Combat

PvP combat gameplay in Alpha-1 castle sieges.

Combat is the most tactile system in the game. It's the thing you will experience most often; and outside of the systems and mechanics that are going to be present for the overarching core gameplay loop, combat needs to feel responsive. It needs to not feel floaty. It needs to feel mobile. It needs to be fluid. It needs to give a feeling of satisfaction. The audio components, the effects components, the animations themselves, the types of skills and those types of things: All of those are really our objective in fine-tuning the approach for our combat in Ashes of Creation. – Steven Sharif

Alpha-2 solo PvE ranger combat.

Combat in Ashes of Creation is focused on strategy and tactics.

• Combat is the most tactile system in the game. It needs to feel responsive, mobile and fluid. It needs to give a feeling of satisfaction.

One of the biggest points of feedback that we've received at least as it relates to Alpha 2's phase-1 and phase-2 experience has been that combat is really in a good spot. It needs to be fleshed out more. We need to continue to build on it foundationally, however we've gotten a lot of feedback that the combat feels good. – Steven Sharif

• Combat is animation-driven to ensure it is impactful and responsive.
  • VFX and sound effects are an important part of selling the weight and immersion of combat.
  • Camera effects such as screen shake and radial blur are used to "sell a lot of the weight without being too over the top".

I think one of the things that helps set Ashes apart from an effects perspective is that we want VFX to be dynamically generated. We want them to interact with the world. We want them to feel like they are part of the combat. – John Kent

We're building a singular tool that all of the teams can use to build abilities and tweak their sound effects, visual effects, animation design, engineering: All using the same tool grounded in animation to build these abilities. – Keenan Reimer

• A combat revamp was rolled out during and post Alpha-1 testing.
  • Alpha-1 combat was focused on core functionality rather than combat balance.
  • Alpha-2 combat will focus on archetypes, significant ability support, augments, split-body combat, weapon attacks, and many additional items, among other things.
  • The developers will be testing whether or not to use global cooldowns GCDs on different types of abilities during Alpha-2.

We will continue to iterate on combat until it is in a place that collectively we as a community can say 'this may not be my particular combat, but this combat is good.' That is the driving force and factor behind the development of combat; and that is how we are going to continue to iterate upon it, utilizing of course the player feedback from our community, but also keeping you guys informed and up to date as we continually iterate on combat. – Steven Sharif

• The game isn't focused around cover-based combat mechanics.

I might be on a rampart or behind a wall and that could be destroyed removing my cover, but not like a Gears of War or something, where I slide up to a piece of rock, or the corner of a wall or something. – Steven Sharif

Hybrid combat

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.

Targeted skills

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.
• The developers will be testing additional targeting methods, such as target-of-target as well as separate friendly and enemy targets, most likely during Alpha-2.

