Combat/Skills/Spells video chat!

Chris, can you please talk about having the ability to block and counter all spells and skills?

Like if someone casts Searing Ray at me and does an instant amount of damage. How was I supposed to block or counter that? Shouldn't I have some other mechanism for defending myself other than having a lot of hit points or doing more damage to them faster than they can do to me?


EDIT:

Blocks vs. Counters vs. Resistances

A BLOCK is when a player can stop 100% of the damage from an attack (skill or spell). This means that the damage never actually occurs because it's blocked. A good example of this would be using a shield to BLOCK a melee attack, preventing the attack from doing damage. A block is never reactive, it's always proactive in its defense of the player. You can't be attacked and THEN block the attack, you have to be actively blocking (the way this game was designed) for a block to actually block something.

A COUNTER is a skill or a spell that can only be used for the specific purpose of either proactively blocking or reactively opposing an attack. For example, the spell DOUSE will counter fire DOTs (Damge Over Time). However it will not counter the initial fire damage. It simply stops DOTs from doing more damage (by blocking that damage) and on a temporary baiss proactively stops additional fire magic DOTs from doing damage if more attacks are used. The DOUSE spell does not counter lightning, water, death, life, etc...it's specific to fire DOTs.

A RESISTANCE is a defense that is usually innate but sometimes can be cast proactively against a specific type of attack. (i.e. fire, water, earth, death, melee, magic, etc...) For example, in the fire tree players can train in FIRE PROOF which can give them a resistance to fire magic damage. This is not a counter and it is not a block. It is a lot like having armor that protects a player against a specific type of attack, more than if they did not have that type of armor.

Currently, we have almost no blocking abilities. We have a few counters that are very specific to certain circumstances. We have a few resistances that are also very specific to certain circumstances.

In my mind, there are HUGE gaps in a players ability to defend themselves from all sorts of spells and skills, and the result is that players with the most hit points and the most DPS are the winners. Which is also why leveling is so important, because the more levels you have the more hitpoints and DPS you can obtain.

 

@Chris When are we going to see more magic items such as wands, staffs, robes, rings, and necklaces basically anything that a mage would use to gain advantage over normal non-magic users that have regular armor? As far as skills go has any more internal discussion happened about the spell equivalent of zoning? I still feel like magic spells don't gain much power as I level up or at least they don't show on the skill tree that they do is this going to change will they say go from 5 damage at level 5 to 10 damage at level 10? (Not necessarily that correlated but you get my meaning.

 

Are players still going to be able to go into a PVP scene like a Shardfall or a PVP POT if they are in single player online mode? This seems counter productive to the integrity of PVP balance and the Economy.

 

--Please explain the requirement to press "T" for auto-attack.

--Why must we spend money to unlock skills at level 1? Wouldn't it make more sense to unlock mastery for more gold, overall, after a player has had more time to understand the systems? Alternatively, could we perhaps have all tier 1 and 2 skills available and unlocked at character creation, and then require skill unlocks or mastery unlocks later down the tree?

--Can we separate beginning skills with virtue selection during character creation?

--Once at the "soft cap", will decay rates be sufficient enough to learn a new skill (from level 1), that being at the cap won't pose a problem? i.e. If I'm a tough guy with 100+ in a couple skills and I play frequently enough to maintain them, but decide I want to drop sword altogether and pick up an axe, which is at skill level 1, if I turn off my sword skill, and turn on my axe skill, and change nothing else, will I lose sword skill as quickly as I gain axe skill? Or will my axe skill gains be slowed down due to being at the soft cap?

--Are there any calculations that use total skill points gained in a similar fashion to how adventurer level was used before the change?

 

Where are we with reagents being required for most if not all spells? Currently we don't need reagents for anything, unless we really care a lot about fizzle rates.

 

1) Why would I cast Vanish when I can cast Shadow Form and move immediately?
2) Why would I cast Camouflage when I can cast Silent Movement and move immediately?
3) What does the "range" of Shadow Form and Vanish effect as it's a caster only spell? Does it change when PvE mobs see you?
4) Why can't I actually sneak up on something to stab it in the back? Why are things seeing me when I look invisible?
5) I can sneak attack white named creatures but they behave like they know I'm there. Should they move away from me when I'm "invisible"?
6) Cast Camouflage + Silent Movement + Vanish + Shadow form and they show 0.6, 0.7, 0.5 and +0 stealth. Does having 1.8 stealth mean anything? Why did Shadow Form give +0?
7) What does .x stealth mean?
8) Should a person have both Silent Movement and Shadow forms buffs up to be an effective assassin?
9) Once I go into stealth is it a bug that I need to wait for the cool-down timer to end before I can enter combat mode? Seems buggy.
10) Once seen or revealed in combat will we be able to invis again?

 

Levels matter A LOT in pvp right now. I would say that levels are probably the deciding factor in who wins and who loses, and I'll be happy to prove it to whoever would like to battle me with a level character 30 levels lower than I am.

Do we have a plan or at least a goal to make this less of a reality? Personally, I believe the massive bonuses that are given to levels and innate abilities are the reason for this imbalance. What do you think?

