The Gift of Life - Cleric Alpha One Preview

💖 Can you master the balance between life and death? ☠

Meet the Cleric and learn more about the power they wield from level 1-10 in our Alpha One preview: https://ashesofcreation.com/news/2020-11-02-the-gift-of-life-cleric-alpha-one-preview

https://youtu.be/7AHwGp-t27M

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Damokles

Atama wrote: »

I admit that I loved using levitate on my WoW priest, just because I could.

Especially when you use it on your allies to make them float down a cliff or into lava... OR BOTH!

Lanandaz

My first mmo I remember playing a cleric in EQ1 before the first expansion. My favorite part was you could heal the dead and in turn it did dmg. They did end up getting rid of it but that was the best implementation of a healer doing dmg i think I can remember. That was the last time I ever tried playing a healer as it had such an impact on how it should work it was never the same. You heal and cleanse the dead nothing more nothing less.

Khronus

I am asking this honestly. Is it just me or do the animations we saw from the cleric video just look really terrible? I get that we are far away and a lot of work needs to be done still. My main complaint (and I have not complained one single time about anything AoC has delivered as I have loved everything else so far) is that it just looked extremely over the top in both flashy effects as well as character movement. Arms flailing while casting and bright gold sparks just didn't sit well with me.

Now, before you flame me. I know that the majority of us are die hard fans already so don't hate on me too bad. I'm just imagining as a tank doing some really funky movements and seeing grey sparks fly everywhere. Yikes.

Atama

You must not have read the original thread on the Cleric skills.

https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/47175/cleric-abilities-discussion/p1

1) Yes everyone agrees, but,

2) The animations are placeholders.

Vhaeyne

I don't think the animations looked awful. A step above a lot of games. Nothing crazy. Being locked to that white/gold holy look is a little cringe, for cleric specifically. Clerics in my mind worship a wide range of gods. The holy aesthetic might not make sense for everyone. For most games I would give them a pass on this, but with ashes having some roots in pathfinder/d&d. I expect clerics to not be so mono flavored.

I have not heard anything about the religion system changing the way your spells look, but I would welcome that. Even if it was just hue adjustments.

Taleof2Cities

Atama wrote: »

You must not have read the original thread on the Cleric skills.

https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/47175/cleric-abilities-discussion/p1

1) Yes everyone agrees, but,

2) The animations are placeholders.

Totally agree.

Steven said (more than once) that the animations aren't the finished product.

Debating the animation aesthetics at this point is moot ...

Vhaeyne

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Debating the animation aesthetics at this point is moot ...

It's not moot if the DEVs are reading the forums. You never know what someone on here could say that might be a fresh prospective that resonates with the DEVs. Someone could point something simple out that once seen can't be unseen. There is room for some optimism here.

Atama

Vhaeyne wrote: »

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Debating the animation aesthetics at this point is moot ...

It's not moot if the DEVs are reading the forums. You never know what someone on here could say that might be a fresh prospective that resonates with the DEVs. Someone could point something simple out that once seen can't be unseen. There is room for some optimism here.

Agreed, it's not moot.

Let's say a spell has a guy waving his hands around and then an explosion of golden fire. If people say that the hand-waving is neat but the explosion is too bright, that's useful. In another spell, maybe they got the colors and brightness just right but the animation is awkward and one person points out it looks like he's scratching his back. Even if the developers are planning to change them, it helps to know what people are objecting to.

In this case, though, we were explicitly told that the effects are much brighter and bigger than they will be. They've only had one "pass" and those settings are essentially the default, they haven't been tuned yet. So at least that one particular criticism is somewhat moot.

daveywavey

With the exception of "Devotion", I actually quite liked them...

Don't hate me, either...!

Khronus

Thanks for the feedback! I honestly haven't had time lately to follow much of what has been released but I saw this video and hopped on the forums with this thought. I didn't HATE what they showed us but it just made me cringe a little haha. I cannot stress enough how much I appreciate this community/forum for always being able to give me a different perspective from my own views in a positive way.

