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
Being a High Priest may result having very limited damage dealing potential, which narrows the usefulness of that class outside group events. The ultimate classes like the High Priest and the Guardian are hard to balance out, as any serious damage dealing above their unrivaled healing or damage mitigation potential might make them overpowered.
A character however which is only good for healing is not really desirable compared to a character with slightly weaker healing capabilities, but with a fair damaging power.
As a hybrid class I sympathize with the Shaman, as I feel the summoner secondary line might suggest a more versatile gameplay compared to the Scryer.
I have no information about the ways of switching the secondary class, but I guess it will not be so easy, as to switching it on a daily basis depending on the current plans for that day.
High Priest is simple on the design side, it must be the embodiment of healing energies with plenty of ways to directly heal others. Damage mitigation and absorb effects are for mixed cleric classes, like the Scryer, and Apostle, maybe even for Shaman.
As a Scryer I would expect my character to be a ranged buffer/debuffer class, that blesses friends and curses foes.
For Shaman I imagine a class that is more melee focused, and through some resource can summon minions depending on the actions made. For example healing actions would increase Tranquility attunement, while agressive actions (damaging) would increase Fury attunement, and for a certain amount of attunement certain "elementals" could be summoned, or those elementals buffed further.
Hola que tal soy un jugador de MMorpgs de hace muchos años y quisiera que porfavor los curadores puedan usar arma de una mano y escudo , el bastón ya esta para los casters , y que el bardo porfavor pueda usar un Arpa como en el señor de los anillos online o como en silkroad que sus ataques son con arpa Se los pido de corazón.
I have 2 classes i usually try and go for in an RPG.
The first one is Druid - I was so sad to hear there is no Druid class out of 64 classes. Druid to me is pretty much a staple at this point in the rpg world. I am hoping the Cleric/Ranger "Protector" class is focused on nature themed magic to heal and support allies.
The second class I usually gravitate to is a Barbarian/Berserker class archetype. I am hoping the Fighter/Fighter 1Weapon Master fills this niche. Dual wielding weapons for frenzy attacks, maybe switching to a 2 hander weapon for heavily armored opponents. Basically a versatile warrior that can use whatever tools necessary to defeat their opponents.
Whatever that party is it must be able to be created to be effective at one primary job. For example, a party designed around the mages to deal damage or the assassin's or bruisers. Or a party designed around players putting down buffs and debuffs or augmenting damage.
Parties can't be too big because then they'll be able to do everything well, and they can't be too small otherwise they won't be able to do enough.
My ideal class is something that's balanced, that fills a role and does that role absolutely well. Each class should feel distinct enough from other similar roles. A bard should be melee and use music to buff or debuff in a different way than say a rogue subclass with poisons, or an enchanter mage, all doing the same role in different ways with different weapons and different resources. But then that should show in the party that instead of taking an enchanter you have a bard so your melee is up.
You know I like Dragoons. Dragoons rule.
Now what may best fit that vision in AoC ?
With fighter as a main I'm thinking either:
- Weaponmaster
- Bladecaller
- Spellsword
I want a heavily armored agile class that deals lots of burst damage and manages one or two DOTs.
My mobility skills would allow for either damage or threat reduction.
Also: polearms. Spears. Lances. Halberds. Glaives. Is it on a stick? I wants it!
What i expect for key elements?
Argent: Basically some extra phys/magic defensive self/party buffs and maybe some dps reduction debuffs augmentations bound to it's skillset
Paladin: Just simple some extra self healing/party healing augmentations bound to it's skillset.
Knight: This one is pretty straight foward some Self Phys DPS buffs and more physical damage augmentations bound to it's skillset.
Spellshield: Can get pretty creative with this one with some extra Magic utility or some melee skills turned into magic ones and more Magic Damage/Debuffs augmentations bound to it's skillset.
Warden: This one is kinda tricky i can imagine some extra movement speed and accuracy buffs maybe some melee skills turned into ranged ones?
Nightshield: I can see Evasion/crit rate/crit dmg buffs, some extra mobility, furtive engage?
Keeper: This one requires some imagination as we don't even have idea yet of how the summoner archtype looks like/fuctions, but can most likely expect a Tanky or Jack of all trades summon to assist you and utility such as damage transfer or position swap.
Guardian: The Tanky tanker more survivability, more Block chance, more treat generation and more crowd control?