Skill	Icon	Origin	Description
Anthem of Alacrity		Bard	Target ally gains Anthem of Alacrity: Attack speed increased by 25% and casting speed increased by 25%. Lasts 10 seconds.
Arcane Volley		Mage	Fire a volley of 7 arcane missiles at your target, dealing (35%🢆) Arcane damage each.
Barrage		Ranger	Fires a continual barrage of arrows at your target for 1.5 seconds, dealing (15%🢆) Physical damage per arrow. Triggers Ammo Imbue effects, once per target hit. Each hit against Bleeding targets reduces the cooldown of this ability by 0.1 seconds. Double this bonus against Hemorraging targets.
Barrier		Cleric	Sacrifice 25% of your maximum health and apply that much temporary health to target ally for 10 seconds. Does not stack.
Bless Weapon		Cleric	Imbue your target's weapon with radiant light, granting them Bless Weapon .
Blitz		Fighter	Charge directly toward target enemy, dealing (100%🢆) Physical damage to the target on arrival.
Book Combo Attack		Book	Fire from your spellbook at your target in a series of attacks. 1. Hit 1 - (58%🢆) Arcane damage Bounces to 3 enemies for (22%🢆) Arcane damage 2. Hit 2 - (66%🢆) Arcane damage Bounces to 3 enemies for (25%🢆) Arcane damage 3. Finisher - (82%🢆) Arcane damage Bounces to 3 enemies for (33%🢆) Arcane damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Finisher - (90%🢆) Arcane damage Bounces to 3 enemies for (36%🢆) Arcane damage Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Applies Burning to struck targets Applies Chilled to struck targets Applies Volatile to struck targets Triggers Bullseye Triggers Prism Triggers Arcane Amplifier 50% chance to trigger Essence Harvest Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Catalytic Projectiles Triggers Heartseeker 4. Extended Finisher - (106%🢆) Arcane damage Bounces to 3 enemies for (40%🢆) Arcane damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Extended Finisher - (117%🢆) Arcane damage Bounces to 3 enemies for (43%🢆) Arcane damage Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Triggers Echo Triggers Perfect Timing Triggers Bullseye Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Heartseeker
Chain Lightning		Mage	Release a powerful streak of lightning that hits your primary target and then chains outward to up to 5 nearby enemies from that target, dealing (225%🢆) Lightning damage to each and applies 10 stacks of Shocked to targets with Volatile . Aftershock
Chilling Lament		Bard	Target enemy is dealt (75%🢆) ice damage and afflicted with four seconds of Chilled every second. Deals bonus damage to frozen targets.
Cleansing Wave		Cleric	Held ability: Fire a beam of healing energy toward a target ally. Charging this spell allows the beam to bounce to up to 4 additional friendly targets closest to the original target, based on how long it was charged. The initial hit heals for (300%🢆) healing and reduces with each subsequent bounce.
Clever Retort		Bard	Interrupt your target with a clever retort, applying 1 stacks of Silenced . Applies Humiliated if the target is Demoralized .
Combust		Mage	Instantly combust your target, dealing (125%🢆) Fire damage and applying Conflagrating if they are Burning .
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.
Dark Lullaby		Bard	Deal (50-100%🢆) spirit damage to target enemy each second (scales in power over the course of the cast). This damage will not wake an incapacitated target. The final hit applies Stunned for 6 seconds if the target is incapacitated.
Defiant Light		Cleric	Grant target ally Defiant Light
Deliverance		Cleric	Held ability: Charges up healing energy that heals a target ally upon release, scaling in power the longer it is charged, up to (500%🢆) healing
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
Enchant Weapon		Mage	Enchant up to one ally's weapon to match your current set of elemental empowerments. The enchantment will favor the greater of their magical or physical power stat. The enchantment will last one hour with a single empowerment or 30 seconds if multiple are applied.
Fireball		Mage	Hurl a ball of fire toward your target, dealing (250%🢆) fire damage and applying Burning for (100%🢆) fire damage.
Firebolt		Mage	Hurl a bolt of fire toward your target, dealing (125%🢆) fire damage and applying Burning for (75%🢆) fire damage. 3 charges.
Flash Cure		Cleric	3 charges . Instantly heal target ally for (175%🢆) healing . This may be used during other ability activations.
Frostbolt		Mage	Launch a bolt of frost towards your target, dealing (250%🢆) Ice damage and applying Chilled . Shattering Shards
Gambit		Bard	In a daring maneuver, transfer life to or from target party member, depending on who has a lower percent health. This ability will not reduce either player below 25% health. The character that loses life in this exchange gains Solace .
Grapple		Tank	Take aim and hurl a chained javelin at your target, damaging the first target it contacts and immediately pulling them to the caster. The target suffers a tapering snare for 3 seconds. Cannot be used on boss enemies.
