Dev Discussion #27 - Ideal Class

LieutenantToast

Glorious Ashes community - it's time for another Dev Discussion! Dev Discussion topics are kind of like a "reverse Q&A" - rather than you asking us questions about Ashes of Creation, we want to ask YOU what your thoughts are.

Our design team has compiled a list of burning questions we'd love to get your feedback on regarding gameplay, your past MMO experiences, and more. Join in on the Dev Discussion and share what makes gaming special to you!


Dev Discussion #27 - Ideal Class
Which of our 64 classes do you think you will spend the most time playing, and what are the key elements to making this your ideal class? Feel free to share your creative and crazy ideas, even if you may not think they fit the usual class mold!

Keep an eye out for our next Dev Discussion topic regarding hybrid combat!

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UPDATE: Greetings friends - thank you all again for taking the time to join in on this discussion! After putting together a recap for our team, check out some of the top notes you shared with us below:

• Many shared that they’d like to see more a more diverse array of buffs and debuffs in a wide range of class combinations
• Others expressed their love for high-mobility classes, regardless of whether they were more physical or magical
• Those who were interested in playing summoner conveyed their desire for better collaboration between active and passive summon management
• Many examples also highlighted the importance of satisfying stealth mechanics, along with appropriate counterbalances
• Some voiced their aspirations for more meaningful tank interactions than simply threat generation, especially as it related to PvP

As an added bonus, here was our team's favorite quote:

KrowTheVek wrote: »

Mage/Tank AKA Spellstone.

Imagine you think you're charging a normal stereotypical mage. Old man with a long graybeard and a robe. Then when you get in range he takes off his robe which reveals his six pack and you just get yeeted of his way.

This and only this is my dream

Jane

My ideal class would be a sword wielding support class, specializing on proximity based buffs and debuffs in form of magic circles on the ground. The most natural feeling class combination would be bard/fighter or fighter/bard so Tellsword or Bladedancer c:

I got the idea from an anime called The King's Avatar. One of the characters uses something very similar.

Songcaller

Magician (Bard/Mage).

Hope to be able to buff allies, have cool lightning skills and fight from range. Would like high mobility to be able to buff and fight on a whims dependant upon team requirements, the requirements on the moment and requirements overall. I hope it will not be static or too constricted in movement.

AntVictus

Dunno, probably a summoner, if not then a tank. Necro for summoner, broodwarden for tank (but it needs something to do with spiders). >.> but also only tanks should be able to actually tank.

Alzeido

My idea Class would be a Summoner/Summoner. But no MMO has ever done summoners credit. its always been "you do nothing but your summon does everything" or "your summon follows you with horrible ai and you have to manually control it or it's useless". Sometimes its even "send your summon here to get attacked by 300 mobs whilst your friend AOE them down". #MakeSummonersGreatAgain

ChaosMieter

I'm thinking about going either guardian or warden, because I plan on running a guild and I think any guild leader worth their salt plays a tank

Magiber

Hey there, thanks for your constant feedback asking! You really make me feel confident about this game becoming very good on launch and that my kickstarter investment was really worth it
Im 95% sure the class I will play is the necromancer, and last month I did a post with (I consider) really interesting features of how I would like the necromancer to be. I would be really happy if you read and consider my opinion about the class since Im a big fan of necromancers in every serie/game and I think some things I said can sound interesting to you:

https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/48164/necromancer-class-how-i-would-like-it-to-be-and-to-work#latest

Thanks you all the AoC dev team for the good work you are doing!

Greetings, Magiber.

mfloyd0232

I'm thinking either a Predator or a Scout. It's important to me to be able to explore and I travel quickly, stealthily, efficiently, etc, and deal spikes of damage quickly.

SbrbnGmrDad

Necromancer. I want to be able to pull the life from my nearby enemies or sicken them to reduce effectiveness. I also want to be able to raise the defeated enemies nearby to serve as my minions for X seconds or til they die. Again.

Having certain buildings and areas in our territory that benefit us when we defend it would be nice too. “Don’t attack the graveyard! They have necromancers waiting!” Allow us to raise “Loyal Dead” at such areas with dbl HP and duration.

