akabearMember, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
Utility from Brothers: a tale of two sons
I liked the idea that one brother could climb up high to then lift up the smaller brother to navigate a high cliff
The smaller one could climb through and under small spaces to operate an inaccessible lever to the larger brother
Together they could lift and move an item to make a bridge or wind a dual lever to lift a bridge.
One player (or team) could rotate a flywheel to lower a bridge or elevator while the other boarded
Essentially the uility that combines player classes and/or requires group effort to achieve thus creating team work and gating areas from individual fostering team play
Other ideas of utility in dungeons or environment:
Tank could crash through a wall to make an opening in a dungeon
Mage could cast a levitation to hover to a higher point to trigger a lever
Rouge could unlock a door
Ranger could shoot a fire to trigger an opening
Tracker could follow the footsteps of a cloaked foe or player that recently passed by
The simple ones like one class only has a unique utility skill
I definitely do NOT want any utility skills that summon players to a location. The family summons is controversial enough.
I’ll just focus on the Summoner archetype here or the post will be too long
This archetype is probably the most versatile in terms of possible utility skills, since, you know, they can potentially summon all kinds of stuff..
Summon Peligoran Termites
The summoner summons a magic swarm of termites that attack and weaken wooden doors and siege equipment, and other wooden structures. Either outright damaging them, or weakening them structurally so they take extra damage (damage multiplier for the duration of the swarm). In dungeons, this could be used on locked doors, or on support beams to cause a cave-in, thus opening a new passage and/or temporarily closing existing ones to prevent other parties from passing easily.
Summon Rust Beetles
Summons a swarm of Rust Beetles, a species native to Verra, that normally live near ferrous deposits. They are able to quickly oxidize iron and steel, and then feed off the rust. Same use as the termite swarm, just for ferrous materials.
Summon Sujoman Gnats
Summons a swarm of gnats that distract mobs and NPCs, reducing their aggro range and stealth detection. It should not work on boss-types.
Summon Frostgrave Fireflies
If the game implements very dark areas, a swarm of fireflies can show the path forward.
Summon Underrealm Moles
Summons several moles that checks the area ahead for hidden traps in the ground.
Summon Riverlands Owl
Briefly summons an owl that can scout ahead. The summoner controls the owl and will look through its eyes, but cannot move or do any other action with their own body while scouting. Taking damage will end the spell. For balance purposes it should probably be disabled in sieges.
Summon Avaric Mackerel
Summons an Avaric Mackerel that can quickly speed ahead of the summoner and scout small underwater crevasses and caves. Functions similarly to the owl.
Summon Deepsea Squid
The squid is able to squeeze into small spaces, and due to its intelligence is able to disarm various simple underwater traps and find hidden doors.
Summon Screen Spiders
Summons a bunch of cute spiders to crawl all over the screen of the target player, providing them with free exposure therapy for arachnophobia.
Summon Spirit Mount
A very short duration land or aquatic mount (like, 30 seconds duration), to help the Summoner out in oh-shit situations where their normal mount is dead.
Summon Gathering Tools
Short duration gathering tools of the most basic types. Just for use in a pinch if the Summoner's normal tools are broken.
I considered things like summoning a mailbox or vendor or bank, but I quickly dismissed them all, because they would completely circumvent important gameplay loops.
I would like to see some skills that are purely fluff. Like:
Summon Pretty Lights
Summons a bunch of lights that can take different shapes in the air. Like a drone show IRL, either programmable by the Summoner, or just a bunch of presets. If programmable we are likely to see a lot of boobs and genitals though, so maybe presets are better.
Summon Cloud of Butterflies
Just a bunch of pretty butterflies.
So most of the suggestions I have seen here are already exactly what I would say, however I would like to add that seeing combat abilities augmented with utility would be great,
for example an ability that pulls a character like the tank has but then cast a wall behind the pulled character, (tank/Mage)
Or have the Tank mitigation shield turn black and block LOS of enemies if it was a Tank/Rogue combo.
I really want to see more out-of-combat systems and mechanics around your class like other games have done in the past that add a lot of immersion and class fantasy. Such examples would be draining the souls of enemies to use for out of combat rituals (like warlocks from classic WoW), gathering ingredients in the open world for rituals like long buffs or limited use active abilities that needed to be prepared before hand in some sort of ritual. feeding your pets to keep the happy, training your pets, sharpening your weapons, etc.
I also love people ideas here about manipulating the environment such as local weather or lighting.
i REALLY love that AoC is having darker nights and would actually prefer to see them much darker! I'd love to see the need of torches and fire spells in order to see better at night and not allot people to just turn up the gamma in-game or something to avoid the darkness mechanic. Would also love seeing dense fog and possibly a class utility to remove some of it nearby to see better. I LOVE thick fog and darkness in games for the ultimate immersion!!
A magical light skill: For a support class (bard, clerics) to use in really dark caves and illuminate while the party grinds
I'd suggest this is important enough to be across the board, rather than restricted to a few archetypes.
I 100% disagree. I dont like the idea of homogenizing classes. Everyone should need to depend on other classes to make their lives more enjoyable and easy in the world. if everyone had a light spell, might as well not make anything dark ever... You should need to depend on others.
What utility skills do you feel are most important?
Given that the game is centred around group play, I would prefer to see utility skills that could assist one's group, and not necessarily just one's self. For example, you have players with the ability to stealth/camouflage/invisible to some degree in your party (a rogue, a ranger, or a mage), if they could for a short period of time share those abilities to the rest of the party to avoid certain scenarios or setup ambushes, that would be cool.
Utility skills based on professions could also be important. Given the game is also centred around durability of gear, a possible ability to forage some materials to apply makeshift repairs out in the wilds would allow that one more attempt at a boss, or 10 more minutes of farming.
Are there certain scenarios that should require specific ones?
Only to give players options. By this I mean, assume there are two paths to a boss in a dungeon; one is full of monsters to fight, and one is clearly trapped laden. It would take less time to traverse the monster filled path, but it would be more tedious/dangerous. If the players were to traverse the longer, trapped filled path, they could avoid or find the traps with an archetype with the requisite utility skill.
This way it is unessential, but a more favourable if the right skill is available.
Each class should bring their own utility thats unique while not being overpowering enough to ignore bringing another class because say "summoners dont have enough utility for caravan raids". Maybe give each class some overlapping utility they can bring to table so they aren't only brought just for that niche utility they have.
Tanks: Tanks are masters of threat and mitigation. Maybe give them a detect threat capability where a tank can sense enemies eyeing up their party. A unique capability SWTOR gave their tanks is the ability to halve an ally's damage taken and threat generated by giving both to the tank, maybe grant tanks a similar capability to siphon all threat and damage onto themselves instead the team.
