Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III testing schedule can be found here
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Alpha Two testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
I play Cleric currently: My fav ability to Flash Cure the cast time is instant and heals relative to my healing power and magic power.
Which spells or abilities stand out the most to you from games you’ve played in the past?
For me I will be referring alot to FFXIV White Mage.
Damage spells like Aero and Stone help with being able to solo. Cleric does not really have damage spells so to speak currently.
Spells like Media (all levels) and other heals
What made them special to you? Giving me the range of healing abilities and types from a group stand point or single target. Cleric currently does not alot of flexibility for healing variations.
I'm a big fan of abilities that do more than combat. These help with immersion and bring you in closer with feeling a part of the game
Because of targeting in ashes of creation, maybe it would be nice if you were able to put a spell on your mace or melee weapon and you could slap people to full health as a cleric. Making it more an active play than just standing in the back throwing spells around. and then give the ability from brightwing where you would teleport to someone to instant heal.
I also like rythm games which would nice as a bard where you have to play notes to activate specific buffs and then when you complete a full combo, you get a crescendo, or big buff/heal.
Think about abilities that would make the backline of your party a bit more active. It gets pretty boring just standing in the back throwing spells around.
Lotro also has a combo system where specific classes start a combo and other characters continue or finish the combo.
Healthstone from warlock in wow. Basically a spell you can fire off once. could be interesting as a mage to give out spells to people that they can use once.
priest mind control from wow, where you could temporarily control an enemy.
mages polymorph. Just a fun spell for crowd control.
I'm kinda dissapointed in the fighter, if i recollect from a fighter in dnd games that they are proficient in all weapons. So why not have abilities that can only be used if a specific weapon is in the inventory? So that he becomes a walking armory. So his skills are also based on his inventory.
Grease, where people walk over it, they have a chance of tripping over.
Enlarge, make someone huge on the field.
Because of targeting in ashes of creation, maybe it would be nice if you were able to put a spell on your mace or melee weapon and you could slap people to full health as a cleric. Making it more an active play than just standing in the back throwing spells around. and then give the ability from brightwing where you would teleport to someone to instant heal.
I also like rythm games which would nice as a bard where you have to play notes to activate specific buffs and then when you complete a full combo, you get a crescendo, or big buff/heal.
Think about abilities that would make the backline of your party a bit more active. It gets pretty boring just standing in the back throwing spells around.
Lotro also has a combo system where specific classes start a combo and other characters continue or finish the combo.
Healthstone from warlock in wow. Basically a spell you can fire off once. could be interesting as a mage to give out spells to people that they can use once.
priest mind control from wow, where you could temporarily control an enemy.
mages polymorph. Just a fun spell for crowd control.
I'm kinda dissapointed in the fighter, if i recollect from a fighter in dnd games that they are proficient in all weapons. So why not have abilities that can only be used if a specific weapon is in the inventory? So that he becomes a walking armory. So his skills are also based on his inventory.
Grease, where people walk over it, they have a chance of tripping over.
Enlarge, make someone huge on the field.
Mages are powerfull but tbh, they miss some sort of kickback. A shotgun can't be fired without a serious kickback. Wizards from the warhammer universe are in constant fear of dying or turning chaos. Virmentide puts a meter which fills with every spell you cast and if the meter is full you die instantly.
I also really like Mind Vision from wow classic. Scouting around dungeons and raids with it was a lot of fun. Esp with the BoeD glitch I found on accident lol
Payoff HP Shields Shields that reward the caster for successfully mitigating a damage spike. Like if the shield is burnt through fully, it gives a heal or other boon like cc break/immunity. I can't think of any examples of the top of my head but most games seem to reward the opposite, like Mordekaiser from LoL. I think both types of shield could be good to have as long as they are telegraphed to the opponent ( like a bubble pattern says "dont burn this shield", or a runic pattern means "burn this shield if you don't want them to have XYZ buff)
tl;Dr A well placed shield is often invisible and I'd like to see the mitigation have a more impactful feeling/effect
Lissandras Ult (LOL) Frozen tomb
Not only is it a powerful Offensive Ability but also Defensive ability. I would love to see this one ingame (maybe instead of the blizzard ability). Being able to freeze an enemy or oneself would be a really unique touch for the mage class
Keep it up please
In general terms, TARGET MANIPULATION! Cancel target, redirect target, hold target - all in different methods of application, from direct spell that only has one of those functions to "this armor gives you a passive that has a chance to cancel your attacker's targetting on hit".