Aren't we all sinners?
*This section mostly consists of examples of how I want the game to feel, regardless of what class. I’m using this topic to describe my ideal combat rather than ideal class, because if none of them do this it won’t matter for me.*
I’m hoping it’s not boing and that the action combat really is fluid action. I hope that while the devs are trying to be unique and build a hybrid combat system with action and tab skills living in harmony, they are aware of how a true action combat game like BDO or Vindictus plays. The combat in those games really stands out from the crowd of hot key mashers and instead let you get immersed in fluid skill combos/strings.
In Vindictus, most melee classes work by combining basic attacks and heavy attacks. L for basic, R for heavy. So you might have LLR to perform a shield bash, or LLLLR to perform a heavy kick, and generally the longer combos were more damaging but of course took longer to build up to.
In BDO I’m sure everyone is familiar with the idea that you’d combo your movements and several skill keys to perform various abilities. Moving right or left and attacking yields a different attack than forward and back. Some skills could be activated after a dodge. A lot of abilities were like Vindictus in that you’d combine left and right clicks but you also had some skills on shift, F, Q, E, etc that could be combined with your movement to do different strikes. (Back step + RMB = slash, Forward step + RMB = stab, etc)
Ultimately, both games had action packed, un-targeted, immersive combat with combos rather than hot keys. In most MMOs you press like...3 for your lighting strike. In BDO you would have to combine back step with F to cast a lighting strike. In most MMOs, as a melee character you perform all manner of strikes just by pressing 1, 2 or 3 on your hot bar. No buildup, no combos, no fun. Just a button with a cool down. I’d rather combine my left and right mouse buttons, shift, alt, and possibly several more keys in different combinations and strings in order to use my abilities.
So in summary I’ll play whatever class actually feels good and gives me some true action in the combat, so I can be immersed in crushing my enemies rather than watching the cooldowns on my hot bar and pressing a single key for every ability.
I’m afraid of the combat landing near what Guild Wars 2 is and Intrepid calling it action combat and I’ll lose interest (no skill in pressing a rotation of 4-5 keys 1 at a time). The tab side of combat can be like that if you want.
I hope to not get condescending replies here because this is for Intrepid Studios not my fellow forum-goers. I have both my hopes and my money invested in this game so I’m going to take every opportunity to speak my mind on combat until the system is finalized.
Thank you.🙂
My idea of an Archwizard is that he's a pure undiluted mage and should be among the top AoE classes in term of raw damage. Also, Archwizards are not here to buff others nor are they into torturing their single target with dots. They may not be top dps on single target because they need longer channeling for their biggest spells. However these spells should reward the caster with high numbers everytime they hit #Explosion
Spellshield: Have tank with awesome ice moves.
- Shield bash. It has lighting to it. So it stuns, or make it fire to do more damage
- Axe throw, it has ice animation and it slows the target or freezes them, or fire for more damage
- Charge, has some teleportation warp effect and is instant, or a fire dash with a trail left behind
- Resistance or immunity, have some rocks attach to me and give me rock armor, or a fire aoe dmg armor
- Smash or slams, have lava and fire effects and does additional dmg, or an ice slam to slow
Keeper: Have a Tank interwind with nature and summon the nature as his will.
- Summon some tree ents to heal, or some vines to that root the player
- Summon a crystal/tree/runic warrior to fight with me
- Have my moves augments to have nature/tree/runic animation and additional effects
This would be by ideal class, moves, tank
Since the weapon choice is alrdy free I see the possibility here to create sth new.
I know you guys have great ambition for your game so i'll go ahead and describe my ideal "summoner"!
Initially you start of being able to summon small relatively weak creatures who alone cant really contribute all that much, sure they'll help you out but you'll still be doing a lot of the heavy lifting with your own weapons, skills or other party members. Initial summons might be something like: Lesser beasts (timid creatures), little goblins, a few flying daggers/shields ect.
As you grow as a character so will your summons. Your once weak and feeble little goblin summons evolve to become much stronger trolls or orcs, or just more numerous goblins! Perhaps you will be able to give your summons equipment, special attributes or magic of their own?
Being able to customise your summon/s to make it more unique to your character feels like it would truly make the perfect class!!
