Skill points

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Alpha-2 Ranger skill tree user interface.[1]

What you're seeing at a high level here is just what you'd pretty much expect of a traditional skill. We're doing something a little more advanced than just like a bottom up structure, because we're being a little bit more free-form in this iteration. This will obviously see more UI iterations in the future, but you'll see a mix of active and passive abilities here. Actives are indicated by their square shape, while the circular ones are representing passives; and one thing to note as well is that these passives are aiming to be a little more interesting than just like, this ability does more damage now, or it has a lower cooldown. We do have some of those too, but the goal with a lot of these passives in addition to that is to allow people to lean into unique play styles. So you'll notice that some of them are are changing your gameplay in meaningful ways; and that's the direction we want to take um player and character customization as a whole.[1]Tradd Thompson

Players receive skill points at specific points as they level.[2] These can be used to level up skills (increase their rank) within their active, passive or combat/weapon skill trees.[3][4][5][6]

Making active skills capable of receiving additional skill point allocations and unlocking additional features so that from a player agency standpoint it's going to be up to you whether or not you want to be more diverse but less depth- wider and not taller, in some of these skill choices. Or if you want to be very very tall, that's going to be something that is up to the player in that regard.[7]Steven Sharif
  • Skill points will accrue at specific XP milestones, such as 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 progress through the level, so as to avoid creating an imbalance with experience debt.[2]
We do have this concept of experience debt that does accrue and we don't want to create an imbalance between skill points acquired versus experience, so we're going to predicate your skill points acquisition based on benchmarks you reach when leveling through a level. So these are going to be at specific points in the level, like one quarter progress, to half progress, to three quarters progress: you're going to get an influx of skill points and then you'll be able to allocate them into your skill tree.[2]Steven Sharif
  • Skill points can be used to unlock universal skills at the expense of unlocking class-specific skills.[8]
  • Respeccing (resetting and reallocating) adventuring skills may require travelling to a specific location rather than being able to be done on-the-fly.[9][10]
  • Augments do not cost skill points.[11] It was previously stated that certain augments will have more expense required on the skill point side.[12]
info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.
  • It will not be possible to max all skills in a skill tree.[6]
  • In terms of skill progression, players can choose to go "wide" and get a number of different abilities, or go "deep" into a few specific abilities.[13]

Primary skills

Alpha-1 preview primary skills.[14]

If from the eight archetypes whatever you choose as your secondary, you're going to receive a choice of augments that relate to some core ideal of that class. You know like a tank is about controlling the battlefield, is about surviving. The mage is about dealing damage and elements and ability in AoEs. The rogue is going to be about stealth and critical damage. So those augments are going to to play towards those identities.[15]Steven Sharif

The idea behind the system is that you're skirting the line through these augmentations of your role, right. We have the traditional holy trinity that's present in class designs for MMOs and it's often that those either are not deviated at all or completely deviated from entirely. The augment is to offer a balance between that where you still maintain the semblance of that trinity system while offering the opportunity to customize your play experience towards one of the other angles in the triangle.[16]Steven Sharif

Primary skills (class abilities) are based on a player's archetype.[17][18]

Active skills

Players can build their characters with the active skills they want on their action bar (hotbar).[26][27][28]

Some people like to have a very minimalistic number of hot bars. They don't need necessarily to have three, four, five hot bars that are available; but some people do like that: They want to have all their items listed on their hotbar as well as their abilities, as well as as their mounts, as well as anything that they can essentially interact with as an icon.[32]Steven Sharif
  • Players are not given skills as they level up, they must choose what skills they take.[13]
  • There is no spellbook requiring memorization.[33]

There will be multiple hot-bars that you obviously have available, because you're going to have consumables, you're going to have active skills and whatnot. But the number of active skills are not going to overwhelm necessarily the character and be irrelevant especially at certain stages.[26]Steven Sharif

Class progression

Class progression in Ashes of Creation proceeds as follows:[19]

  • Players receive skill points as they level. These can be used to level up skills within their skill tree.[6]
    • It will not be possible to max all skills in a skill tree.[6]

Weapon skills

Work-in-progress Alpha-2 weapon attack combo customization.[40]