Headshot		Ranger	Deal (200%🢆) Physical damage to target enemy. Deals 25% more damage to targets below 50% of their maximum health and applies 1 stack of Wounded for each 25% missing health of the target. Physical penetration increased by 25% against Dazed targets. This bonus is doubled against Silenced targets.
Healing Touch		Cleric	Heal target ally in melee range for (500%🢆) healing .
Hunting Bow		Hunting	undefined
Hymn of the Mind		Bard	Target ally gains mana equal to 2+5% magical power. Every second Mana gained increases up to 200% based on the amount of Mana the target is missing.
Intercept		Tank	Rush to an ally's defense, granting temporary health to yourself and the target equal to 10% of your maximum HP for 10 seconds upon arrival.
Jest		Bard	Jest with target ally, healing for (150%🢆) healing and applying Glee and Pep . Shares cooldown with Mock.
Judgment		Cleric	If cast on an ally, restore health equal to (1500%🢆) healing to the target. If cast on an enemy, deal (280%🢆) Radiant damage and apply Burning for (150%🢆) Fire damage to the target. If the enemy target is Shaken , the caster is healed for the damage dealt.
Knock Out		Fighter	Apply Incapacitated and Shaken to target enemy.
Lethal Blow		Fighter	Deal (125%🢆) Physical damage to target enemy, plus additional damage based on the target's missing health, up to a maximum total of (125%🢆) Physical damage . Chance to critically hit increased by 15% against Bleeding targets. This bonus is doubled against Hemorraging targets.
Lightning Strike		Mage	Held ability: Charge up a bolt of lightning to unleash upon your target, dealing (100%🢆) Lightning damage based on how long it was charged. Applies 5 stacks of Shocked to target. Amplified Lightning Strike
Longbow Combo Attack		Longbow	Fire your longbow at your target in a series of attacks. 1. Hit 1 - (66%🢆) Pierce damage 2. Hit 2 - (55%🢆) Pierce damage 3. Finisher - (85%🢆) Pierce damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Finisher - (93%🢆) Pierce damage Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Applies to struck targets Applies Chilled to struck targets Applies Volatile to struck targets Triggers Bullseye Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Heartseeker 4. Extended Finisher - (106%🢆) Pierce damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Extended Finisher - (116%🢆) Pierce damage Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Triggers Special Extended Finisher: Echo Triggers Special Extended Finisher: Perfect Timing Triggers Bullseye Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Heartseeker
Lovely Serenade		Bard	Target ally is healed for (150%🢆) healing every second. The final hit applies Glee.
Marionette		Bard	Target enemy is afflicted with Marionette When Marionette expires, the target becomes Humiliated . "How embarrassing..."
Mark of the Bear		Ranger	Marks the target, reducing their mitigation by 25%.
Mark of the Raven		Ranger	Marks the target, triggering up to (33%🢆) Physical damage every time the target is hit, scaling based on the target's missing health %.
Mark of the Tiger		Ranger	Marks the target, increasing critical chance versus the target by 25%.
Mend		Cleric	3 charges . Instantly launch a healing projectile toward target ally. Restores (150%🢆) healing in health upon arrival.
Mock		Bard	Ridicule target enemy, damaging them for (125%🢆) Bludgeon damage and applying 1 stacks of Demoralized . Fierce Wit Shares cooldown with Jest.
Overpower		Fighter	Deal (150%🢆) Physical damage to target enemy. This ability shares a cooldown with Brutal Cleave, and hitting an enemy with a weapon combo finisher refreshes its cooldown. +10 Combat Momentum
Party Stride		Ranger	Applies Strider to all group members within 30 meters. Strider Increases ground movement speed of target by 10%.
Protect		Tank	Intercept attacks that strike your friendly nearby target, redirecting 30% of the damage taken to you. Must remain within 15 meters of the target to maintain protection. If this range is exceeded for more than 5 seconds, the effect ends. If your target already has Protect from another Tank, you cannot activate Protect. If your target already has your Protect, activating Protect again will toggle it off.
Pulverize		Tank	Move to your target and strike them for 225% physical damage. Generates 300% additional threat.
Purify		Cleric	Remove up to 3 dispellable debuffs from an ally.
Quick Wit		Bard	Jest with target ally, healing for (150%🢆) healing and applying Glee and Pep . Ridicule target enemy, damaging them for (125%🢆) Bludgeon damage and applying 1 stacks of Demoralized . Fierce Wit
Regeneration		Ranger	Grants 10 Regeneration Rating per Ranger level to a target ally. Can be maintained on one ally at a time. If your target already has Regeneration from another Ranger, you cannot activate Regeneration. If your target already has your Regeneration, activating Regeneration again will toggle it off.
Resplendent Beam		Cleric	Held ability: Fire a beam of healing energy toward a target ally. Charging this spell allows the beam to bounce to up to 4 additional friendly targets closest to the original target, based on how long it was charged. The initial hit heals for (300%🢆) healing and reduces with each subsequent bounce.
Resurrect		Cleric	Resurrect target ally with 25% of their max health and mana.