Vanqor

There is nothing "placeholder" about the animations or VFX.
I don't know if the misuse of the term stems from players not knowing what it means or having false expectations.

What you see in the video is some iteration X of the skills. Like everything iterative, they will refine it based on feedback and testing, both internally and externally. One skill might need 5 iterations to get right, another 50.

Steven have said several times that when they open for Alpha 1 and lift the NDA, they want to show stuff that is reasonably polished, based on earlier experiences when people go mental over e.g. animations that are shown 3 months into the project.

We can therefore assume that they are reasonably happy, at this point, with what we see in the video.
Genereally there have been a lot of comments on too much VFX, also in previous gameplay viedos, which Intrepid seems to be aware of and will probably scale down, at least in larger battles

The right expectation to have is: some of the skills might change radically before launch, some might end up more or less as they are now.

Giving feedback now is OK. But probably Alpha 1 will be a better time, and I expect little will change before then.

Pvp player

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Atama wrote: »

You must not have read the original thread on the Cleric skills.

https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/47175/cleric-abilities-discussion/p1

1) Yes everyone agrees, but,

2) The animations are placeholders.

Totally agree.

Steven said (more than once) that the animations aren't the finished product.

Debating the animation aesthetics at this point is moot ...

Yes, animations are iterative and they might get a couple of "passes" before they resemble the finished product ultimately, but still, you can kinda tell there's the tendency among the animation team to make animations that have a rather long "cast time".

It's better to give feedback on that now than to wait for them to churn out hundreds of these long ass animations. It's pretty far from "moot" any way.

LieutenantToast

Hiya! Since we'd love to gather your continued feedback on what we showed off in our early Cleric preview all in one place, I went ahead and merged a few separate threads into the original topic

please feel free to keep sharing your thoughts here in the main thread!

Lughlaoch

The character modeling and all around graphics look amazing. So excited! The list of spells provided seem appropriate and expected...a bit sparkly/fireworky/yellowy, but all can be changed if necessary at a later time - many MMORPGs change those types of visuals throughout the life of the game and certainly not a deal-breaker considering the other positive aspects.

I've ALWAYS enjoyed playing CLERIC-type characters. Usually I take a priest/paladin class and incorporate as much as possible the "hammer-of-justice" feel. I do agree with some of what has been said here about the CLERIC and they're propensity for violence or death-causing abilities; or lack of. Typically we expect a "man-of -the-cloth" and "do-no-harm" kinda person, to, um, not outright attack another being. (CLERIC is a Muslim and/or Catholic CLERGY reference).

Many Prayer, Bless, Bestow Curse-type spells at low levels, where only higher levels afforded abilities such as Harm, Slay Living , Cause Wounds, Flame Strike, aka harmful spells (DnD references) and/or difficult to accomplish abilities such as Resurrection-to be saved for the most advanced CLERIC.

Spells invoking a diety's wrath such as: smite, eradicate, flames, wrath, etc. and always OF HEAVEN or THE GODS, or something divinely celestial conjure images of priestly/cleric-types and would be available in limited skill lines at mid-high level.

Also, abilities which derive from a "spirit/karma, conscious, life force-type" origin, like a Conjured Spirit Hammer (aka, the spear ability) are in line with Clerics for sure.

The class should not share abilities with other main class-types until the sub-class is chosen for sure. As I understand, A Cleric-fighter would then acquire abilities from the Fighter line. AWESOME! Meaning, fighters should not be able to resurrect players and/or heal players.

Do you feel like you have enough of a choice between opting to specialize deeply in just a few skills versus broadening your knowledge with a wider variety? Personally, OPTIONS. However, if it takes 20 skill points to reach the Resurrection ability (aka, specializing deeply) in that line and then a wide variety of other skills superficially, I'm all for it. OR let's say a Slay Living (immediate eradication of foe) which is 25 skill points deep in a line, but maybe I cannot learn resurrection since a CLERIC that slays the living has lost their favor with their god and the ability to raise the dead...that's cool.