Summoner: Summoner already has the unique ability to do every part of the trinity with their summons. I imagine they will have augmenting spells and passives they can apply to make their summons become the answer to any situation there is. Need fire damage, fire buff. Need healing, healing summon. But a unique take others have already mentioned is giving the warlock portal from WoW to summoners, which I wholeheartedly agree to.
Rogue: Detect traps, hidden passage ways, lockpicking, stealth, possible group stealth. A unique utility they can have though, is what if they can sabotage? A single rogue, or a group of rogues should be able to sneak ahead the party and try to break the wheel of a caravan, or weaken the gate of a siege castle. If the defending team cannot detect or take measures, a rogue could bring utility in weakening the enemy by not realizing they are there. Give them some utility where taking time and waiting for them to do their magic will benefit the team.
Ranger: Traps, tracking, party buffs, and more. I think a key utility rangers could bring is vision and knowledge. Give them capability to see ahead, see through stealth, and to give the party information. You are defending a castle, the rogues cant sneak past the enemy to see what they are bringing, a ranger can use their vision spells to count how many siege engines are lined up. Let them be a spotter while the rogue is a scout.
Mage: enchantments, magic buffs, teleportation, barriers, and more. Mage is THE arcane class, let them have that unique flavor others don't have. Let them magically buff allies, or maybe put up barriers to reinforce locations. Maybe increase the locations a mage can magically open in the world for decision making.
Fighter: This is a toughy. Usually pure warrior classes exchange utility for sheer destructive capabilities and stuns. Maybe make the fighter a combat utility player. They have increased stagger and condition appliers to all their abilities, so having a fighter primes the enemy for longer stuns or knockdowns. Fighters are kings of battle so maybe granting them the unique ability to play off any other classes status affects and set up any teammate will be their goal. Plus, stuns.
Cleric: A way to play healer in some games is not to heal damage, but mitigate it. Maybe allow clerics to sense disease ahead and tell the party to avoid it. Stuns, cleanses, and status affects could play into the clerics role. I see on the wiki clerics can have utility capabilities related to corruption, maybe they can sense corruption, or cleanse corrupted areas to allow players unique passage through an area where corruption erupted.
Bard: Bards are king of utility in most games. A memory that comes to mind are the Entertainers from SWG, who could give players unique buffs in cantinas that allowed the players to perform better in various activities. Maybe grant bards the capability of granting out of combat related buffs that can help players. Give players a reason to drop by the local inn and see the bards putting on an act.
Glorious Ashes community - it's time for another Dev Discussion! Dev Discussion topics are kind of like a "reverse Q&A" - rather than you asking us questions about Ashes of Creation, we want to ask YOU what your thoughts are.
Our design team has compiled a list of burning questions we'd love to get your feedback on regarding gameplay, your past MMO experiences, and more. Join in on the Dev Discussion and share what makes gaming special to you!
Dev Discussion - Utility Skills
What utility skills do you feel are most important? Are there certain scenarios that should require specific ones?
i dont understand if the question refers to utility skills during combat or outside of combat (dialogues, etc). anyways:
warrior: kicking doors open, breaking certain walls, intimidation during dialogues to get extra information, knockdowns and pushbacks.
tank: same as warrior, agro (target change), damage blocks (during combat and also dungeons, like absorbing the damage from a trap).
rogue: stealth, lockpicking, pickpocketing, luring a mob out of a bunch without alerting others (maybe a coin toss), haggle, threaten npc during dialogues, trap detection and disarming (in pvp, combat and outside of it too), hidden door detection.
mage: teleportation (individual and group, maybe just short distances to go over a chasm), hidden doors detection, unsealing magic doors so that they can be opened by normal means or lockpicking by other characters.
ranger: trap and doors detection, setting traps, arrow crafting, can activate levers and things in dungeons that are out of reach by anyone else by shooting an arrow to them.
cleric: revives, can detect demons disguised as people during dialogues, can activate certain pathways or open certain magic doors.
summoner: mounts for himself and other party members, can summon the spirit of those who died to talk to them and get info, can summon other party members, revives or death prevention by sacrificing your summon.
bard: can use certain music patterns to activate secret entrances, more dialogue options for extra info, storytelling, entertaining npc for extra info or benefits.
Bard
- use an instrument to create silence and amplify sounds helping to hear events further away, foot steps, breath of nearby creatures, echoes bouncing on walls... Those should be marked on minimap and visible as ghosts in the world.
Cleric
- create a connection to another plane and start floating in the air, creating light arround. Maybe corrupted creatures would flee or get some damage and non-combatant players would get a heal over time or another (random?) buff. All nearby creatures with soul would glow. Duration of the spell would be short if a similar ability was used recently in the area and depleted energy from the plane (which could be a hint that some other team is or was nearby, somewhere in the dungeon).
Fighter
- ability to throw stones to trigger traps or sounds to attract mobs
- use chains to pull levers or other things from distance or to rotate it around and immobilize nearby mobs. Two fighters could entangle their chains together and do some combo.
- craft torches from wood and throw them onto ground or do something with them
- grab and throw mobs or players
Tank
- use a shield to deflect projectiles from traps
- use the shield like a snowboard to slide on slopes
- build a proper wall from stones if there are enough around. More tanks should be able to collaborate and build a defense tower
Mage
- throw a potion to create smoke or fog around
- create mirror image which starts casting a "teleport mage back to me" spell. The spell would finish in 60 sec and would bring the mage to that place. Maybe could bring also a fighter if it grabbed the mage with his special ability. Or maybe it could teleport any player close to the mage. Then chain teleportation can be triggered by multiple mages.
Ranger
- call a raven to grab him or other players and glide to a spot or to attenuate fall
Summoner
- ability to spare the life of a creature in order to summon it later and use it for some tasks, depending on creature type and size (to carry the summoner, to move hard objects, pass through small holes or cracks to trigger mechanisms or retrieve small objects, distract or grab enemies...)
Yours truly finds utility skills to be helpful with side-tasks, such as jumping puzzles. Being able to augment the length and height of jumping would certainly come in handy with the jumping puzzles that AoC is to feature.
The example for Rangers given on the Wiki mentions a dog-summon. If the Ranger is within a certain range of another player, it'd be handy to be able to summon an canine to track the location of said player, for events such as Caravans, should the need arise to take your eyes off said player.
Things like flaming-arrow beacons and "flare"-arrows that parachute downward and light an area at night could also be helpful. Mages and Clerics could use something like a radius-circle within which that - while stood in - could decrease the chances of casting-failures from elements such as taking damage.
IzexMember, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
It would be nice to have some crafting-related utility skills such as allowing blacksmithing/leatherworking/tailoring characters the ability to repair armor out in the field in exchange for some resource (gold, hide, ore, or w.e).
Another idea was to have the summoner class's pets have different utilities. For instance, if there is some kind of earth elemental it will improve the party's chance to mine better materials.
What utility skills do you feel are most important?