Rupture		Fighter	Deal (50%🢆) Physical damage and apply a debuff to the target. While the debuff is active, the target acquires 1 Wounded stack per second while moving. After 5 seconds, the target takes another (150%🢆) Physical damage , plus 10% additional damage for each stack of Wounded it has, up to a maximum total of (150%🢆) Physical damage On the initial hit, if the target is Bleeding , 1 stack is consumed and that target becomes Hemorraging .
Scatter Shot		Ranger	Fires a spread of projectiles, dealing (125%🢆) Physical damage to every enemy target in a cone area in front of the caster. Triggers Ammo Imbue effects, once per target hit.
Shatter		Mage	When you deal lightning damage to a recently Frozen target, they are dealt a bonus 300% ice damage. Shattered can only be triggered once every 4 seconds per caster against the same target.
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.
Shortbow Combo Attack		Shortbow	Fire your shortbow at your target in a series of attacks. 1. Hit 1 - (24%🢆) Pierce damage 2. Hit 2 - (17%🢆) Pierce damage (17%🢆) Pierce damage 3. Hit 3 - (24%🢆) Pierce damage 4. Hit 4 - (17%🢆) Pierce damage x 3 5. Finisher - (25%🢆) Pierce damage x 3 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Finisher - (27%🢆) Pierce damage x 3 Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Applies to struck targets Applies Chilled to struck targets Applies Volatile to struck targets Triggers Bullseye Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Arrowstorm 6. Extended Finisher - (21%🢆) Pierce damage x 5 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Extended Finisher - (23%🢆) Pierce damage x 5 Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Triggers Special Extended Finisher: Echo Triggers Special Extended Finisher: Perfect Timing Triggers Bullseye Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Arrowstorm
Slumber		Mage	Applies Incapacitated to targets in a small area around the primary target. Lasts 10 seconds .
Smite		Cleric	Smite your target, dealing (150%🢆) Radiant damage . If activated while in melee range of the target, this spell has no cast time. If the target is Burning , it becomes Conflagrating .
Snipe		Ranger	Deal (400%🢆) Physical damage and apply Shaken to target enemy. If the target is Bleeding , 1 stack is consumed and that target becomes Hemorraging .
Soothing Glow		Cleric	Apply Soothing Glow to target ally. 2 charges .
Strider		Ranger	Target ally gains Strider
Taunt		Tank	Taunt target enemy, generating threat equal to two times your maximum health and applying Humiliated .
Thorns		Ranger	Envelop target ally with thorns, dealing damage equal to 1/3 the Ranger's level and a 10% chance of applying Bleeding to attackers each time that ally is struck. Can be maintained on one ally at a time and can not be applied to a target already affected by Thorns.
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 .
Tomahawk		Tank	Throw a Tomahawk at target enemy, dealing (100%🢆) Physical damage . Deals 50% more damage to targets hit from behind.
Tremoring Strike		Tank	Deal 175% physical damage and apply Tripped to target enemy for 2 seconds. Generates 200% additional threat.
Vengeance		Tank	Combo ability: Launch up to 3 consecutive attacks against target enemy. Each hit grants 1 stack of Vengeance to the caster, granting 2% of maximum health as temporary health for 8 seconds, up to 3 stacks. 1. Hit 1 - (120%🢆) Physical damage 2. Hit 2 - (130%🢆) Physical damage 3. Hit 3 - (150%🢆) Physical damage and applies Stunned Incoming damaging hits reduce this ability's cooldown by 0.5 seconds, and hits that were blocked reduce the cooldown by 1 second. This may trigger at a maximum of once per second. Generates 100% additional threat.
Wallop		Fighter	Spend 25% of current Combat Momentum to deal (150%🢆) Physical damage plus additional damage depending on how much Combat Momentum was spent, up to a maximum total of (150%🢆) Physical damage . If the target is Staggered , the effect is consumed and the target becomes Tripped .
Wand Combo Attack		Wand	Fire from your wand at your target in a series of attacks. 1. Hit 1 - (32%🢆) Arcane damage 2. Hit 2 - (42%🢆) Arcane damage 3. Hit 3 - (42%🢆) Arcane damage 4. Hit 4 - (32%🢆) Arcane damage 5. Finisher - (58%🢆) Arcane damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Finisher - (22%🢆) Arcane damage x 3 Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Applies Burning to struck targets Applies Chilled to struck targets Applies Volatile to struck targets Triggers Bullseye Triggers Prism Triggers Arcane Amplifier 50% chance to trigger Essence Harvest Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Catalytic Projectiles Triggers Heartseeker 4. Extended Finisher - (106%🢆) Arcane damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Extended Finisher - (11%🢆) Arcane damage x 11 Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Triggers Echo Triggers Perfect Timing Triggers Bullseye Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Heartseeker
Wings of Salvation		Cleric	Sprout phoenix-like wings and dash to target ally, granting Wings of Salvation to the caster and target on arrival.

