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Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest news on Alpha Two.
Check out general Announcements here to see the latest news on Ashes of Creation & Intrepid Studios.
To get the quickest updates regarding Alpha Two, connect your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Feedback Thread - Alpha One Testing
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Comments
Issues where: Rubberbanding at the beginning (fixed) and major lags when entering cities and in seges.
no issues with the client and only a liiiitle to long delay when logging on.
Thx for an amazing Alpha 1!
Honestly the vision your team has is amazing. This whole experience has been great. I am now more excited than I have been in a while for a game. Thank you so much for all the time and hard work your team has put into this.
Server Performance:
- There's an issue with playing with higher ping, with around 100~130ms, I just can't hit any action skills such as Thundershock, this is an extremely important issue to fix ASAP since it will be terrible in PVP and I've seen games be like this at launch. Whenever I hit Thundershock, in my screen I am hitting my target, but the server does not register it, and it does absolutely nothing to him, so if the player is moving and I'm around 130ms it's just not playable, I couldn't land a shot.... with around 90ms it was still a BIG problem, but I'd hit more constantly, this needs to get addressed with some compensation or some better networking to fix this issue.
2. I had no problems with the server stability on my end.
3. The only problem I had was today, switching toons or servers, logging back in would freez the client cold. A simple restart solved the problem luckily split. This happened only twice.
Very happy with my experience, especially for an Alpha1. Great job!
Download/installation process:
Initial downloads/installations worked fine, no real problems. The real problem I ran into was patching. It was generally faster to delete and redownload the game rather then to update to the new patch.
Client performance:
The client performance was very good, quite stable. The only problems I ran into were on my side, due to heating. Very well done.
Server performance:
Overall the server seemed to be pretty stable. When there were enough particle effects or people (Talking closer or over 100 people nearby) there was some slight lag. The open world also had some problems with mobs not loading in until you were on top of them. The only other problem was, when moving fast enough on either the Kirin Mount or with speed bugs, sometimes terrain would not load in quickly.
Went well, didn't notice any issues other than uninstalling the patch vs just updating it was quicker.
Client performance
Nothing out of the ordinary for this stage of the build
Server performance
Starter zone had rubber banding even at a low server population, especially during animated armor combat.
Can't help myself, but I would like to express my opinions on combat.
Dump the hybrid combat and stick with tab targeting. It works well, and it gives you more wiggle room for it to be "serviceable" and still have a good game. Ashes offer so much more than just the combat, that as long as it's passable, you'll be given the benefit of the doubt way easier. There's plenty of good example tab targeting systems to replicate and improve on. Action combat is new for a Western MMO, and while some Eastern MMOs have done it well, it isn't the kind of style that I think would fit Ashes from a system standpoint, or even just the overall "feel" of the game. The game doesn't feel like an action combat game, it feels like tab target. Which is okay!
My favorite Ron Swanson quote from Parks and Rec, "Never half-*** two things, whole-*** one thing." Focus on one combat system, get rid of the hybrid.
Thanks for the hard work Intrepid Team!
- Installation process:
3 progress bars were nice.Download was often quick, merge/application process was not.
Patching generally took a while, especially bigger patches (over an hour).
Game's installed on a SSD.
- Client performance:
Pretty bad overall.Yes, looks pretty even on low, can even see distant land, but with a GTX 970 on low, the game can only keep a stable 30fps 80% of the time.
The client needs 10-12 GB of RAM to load (hit Play), it will freeze if there's not enough.
RAM usage may or may not decrease as the session continues, going as low as 3.5 GB. Players seem to add to RAM usage significantly. Not sure what decreases RAM usage.
VRAM (which I'm not sure how to monitor) was maxed (4 GB) several times during the final day of testing. This caused the game to crash.
CPU usage stayed around 30%, which is good. It never spiked and never reached 50% (Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700K CPU @ 3.70GHz).
Could only play during low population and even then was frequently worrying about RAM maxing. Had to close browser and most other programs to guarantee enough RAM.
Later into the testing window, game stopped itself from using RAM once total system RAM hit 95%, which prevented other programs from crashing due to insufficient RAM but the game itself still froze.
- Server performance:
Connection felt good most of the time.Enemy attack range felt far longer than player attack range, but could be due to actually being set higher or server latency.
When server gets to medium pop or higher, rubberbanding begins.
(may be Client related) At times, enemies will spawn on top of the player, as if they hadn't loaded in until just then. Some enemies also unload when approached. Unloaded enemies do not attack the player until they are loaded.