In certain situations this combination gave Sniper a bit of survivability and damage mitigation with powerful bursts of DPS. However it's a choice that comes at a cost of being stationary in combat when used and not immune to damage completely, as well as taking 2 skill points to spec.
For Ranger this could be an optional choice. Barrage can be turned into an aoe but only if a magical version of the shield is also chosen.
In general I really like Rangers kit however it does feel kinda squishy at times. I'm confident that balance and tuning over time will help a lot of this. The above is just for your consideration and doesn't fundamentally change the kit it just becomes a different style but not without its costs.
Keep up the fantastic work.
Amaris
What is the best ability or spell you’ve used and why? Which spells or abilities stand out the most to you from games you’ve played in the past? What made them special to you?
Cleric chains ability is neat, I wouldn't mind if the chains were made to look much larger. Cleric resurrection is so cool and I look forward to learning that lore. Clerics wave ability feels good but I wouldn't mind if the range (not width) was slightly increased. A lot of the bard spells stand out to me in this game, the tank dome flag stands out, one or two fighter skills, the mage? has a huge AoE lava floor spell.
From the past I enjoyed the passive abilities given to classes. What's happening with racial passives in ashes, anything? I liked those passives because characters from the character creater was tied to certain predetermined BiS outcomes that can't be changed through spending skill points.
What makes some a skill special to me? I've enjoyed skills that can be used for very big plays and speccing character equipment around those plays. Some skills in games can help with DPS but in a easy/funny way that I'd try to get away with. Yea, skills that make me want to design builds around them are the most impactful or special, besides that, it's usually for memes, unless I'm dying too much.
{The bleed system that poe} had was really nice could do lots of damage over time which allowed you to do a lot more as a solo dps player you could hit things and run around and then reengage when they were a little lower life to not die would be nice on fighters and rouges.
There are PBAOE buffs but that's not really an active, visible, cool ability. Something weighty that everyone in the area can recognize.
Some random ideas could be: flame shield, repelling field, gaze of madness, divine grace, lightning aura, cloud of insects, shroud of shadows. That's just off the top of my head, the options are limitless. Give every archetype one signature active aura. Or maybe 2 more modest ones, one for level 1-25 and one for level 25-50.
Toggled PBAoE's are cool because they can made be quite powerful but they drain your mana which is such a precious resource in this game. Duration and power would be self-limiting based on mana alone, although be wary if it's a Bard ability, I guess. Bard isn't really all that great with heavy mana drain, though, they are better for mana over time. So just don't give Bard a cheap one!
New World's Hatchet weapon Berzerk ability has a rad audio trigger to it when you go into the buffed state, its awesome. Path of Destiny for War Hammer in New World is a nice melee ability that staggers in a aoe direction for a medium to long distance.
Marvel Rivals has a lot of fun ability mechanics that could be used in a mmo for various roles.
-Dr. Strange's portal ability to transport party/raid to another location in a fight could be interesting for a mage role.
-Invisible Woman has a nice utility & healer kit with some push/pull abilities, stealth etc.
A lot of inspirational ideas could be pulled from Marvel Rivals for the expanded blend of class roles for added effects to the 8x8 = 64 class design.
Alright, let me tell you about this ability because I seriously miss it. I haven't seen anything like it in any other game.
Volatile Infection
"Infects the target and all enemies within a 10 yard radius of the target with a virus that explodes when the Volatile Infection effect fades, and inflicts X damage to the targets and up to 3 enemies within a 10 yard radius of the targets."
Range: 40 yards (I remember it as a medium range, just barely out of range for some other class to charge at you)
Mana Cost: 25 (medium-ish mana cost, so spamming this thing did get expensive)
Cast Time: 2s (fairly long, so people could see what you were doing and maybe silence or interrupt you)
No cooldown
In PvP, it was incredible. You'd chuck it into a zerg of players, and half the time they'd either panic or fail to react until it was too late. I'm talking specifically about large, uncoordinated groups that didn't communicate or cleanse at all. When that explosion went off? Absolute bliss.
The ability was actually pretty balanced. The counter? Good communication and teamwork. You could cleanse it or spread out to reduce the damage if cleansing wasn't an option. It forced large groups to pay attention and work together. Running around as part of an unthinking zerg trying to brute-force content was risky because a well organized group could and would punish you hard.