Templated skills

Templated skills allow blind firing (free aim) without a target while in action mode. If a player moves into the path of the attack they can be struck.

One of the differences between tab and action combat mode is you can launch projectiles in action combat mode as a blind fire option, and if a target or if something moves in the way between the time of that projectile launching and impacting either its max distance, or a piece of terrain, or another target, it's possible that players might move into that projectile. – Steven Sharif

• Not all projectiles can be body-blocked.

• Some templated skills may have template indicators, but in general will require the player to assess the correct range for the skill.

If it is a templated ability, which means it's skill-based to use, you'll need to get a feel for those distances; and that's some skill-based learning where you get an idea for what those distances are. Some of those will have template indicators but they'll be very in-world and immersive. We're not utilizing more UI-centric looking indicators, but generally the AoE templates are meant to be skill-based. – Steven Sharif

• Basic weapon attacks from projectile weapons are capable of blind firing without having a target.

Q: Why did you move away from arrows being projectiles?

A: We are still using projectiles, but we are using a locking mechanism in tab-targeting for those projectiles to home to the target should you have a valid angle in that perspective. The action side of that is that you can blind-fire projectiles. – Steven Sharif

Skill	Icon	Origin	Description
Absorption Field		Tank	Throw a rallying banner to the target location that spawns an Absorption Field upon impact. You and allies that enter the Absorption Field are granted temporary health equal to 15% of your maximum health. This can only be applied to any specific target once per 10 seconds.
Anthem of Alacrity (AoE)		Bard	You and the 3 closest allies in front of you gain Anthem of Minor Alacrity: Attack speed increased by 10% and casting speed increased by 10%. Lasts 10 seconds.
Battle Roar		Dragon	The mount rears up in a stance of dominance, emitting a thunderous roar whilst flapping its wings forward twice. The first wing flap applies a 25% mitigation buff on allies, and the second applies a 25% power buff on allies, each buff lasting for 15 seconds.
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.
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 .
Climactic Whirlwind		Fighter	Perform a final swing in an area in front of you after ending Whirlwind's channel, dealing (175%🢆) Physical damage and applying Staggered to targets in front of the caster, while generating 5-10 Combat Momentum based on number of targets hit.
Concentrated Scatter Shot		Ranger	Scatter Shot becomes a held ability. After being fully charged, you instead fire a single projectile in a forward line that pierces through enemies dealing (250%🢆) Physical damage .
Dark Lullaby (AoE)		Bard	Deal (25-75%🢆) spirit damage each second to enemies in front of you (scales in power over the course of the cast). This damage will not wake incapacitated targets. The final hit applies Stunned for 6 seconds to any incapacitated targets.
Divebomb		Dragon	Launch into the air and then dive toward target location, dealing (100%ﾒ) physical damage and applying Tripped to enemies around you upon landing.
Divine Flare		Cleric	Place a targeted area on the ground that heals all targets after several seconds. Heals for (1000%🢆) healing divided amongst each target hit.
Hoarfrost		Mage	Unleash a blast of icy wind at target location, dealing (125%🢆) Ice damage and applying Chilled .
Hunt of the Bear		Ranger	Toggled Ability Call forth the spirit of the bear, imbuing yourself with increased physical mitigation. Only one Hunt may be active at a time.
Hymn of the Mind (AoE)		Bard	Up to 4 allies in front of you gain mana equal to 0.8 + 4% magical power every second. Mana gained increases up to 200% based on the amount of mana the target is missing. This ability will favor low mana party members and yourself.
Inciting Strikes		Tank	Slash twice in an area in front of you, dealing damage (75%🢆) Physical damage damage per hit. Generate 3 Courage per target hit with each swing, up to a maximum of 10 Courage per swing. Generates 300% Threat.
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 .
Lovely Serenade (AoE)		Bard	Up to five allies in front of you are healed for (50%🢆) healing every second. This ability will favor injured party members and yourself.
Magma Field		Mage	Erupts the earth at target location, forming a boiling pool of lava that deals (60%🢆) Fire damage and applies Burning at (50%🢆) Fire damage power every second to enemies within the area. Lasts 7 seconds . Pyromania
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.
Slicing Maim		Fighter	Maim launches a piercing projectile that deals (100%🢆) Physical damage , plus 20% additional damage to recently tripped targets, to enemies in its path.
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.
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 .
Wall		Tank	Summons a glorious Wall at the target location. Obstructs movement and blocks projectiles.

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.

Indirect fire skills

Alpha-2 Chain Lightning arcing around an environmental obstacle.

Indirect fire skills are targeted skills where the projectiles may path around obstructions that are not in line-of-sight, so long as the maximum distance travelled for the skill is not exceeded.

• This is a prototype concept that is subject to testing and balancing.
• A limited number of these may exist throughout different class kits.