[*] Download/installation process- This process went well, game downloaded and everything was good.
[*] Client performance - Never got game to load, I tired running as admin, deleted game a few times and redownloaded. Launcher would launch to a black screen for a minute or so, then crash back to the launcher.
[*] Server performance- Never got this far...
Download and Install went smoothly, pretty basic like other games although getting into alpha via forums and discord with linking accounts to get into alpha was a little confusing but eventually I figured it out with help from discord.
Client performance
Client seemed to work well without issues
Server performance
Server worked super well especially for an alpha minimal lag which was very surprising considering the amount of player in one spot.
Fabulous job Intrepid! Looking forward to future dev updates!
member of Gray Sentinels
The launcher is not a good launcher, the launcher is messy. it has issues patching from time to time, have had to uninstall the game 2 times during the 1month test, the aesthetics of the launcher does not look good. the fact you cant save your login is annoying, let us be able to log in and set a pin code instead (log us out every 7 days or something/location swap).
Client performance
The game was running ok, Considering there have been little to no Performance iterations it's fine. but the FPS was normally only around 40-60 fps max. There were some areas where you would lag immensely where there was many NPC's. Sieges were performing surprisingly well.
Siege feedbacke
The dragons...The dragons...The dragons. I see what you're aiming to do, but it's HORRRRRRIIIIBLEEEE. They feel out of place, they make NO sense to have in a siege. Why would the Monarc not enslave or kill the dragons or make a castle in the middle of dragons??, they made the sieges end up With people joining for the Item grind and not for the siege itself, which is BAD.
What you instead should do is have 3 outposts which the sides fight over instead. where you have to kill some defenders + NPC's before starting a channeling. these outposts provide a buff to the team holding them.
just pleeease remove the dragons from the siege they do not have a place in a siege.
Leveling feedback
The leveling is fine, Quests should be either more visible on which NPC's give quests something else than nameplate color, it's hard to see sometimes.
Forced grouping on quests was not working as i wished, it got hard to find groups to do them with, and this will be something that will remain as long as we have forced grouping for quests, I think you should remove quests that require forced grouping, leave that for dungeons or boss quests.
80% open world dungeons feedback
I think with how the content has been till now, that with all Raids being open world will alienate a lot of players, I think you should move some or add some instanced raids for the PvE players to play in, where they can push for score & play uninterrupted, these OFC. should maybe not drop the best gear, as I Imagine ur gonna have a hard time getting the Scaling to work in an open-world dungeon, where other groups might enter to contest or where groups zerg the bosses down.
Combat feedback
The split body is a lot, a lot better, I would slow down the movement when you're doing an animation potentially. I think a 30% slow could work. just to make the weapons feel as they have some weight behind them.
I'm an action combat person AND I think it's time to either DROP the action combat or you got to be 100% sure u can make it work, I have my doubts as NO games yet have made it good. You can instead just keep the action camera option and just do TAB abilities, do "AOE placeables", "Frontal cones", "0 point AoE lines", "maybe stuff like the beam where it follows characters facing", but I think its time to sit down and have a good discussion, You guys have been working for 5 years, and you still have not gotten the combat base attacks & any action abilities, Its time. take the L. and to smooth it over for the action combat people leave the camera & add "Enhanced abilities" like those mentioned earlier.
General feedback
The testing phase was very lively early on, and I think the phase at this stage of content in the game was too long. people dropped off earlier than I had hoped, the world's felt empty.
The environment was AMAZING, things looked very nice, some trees & plants were spawning in the middle of the air, this is to be expected. Understanding that the mobs were just added around to fill the world, they felt out of place in many places. This I imagine people who were not as expected of it being a test phase would react to.
It was an overall nice testing phase.
Questions and conserns
Nodes:
Why is the Node system so barebones still, all the different node types are missing, the race styles are missing, they do not interact with the rest of the world, they don't generate new content as they level...
Freeholds are missing as well.
Combat:
Why are we not further with archetypes yet? we should have had 8, we got 3??.
If you're supposed to do hybrid combat why is none of the systems completed, why are we having so few abilities even with only 3 archetypes?
Wishing you all the best, I hope your going to heavily increase the production rate, as at this stage your going to be way behind AA2, which will drastically hurt your launch and potentially your entirety if your after they release
Thx for a very nice test phase, cant wait to join the next, PS don't add another schedule...
Best wishes Zet.
