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Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about 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.
Class Name Shorthand/Abbreviations - Predictions?
Verus
Member, Alpha Two
Given the array of 64 classes and the nature of language, the playerbase is bound to start referring to classes in short-form. People will not remember the name of 64 classes, they are too cumbersome to type in full each time, and the pertinent data is the archetype combination. What do you predict players will start referring to classes by?
The most data-compact and practical way, I would predict, might be simply using the first letters of the archetypes in the appropriate order to communicate effectively. For example, BT for Bard-Tank, which is a Siren. This method's one challenge is that Rogue and Ranger share a first letter, but this can be resolved by using the shortest form to differentiate the two, such as Ro for Rogue and Ra for Ranger. This would result in RaT for Ranger-Tank.
What would you prefer, reader?
The most data-compact and practical way, I would predict, might be simply using the first letters of the archetypes in the appropriate order to communicate effectively. For example, BT for Bard-Tank, which is a Siren. This method's one challenge is that Rogue and Ranger share a first letter, but this can be resolved by using the shortest form to differentiate the two, such as Ro for Rogue and Ra for Ranger. This would result in RaT for Ranger-Tank.
What would you prefer, reader?
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Comments
When TL added names to the weapon combinations, I was sure those weren't gonna 'take', too many to remember, not all of them sound cool, are short, or sometimes even 'make sense'.
But then I experienced the fact that a lot of those combinations have very specific conceptual roles in combat, and that brought it back to MOBA levels of 'actually learning most of the names' (not for me, I tend to do that anyway, but for a lot of other people I encountered, they also did). People literally use the terms even in usual chat, but only in the cases where the distinction is important (and the name is cool and distinctive and not annoying like the Templar/Paladin distinction).
So I'm sorta expecting the same from Ashes eventually and I don't mind it. When someone only needs a general healer, they will just say/ask for 'Cleric' or even 'Cleric/X' or maybe even CLR/X if they came from a certain game type.
But if they need an Oracle or High Priest they might just type out the whole thing. Obv it helps if the name is shorter or cooler, and 'makes a semiphonic in your head', which usually means 'remove the vowels'.
Things I think we will 'hear' that are cool enough to just work:
TRX (Trickster), PLD (Pal, Pally, whatever), DLST, WPM (Weaponmaster, this one's a stretch, might get co-opted to WAR), Spellblade (TL players say the whole thing, makes sense sorta), Priest (No need to add High anyway, but they might), Assassin (probably the whole thing), Highsword, Apostle, Templar, Necro, Falconer.
Things I think aren't cool but will probably be there:
SMN/X, ROG/X, BRD/X, CLR/X, Mage/X, where X isn't 'Fighter', and sometimes not Tank.
Things I think are cool but don't expect anyone to actually say or abbreviate into a comfortable form:
Nightblade, Scryer, Bladedancer, Bladecaller, Argent, Guardian, Cultist
Things I biasedly think are not cool and basically no one will ever say outside of RP:
Shadow Disciple, Shadow Lord, Predator, Nightspell, Spellstone, Dreadnought (we MIGHT get DRD or DRN), most Mage-first combinations.
So I'm not actually expecting most of them to be used unless some of the names change. You'll get stuff like 'need RNG/DPS' in some form, or 'SMN/Support lfg', unless the build differences really matter, and then, interestingly, the names probably will matter less.
Fortunately it will probably not matter since off-meta spec or combos never get mentioned by name in LFG/World Chat, and neither do 'mostly interchangeable DPS builds', so it doesn't matter if your class name is 'Invocator' (from TL) or 'Song Warden' because no one cares enough.
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