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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.
Fighter Specific Feedback
Ghostgg
Member, Alpha Two
Overall:
Overall the fighter felt very fitting, rewarding, and deep. The visuals and sound design were both top notch and in general I had such a good time testing it along with every class to level 5 that I decided to main it at least until the first wipe. There were some small hiccups regarding the action camera and some skill balances but overall was a very satisfying class.
TLDR
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Details for each bullet:
Melee Range: Not a lot to go into extra here, but for pvp where latency is going to be a thing I think an increased melee range will greatly improve the feel of any melee class. I don't think client side hit detection is an option since that will likely cause more issues, so a more forgiving range should be adopted. WoW is a prime example of a healthy melee range, which is probably about twice the current AoC range.
2 Baseline Skills: The fighter gets the least baseline skills of any class by far, which is surprising since it's one of the earlier classes to my knowledge. I think the prime candidate for moving an existing skill tree node to baseline is Raging Blitz. Raging Blitz makes Blitz feel complete as an opener and a single use of it allows for other combat momentum spenders at least once -- please please do this. For a 4th (I think 4 is the minimum each class should have so look at bard as well) Brutal Cleave could be a good option, this would round out the baseline kit and give a solid foundation for speccing your fighter from there.
Blitz Issues: I think this could just be servers, but it's worth mentioning. If server performance improvements doesn't help this, consider making this less of a physical interaction in the world and more about placing the character next to the target (assuming line of sight and all that is good).
Lunging Assault: I think the concept of the skill is good, I just think it needs a slight buff. A bit further range would be my preferred since you could then spend a limited resource to move around the battlefield (very thematic) but you'd have a careful balance of using it for other purposes, so you can't just blow everything all the time. Alternatively you could make apply bleed, which I'll discuss more in the bleeding section, but this would give it a definitive purpose in the kit.
Consuming Lethal Blow: This passive used while solo grinding means you never need to stop. This is a little too powerful. Conversely, when in a party, it's so difficult to land the well timed blow you need to maximize mana/health return that it becomes far less impactful, almost to obscurity. Solution: Change the passive something along the lines of: "When Lethal Blow strikes a target below 25% health you are granted health and mana regeneration for 3% physical power per second for x seconds (5?)" I don't have the alpha in front of me during a week day so tune the numbers of course, but the design here is you can use it solo and it'll provide the same effect, but less than timing a 20% heal and 30% mana regen every 12 seconds, while being a reliable source in party play as well.
Combat Momentum Generation: Wallop specifically seems to want to incentivize building and spending combat momentum as fast as you can for large consistent hits. From my testing you just can't generate enough momentum to use it on CD. Adding a passive skill to increase combat momentum generation would allow a playstyle more around Wallop/Lunging Assault. Some Ideas: "Brutal Cleave/Overpower generate 10 more combat momentum" or "Melee attacks generate an additional combat momentum".
Bleed Interactions: Rupture, Lethal Blow, and Blood Fusion all interact with bleed but fighter must either play in Form of Ferocity or rely on a random proc to apply it. This seems counter intuitive to the concept of picking the right stance for the right situation. Solution: Decouple reliable bleeds from Form of Ferocity, replace with either Shaken or Snare, and put bleed application other locations. Some ideas: have Lunging Assault apply bleeding, let Overpower/Brutal Cleave apply bleeding baseline, a passive which causes your melee weapon critical strikes apply bleeding.
Form of Ferocity: I don't think from a balance perspective this needs to happen, but adding a minor secondary effect for this stance would feel more appropriate since all the other forms have it. Something minor like increased stamina regeneration since this is already the best form for party play in my opinion.
Overall the fighter felt very fitting, rewarding, and deep. The visuals and sound design were both top notch and in general I had such a good time testing it along with every class to level 5 that I decided to main it at least until the first wipe. There were some small hiccups regarding the action camera and some skill balances but overall was a very satisfying class.
TLDR
- Not fighter specific - The melee range in the game is likely a little too short, I'm not trying to come at this from a balance perspective but from a frustration viewpoint. I didn't get many pvp battles, 5-7 or so, but I could already feel that times when I felt like I should be hitting the enemy player I wasn't.
- The fighter only learns 2 skills/passives by default, the next lowest is the bard at 3, who is really an outlier himself with most classes having 4, or 5 in the rangers case. New ones should be introduced or existing skills/passives should be moved baseline.
- Blitz as a travel skill is pretty unreliable. Getting stuck on terrain is very common and generally seems buggy, sometimes hitting the attack but putting my character too far away to feel like the skill did what it was supposed to.
- Lunging Assault felt pretty lackluster. It doesn't move you far enough to be a travel skill, it does weak damage, and costs a very valuable resource (combat momentum).
- Consuming Lethal Blow felt overpowered in solo settings and underpowered in a party. Some ideas below in the detailed section.
