Active skills

Alpha-2 Tank action bar (hotbar) user interface.

Players can build their characters with the active skills they want on their action bar (hotbar).

• The maximum number of skills a player can have on their action bar will be around 15-20.
  • Each archetype will have roughly 35-40 skills to choose from on average.
• There will be an option to include multiple action bars (hotbars) on a player's UI. For example: One Fighter will be different from another based on what active skills they have chosen.

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. – Steven Sharif

• Players are not given skills as they level up, they must choose what skills they take.
• There is no spellbook requiring memorization.

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. – Steven Sharif

Primary skills

Alpha-2 Bard primary skills.

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. 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. – Steven Sharif

Primary skills (class abilities) are based on a player's archetype.

• A player may choose a secondary archetype when they reach level 25. The player can then augment their primary skills with effects from their secondary archetype.

• Outside of class-specific skills there may be a subset of universal skills, such as active block and dodge.
• Class skills are not affected by the type of weapon that is equipped.

• Primary skills in Alpha-2 are expected to be very different to those in Alpha-1.

Class augments

A player may choose a secondary archetype when they reach level 25. Each secondary archetype offers four different schools of augmentation. Each augment school affects a primary archetype's skills in different ways. For example: A Mage offers Teleportation and elemental schools of augments. These augments will affect a Fighter's primary skills differently than a Cleric's.

When you reach the class phase, which is around level 25 and you introduce that secondary archetype selection to create your one of 64 classes, then you'll have a number of augments that you'll be able to apply on a per-ability basis; and your core ability kit comes from your primary archetype selection; and those augments will change the look and feel of those abilities; and some will have the affect to create more darker thematic aspects to it. Or just generally different aesthetics to the abilities that represent the secondary [archetype] selection. – Steven Sharif

• The player can then augment their primary skills with effects from their secondary archetype.

• Players can augment a limited subset of their primary skills with passive effects from their secondary archetype. Augmentable skills will offer several augment options from the secondary tree. This is an example of horizontal progression.
  • These augments can be rudimentary, or they can significantly change the way the ability works.

The intent behind the augment system is not to provide new active abilities. They're intended to augment existing active abilities that are provided through your primary archetype; and so your secondary archetype selection completes your class selection, of which there's 64 types and you get augment skills that can apply certain attributes and mechanics to your existing active skills. So, if you have certain abilities, like a backstab as a Rogue primary archetype, and you take that healer secondary archetype selection, now the properties of your backstab will still remain the same as an active ability, however it might include things like life steal, or it might include things like susceptible weakness to the target, and reduces their healing because the definition of what those augments are intended to provide based on the archetype selected for the augments is within the schools of magic that live for that archetype: so a Cleric is about balancing life and death and the control of those types of hit points. – Steven Sharif

• Augments are intended to allow each class to feel different, rather than a minor variation on its primary archetype.

When we talk about augments, all we can say right now is what our intent is; and our intent is to execute on it in a way where it doesn't just feel like eight archetypes. So, whether or not we land that intent is something people are going to have to wait and see. But, know that our work is to ensure it doesn't just feel like eight archetypes. – Steven Sharif

• Augments can be rudimentary, or they can significantly change the way the ability works (such as its visuals, audio, and flavor). It is possible that some specific augments may be locked to specific abilities.

Q: How much will a subclass affect the mechanics of your abilities vs the visual and audio flavor?

A: Some of the ideas that we have with regards to augmentation is that they could be very rudimentary mechanics that get adjusted, such as like damage values, cooldowns, mana costs, distance, and range, some targeting changes; but they could also be very fundamental changes, which would include visuals and audios and flavor for a particular ability. – Steven Sharif

• Choosing the same primary and secondary archetype increases focus on that archetype. Choosing different archetypes allows characters to somewhat flirt with their role..

• Each augmentation has a level requirement.

• Augments do not cost skill points. It was previously stated that certain augments will have more expense required on the skill point side.

There's going to be a certain threshold at which you can no longer augment your active abilities based on the decisions you've augmented previous abilities, so you'll have to pick and choose which ones you want to apply the augments towards. – Steven Sharif

• Changing skill augmentations will require visiting a NPC in a Village node or higher. Switching secondary archetypes will likely be made easier during Alpha-2 phase-2 for the purposes of testing.

