander. But also make the choices a player makes in their class matter too. Don't allow easy ways out.
That being said I do like the idea of having flexibility inside of each primary archetype. The primary archetype should determine your primary focus in the party. The secondary should give you slight flexibility in how you benefit the group. I view it as each of the trinity roles getting broken down into 3 variants (Full, Major, & Minor) of their initial design.
For example Cleric/Cleric (High Priest) would be a full support class, but a Cleric/Tank (Apostle) would be a major support class, but also a minor tank class. This would let somebody who chose Cleric at the beginning have the flexibility to branch slightly out of playing pure support and give more of a distinct difference from a Tank/Cleric (Paladin).
This allows for potential expansion later on down the line to give new class option to each archetype without stepping on the toes of already existing classes in that archetype. For example through DLC or expansions a mage may gain access to a new class such as a runemancer that is not tied to the class combination system. This one could be unique and allow them to become a major support class/minor dps class that would currently be unavailable to them in the base system.
I think that's the archetype rogue/cleric is meant for. 😉
The more you mess about with creating different variations in archetypes for every class the more unbalance the classes become.
In many Lores with elves,dwarves and wizards ..... etc Everyone has there place you dont get healers which cause huge damage and knights firing fire balls ... You get the idea.
I'm in favour of saying turning your white wizard into a dark one, diffrent skill set up but im not in favour of having a wizard with both healing and damage.
I like having a Tank to tank and a healer to heal, anyway just having my say
Very little
The main class is called "soul tree" (can be fighter, mage, rogue, ranger,...) and buy leveling up you unlock "roots" which are secondary and third class you get skills/powers from, but different from the same class has primary class/tree.
So if you want to get an idear of how the system may look like (from an other point of view but with years of uses).
https://www.trionworlds.com/rift/en/game/classes/ascended-class-system/
From my point of view, having classes fulfilling a single role, in long fights such as bosses, if the tank dies, everyone have to or will die.
Mixing classes, even if the secondary class is lighter, may leave a chance (even a small one) to the group/raid to make it.
It's fine to have a class or specialisation perform some tasks that would normally not be its main business; but that should nevertheless be only possible within the given archetype and only to a limited degree. A class should excel in a couple of specific tasks, be fairly incompetent (but still manage to produce something) in other archetype tasks and be completely hopeless in anything outside its archetype.
For example an elementalist would perform at (somewhat arbitrary numbers) 100% in anything related to its primary element, 60% in other elementalist trees, 10% in other caster stuff and 0% in everything else.
Or sticking to what we know about the AoC system, a Shadow Disciple might be able to produce a healing spell, but it will be nowhere near the levels of a High Priest (significantly higher cost, much longer cooldown, fraction of the full healing effect of a priest, etc.) - and will be completely unable to summon, conjure or enchant.
Using secondary skills to boost your primary abilities would mix it up a little, of course, and give you a wider toolset, but not to an extent that you can now perform any role or replace other classes that are more suited to it.
Assassins should excel in sneaking in and taking out critical targets without being noticed; adding secondary skills should give them more options to achieve that (e.g. overcome target's resistances, assassinate at a distance, etc.) - but not make them able to tank mobs, heal / bandage party, summon stuff or run to its targets with guns blazing.
Keep the RPG element the core of this game.
Class Identity is the key here, and by class I mean Tank, Cleric, Summoner, etc the 8 basic primaries. Everything else is just a flavor of that class/role. Games like ESO for instance, have spoiled people into thinking that they should be able to do everything. (ESO is also trash and is broken in more ways than I would like to write down.) When a class can do everything...it has no identity, it makes it bland and boring.
When a class can do everything, everything is worthless.
It follows the same concept as "When everyone is special no one is special."
Tanks (as in TANK PRIMARIES) should be the only viable tanks.
Clerics (CLERIC PRIMARIES) should be the only viable healers.
I don't say this without extensive knowledge on the issues at hand. Hell WoW has Hybrids for a couple classes, but guess what, they don't get to do everything. WoW Paladin you're either a tank healer or dps...no matter what you are still one of those. Hell even it's basic warrior is either Tank or dps. But allowing you to be all three at once ( in the case of Paladin here) would severely take away from the class and the lore of it as well....throwing it's identity to the wind.
I do not want this in Ashes.
Most people specialize, because our time is limited. The time you take to master your craft is your risk.
Entrepeneurs are the generalist of our world. IRL that's a risky move.
Generalists in videogame take no risk.
Give us a small structure and frame. Meaningful choices with powers and risk.
Path of Exile does a great job handling power but taking something in return.