No problem with this whatsoever, download and installation went very smoothly.
Client performance
Can't remember any problems with the client either.
Server performance
Only slight lag every now and again, otherwise no problems at all.
Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 19042)
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700 CPU @ 3.20GHz (12 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
Memory: 32768MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 32698MB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 12
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
Chip type: GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
Display Memory: 22400 MB
Dedicated Memory: 6052 MB
Shared Memory: 16348 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Download/installation process
No problems on fresh download/installation. Patching is pretty bad currently so it seems to be better/faster to just uninstall/install.
In case you really want integretiy checks you should try different hash algorithms, found a nice benchmark for comparision https://github.com/Cyan4973/xxHash . Instead of full file downloads I have done updaters in the past with binary diffs, e.g. bsdiff. Maybe even take a look at Google's Courgette/Omaha.
Client performance
Did have just a few hours for testing and had no noticable issues
Server performance
See above. Maybe a server issue might have been resources not spawning at some point.
Over the testing period I experienced a few different things. At the beginning of the test period I had an old build still on the computer and tried to just update the client. This hung up and sat trying to download/install. I stopped this process. Uninstalled the client and then went for a fresh download. The fresh download and install was flawless. Thereafter the updates sometimes were slow and and cumbersome. Fresh installs were quicker than updates.
Client performance
Experience with this tend to lean more towards functionality in my opinion. One thing I tried to do is toggle the UI however when hitting the key function for this nothing happened. Out side of that it did not appear to have any real performance issues.
Server performance
The biggest issues I had with the server is the draw distance when riding a horse. You would be traveling and then mobs and more would be very delayed in showing up. They often would spawn either right at them or even possibly after you passed them.
I will continue following the procces of this game, overall when i can play in Spanish. I will have best immersion about the lore and environment because always with your native language it is better expirience and you dont need to stop to think every stept you did.
Concerning: Tenok - Thursday, August 12, 2021 at 9AM Pacific - Sunday, August 15, 2021 at 6PM Pacific
Download/installation process:
No problems installing the launcher, the installation took 3h-4h (ADSL)
the last update was impossible via the launcher, closing the launcher at 10% loop. After complete reinstallation the problem persisted. EU server unavailable.
performance of the client:
(GTX 1660 Ti) In Ultra relatively stable, no freeze encountered due to high resolution.
For the character creation there was a lack of contrast and sharpness for the faces. (I would appreciate a more accurate portrait zoom and would like to see more customization). No overlap encountered on the creation page. The time given for character creation is very comfortable. FPS: 60-80 without streaming with some peaks at 120-200 with streaming.
Server performance:
Smooth starting area, fast respawn, overlapping water area between surface and bottom greatly complicates recovery of items after death.
Overall experience:
A real feeling of unknown and freedom a bit lost in this vast world where nothing is directed, at first sight, the reading of the very important quests and the choice of the various possibilities of answers invites to appropriate its character, the zones of hunts to be discovered by yourself to find the mob on which to find what is asked, requires an effort which I liked. The pleasant attack distance, the spells responding well, the resource management not so simple from the beginning with the attention of not agro all the other mobs that are close, makes very quickly feel that the world of Vera in the state is hostile. The problem is that not being able to see on the world map where I am has been very disabling. The size of the text in general is too small for my taste. The water, the world, the houses, magnificent! The water of the bathtub deserves a more realistic attention. I thank you for allowing us to bring our stone to the building, I wish you a good continuation, the passion and the competences to carry it out, so that your dream is shared as you intend it.
Things I’d like to see:
- Total wipes were painful, you should minimize doing that
- The map was very poor, as was quest tracking, please improve these things
- Movement was way too slow, it was painful getting around the map
- If you have more systems, please add them in, for testing
- Full & useful crafting
- Housing
- Spells actually having combo effects
- Inventory management/storage
- Horse taming?
- Pets?
- I really dislike the ”drop half your stuff on death”… Why?
- Easier & more plentiful gathering. I hated having to hold “E” to gather, make it a simple press & release. Nodes should be everywhere in the world
- I really disliked being rooted while casting some mage spells
No issues here. Your download client seems pretty standard. Nothing special, but it gave me no issues.
Installation was not a problem.
Client performance
Client performance was ok. I experienced freezing when switching between characters or creating a new character from time to time. This was my only major annoyance.
