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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
A stun should always be an active ability that one player choses to use on another player. However, that doesn't mean elements of RNG can't come in to the picture.
In fact, RNG elements should be in that picture, but only under the understanding that players are able to affect the weighting of that RNG. I totally agree that there should be no elements at all in an MMORPG's combat that has RNG but no means for players to alter it.
This isn't a "this ability has a 50% chance to stun your target" type thing - that would be as stupid as what you are talking about from WoW.
Rather, a stun hitting or missing is no different to a players attack hitting or being avoided by the target. The attackers hit stat vs the defenders avoid stat, add in some RNG and determine what happens.
The reason the RNG is needed here is that otherwise, if two players have opposing stats, the abilities will either always miss or always hit.
So basically, your options are to remove gear and build from the equation and make it so CC's always hit, add gear and builds in to the equation and make it so that you always either hit or miss the same characters, or make it so that gear and builds are a part of the equation, and have an element of RNG in the process.
Now, I completely understand discussion as to how much RNG should be involved - but I don't understand the notion of removing gear and build from an aspect of combat, which is what removing RNG from CC would see happen.
I think this relates to the topic very well. Skill shots as I understand the term should act outside the RPG RNG hit/miss system. Stats should not be involved for these skills. As a player, I proved I hit my target when I aimed for it. My target failed his dodge/evasion check when I hit him.
My hope would be that for these "Hard CCs" they would have long cool downs and small hit boxes to land, but no saving throws. "Soft CCs" would have all of the normal RPG stats. They would still be useful, but just weaker (Shorter CC times, and they would land less often).
If they make an action combat system where you can land a CC and nothing happens because RNG and stats. Then they have just made a class of skills that will not get used.
Not fully skills matter more than luck like OP wants because RPG RNG is still a poison in the combat system. Unless they limit CC to only action moves(Which, I think, would be great). The way I read the quotes from the wiki above, it looks like a compromise at least.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
It exists in alpha 1 so not sure where you are getting your info from
Got to disagree. If you go in and commit yourself to a Cc and it fails, you are left out of position through nothing but rng. The skilful gameplay is if the Cc Ed targets gets shielded/healed/ Cc break by ally or the target dodged the Cc
A thing existing in alpha does not mean it will end up in the game in that same form.
Caeryl is right in that they did say that hard CC is more likely to be targeted and soft CC more likely to be tab target based.
If you are playing a game that has RNG for CC, dont do something stupid that would get you killed if your CC fails.
The problem is in people playing games with RNG on CC playing those games as if they didnt have RNG on CC.
If you play the game as it is in front of you, issues like that dont happen.
initiating is part of the game, I mean what the improvements made by adding RnG to CC I don't see any. Just having passive stats to increase disable % and defense disable % is hardly skillful character building.
ok but but to both of you not sure what that's to do with the OP, it's about RnG on hard CC whether it's targetted or aimed. Using the mage stun even though i play on tab it's still got a small hit box in front and can be missed.
In my opinion, CC should have a built in choice for the recipient. For example I hit someone with an ability that tethers them to a location for a few seconds, if they move too far away (break the tether) they receive damage and a CC element. How about a meduse-esque CC that will take effect if the enemy player is looking in your direction once the ability finishes casting? Or how about a debuff that deals more damage the more the target moves?
I believe this is more interactive and meaningful than tab-targeting a player and automatically stunning them with an instant cast ability. Mix in the above with skill shot-based cc and I think we are looking at a spicy pvp system.
PvP has been in MMORPGs have been around since early times such as runescape. I think you are applying single player RPG logic to MMORPGs. Hence your statement really reads RPGs were never meant to be multiplayer, i.e. MMORPGs.
Also I dont really understand why RPGs would need RnG is their combat system, I always thought the RnG was more to do with the story and situations rather than the actual base combat system.
also i thought about it some more, and what if CC has 100% hit rate (if not rolled/shielded etc) but you could modify your gear/use skills that shorten the amount of time you are affected by the CC.
In the case of action combat skills with the "Hard CCs" I think that is the intention. 100% hit rate if your projectile collides with the other player's hit box. After that, post hit stats would still be in play.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
yeah i dont mind every CC to be a skillshot, all im focused on is that there is no rng involved. im not saying we need a 1 click button cc that follows the targets and locks him in place
I wasn't planning on responding further in this thread but since you are here and shared some reasonable perspective as usual I will respond.