If i decide to play as a certain race will this change what i can summon? Can i choose who i have as a summon between a select few? will i be able to recruit creatures i kill to my permanent summon list, for example i kill a Yeti in the frozen north and i travel down south to a distant town to sell some gems, can i summon that slain Yeti as my servant in the south where they arent natively found?
I just hope the summons are the highlight of the class and dont get overshadowed by my secondary class, like if i choose mage as a secondary i dont want a bunch of spells to be my primary damage, i want my summons to be enhanced to magic such as summoning elemental beings or spellbooks that shoot spells!
All of the above would be really cool but i imagine some might be more difficult to implement than others. I look forward to seeing what you do
About healers, in general, I think we must to have many options/spells for to heal as we want. I mean that 2 players with the same class/archetype must to have differents ways for to get the same objective (heal) and don t must to be condemmned to repeat the same rotation many many times because this is finally bored. I mean that rotations must to be “opened” and don t must to use always the same order or the same spells for healling
The most options (spells) we have to play our char the most quality we will get for to heal.
Thanks for to ask the community, and congrats for this game. We are waiting patiently for it.
Regards from Spain!
This is the most important aspect of combat for me. I want to not only feel impactful, but quick and reflexive. I want to be able to engage, disengage, and redirect at a pace limited only by own skill and perception...and active cooldowns, of course.
For this reason I will be testing out a variety of classes like most people, I assume.
The classes I currently have my eyes on are Fighter/Bard (Bladedancer) for the potential critical thinking/ reacting debuffs and buffs, Fighter/Mage (Spellsword) mostly for the teleportation augments (and frost, I've always been more of an ice fan over the other elements) and the high mobility possibilities involved with that.
The ranger classes may also land in the Yes! zone for me: Ranger/Fighter (Strider) I have to imagine has the potential for high mobility given the obvious (to me) assertion that this class would be capable both in and out of melee, and would have the means to disengage and return to it's original calling (same for the Ranger/Ranger for the most part).
Rogue variants could be interesting for me, as long as there are variants that exit the shadows and rely more on positioning (flanking), thus demanding higher mobility.
The mages will be tested, and enjoyed I'm sure, but unless their subclasses are melee heavy, I doubt I'll main any of them.
As far as the cleric and tank go: no matter how much I tell myself I'm going to play one of these two, I never stick with it, opting for the more "enjoyable", and inevitable, solo dps build. I may alt one of these for any guild I join.
The first paragraph is the most important. I'm not a fan of getting stuck in animations and paying a massive price for it. Same goes for skill prepping. If I'm rapidly pressing an attack ability that can be utilized without cooldown, such as a basic attack ( this is inevitable. I always rapidly press my attack buttons), I don't want my avatar to continue swinging, shooting, or casting a few times after I stopped pressing the button. This always results in my getting stuck within the bosses danger zone and taking massive damage. I understand not being able to cancel animation once it has fully engaged (shots fired, spell's cast, damage is going to be done). But i should be able to roll out of whatever I'm doing before damage out is guaranteed.
This wall of text just guaranteed that nobody is going to read it. That's fine, I still enjoyed offering up some insight into what drives, and what derails, this gamer.
Have a good day!
I want to surprise enemy with strong skills and shots from distance, if I cant take them out then I would back up with stealth and attack again.
If I couldn't go into stealth then I would use some dash/teleport skills to be able to quickly back up from threat.
I also like to use stealth to quickly sprint through enemy territory and to lose aggro.
Stealth would make it easier to explore the world.
This would be my dream playstyle.
From what has been share on how the class will be build and what we can expect from the name , I imagine it has those bodyguards that are always around but never been seen, and will only jump out of the shadow if danger come.
With this picture in mind , here is what I would expect of a Tank augment on a Rogue ability.
If Rogues have a abilities that give them the possibility to "tp" in the back of the target within a certain radius and deal damage.
Then with a Tank augment, I would expect the ability to turn in something like : mark a ally to who you'll be able to tp back within a certain radius and time , by this you'll grant a defensive buff too your ally and you ( or blocking the next attack, ect)
In other words a Rogue that will keep a ally unharmed rather than killing someone ^^"
Ps: Killing the attacker first is always a option
I will be in the frontline, however, I want to ensure I can stand a chance against other classes by myself in open-world PVP. Even tho I will mostly be with my guild, I do not enjoy the idea of playing a punching bag
I hope secondary classes for tanks get some pvp love in Ashes, and we get to not only do our role in PVE well but be strong enough to compete in large and small scale PVP
If those two classes don't have that much power at long range, i'm gonna pick assassin to not get myself into the situation where i am good at every aspects i want but not the best at one.