Some abilities might have indirect fire. So, if you have let's say a Archer or Ranger who has the ability to select a Mage as their secondary class; and they might want to augment a Snipe ability in order to go around a corner like an Arcane Archer might have... Some abilities might not care about that line-of-sight. They might care the distance to the target around the corner, or the path that it's taking; and if it's outside that path is too long it might not be able to reach them of course. – Steven Sharif

Skill	Icon	Origin	Description
Chain Lightning		Mage	Release a powerful streak of lightning that hits your primary target and then chains outward to up to 5 nearby enemies from that target, dealing (225%🢆) Lightning damage to each and applies 10 stacks of Shocked to targets with Volatile . Aftershock
Headshot		Ranger	Deal (200%🢆) Physical damage to target enemy. Deals 25% more damage to targets below 50% of their maximum health and applies 1 stack of Wounded for each 25% missing health of the target. Physical penetration increased by 25% against Dazed targets. This bonus is doubled against Silenced targets.

Time to kill

Caravan PvP in Alpha-2.

Generally when it comes to finger in the wind we're around where we want to be for TTK and that's probably on the bit faster side of TTK for MMOs that we're accustomed to, but we're a PvX game. – Steven Sharif

Time to kill (TTK) is being tuned during Alpha-2 testing.

How [constitution] scales towards HP, how damage mitigation scales, how damage values scale across ability usage: all of those things are made so that they're extremely tunable; and over the course of phase one, phase two, and phase three, we're going to be making a lot of balance changes. At first it'll start broad stroke and then once those broad strokes start to dial in where we want to be- and where we want to be is going to be partly informed by player feedback. – Steven Sharif

Q: What is happening with time-to-kill, enchanting, gear stats, and if we don't currently know when will we know?

A: Bucky has been testing on some lower environments the stat changes; and stats are obviously a pretty comprehensive topic because they are informed from a lot of different vectors; and when you deal with that many- those numbers of variables have to come together to play well, not only in PvE encounters but also in PvP encounters as well. So there's a lot that goes into tuning those things. You should expect that a big majority of phase three is going to be about actively tuning numbers. – Steven Sharif

• Time-to-kill in 1v1 PvP is expected to be between 10 and 30 seconds for same level players with equivalent gear, but this can vary based on the archetypes in question. Previously it was stated that the TTK was expected to be around 30 seconds to a minute.
  • The developers do not want one-shots in the final MMORPG.
  • A shorter TTK is expected to help solo players and smaller groups compete with larger groups or zergs.

Q: What is the intended time-to-kill in both 1v1 or group PvP scenarios?

A: If I were to say average TTK between same level characters and average gear score, I would say that we're probably talking anywhere from 10 to 15 seconds upwards of 30 seconds, depending on the archetype. So, obviously the more restorative archetypes, like a Cleric or whatever, might be able to last longer, or a Tank might be able to last longer if they're facing another Tank or if they're facing another Cleric. Then it's going to be a 'whiffle bat fest' or something. And then, if you're talking about two DPS against each other, that's going to be real fast. So I would say that's generally the intent. Now what does that mean when talking about group play? That means that if you are really organized in the way that you have um targeting and target assists and that you call- raid calling, there is opportunities there to have multiple DPSs take out a target real quick. And because of that type of precision gameplay, it really raises the skill ceiling when talking about organization and how players play with each other, because now the room for error is smaller; and that is something that I think is important in any competitive style of game which a PvX game is relatively competitive. So that's why we tend to go on the smaller TTK side. – Steven Sharif

• Average non-elite mob PvE time-to-kill for a solo player is intended to be around 6 seconds.

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.

Gear inspection/ Threat assessment

You can target a player. You're going to see what type of armor they have based on a buff they have available to them because obviously cosmetics can change appearance. You might have different silhouettes as a result of that. – Steven Sharif

Players will have a buff on their nameplate that indicates the gear set they are wearing. Other players will be able to see this buff by targeting that player at a distance.

• This will indicate the type of armor (cloth, leather, plate) that they are predominantly wearing, but will not reveal the exact gear items. The developers believe that inspecting gear to obtain an exact equipment list or gear score may lead to "unwelcome behavior".

I think that players tend to look at transmog as an additional layer of obfuscation for you, as a player in PvP, to understand who and what you're going up against. And that is why, from a design perspective, I've included this concept of essentially [a] gear composition buff that players, when selecting a target can see they're wearing three pieces of light and five pieces of heavy. That gives you an indicator of at least their kind of damage mitigation stat against what types of incoming damage power. So, I think that to a degree counters the concern around transmog, but still allows for players to leverage that cosmetic flare and customization option. – Steven Sharif

• The border will indicate the level and quality of the tier set.
  • This also indicates if the gear is enchanted, along with visual effects associated with enchanted items.