I feel it will absolutely get used. 'Lose a turn' would have to be rediculosly low odds for people to not use it, the skill shot will probably just make it unpopular at lower skill levels, while still dominating the meta at higher skill levels. Even with a long cooldown (which I fully support them having if they are going to have stun.) In any meaningful form of pvp it is free buckets of damage due to Ashes high time to kill.
I doubt adding a skillshot to the hard cc will address the problems of hard cc in the same way rng doesn't. Skillshots generally have about the same accuracy if not better in champion fighters for example as the generally designed rng odds for stun (50 worse 70ish best). And even if it is, the frequency is probably closer to what the rng odds would be, it's just with the 'chance' of it being 100% Here is why:
Think about who gets hard cc traditionally. Fighters, Tanks, Ranger, Mage (and summoner by nature of their job usually gets a summon with it but let's exclude them given how little we know of their intended design)
Two front liners who can negate movement abilities in some way, by either closing distance or pulling back. Two backliners who have big burst damage and no reason to not just open with stun into big burst damage.
Now by nature when you make a high cooldown skill, as a game designer you need the player to still have meaningful odds in an encounter, because it isnt fun to be maimed waiting for a key ability right? So they still need a strong kit without stun. You can't really lock a ranger's or mage's burst damage behind one skill either. Usually they have multiple. So the stun is probably not going to come at the cost of their ability to delete. The skill shot for these classes is almost assuredly easy for them with a bit of practice.
Fighters and Tanks otoh have slightly less high burst damage right? But because they have strong stickiness, and the ability to pull you back/pounce your movement ability if you mash out after the timer, you now not only have half your health missing, but just 'wasted' your movement ability and are rapidly dying. If you stay there, your still at a strong health disadvantage and in a team scenario, probably deleteable. I would argue the skill shot might be slightly harder in this scenario due to the sharper angles in melee, but.... 'shield bash' for example, by nature is usually quick to animate. Same with hamstring etc. Your 'small hit box' idea is a reasonable hope, but I am unsure Ashes is going in the 'small hit box' direction. If they add hard cc it's definitely worth yelling at them about it if the hit boxes are 'normal' I think.
I think that's a great solution if the disable% stats affect hard CC length rather than completely nullifying the CC as a comprimise. Just completely nullifying CC seems too harsh and RnG.
I've only seen this work in fighting game strategy level champion fighters. Ashes is neither a champion fighter nor do people seem to want this to be fighting game level design balance (after all we are talking about ashes having hard cc here which in itself negates two layers of fighting game style strategy.) Name a mmo this solution has ever made stun not a stagnating/build restricting factor in the meta or not a free win.
what's your point, that there should be no hard CCs?
Pretty sure GW2 has hard CCs and it's not a CC stun lock auto win.
https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/70706-stun-meta-needs-to-go/ Uhm.....
You cought me at the end of my day. I'll try to respond about 12-16 hours from now.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
Np mate. Thanks for the let.
You always get people moaning about stuff. If you read the post most of the people replying they disagree with the OP. This really doesn't prove anything, having played GW2 myself I can say hard CC isnt a problem in that game.
The more viable options that are present, the more skill it allows for.
In a game like WoW or ESO where there are only a handful of viable options and every member of a given class goes for the same gear set, there are no viable options for class builds.
In a game like Ashes, where gear stats are not pre-determined and where you can equip what ever gear you like on your character (and where atypical builds can often give you an advantage in PvP), there is actual, real, tangible skill in creating a build.
It stagnates meta and restricts build choices. It is the number one leading cause for it. That's all I have argued in this thread. There are proposed solutions for alternatives to one button hard cc in @Dreoh stun thread.
I'm not saying you can't have skill in creating builds overall. I'm saying you can't have skill in builds that are based on upping %disable modifiers. Also not sure what you mean by stats on armour are not predetermined, armour still has set stats you can't choose whatever you like, obviously different armour offers different stats.
you are debating a point which isn't the point of the thread...it's about RnG on hard CC not whether they should exist or not.
It may well be that your build has no CC breaks, and so any increase to the chance a CC will miss you is inherently good. On the other hand, it may be that you have a lot of CC breaks, and so this stat is of no use to you. Or you could fit somewhere in the middle.
Also; Since most gear will be crafted (likely 90%+ of what is actually used), it is indeed true that stats on gear are not pre-determined.
Which, incidentally, is why I said it.
You aren't getting my point if that's your conclusion. I was pointing out that rng vs action would not change the effect it has on meta and builds (which is my actual problem with it.)