Darvog

A samurai, simple like that

Stretch

My ideal class in this game would be Archwizard.

I love playing mage. What I like about most with traditional mages would be AoE spells. I love standing on the back-line, charging up a huge spell and seeing all the dps numbers of everyone I hit. I also like that usually mage types have the option to deal damage over time. Like a fireball may leave the target with burning so I like the idea of being able to keep pressure on the enemy with big AoE spells and then see the DoT tick afterwards.

I also prefer it when there is no limit to how many is hit. So if a spell targets a 2m area, it doesn't matter if there is 1 or 100 players in that area, I like when everyone is hit.

RealArtwork

Necromancer there is still a huge lack of darkness in almost all mmos i have ever played the "Hero" aka Player never has the chance to use dark magic to save "the world".

I Almost always played dps but also enjoyed healing and i think especially the healer class could evolve a very intersting type of healing such as sucking up enemys souls to heal allys by converting their life essence to positive healing or some kind of summoner who sacrifices his summons/demons to heal decurse allys or debuff enemys

P0NCH0

Maybe Paladin. A tank that can heal themselves would be useful in a small party with friends, especially if you can't find a healer/support.

Gigibytes

Main toon : pure heals, 1st alt - melee DPS, 2nd Alt - something warlock-like. That's the plan, anyway

Karthos

Not one of the 64 classes, but I always thought it would be cool to have an alchemist class that would throw potions and bottles to either do attacks, buffs, de-buffs or healing based on the content of the bottle. The spell animation could be your character mixing the potion between two bottles. Depending on the situation, you could have a wide range of potions to use. Some may interact with the environment to make CC abilities, others may be sticky or slippery, holding enemies in place or tripping them. There's a wide range of possibilities.

I guess that would have to be a combination of either a cleric/mage or something along those lines.

I'm looking at the 64 classes and what really catches my eye at this point is a Ranger/Bard combo. I think that would be pretty fun to have an archer that augments his skills with a Bardic flavor to them. Maybe an arrow that instead of applying a bleed to a target, will apply a debuf that other players can benefit from while attacking that target. Or maybe the ability to bolster your arrow shots with a jaunty tune.

Very traditional Robin Hood vibe to it.

Dmhofma

I'd love to have a mechanically interesting tank class, I feel like tanks in games get shafted in a big way in terms of pvp or in terms of interesting gameplay, and I think these problems can be fixed by adding some more interesting mechanics to the class than just "threat", that will actually allow them to have an impact in non-pve game modes. I like the class fantasy of a tank and the aesthetic, but I think a lot of games dumb them down to just being the pve checklist class and not giving any flexibility to that rule.

KrowTheVek

Mage/Tank AKA Spellstone.

Imagine you think you're charging a normal stereotypical mage. Old man with a long graybeard and a robe. Then when you get in range he takes off his robe which reveals his six pack and you just get yeeted of his way.

This and only this is my dream

Lailesh1

I love to play a healer, but i hope that the healer is here more as simple a healer, that cant good lvl and need everytime a party to get level up. What i will be find a good idea, that a healer kombinate with a summoner, make summon heal Pets or like a Heal brunnen ( sorry dont know the english word for it) aka brunnen of life or so, or summon fairys, i like the idea Sorry my english inst the best.

tsplag

I would really like a good necromancer type class, one with lots of glass cannon minions streaming everywhere at your enemies, and then also being able to switch to a tanky but single minion for certain circumstances

IMPERIUS

Like all mmorpg you have to have at least 5 star classes, they are the classes that will be more OP than others, and whose validity will change every 6 months
YOU HAVE TO CHOSE
- 2 class of MELEE
- 2 class of range
- 1 class of tank
- 1 class of healer

From there you have to play with the statistics of the classes.to ensure future playability of the classes with each patch
GL

Woodsmanjakoob

I want to be a support class like an enchanter but I’m not sure what the enchanter would be capable of because it’s a summoner base. So what is being enchanted.

container

Hmm, being honest. I just wanna be a miner and just power mine my way to a high level. Then free lance my services to guilds who need high level ores or whatever. So, maybe rouge/tank.