• Secondary archetype specialization will start sometime after the beginning of Alpha-2 phase-3. Every archetype may start with two augment schools.

Skill points

Alpha-2 Ranger skill tree user interface (WIP).

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. – Tradd Thompson

Players receive skill points at specific points as they level. These can be used unlock Active and passive skills in archetype and weapon skill trees.

• Skill points 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.

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. – Steven Sharif

• Skill points can be used to unlock universal skills at the expense of unlocking class-specific skills.

• Skill ranks will be added to certain skills in Alpha-2 phase-2.

• Respeccing (resetting and reallocating) adventuring skills may require travelling to a specific location rather than being able to be done on-the-fly.

• Augments do not cost skill points. It was previously stated that certain augments will have more expense required on the skill point side.

Some 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.
• 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.

Combat abilities

The aspiration for combat is for abilities to have corresponding counter-play abilities.

• The goal is to have special animations for parrying, blocking and evading.

Crowd control

Alpha-2 Mesmerizing Dance Bard skill diminishing returns. Visual effects by Sivaraamakrishnan Gurusamy Muthupandian.

The basic idea is we have created different categories of CC. So, you've got hard CC, you've got movement CC, you got activation CC, like silence and disarm; and each of those categories will tick up as the duration ticks; and once you've hit a max amount of duration of that CC category it'll kick in a temporary immunity period. So, we'll probably iterate on this more just as we do with everything else, but we wanted something in place just so that people can't perma-lock you down, 'cuz nobody likes that. – Tradd Thompson

Crowd control (CC/mezzing) effects include hard CCs, movement CCs, and activation CCs.

• There are diminishing returns on crowd control effects so as to avoid stun locking.
  • Each category of CC has an associated duration timer that grants temporary immunity to targets if the duration is exceeded. CC categories include:
    • Hard CCs (such as incapacitate, trip, and stun).
    • Movement CCs (such as snare, chill, root, and freeze).
    • Activation CCs (such as silence and disarm).

• CC effects do not apply to Non-combatant (green) players. The target of a CC ability must be flagged in order to suffer the CC effects. This prevents players from opening attacks that stun non-combatant players during a pull for example.

• All archetypes will have their own versions of CC breaks.
  • Melee archetypes will offer various mobility and CC counters against ranged archetypes, such as the Ranger.

• Some crowd-control abilities can dismount a mounted player. In that case the mount would persist with its own health pool and other stats.
  • In Alpha-1 testing mounts were not separate from the player.

There's also going to be effects that just stun the mount or stun you on the mount. – Steven Sharif

• Summoner's summons will be able to use crowd control.