Each archetype should without question have VERY little overlap. When it comes to selecting your secondary class, it should leave you with the sense of awe and wonder with regard to how your core abilities have changed and really help to distinguish and diversify your archetype class even further depending on your secondary class chosen.
I don’t want to simply see new models, different particle effects, and do the same amount damage as the same archetype with a different secondary class; perhaps one now has more CC, significantly more damage or more utility and or mobility. It should leave you wanting to play every combination.
active skills define roles, therefore primary archetype defines role;
state clearly the role of each archetype;
4 roles hopefully, T D H S: make supporter a required role in parties;
secondary archetype doesn’t change your role in the party, people seems to forget it’s not a typical multi- or rather dual- system the one that has been anticipated, no active skills inherited from secondary archetype so I fail to see how it could effectively enable a second role. Yet the dev question is misleading, seems to imply just that and to focus on the demarcation of the classes based on an inherited role;
all classes within a role should be viable despite different styles due to augments, this is expecially to be regarded as important when dealing with double-dip classes: a fighter/fighter shouldn’t be a better damage dealer than a fighter/bard, you know why.
T.l.d.r.
Cleric/Tank is a Healer, Tank/Cleric is a Tank, and they’re viable as much as a Cleric/Cleric and a Tank/Tank, respectively.
BUT!...
There is couple of issues with that:
1) Difficulty of forming effective diverse parties with your friends and acquaintances while you have a deficit of specific role, or abundance of it. For example when you need a tank, but you have two of them, or none.
2) Some classes being built around excelling at some specific activity, but being useless or painfully boring outside of it. For example doing solo quests as a tank, having very low TTK is something that slowly kills your soul (my first character in Lineage 2 was Temple Knight and I still have PTSD from those times)
The solution to that would be having two restricted specializations that can be swapped under certain circumstances (being in a city, or guild hall etc). WoW has something like that and it is really great feature.
Those specializations would be something like this:
Fighter <-> Tank (DPS<->Tank)
Cleric <-> Mage (Healer<->DPS)
Ranger <-> Rogue (Ranged DPS<->Melee DPS)
Bard <-> Summoner (Support<->DPS)
OR
(if Summoner will be a support role class, and also to prevent Rogues<->Rangers being limited to DPS only role)
Ranger <-> Summoner (DPS<->Support)
Rogue <-> Bard (DPS<->Support)
So if you are a Tank, you can spec into Fighter, and vice versa.
This would keep classes to their designated roles, but will also add much needed flexibility without sacrificing class identity.
So if you have 2 tanks and mage and bard online, you can spec one tank into fighter and mage into cleric, effectively filling all the necessary roles in your party.
Cleric for example can be a healer ... but it also can dps. So are you asking if they should also be able to tank, heal and dps, or exclusively heal? Bit confused.
I usually play healer in MMOs (I'm gonna use ArcheAge as an example) and I had a bunch of different builds specialised for different situations (a healer with invis who could resurrect in PvP, a tank healer for smaller scale PvP, a pure healer for PvE stuff, and a hybrid dps for solo, are the main ones I used), if I can switch builds fairly easily then I'm happy being more specialised in a specific build, but if it's harder to swap builds then it'll make me feel as though I need to have a really generic build so that I can do whatever I want to do.
Obviously every class doesn't have to be restricted to being good at just ONE thing, they should be good at multiple things, just not at EVERYTHING. Every class should have clear strengths and weaknesses.
Say you're playing a Spellsword, you should not be as good as a mage at what they do, but somewhat comparable to them i.e. the primary archetype should focus on the core of your class while the secondary merely modifies it to give more options, but, none of these options should be as good as a class with that secondary as their primary.
I dont think people should be able to switch roles on the fly if your vision for the game was the holy trinity, I was never a fan of the trinity however ive also seen how classes lose their identity as a result of games like eso.
I feel like this question would also be easier to discuss if we could see your vision of the augment system and we could give feedback from there however Ill try and give my vision of what Id like it to be.
I think upon picking your secondary class you should have the option to move away from the hard role of your primary class but not to the point where you remove its identity completely.
For example Cleric/Fighter aka templar - Gives you a choice of A healer with melee specific buffs, specialisations with certain armour/weapons or takes you on a path where you give up more healing power to dps yourself with offhealing etc.
A hybrid should never be as good as a pure at its specific role but add utility to a group that only it can provide so its still welcome in a group and not the situation you have in lets say classic wow.
As people have said I dont think you should pick your primary role and be completely locked in as only that role, but but you should have to sacrifice power of your primary role to mould a class to how you want to play it.
Very difficult topic to explain and balance imo, would love to see the augment system and discuss these points from there.