Blazing the Way - Mage Alpha One Preview

✨ Are you ready to rain raw destruction on your foes? 🔥

Meet the Mage and find out more about their might from level 1-10 in our Alpha One Preview: https://ashesofcreation.com/news/2020-12-23-blazing-the-way-mage-alpha-one-preview

https://youtu.be/lQo1WK0HkcI

Find more posts tagged with

Staff

Comments

Behague

I liked it all. But if it was a Dwarf doing it, then I think it'd look funny.

Wandering Mist

Behague wrote: »

I liked it all. But if it was a Dwarf doing it, then I think it'd look funny.

Or an Orc haha

Behague

Swooping elegant movements, best saved for the humans and elves. I expect dwarfs and orcs mages to almost go brute-ishly hurling fireballs. Maybe even burping prismatic beams.

Percimes

Two things that need some tweaking in my opinion are the size of some effects (blink comes to my mind, a bit too big) and the duration (they seamed to be more or less all of equal length).

Lore Dynamic

I had a few thoughts:

1. "Fireball" - So, if this is a basic spell, the animation seems like a bit 'too much.' The character model levitates, then spins in a 360 degree circle, blindly throwing the fireball at at the target.

(Now, I would like to stop and say that I DO appreciate the work the animators are putting into the spells. And the animation shouldn't be canned. But maybe just switched to a spell that would be used less often?)

The reason why is; if this is an early-game spell and is used often by Mages....sure, it might look fine with 1 person casting it here or there. But imagine 5, or 10 mages or more in a raid, or world boss fight, or defending/attacking a caravan. All popping up and down like Mexican Jumping Beans. It would look silly, not dramatic or cool.

"Lightning Bolt" (by comparison) is much simpler and straight forward. I personally would prefer using Lightning Bolt over Fireball, simply to avoid looking goofy. (personal preference) /shrug

2. "Black Hole" - I love that sound! Did you guys hear that?! It's like a super low treb sound. Nice touch!

3. "Drain Essence" - Okay, now this one was weird to me from a timing issue for the animations. In the animation; he shoots a beam. Then when it ends; he levitates for a second. Then there's a burst of dark purple smoke and he lands on his feet.

This seems out of order.

It feels like it should be: Quick levitate to draw in power --> burst of dark-purple smoke --> drops and fires beam.

4. "Blink" - This is biggest one I think some Mages would have a problem with. I LOVE the warp-hole animation that he escapes INTO. But...I don't like (even though I understand logically why it's happening) that a second warp-hole opens for him to escape OUT from.

Here's the problem with the second warp-hole; it telegraphs exactly WHERE the mage exited.

Isn't one on the key components as to why Mages use Blink; is to escape from danger/harm? Blink is suppose to disorient their attacker, confuse them. The Mage suddenly disappears! Where is he/she? Where did they go? The attacker begins frantically looking around in each direction to try and locate the Mage.

But with a plainly obvious and visible 2nd warp-hole opening, there is no mistaking exactly where the mage is now.

Am I wrong in this thinking? I don't play Mage much in MMOs, but whenever I fought them, not knowing where they landed after their Blink, was scary. Because they could be launching a nuke any second, before I had a chance to find them again. If I knew right where they were after a blink, it would be less of a threat.

In a PvP oriented game, I personally would prefer the 2nd warp-hole to be less obvious or veto'd entirely.

Anyways, those are my thoughts.

CakeBanditJr

Ralms wrote: »

I've provided this feedback on Youtube comments, however I felt it would be interesting to also start a thread here on the forums so see if others share a similar opinion.

The following feedback is regarding the recent video from Intrepid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQo1WK0HkcI

Whoever is the animator of these skills, has a clear addiction with skills that make you jump or float.... Way too much and feels unnatural.
I know it's alpha and I'm sure it will be improved, however it's something I've noticed lately is that the skills animations are not taking into consideration combos and fight fluidity, they don't chain with each other.
And mostly due to the very long floating stuff.
For example, "Fireball", it's just a fireball, you have all that build up as the character is about to drop a crazy AoE, but then just a measly fireball...

Also Mages use Robes, not metal armor .

Overall here is my feedback and opinion on the skills presented on this video:
0:29 Fireball: The jumping / floating is too much, have the fire build up on the chars hands and shoot, make the animations a bit quicker.

0:42 Lightning bolt: Love it, nice and short, sudden like electricity.