Skill	Icon	Origin	Description
Air Strike		Ranger	Leap a great distance forward and into the air while firing three projectiles in a line along the path, each dealing (150%🢆) Physical damage to targets hit. Targets hit that are Snared become Rooted , and all Snared stacks on those targets are consumed.
Bear Trap		Ranger	Spawn a trap at the target location, which arms after 1 second. When an enemy triggers the trap, they take (50%🢆) Physical damage and become Rooted . Targets hit that are Snared become Rooted for 3 seconds, and all Snared stacks on those targets are consumed, increasing the rooted duration by 1 seconds per stack consumed.
Binding Chains		Cleric	Chains of Restraint's final tick applies Stunned .
Cataclysm		Fighter	Deal (275%🢆) Physical damage and apply Shaken to all enemies in a large area in front of you. If the target is Staggered , the effect is consumed and the target becomes Tripped . Deals 15% additional damage to Chilled targets. This bonus is doubled against Frozen targets.
Chains of Restraint		Cleric	Conjure a circle of radiant chains at target location for 8 seconds that deals (40%🢆) Radiant damage every second and applies to targets within the area of effect. Each Weakened target hit by the initial pulse becomes Rooted .
Charge		Tank	Channeled Ability: Charge forward in the direction you are facing. Enemies you collide with take (50%🢆) Physical damage damage and become Staggered . Charge will be canceled if another ability is activated or if the Charge key is pressed again.
Charge: Knockback		Tank	Adds a knockback to targets in the way of your Charge.
Clever Retort		Bard	Interrupt your target with a clever retort, applying 1 stacks of Silenced . Applies Humiliated if the target is Demoralized .
Condemn		Cleric	Apply Incapacitated (10 seconds ) to target enemy. If the target is Conflagrating , the target becomes Stunned (3 seconds ) instead.
Crippling Blow		Fighter	Deal (75%🢆) Physical damage and apply 1 stack of 1 stacks of Snared to target enemy. If the target is Staggered , apply another stack of 1 stacks of Snared to the target.
Discordance		Bard	Launch a wild burst of 3 discordant notes at your target, each dealing (50%🢆) Arcane damage and applying Staggered . The notes will bounce to random nearby enemies dealing reduced damage. Song Mastery: Dissonance
Ensnaring Vine Field		Ranger	Enemies acquire 1 stack of Snared per second while within Vine Field's area of effect.
Get Off The Stage		Bard	Knockback enemies in front of you with your instrument, dealing (125%🢆) Bludgeon damage and applying 3 stacks of Snared that tapers off over the course of 6 seconds. Also applies Disarmed to targets with Staggered .
Ground Pound		Tank	Slams the ground, dealing (200%🢆) Physical damage to enemies in front of you, while applying Tripped for 2 seconds to targets that were Staggered . Targets already Tripped are launched and take 25% more damage.
Knock Out		Fighter	Apply Incapacitated and Shaken to target enemy.
Leap Strike		Fighter	Leap to target location and deal (225%🢆) Physical damage around you while applying Staggered to targets hit. Apply 3 stacks of Snared to targets hit that were Shaken .
Lunging Assault		Fighter	Spend 15 Combat Momentum to lunge in a direction a short distance and perform an upward swing upon arrival, dealing (125%🢆) Physical damage and applying Snared to enemies in front of the caster. The caster is immune to hard disabling effects while lunging.
Marionette		Bard	Target enemy is afflicted with Marionette When Marionette expires, the target becomes Humiliated . "How embarrassing..."
Mesmerizing Dance		Bard	Quickly strike a dazzling pose! Mesmerizes all nearby enemies, applying 1 stacks of Incapacitated for 10 seconds . Any targets with Staggered also become 1 stacks of Stunned for 3 seconds .
Oppressive Reflect		Tank	If Reflect successfully reflects damage to an attacker, that attacker also becomes Tripped .
Shield Assault		Tank	Lunge forward and deal 125% physical damage while applying Staggered to enemies in front of you. If a target was hit, gain 25 courage. Generates 300% additional threat.
Shield Slam		Tank	Lunge forward and deal 150% physical damage while applying Staggered to that target. Gain 25 courage on hit. Generates 300% additional threat.
Slam: Knockback		Tank	Adds a powerful knockback to Slam.
Slumber		Mage	Applies Incapacitated to targets in a small area around the primary target. Lasts 10 seconds .
Thundering Shot		Ranger	Fire a lightning-infused projectile at target enemy, dealing (200%🢆) Physical damage and applying 10 stacks of Shocked to the target. If the primary target is Dazed , the effect is consumed and the target becomes Silenced .
Tremoring Bellow		Tank	Apply Snared to enemies in front of you with a loud shout. Then quickly follow up with a powerful ground stomp, dealing 150% physical damage to enemies around you. Generates 200% additional threat.
Tremoring Strike		Tank	Deal 175% physical damage and apply Tripped to target enemy for 2 seconds. Generates 200% additional threat.
Vine Field		Ranger	Summon a vine field at target location. Targets in the area take (125%🢆) Physical damage and become Rooted . Each target can only be hit once per instance. For each target hit by the initial tick that is Bleeding , 1 stack is consumed and that target becomes Hemorraging .

Crowd control breaks

All archetypes will have their own versions of crowd control breaks.