 

Use based math question: It seems, during some fights in R22, you consume more Adventure XP than you make from the fight, netting a loss in overall XP after the fight is done. Is there going to be adjustments made to prevent this from happening, or is it simply an indicator that the player should move on to harder enemies?

General Combat question: Are there plans to make SOTA combat more dynamic & reactive, including things like no-cooldown interrupts for countering wind-ups, unique combo's by target, randomized weaknesses or immunities, and similar mechanics, before ALPHA or BETA?

Specific Combat question: Prior to ALPHA/BETA, are there plans to implement the equivalent of a DDO bluff or EQ1 pacify/calm/soothe mechanic, whereby single non-boss creatures can be pulled from linked encounters? ( Behind the curtain, this means the temporary reduction of social aggro radius to zero on multiple targets or a single target, depending on implementation. )

 

Are combos and skills ever going to get better than Auto/Free attacks? So if I used skills/combos the mobs would go down faster than if I just used Auto/Free? Any idea when this might happen, if it happens?

 

Can you explain again (or maybe post a spreadsheet) of how DEX, STR, INT impact various skills and spells? So like Archery, Magic, and Melee. What are the advantages and disadvantages? It seems like there are just a lot of advantages to maxing out all three.

I don't really like that because it seems like everyone just becomes Conan Merlin Legolas's.

 

Will metal armour be a good protection versus lightning?
http://www.medicaldaily.com/pulse/s...uits-standing-your-feet-close-together-315630

 

Will common sense regarding metal armor make you weaker to lightning?

What do you think about smaller melee weapons having greater chances to CRIT, and poison being more effective the greater the CRIT? That way the choice weapon for delivering poison is a dagger and not a polearm?

 

Will we ever see an skill tree for wands/staves ?

Mobs die faster with just auto attack, using skills is sadly a bit useless atm.
What are your plans to find a good balance there, to improve it? Right now most skills, expecially melee skills are not very rewarding and you hardly notice any difference over just using auto attack.

When can we expect better and more sound effects in combat?
When can we expect an improved FX system? Expecially for spells?

When do crocodiles not sound anymore like a little dog in combat? :/

 

How will combat be advanced?

There are many ways to fight, locked and unlocked glyphs, free attack and auto attack. Which path is looking like the end goal path?
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Will there be anything added or changed about the combat system to make it more enjoyable for the player instead of just cycling glyphs on the hot bar?

Such as paying attention to what the mob is doing and reacting to it to make the battle sway in your favor or the mobs favor?
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Party/zone based on what?

Since there is no level anymore what method can people use to give information to each other if they can fight in a zone or be useful to the party in a zone they never went into? A group of strong players with a weak one because they can't tell their strengths.
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Does the staff hold any significance over a wand at this point in time?

Right now the staff only gives a slight dmg increase, which can be countered with two wands increased attack speed on both, and it drains focus on each attack. From that there is no real point in using one over a wand. Any plans to make the staff as viable as using wands?
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What is the plan to make cloth armor viable for solo playing?

As a cloth user it is understandable to take more dmg then plate, but it becomes much more difficult to level in cloth when soloing. Will the skills for slowing a target or locking them to the ground be modified?
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How can a close combat fighter be able to prevent range combatants from running away better?

Archer runs off and the player keeps on chasing them to only enter more and more fights with aggro mobs. Or the mob will run out of its leash zone and then be pulled all the way back very quickly.
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What direction will non magic healing be done?

Will the health potion be the only way, or will there be higher grade healing items?
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Will it be possible for a player to play a pure build?

Using just weapon skill tree, range skill tree or magic tree skills.
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With the new PVP system will there be a method for making nude mage pvp builds useless?

That way they cannot use magic for a reward and no risk pvp play style.​

 

Any chance we'll ever see spells or skills like Summoning reduce the maximum level of focus a player can have? It seems like this would be a great solution especially for higher level players that have TONS of focus and HUGE regeneration of focus.

I'd love to see multiple summoned creatures reducing MAX focus, exponentially based on the number of summoned creature a player brings into the world.

 

Right now if you're in a group vs. solo, you have a major MAJOR advantage:
1. You have more people with you.
2. You get to share experience even if you're not really contributing.

Will being in a group ever increase the level of difficultly in monsters to match the advantage of being in a group?

 

Do you have any plans to help solo players that want to pvp? For example, if I'm solo and try to get through a control point that is being camped by a large guild. What are my options to get through that control point?

• Join us or die?
• Give us money or die?
• Die?
• Sneak past.
• Die and be spawn camped?
• Go get help (at which point you're no longer a solo player)

Or are there more options? (hopefully like a route through the control point that ensures a 1v1 fight)

 

Mostly i'd like to see faster refresh of cards and faster load when I hit combat. The deck system is just too slow...
and the damn spider webs OMG!!

 

Believe it is a result of some who mentioned the deck was doing something but a slower deck was suppose to help solve that problem. Now, if only I could remember what was the original problem that was suppose to be solved by a slower deck?