HankTheTank

My perfect class is a tank/warrior that can deal some good damage and very important it needs to have a charge or whirlwind as a non-target ability :-D

FlynnStone

I just want a class where every skill feels useful and gives the class a real sense of identity.

Terrotron

i'm excited for assassin or scout. even if we know nothing about them yet. it seems like a more tactical class even outside of combat with some informal guild missions or requests simply being to spy on someone or an entire node for guild competition such as trade and commerce to rule the markets. or node wars if players discuss in public about their plans.

weather or not stealth is permanent or temporary, if other players have the ability to sort of "sniff you out" like steven hints to, it would just be a massive game of phasmaphobia, paranoia and hide and seek. like a witch hunt for one person who may have already left. the possibility of just the presence of a rouge instilling fear and paranoia into other players is kinda fun. and the constant cat and mouse you get from having to think about placement so much.

i'm excited to see what possibilities and opportunities rouge's will bring. maybe even setting up an assassin's creed of our own. xD finally being cornered by the hunters only to reveal it was rigged from the start.

i'll stop blabbing, very excited. keep up the good work Intrepid.

Kazezoku

I'm very attracted to the idea of something that's very different and not seen in many other games. When I saw the name "oracle" my mind went wild with possibilities on all the things that could be! I would love to see some spotlight on it some time in the (hopefully near) future.

My biggest hope and wish however; is that diversity per class is significantly different. I should know that by picking a warrior type class its gonna feel like a melee class, but at the same time be so noticeably different from the warrior + mage class versus the warrior + warrior class. Basically not a lot of "repeat skills" that both classes have access too, and on the other hand; enough , if not, several different abilities and passives between the rest of the warrior classes to keep them all unique and separate. I feel not enough light or info has been given on this particular niche topic in terms of class diversity.

Keep on keepin' on, can't wait to sell my soul to ashes on A2!

Okami

I like to do a lot of group content, so I most likely will be a high priest to get that instant-invite card. I like healing in general but if I had to choose another class besides healer I'm not 100% sure yet, there are so many classes I'd be interested in as my second choice.

neeko2lo

A "Lightning" based melee brawler.
Gauntlets / Bare Handed
Fast and flowing, yet tanky enough to be considered a bruiser.
Combo based in PvP with a certain degree of verticality engrained into the playstyle.

Im dreaming though

OkamiSeppi

Well personally i like a combination of healing and assasin, but since basically no mmo does it right i settled on more traditional clerik builds with heal and buffs.
Even tho it would be really fun to have a Assasin class that focuses on over time-heals and debuff on strikes, which would weaken your enemys and make you therefore stronger, a good base example would be Corvus from Paladins for a mobile assasin like support xP

Anyways i know it is wishfull thinking but it does have potential, no?
Idk how this thread works but please do correct me if im wrong anywhere and if commenting is possible i would love to hear your opinions.

(And English is not my first language so please do apologize my typos)

Aradinsc

I think my ideal class would be either a combination of a Summoner & a Mage (where you worked in tandem with your summons rather then one or the other being dominant as passive Summoners ie where you summon and then sit back and they do everything can be dull) maybe with a choice of element so if you went say fire you would summon different types of fire creatures or elementals and focus on fire spells. Or a combination of a Summoner & a Warrior where you are wading into the thick of battle with your summons perhaps being able to setup combos or something similar with them. I guess I just really would like to work in tandem with my summons rather then just being a mage with a lackluster minion or a summoner that can't really do much beyond summoning and then sitting back and waiting for the summons to do everything

Crowigor

It's quite early to draw any conclusions, while what I'm sure of is the archetype.
I'll use the Fighter archetype as a basis.
The following options are possible from the classes.
Dreadnought
Weapon master
Bladedancer
Shadowblade

Currently the most interesting Dreadnought
From the weapon I want to take a one-handed katana (without the second weapon) and make the armor a combination of medium and heavy.
For example a heavy chest and shoulder pads, and the rest medium.
I will race Kaelar.
I don’t know yet how well such a build will show itself, but I think it will be interesting.