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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.
What would be your ideal Necromancer?
nullRedacted
Member
While scrolling through the forums I can't help but notice the popularity of Necromancers and other "evil" or dark classes, the class mechanics can vary from an rpg to another such as being purely a summoner or a hybrid between a caster and a summoner, I was curious to what gameplay elements you would like to see implemented? Or aesthetics suggestions, spells and types of summons, overall what type of Necromancer you'd want Ashes of Creation to have or add on-top?
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In the sense they won't get their desired Necromancer? If it's the case I can see how it can disappoint a lot of players considering the plethora of ideas given in that thread, only a few things will be added I guess since it's a secondary, and not a full on primary class like it would be in GuildWars2 for example
The class system is strange. Some people look at the classes and think they will get skills based on that class. They don't realize the real class is the primary archetype. So a necromancer will be a summoner. Adding cleric to that makes it a necromancer. They will get some added flavor and augments that changes the summoner to be slightly more like a cleric. The flavor parts will change the summons to be undead instead of whatever they normally would be.
I think people get confused with the class system and will be disappointed when they don't get their ideal "add class here".
I never played the expansions so not sure how it went after the base game.
Yeah, I liked the GW1 Necromancer.
I suspect this sort of reflavoring will be a major focus of how these things work, with only subtle changes to the actual mechanics of each ability to make it easier to balance out classes.
This is very true, and unfortunately unavoidable
People see the "classes" in the class table and think all 64 of them are going to be hand-tailored based on the name, whereas the name is actually added after the fact.
Unless Intrepid is actually going to put in a ridiculous amount of work, class variants aren't going to be as different from one another as some people are assuming.
Necromancer is just going to be like all the other summoner primaries, except the summons will have "Death/Life" attributes. In practical terms, this means while a base summoner might summon something like a basic "spirit animal", the Summoner/Cleric (Necromancer)'s "Death augmented summon spirit wolf" will probably a spirit wolf with a "shadowy aura" around it or maybe even a skeletal wolf that does necrotic damage or something.
Maybe I'm wrong and Intrepid is going to make every possible skill augmentation custom, but it's far more likely they'll streamline the augment system, because there's 64 classes. 8 primary archetypes, each with upwards of 20 skills. Combine that with each secondary archetype having (from what we know) 4 augment types, and then the racial/religion augments and whatever other random augments there are, and you can begin to see the exponentially increasing amount of work that has to be done.
This is why my question for this month's livestream is asking about how they are going to handle the augment system.
But people freak out when you tell them 15 (up to 20 post release) real classes are better than 64 names.
It wont be too many months before we get a picture of what IS has put together. We can test it and then give feedback.
I mean, yea sure your argument makes sense if this game was going with traditional spells and abilities, but it's using a spell customization system which means all these names are kind of necessary for easy consumption.
Your argument essentially boils down to "Customizeable abilities is worse because it's complicated" which is a lame stance to take
My Liege?
The living request an audience.
I guess we need some offerings (*sacrifice*) and a summoning ritual ...
Yea, I kindasorta blame Intrepid for their insistence on the word "Class" as their definition isn't intuitive and FAR to many people come to the game expecting 64 wholly unique classes or even that each one would be unique like WoW specs when we really haven't seen anything that shows that'd be the case
I know Steven said augments would be impactful but we don't yet have a basis for how impactful. For example, changing a Charge to a Blink is technically impactful (the higher your skill the more impactful it might be) but I'd argue that for the vast majority of players it's largely cosmetic
Ah thanks for choosing a lame arguement and naming it my position.
I wonder what else is is my arguement according to you.
Speaking of customization, go see AA, eso and AAU and come back to tell that "it's just complicated".
It actually never works.
It "boils down" to only few effective builds, and the rest is for RP.
Well, that is what you said
"People freak out when you tell them 15 hard classes is better than 64 'soft classes'"
Also, you further proved it by doubling down by saying "It actually never works". Just because some games didn't get it perfect doesn't mean not to try to make a perfect version. Don't argue against experimentation and progress because of past failure.
I'd also argue ESO did it pretty well.
I'd say ESO's skill lines worked pretty well. The biggest drawback is the limited skills you can use. What's the point of having access to so many abilities if you can only use a handful at a time.
It doesn't really matter whether things are customizable, there will always be cookie cutter builds. What one person does successfully, many others will copy. There are often a lot of 'effective' builds, but a lot of players don't really experiment for themselves.
also the skeletons will be capped to a reasonable amount, but wont have limited lifespan, (I mean they will stay until they get killed)
I think it can be done even with the augment system
let's say the summoner has an ability called summon fire elemental, that summons a DPS minion
but when you augmented that skill with death augments you can change it to a summon skeleton warrior and that can be recasted up to 10 times, you will still summon a DPS minion, but instead of a fire elemental that does fire damage, it will be a bunch of skeletons that deal physical/necrotic damage still counts as DPS minions
• Summons: Skeletons, golems, spirits and reanimated corpses. Certain specializations for each “type” would be interesting, such as having lots of skeletons, or having some skeleton archers in the mix... or creating a Lich that summons skeletons for you. Skeletons and golems could require material reagents to summon, where as a spirit might be bound to a certain item (as if you had captured its soul), and reanimated corpses would require “fresh” bodies of any type to command for a time.
• Casting: From wards to healing spells, communing with the dead and peering into the spirit realm, a Necromancer’s familiarity with dark arts and walking closely with death helps them to thwart fatal injuries and conjure methods of repelling the dead. It would be neat (albeit niche) to have specific quests only for Necromancers in which they have to speak with the dead or follow a spirit that only they can see. Additionally, having some healing powers and protective wards that they could place would be “supportive” to both minions and allies.
I am torn about the idea of direct damage attacks, but damage over time debuffs could be fun.
When you think about a "Necromancer" in those terms, it can't possibly live up to the expectations of popular fantasy fiction, but it will be a viable class.
IDK once you start raising the dead to fight for you, you're a necromancer in my eyes. Lich on the other hand...
Yeah, the idea of being a one-man-army is a bit defiant to the MM of MMORPG.
I guess that's why summoner will be one of the last to be designed - coz it depends on so many factors.
I do enjoy walking around with a zoo of creatures in my wake though hahaha
Minion Master was a fun build. I played mainly healer so I don't have a ton of experience with the build.