0:48 Black Hole: The jump once more unnecessary, I would rather see the character stay grounded use his hands as he was forming an imaginary sphere, which matches the big dark sphere showing up near the enemies.

1:00 Drain Essence: It's ok, meh. My main criticism is that you are draining, however the ray animation is towards the enemy, it's contradictory, it should be the opposite, like you are sucking energy from the enemy.

1:15 Blink: Overall love it, just too much smoke on the arrival. The first animation of entering the portal is spot on, 10/10, so maybe consider inverting it, making the arrival location start with the energy sparkles and the portal showing up quickly without smoke.

1:26 Lava Storm: Overall like it. The jump/ floating makes sense here and adds more impact specially being an AoE skill. What I would improve is on the ground animation right now looks more like an eruption rather then a storm, as such consider making the lava splatters on the ground smaller and higher in number, having some falling rocks or lava drips as it would be raining lava, matching the lava splatter on the ground.

1:38 Meteor Storm: I'm confused about this one, as its almost the same thing as Lava Storm. The falling "Meteors" are way too big. Maybe save this one for a higher level? And instead of having 3 meteors just call it Meteor and have a big AoE rock fall from the sky. After all a Meteor naturally gets on fire when falling thru the atmosphere.

1:50 Prismatic Beam: Love how it looks, but make the big splatter animation on the character hands like 60% the size of what it is now. It's too big. The energy beam looks really cool.

I would love to hear from your guys, if you agree with me or what is your opinion about these skills.

Thank you and looking forward to trying Ashes one day.

Best Regards,
Ralm

I have to agree with most of what you stated. I like your take on Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Black Hole, Drain Essence, Meteor Storm and Prismatic Beam.

I somewhat agree on the Blink with inverting it but I like the smoke BUT with a reduced smoke effect.

Lava Storm should be more like "Lava Eruption" based on what the ability does. Maybe have the character use his/her hands to "call up" a lava eruption from the ground because as is, it is too similar to Meteor Storm.

SocialSatyr

Ralms wrote: »

Whoever is the animator of these skills, has a clear addiction with skills that make you jump or float.... Way too much and feels unnatural.
I know it's alpha and I'm sure it will be improved, however it's something I've noticed lately is that the skills animations are not taking into consideration combos and fight fluidity, they don't chain with each other.

I was gonna write up a longer feedback post... then I saw Ralm had pretty much already written it for me.

The only place my feed back seems to take a turn is that a lot of the skills feel very... Superhero-y. I feel like this iteration of the mage plays less like a master of arcane forces, and more like an acrobatic showman. The animations, with the exception of prismatic beam, seem to almost try to overcompensate the toned down effects of skills themselves with flashy flourishes and physical displays that ultimately downplay the impact and visual weight of the skills themselves.

maouw

Oh nice, I'm gonna yoink @Ralms format
Here's a template for anyone else who wants to do the same:

[list]
[*] 0:29 Fireball - 
[*] 0:42 Lightning Bolt - 
[*] 0:48 Black Hole - 
[*] 1:00 Drain Essence - 
[*] 1:15 Blink - 
[*] 1:26 Lava Storm - 
[*] 1:38 Meteor Storm -
[*] 1:50 Prismatic Beam -
[/list]

0:29 Fireball - jump and spin is too much (maybe for a crit? if magic can crit)
0:42 Lightning Bolt - I don't like the sound fx (I know it's placeholder but it's a huge part of the electric element), electricity has a crackly burst sound. Can I suggest the entire flavour of the electrical element move toward crackling electricity with an extremely bursty feel? See here for reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cM8P6-aAf4

https://youtu.be/NgGaXrkzttI?t=210
I think Genshin Impact did a really good job of capturing the temporal essence of electricity - especially in Lisa's skills:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YP9edtpgQM
For lower levels, can you make the electric skills much shorter with less lingering sparks, but increase the lingering effects of electrical skills at higher levels? Almost as if high level electric skills ionize the air like lightning does.
0:48 Black Hole - The black hole looks great! I'd like it more if the caster's fx were a colour closer to the blackhole itself. Also, a skill like this doesn't fit a beginner skill. I'm interested to see how this will work against other players trying to get away.
1:00 Drain Essence - The beam is channelling in the wrong direction, we should see mana being sucked from the target, not toward the target.
1:15 Blink - There is WAY too much happening for blink. it's needs to be simpler (and faster, I'd argue) - remove the particles and the smoke and just the warping ripple effect is enough, I reckon. I'd also suggest blink can be used to interrupt other spells - kindof like an emergency I-need-to-get-out-of-the-way spell.
1:26 Lava Storm - the hitbox for this skill needs more visual clarity. The fx on the ground are dated - would prefer bubbling lava or pockets of earth protruding from the ground. Also lava storm (as a skill name) sounds more intense than this spell is, but this spell looks appropriate for low levels. As for the casting animation, is there an animation where you punch the floor? I feel that would be more appropriate.
1:38 Meteor Storm - I think cut out the object thrown into the sky. It's awkward. Throwing things directly above the caster makes more sense for skills that are centred around the caster. This skills is looking good.
1:50 Prismatic Beam - The effects around the caster are too big, and the squiggles from the beam are too squiggly, can you make them softer curves? This skill still has a bit too much going on. Especially for a beginner skill.