It's tough to say which utility skills feel the most important without knowing more about what utility skills are in AoC? In some single player or Table Top RPGs I have seen, all skills are grouped together, and even when they're not grouped into single system, skills tend to have a couple categories, for example: combat, crafting, infiltration, navigation, perception, speechcraft, and subterfuge. AoC already has already captured the most important to me by providing an in depth artisan system to support a crafting utility skill gameplay loop.
However, going off the definition provided on the AoC wiki, I would say none of the examples seem intrinsically important, or they seem like they are already part of the combat kit. For instance lockpicking or arcane eye are only important if there are lots of locked objects or hidden passages that can't be bypassed without the utility. On the other hand, stealth or a particular maneuver such as a leap already seem like they are included in the rogue and fighter kit for pvp.
Are there certain scenarios that should require specific ones?
I don't think certain scenarios should require a specific utility skill if that utility skill is tied to a specific archetype. To me that creates a reductive meta rather than creative play.
Rather than specific instances related to specific utility skills (tied to archetypes), I think it would be interesting if each class had a unique kit made from several common utility skills with some utility skills being exclusive but not required for content. For example, maybe all rogue archetypes always have stealth and lockpick, but a cultist (rogue/cleric) can also cleanse poison while a Nightspell (rogue/mage) can reveal areas with arcane eye. To continue the example a Shadow Caster (mage/rogue) might have blink, arcane eye, and lockpick. This way once a player has their full class kit they can adapt for their playstyle, their group, and their situation rather than being stuck waiting to find a rogue to be able to run a dungeon with locked chests in a game with limited fast travel.
I always think utility skills should be items of convenience in smaller scale and more game changing in larger scale like raids but should require several people to cooperate to do it. Convenience skills (party sized utility skills) should also synergize with other classes (i.e. a dps class having mana regen that they may use but not need as much as a healer.) With that in mind,
Party Utility Abilities (Convenience)
Health/Mana regeneration*
boosted outside of combat movement
tracking/longer range detection of mobs/players in some way
a short range portal (from inside a dungeon to outside at the entrance for example)
Cooldown reduction*
Group stealth for a short duration
Refresh or increase duration of buffs applied
Reduce aggro radius
*Perhaps stronger outside of out of combat or strictly out of combat
Raid Utility Abilities (Group of archetypes cooperate to provide of benefit to the raid - more combat oriented)
Mages - Uses magic to bestow a curse or change the weather to hinder their enemies (shorter buff durations, and some other impact based on element used perhaps)
Summoners - Conjures a massive elemental to fight for your group
Bards/Clerics - An empowered hymn creates a sanctified space which empowers allies
Rangers/Bards - prepare traps and charm/tame animals in an area to be unfriendly to enemies but
neutral/friendly to allies
Fighters - reviews raid members' equipment and provide pointers that result in a buff (think crit. strike chance, bleed dot, or cooldown reduction)
Rogue - reviews an area for spots that would provide cover or a place to hide and provide true-sight to allies in this area
Bard - orchestrates a dirge for their enemies which makes an area hinder enemies (think slow, less damage, or healing reduction) and slows their ability to respawn after death
Tank - Creates a shield/bubble that protects enemies in raid group/party, or provides cc protection (think wow fear ward)
My post keeps poofing. So weird. Here's some class specific convenience ideas:
Mage
Activate magical devices with various results (activate lights, elevator, etc.) Short range portals (think to exit a dungeon and not long range.) Boost party mana regeneration out of combat.
Cleric
Provide cc ward and increased health regeneration outside of combat. Rites and rituals to boost defense to damage type(s.)
Bard
Movement speed and cooldown reduction outside of combat. Provide enemy weakness/other info.
Rogue
Provides aoe stealth, picks locks (door and chest,) and finds secret doors.
Ranger
Guides party to avoid snapping twigs, leaving a trail, etc. Reduces party aggro radius.
Summoner
Can summon a spirit that acts as a scrying ability to check out a dungeon or area nearby. Summon a creature to act as a beast of burden to carry or haul more items.
Fighter
Coordinates maneuvers amongst the party to move faster while mounted.
Tank
Instills vigilant and protective nature into party and boosts ability to detect obscured creatures.
Undetermined
I see an overlap in these between mages, summoners, and even bards or clerics but...
Buff to protect against weather debuffs or help with terrain challenges like breathing underwater or reduced fall damage.
1. Big no to any torches/light-related utility skills to see in the dark, this not a survival game, and even in survival games it creates a meta of using Gama options or filters to bypass darkness, in MMORPGs nights should be bright enough so players can see,
2. Teleports and fast travel are extremely negative for a game like AoC, so I really hope there's nothing extra implemented to the game to facilitate summoning or teleportation, especially not related to utility skills
1. Big no to any torches/light-related utility skills to see in the dark, this not a survival game, and even in survival games it creates a meta of using Gama options or filters to bypass darkness, in MMORPGs nights should be bright enough so players can see,
2. Teleports and fast travel are extremely negative for a game like AoC, so I really hope there's nothing extra implemented to the game to facilitate summoning or teleportation, especially not related to utility skills
A magical light skill: For a support class (bard, clerics) to use in really dark caves and illuminate while the party grinds
I'd suggest this is important enough to be across the board, rather than restricted to a few archetypes.
I 100% disagree. I dont like the idea of homogenizing classes. Everyone should need to depend on other classes to make their lives more enjoyable and easy in the world. if everyone had a light spell, might as well not make anything dark ever... You should need to depend on others.
You're not homogenising classes by letting people see what they're doing when they play. The classes and skills and builds will still be completely separate. You'll just be able to see what you're doing.
As Linker said above: This is an MMO, not a Survival game.
As for your "don't allow people to increase their brightness" thing, I wonder how much effort would be needed in order to code a solution to stop me pressing the brightness buttons on my monitor...
Hmmm, the more utility skills you give specific classes the more you have to work to balance and design the game around it.
You give every archetype some kind of utility skill to unlock areas in dungeon. The mage detecting some magical barrier. The rogue picking some lock. Cool. But now every dungeon needs to have atleast 8 unlockable areas.
You give one archetype a magical light ability - well gee, now every other class has to toil in the dark when that class isnt present.
You give the ranger the ability to detect traps - that means the rest are stepping right into them.
Sometimes less is more.
Open-world solo experiences like lootables and jumping puzzles should be available to almost all (with a challenge), just like group content. The raid dungeons on the other hand is a content area where you can expect every archetype to be present. Raids can be wholly designed on using specific class abilities without excluding other people. That's why I always think of raid mechanics when I think of specific class abilities and uses.
What utility skills do you feel are most important?
The most important utility skills in mmorpgs are those that meet the following criteria.