Server performance
Rubber banding happened a LOT during alpha one. It dramatically improved as time went forward. More than a few times I saw mobs 'stutter framing' in the distance as they chased other players. Sometimes I was randomly teleported and died - which I reported. The skills/spells DO NOT feel very 'snappy' like World of Warcraft. If you can nail this, you'll be doing very well.
This is the first MMO Alpha I've been a part of. I REALLY believe in the Ashes team - as it's easy to discern their true intentions, capabilities, and levels of engagement with the community. Thank you, and onward to the next!
After participating in all the spottests and the recent month-long test, I'm happy to give my feedback here.
Download and installation process:
During the spottests, the launcher and installation did not always run smoothly. Sometimes I found the time frame to pre-download a bit short, 1 hour before the start of the spottest isn’t enough for some people, especially for those with a slow internet connection.
In the Alpha One I was then surprised and glad that everything was done to fix these problems. The launcher and the installation process worked really well and I didn't have to wait long and could quickly start the test.
Client Performance:
- I played on Tenok at 4K resolution and Medium settings. Since I was streaming the load was still too high for Ultra settings. The graphics were really good and it was a lot of fun exploring places with it.
- During the last testing weeking my FPS were constantly between 40-55. The only time the FPS went down to 10-15 were in the loading screen and crowded cities.
- When changing characters, there was always a short freeze of about 30 seconds in the stream, so to speak in the loading time until you were in the character menu.
- I had no crashes and was able to enjoy the entire Alpha One.
Server Performance:
On Tenok I had no problems with jerks or crashes. The server ran great.
On the last day of testing, I was on Lyneth for the final event. There it was worse for me as an EU player as soon as many people were there.
Here animations were delayed and it jerked, the server FPS were here also a little worse under my settings as mentioned above.
Here my FPS in the Winstead node were at 30-35 FPS.
In Castle Siege, the FPS were then better and also the jerks and delays became less.
But again, I did not have a crash.
Thanks for this great and stable experience,which gives hope for something much greater.
Client performance:
Server performance:
The system works correctly for the first launch but if patches need to be done.
The system crashes regularly. So I have to delete the file “. pacher” in order for the process to work normally.
Client:
Although running on an average configuration (I-3 8350K @5.25 16GB DDR4 chipset B365 and RX580 8GB graphics card I notice a Frame rate of 55 Fps in Ultra with a use CPU at 45% and GPU at 92% (these are averages of course).In Average rendering mode the CPU usage is only 35% and the GPU at 55% for a FPS of 100 – 125. Having been only in zones or I have not been able to meet many players these statistics will necessarily be very superior to the situation with many players on the screen.
Interface:
Clean and sober the interface has no useless artifice. The mode activated by the «Z» key is for me horrible and uninteresting. The key configuration is provided mainly for QUERTY keyboards and playing on an AZERTY keyboard I am obliged to redefine the keys almost every patch.
Server:
I am in Fibre 10GB and the average latency time observed is 15 to 20 ms with a loss rate of 0.034%. On rare occasions I could see lags of 8-10 seconds.
Questing:
The system works quite well but the location of some characters to complete the covers is unfortunately wrong on the map.
Harvest:
The system requires to have the right tools to collect the right components I have not observed a level required to handle its tools. During my last sessions I met a big concern I could collect resources the system told me ok successful collection but no resources came into my inventory.
General impression:
For a 1st step I am impressed by the richness of the sets, ideas and game play already quite well done. The regret for the moment is the musical part that if it is very quiet and relaxing would benefit to be more varied.
for the rest change nothing.
sorry for my poor english
Lanceur :
Le système fonctionne correctement pour le 1 er lancement mais si des patch doivent être fait.
Le système plante régulièrement. Aussi je suis oblige de supprimer le dossier «. pacher » pour que le processus fonctionne normalement.
Client :
Bien que fonctionnant sur une configuration moyenne (I-3 8350K @5.25 16Go DDR4 chipset B365 et carte graphique RX580 8Go je constate un Frame rate de 55 Fps en Ultra avec une utilisation CPU à 45% et GPU à 92% (ce sont des moyennes bien sûr). En mode de rendu Moyen l’utilisation CPU n’est plus que de 35% et le GPU à 55% pour un FPS de 100 – 125. N’ayant été que dans des zones ou je n’ayant pas pu rencontrer beaucoup de joueurs ces statistiques seront forcement très supérieure à la situation avec beaucoup de joueurs à l’écran.