Skill	Icon	Origin	Description
Berserk		Fighter	Consume your Combat Momentum rapidly, gaining 30% more physical power and movement speed and immunity to disabling effects while active. Must have at least 20 Combat Momentum to activate, and the effect ends when all Combat Momentum is fully depleted.
Blink		Mage	Instantly teleport 20 meters in the direction you are moving. Breaks all rooting effects.
Call of the Wild		Ranger	Remove all Snared and Chilled statuses from the caster, and increase movement speed by 20% while becoming immune to all movement impairing effects for 8 seconds.
Exert		Fighter	Consume your Combat Momentum rapidly, gaining 30% more physical power and movement speed and immunity to disabling effects while active. Must have at least 20 Combat Momentum to activate, and the effect ends when all Combat Momentum is fully depleted.
Lunging Assault		Fighter	Spend 15 Combat Momentum to lunge in a direction a short distance and perform an upward swing upon arrival, dealing (125%🢆) Physical damage and applying Snared to enemies in front of the caster. The caster is immune to hard disabling effects while lunging.
Misdirection		Bard	Use your wiles to reduce both your own and nearby party members' threat against nearby monsters by (1000%🢆) Magical damage . Additionally breaks all disabling effects on the caster.
Purify		Cleric	Remove up to 3 dispellable debuffs from an ally.
Resonant Weapon		Bard	Casting non-melody abilities will grant you 1 stack of Resonance Some songs and dances will grant an additional stack upon completion. Stacks up to 10 times. Resonance
Unyielding Berserk		Fighter	Berserk breaks all disabling effects on the caster.
Unyielding Call of the Wild		Ranger	Call of the Wild breaks all disabling effects on the caster.
Unyielding Wings of Salvation		Cleric	Wings of Salvation breaks all disabling effects on the caster.
Whirlwind		Fighter	Channeled ability: Deal (45%🢆) Physical damage to all enemies around the caster with each spin while channeled, increasing the spin rate the longer it is channeled. The caster is immune to hard disabling effects while spinning. Activate the ability again to end channeling early. Deals 20% additional damage to Weakened targets.

Mobility

Revamped Alpha-1 Mage Fireball ability.

The general approach that we're taking based on a lot of feedback and just good combat design in general. You know philosophy is that we want to give more agency in the hands of the player and the antithesis of that is locking the player down for really long amounts of time. The sort of concept behind that is like you could make an animation effects as glorious looking as possible but if it's taking away control of the player, none of that really matters. Especially the 100th or thousandth time you're using the spell you're tired of that happening you don't feel powerful: You feel the opposite of powerful. So we're trying to like give a lot of control back to the player while they're using these abilities so they can still control their movements, they can react simultaneously while they're taking actions; and we just want to get overall more of a fluid flow, I guess, of combat. And that's the general design philosophy we're using to approach the overhaul. – Tradd Thompson

• The revamped combat system features split-body animations, where the character's upper body can be locked by weapon attack animations while the lower body is free to continue moving.

A lot of abilities you have the capability of moving while casting. It's going to decrease your movement speed significantly or depending on the type of ability. We do reserve the cost- and that's really what it is when you tie ability usage to mobility- we do reserve the cost of requiring the character to remain stationary on some big effect type abilities. – Steven Sharif

• Most abilities in Ashes of Creation are capable of being cast while moving. Some abilities may slow the caster down during the cast, but only rarely will the player be rooted in place.
  • Movement speed can decrease significantly depending on the type of ability.
  • Weapon weight can also affect mobility.
  • Skills with the greatest power may require the caster to remain stationary while channeling them. This is a risk vs. reward mechanic.

Most abilities you'll find in Ashes of Creation are capable of being cast while moving. Some of those abilities might slow your movement during the cast, but you can continue to move. Very rarely, and depending on obviously the importance of the ability or the power level of that ability, you might be rooted in place. So, for example, the AoE ability [Chains of Restraint] has a lot going on. It has damage ticking over time, it is an area of effect, it also has a status condition application; and in those instances the player character gets rooted. – Steven Sharif

• Ranged archetypes will have gap openers to counter gap closers from archetypes like the Fighter.

That's the cat-and-mouse of these abilities. Like we've seen with the Ranger, they have a backflip, they have their Airdrop [sic] ability. The Mage has teleportation. There are going to be abilities that are tit-for-tat; and managing the resource of those abilities and the timing of when you use them to either correlate to your opponent's use of those things, or to save them for yourself when you want to get away, that's part of what makes the engagements dynamic and different each time. – Steven Sharif

• Unreal Engine 5 has enabled improved forms of locomotion, such as crouching, tilting and mantling.
  • Crouching may or may not be in the game.

• The ability to prone is not be in the game.

• Moving backward will likely not affect block and parry.

• Player movement speed during combat is balanced for both PvE and PvP.