I love having environnement abilities like sprinting faster than other classes, furtivity or climbing walls.
I love classes that have great burst and single target damage with a strong mobility, not necessary many spells of mobility but strong ones.
I also looooove classes with flying swords, that is so cool, i mean, everybody do.
Also plan to have a caster-class IF there will be some sort of shadowdamage in the game. Im a big fan of a dark/shadow/evil feel to a caster, so I cross my fingers that you will implement more than just elemental-damage to the augments, for instance if you have a mage-class with augments from either rogue/summoner/cleric that turns the other elements into shadowdamage instead.
I also plan to make a Rogue, probably with Fighter or Summoner as secondary and live a pirate-life with that char... rawr \o/
Necromancer summons skeleton warriors, zombie dogs, and rich (long range attacks and friendly buffs) and fight with them. The summoned undead's equipment will become advanced equipment (magic equipment etc) as the level of the necromancer or summon skill increases. The Necromancer's skill has a pale light, even if it is a skill common to other classes. In addition to summon skills, the Necromancer can use "Wall of Skeleton" that prevent enemy attacks, "Raise Dead" to stuck enemies who are in the target area with undead hands growing from the groundand, "Evil Spirit" that cling to enemies and give them debuff effects. Necromancer is not physical attacker, but summoner and magic attacker, so CLERIC's recovery magic is good, but I want unique attack magic. I also wanted to use "Black Hole" of MAGE!
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Cultist - option to heal when entering stealth in combat. If stun is a thing on base Rogue, augmenting that into Fear could be flavorful. Damage output debuff (like Cleric's Damnation, but applied when bursting in melee) as means to protect self or others.
He is always the first in battle, and last out of it; he keeps the attention of his enemies on him at all times since then he can focus on them and predict their moves. Perfectly comfortable with multiple opponents around him, his main strategy to defeat the foes is to simply outlast them; trading blow for blow and being the last one standing.
He provokes enemies in to attack only to capitalize on it; their attacks are blocked, parried or riposted. He gladly leaves an weak opening for opponents to use as a bait -- even suffering injury if it means he can dish out his revenge in equal measure.
Shield he uses is offensive as much as it is defensive -- enemies are slammed with it using overwhelming force, leaving them confused and dazed, even if it means he cannot use it to deflect an oncoming attack. Any fleeing enemies are drawn in with his hooked javelin while enemies harassing his allies (which lack the death-wish) are quickly rushed and forced to fight.
As his injuries mount, so does his focus sharpen and increase. Close to death he gets, more fury he can harness in his attacks. He is not afraid to die, but wants to do so in glory and with honor.
If his death ends up meaning something, if it helps his allies, all the better. Should an ally be targeted, he gladly pushes them out of the way and takes their place.
There is no subtlety or grace in his attacks; he is brutal and does any kind of damage that will end the opponent no matter how cruel. He will be more than happy to serve as a distraction while his allies do the killing.
In terms of gameplay, this tank character is most likely a Nightshield or a Knight .
I want to be able to control the battlefield; choose when to engage, who to engage and to keep the focus on me. I get to direct the enemy in a place where it benefits my party. If some of them are attacked I want to be able to charge the enemy, grab their attention and take it to the stack im already tanking.
My desires is to have Crowd Control abilities that can taunt the enemy, force them to attack me for a while while I get the chance to build up my threat.
During combat, I am not the primary damage dealer but I do leave the enemy exposed and weak so the other warriors and rogues can find a weakness in their armor and punish them.
In PvP i outlast the enemy by being able to simply take more punishment that they can dish out and finish them out after they are out of breath and mana.
Therefore my secondary class has always been Bard. AoC has kept the Bard class under wraps and I'm anxious to find out more. Since I tend to lean more mage, I'm curious to see what the Magician class will be. Will I be a master of Illusions, able to escape or confuse my foes? Will these conjurings inspire allies or cause fear to my enemies?
Dreadnought: Decent damage, decent mobility, decent damage mitigation with high dependency on gear. Maybe some self heal, but no buffs/heals for party members.