Animation canceling
Animation cancelling will not be a combat mechanic in Ashes of Creation.[1][2]
- Players will be able to cancel channeled abilities.[1]
Dodging
Evasion moves such as dodging and weaving will be present in Ashes of Creation combat.[4][5][6]
- The developers are considering the inclusion of dodging in a subset of universal skills that apply to all classes.[7]
- Dodging will not use I-frames (invincibility frames), but it may affect accuracy and mitigation stats when used.[4]
- Previously it was stated that hybrid combat will likely have true evasion skills relating to action-oriented combat and also have I-frames that apply to tab targeting.[6]
- So you see an animation windup that's a telegraph on what's coming; and then you have response actions that you can take as a result of that in order to dodge, weave, move, do whatever. It is both a combination of what your rotation is but also how you have reaction abilities ready to go that you save for certain circumstances that are important.[5] – Steven Sharif
Active blocking
The shield version would probably be better but you'd still be able to parry or whatnot with a two-handed weapon, or even maybe a dual wield.[11] – Tradd Thompson
Active blocking is a universal skill that applies to all classes.[13][4][14][11][7]
- Active blocking is present in Alpha-2.[14][10][12] At present the developers are using a universal stamina-based energy system, but they will be testing the use of separate energy mechanics for universal skills in Alpha-2.[13][14][15][9][12]
- Active blocking might be an ability that- it's universal, of course it's universal- but it might be consuming mana; and you'll be able to adjust that mana consumption based off of your passive spec into your skill trees. In addition, it might also consume stamina, where that's something we're going to be testing as part of Alpha-2.[14] – Steven Sharif
- Shields are better for active blocking, but any melee weapon can also be used to parry with a lesser amount of mitigation.[4][11]
- Q: How are you designing encounters around active blocking? Will it be situational use, or would I expect to be laying on my block keybind for most of the fight to prevent getting deleted by bosses?
- A: It depends really on the type of adversary you're facing. Some of them are going to have indicators or tells that a big attack is coming. It's an animation wind up where you'll have an opportunity to use active block in very unique situations that are based on timing and additional mitigation for those incoming one-off attacks. In other occasions you'll be able to use it off of rotational cooldowns, or if you're waiting for a particular ability or you're during the use of your Aegis. There's different situations for when active block is a relevant use-case.[16] – Steven Sharif
- Some abilities may be able to overcome, surpass, or cancel active blocking.[13]
- If a player is in a state, such as an active block, or an active tumble state, there will likely be some types of abilities that interact with reacting to those types of states and will either overcome surpass or cancel out those states, particularly as it relates to not just active blocking, but also potentially passive blocking as well; and that would be something probably related to physical penetration values as a stat, or even CC breaks that could be relevant as well for those types of things. I think that's on the radar for the combat team.[13] – Steven Sharif
- Previously the developers had not finalized designs for active blocking and were leaning toward using more traditional buff-oriented universal damage mitigation for the MMO, and were also considering interaction between action-based blocking and a passive block stat.[17][18]
- The Paladin's Might shield in Ashes of Creation Apocalypse had its own hit box and hit points (HP); that could actively block projectiles.[19]
Interrupts
Abilities with a cast bar can be interrupted during the cast.[20]
- There are abilities to counter interrupts.
- Some interrupts are better than others.