There's a balance in the game design between your movement speed on attack and the movement speed of your opponent. When you have a game that is both PvE centric as well as PvP centric, you have to make sure that combat is blended for both approaches; and we can always run into problems where, if you're significantly hampered in your movement speed, that has an effect on how we expect player versus player engagements to interact; and we don't want to restrict a player's ability to be mobile if they're the target of an attack. And as a result of that we need to make sure that we don't restrict the movement abilities of the player who is doing the attacking as well. So we want it to be relatively free for you to stay with each other. Your opponents move around the battlefield together and if we're hampering you on the attack action, we have to then implement some type of snare, or slow, or cc effect essentially on your opposing target; and that's not the approach we want to take for for PvP. – Steven Sharif

• Melee archetypes will offer various mobility and CC counters against ranged archetypes, such as the Ranger.

If we're talking about Fighter, they're going to have a lot of heavy gap closers. They can probably be a little bit more liberal in the use of their gap closers because they have so many of them, versus let's say a Ranger that needs to choose when to use their escape abilities, because they have fewer of them. The same would be true for a melee character like a rogue. Their approach vector is going to be more stealth-driven than it would be perhaps let's say from a gap-closer perspective. – Steven Sharif

Q: If a ranger is super mobile, what are the melee's options in order to catch them?

A: Different class kits will provide different gap closers. They'll provide different mobility skills. They'll have lockdowns. They'll have chains to pull back. They'll have a lot of different things in the rotation. That's part of what an MMORPG experience is. You're not just restricted to three or six skills, you have a rotational suite; and depending on the type of challenges you face is going to help determine which of those rotations you spec into from your skill tree. – Steven Sharif

Skill	Icon	Origin	Description
Air Strike		Ranger	Leap a great distance forward and into the air while firing three projectiles in a line along the path, each dealing (150%🢆) Physical damage to targets hit. Targets hit that are Snared become Rooted , and all Snared stacks on those targets are consumed.
Berserk		Fighter	Consume your Combat Momentum rapidly, gaining 30% more physical power and movement speed and immunity to disabling effects while active. Must have at least 20 Combat Momentum to activate, and the effect ends when all Combat Momentum is fully depleted.
Blink		Mage	Instantly teleport 20 meters in the direction you are moving. Breaks all rooting effects.
Blitz		Fighter	Charge directly toward target enemy, dealing (100%🢆) Physical damage to the target on arrival.
Call of the Wild		Ranger	Remove all Snared and Chilled statuses from the caster, and increase movement speed by 20% while becoming immune to all movement impairing effects for 8 seconds.
Caravan Trail Speed Bonus		Caravan	Minor speed boost for travelling on a simple trail.
Charge		Tank	Channeled Ability: Charge forward in the direction you are facing. Enemies you collide with take (50%🢆) Physical damage damage and become Staggered . Charge will be canceled if another ability is activated or if the Charge key is pressed again.
Disengage		Ranger	Quickly strike enemies in front of you while backflipping in the opposite direction. Targets hit by the strike take Physical damage and acquire 1 stack of Snared for 10 seconds.
Epic Melody		Bard	Nearby party members gain Epic Melody Melodies can be played concurrently with other abilities. Multiple instances of the same melody do not stack.
Exert		Fighter	Consume your Combat Momentum rapidly, gaining 30% more physical power and movement speed and immunity to disabling effects while active. Must have at least 20 Combat Momentum to activate, and the effect ends when all Combat Momentum is fully depleted.
Flourish		Bard	Slide forward gracefully in your aimed direction and gain Pep . Can be used concurrently with any other ability. Dance Mastery: Energy Dance Mastery: Power
Form Of Celerity		Fighter	While in this form, the caster receives +2% Movement Speed per 10 Combat Momentum, up to a maximum of +20%. Overpower and Brutal Cleave apply Staggered to targets hit. Shifting form costs 20% of current Combat Momentum and triggers cooldown for all Combat Forms. Triggers cooldown for 10 seconds when deactivated.
Form Of Fluidity		Fighter	While in this form, the caster receives +1.5% Evasion and +2.5% Disable Evasion per 10 Combat Momentum, up to a maximum of +15% and +25%, respectively. Overpower and Brutal Cleave apply Shaken to targets hit. Shifting form costs 20% of current Combat Momentum and triggers cooldown for all Combat Forms. Triggers cooldown for 10 seconds when deactivated.
Leap Strike		Fighter	Leap to target location and deal (225%🢆) Physical damage around you while applying Staggered to targets hit. Apply 3 stacks of Snared to targets hit that were Shaken .
Lunging Assault		Fighter	Spend 15 Combat Momentum to lunge in a direction a short distance and perform an upward swing upon arrival, dealing (125%🢆) Physical damage and applying Snared to enemies in front of the caster. The caster is immune to hard disabling effects while lunging.
Party Stride		Ranger	Applies Strider to all group members within 30 meters. Strider Increases ground movement speed of target by 10%.
Pulverize		Tank	Move to your target and strike them for 225% physical damage. Generates 300% additional threat.
Shield Assault		Tank	Lunge forward and deal 125% physical damage while applying Staggered to enemies in front of you. If a target was hit, gain 25 courage. Generates 300% additional threat.
Shield Slam		Tank	Lunge forward and deal 150% physical damage while applying Staggered to that target. Gain 25 courage on hit. Generates 300% additional threat.
Speed Boost		Caravan	Gives the caravan a temporary speed boost.
Whirlwind		Fighter	Channeled ability: Deal (45%🢆) Physical damage to all enemies around the caster with each spin while channeled, increasing the spin rate the longer it is channeled. The caster is immune to hard disabling effects while spinning. Activate the ability again to end channeling early. Deals 20% additional damage to Weakened targets.
Wings of Salvation		Cleric	Sprout phoenix-like wings and dash to target ally, granting Wings of Salvation to the caster and target on arrival.

