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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.
Comments
Ok
But all of those are abilities of the tank archetype so the tank/x play style...
The x/tank's could just as easily have oh shit buttons
A mage could ice shield absorbing a ton of damage... They have CC with black hole
The rogue could Shadowform giving him 100% Dodge for a few seconds... Maybe he won't have a hard CC but he should have better mobility than the tank archetype
It doesn't have to be the tank archetype style of straight damage reduction because I have a big shield
I guess I'm just hoping that they use this system to add variants of play styles for a role and not every tank have to be tank archetype and play the same
I stand corrected
Steven has been talking about how it works for over 4 years now.
What I say doesn't have to carry weight. You can believe it or not.
Your lack of belief will not change the game design.
I think the main archtype you select should dictate the primary playstyle as well as at least one of the roles, but the augments (and gear) should provide some variability. I like classes that can do more than one role (not at the same time, but by switching the talent setup/augments, etc).
Here's to hoping IS will do some good stuff with the augments and make them meaningful, not just minor flavor.
42:50 your augments can change your abilities and your ROLE in a group
And the whole discussion at 53 min about cleric secondary augments... It will CHANGE PRIMARY ABILITIES allowing them to heal others... Even says activated abilities could look totally different after an augment is applied... Maybe the mages prismatic beam will turn into a prismatic shield...
That all is exactly what I'm talking about here.
Unfortunately you only asked if all tank primary options would be viable, which he said yes to, you should have followed up with 'will any other class with tank as secondary be viable'... But you asked about cleric secondary as healing others
But he did say yes to that, so that would logically let me think that tank secondaries could tank...
I agree, I’ll be honest. For such an ambitious project, if the augmenting class only brings flavour I’ll be disappointed.
I want the augmenting class to be meaningful and I want the augmenting school to bring the flavour.
To be clear though I don’t want or expect x/tank to be as good as tank/x in that role, I want them to be “good enough”
What 42:50 is really talking about is the 8 variations of each Primary Archetype.
And, yes, your primary abilities will change - some of the ways they change is by adding something extra, like a self-heal augment to a Blink or by changing a Summoner's Summon to only being able to summon one powerful thing rather than several mid-range things,
What augments won't allow someone to do is have a Mage/Cleric who acts as main healer.
The game is balanced with the Primary Archetypes; not with Secondary archetypes.
That's not what it sounds like to me. If you say an augment can change a role in the party that makes it sound like healer to DPS, etc...
What says that switching from minor summons to a bigger summon doesn't also give that summon tanky activated abilities allowing the summoner to tank through that summon.
Maybe we should try to get this on a Q&A for three next live stream?
Are primary archetype tank and cleric the only tanks and healers, or will other classes with the right secondary class and augments be able to fill those roles efficiently?
Well said. This why I hold out hope for a summoner/tank or rogue/tank being viable. At least for now, we don’t have the info but the speculation is fun.
"It's a way to get away from that meta feel. It can directly relate to your feeling and experience of being within something as intimate as combat or your role within a party."
Again, what that means is that instead of having just one version of a role, there are 8 versions of each role.
You don't have to just play a Guardian... you can play 7 other versions Tank.
You may need to cross reference with his other statements.
I'll see if I can find a couple more I'm thinking of, later.
Primary Archetype Clerics are the group healers. Secondary Archetypes can help.
Which is why Tank/x is the main tank and x/Tank can off-tank.
That's the design.
But that quote literally says your role within a party...
What would be your preferred Tank at this time, Chancelot? I say Tank but I don't necessarily mean Tank/X, just overall Tank. We can't have Feral Druids because there aren't animal shapeshifts.
It says it's a way to get away from the meta - as in just one Tank. Instead there are 8 versions of Primary Archetype Tank.
This changes the feeling of playing a Tank and allows a Tank to meddle around with some of the other archytypes. It changes the feeling and experience of that role.
It doesn't "change the role" as in you become one of the other roles.
I've played death knights and dark knights and want to try something with a different approach. Not a standard plate and shield tank.
Because even if all the tank/x combinations are viable and have different flavor, they will all still be plate wearing sword n board tanks... And that seems kind of dull for a game with such high goals.
I would love to see a summoner being able to tank with his puppets because that would be different and sounds cool. ( I can only find information on ideas for summoners, haven't seen any actual summoner abilities yet)
But as I mentioned earlier I think rogue or mage tanks would be awesome variations too if the tank secondary makes it possible
I guess we will just have to wait and get some more details on how much some of these augments actually change the main archetype.
You must not have been part of the vuvuzela craze.
64 combos sound a bit like over design, and not every combo may be viable as a high performance spec. Now that’s different than unplayable, which is the issue with other games. If all 64 combos are playable then I consider that a win. I take it the system is designed this way to facilitate multi-classing that doesn’t suck. But in a group you may be better off being focused in one class. We will have to see how that plays out.
If Rogue/Tank can be a viable tank through increased evasion, etc, but at a cost to the rogue's DPS, then that would make the class significantly more interesting.
Being able to switch between roles based on your augments/gear adds SIGNIFICANT value to this system. I don't know why people would want to lock themselves to one single role ever...
A tank/* that has 8 variations of tanking is not as good as having multiple */Tank classes that can tank. Those variations on tank/* would not be that meaningful because you are still using the same abilities... just with different flavor. But a rogue/tank or a summoner/tank would give a significantly different playstyle than all the tank/*.