As you and your abilities grow more powerful, what stands out to you as problematic or unexciting?
->WHAT I DON'T WANT TO SEE IS ABILITIES THAT HAVE NO EFFECT WHEN THEY'RE NEEDED THE MOST - AKA BOSS MOBS AND HIGH LEVEL MOBS. I'm so bored with that mechanic in MMORPGs. If I cast the super-duper massive kill-all spell ultimate on the 10-story tall village destroying creature from the depth of hades, I want it to work! At least with the mechanics available for resist, armor, etc. But just an arbitrary "Sorry, didn't work!" does NOT make me feel powerful and is boring. Imagine a quarterback suddenly, in the final seconds of the game, when his team is about to win, losing the ability to throw a football. What? Now, the same quarterback that makes the hail-mary pass and wins the game with seconds to spare(aka, the player who saved the day). Much more exciting and epic. One scenario is problematic and unexciting, the other powerful! The exhilaration of the game comes from success and the chance of it instead of the fear/possibility of dying and wiping.

Overall, I think the direction I've seen in videos and on the site is perfection. The node system seems, in concept, incredible. I'm excited to play and have no problem subbing a game with this much content.

Bloodspirit

This is a great introduction to spell animations. They were all very fluid and I'm not gonna go crazy and start nick-picking them like others because their appearances and speed will be tweaked.

I can't wait to see more... HURRY UP AOC! =P

Absolut

Can't wait for Alpha Two to play

Dreoh

I'm not a fan at all of how non-mobile the spellcasting looks like it's going to be

Having to stand still to cast spells is a relic of the limitations of the past in gaming and am going to be severely disappointed if that's the direction casting will go. Mobile casting akin to GW2 or ESO is far more engaging and entertaining than FF14 or WoW's standing-still casting

Though I'm basing this off of the cast animations I'm seeing, and maybe they are actually mobile, though the obvious lack of any movement in these previews doesn't bode well

TheRealJakeman

I think this looks awesome. I currently main a discipline priest in WoW and am very much looking forward to the Cleric as a whole. My only feedback would be to consider turning down the sparkles, but other than that, the idea and overall concept seems to be a vindictive healing class (the spear and whip). I'm all for it!

Michael

Dreoh wrote: »

I'm not a fan at all of how non-mobile the spellcasting looks like it's going to be

Having to stand still to cast spells is a relic of the limitations of the past in gaming and am going to be severely disappointed if that's the direction casting will go. Mobile casting akin to GW2 or ESO is far more engaging and entertaining than FF14 or WoW's standing-still casting

Though I'm basing this off of the cast animations I'm seeing, and maybe they are actually mobile, though the obvious lack of any movement in these previews doesn't bode well

Also have to take into consideration that the combat system is no where near being the full hybrid system they aim to create. I'm sure there will be spells you have to stand still to cast, but also some you can use while being mobile.

Dreoh

Michael wrote: »

Dreoh wrote: »

I'm not a fan at all of how non-mobile the spellcasting looks like it's going to be

Having to stand still to cast spells is a relic of the limitations of the past in gaming and am going to be severely disappointed if that's the direction casting will go. Mobile casting akin to GW2 or ESO is far more engaging and entertaining than FF14 or WoW's standing-still casting

Though I'm basing this off of the cast animations I'm seeing, and maybe they are actually mobile, though the obvious lack of any movement in these previews doesn't bode well

Also have to take into consideration that the combat system is no where near being the full hybrid system they aim to create. I'm sure there will be spells you have to stand still to cast, but also some you can use while being mobile.

That's very true, I just wish they'd clarify these kinds of things in these preview videos and stuff. Even a simple "Early version of Cleric abilities effects showcase" would help, because it would clarify that they're showing off JUST the effects, and not necessarily any gameplay mechanics

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