Interface :
Propre et sobre l’interface n’a aucun artifice inutile. Le mode activable par la touche « Z » est pour moi horrible et sans intérêt. La configuration des touches est prévue principalement pour les claviers QUERTY et jouant sur un clavier AZERTY je suis obligé de redéfinir les touches quasiment a chaque patch.
Serveur :
Je suis en Fibre 10GB et le temps moyen de latence constater est de 15 à 20 ms avec un taux de perte de 0.034%. A de rare occasion j’ai pu constater des lags de 8-10 secondes.
Questing :
Le système de quette fonctionne assez bien mais la localisation de certains personnages pour achever les quettes est hélas erroné sur la carte.
Récolte :
Le système demande d’avoir les bons outils pour collecter les bons composants je n’ai pas observé un niveau requis pour manipuler ses outils. Lors de mes dernières sessions j’ai rencontré un gros soucie je pouvais collecter des ressources le système me disait ok collecte réussie mais aucune ressource ne venait dans mon inventaire.
Impression générale :
Pour un 1er jet je suis impressionné par la richesse des décors, des idées et le game play déjà pas mal aboutie. Le regret pour le moment est la partie musicale qui si elle est très calme et reposante gagnerais à être plus varié. pour le reste ne changez rien.
Overall no issues. Some of the larger updates took some time to update, however.
Client Performance:
Ok. FPS dropped considerably during sieges and major fights. While solo or in small groups performance was rock solid, however.
Server Performance:
Almost no rubber banding during the month long test. Occasional desync with NPc’s and players. Some quests became impossible to complete.
Melee Combat:
Definitely preferred the split mode.
Server was good with a little mob jumpiness every now and then. At one point, after some server trouble (or so said the discord) and a prompt restart, I ended up under the map. Hopefully the impact of this on the game can be less severe or removed entirely. Took me a while to get back up without suiciding.
My computer also tended to have more trouble with this game than others of similar graphical quality. Perhaps if we were allowed to modify the render distance or something.
The biggest issue I had was with quests. They seemed to regress in functionality over time, rather than getting better and being fully completable. The issue of being able to break quest chains by doing quests while in a party was also a major issue. I hope to see both of these resolved by the next time we're jumping in to play. Adjacent to that, some nodes not getting the same higher-tier quests that other nodes get meant that elevating the wrong place meant missing quests (particularly if Winstead could never advance to the max during A1).
After a buncha trouble, Toast had me delete all the hidden files for the installer and game before trying the process again, and this fixed my installer. It had problems early on, then was great for a bit, then had problems again. After clearing the hidden files, the installer worked great again. Allegedly it was still always faster to just install clean instead of updating existing. With the installer working, launching the client was never an issue. Getting in when we could was generally never an issue.
I'm looking forward to see what we have in A2 when it comes around!
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-7900X CPU @ 3.30GHz, 10 Core(s), 20 Logical Processor(s)
Display NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
Settings Windows 2560X1440 144HZ
AOC tested 1280X1024 (default) then 1920X1440 and 2560X1440
Installer/patcher - 1 install and 6 patches. All have gone pretty smoothly
Running solely on the Resna server playing mostly Mage, then a little bit on Cleric. I was late to join so I only got to levels 11 and 5 or 6. respectively.
Video was quite smooth overall, but as noted below there was quite a bit of item unexpectedly popping up as the game info updated from the server.
General items:
I played the Mage mostly, and the casting and the feeling of the controls was quite good for Alpha-1... little things like jump-port to avoid swimming in streams was nicely done. I also noticed the ability to switch between the full spells and q-casting felt solid. I am hoping the rest of the classes get the same treatment.
Mini-map - if you can show mobs, vendors, and quest items, you should also show collection items. I know collecting will probably change, but the sunlight effects could make seeing plants/ores very difficult.
When you get close to an item and your path can be partially blocked, all forward movement stops and it seems like you have to back up... just turning 90 degrees is not enough.
When riding a mount, the "window of knowledge" (what the game knows and can display) is too narrow. I have a fast connection and am still having mobs pop on screen right as I pass over them or just after I have passed them on a mount. If I am on foot, I will see all the mobs around me and can move accordingly since I am not moving as fast. This should also be updated for general usage as grouping will need the same info if teammates are not right on top of each other.
When entering a bug, and the bug report window is in the foreground, any number you type will cast a spell or use item (q, 1-0). Please make it that if the bug report window is the front window and selected that all keyboard entries go just to that window.
Mount issues:
When riding a regular mount, and you have it "swim", many times you will then be stuck on the mount, and have to "CTRL-T" to break out, or sometimes you may want to go to char select screen as "CTRL-T" will sometimes port you to the closest res location.