In addition to the later hits in the combo doing additional damage, you also unlock proc effects. So, on your fifth hit you unlock the special fifth hit, which gives you 10% bonus critical strike chance, which you just proc there; and then the sixth hit you unlock the special six hit which gives you arrow storm which causes your next I believe, 10 attacks to fire an additional arrow at the target.[41]Brian Ferguson

Alpha-2 Mage demonstrating a Frostbolt, Lightning Strike, and Wand weapon attack combo.[42]

This is a single Target projectile attack that applies two stacks of Chilled to the enemy; and then after that hit him with a few wand attacks. Now you'll see that you've gotten a Frozen status effect on him and then he timed that really well there... in that very last frame you'll see that he hit him with a lightning effect... So that's a good way to get your burst damage if you're rotating your spells and your elements the correct way.[42]Keenan Reimer

A weapon use combo system (also referred to as Weapon attack combo, Weapon combo, Combo system[43], and Weapon use ability[44]) is utilized instead of a traditional auto-attack ability in Ashes of Creation.[45][43][46]

Let's say for example you're using a two-handed warhammer or something and you have a number of weapon combos that play animation style based on how many combos deep you go into an attack with that warhammer. So the first is going to be like a forward swing. Second is going to be a back swing. The third is going to be swing down and the fourth is going to be some twirl that you do; and that's what we call the combo animation montage.[47]Steven Sharif
  • The number of steps and passive effects that trigger during weapon combos can be customized in the weapon skill tree.[40][49]
We wanted to have a combo length progression available to players so that certain builds could have longer weapon combos and other builds can have shorter weapon combos with more passive effects.; and this has been the result of our exploration. So, when you start out you've got a pretty quick four-hit combo, but whenever you unlock the additional hits you get the fifth and sixth hits, which are at approximately 50% to the overall combo length. But we found that that gave a pretty satisfying floor and ceiling to how long the combo can be.[40]Brian Ferguson
Depending on what your class skill choice has been those are going to have synergy effects with the weapon skill tree. So my skill called spin-to-win might do 30 additional damage on a staggered target. So I see when my proc occurs with the stagger effect on my first swing, like for me as a player I might be only interested in landing that first swing, so every now and then I'm gonna swing once and then I'm gonna use a skill and then I'm gonna come back and swing again because that'll play my first swing montage, because it's been interrupted. So I won't move to the second one because I'm really just wanna hit that stagger effect. So that's going to be how my rotation lines up. However I might have some skill that on a stun target it might be an immediate cast and it's like some power you push or power hit; and that does- it knocks back a stun target. So if the target's stunned when this skill plays, it has an added effect of knock down and now they're gonna get knocked down for an additional two seconds. Now I might spec into that and as a result I want to finish through: swing, swing, and then knock down. So I get my chance at stunning that target with that weapon skill.[47]Steven Sharif
You may have items or set bonuses that change at what level those proc occurs. So I may have a full set of battle armor that changes all third hit combo procs to second hit requirements and now I have a chance not only on my second hit to land that tapering slow but I also have a chance to land my one second stun proc because I have the full set that changes my weapon progression. So that's the way itemization works with your weapon skill tree, is you can enhance when those weapon skill trees become available in your combat montage and that can be a relevant factor in how your skill rotations come to play; and mixes with your weapon attacks.
  • Weapon skill choices and rotations will vary based on whether the player is more focused on PvP or PvE.[47]
Right now some people might just say, "I don't care at all about my weapon attacks. I'm not going to invest a lot of points into that. And if I do, it's going to be primarily PvE focused where I'm more comfortable using just swinging my weapon, and I may not use them as much in PvP. I'm just going to be focused on skill rotations." That's okay, but the reason for those skill montages- back to your question- is they have a very relevant role in when certain procs come online from a weapons skill tree perspective.[47]Steven Sharif
  • Using a skill/ability other than a basic attack will in general reset the combo.[48]
    • The developers are considering specific abilities that might be able to be used without resetting the combo system.[48]
It acts similar in the sense of the core loop of what an auto attack is so to speak; where typically your other skills have a cooldown period, they have a rotation or whatever: Our combo system is a repeatable skill effect that you can continually attack with but it's a little bit more involved than what a traditional auto attack is; and it has components from a from an advancement standpoint when it comes to the types of procs that your weapon can have during that combo system... It's not going to have the quick time event that you guys saw early on in PAX and gave great feedback on, but it is going to have development with regards to the power of the weapon the type of weapon you're using, the additional proc effects that you can skill into: Those types of things are going to make it a little bit more complex of a system capture.[43]Steven Sharif

