Weapon classes

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Weapons 3D renders. These are depicted in the Threads of Fate cosmetic costume but are not part of that set. Models by Eli Hurst.[1]

Weapon classes (also referred to as weapon types and weapon groups) in Ashes of Creation may deal different types of physical damage.[2][3]

Weapon abilities

Work-in-progress Alpha-2 weapon attack combo customization.[4]

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.[5]Brian Ferguson

Alpha-2 Mage demonstrating a Frostbolt, Lightning Strike, and Wand weapon attack combo.[6]

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.[6]Keenan Reimer

A weapon use combo system (also referred to as Weapon attack combo, Weapon combo, Combo system[7], and Weapon use ability[8]) is utilized instead of a traditional auto-attack ability in Ashes of Creation.[9][7][10]

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.[11]Steven Sharif
  • The number of steps and passive effects that trigger during weapon combos can be customized in the weapon skill tree.[4][13]
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.[4]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.[11]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.[11]
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.[11]Steven Sharif
  • Using a skill/ability other than a basic attack will in general reset the combo.[12]
    • The developers are considering specific abilities that might be able to be used without resetting the combo system.[12]
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.[7]Steven Sharif

Weapon types

Different weapon types offer different passive skills and proc effects from their weapon skill tree as well as different waterfall stats.[15]

The following weapon types are not equippable by players in the MMO.

info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

There is an even split between melee and ranged weapons.[16]

Ranged weapons

A character may equip up to two hand weapons and also wear a ranged weapon on their back.[35][36][37]

Melee weapons

Low-level shield, one-handed mace, and two-handed staff 3D renders from Alpha-2.[42]

You can see by the quality of these types of weapons: these are relatively lower level. These are some of the earliest types of weapons and or gear that you can acquire within Ashes of Creation.[42]Steven Sharif

Melee weapons and abilities have a maximum range of effect.[43][39]

  • There are two melee weapon slots: One on each side of a character's belt.[37]

Weapon progression

In-game achievable sword and polearm 3D renders.[44]

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.[45]Steven Sharif

Weapons have their own progression paths.[7][46]

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.[53]Steven Sharif

Legendary items

There is a small RNG chance of looting rare and legendary items or crafting materials from mobs based on the level, status and type of mob. This also applies to harvesting resources with a gathering profession.[55]

At each stage from Gatherer to Processor to Crafter you are required to have certain prerequisites before those elite types of materials can be essentially gathered, processed, or crafted.[57]Steven Sharif

The amount of effort needed and interdependencies across the different types of players – between raiders and PvPers and crafters and even role players and the taverns and businesses: the processors and gatherers – all of those systems will likely have a component that lends toward creating or crafting that legendary item... We want to stay away from the highly RNGd system, and instead take our multiple progression paths that we are offering the players and put the construction components for achieving these legendary items within them so it encourages communities to work together because it's going to be difficult for just one person by themselves to gather everything. Not to say that they couldn't in an economic sense, by buying those components, that's possible. But achieving them from a time investment standpoint we want it to be considerably less RNG focussed.[58]Steven Sharif

Certain legendary items may be limited to one per server at any given time.[61][62]

  • If the player character leaves the server then the item will become available for acquisition through whatever means it was acquired previously.[61]

There are absolutely legendary items and they're not items that are attained easily nor are they granted out in a volume. There might even be items that are single items that will exist on the server at any given time.[62]

A legendary weapon is easily distinguished by its visual appearance.[58]

It will be a very ornate and detailed weapon, more so than any other weapon or piece of equipment in the game. It will also include some awesome looking effects that won't too gaudy, they won't be too bright and shiny so that it doesn't look good, but they will be subtle and people will notice it and know wow that guy has this weapon.[58]Steven Sharif

Legendary items are not intended to be temporary.[63]

The fact there is only one of them... or very very few of them depending on what it is. I think that in and of itself is a balance component right and you need to make sure that the players who are striving for those legendary things and who are devoting the time energy, resources in order to achieve them are accurately rewarded... We do not intend on having legendary items that are temporary.[63]Steven Sharif

info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Discovery of legendary items will unlock further chapters of the Lore.[65]

Gear sets

Equipping the Titanbark gear set in Alpha-2.[67]

We're going relatively traditional in the gear access points by being driven by level tier that players will have access to. So as you advance in your adventuring class you will begin to unlock the ability to equip gear of a higher level.[68]Steven Sharif

Gear sets (also known as tier sets) are a part of Ashes of Creation.[69][68][70]

Q: How often will armor be part of an entire armor set with other cosmetically matching pieces versus unique armor pieces that don't match or go along with anything else in the game?
A: There is a balance of both set pieces and non-set pieces and usually you're going to see at higher grades within a tier are going to be more predominantly set driven; and the lower interstitial power levels of the gear for that tier are the potentially bespoke pieces; and obviously those pieces are catered around a number of different interactions, such as ones you get from quests, ones that you get from drops, ones that you can craft, ones that you get from legendary bosses, ones that you get from guild-oriented tasks, or in-game favor and unique currencies. So there's different types of acquisition models and each of them has a spattering of either bespoke pieces or set-oriented pieces; and there are even varying levels of set pieces as well. So you might have a full eight piece set, or a three-piece set, or a five piece set, depending on where it lives within the tier.[69]Steven Sharif
  • Players gain bonuses depending on the number and tier of pieces they have equipped.[69][68][70]
    • An overarching set effect is granted to wearers of exclusively one "type" of armor, for example: all cloth, or all plate.[71]
    • There may be set bonuses that members of certain communities will obtain based on gear set type.[69][70]
    • Set bonuses will not provide new abilities, but certain higher-end weapons and armor will have active abilities, but the intention is that these abilities will not radically redefine the way an archetype is played.[72]
info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.
  • Certain set bonuses may trade off core gear stats.[78]
  • There are passive abilities that can be chosen to become more adept with certain set types.[70]
  • There will be viable non-set builds.[78]