Overall, I still feel we have too many sparks being sprayed everywhere.
To put it in precise technical terms: please turn down the lifespan of particles that are generated unless it's a high level spell.

Sum12hate

So are these skills target locked, skill shot or both? Just curious because with the animation behind fireball I feel like a proper timed roll should allow you to dodge I hate the idea of all skills being homing

RpgFanatic96

Its great that the movements of these skills are so fluid, a shout out to the animation team is in order here!
Admittedly some of the flashiness such as the jumps and special effects seem slightly excessive for lower levelled spells - but just imagine how much effort goes in to the higher tiered spells if this is what we start out with! Overall, I am very impressed with what I am seeing here.
There is a great attention to detail in these animations and I honestly cannot wait to see more examples of movement in skill activation - provided that it suits the skill being cast.

krakazilla

I think the effekts are not to much. As a long time Guild Wars 2 player I figured that nice animations go a long way in the longrun, but i think there should be a bit more Variation in the movement. Maybe 3 sligthly different movement types especially for the abilitys which are used more often. Also just build in a Setting for disabeling animations/sounds from other players, that ist quite helpfull if you and 50 other Players are sitting in the same Spot and try to fight

Keern

Liniker wrote: »

It was mentioned in earlier References that animation locks, would only happen in a few exceptions, for what we've seen so far in regards to Cleric, and Mages abilities, there are plenty of animation locks, especially with all those jumping/flying animations even for casting a fireball, and I was wondering if this is something that is now intended as part of the combat..

I understand that there will be a combat revamp happening in March, however, those animations are being showcased now, and that makes me think they are here to stay, although they look cool, in my opinion, they make combat really stiff, I would love to see this change and have animations to be shorter, removed, or just the possibility to cast while moving, (maybe even by enhancing a skill) which for sure would make combat more dynamic.

I agree with you, what the first guy said @Ralms and anyone who is against many animation locks. Fluidity of combat for me does involve more movement and animation locking only for powerful exceptions. Personally I like to play/control my character not watch him cast.

If the previewed skill change drastically enough with leveling in said direction I think the current combat is actually good thing. if combat is slow and a bit static at first for lower levels it might help new players ease into the combat. Additionally it will feel great to upgrade skills if with higher level they become more fluid fast and movement oriented.

DanAdams

Ralms wrote: »

I've provided this feedback on Youtube comments, however I felt it would be interesting to also start a thread here on the forums so see if others share a similar opinion.

The following feedback is regarding the recent video from Intrepid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQo1WK0HkcI

Whoever is the animator of these skills, has a clear addiction with skills that make you jump or float.... Way too much and feels unnatural.
I know it's alpha and I'm sure it will be improved, however it's something I've noticed lately is that the skills animations are not taking into consideration combos and fight fluidity, they don't chain with each other.
And mostly due to the very long floating stuff.
For example, "Fireball", it's just a fireball, you have all that build up as the character is about to drop a crazy AoE, but then just a measly fireball...

Also Mages use Robes, not metal armor .

Overall here is my feedback and opinion on the skills presented on this video:
0:29 Fireball: The jumping / floating is too much, have the fire build up on the chars hands and shoot, make the animations a bit quicker.

0:42 Lightning bolt: Love it, nice and short, sudden like electricity.

0:48 Black Hole: The jump once more unnecessary, I would rather see the character stay grounded use his hands as he was forming an imaginary sphere, which matches the big dark sphere showing up near the enemies.

1:00 Drain Essence: It's ok, meh. My main criticism is that you are draining, however the ray animation is towards the enemy, it's contradictory, it should be the opposite, like you are sucking energy from the enemy.