Classes of weapons

Weapons 3D renders. These are depicted in the Threads of Fate cosmetic costume but are not part of that set. Models by Eli Hurst.[50]

Weapon classes (also referred to as weapon types and weapon groups) in Ashes of Creation may deal different types of physical damage.[51][52]

Weapon progression

In-game achievable sword and polearm 3D renders.[53]

Power creep is a balance issue... When it comes to gear progression specifically, the idea is to create an open market that is not heavily dependent on soulbound items; and having many item sinks and gold sinks within that economy that allows for the potential degradation and loss of assets within that closed economy; and not introduce items from the market that companies put in from a pay-to-win perspective or from a pay-to-convenience perspective that undermines the economy that players have built. That is a huge mistake that companies have made in the past and that lends to the imbalancing of what designers maybe have actually balanced well.[54]Steven Sharif

Weapons have their own progression paths.[43][55]

Ashes of Creation is all about providing many progression paths... The reason why we don't like the term endgame is because with the amount of progression that's available with the amount of diversity and player agency that impacts the world... We want the weapon system [to] add an element of that as well... You can determine special effects that proc from currently the combo system; you can determine ancillary effects that proc based on enchantment types; you can power stone weapons to add different either elemental types of damage and/or energy that play rock-paper-scissor with player defenses ... and then you can skill tree out how those effects that are granted ... you can make them better you can branch them off into a different direction.[60]Steven Sharif

Passive skills

Passive skills are used to augment weapon usage, armor usage, health regeneration, and passive stats.[62]

All these passive abilities: mana regen, attack damage, critical hit damage, health regeneration, defense mitigation, maximum health: A lot of different changes from the passive side of things and these are based on what archetype you've chosen.[63]Steven Sharif
info-orange.pngThis section contains information from Alpha-1 testing. It will be updated when new information is made available.
Passive skill Icon Archetype(s) Base skill
Attack Damage Attack Damage.png Mage Increases attack damage by 5.[65]
Block Chance Block Chance.png Tank Increase chance to block attacks by 20% (Blocked attacks deal 20% reduced damage).[66]
Caravan Trail Speed Bonus Trail Speed Bonus.png Minor speed boost for travelling on a simple trail.[67]
Cooldown Reduction Cooldown Reduction.png Cleric Mage Tank Reduce all ability cooldowns by 5%.[65]
Critical Hit Damage Critical Hit Damage.png Mage Increase the damage and healing bonus from critical hits by 20%.[65]
Critical Hit Rate Critical Hit Rate.png Cleric Mage Tank Increase the chance for damage and healing abilities to critically hit by 5%.[65]
Defense Mitigation Defense Mitigation.png Cleric Mage Tank Increase defense mitigation by 4.[65]
Disable Chance Disable Chance.png Mage Increase chance to disable by 15%.[65]
Disable Defense Disable Defense.png Cleric Reduce chance of being disabled by crowd control effects by 10%.[68]
Healing Received Healing Received.png Tank Increase the amount of healing received by 10%.[69]
Health Regeneration Health Regeneration.png Cleric Mage Tank Generate an additional 1.5% of your maximum health per second.[65]
Increased Healing Increased Healing.png Cleric Increase healing done by 10%.[70]
Mana Regeneration Mana Regeneration.png Cleric Mage Tank Generate an additional 1% of your maximum mana per second.[65]
Maximum Health Maximum Health.png Cleric Mage Tank Increase maximum health by 75.[65]
Maximum Mana Maximum Mana.png Cleric Increase maximum mana by 100.[71]
Movement Speed Movement Speed.png Cleric Mage Tank Increase movement speed by 5%.[65]
Physical Evasion Bonus Physical Evasion Bonus.png Tank Increase physical evasion bonus by 5.[72]