When riding a mount and get to a collectable item (lumber, ore, etc), you have to specifically unmount, then collect. You should be able to start the collection which should automatically unmount and start the collection.
When riding a mount and you look at the map, when you put the map away most times you stop - even though you are still pressing the button to go forward. You have to release and hit "w" (or whatever you re-mapped to your move-forward key) again to start moving.
Quests:
Not going to list all issues here, as there were a lot of location bugs and such. I do know that the quests in Alpha are just to get chars to high enough level to test the fun PVP items like Sieges. That said, I want to post this tidbit. Many of the quests that I had that I couldn't complete (that weren't bugged) were due to the fact that I was alone, and not able to kill an elite mob. I was appreciative of the king crab quest as the elite was an option for that quest and wish that there were more of this type of ends for questlines in this game. Let a solo person complete the quest to get gear for the next stage, and if you have a group that can do the optional part, then give a perk/bonus to the received item. This will keep the casual player happier with the diehards for the best gear not losing anything either.
Cursed Pilgrimage - should have been a lot easier to get the shrines to accept you are next to them - listed because saw this on a lot of different quests.
Overall a good start. I am looking forward to what the Alpha-2 will bring.
Client Performance seemed to me to be pretty flawless. Though not sure why it always asked me if I wanted to run it in admin mode?
Server performance was impressive specifically when during sieges, I was quite impressed with the stability. Though on that note also I can see a lot of optimization needing to be done, Entering any where near a town I definitely felt I was entering a populated area, Started to get jittery/Stutter a bit, this is not a dig on the server performance just a notation. Just an aside , I run an Amd machine with 64 gb of memory and a 2080ti.
client performance/server performance: Not sure what is what when it comes to the problems ive seen, like when someone get CCed they slide while knocked down, sometimes you dont see people on your screen only when they mount up, heavy heavy frame drops when entering citys/siege or big cluster of people.
When you come to the conclusion that the Hybrid combat isn't going to work, before switching to tab-target. Please consider combining the two into one instead of keeping them separate.
I believe a Tab-Targeted Action(TTA) combat is what you need for an ideal, competitive "Group PVP Focused" combat.
> Tab target is brainless, heavy gear-reliant with very little room for counterplays.
> Action is chaotic, because it's targetless, it's bound to turn into AoE mess, not suited for group PvP. Non-AoEs will hit only front targets. If it's too fast-paced, superarmor(SA) is implemented to prevent insta hard CCs but then it becomes spammy; players will spam attacks that comes with superarmor(CC-protection) until the one with better gear wins. This is the state of BDO's PvP right now. it is not good either.
So, the way TTA combat works:
Visually, it will look like any tab-target MMO, no crosshair. The difference is the mechanics. I envision them to be as follow:
★ In addition to evasion & accuracy stats. TTA combat will have iframes(invincibility), at least in the dodge rolls(shift+a/s/d/w) which already has a somewhat long cooldown in the Alpha. A mage who needs time to cast a big spell will have to bait out the enemy's escape, or snare them first. Snare can last for too long, but breaks upon taking a hit. -- That said, most "big spells" in this game(and AA) are location-targeted anyway.
♣ Blocking: For better counterplay potential. Melee and mid-range classes should all be able to block without shield. How you make it work is up to you. A Spellstone(mage/tank) may have a Mana Shield, or Earth Barrier, but can't block with spellbook/staff. It is a complicated matter.
Long range classes like the archer of Archeage are kiting classes, and you can't block a huge axe with a thin bow or staff. If Ashe's battlemage is not a ranged class, then I suggest implementing the blocking ability to the weapon itself, like in BDO.
♦ No superarmor will be needed if you make the Crowd-Control(CC) work like in Archeage, where it's not easy to pull out Hard CC(like Stun, knockdown; complete loss of control over the character)
Because 'we' don't want a spammy ping-reliant fast-paced combat:
♪ Built-in Accuracy(BDO inspired): Skills that are slow, powerful(long CD), difficult to set-up, or easy to avoid should have built-in accuracy% in them(additive to accuracy stat, not multiplicative). So that, for example, a player who willingly walks into a Lava Pool casted by a mage, shall receive the damage fully regardless of their evasion rate.
I think that's all for the combat side. I have so much to talk about on the life-skills & environment side, but first, I wish to see results or any form of response. Thank you for reading.