- It feels like the skill tree wants to push you toward a combat momentum builder/spender playstyle, but there isn't enough support for generation. An extra passive for building more combat momentum would open a new playstyle.
- Bleeding has several interactions in the skill tree, but only 2 ways for a fighter to apply: random deadly finisher procs or being in Form of Ferocity. Thoughts on how to improve this in the detailed section below.
- Form of Ferocity is the only form without a second passive effect, consider adding stamina regeneration or combat momentum generation to make it feel more balanced.
***********************************************************************
Details for each bullet:
Melee Range: Not a lot to go into extra here, but for pvp where latency is going to be a thing I think an increased melee range will greatly improve the feel of any melee class. I don't think client side hit detection is an option since that will likely cause more issues, so a more forgiving range should be adopted. WoW is a prime example of a healthy melee range, which is probably about twice the current AoC range.
2 Baseline Skills: The fighter gets the least baseline skills of any class by far, which is surprising since it's one of the earlier classes to my knowledge. I think the prime candidate for moving an existing skill tree node to baseline is Raging Blitz. Raging Blitz makes Blitz feel complete as an opener and a single use of it allows for other combat momentum spenders at least once -- please please do this. For a 4th (I think 4 is the minimum each class should have so look at bard as well) Brutal Cleave could be a good option, this would round out the baseline kit and give a solid foundation for speccing your fighter from there.
Blitz Issues: I think this could just be servers, but it's worth mentioning. If server performance improvements doesn't help this, consider making this less of a physical interaction in the world and more about placing the character next to the target (assuming line of sight and all that is good).
Lunging Assault: I think the concept of the skill is good, I just think it needs a slight buff. A bit further range would be my preferred since you could then spend a limited resource to move around the battlefield (very thematic) but you'd have a careful balance of using it for other purposes, so you can't just blow everything all the time. Alternatively you could make apply bleed, which I'll discuss more in the bleeding section, but this would give it a definitive purpose in the kit.
Consuming Lethal Blow: This passive used while solo grinding means you never need to stop. This is a little too powerful. Conversely, when in a party, it's so difficult to land the well timed blow you need to maximize mana/health return that it becomes far less impactful, almost to obscurity. Solution: Change the passive something along the lines of: "When Lethal Blow strikes a target below 25% health you are granted health and mana regeneration for 3% physical power per second for x seconds (5?)" I don't have the alpha in front of me during a week day so tune the numbers of course, but the design here is you can use it solo and it'll provide the same effect, but less than timing a 20% heal and 30% mana regen every 12 seconds, while being a reliable source in party play as well.
Combat Momentum Generation: Wallop specifically seems to want to incentivize building and spending combat momentum as fast as you can for large consistent hits. From my testing you just can't generate enough momentum to use it on CD. Adding a passive skill to increase combat momentum generation would allow a playstyle more around Wallop/Lunging Assault. Some Ideas: "Brutal Cleave/Overpower generate 10 more combat momentum" or "Melee attacks generate an additional combat momentum".
Bleed Interactions: Rupture, Lethal Blow, and Blood Fusion all interact with bleed but fighter must either play in Form of Ferocity or rely on a random proc to apply it. This seems counter intuitive to the concept of picking the right stance for the right situation. Solution: Decouple reliable bleeds from Form of Ferocity, replace with either Shaken or Snare, and put bleed application other locations. Some ideas: have Lunging Assault apply bleeding, let Overpower/Brutal Cleave apply bleeding baseline, a passive which causes your melee weapon critical strikes apply bleeding.
Form of Ferocity: I don't think from a balance perspective this needs to happen, but adding a minor secondary effect for this stance would feel more appropriate since all the other forms have it. Something minor like increased stamina regeneration since this is already the best form for party play in my opinion.
3
Comments
I felt like it was fine, it's not a big buff, but honestly neither are the buffs from the other 2 forms though I didn't play with the mana regen one much. That could be because probably 75% of the time I was solo using consuming lethal blow to keep topped up and the parties I joined had solid healing. Having said that this weekend I'll abuse consuming lethal blow a little less and see if I still feel this way, you could be right.
Combat Momentum- drops to fast I feel out of combat
The forms need more punch- Most fighters stick with the default weapon speed form. Not sure how to buff the other forms but sure there are a variety of ways to go about it.
Lunging Assault needs to work off mana not momentum.
Fighter needs more access to snares. In the chaos of pvp I as well had a hard time sticking onto players. Perhaps slightly longer melee range would help but I feel additional snares would go a long way. Maybe tie a snare to one of the forms.
Yeah, Lethal blow is great, but If you actually look at the numbers on Regenerative, its really really low. at 1400 hp at 100 combat momentum (which I think is max) you get 14 hp regen per second which is really really bad. Thats at max momentum. If you are at 50 you are getting 7 hp regen per second. For a skill point investment Its a very weak ability.
Everything else I stated in OP I think still holds true