1:15 Blink: Overall love it, just too much smoke on the arrival. The first animation of entering the portal is spot on, 10/10, so maybe consider inverting it, making the arrival location start with the energy sparkles and the portal showing up quickly without smoke.

1:26 Lava Storm: Overall like it. The jump/ floating makes sense here and adds more impact specially being an AoE skill. What I would improve is on the ground animation right now looks more like an eruption rather then a storm, as such consider making the lava splatters on the ground smaller and higher in number, having some falling rocks or lava drips as it would be raining lava, matching the lava splatter on the ground.

1:38 Meteor Storm: I'm confused about this one, as its almost the same thing as Lava Storm. The falling "Meteors" are way too big. Maybe save this one for a higher level? And instead of having 3 meteors just call it Meteor and have a big AoE rock fall from the sky. After all a Meteor naturally gets on fire when falling thru the atmosphere.

1:50 Prismatic Beam: Love how it looks, but make the big splatter animation on the character hands like 60% the size of what it is now. It's too big. The energy beam looks really cool.

I would love to hear from your guys, if you agree with me or what is your opinion about these skills.

Thank you and looking forward to trying Ashes one day.

Best Regards,
Ralm

Totally agree with the comments on the aesthetics here above^. I think at this point actual gameplay is more important, with respect to this I have two main points :

1. Some of these skills feel a bit strong for a level 1-10, if you want to have a sense of "growing in power as you level" I think skills like Black Hole, Meteor Storm, Lava Storm, and Prismatic Beam should be saved for later levels... e.g 17+

2. Maybe give us an idea about which of these have a cast time, I mean its hard to distinguish between animations and casting times in this video.

In Ashes We Hope.
Dan

ariatras

Too many effects, I assume you cannot cast (with cast time) and move at the same time. So don't make the mage do it in the animation

Too much floating. Fireball is way too over the top.

Animations should be more like the lightning one.

Demidreamer

I for one like where the animations are at. If anything I feel that the lightning bolt is a bit disappointing, but subtle has it uses in combat too. I find myself wanting something akin to Big Trouble in Little China, with the Three Storms.
I don't understand why all the fuss. Spells traditionally required 3 components, one being a somatic element, verbal, and/or spell componet(focus).
Compared to casters rooted w/ glowy hands... come on now.

Love em loved the cleric's too.

Elo

I don't like the animation style. It reminds me of this...

Dreoh

rogonja wrote: »

No stun?

Please no, for the love of god stuns are the worst system in gaming.

Edit: To clarify, players being stunned is the worst common mechanic in gaming, stunning AI is fine, whoever originally thought "let's remove this persons interactivity from this interactive medium" made a huge mistake.

Kiluvian

There is so much I want to say, I had so much hope for this game, and it's just irreparably ruined now. Too much high fantasy at the early stages of the game, this is the mistake that sealed the fate of this game.

Ralms

kiluvian wrote: »

There is so much I want to say, I had so much hope for this game, and it's just irreparably ruined now. Too much high fantasy at the early stages of the game, this is the mistake that sealed the fate of this game.

I'm sorry mate, but you are overreacting a fair bit.
We barely have any content done, it's an alpha, things change a lot.

The best thing you can do in hopes of getting the development path a bit closure to your liking, is to provide good and constructive feedback.
Don't just say something sucks, instead say why it sucks and how would you do it better!

We are all humans here, including the dev team, that regardless of what some might think of them, they have a really challenging task in front of them and they are trying.
They will not get it right the first time, or the second and maybe not even the third, but eventually with our feedback they will get it dialed for all of us to enjoy.

Again, it's really early stages of the game, have a little more faith, this is not Star Citizen where you spend 100$ and never get a game back.

Dreoh

kiluvian wrote: »

There is so much I want to say, I had so much hope for this game, and it's just irreparably ruined now. Too much high fantasy at the early stages of the game, this is the mistake that sealed the fate of this game.

I'm not even sure what you mean by "too much high fantasy"

If you're talking about all the over-exaggerated animations and effects, that's a pretty common sentiment around here.

It's like when someone has a shiny new tool and they get overly excited about the things it can do so they go beyond what is required and keep adding things that seem "cool" or "flashy" because they're so excited about what they can do
It's understandable because the game itself is almost a passion project for everyone involved so everyone gets passionate about making things as "amazing" as possible. Eventually they'll hopefully realize all these flashy additions are taking away from the immersion/aesthetic.

Child Item