Combat rework

I'm really excited about the combat changes.

 

I would also like to read a post about the upcoming changes...

 

I very much prefer this system. It adds depth to combat mechanics by encouraging people to know their opponent.

 

@Chris you said all skills will this include the crafting skills?

 

I feel like I must add this quote from @Chris on the Discord public channel so that everyone get the same information.

Before you read it, keep in mind that it is a draft and everything is subject to changes. In other words, @Chris is thinking about it. Don't lawyer him.

Spoiler: Read the disclaimer up there.

My first thought on this is rather positive but it's still hard to say all the implications.

 

Depending on how much XP you have to pour into this passive skill, I could love it. We'll see... This is something I've been hoping to see for a long time now.

 

Thanks for quoting that @Hornpipe, that's some super-useful information. I have to be honest, I'm pretty stoked about ALL the combat changes that have been discussed. I think these represent some of the best ideas for combat I've seen since I started watching things here.

 

How do you level up that passive, though? If you have to level up the fire resist passive by casting water spells, and your RP style is "no spells" are you still stuck casting a bunch of spells to get resistance? Is @Sara Dreygon cursed to be a Tank Mage forever?

 

I would expect the anti-fire passive in water would be improved by being hit by fire (not by casting). The biggest question I have for @Chris is how does this affect the existing skill "fire-proof" in the fire tree?

 

All of the resistance passives can already be levelled when taking elemental/magical damages. As an exemple, you can level water/cold resistance when bathing in cold water or

Spoiler: Spoiler

standing in front of the frosting mirror in Highvale Outskirts

. You can get air resistance when fighting kobolds mages when they cast lightning. You can get fire resistance when standing in a camp fire, fighting fire elementals or taking a bath in lava (bad idea).

 

Very good question. My guess is that fire proof would be moved into the water tree as a tier 1 skill.

Personaly, I wonder about celestial blessing. Will it become a passive ?

 

Huh, didn't know that.

 

Yeah raised my fire proof by swimming in blood bay going afk for the duration of a movie(2h~), 100% unnatended and no macro needed :/

And people dont want to enter these scary areas

 

I would be all right with this if the individual magic trees could stand on their own. As it is now, four of the magic trees are profoundly underwhelming, leaving only 4 viable for DPS and thus PVE adventuring - earth, fire, death and air. As a pure caster, I am hugely dependent on my DPS because I am wearing a bathrobe - glass cannon, and all that. I would personally prefer to be a water mage, but since the tree as it is feels useless except as an adjunct of the Life tree, I spend most of my time DPSing with fire, earth, and air. These changes would seem to lock me further into builds I already don't want to play.

 

You're wrong about the water tree btw - it's one of the better trees having dps, crowdcontrol , healing and one of the best elementals around (the water elemental is a kickass healer) all under one tree. The fundamental problem is that you need a weapon in the lower levels to progress well, SOTA is just built that way. The other alternative is to wear leather since it has a lower fizzle rate but more protection than cloth.

Mage in cloth is doable but you'll need a friend to party with in the tougher zones.

 

I respectfully disagree. I do not feel that its DPS is on par with several other trees, and the fact that it completely lacks an AE DPS option is annoying to me (please, Portalarium, give me a Hailstorm spell!) I personally feel that the healing water pet doesn't belong in the tree at all. I think it should be moved to the Life tree, which has no pet at all, and reskinned as an angel or something. Ice Field is nice, I agree - I have most of the Water tree GM'd at this point, and Ice Field gives me a beautiful -70% AE movement slow with it and Icy Breath at 100. I then have to single target pew pew down because no AE damage in the tree natively ... Earthquake and RoF for the win. Basically my big complaint about water boils down (ha ha) to this - with no AE dakka and that healing pet, in addition to Soothing Rain, it doesn't *feel* like it's designed for DPS. It's a support tree - like you basically pointed out, with great crowd control, healing, and a healing pet. This is not dakka. I want water dakka and lots of it.

At level 90, I find that I can solo comfortably in any solo PvE intended zone - I don't need a bodyguard, either as a pet or a real person behind keys, to endlessly farm Deeps or Crags or Boreus. I personally find it deeply annoying that similarly geared and spec'd and leveled individuals that I know who specialized in other magical schools can do things that I have trouble (or no capacity at all) to do within the scope of my own magical tree - and no, I do not feel that it is a player skill issue. Soloing the monkey room with a predominantly water build is hypothetically possible ... but who on earth does that? The purpose of the monkey room is to kill it quickly - Earthquake, Ring of Fire, Corpse Explosion, Meteor Shower... basically, AE dakka in the schools that are granted them, so much that people specialize heavily in those very schools and do lots with them that I can't. I want to do this with water. Water mages can heal themselves? They do. Necros do the same - and that's not a complaint or a demand to nerf. Would love me some of the dakka that school has, though.

If the design intention of the Water tree is supposed to be a lot of group support and sloooow soloing, then to me that's disappointing. I realize that the developers may never have intended anyone to play a completely pure-to-tree caster, and that each tree is supposed to have its own strengths and weaknesses. I also realize that it's not "/handstapleforehead" the end of the world that I am leveling up skills in other trees - heck, I am doing it. Given the issue with mob resistances against magic in this game, I am doing it (that's a separate issue entirely, though.) However, it just bugs me that water gets stuck with no dakka (comparatively) and saddled with this doe-eyed idea of renewal and life-giving, complete with a healing pet. Yes, water does this:



But it most also certainly does this:



More dakka in the form of drowning, please. That's what I want.