2 Questions about Ashes of Creation

dejavu

hello, so I just heard about AoC and It seems really exciting and I can't wait for it, but from what I saw I have 2 main questions.
First, from what I understood on how pve works in AoC, does that mean there will not be any competition in pve side ? because every server will most like obtain a different raid, so there will not be something like a huge raid release and many guild competing for world first and maybe get unique titles or some rewards

My second question is, there are 64 class combination that can exist in AoC, don't you think this will be impossible to balance and there will be insane amount of balancing issues ? especially in pvp

HazardNumberSeven

Hopefully no, no rush to get through PvE content before someone else because it's a bit more dynamic. The PvE itself will be the content.

The same kind of 'world first' stuff could really easily be derailed by other players by just showing up and killing the raiders, too.

It's more like 8 classes, I think, with a lot of variety and customization.

At least, that's what I 'think'...

The wiki does mention the game will track firsts though! So if you 'do' do things first, there's likely to be glory involved, I just don't think it will be anything like the monotonous patch-cycle of WoW.

Probably more skewed towards server firsts than world firsts, because of how different each world will be.

darthaden

to your first point Yes no two servers will be the same, If you want to feel the need to compete in PVE there's still plenty of options. You could become one of the top crafters on the server for your chosen profession, You could aim for obtaining land (which there may or may not be enough for every player to own non instanced housing, that's yet to be seen for sure) You could aim to become the mayor of a economic node, and I'm sure there's plenty of other achievements on the pve side that most players will never achieve

to your second question Steven answered this one in a recent interview. Your primary class will determine your skills. Your secondary class will augment those skills a little bit. Say you make a fighter/ cleric. The fighter might give you a charge ability that does damage and knocks your enemy down, the cleric augment might provide you a slight heal over time effect on top of that. If you roll a tank/mage You might have a ability that blocks all incoming melee damage for 3 seconds, the mage augment might add a small amount of lighting damage to any melee who attack you while your shield is up

Ravudha

Check out the section on Leaderboards and Trophy Park here - https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Achievements#Leaderboards.

For classes, it's a rock-paper-scissors foundation, so they're being balanced on a group basis rather than a 1v1 basis.

phdmonster

Pve Raids - there will be plenty of competition between guilds on the same server to complete the raid which also involves slaughtering each other to gain access ot said raid. As for world firsts.. Well, that's a tricky one, but not really necessary

Now onto your question about the 'classes':

When you create your character you choose a primary archetype (there are 8 of them), let's say Fighter.
When you reach a certain level in the game (let's say 25) you can choose a secondary achetype. You can choose Fighter a second time or any of the other 7 types.
Selecting a secondary Archetype does a few things:
1. It gives you the title of your class - Fighter + Mage = Spellsword
2. Choosing a secondary class does not give you new abilities or abilities from the secondary archetype
3. It unlocks what are called augments that are specific for that archetype combination
4. You can then choose between a few (4-5 is being thrown around) augments to enhance your already existing skills.
Examples:
Charge/Rush ability (those are just examples, not actual augments from the game)
1. Charge now directly teleports you to the target and applies the same CC as the old ability
2. Charge now leaves a trail of fire behind and deals AoE fire damage upon reaching the target
3. Charge is now transformed into a leap, stunning and slowing the target upon reaching it
etc etc etc

In reality you have the 8 main archetypes and 8 secondary ones which act as a sort of a flavor - augments may change how your skills work to a varying degree, but if your primary is Fighter, you are still a Fighter no matter which one you pick as a secondary. You won't suddenly turn into a healer, or a ranged glass cannon or a summoner.

Now that we've gotten the class system out of the way, to the balance question.

There won't be balancing for 1v1 situations. Intrepid wants to have a rock-paper-scissors relationship between classes, which means that some classes will be hard counters to others. There will however be group based balancing as doing group content is kind of a very big part of the game.