This ability was pretty useful for pressuring enemy teams. You could force them to burn cleanses, put their supports on edge, and overall be disruptive. If their supports weren't on top of things, it could get out of control rather quickly. Timing was key, too. You could wait for them to use up their cleanses, then throw it in to force them to scatter and break formation. If your team was well coordinated, you could combo it with crowd control to trap them together, turning it into a devastating wipe. Pulling that off wasn't easy, but when it worked, it was perfection.
In PvE, it was great for clearing out mobs, especially in dungeons and raids. The damage scaled with the number of enemies, but the virus took time to spread and explode, so you couldn't just spam it mindlessly. You had to stay alive and count on your team to cover you while it did its thing. Some encounters felt tailor made for this ability, and when you got to use it in those moments, it was beyond satisfying.
Another "Spell" of sorts that I like is Eldritch Blast from Dungeons & Dragons.
Why?
I like that it starts out as this simple and effective magical ranged attack but gets stronger over the course of your adventure. As you level up and choose upgrades for it, the "spell" essentially levels up as well, rather than staying the same like so many other spells or abilities. I like to imagine that with each significant upgrade, the visuals of the spell also become more... well, intense.
The way I picture it is that it starts out as a small magical blast, but as you grow stronger, it eventually becomes this devastating, chaotic beam of raw obliterating power.
Brigitte works kind of in between, you damage to heal allies in a radius. One of the design elements i like of her kit is that her ult allows her to become quite tanky and increase her CC. The transformative aspect of using your Q ability and changing from a backline peeler, to a more tanky brawler is what makes it feel good.
Stuff like Dark Magic drag the soul out of your target.
Or use blood magic to wound your target with magic bleeding wounds .
More gory and brutal spells also AoE HUGE Ao E spells that nuke everything
Meteor
Pulse Cannon
Also, more skill shots
& buff mage 😂
What is the best ability or spell you’ve used and why?
Currently, I'm casually playing AoC, and I’ve found the Bard’s ability that provides both a shield and healing to be one of my favorites. The versatility of this ability stands out to me, as it functions both defensively and supportively, fulfilling dual roles simultaneously. It actually reminds me of the Disc Priest's mechanics in WoW, where you’re actively mitigating and healing at the same time. I appreciate abilities that allow you to address multiple aspects of gameplay at once.
Which spells or abilities stand out the most to you from games you’ve played in the past?
Enchanter in EverQuest: My main class was Enchanter, and one of the abilities I loved the most was summoning "living weapons" as pets. The ability to equip them with real weapons to augment their powers added a fascinating layer of depth. While you did lose them eventually, the level of detail and the engagement it provided was exceptional. I’ve always wanted to see a similar mechanic applied to other types of summons.
Moira in Overwatch: Moira’s ability to both heal and deal damage with the same power is incredibly appealing to me. It’s not just about leeching health from your enemy to restore your own; it’s about making a conscious decision between life and death, having both options available at any given moment, and using them strategically. The balance of power in that ability is something I really enjoy.
Mastermind in City of Heroes: Another pet class, I know, but the diversity in summons and the ability to buff them made this class particularly enjoyable. Beyond that, I appreciated the additional layer of strategy in shielding and supporting my summons, along with augmenting my DPS role. The ability to mix offense and defense in a way that enhanced the team dynamic was both fun and rewarding.
What made them special to you?
I think the common thread in all of these abilities is their versatility. I’m drawn to abilities that serve more than one function, especially those that can be enhanced or adapted to fit different roles. The ability to dynamically shift between different types of support, offense, and defense, or augment your abilities to better serve a group or personal gameplay style, is something I find incredibly engaging. It adds depth to the experience and makes each moment feel meaningful.
My favorite skill honestly is less of an isolated skill but more of a skill system, I've always been a fan of how skills were done in the original Guild Wars. Mainly because it forced you to choose only 8 skills to work with across 2 different professions (1 elite skill and 7 regular), so while metas did emerge and there were certain builds that were BiS for certain content, it made for a massive variety in playstyle from even just one necromancer to another. You would even have things like Touch Rangers which used predominantly Necromancer skills, Warriors who would use Elementalist skills for blinding or damage reduction in PvP, or characters that would deliberately reduce their HP as low as possible to optimize the use of protection skills that made it so they could only take a certain percentage of their HP per hit of damage. I wont lie, the main reason I even looked into Ashes of Creation was because I saw they were going to have a dual class system and hoped that it would replicate a similar level of build variety, even if it was in a different way. However, I think a big factor that made the Guild Wars system work well was the hard limit on number of skills you were allowed to bring into an instance.
