Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place 5+ days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place 5+ days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
I recall in original vanilla WoW blackwing lair had like 1 or 2 pieces of feral gear total. All of the druids in all the top raid guilds on my server were resto only. Maybe by Naxx they started having gear... Vanilla WoW didn't have the catch up mechanics like modern WoW so if you didn't have gear in the lower tiers you would have a tough time getting caught up (unless you were carried).
I dont want to follow what everyone else does because its the best way.
In WoW heals either have dps or they use dps spec for leveling.
What Im really worried about is healing with action, they meed to come up with innovative ideas to heal or well be left with cones and outrageous aoes
You're bleeding for salvation, but you can't see that you are the damnation itself." -Norther
Before I started Tanking really did not know if I was going to be a good tank or not I just rolled one as it turns it it does take extra effort and there is more skilled involved but just like anything else if you are willing to put it in the work and exttra keybindings you should do fine.
Really any one could tank or heal would recommend to anyone tanking that is not a healer per say. So think Ashes of Creation ought to focus one getting people to try this roles instead just playing dps role all the time.
And also associated with this. Trying to get people out the I only play one class mentalitly would help.
Tried GW2?
It has everything you are looking for. They removed tank and healers and just made everyone DPS. This is the number one reason I hate that game with a passion. I prefer defined rolls and having people work together not just be a shaved monkey throwing flaming poo at a loot pinata.
Why do people hate working together in MMO's?
This is where player interaction came from in the early years and now with everyone can do everything at all times there is no longer player interaction no new friends made so few new players trying other roles. Between group finders and cross server play the MMO has died.
I personally hope they stick to hard roles Tank's Tank , Clerics heal and everyone has a role to fill in the group dynamic. If I wanted to play a solo player game, There are plenty out there to play. I am looking forward to an MMO.
So you like playing all roles, but you want a game where your character can only play one role.... why? If you could switch roles on a single character by changing skills/spec/augments/whatever, it does not make it a solo game. You still need the various roles for most of the content. It just gives you more playability on a single character (which is good for the game).
Are you worried about soloing quests/mobs while leveling? Any of the 3 roles could do that. Tanks/Healers just pull more mobs at once because they have higher survivability. If you are thinking a cleric should not be able to switch to a DPS spec to solo leveling content because "its a mmo", well what about all the DPS already doing that? Wouldn't that just not be fair to the cleric? Some people will grind up the levels solo, some will do it with groups, some will do both. So what? The tougher content is going to all be group based and thats where the "MMO" comes into play.
I just don't get why some people think a single character being able to do only one role (especially only tank or only healer) is a good idea/better for the game. It simply is not. People will get bored faster as the variety on the role they can do on their character is limited.
Because I want my choice of Archetype to actually mean something. If I pick tank I'm making that commitment. Maybe picking a more damage focused augment class could scratch a dps itch if I ever feel inclined.
Maybe it incentivises trying another archetype if you want a change. If you could do everything on a single character, why would you even bother trying something else?
Your choice is still going to mean a lot. Bring able to have classes that can change between roles doesn't take away from that. There is still a ton about the archetype that would define the playstyle. There are lots of different ways to tank, dps, or heal. And the games better if you have some variety.
It's a problem if only the tank archetype can be a viable tank in high end content. That limits player choice. What if I want to be a top tank (role) but I don't like classes that use shields? Am I just out of luck? (Most my tanking in WoW has been with a brewmaster monk or a guardian druid. Neither use shields...)
Same idea for healers. There are some heal playstyles I enjoy and some that are boring. I want a game with multiple option.
Why would we want a game with 5 archetypes (styles) of DPS, but only one for tank, heals, and support? Seems like less meaningful choice to me...
Tanks will have different build options:
Evasion tanks
Control tanks
Shield tanks
I guess that xxx/tank or xxx/cleric will be the official offtanks/offheals of the game that can be used as spare tank/heal for low/medium requirement content.
I did try GW2 when it launched, don't remember the specific reason I stopped that one, but I remember it clicking many of my boxes.
Working together? Sure! Depending on 1 or 2 classes? Hell no. Why is it ok for a group to require a tank and a cleric but not also require a warrior, a ranger, a rogue, a mage, a bard, and a summoner? Either you have:
1) more than one class that can fill completely the roles of tank and healer;
2) classes that only perform part of these jobs but can work in a group dynamic to fill the roles completely;
3) no role essential and it's for the group to figure out how to work together to be functional;
4) there are only 3 specialized classes (tank, heal, dps) that only perform one role and groups are limited to 3 members only, each essential, each performing its role.