Player movement

Player movement in Alpha-2 combat against a Bonebinder Kidnapper (3 star) elite.

• Sprinting (default C) is a universal skill that is able to be unlocked by all archetypes.

• There is a toggleable walk (RP walk)/run capability (default .).

• Autorun is toggleable (default Numlock).

• Players will have the ability to auto-follow another player, but this will be on a timer.

• There is not going to be any "go to waypoint" (auto-pathing) mechanics.

• Back-peddling (walking backwards) and strafing are slower than normal movement speed.

• Double-jumping has been considered as an option for player mounts.

• Mantling (climbing onto objects) is present in the game.

Collision

There are player and spell/projectile collision mechanics in Ashes of Creation.

• Inertia and momentum physics will help prevent blocking doorways/access points. This is based on a character's direction and movement speed, and can be used to push people out of the way.

• The Bard's Flourish skill turns off collision.

It turns off your collision so you can not get blocked or trapped. – John Collins

• Mounts and players cannot stop caravans and other vehicles from moving. Nothing can move or block ships.

• Specific ranged skills will have a pushback effect but this is not inherent to all ranged abilities.

• Player collision inherently limits the number of individuals that can be affected by AoE skills.

• Not all projectiles can be body-blocked.

Not all projectiles can be body-blocked. Some potentially can, but there will be certain abilities and effects, like a shield wall, that can that can be brought up and that will obscure line-of-sight to the target as well; and it will restrict some of those attacks from occurring. – Steven Sharif

Dodging

Dodging in Alpha-1 early combat.

Another thing that's important about these action combats is the ability to dodge and moving out of the way of certain skill shots. – Steven Sharif

Active dodging is a universal skill that is able to be unlocked by all archetypes.

• Stamina is a universal resource that is utilized by active blocking, Active dodging, and sprinting universal skills.

• Dodge rolling type skills were previously housed in the action skill sets of agile classes such as Rogues or Fighters.

• Dodging will not use I-frames (invincibility frames), but it may affect accuracy and mitigation stats when used.
  • Previously it was stated that hybrid combat will likely have true evasion skills relating to action-oriented combat and also have I-frames that apply to tab targeting.

So you see an animation windup that's a telegraph on what's coming; and then you have response actions that you can take as a result of that in order to dodge, weave, move, do whatever. It is both a combination of what your rotation is but also how you have reaction abilities ready to go that you save for certain circumstances that are important. – Steven Sharif

- None -

Active blocking

Tank active blocking with a Shield in Alpha-2.

The shield version would probably be better but you'd still be able to parry or whatnot with a two-handed weapon, or even maybe a dual wield. – Tradd Thompson

Cleric active blocking with a Shield in Alpha-2.

