📝 Dev Discussion - Archetype Vibe Check

Braxtin

Ive played Fighter, Rogue, Archer and Bard.

Bard was least favorite then archer, Both just not my playstyle, I got both to level 15 and stoped as I wasnt having fun playing them.

Fighter was my favorite and then Rouge, although Fighter needs alot of work, but I still had fun.

Make the fighter like the Darkrunner in Archage. Very high mobility, CC breaks, target CC and Burst damage. Also please remove the animation locks from leap and the momentum when switching stances.

Bribzy

Which archetype do you find the most fun to play? Why?
Rogue, Bard, Tank

Rogue
Extremely diverse class with multiple build options. Lots of interactive gameplay and diverging choice during combat. Lots of mobility options and conditional skill usage make for a very fun class.

Bard
Similarly diverse class, with reasons to swap skills depending on party and comp. Feels like skills have more intent and increasingly matter depending on whom the bard is partied with. Mobility options are similarly very fun to play with.

Tank
Despite my problems with the class (more below), Tank is really fun in a PvE context. At least when building for power with your gear. Crit power builds are very entertaining, and feeling like a juggernaut simultaneously a bit more tanky than most, while dishing out decent damage, is a rewarding feeling.

Which archetype do you find the least fun to play? Why?
Tank.

Specifically, PvE tank. Blocking is borked, and feels worthless. Grit luckily got put back into a place that is no longer strenuous to play, but isn't ideal. Tanks not only have a terrible time with general gameplay (losing more glint than others, higher gear repairs, more xp debt than others), but also are oftentimes put into situations that are more dangerous. Not to mention the fact that tanks share CC internal cooldowns with other classes, making tank CC skills oftentimes fairly untrustworthy.
Tanks also struggle to find a role as a secondary tank within a party. Shielding skills are far and few between, and only realistically are effective after the player gets access to the level 12 tier of skills. Even when a player has the ally-focused skills, they often are ineffective, and feel like the player isn't helping as much as other members might. This lackluster role also means that finding a party can be difficult as tanks are needed half as often than any other role.

Major points of difficulty:

• Grit is painful
• CCs are unreliable (shared internal CC cooldowns)
• No build variance (crit power or supportive options would be nice, alternatively armor or evasion could be nice)
• Affected by death penalties more harshly than other roles
• Blocking doesn't feel good

Are there any combat systems or mechanics you feel need more development or refinement? Please explain.
Blocking, Weapon Skills

Blocking
Unsure if shield benefits are currently working or not. Regardless, blocking has always felt lackluster. It formerly caused weapon combos to get cancelled and prevented finishers. This has been rectified, but it still causes stamina loss. It generally feels like the worse choice in a situation, and that movement or dodging is just ultimately more effective when necessary. Additionally, entering/exiting a block feels too slow to realistically thread attacks or skills, and successfully blocking an attack seems to do more harm than help in the long term, especially when elite creatures tend to burst a tank down even with blocking. Ends up feeling like a chore that, while fun as a mini-game, isn't currently beneficial to participate in. Would love to see something to rectify this, whether its class-specific skills for counterattacks, perfect blocks, or something else, or just generally accessible options in the stamina tree.

Weapon Skills
Just feels like a bunch of passive effects. Gaining a weapon level rarely feels like an exciting moment. As is, every skill point option feel cryptic, and don't feel like a valuable choice after selected. As a whole, every weapon tree feels the same, and generally feel very same-y between players and archetypes. At most, individual weapons feel as if they are picked as stat sticks, with the most amount of purpose being their attack speed and primary/secondary gear stat.

During group combat or grinding sessions, do you feel any core features or gameplay elements are missing or underdeveloped? If yes, please describe.
Internal CC cooldowns feel like an underdeveloped system. There is very little indication when a CC fails to apply, and overlapping often leads to frustration or confusion.
Besides this, most systems feel fine.

Mario_De_Luco

Ok listen up, I play a tank, when I'm not tanking I'm getting geared up to tank.

Love the class name for your tanking class btw.

We need to make this class great, unlike other games we only have 1 tank class.

Now, I love the classic feel but we need to cut the girly shit and man up...

The charge ability, feels like I'm a fairy floating around, I need to be stomping the ground on my way to the unlucky foe.

When I get to this said foe, I need to pound fuck him with a shield slam... Hard.
- My idea here
Once I reach the enemy, change the charge button to a potential follow up attack, ie leg sweep, jumping 360 shield slam, war stomp.. you get the idea.
Don't add another keybind we have enough, maybe to many. Just augment the charge to a 2 or even 3 attack combo.

Also the dwarf heavy armor makes me look fat, fix that or I'm not playing your glorious dwarf.

That's it for now, I'm on the throne and my time is up. Love the game, keep it up, you guys kick ass.

kormva

What archetype do find the most fun to play? Why?

• So far I've only played Ranger and Tank, with a brief time playing a Fighter. Of the three, Fighter was the most engaging. Even in early levels it flowed much more smoothly than Ranger or Tank. As a solo player, the Ranger's kit is well suited for kiting enemies, which felt good, but took a while to gather the tools to provide rewarding gameplay. Fighter just starts good, and I hear it stays consistently good. I will be maining Fighter in Phase III.

Which archetype do you find the least fun to play? Why?

• Currently playing a tank. So far its the one I enjoy the least. While it does have the tools to fulfill its role as a chonky damage sponge that can generate threat on demand, it doesn't feel like it flows well in combat. Tanks have precisely ONE unique Abilities designed for reactively mitigate damage: Reflect. I don't count Vengeance's 3rd hit stun as reactive since its usually too slow to effectively use as an interrupt for spells. Most of the rest of their abilities feel redundant as they just feel like the same short-range, high-threat, frontal cone AoE smash, but with different particle FX, and tracked by separate cooldowns. They need a more effective variety of tools and ability ranges.
• I've seen someone else mention on here that the current Iteration of Tank is only capable of being a "soak" tank, and that it doesn't feel like its capable of delivering on the "avoidance" tank fantasy. Parry mechanics seem popular in modern games, perhaps that is an avenue worth exploring?

Are there any combat systems or mechanics you feel need more development or refinement? Please explain.

• Blocking & Dodging. Dodging helped make my Ranger and Fighter feel more slippery, it provides movement in combat that has a tendency towards Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots style combat. Blocking feels quite bad despite being mechanically the same thing, just without movement, and I think its because Dodging changes the tactical situation of the moment, whereas Blocking does not because it limits movement instead by its reduction of movement speed.
• I think that Blocking and Dodging could feel better if classes had unique interactions with these mechanics. Perhaps successfully Blocking empowers the next ability? Perhaps successfully Dodging an attack makes the next spell or ability instant-cast or makes the next cast free? Each class could have different ways to tweak these bonuses to the flavor of the class. Tanks in particular would benefit from a deeper dive into this as damage mitigation is literally their purpose.

During group combat or grinding sessions, do you feel any core features or gameplay elements are missing or underdeveloped? if yes, please describe.

• I am a mostly solo, casual player, so take what I say what I say here with a grain of salt. Probably several.
• The few group grind sessions I had felt quite cyclical, and not in a good way. The groups were constantly on the move, the group formation stays the same way, and there's very little disruption to the formation in the form of AoEs. It feels like I'm AFK while farming since there's nothing to react to other than the group developing a circuit pathway between enemy groups, or a safe spot would be found, and enemies pulled to that one spot. The pacing is not dictated by the combat encounters themselves, the pacing is dictated by the respawn timers . If the respawn timer is more influential on group movement than the enemies themselves, things are stale. However, if this is different in 20+ encounters, please disregard.

Cheers,
KormVA