![]() | This section contains information from Alpha-1 testing. It will be updated when new information is made available. |
Skill | Icon | Rank 1 | Rank 2 | Rank 3 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bulwark | ![]() |
Bash enemies in front of you twice. The second attack temporarily increases block chance. You must have a shield equipped to block.[21][22][23][24] | Additional increased block chance.[21][24] | The second attack knocks down enemies.[21][24] |
Rush | ![]() |
Rush toward a target; and upon reaching the target, deal an amount damage with a chance to knock the target down.[25] | - | - |
Thundershock | ![]() |
Shoots forward a beam of lightning that damages enemies in a line in front of you.[26][22][27] | Increased damage.[26][28] | Now knocks down hit targets.[26][28] |
Time to kill
The Ashes of Creation MMORPG will have a time-to-kill (TTK) of around 30 seconds to a minute.[29]
- Time-to-kill in the Ashes of Creation Apocalypse battle royale testing mode was adapted for a traditional battle royale setting.[29]
- The developers do not want one-shots in the final MMORPG.[30]
- In the MMORPG we really don't want to see any one-shots. The time-to-kill needs to be strategic and tactical.[30] – Steven Sharif
Gear inspection/ Threat assessment
You decide to gank the player, but find out that you have been ambushed![31]
Players will have a buff on their nameplate that indicates the gear set they are wearing. Other players will be able to see this buff by targeting that player at a distance.[32][33][34]
- This will indicate the type of armor (cloth, leather, plate) that they are predominantly wearing.[35][33]
- You can target a player. You're going to see what type of armor they have based on a buff they have available to them because obviously cosmetics can change appearance. You might have different silhouettes as a result of that.[35] – Steven Sharif
- The border will indicate the level and quality of the tier set.[32][33][36]
- The developers believe that inspecting gear to obtain an exact equipment list or gear score may lead to "unwelcome behavior".[38]
- When you see a player approaching you and they're wearing a transmog you don't know if that person is a high damage mitigation against physical damage or against magical damage and essentially the way we overcome that is through you being able to target a player at a distance and they will have a buff that's present on them that you will see, which indicates that essentially the piece set that they are wearing. It is important for players to be able to ascertain from a threat assessment standpoint what they're going up against if they're actively checking that, and that will be available.[34] – Steven Sharif
Crowd control
Crowd control (CC/mezzing) abilities include root, snare, stun, sleep and slow.[39][40]
- There will be diminishing returns on stuns, sleep and slows so as to avoid stun locking.[40][41]
- Diminishing returns on CC effects have not yet been implemented in Alpha-1 testing.[42]
Diminishing returns in regards to crowd control and conditions like stun and sleep and slows and that thing: Yes we will have absolutely diminishing returns. I think it's a necessary component to balance out classes that have high control ability.[40] – Steven Sharif
- Lockdowns won't likely be tab-targeted skills. This is to avoid imbalanced combos with skill shot (action targeted) abilities.[43]
- Hard CC's are stuns, knock downs, sleeps, paralysis, some roots, some silences.[44]
- Hard CCs may be housed in action oriented skills because they are skill shots that are more difficult to land.[45][43]
We're trying to stay away from hard locks as much as we possibly can. We want to have the system be very play, counter-play, counter-counter-play feel.[40] – Jeffrey Bard
- Soft CC's are in the tab-targeted abilities.[46]
- CC effects do not apply to Non-combatant (green) players. The target of a CC ability must be flagged in order to suffer the CC effects. This prevents players from opening attacks that stun non-combatant players during a pull for example.[47]
- Some crowd-control abilities can dismount a mounted player. In that case the mount would persist with its own health pool and other stats.[48]
There's also going to be effects that just stun the mount or stun you on the mount.[48] – Steven Sharif
- Summoner's summons will be able to use crowd control.[49]
Skill | Icon | Rank 1 | Rank 2 | Rank 3 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Chain Lightning | ![]() |
Release a powerful streak of lightning that hits your primary target and then chains outward to all nearby enemies from that target, dealing lightning damage and applying 3 stacks of Electrified to each target hit.[50][51][52] | - | - |
Chains of Restraint | ![]() |
Call forth spectral chains in a target area that stagger enemies within or stun enemies already under the staggered effect, then leave behind an area that deals radiant damage each second over 8 seconds.[53][54] | ||
Condemn | ![]() |
Stun target enemy for 3 seconds.[55][56] | ||
Fissure | ![]() |
Calls forth a series of jagged spikes of earth in a line in front of the caster, dealing earth damage and applying two stacks of Earthen to each enemy hit along its path, and then launching them in the air.[57] | - | - |
Grapple | ![]() |
Takes aim for a moment before hurling a hooked chain in a line, damaging the first target it contacts and immediately pulling them to the caster. The target suffers a tapering snare for 3 seconds.[58][59] | ||
Slumber | ![]() |
Applies the sleeping condition to targets affected within a small area around the primary target, rendering them unable to move or take any action. Any damage dealt to a sleeping target will break the effect. Duration is reduced by 20% for each additional target hit, to a minimum of 40% of base duration.[60][61][62] | - | - |
Tremoring Bellow | ![]() |
Releases a thundering shout in a forward cone, applying the staggered condition on enemy targets. Also stomps the ground dealing damage around the caster and tripping enemies affected by the snared condition.[63] |
Combat stances
The use of weapon stances in game is likely.[64]
RNG
RNG elements pertain to combat relating to stats such as Critical hit, Evasion, Blocking chance.[65]
- RNG plays a role in both PvP or PvE.[66]
- Action combat is far less dependent on RNG.[66]
RNG is always going to play a role in Ashes of Creation whether that be in PvP or PvE, but one way to mitigate that is through the action system. The action system is going to be far less sort of dependent on those dice rolls and there'll be far more in your own hands. They won't ever completely eliminate that but it's a way for us to sort of reward skilled play versus sort of tactical strategies type play.[66] – Jeffrey Bard
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Livestream, November 22, 2019 (1:09:37).