When you see a player approaching you and they're wearing a transmog you don't know if that person is a high damage mitigation against physical damage or against magical damage and essentially the way we overcome that is through you being able to target a player at a distance and they will have a buff that's present on them that you will see, which indicates that essentially the piece set that they are wearing. It is important for players to be able to ascertain from a threat assessment standpoint what they're going up against if they're actively checking that, and that will be available. – Steven Sharif

Character nameplate

Alpha-2 nameplates, targeting plates, and raid frame UI.

There have been some updates to a little bit of the nameplates that Colby and the UI team have implemented, as well as some of the targeting plates as well. – Steven Sharif

Nameplate in the Alpha-2 party UI.

The icon in the corner next to Steven's nameplate: that little icon is actually his secondary archetype that he hasn't unlocked. – Margaret Krohn

Nameplates are displayed above the head of player characters and NPCs. These are currently undergoing rework by the UI engineering team.

• The size and priority of nameplates will be relate to their distance (away from the camera).

• Default nameplate visibility is set around 75-100m, but this is subject to change.
  • Nameplates can be obscured by in-game objects, such as trees; by utility skills, such as Camouflage or Stealth; or through the use of disguises.
  • UI settings will enable nameplates to be hidden, resized, and customized.

You can set nameplates to always appear. You can set it to only appear on targets. You can set it to only appear on targets that have taken damage. You can set it to only appear on targets that are aggroing you or your party members. You can set it for your allies, for yourself, for whatever: There's a lot of highly customizable options that are currently in the game. – Steven Sharif

Player character nameplates

• The name of the character's guild is displayed next to their name.
  • Party frames may show a character's guild crest.
• An icon will identify the character's class.
• Hovering over a player nameplate will show information such as level, class name, and archetype combo.
• A buff icon will indicate the character's gear and grade.
• Players that are not in the same party, raid, alliance, or guild will not be able to see other player's exact health bar values or percentages. This information will instead be displayed in quarters. A player may be able to progress to see sixths or eighths.
• Nameplates in the party UI indicate the player's choice of secondary archetype.
  • A padlock icon indicates that the secondary archetype is not yet unlocked.
• Nameplates of the drivers of vehicles, such as caravans, will be visible while they are driving the vehicle.

Summons nameplates

• Summoner summons' creature type appears in the nameplate above the summon. This cannot be changed by the player.

Mob nameplates

• Mob nameplates will have indicators that identify resistances, buffs, end elite status.

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

• Player character nameplates will have first, and optionally last name (surname).

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

Weapon weights

Alpha-2 shield, spear, and mace 3D renders.

Weapon weight refers to how the mass of a weapon affects its performance during combat.

• Light weapons have fewer restrictions on player agency and motion.
• Medium weapons exist on a spectrum between light and heavy weapons.
• Heavy weapons will increasingly lock the player in place during portions of the combat animation.

There is a balance between player motion and agency as we call it and weapon weightedness- that almost locked-in-place rooted position- the heavier the weapon is, the more restrictions you want to place on that player agency to showcase the rooted effect: That weight- that heavyweight aspect; and so what we've done by presenting you guys with both the dual daggers and the two-handed weapon is we've shown the range between that complete player agency: a player agency in the light weapon attacks that's the dual daggers, and the maximum range of of rootedness or weightedness that's present on the two-handed weapon; and that's the spectrum in which our basic melee combat will exist within. So if there are medium weapon groups that exist in-between there, it's going to be somewhere in between that spectrum. – 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.

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.

Basic attacks

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

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. – Keenan Reimer

Basic attacks (Combo attacks) are triggered for the equipped primary weapon by pressing Q or left-clicking the mouse (these buttons can be re-bound by the player).

• Players can select which weapon they wish to use as their primary weapon for basic attacks (default: `, but can be re-bound to another key).
  • Players may toggle back and forth between using their ranged weapon and melee weapon slot for basic attacks.

• Different weapon types have different basic attacks.

• Weapons with projectile attacks are capable of blind firing without having a target.
  • If the player is in action camera mode and their reticle is over a target, they will be able to soft lock onto that target, causing projectiles to home to targets who are within the correct range/angle.