1.) Have meaningful cross class & group interactions (creating focus on good coordinated teamplay with other classes)
2.) Versatile to use
3.) fit the class identity
4.) makes you as a player feel important for your group (impact of utility skill in current situation)
5.) requires positioning to a certain degree (creating skill gaps for individuals) (not needed for all utility skills obviously)
6.) Use can be the difference between life and death (honor the skilled player)
Are there certain scenarios that should require specific ones?
I would say no but that depends on your depth of the designed utility skills. In a good mmorpg you can somehow use your utility skills to your advantage in every situation. You just have to recognize it and the timing has to be right.
Also a disadvantage of specific "in-fight pop-up skills" ones i have seen across multiple mmorpg's are that people are not prepared e.g. you have pop-up skills in certain scenarios that you never seen before and the game wants you to make good use of it even tho you are in the middle of a fight and suddenly you are required to read what it does and make good use of it. 99% is a failure across all games (atleast in the first try depending on the pve/pvp situation) but that is a design issue that requires a more decent presentation of those skills. So overall i am not a big fan of this specific system.
Add for ranger ability to dominate a creature (like bear) and ability to calm animals, one by one.
Let the ranger see through the eyes of the dominated creature.
Quite generic question from the devs, but here are a few utility skills that I think would bring value, fun and interesting features to the game: Rapid Rush Increases Sprinting speed and/or duration
Soft Landing - Reduce the falling speed such that there is no fall damage
Aqua Glide - Swimming speed boost, something like sprint or just a base speed boost
Deep Breath - Ability to breath underwatter for a very long time
Mighty Leap - A charge ability where the longer it is charged the higher the character jumps
Aqua Stride - Ability to walk on watter as if it was normal terrain
Eagle eye - Spawn an agent (animal/spirit/something) where a player can navigate the surrounding from a bird's eye perspective
Owl’s Vision - Makes the player see theirs surroundings better at night
Magic Trace - Places a magical mark on a target, allowing the user to track it across any distance.
I believe that utilitarians must meet several criteria:
- Characterizing a class / race: being consistent with its "universe" and its lore
- Be a tool to counter the limits set by the environment: speed in water, distance of view
- Be a potential game changer in specific situations. Ex: a spell allowing to float above a river of magma allows a raid to save time, or skip entire parts of the dungeon.
An exemple of awesome utilitarian IMO is the shaman's Far Sight in wow. It changes your viewpoint to the targeted location for 1 min, an can be repeated from this with unlimited range. It's consistent with the shaman's abilities, it allows to exceed the environmental limit due to obstructions that obstruct the view and the display distance, and it's a game changer in world PVP because you can track down your targets very quickly.
I don’t have a specific example of utilities I would like to see implemented in the game. That said, I hope that darkness and light will be part of the game, and that as such, objects or spells (torches, light exit) will allow to face a strong darkness.
When I think of utility spells, I think of cantrips in DnD. They don’t provide any ultimate power but situationally they are very beneficial.
How beneficial they are depends on how interactive the world around them is. In D&D you obviously have a lot more freedom (depending on the DM), but I think the concept should still hold true.
Shape Water: Can be used to freeze a stream path to walk over it. Or solidify lava to walk over it without taking as much damage.
Druidcraft: grow gatherable in a local area.
Gust/jump: Helps you climb a little higher when trying to grapple a ledge.
Camouflage: To hide in certain situation.
Far Sight: Be able to see /scout ahead.
Animal Friendship: Help with animal taming.
All these things really depend on how well utility spells can be integrated with the world around us. If it’s well designed there should be so many fun ways to solve a problem using a variety of different spells.
Mage's Opinion:
Utility is what makes gameplay outside of combat more engaging. Utility is what make a game more than just a fantasy combat simulator - it helps add life to the role playing and the little moments between adventures. Helping people around you with a hyper-specific skill that not many people have is a special feeling, especially when done in a magical way. To freeze a river's surface making it passable by others, starting a campfire with little to no materials, conjuring water for your dying crops, teleporting objects short distances saving time or resources, maybe even temporarily transfiguring animals or objects into other useful items like a backpack when yours is full or a lock for a door to hold back enemies. The list for this kind of thing goes on and on...
The best reference for this would be something like Baldur's Gate 3, where there are so many spells and so many of them are, or can be, used for utility. Mind reading, charm, grease spills, mage hand, Illusion, gaseous form, enchanting, dimension door, telekinesis, etc. These spells don't have specific uses, they allow the player to chose when they should use them and how. Freedom in utility is important, including the freedom to fail or forget to use an ability when you need it. This would encourage creativity and knowledge of one's class and skills (quick witted and wise).
Hogwarts Legacy does a decent job with this as well. It's not perfect by any means, but they made a decent attempt at utilizing the magic outside of combat. The puzzles become a bit tedious and stale over time as they were the same things over and over, but at first it was a welcome challenge. This game is an example of an ocean wide, but as deep as a puddle; however, the magic and casting was fairly well done. One important aspect of this game for me was specific spells for specific counters to specific enemies that you had to learn over time and experience, which made things much more fun and interesting. You struggle with a spider, then learn that when they posture up, you can slam their fangs into the ground making them stuck for a short time. Simple, yet more engaging than just basic combat and a great example of utility in combat as well. (Experienced and skilled)
Side Note: I hope that potion crafting can be similar to Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator. The crafting there is not only as wide as an ocean, but very deep as well. It grants the player freedom to explore their craft and build a recipe book with their most efficient and strong recipes. It's truly a wonderful time on it's own and very unique. I recommend at least taking a look or playing it for a little while for some inspiration maybe.
I like utility skills, as an example here are some scenarios for the mage "arcane eye" ability that Steven has mentioned.
1) Raid environment - Utility skills are welcome in this scenario, since the group size required makes having each archetype an easy requirement to meet. This could be simply good for flavor, such as having a mage open an illusion magic barrier to access a boss. If Intrepid wanted to go the extra mile, then mages could also recreate the barrier behind them.
2) Secret Finding - Archetype utility skills could be great for this type of puzzle and lore-based exploration. The difficulty is meant to be high, so requiring certain utilities is fine.
3) Small group content/dungeons - I think Intrepid should be careful here... Arcane Eye should only open up an optional route/boss/treasure chest. Since the group is smaller, it isn't as easy to recruit a perfectly diverse composition.
The worst outcome would be if utility skills are required to unlock the majority of AoC content. That would be far too onerous. Utility skills should be needed sparingly in order to accentuate specific experiences, especially for content that is meant to be high difficulty.
Ranger
Tracking - more like Hunter Call of the Wild, where the player follows highlighted tracks
Read Tracks - can see tracks in radius, tool-tip shows race, height, speed, and/or approximate age of tracks
Pass Without Trace - self/party ( slower movement, but cant be tracked).
Call animal - calls specific animal species within short distance
Mage
Detect Magic - Learn school of magic of active spells, or residual magic from spells cast recently (fade
over time).
Read Magical Writing.
Light.