They just need to make them end game viable and you have the best tool possible to break the meta. if tank/* is always superior, then you wont break the meta as everyone will always take a tank.
Sure maybe tank/tank is the hardest to kill and easiest to heal, but maybe that setup also has the lowest DPS so its a trade off and a tank/dps might be better.
I think it would be interesting if some of the tank/dps specs also sacrifice some of the tankiness of the class for DPS so they could be a viable DPS spec too (but not be able to be a viable tank at the same time).
This just gives soo much more meaning to 64 classes and variability. If the secondary can't change your effective role, then we really only have 8 classes and only one of them is a viable tank and one is a viable healer. The secondary class choice isn't really all that "meaningful" if it can't change your primary role. If it can change your role (when balanced with the right augments and gear), now you are breaking the meta in all sorts of ways.
I interprite that line as Steven verbally saying that the augment system can impact your role within a party (pending testing of course).
if only tank/* class can tank, then you have a tank required meta. if only Cleric/* can heal, then you have a cleric required meta. If roles can change based on secondary class/augment, then you break down the meta. There should be a reason people want to bring each class into a group/raid, but there should also be options so you don't feel any single class is mandatory for a group. As soon as you have a archtype that is mandatory, you are forming a meta.
I know lots of people like to rip on WoW here, but they have 7 different classes (archtypes) that can tank. Each has its own completely different toolkit and approach to getting the job done. If it was only the Warrior class that could tank and they could only tank (no DPS specs), but the Warrior could do it through lots of different talent options (like Augments), then it would be a total trash system. I personally would have never gotten into tanking. I hate the Warrior playstyle, but I like monk, druid, DK, and Paly style of tanking...
There is no good reason to lock the game down to only a single archtype being your end game boss tank and only a single archtype being your go to healer. That would simply be poor design and minimize the meaningfulness of the entire augment/class system. If "great degree of diversity" does not mean "role changing/defining", then it isn't a "great degree of diversity"... Sorry no way around that in my opinion.
And that is what creates the different ways a player can play the Primary Archetype.
Again, the Primary Archetypes are the way they are balancing rock-paper-scissors.
There will be 8 versions of main tank. Not 16 versions of main tank.
8 classes of Primary Archetype Tank is a great degree of diversity - especially when there will be another set of 8 classes that can use Tank augments to tank somewhat as well.
8 classes of Primary Archetype Cleric is a great degree of diversity - especially when there will be another set of 8 classes that can use Cleric augments to deal Life and Death somewhat as well. Again, augments are not as powerful as abilities are, so Cleric augment heals will not be as powerful as Cleric ability heals.
Otherwise, they would just give x/Cleric Cleric abilities, rather than Cleric augments.
Augments do impact your role. That is not the same thing as changing your role to be a different role.
Groups are balanced so that you will want one of each type of Primary Archetype in the group.
Steven has never said any thing like if you don't have a Tank/x you can just use an x/Tank or if you don't have a Cleric/x, you can just use a x/Cleric.
There are 8 classes of primary Cleric as well as 8 other classes of secondary Cleric.
8 classes of viable main tank is breaking the meta of having only one viable build of main tank.
Again, I don't know what you think Primary and Secondary are intended to mean if we essentially have 16 versions of primary (main) tank.
If you want to primarily tank, but also heal a bit, you choose Tank/Cleric and use Tank abilities with Cleric augments.
If you want to primarily heal, but also tank a bit, you choose Cleric/Tank and use Cleric abilities with Tank augments.
Keep in mind that Primary Archetypes also have role specific utilities that Secondary Archetypes won't have.
If the game has only 8 tanks and those tanks all have the exact same abilities, with only flavourful differences from augments.. I think that’s no real diversity at all and sounds stale.
These augments need to change your archetype abilities so radically that it actually feels like you have 8 tanks to pick from and not just 1. Otherwise the diversity will have to come from x/tank.
You are fabricating a false dichotomy of either augments allowing secondary Tanks to main tank or not being able to tank in any meaningful way.
Secondary Tanks should be able to off-tank well. That is meaningful; not "only flavorful".
The devs are going to balance to make sure that a Cleric/Tank can be a primary healer. They are not balancing to make sure that Cleric/Tank can be a primary tank.
We do have 8 Tanks to choose from for main tank. We do not have 16 Tanks to choose from for main tank.
And it's 8 classes of Tank with the same abilities - not the exact same abilities because those same abilities will be augmented differently. But combat role is balanced around the abilities; not the augments.
There are 8 classes with the primary role of Tank. Tank/x.
There are 8 classes with a secondary role of Tank. x/Tank.
X/Tank does not mean that augments allow you to change your primary role to Tank. Your primary role will remain whatever x is.
https://discord.com/channels/256164085366915072/256164085366915072/739365922246098987
11:14 PM] OGCorn: @Steven 😇 If i use Cleric as a Secondary Rather than i Primary will i still be able to heal others. Or only self healing?
[11:15 PM] OGCorn: @[Overlord] Roogini That dosent exactly answer my question. If i use secondary cleric can i heal others?
[11:16 PM] Steven 😇: @OGCorn indirectly there are some augments when applied to certain skills that can do this. But it would not replace a cleric archetype.