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Video, December 19, 2023 (5:29).
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Livestream, July 28, 2023 (1:03:27).
  3. Interview, July 29, 2020 (55:44).
  4. 4.0 4.1 Interview, July 19, 2020 (53:59).
  5. 5.0 5.1 Interview, July 18, 2020 (1:07:51).
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Livestream, July 28, 2017 (19:05).
  7. Livestream, August 28, 2020 (1:19:24).
  8. Livestream, December 19, 2023 (1:49:56).
  9. Livestream, December 19, 2023 (1:46:12).
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 Interview, July 29, 2020 (54:44).
  11. Forums - Livestream Q&A 2022-08-26.
  12. Interview, July 18, 2020 (1:07:06).
  13. 13.0 13.1 Livestream, November 16, 2017 (30:02).
  14. toast-keybinds-skills.png
  15. Livestream, October 16, 2017 (1:00:44).
  16. Interview, August 8, 2018 (22:27).
  17. 17.0 17.1 Livestream, December 19, 2023 (1:20:41).
  18. 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 progression.png
  19. 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 Livestream, July 28, 2023 (1:04:27).
  20. 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 Interview, July 18, 2020 (1:05:04).
  21. class secondary.png
  22. Livestream, November 19, 2021 (50:38).
  23. Video, September 30, 2022 (17:00).
  24. Livestream, September 24, 2021 (1:18:06).
  25. Livestream, August 28, 2020 (1:21:03).
  26. 26.0 26.1 26.2 Livestream, August 28, 2020 (1:24:29).
  27. Livestream, May 3, 2017 (15:15).
  28. 28.0 28.1 Livestream, March 28, 2020 (1:41:42).
  29. Livestream, October 14, 2022 (57:45).
  30. 30.0 30.1 Livestream, May 3, 2017 (17:59).
  31. Livestream, October 14, 2022 (9:02).
  32. 32.0 32.1 Livestream, February 24, 2023 (53:48).
  33. Livestream, May 19, 2017 (43:09).
  34. 34.0 34.1 Ashes of Creation class list.
  35. archetypeclass.png
  36. Livestream, May 3, 2017 (50:50).
  37. Livestream, July 18, 2017 (37:43).
  38. Livestream, July 31, 2020 (1:31:11).
  39. Podcast, April 11, 2021 (54:35).
  40. 40.0 40.1 40.2 Video, December 19, 2023 (8:37).
  41. Video, December 19, 2023 (10:08).
  42. 42.0 42.1 Video, April 28, 2023 (15:35).
  43. 43.0 43.1 43.2 43.3 43.4 43.5 Livestream, January 30, 2020 (1:28:40).
  44. Livestream, January 18, 2018 (22:46).
  45. 45.0 45.1 Livestream, September 30, 2022 (43:45).
  46. steven-auto-attack-definition.png
  47. 47.0 47.1 47.2 47.3 47.4 47.5 47.6 47.7 Podcast, September 29, 2021 (47:57).
  48. 48.0 48.1 48.2 Livestream, February 28, 2020 (1:10:21).
  49. Livestream, September 24, 2021 (1:19:17).
  50. Livestream, August 27, 2021 (1:04:30).
  51. Video, August 31, 2023 (45:06).
  52. 52.0 52.1 Interview, February 7, 2021 (49:18).
  53. Livestream, April 30, 2021 (53:08).
  54. Interview, October 20, 2018 (2:53:52).
  55. Livestream, May 4, 2018 (45:37).
  56. Livestream, June 30, 2022 (1:12:38).
  57. Livestream, September 30, 2022 (53:15).
  58. Video, September 30, 2022 (24:49).
  59. 59.0 59.1 59.2 February 8, 2019 - Questions and Answers.
  60. 60.0 60.1 60.2 60.3 60.4 Livestream, June 4, 2018 (1:11:19).
  61. Livestream, June 25, 2021 (1:29:39).
  62. 62.0 62.1 Livestream, August 28, 2020 (1:12:50).
  63. 63.0 63.1 Livestream, June 25, 2021 (23:08).
  64. Livestream, March 31, 2023 (1:30:07).
  65. 65.0 65.1 65.2 65.3 65.4 65.5 65.6 65.7 65.8 65.9 Livestream, June 25, 2021 (23:08).
  66. Alpha-1 screenshot.
  67. Trail Speed Bonus Description.png
  68. Alpha-1 screenshot.
  69. Alpha-1 screenshot.
  70. Alpha-1 screenshot.
  71. Alpha-1 screenshot.
  72. Alpha-1 screenshot.