As far as singular skills in other games:
Dota 2:
Echoslam - Earthshaker.
This skill honestly just feels great to hit. The sounds, the visuals, everything is great, and when you meet the right conditions it absolutely decimates anything it hits. However, if you use it in a situation that doesn't meet those conditions it can be pretty lackluster or weak. I think the potential for it to do amazing things in the right situations make this skill feel really impactful, almost overpowered, you can feel how much it scales when you use it right and I love that. I think a lot of times games have skills that all kind of feel middle of the road for the sake of making something balanced, but having something be perfectly balanced means everything tends to feel kind of the same.
Earth Splitter - Elder Titan
Honestly really similar to Echoslam: great visuals, great feel, but it's hard to use correctly. This one is actually harder to use than Echoslam, it has multiple damage types so reducing resistances to one type doesn't innately make the skill better, but it synergizes well with Elder Titans other abilities, because he can reduce both physical and magical resistance in an area around him. So if you can probably CC enemies or time the wind up of Earth Splitter with the positioning of your own hero and enemy heroes you have an insanely effective skill. I think what really makes this skill feel great compared to the hundreds of other spells in dota is really the synergy with other skills allowing it to scale and have even more impact.
Path of Exile:
Soulrend - Probably one of my favorite skills of all time in PoE, it's not a very good skill anymore, but the feel and visuals of it were my all time favorite. A projectile that would swerve towards enemies and did damage over time to mobs that it passed through, its really just feels smooth, I wouldn't say the design or effectiveness of the mechanics is that great, but it just satisfying to look at and use the skill.
In general for the ranger I’d love for the marks to be a much much bigger focus of the class that can change skill builds and orders and proc effects and actually make people feel hunted or marked for death. Extending the range on rangers skills or at least giving the option to spec into it would also help the fantasy of a sniper build. Also giving some abilities that are more snappy instant use instead of making so many skills charge up I think would be an improvement.
Spells that are considered to be the most impactful to the overall quality of life within the game. , Spells that you work toward achieving by either hitting a certain level, or given at the end of a quest chain, or even maybe a scroll that is randomly dropped by a named monster.
Say having the "Warp" spell that allows you to warp yourself back to your home point, or Warp II, the ability to warp another party member to their home point.
In a game like Ashes where travel does not come easily, Spells that take advantage of making that easier for people are considered a Hot commodity and become a part of the game's economy.
Things like a bard's song being able to have your caravan move faster. Or for a different class, the ability to teleport your entire party to a specific node.
I feel like some of the spells currently shown are considered "higher level" spells that are given at a very early level. Like Bard song giving MP, or speed boost. Those should be higher level spells that you work towards. I feel like Ashes is giving too much too early.
The game needs to have high impact spells that are only achieved at certain milestones or though RNG/questlines.
Also, a big fan of anything pet class. love being like a bonedancer with 4 skeleton's where i can choose if they are dps, tank or mages, while i stay back and dot things or manage my pets.
These are just my opinion so far.
Love what you guys are doing!
Cheers!
Seekers of Skyveil:
- Neri RMB (places a short range healing plant on the floor that triggers all nearby plants to also heal. It can be hit with basic attacks to deal damage & bounce the attack)
Battlerite:
- Blossom's Tree. You place a tree that either heals in the area or tanks damage for your allies within it's area. You can heal the plant to apply aoe heals around it
- Poloma's Dash: You send out a ghost that sticks to allies or enemies if hit. If you miss it ends on the floor somewhere. Once you press dash again you'll go to that location. If you charge this ability you'll change positions with whichever target you hit, either healing them if it's an ally or draining their hp and healing yourself if it's an enemy.
Lost Arc:
- Deer Jump: Ok that's not reaaaaally an ability but I love how it floats in the air a bit before falling back down.
Honestly anything from Heroes of the Storm. I loved how well they captured the flavor of each character you play.
The best mecanical ability for me is betwen grapple and reflect, both abilitys don't work probebly at the time beeing, so i case grapple grapples i think its a great effekt simple and effektiv in use, reflect is in my opinion on of the best abilitys a tank can have, that is also one of my Favorit abilitys from Wow (TBC- Warry Tank) id had sadly only rarely any use in pve but the conzept of negating a atack and throwing it back to the attacker is nice. I would like if reflect would work like bloking that if i hold the button it would not be cancled by alredy aplied autatck animationen and that you cant use other abilitys while holding reflect.
