Deck Combat Confusion.

The thing is, I went into this game under the thought that the combat was unique, and truly it is, but there is one problem... Information. Everything I read about the game, from other people, or the gamepage itself, it mentions unique combat through deck building... Never did it mention that you also have the traditional hotkey skill experience, and start out that way.. Imagine how many people refuse to even pick up this game knowing their precious hotkey combat isn't around... (but it is, you just didn't mention it.)

Please please pleaseeee update your information to include that hotkey combat is a thing! That deck building is optional, and they don't need to use it (but it is there for if they want unique combat that offers different pros and cons.) Make it prevalent, because if you did mention it somewhere... I didn't notice it.

 

I call it "Whack a mole style"
<sigh>

 

Every single thing uses hotkeys though. Not just combat.

I think advertising it as having hotkey combat would actually make it sound terrible. Deck building and Free Strike are the saving grace of the a hotkey combat system.

 

I use a two handed bludgeon and im also a healer sometimes. So I have a healing deck. I am liking our system. It can be a bit daunting to understand at first and then you will get creative. So an example of my deck might include first 4 slots unlocked containing all my major hits on each of them, 5th slot rotating buffs, then heals locked and I have Rez & ice shield locked. On my undead deck I have banish undead locked.

There's many fun decks to have. I have one deck to kill elementals that run away from me and heal. So i had to add some ranged things to a deck since I wasn't having luck keeping up with them and they just healed too much.

We don't have caps so you can mix and match the way you like. Now we have proficiency which is interesting.

I also have party clothes decks to switch to town wear.

The deck system has improved greatly and this will be ongoing from our constructive feedback.

Edited typos from my phone.

 

Lmao

 

Hi,

I think I'll rez this thread real quick instead of creating a new one.

I've just started the Trial. I am in the Blood River Outskirts where a trainer wanted to "gift" me Deck Building. I went to the official manual on google docs to read up on it. I didn't find it complicated or anything, but I am not sure I want a game where I don't see anything around me but the deck, all the while trying to react to random patterns happening on the screen. Anyway, before I act on my very strong impulse to ragequit over this type of combat, I want to make sure about a couple of things:

1. The manual says that locked skills cost twice the mana (glyphs, focus, whatever ). Am I already using twice the cost while I still haven't "purchased" Deck Building?

2. The same trainer granted me Free Attack Mode, but apparently there is a button to switch between Free Attack and Auto Attack. Can we also turn Deck Building off after we've accepted his "gift"? And if so, will it cost twice the mana as if using a locked deck?

Thanks.

 

1. Yes so technically it should read unlocked glyphs cost half the focus to caste instead of locked costs twice as much.

2. Deck building is completely customizable when you turn it on, you can have all glyphs locked and have 10 skills available, you can have 9 slots locked and 15 glyphs rotating in that 1 slot. It is all up to you

 

So right now, on this newbie character, on which I haven't yet unlocked Deck Building and whose "Y" default key to open Decks still doesn't do anything, technically I am still considered as using a deck but with all glyphs locked and costing twice the focus, right?

 

Right.

 

I made a couple videos to try and help.

 

It doesn't look complicated, on the contrary. Random stuff pops up then fades away on 1 to 10 hotkey slots, you hit it, or not. Seems way easier than managing 3+ full hotkey bars (half of them conditional skills) and properly reacting to what is happening around you, or making things happen, taking cooldowns into account, by clicking or hitting the right key combo at the right time. Boy I hope I'm wrong, I'll give it a try tonight .

 

The nice thing about having that is that you can create skill combos, that do higher DPS. Something that is not possible with a static (locked) deck.

 

I tested it and feel it is extremely bad.

I like a combat system where I control things and can see the battlefield, like in every other game out there. 2, 3 or 4 hotkey bars, for normal keys plus the Alt, Ctrl and Shift modifiers, positional and conditional skills, etc, all this makes a fun and involving battlefield. But with the "whack a mole" style as it was so appropriately described above, not only do I not control anything, but I don't see anything but the hotkey bar either.