- ↑ Livestream, May 17, 2017 (1:05:11).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Livestream, August 28, 2020 (1:19:24).
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Livestream, January 27, 2023 (1:06:02).
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Livestream, June 30, 2022 (51:17).
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Livestream, January 30, 2020 (1:34:12).
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Livestream, November 19, 2021 (50:38).
- ↑ Livestream, June 26, 2020 (1:24:06).
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Livestream, December 2, 2022 (1:05:08).
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Video, January 27, 2023 (35:51).
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Video, December 2, 2022 (34:41).
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Video, December 2, 2022 (16:55).
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Livestream, September 29, 2023 (1:12:16).
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Video, January 27, 2023 (40:24).
- ↑ Livestream, January 27, 2023 (15:22).
- ↑ Livestream, January 27, 2023 (1:13:29).
- ↑ Livestream, September 24, 2021 (1:22:46).
- ↑ Livestream, June 26, 2020 (1:19:50).
- ↑
- ↑ Livestream, May 8, 2017 (43:30).
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 Alpha-1 screenshot.
- ↑ 22.0 22.1
- ↑ Video, February 9, 2021 (0:37).
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 Livestream, July 31, 2020 (1:14:26).
- ↑
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 Alpha-1 screenshot.
- ↑ Video, December 23, 2020 (0:40).
- ↑ 28.0 28.1 Livestream, October 16, 2017 (39:15).
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 Interview, October 20, 2018 (3:25:46).
- ↑ 30.0 30.1 Interview, October 20, 2018 (9:10).
- ↑ Twitter - Better luck next time.
- ↑ 32.0 32.1 Livestream, August 28, 2020 (2:07:26).
- ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 33.3 Livestream, July 25, 2020 (53:08).
- ↑ 34.0 34.1 Livestream, June 26, 2020 (1:28:10).
- ↑ 35.0 35.1 Podcast, September 29, 2021 (52:58).
- ↑ 36.0 36.1 Livestream, July 28, 2017 (1:34:55).
- ↑ Official Livestream - May 4th @ 3 PM PST - Q&A
- ↑ Livestream, July 28, 2017 (23:20).
- ↑ Livestream, October 16, 2017 (25:56).
- ↑ 40.0 40.1 40.2 40.3 Livestream, May 24, 2017 (45:12).
- ↑ Livestream, February 9, 2018 (28:17).
- ↑ Livestream, November 22, 2019 (1:06:25).
- ↑ 43.0 43.1 Livestream, 2018-04-8 (PM) (37:57).
- ↑
- ↑ Podcast, August 4, 2018 (1:11:05).
- ↑ Podcast, August 4, 2018 (1:11:52).
- ↑
- ↑ 48.0 48.1 48.2 Livestream, April 30, 2021 (1:08:10).
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ Video, May 31, 2023 (12:12).
- ↑ Video, April 28, 2023 (17:50).
- ↑ Video, July 28, 2023 (20:50).
- ↑
- ↑ Video, July 28, 2023 (29:23).
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ Video, March 31, 2023 (9:55).
- ↑ Video, January 27, 2023 (10:27).
- ↑ Video, September 29, 2023 (11:23).
- ↑
- ↑ Video, April 28, 2023 (17:22).
- ↑ Video, January 27, 2023 (7:28).
- ↑ Livestream, June 28, 2019 (1:19:00).
- ↑ Livestream, May 30, 2017 (16:25).
- ↑ 66.0 66.1 66.2 Livestream, December 6, 2018 (48:52).