Active blocking (Guarding) is a universal skill that is able to be unlocked by all archetypes.

• Stamina is a universal resource that is utilized by active blocking, active dodging, and sprinting universal skills.

• Different types of equipment are catered toward blocking different damage types.
  • Shields are better for active blocking physical damage, but any melee weapon can also be used to parry with a lesser amount of mitigation.
  • Sigils are better at actively blocking magical damage.

Q: How are you designing encounters around active blocking? Will it be situational use, or would I expect to be laying on my block keybind for most of the fight to prevent getting deleted by bosses?

A: It depends really on the type of adversary you're facing. Some of them are going to have indicators or tells that a big attack is coming. It's an animation wind up where you'll have an opportunity to use active block in very unique situations that are based on timing and additional mitigation for those incoming one-off attacks. In other occasions you'll be able to use it off of rotational cooldowns, or if you're waiting for a particular ability or you're during the use of your Aegis. There's different situations for when active block is a relevant use-case. – Steven Sharif

• Some abilities may be able to overcome, surpass, or cancel active blocking.

If a player is in a state, such as an active block, or an active tumble state, there will likely be some types of abilities that interact with reacting to those types of states and will either overcome surpass or cancel out those states, particularly as it relates to not just active blocking, but also potentially passive blocking as well; and that would be something probably related to physical penetration values as a stat, or even CC breaks that could be relevant as well for those types of things. I think that's on the radar for the combat team. – Steven Sharif

• Previously the developers had not finalized designs for active blocking and were leaning toward using more traditional buff-oriented universal damage mitigation for the MMO, and were also considering interaction between action-based blocking and a passive block stat.
  • The Paladin's Might shield in Ashes of Creation Apocalypse had its own hit box and hit points (HP); that could actively block projectiles.

Interrupts

Abilities with a cast bar can be interrupted during the cast.

• There are abilities to counter interrupts.
• Some interrupts are better than others.

Skill	Icon	Origin	Description
Clever Retort		Bard	Interrupt your target with a clever retort, applying 1 stacks of Silenced . Applies Humiliated if the target is Demoralized .

Animation cancelling

Animation cancelling will not be a combat mechanic in Ashes of Creation.

• Players will be able to cancel channeled abilities.

Combat stances

The use of weapon stances in game is likely.

RNG

RNG elements pertain to combat relating to stats such as Critical hit, Evasion, Blocking chance.

• RNG plays a role in both PvP or PvE.
• Action combat is far less dependent on RNG.

RNG is always going to play a role in Ashes of Creation whether that be in PvP or PvE, but one way to mitigate that is through the action system. The action system is going to be far less sort of dependent on those dice rolls and there'll be far more in your own hands. They won't ever completely eliminate that but it's a way for us to sort of reward skilled play versus sort of tactical strategies type play. – Jeffrey Bard

Combat targeting

Ranger hybrid combat in Alpha-2.

Our desire has always and continues to be how we can create a mixture of tab target abilities and skill-shot oriented positional, directional-based ability usage and make something cohesive in that design. And I think that what we're achieving with that regard may not fully feel like an action-oriented game, but we've always intended to be more hybrid-oriented, leaning towards tab target. So you're going to see a mixture of abilities that require the targets and that don't; and then you're going to have an option as the player's perspective to utilize an action camera mode, which utilizes a soft target lock feature and our reticle. – Steven Sharif

Hard-locked friendly player target.

Hybrid combat refers to the choice between tab and action combat in Ashes of Creation. A toggle button (default Z, but can be re-bound to another key) allows the player to switch between action and tab combat modes.

• The action mode camera is tied to the player's reticle (crosshair).
  • There will likely be a hotkey that when held down will allow free camera movement in action mode.
  • In the future users will have the ability to choose from different reticle appearances.

• Targeted skills require either a soft or hard locked target.
  • Soft locking is when the reticle moves over a valid target while in action mode. The targeting plate will appear slightly grayed out to indicate that this is a soft-lock target. If the reticle moves away from the target or the target moves away from the reticle, the target is lost.
  • Hard locking is when the player uses right-mouse on a soft-locked target in action mode, or when the player selects a valid target in tab mode. The targeting plate will not be grayed-out to indicate that a hard-lock target is selected. Unlike soft locking, if the target moves out of the reticle, the target is not lost. Tab will still cycle between hard-locked targets in action mode based on proximity priority.
  • Targeted skills will be greyed out if the target is not within a valid range but templated skills will generally require the player to assess the correct range for the skill.