Thanks for the great work
Even better with the varying tiers of the Skill chains doing more damage and giving the magic bursts more damage bonus.
More synergy between classes would be nice - I kinda thought there was a lot more, but its mostly just mage working with mage, with a few more generic things. (IE: If enemy has snare, do x - but you yourself can apply snare)
Leona (League of Legends)
Leona was my main for most of my time playing League, and I always thought her passive was a little touch of unsung genius. Her abilities would tag enemies with a debuff that was harmless unless one of her allies procced it by damaging them. It was a great way of adding to her value and party damage while preventing her from being too capable solo. It was also interesting how it encouraged a 'cadence' to her skills so that allies could get the most value out of the passive when diving a target.
Malzahar (League of Legends)
I've always found 'minion' abilities to be very interesting and satisfying. In practice, though, the soft-cap introduced in abilities like this always felt unsatisfying in some way. Like giving the player a glimpse of potential they can never have.
I've always craved a 'minion' ability that's *allowed* to snowball to something maddening, or even rewards it. For example, what if these creatures would coalesce when they collide so that the number of unique entities was still manageable. Perhaps if enough of them combined they would hit critical mass, morphing into a stronger creature or detonating in some way.
Mordekaiser (League of Legends)
Mordekaiser's old ult had the potential to 'steal' the strength of an enemy player; he would get some of their stats and a ghost of their champion. I always thought this was a fun and interesting threat, and a great way of turning an opponents strength against them. A clever self-balancing tool.
Driller & Engineer(Deep Rock Galactic)
The powerdrills for the driller and the platform gun for the engineer are an incredibly satisfying tools with immense strategic potential. Being able to reshape the terrain to suit the team is a huge part of what makes DRG so compelling.
One friend said his favorite is the Enshroud from Reaper in FFXIV. It's a demonic transformation skill used during burst phases to unlock/empower ablities.
Another friend says Iajutsu from Samurai in FFXIV. Partially just because he loves all iaido in anime. And partially because it adds cast times to a melee class, which feels weighty and impactful. Plus the bit of gameplay nuance (because you can't always stand still to cast it).
- Magi's Spark
- Shifting Power
- Arcane Surge
I am a super huge lover of Arcane magic and there are a few abilities currently available to us in-game as Mages, but it's considered magic without empowerment from the 3 elemental magics Mages also use. I would love it if there were a secondary Archetype available for Mages that super leaned into using Arcane magic as its core magic group instead of the elemental magic that base Mages use primarily. The Arcane visuals for abilities like Arcane Volley and Arcane Circle in Ashes are stunning I would just love if there were an Archetype that leaned entirely into that aesthetic. The abilities I linked from WoW are a great example of what I would love to see more of, grand and explosive Arcane magic with these intricate and stunning blue and pink runes with sparkling mana flying out of them. These abilities typically are also super hard-hitting abilities as well so it feels really nice and part of the fantasy to shoot out these huge spell effects that do a big chunk of damage and also continue to play into that Arcane magic fantasy of it being raw magic. As a result, the buttons are super satisfying to use because of how amazing and unique they look when they go out.Arcane Abilities in WoW
https://x.com/arcanistsaphras/status/1806930480253587746
I am also a HUGE fan of celestial/lunar magic, I have an obsession with Moon Goddesses in any form of media so when I can have spells that reflect that moon worship I am elated. Specifically in WoW Balance Druids have access to abilities like Moonfire, Star Fall, Convoke the Spirits, Starsurge, and Fury of Elune which I adore. The aesthetic of these abilities is stunning and always feels great to press. Convoke the Spirits is really interesting since it fires out random abilities within its channel time. (linked below) Fury of Elune is super neat because it's a beam of moonlight that you call down on your target that follows them for its duration and deals ticking damage, almost like a space laser but lunar. And of course, Star Fall is AMAZING as an AOE ability that puts a giant ring around yourself, and for its duration, it rains down stars on any targets within the radius of the circle around you, it is STUNNING.
Convoke the Spirits
https://x.com/arcanistsaphras/status/1725975316537938403
Blizzard recently added another STUNNING lunar/celestial-themed ability to Plunderstorm called Celestial Barrage. This ability is not only gorgeous but is insanely satisfying to press, it's a charge-up ability so you hold down its key bind. During its charge-up duration, you can free float in the air which adds to the power and fantasy of this ability.
Celestial Barrage from Plunderstorm
https://x.com/arcanistsaphras/status/1881207497970831490