Best in slot weapons

What is considered best-in-slot is based on a character's role and the type of encounter they are facing.[79][80]

  • The goal is to not have overarching best-in-slot items that are meta for all situations.[79]

See also

References

  1. Livestream, August 27, 2021 (1:04:30).
  2. Video, August 31, 2023 (45:06).
  3. 3.0 3.1 Interview, February 7, 2021 (49:18).
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Video, December 19, 2023 (8:37).
  5. Video, December 19, 2023 (10:08).
  6. 6.0 6.1 Video, April 28, 2023 (15:35).
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Livestream, January 30, 2020 (1:28:40).
  8. Livestream, January 18, 2018 (22:46).
  9. 9.0 9.1 Livestream, September 30, 2022 (43:45).
  10. steven-auto-attack-definition.png
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 11.7 Podcast, September 29, 2021 (47:57).
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 Livestream, February 28, 2020 (1:10:21).
  13. Livestream, September 24, 2021 (1:19:17).
  14. Livestream, September 30, 2022 (1:05:25).
  15. Livestream, October 14, 2022 (18:34).
  16. 16.00 16.01 16.02 16.03 16.04 16.05 16.06 16.07 16.08 16.09 16.10 Livestream, May 24, 2017 (14:15).
  17. clubs.png
  18. Video, March 23, 2020 (0:41).
  19. Livestream, July 28, 2017 (45:21).
  20. Lances.jpg
  21. 21.0 21.1 21.2 steven-a2-weapon-types.png
  22. Livestream, May 4, 2018 (33:27).
  23. Livestream, September 27, 2019 (1:06:44).
  24. Livestream, May 24, 2017 (18:40).
  25. Rapiers.png
  26. Livestream, December 15, 2017 (59:49).
  27. steven-crossbows.png
  28. Livestream, February 24, 2023 (1:05:54).
  29. Livestream, May 30, 2019 (58:28).
  30. 30.0 30.1 Livestream, May 4, 2018 (33:56).
  31. steven-potion-launchers.png
  32. Podcast, September 29, 2021 (56:50).
  33. Livestream, May 4, 2018 (54:58).
  34. Livestream, December 19, 2023 (1:40:53).
  35. 35.0 35.1 35.2 Podcast, September 29, 2021 (40:50).
  36. 36.0 36.1 36.2 Interview, May 11, 2018 (16:32).
  37. 37.0 37.1 weaponslots.png
  38. steven-ranger-range.png
  39. 39.0 39.1 Livestream, June 30, 2017 (47:14).
  40. Livestream, December 19, 2023 (1:53:41L5DeC8wIcuM).
  41. Livestream, December 19, 2023 (1:20:41).
  42. 42.0 42.1 Livestream, December 2, 2022 (1:12:19).
  43. Video, July 28, 2023 (23:28).
  44. Livestream, April 30, 2021 (53:08).
  45. Interview, October 20, 2018 (2:53:52).
  46. Livestream, May 4, 2018 (45:37).
  47. Livestream, June 30, 2022 (1:12:38).
  48. Livestream, September 30, 2022 (53:15).
  49. Video, September 30, 2022 (24:49).
  50. Interview, July 19, 2020 (53:59).
  51. Interview, July 18, 2020 (1:07:51).
  52. 52.0 52.1 February 8, 2019 - Questions and Answers.
  53. 53.0 53.1 53.2 53.3 53.4 Livestream, June 4, 2018 (1:11:19).
  54. Livestream, June 25, 2021 (1:29:39).
  55. Interview, July 18, 2020 (1:00:15).
  56. Interview, July 19, 2020 (8:43).
  57. 57.0 57.1 57.2 57.3 57.4 Interview, July 20, 2020 (21:57).
  58. 58.0 58.1 58.2 58.3 Livestream, 2018-04-8 (PM) (55:49).
  59. Livestream, July 25, 2020 (46:08).
  60. Livestream, March 26, 2021 (1:02:06).
  61. 61.0 61.1 Livestream, March 31, 2022 (1:15:02).
  62. 62.0 62.1 Livestream, May 15, 2017 (38:08).
  63. 63.0 63.1 Livestream, July 9, 2018 (25:34).
  64. Livestream, 2018-04-8 (PM) (51:49).
  65. Livestream, May 19, 2017 (44:18).
  66. Livestream, June 30, 2023 (1:30:40).
  67. Video, January 27, 2023 (45:46).
  68. 68.0 68.1 68.2 Livestream, November 30, 2020 (54:29).
  69. 69.0 69.1 69.2 69.3 69.4 Livestream, July 28, 2023 (1:22:48).
  70. 70.0 70.1 70.2 70.3 Livestream, November 17, 2017 (22:33).
  71. Interview, July 18, 2020 (1:02:08).
  72. Livestream, September 29, 2023 (1:15:47).
  73. Podcast, August 4, 2018 (55:17).
  74. Interview, September 10, 2023 (47:13).
  75. Livestream, February 24, 2023 (46:15).
  76. Livestream, November 19, 2021 (40:53).
  77. 77.0 77.1 Livestream, April 30, 2021 (41:18).
  78. 78.0 78.1 Livestream, November 17, 2017 (56:07).
  79. 79.0 79.1 Interview, July 9, 2023 (1:43:38).
  80. Livestream, May 29, 2020 (1:33:11).
  81. Livestream, June 30, 2022 (1:18:55).
  82. Livestream, May 10, 2017 (14:45).
  83. Livestream, March 31, 2022 (1:19:41).