Open (unlocks door/container),
Magic Campfire - sitting near fire causes abilities to cool down 10% faster, or regain health/mana or
whatever
Light Show makes cool animated figures(hologram) from lore
Cleric
Scrying - see through the eyes(camera) of a specific known person(player/npc) or previously
designated location
Tongues - speak/understand language temporarily.
Light.
Detect Evil/Good.
Consecrated Ground, prevents mob proximity aggro for long enough to eat/drink/rest
Speed Plant Growth, limited by long cooldown or 1-2 targets
Create Blessed Water - drinking Blessed Water removes a curse or something, can be traded, can only
hold one
Rogue
Lock Picking
Pickpocket
Climb
Detect/Disarm Traps - detects and disables mundane traps
Disguise(as an npc, or another player, require components and long cast time, like 1 minute)
Bard
Busking, get tips from npcs and players, who pass by the bard while they are street performing
Everybody Dance Now - make everyone dance, players can stop whenever they move
Recite Lore Stories - Please add lore stories that a bard can learn, and retell. It would be great to have a
way to learn new stories through quests or raids or whatever, that can then be learned by other bards by
listening to the story as told by the bard who first learned it. Also, Bards should learn old lore tales from
the
library.
juggling
tumbling
play instrument
Summoner
Summon Friend - summon one well known (in guild/family/other group for min time to avoid players joining
just for a summon) player up to x (a zone or two away) distance away and give it a 10 minute cooldown
or something, then its a cool little utility, and not a way to completely avoid travel times. give summoned
player a debuff preventing from being summoned again for the same duration.
Summon Water and Food
Illusion - Make a boulder illusion, or a wall, or a monster, etc. They look real, and can be targeted, but any
damage dispels, collision allows disbelief(removed for that player) or dispel. Player and friends should be
able to pass through it or stand inside it without dispelling it. It should also be placed without collision
with environment
Fighter
Heavy Lifting - (objects that may block a passage or hidden cubby etc)
Toss - can toss other players a short distance, smaller players get tossed further
Boost - can boost another character up on their shoulders to reach stuff
Tank
Immovable Object - become Immovable (cant be cast while in combat) long cast, like 10 sec. duration >
cooldown to prevent continuous use.
Beacon - big light beam shines down on the tank
Follow Me - move faster (like 10%, not enough to make it absolute meta, but enough to be fun and
encourage people to let the tank lead) when you follow the tank
other utilities
Improved Swimming Speed
Deep Breath (5 sec cast not in combat, +x% breath )
Hide/prone, hides your nameplate until you move. Can't be tab targeted, but can be targeted by clicking on
the player.
Comments
I liked the idea that one brother could climb up high to then lift up the smaller brother to navigate a high cliff
The smaller one could climb through and under small spaces to operate an inaccessible lever to the larger brother
Together they could lift and move an item to make a bridge or wind a dual lever to lift a bridge.
One player (or team) could rotate a flywheel to lower a bridge or elevator while the other boarded
Essentially the uility that combines player classes and/or requires group effort to achieve thus creating team work and gating areas from individual fostering team play
Other ideas of utility in dungeons or environment:
The simple ones like one class only has a unique utility skill
So that you can reach increasingly difficult and higher puzzles.
I’ll just focus on the Summoner archetype here or the post will be too long
This archetype is probably the most versatile in terms of possible utility skills, since, you know, they can potentially summon all kinds of stuff..
Summon Peligoran Termites
The summoner summons a magic swarm of termites that attack and weaken wooden doors and siege equipment, and other wooden structures. Either outright damaging them, or weakening them structurally so they take extra damage (damage multiplier for the duration of the swarm). In dungeons, this could be used on locked doors, or on support beams to cause a cave-in, thus opening a new passage and/or temporarily closing existing ones to prevent other parties from passing easily.
Summon Rust Beetles
Summons a swarm of Rust Beetles, a species native to Verra, that normally live near ferrous deposits. They are able to quickly oxidize iron and steel, and then feed off the rust. Same use as the termite swarm, just for ferrous materials.
Summon Sujoman Gnats
Summons a swarm of gnats that distract mobs and NPCs, reducing their aggro range and stealth detection. It should not work on boss-types.
Summon Frostgrave Fireflies
If the game implements very dark areas, a swarm of fireflies can show the path forward.
Summon Underrealm Moles
Summons several moles that checks the area ahead for hidden traps in the ground.
Summon Riverlands Owl
Briefly summons an owl that can scout ahead. The summoner controls the owl and will look through its eyes, but cannot move or do any other action with their own body while scouting. Taking damage will end the spell. For balance purposes it should probably be disabled in sieges.
Summon Avaric Mackerel
Summons an Avaric Mackerel that can quickly speed ahead of the summoner and scout small underwater crevasses and caves. Functions similarly to the owl.
Summon Deepsea Squid
The squid is able to squeeze into small spaces, and due to its intelligence is able to disarm various simple underwater traps and find hidden doors.
Summon Screen Spiders
Summons a bunch of cute spiders to crawl all over the screen of the target player, providing them with free exposure therapy for arachnophobia.
Summon Spirit Mount
A very short duration land or aquatic mount (like, 30 seconds duration), to help the Summoner out in oh-shit situations where their normal mount is dead.
Summon Gathering Tools
Short duration gathering tools of the most basic types. Just for use in a pinch if the Summoner's normal tools are broken.
I considered things like summoning a mailbox or vendor or bank, but I quickly dismissed them all, because they would completely circumvent important gameplay loops.
I would like to see some skills that are purely fluff. Like:
Summon Pretty Lights
Summons a bunch of lights that can take different shapes in the air. Like a drone show IRL, either programmable by the Summoner, or just a bunch of presets. If programmable we are likely to see a lot of boobs and genitals though, so maybe presets are better.
Summon Cloud of Butterflies
Just a bunch of pretty butterflies.
for example an ability that pulls a character like the tank has but then cast a wall behind the pulled character, (tank/Mage)
Or have the Tank mitigation shield turn black and block LOS of enemies if it was a Tank/Rogue combo.
I also love people ideas here about manipulating the environment such as local weather or lighting.
i REALLY love that AoC is having darker nights and would actually prefer to see them much darker! I'd love to see the need of torches and fire spells in order to see better at night and not allot people to just turn up the gamma in-game or something to avoid the darkness mechanic. Would also love seeing dense fog and possibly a class utility to remove some of it nearby to see better. I LOVE thick fog and darkness in games for the ultimate immersion!!
I 100% disagree. I dont like the idea of homogenizing classes. Everyone should need to depend on other classes to make their lives more enjoyable and easy in the world. if everyone had a light spell, might as well not make anything dark ever... You should need to depend on others.
Torches at the start and attached lantern on armor like in Elden Ring later-That would be sweet.