• Templated skills allow "blind firing" without a target while in action mode. If an entity moves into the path of the attack they can be struck.

Q: Is the development team moving away from action combat, or is action combat more prevalent with the melee classes, and the healing/range classes are more tab-target other than AoE spells?

A: We have not moved away from our hybrid approach to the development of Ashes of Creation's combat; and specifically to reiterate: that approach is incorporating elements of skill shots, fast and reactive gameplay that is situationally relevant, and incorporates the camera mode of both tab-targeting as well as action combat reticle. That's something that is still in progress. We haven't moved away from that however. To note, our approach of that hybridization is going to incorporate things like templated skill-shots, directionally relevant activated abilities, along with the ability to dodge to roll projectiles that can impact collision. Those are elements of action combat that are present. – Steven Sharif

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

• Templated and targeted versions of skills will have different characteristics.

Skill progressions, skill point allocation is determined by the player. The player will be able to choose either more tab-target oriented skills or more action-based skills and customize their playable experience to what accommodates their preference. From a balancing standpoint for us developers, we need to make sure that certain abilities house certain functions so that there's a balance between skill shots and tab-target abilities. – Steven Sharif

• Different ranks of the same skill can change the skill from tab to action or vice-versa. Variables will change based on which version of a skill is chosen.
  • Damage.
  • Charge up time.
  • Accuracy.
  • Evasion.
  • Crowd control.
  • Cooldown.
  • Energy consumption.
  • Cost to spec.
  • Attack range will likely remain the same; as it is driven by the weapon or skill itself.

• It may not be possible to be able to fully spec into just action or tab targeted skills. There might be a 75% cap on choosing skills from any one type.

Hitboxes

The developers are testing different approaches to accommodate varying hitboxes between the races.

• There may be a single unified hitbox with some exceptions or some special collision rules as opposed to having different sized hitboxes.

More than likely we'll have some sort of unified or unified-ish hitbox. But again it's going to probably have a unified hitbox with some exceptions or some special sort of collision rules based on them as opposed to just making it smaller for one and not the other. – Jeffrey Bard

There aren't separate types of hitbox categories in the Ashes of Creation MMORPG as there were in Ashes of Creation Apocalypse.

We don't have separate types of hitbox categories, for example. There's no head hit box in the MMORPG like there was in APOC. So from a critical standpoint you're not going to see a greater risk of critting for a larger hitbox. – Steven Sharif

Directional attacks

There will be directional attacks (back attacks, flanking attacks, frontal attacks) that deal additional damage depending on the positional context of the attack.

• Rogues will generally have more of these.

Cleaving

Weapon attack cone in Alpha-1.

As I attack I am hitting multiple numbers of these opponents; and that's important because all weapons, regardless of whether you are in reticle mode or tab-targeting mode will be able to have a action-based type weapon attack. Not active skill, but weapon attack. – Steven Sharif

All weapons have a forward attack cone, regardless of being in tab or action mode.

• The cone's arc and distance will vary based on weapon type.

Polearms for example will have a much wider arc and much further out. Daggers will have a more fine-tuned arc, so you have to be more precise in that regard. – Steven Sharif

This is described as a weapon attack not an active skill.

• It was previously stated that cleaving will be a class ability for some classes.

Headshot mechanics

Headshot mechanics (where there is a specific hitbox for a player's head) are not planned for the Ashes of Creation MMORPG.

• Headshots were a part of Ashes of Creation Apocalypse battle royale.
• Previously it was stated that headshot mechanics may be implemented in the MMORPG along the lines of a higher critical chance and that they would not be one hit kills.
  • Headshots in action combat are equivalent to a critical hit in tab targeted combat.
  • Players relying on tab skills will have a fixed critical hit chance every time they use an ability or weapon.
  • Players using action-based skills are going to rely on getting a head shot or hitting a critical spot on the opponent.
• A Ranger skill called Headshot was introduced leading up to Alpha-2 testing.

See also

• Classes
• Combat