I am not sure about the alternative of using a completely locked deck either. 10 keys seem too little, barely more than the completely dumbed down systems from the Guild Wars and TSW. In those types of games I quickly lose interest, why progress towards more skills if I can't use most of them? (EQ1 was an exception, I was young and naive )

Also, if the whackamole system is so fun, why should it receive so many strong incentives like no cooldowns and cheaper costs ? At the same time, with the locked glyphs system being so expensive to use, won't I be totally gimped if I keep using it on mobs outside the newbie area?

In the spirit of this forums, as new player feedback, and as they say in the movies: if I'm not back within an hour, know that the whackamole combat system killed me.

 

ok more details sorry for the long read. Yes I agree we do have a different system I would not say whack a mole but perhpaps someone does set up their deck to perform that way. So imo our combat to me is interesting. From those who have complained changes have ocurred and imo changes have been continuously added to improve it for quite some time. Yes many changes have occurred to it over time and are still coming as we give the feedback. I hope players try it a little longer. There is imo lots to it.

Here is a little of how I have my deck and I am by no means perfect of course. I do like that I am in control and perhaps you will see that as you play more. *crosses fingers*. So depending which deck I am making. I have my 3 main decks. One is fighter chain mail, One is healing deck, One is undead deck but I do have others too like an kill those elementals deck since I'm a fighter build and those pesky elementals kept running and healing, thus I had to of ranged hits like ice arrow, body slam locked, searing ray, obsidian arrow and of course depending on the type of elemental it would be the appropriate range type. Here is an example of how I deck build and I am still learning and experimenting and ask others for feedback here and there too. I am a work in progress

Ok so as a bludgeons player who wields a two handed axe here is what I some of what I have set up.

first 3 slots unlocked with all my damage hits rotating
4th slot could be locked body slam
5 slot I let rotate miscellaneous buffs and throw a heal or two in it since I do play a support character too and am in groups quite often or add some ranged shots when I need them.
6th slot resurrection locked
7th slot healing blast locked
8th slot healing ray locked
9th slot favorite shield or needed shield which I change out depended on situation. I lately use ice crystal a lot, but sometimes I need the fire resist and lock ice shield locked in 9th slot and douse locked in 10th slot.
10th slot sometimes as mention I lock douse.

There is more to it than this. You can train everything, we are not capped so there is a freedom to try, try, try. Also I haven't played with combos as much but I have heard that you cannot use combos if both parts of the combos are locked. So you lock one glyph of the combo and let the other one rotate next to it and combo when ever that other glyph comes up for example

Also glancing blow is awesome for avoidance and sometimes I lock it to save myself when I'm in horrible areas.

And to mention for my undead deck. this deck has my usual rotating bludgeon hits in it but locked searing ray, locked banish undead, and locked Elysium Illumination with other occurrences of these rotating in other slots since you can only lock it once and it can rotate on another slot with a different cool down timer. For me I always have rez locked, healing ray locked, and healing blast locked. Healing blast is my favorite heal other spell atm it packs a wallop of heal for a group member to save them just in the nick of time where as my healing ray which I love does not always save a player unless I spam heals of various kind at them. Healing heals undeads so I try to hold off as much as I can and drink an occasional potion if I need. **crosses fingers for band-aids one day**

For my healing deck I add no damage skills to it and use dual wands with life attunement on them and focus help. If you do damage you lessen the amount you heal which doesn't hurt you as much normally but when healing for a group you need the best healing possible. I always use food and devotionals before going out to fight. I also set my fighter chain-mail deck as alternate with my axe in case I need to hit something.

I really don't consider this game a whack a mole but to me it is interesting and perhaps not totally perfect and I feel it is a system that can only be helped with feedback that makes it better. Chris/Atos says he is open to constructive feedback to help this system improve over time. Show him examples, ideas, graphs, charts etc. He is a techy person. This is what he will listen to and consider. There will be a deep dive for combat coming soon he said during the live stream.