Given that the game is centred around group play, I would prefer to see utility skills that could assist one's group, and not necessarily just one's self. For example, you have players with the ability to stealth/camouflage/invisible to some degree in your party (a rogue, a ranger, or a mage), if they could for a short period of time share those abilities to the rest of the party to avoid certain scenarios or setup ambushes, that would be cool.
Utility skills based on professions could also be important. Given the game is also centred around durability of gear, a possible ability to forage some materials to apply makeshift repairs out in the wilds would allow that one more attempt at a boss, or 10 more minutes of farming.
Are there certain scenarios that should require specific ones?
Only to give players options. By this I mean, assume there are two paths to a boss in a dungeon; one is full of monsters to fight, and one is clearly trapped laden. It would take less time to traverse the monster filled path, but it would be more tedious/dangerous. If the players were to traverse the longer, trapped filled path, they could avoid or find the traps with an archetype with the requisite utility skill.
This way it is unessential, but a more favourable if the right skill is available.
Tanks: Tanks are masters of threat and mitigation. Maybe give them a detect threat capability where a tank can sense enemies eyeing up their party. A unique capability SWTOR gave their tanks is the ability to halve an ally's damage taken and threat generated by giving both to the tank, maybe grant tanks a similar capability to siphon all threat and damage onto themselves instead the team.
Summoner: Summoner already has the unique ability to do every part of the trinity with their summons. I imagine they will have augmenting spells and passives they can apply to make their summons become the answer to any situation there is. Need fire damage, fire buff. Need healing, healing summon. But a unique take others have already mentioned is giving the warlock portal from WoW to summoners, which I wholeheartedly agree to.
Rogue: Detect traps, hidden passage ways, lockpicking, stealth, possible group stealth. A unique utility they can have though, is what if they can sabotage? A single rogue, or a group of rogues should be able to sneak ahead the party and try to break the wheel of a caravan, or weaken the gate of a siege castle. If the defending team cannot detect or take measures, a rogue could bring utility in weakening the enemy by not realizing they are there. Give them some utility where taking time and waiting for them to do their magic will benefit the team.
Ranger: Traps, tracking, party buffs, and more. I think a key utility rangers could bring is vision and knowledge. Give them capability to see ahead, see through stealth, and to give the party information. You are defending a castle, the rogues cant sneak past the enemy to see what they are bringing, a ranger can use their vision spells to count how many siege engines are lined up. Let them be a spotter while the rogue is a scout.
Mage: enchantments, magic buffs, teleportation, barriers, and more. Mage is THE arcane class, let them have that unique flavor others don't have. Let them magically buff allies, or maybe put up barriers to reinforce locations. Maybe increase the locations a mage can magically open in the world for decision making.
Fighter: This is a toughy. Usually pure warrior classes exchange utility for sheer destructive capabilities and stuns. Maybe make the fighter a combat utility player. They have increased stagger and condition appliers to all their abilities, so having a fighter primes the enemy for longer stuns or knockdowns. Fighters are kings of battle so maybe granting them the unique ability to play off any other classes status affects and set up any teammate will be their goal. Plus, stuns.
Cleric: A way to play healer in some games is not to heal damage, but mitigate it. Maybe allow clerics to sense disease ahead and tell the party to avoid it. Stuns, cleanses, and status affects could play into the clerics role. I see on the wiki clerics can have utility capabilities related to corruption, maybe they can sense corruption, or cleanse corrupted areas to allow players unique passage through an area where corruption erupted.
Bard: Bards are king of utility in most games. A memory that comes to mind are the Entertainers from SWG, who could give players unique buffs in cantinas that allowed the players to perform better in various activities. Maybe grant bards the capability of granting out of combat related buffs that can help players. Give players a reason to drop by the local inn and see the bards putting on an act.
i dont understand if the question refers to utility skills during combat or outside of combat (dialogues, etc). anyways:
warrior: kicking doors open, breaking certain walls, intimidation during dialogues to get extra information, knockdowns and pushbacks.
tank: same as warrior, agro (target change), damage blocks (during combat and also dungeons, like absorbing the damage from a trap).
rogue: stealth, lockpicking, pickpocketing, luring a mob out of a bunch without alerting others (maybe a coin toss), haggle, threaten npc during dialogues, trap detection and disarming (in pvp, combat and outside of it too), hidden door detection.
mage: teleportation (individual and group, maybe just short distances to go over a chasm), hidden doors detection, unsealing magic doors so that they can be opened by normal means or lockpicking by other characters.
ranger: trap and doors detection, setting traps, arrow crafting, can activate levers and things in dungeons that are out of reach by anyone else by shooting an arrow to them.
cleric: revives, can detect demons disguised as people during dialogues, can activate certain pathways or open certain magic doors.
summoner: mounts for himself and other party members, can summon the spirit of those who died to talk to them and get info, can summon other party members, revives or death prevention by sacrificing your summon.
bard: can use certain music patterns to activate secret entrances, more dialogue options for extra info, storytelling, entertaining npc for extra info or benefits.
- use an instrument to create silence and amplify sounds helping to hear events further away, foot steps, breath of nearby creatures, echoes bouncing on walls... Those should be marked on minimap and visible as ghosts in the world.
Cleric
- create a connection to another plane and start floating in the air, creating light arround. Maybe corrupted creatures would flee or get some damage and non-combatant players would get a heal over time or another (random?) buff. All nearby creatures with soul would glow. Duration of the spell would be short if a similar ability was used recently in the area and depleted energy from the plane (which could be a hint that some other team is or was nearby, somewhere in the dungeon).
Fighter
- ability to throw stones to trigger traps or sounds to attract mobs
- use chains to pull levers or other things from distance or to rotate it around and immobilize nearby mobs. Two fighters could entangle their chains together and do some combo.
- craft torches from wood and throw them onto ground or do something with them
- grab and throw mobs or players
Tank
- use a shield to deflect projectiles from traps
- use the shield like a snowboard to slide on slopes
- build a proper wall from stones if there are enough around. More tanks should be able to collaborate and build a defense tower
Mage
- throw a potion to create smoke or fog around
- create mirror image which starts casting a "teleport mage back to me" spell. The spell would finish in 60 sec and would bring the mage to that place. Maybe could bring also a fighter if it grabbed the mage with his special ability. Or maybe it could teleport any player close to the mage. Then chain teleportation can be triggered by multiple mages.
Ranger
- call a raven to grab him or other players and glide to a spot or to attenuate fall
Summoner
- ability to spare the life of a creature in order to summon it later and use it for some tasks, depending on creature type and size (to carry the summoner, to move hard objects, pass through small holes or cracks to trigger mechanisms or retrieve small objects, distract or grab enemies...)
Rogue
- has already enough skills on wiki
The example for Rangers given on the Wiki mentions a dog-summon. If the Ranger is within a certain range of another player, it'd be handy to be able to summon an canine to track the location of said player, for events such as Caravans, should the need arise to take your eyes off said player.