It's not about not wanting to work with others, it's the opposite. It's about having every classes desirable in a group. It's about being able to work together no matter the people available. I can't count the number of time I was prevented from working with others because there were no tank or healer available at the time, and many of these times I was a healer, some of these times I was a tank.
Heard of a WoW vanilla private server that allowed everyone to pick what ever skill they wanted from what ever class they wanted. The vast majority all had the same build. Everyone could tank/heal and DPS. I think this is boring. Allowing people to pick from two roles as Rift did at launch was ok. I played healing mage for dungeons and PvP end went fire for exploring/solo stuff. When all of the sudden they could tank to and watered down the pool as now every class can fill any role at any time with no cost to switch making all choices meaningless.
Having to depend on others to get stuff done is life. We can't be good at everything and focusing on to much make people bad at everything.
Like you playing heals and not finding a tank can be a challenge. My answer was to build up my friends list focusing on tanks I liked playing with vs expecting everyone to be able to fill the role. I looked to the community and made more friends. I started healing when I couldn't find a healer way back in GW. That was the only reason I switched from mage(elementalist).
The biggest problem I see with hard set defined roles is the community. People need to relax more and offer more grace to players when mistakes are made.Help people become better. You'll probably make a new friend and maybe just maybe you will have a new player ready to fill the needed roles vs standing around huffing and puffing nobody wants to play these roles cause they are to hard and they are tired of getting yelled at.
I am not afraid that leveling as a Cleric will be harder or easier then Mage. I'll figure it out.
I am more concerned the game will end up a watered down mess where every class is basically the same with maybe at most different animations like so many other games out there.
Last thing I started WoW a week before BC came out. I switch servers a few times and ended up on Burning Blade a PvP server. I leveled a priest as Discipline and stayed healer all the way through raiding and PvP. I never respecced. During Wrath I decided to level my Priest first and got the 100 quest's completed achievement In the second zone because I never did quests after I could get into group content. I stayed heals and ran group stuff all the time.
Big true, I actually tried that private server for a day just to see it sometime last year. My problem with it was the same problem I have with Darkfall 1. The PvP meta becomes everyone using the same omni build end game. Which is just not something I like.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
That sounds like it would be terrible gameplay. The game designers need to properly balance the pros/cons of a class/role. There is a huge difference between being able to do dps/heals/tank all at the same time vs having to switch specs, to do them on a single toon.
Yep, my point was that no class should be essential for the "normal" group content. I've already mention any raids, world bosses or dungeon bosses was a different matter. Who knows, maybe the only way to get through a particular world boss will require a bard to sooth it with music.
It was, and what made it worst was that old school vets of the game grew to love that style of PvP so any attempts to change it just ended up getting tons of backlash.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
Yeah, totally agree. And the bard thing sounds pretty neat.
there is a problem with this argument... who cares about the easy "normal" content? All classes need to be viable for the hard content or the game isn't balanced. There should be multiple class options for each role in the high-end content.
I don't know about most others on these forums, but my time playing the game will be spent mostly against the tough content... who wants to just sit around doing only "normal" content?
This spawned an idea:
what if the "enrage" mechanic was the responsibility of the bard?
similar to how a "threat" mechanic was the responsibility of the tank?
I'm personally not a fan of those kinds of enrage/soothing mechanics. You used to see them a lot in WoW raids back in the day and I'm glad they got rid of it.
Oh, what made it a bad experience for you? Do you think it could be improved?
For me, it was over used.
It is the sort of thing that should be on maybe one boss out of 20.
Any single mechanic that is used as much as enrage was in early WoW is something many people won't be a fan of.
Honestly at this point of what we known, nobody can say this kind of stuff. You don't known how the hard content will be unlocked, in which type dungeon (open or instanced)?
Well, obviously I care
All classes need to be viable for all levels of content or the game isn't balanced.
Ok, now, for my moment of triumph... Why do you guys consider this a... gimmick...(?) and don't consider tanking an overused mechanic that we could get rid of ?
I have no problems with some encounters that have an enrage/soothe mechanic, but I agree you don't want it to be every encounter. There are two things to consider here:
1) balance may be tricky. If it's too strong, then you are now forced to bring the bard (which is probably going to have low representation anyways) so there is less flexibility in the group comp (or you give the soothe to 2 - 3 of the classes)
2) it's still a simple mechanic/gimmick. You can't really compare it to tanking. With this, if boss enrages you push a button to soothe... that's it. Tanking is much more complicated (threat management, taunts, active mitigation, boss damage timing, coordinating big CDs with healers, pull size and pace, healer management, etc).