Things like flaming-arrow beacons and "flare"-arrows that parachute downward and light an area at night could also be helpful. Mages and Clerics could use something like a radius-circle within which that - while stood in - could decrease the chances of casting-failures from elements such as taking damage.
Another idea was to have the summoner class's pets have different utilities. For instance, if there is some kind of earth elemental it will improve the party's chance to mine better materials.
It's tough to say which utility skills feel the most important without knowing more about what utility skills are in AoC? In some single player or Table Top RPGs I have seen, all skills are grouped together, and even when they're not grouped into single system, skills tend to have a couple categories, for example: combat, crafting, infiltration, navigation, perception, speechcraft, and subterfuge. AoC already has already captured the most important to me by providing an in depth artisan system to support a crafting utility skill gameplay loop.
However, going off the definition provided on the AoC wiki, I would say none of the examples seem intrinsically important, or they seem like they are already part of the combat kit. For instance lockpicking or arcane eye are only important if there are lots of locked objects or hidden passages that can't be bypassed without the utility. On the other hand, stealth or a particular maneuver such as a leap already seem like they are included in the rogue and fighter kit for pvp.
Are there certain scenarios that should require specific ones?
I don't think certain scenarios should require a specific utility skill if that utility skill is tied to a specific archetype. To me that creates a reductive meta rather than creative play.
Rather than specific instances related to specific utility skills (tied to archetypes), I think it would be interesting if each class had a unique kit made from several common utility skills with some utility skills being exclusive but not required for content. For example, maybe all rogue archetypes always have stealth and lockpick, but a cultist (rogue/cleric) can also cleanse poison while a Nightspell (rogue/mage) can reveal areas with arcane eye. To continue the example a Shadow Caster (mage/rogue) might have blink, arcane eye, and lockpick. This way once a player has their full class kit they can adapt for their playstyle, their group, and their situation rather than being stuck waiting to find a rogue to be able to run a dungeon with locked chests in a game with limited fast travel.
Party Utility Abilities (Convenience)
*Perhaps stronger outside of out of combat or strictly out of combat
Raid Utility Abilities (Group of archetypes cooperate to provide of benefit to the raid - more combat oriented)
Mage
Activate magical devices with various results (activate lights, elevator, etc.) Short range portals (think to exit a dungeon and not long range.) Boost party mana regeneration out of combat.
Cleric
Provide cc ward and increased health regeneration outside of combat. Rites and rituals to boost defense to damage type(s.)
Bard
Movement speed and cooldown reduction outside of combat. Provide enemy weakness/other info.
Rogue
Provides aoe stealth, picks locks (door and chest,) and finds secret doors.
Ranger
Guides party to avoid snapping twigs, leaving a trail, etc. Reduces party aggro radius.
Summoner
Can summon a spirit that acts as a scrying ability to check out a dungeon or area nearby. Summon a creature to act as a beast of burden to carry or haul more items.
Fighter
Coordinates maneuvers amongst the party to move faster while mounted.
Tank
Instills vigilant and protective nature into party and boosts ability to detect obscured creatures.
Undetermined
I see an overlap in these between mages, summoners, and even bards or clerics but...
Buff to protect against weather debuffs or help with terrain challenges like breathing underwater or reduced fall damage.
1. Big no to any torches/light-related utility skills to see in the dark, this not a survival game, and even in survival games it creates a meta of using Gama options or filters to bypass darkness, in MMORPGs nights should be bright enough so players can see,
2. Teleports and fast travel are extremely negative for a game like AoC, so I really hope there's nothing extra implemented to the game to facilitate summoning or teleportation, especially not related to utility skills
You're not homogenising classes by letting people see what they're doing when they play. The classes and skills and builds will still be completely separate. You'll just be able to see what you're doing.
As Linker said above: This is an MMO, not a Survival game.
As for your "don't allow people to increase their brightness" thing, I wonder how much effort would be needed in order to code a solution to stop me pressing the brightness buttons on my monitor...
You give every archetype some kind of utility skill to unlock areas in dungeon. The mage detecting some magical barrier. The rogue picking some lock. Cool. But now every dungeon needs to have atleast 8 unlockable areas.
You give one archetype a magical light ability - well gee, now every other class has to toil in the dark when that class isnt present.
You give the ranger the ability to detect traps - that means the rest are stepping right into them.
Sometimes less is more.
Open-world solo experiences like lootables and jumping puzzles should be available to almost all (with a challenge), just like group content. The raid dungeons on the other hand is a content area where you can expect every archetype to be present. Raids can be wholly designed on using specific class abilities without excluding other people. That's why I always think of raid mechanics when I think of specific class abilities and uses.
The most important utility skills in mmorpgs are those that meet the following criteria.
1.) Have meaningful cross class & group interactions (creating focus on good coordinated teamplay with other classes)
2.) Versatile to use
3.) fit the class identity
4.) makes you as a player feel important for your group (impact of utility skill in current situation)
5.) requires positioning to a certain degree (creating skill gaps for individuals) (not needed for all utility skills obviously)
6.) Use can be the difference between life and death (honor the skilled player)
I would say no but that depends on your depth of the designed utility skills. In a good mmorpg you can somehow use your utility skills to your advantage in every situation. You just have to recognize it and the timing has to be right.
Also a disadvantage of specific "in-fight pop-up skills" ones i have seen across multiple mmorpg's are that people are not prepared e.g. you have pop-up skills in certain scenarios that you never seen before and the game wants you to make good use of it even tho you are in the middle of a fight and suddenly you are required to read what it does and make good use of it. 99% is a failure across all games (atleast in the first try depending on the pve/pvp situation) but that is a design issue that requires a more decent presentation of those skills. So overall i am not a big fan of this specific system.
Let the ranger see through the eyes of the dominated creature.
Rapid Rush Increases Sprinting speed and/or duration
Soft Landing - Reduce the falling speed such that there is no fall damage
Aqua Glide - Swimming speed boost, something like sprint or just a base speed boost
Deep Breath - Ability to breath underwatter for a very long time
Mighty Leap - A charge ability where the longer it is charged the higher the character jumps
Aqua Stride - Ability to walk on watter as if it was normal terrain
Eagle eye - Spawn an agent (animal/spirit/something) where a player can navigate the surrounding from a bird's eye perspective
Owl’s Vision - Makes the player see theirs surroundings better at night
Magic Trace - Places a magical mark on a target, allowing the user to track it across any distance.
- Characterizing a class / race: being consistent with its "universe" and its lore
- Be a tool to counter the limits set by the environment: speed in water, distance of view
- Be a potential game changer in specific situations. Ex: a spell allowing to float above a river of magma allows a raid to save time, or skip entire parts of the dungeon.
An exemple of awesome utilitarian IMO is the shaman's Far Sight in wow. It changes your viewpoint to the targeted location for 1 min, an can be repeated from this with unlimited range. It's consistent with the shaman's abilities, it allows to exceed the environmental limit due to obstructions that obstruct the view and the display distance, and it's a game changer in world PVP because you can track down your targets very quickly.
I don’t have a specific example of utilities I would like to see implemented in the game. That said, I hope that darkness and light will be part of the game, and that as such, objects or spells (torches, light exit) will allow to face a strong darkness.
How beneficial they are depends on how interactive the world around them is. In D&D you obviously have a lot more freedom (depending on the DM), but I think the concept should still hold true.
Things like
Light: We know it was in ashes in the past :
Shape Water: Can be used to freeze a stream path to walk over it. Or solidify lava to walk over it without taking as much damage.
Druidcraft: grow gatherable in a local area.
Gust/jump: Helps you climb a little higher when trying to grapple a ledge.
Camouflage: To hide in certain situation.
Far Sight: Be able to see /scout ahead.
Animal Friendship: Help with animal taming.
All these things really depend on how well utility spells can be integrated with the world around us. If it’s well designed there should be so many fun ways to solve a problem using a variety of different spells.
Utility is what makes gameplay outside of combat more engaging. Utility is what make a game more than just a fantasy combat simulator - it helps add life to the role playing and the little moments between adventures. Helping people around you with a hyper-specific skill that not many people have is a special feeling, especially when done in a magical way. To freeze a river's surface making it passable by others, starting a campfire with little to no materials, conjuring water for your dying crops, teleporting objects short distances saving time or resources, maybe even temporarily transfiguring animals or objects into other useful items like a backpack when yours is full or a lock for a door to hold back enemies. The list for this kind of thing goes on and on...
The best reference for this would be something like Baldur's Gate 3, where there are so many spells and so many of them are, or can be, used for utility. Mind reading, charm, grease spills, mage hand, Illusion, gaseous form, enchanting, dimension door, telekinesis, etc. These spells don't have specific uses, they allow the player to chose when they should use them and how. Freedom in utility is important, including the freedom to fail or forget to use an ability when you need it. This would encourage creativity and knowledge of one's class and skills (quick witted and wise).
Hogwarts Legacy does a decent job with this as well. It's not perfect by any means, but they made a decent attempt at utilizing the magic outside of combat. The puzzles become a bit tedious and stale over time as they were the same things over and over, but at first it was a welcome challenge. This game is an example of an ocean wide, but as deep as a puddle; however, the magic and casting was fairly well done. One important aspect of this game for me was specific spells for specific counters to specific enemies that you had to learn over time and experience, which made things much more fun and interesting. You struggle with a spider, then learn that when they posture up, you can slam their fangs into the ground making them stuck for a short time. Simple, yet more engaging than just basic combat and a great example of utility in combat as well. (Experienced and skilled)
Side Note: I hope that potion crafting can be similar to Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator. The crafting there is not only as wide as an ocean, but very deep as well. It grants the player freedom to explore their craft and build a recipe book with their most efficient and strong recipes. It's truly a wonderful time on it's own and very unique. I recommend at least taking a look or playing it for a little while for some inspiration maybe.
1) Raid environment - Utility skills are welcome in this scenario, since the group size required makes having each archetype an easy requirement to meet. This could be simply good for flavor, such as having a mage open an illusion magic barrier to access a boss. If Intrepid wanted to go the extra mile, then mages could also recreate the barrier behind them.
2) Secret Finding - Archetype utility skills could be great for this type of puzzle and lore-based exploration. The difficulty is meant to be high, so requiring certain utilities is fine.
3) Small group content/dungeons - I think Intrepid should be careful here... Arcane Eye should only open up an optional route/boss/treasure chest. Since the group is smaller, it isn't as easy to recruit a perfectly diverse composition.
The worst outcome would be if utility skills are required to unlock the majority of AoC content. That would be far too onerous. Utility skills should be needed sparingly in order to accentuate specific experiences, especially for content that is meant to be high difficulty.
Tracking - more like Hunter Call of the Wild, where the player follows highlighted tracks
Read Tracks - can see tracks in radius, tool-tip shows race, height, speed, and/or approximate age of tracks
Pass Without Trace - self/party ( slower movement, but cant be tracked).
Call animal - calls specific animal species within short distance
Detect Magic - Learn school of magic of active spells, or residual magic from spells cast recently (fade
over time).
Read Magical Writing.
Light.
Open (unlocks door/container),
Magic Campfire - sitting near fire causes abilities to cool down 10% faster, or regain health/mana or
whatever
Light Show makes cool animated figures(hologram) from lore
Scrying - see through the eyes(camera) of a specific known person(player/npc) or previously
designated location
Tongues - speak/understand language temporarily.
Light.
Detect Evil/Good.
Consecrated Ground, prevents mob proximity aggro for long enough to eat/drink/rest
Speed Plant Growth, limited by long cooldown or 1-2 targets
Create Blessed Water - drinking Blessed Water removes a curse or something, can be traded, can only
hold one
Lock Picking
Pickpocket
Climb
Detect/Disarm Traps - detects and disables mundane traps
Disguise(as an npc, or another player, require components and long cast time, like 1 minute)
Busking, get tips from npcs and players, who pass by the bard while they are street performing
Everybody Dance Now - make everyone dance, players can stop whenever they move
Recite Lore Stories - Please add lore stories that a bard can learn, and retell. It would be great to have a
way to learn new stories through quests or raids or whatever, that can then be learned by other bards by
listening to the story as told by the bard who first learned it. Also, Bards should learn old lore tales from
the
library.
juggling
tumbling
play instrument
Summon Friend - summon one well known (in guild/family/other group for min time to avoid players joining
just for a summon) player up to x (a zone or two away) distance away and give it a 10 minute cooldown
or something, then its a cool little utility, and not a way to completely avoid travel times. give summoned
player a debuff preventing from being summoned again for the same duration.
Summon Water and Food
Illusion - Make a boulder illusion, or a wall, or a monster, etc. They look real, and can be targeted, but any
damage dispels, collision allows disbelief(removed for that player) or dispel. Player and friends should be
able to pass through it or stand inside it without dispelling it. It should also be placed without collision
with environment
Heavy Lifting - (objects that may block a passage or hidden cubby etc)
Toss - can toss other players a short distance, smaller players get tossed further
Boost - can boost another character up on their shoulders to reach stuff
Immovable Object - become Immovable (cant be cast while in combat) long cast, like 10 sec. duration >
cooldown to prevent continuous use.
Beacon - big light beam shines down on the tank
Follow Me - move faster (like 10%, not enough to make it absolute meta, but enough to be fun and
encourage people to let the tank lead) when you follow the tank
Improved Swimming Speed
Deep Breath (5 sec cast not in combat, +x% breath )
Hide/prone, hides your nameplate until you move. Can't be tab targeted, but can be targeted by clicking on
the player.