When you have your weapon and you utilize a basic attack, you can blind fire that weapon, if it has a projectile associated with it, without having to have a target. In addition, if your reticle in action camera mode is over a target, you will have a soft target lock and projectiles will home to that target if within the right angle of direction. – Steven Sharif

• Sequences of basic attacks trigger the combat animation montage based on the weapon type.
  • Using a skill other than a basic attack will in general reset the weapon combo system.
• The developers are considering per-use consumables/buffs that apply certain rider effects to basic weapon attacks.

Basic attack	Icon	Weapon	Description
Book Combo Attack		Book	Fire from your spellbook at your target in a series of attacks. 1. Hit 1 - (58%🢆) Arcane damage Bounces to 3 enemies for (22%🢆) Arcane damage 2. Hit 2 - (66%🢆) Arcane damage Bounces to 3 enemies for (25%🢆) Arcane damage 3. Finisher - (82%🢆) Arcane damage Bounces to 3 enemies for (33%🢆) Arcane damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Finisher - (90%🢆) Arcane damage Bounces to 3 enemies for (36%🢆) Arcane damage Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Applies Burning to struck targets Applies Chilled to struck targets Applies Volatile to struck targets Triggers Bullseye Triggers Prism Triggers Arcane Amplifier 50% chance to trigger Essence Harvest Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Catalytic Projectiles Triggers Heartseeker 4. Extended Finisher - (106%🢆) Arcane damage Bounces to 3 enemies for (40%🢆) Arcane damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Extended Finisher - (117%🢆) Arcane damage Bounces to 3 enemies for (43%🢆) Arcane damage Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Triggers Echo Triggers Perfect Timing Triggers Bullseye Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Heartseeker
Daggers Combo Attack		Daggers	Swipe and stab your daggers in front of you in a series of attacks. 1. Hit 1 - (53%🢆) Pierce damage 2. Hit 2 - (53%🢆) Pierce damage 3. Hit 3 - (46%🢆) Pierce damage 4. Hit 4 - (36%🢆) Pierce damage 5. Hit 5 - (18%🢆) Pierce damage (18%🢆) Pierce damage 6. Finisher - (36%🢆) Pierce damage (36%🢆) Pierce damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Finisher - (66%🢆) Pierce damage Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Applies to struck targets Applies Chilled to struck targets Applies Volatile to struck targets Triggers Bullseye Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Heartseeker 7. Extended Finisher - (66%🢆) Pierce damage (66%🢆) Pierce damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Extended Finisher - (73%🢆) Pierce damage (73%🢆) Pierce damage Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Triggers Special Extended Finisher: Echo Triggers Special Extended Finisher: Perfect Timing Triggers Bullseye Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Heartseeker
Greatsword Combo Attack		Sword	Swing your greatsword in front of you in a series of attacks. 1. Hit 1 - (70%🢆) Slash damage 2. Hit 2 - (77%🢆) Slash damage 3. Finisher - (50%🢆) Slash damage (63%🢆) Slash damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Finisher - (53%🢆) Slash damage (71%🢆) Slash damage Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Applies to struck targets Applies Chilled to struck targets Applies Volatile to struck targets Triggers Swordmaster's Swiftness Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Concussion 4. Extended Finisher - (56%🢆) Slash damage (77%🢆) Slash damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Extended Finisher - (62%🢆) Slash damage (85%🢆) Slash damage Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Triggers Special Extended Finisher: Echo Triggers Special Extended Finisher: Perfect Timing Triggers Swordmaster's Swiftness Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Concussion
Guard		Universal	Enter a guard state, blocking all incoming frontal attacks and consuming 100% Stamina relative to the amount of damage mitigated by blocking. While guarding, gain Mental Fortification . While guarding, gain Empowered Guard .
Hunting Bow		Hunting	undefined
Longbow Combo Attack		Longbow	Fire your longbow at your target in a series of attacks. 1. Hit 1 - (66%🢆) Pierce damage 2. Hit 2 - (55%🢆) Pierce damage 3. Finisher - (85%🢆) Pierce damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Finisher - (93%🢆) Pierce damage Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Applies to struck targets Applies Chilled to struck targets Applies Volatile to struck targets Triggers Bullseye Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Heartseeker 4. Extended Finisher - (106%🢆) Pierce damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Extended Finisher - (116%🢆) Pierce damage Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Triggers Special Extended Finisher: Echo Triggers Special Extended Finisher: Perfect Timing Triggers Bullseye Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Heartseeker
Mace Combo Attack		Mace	Swing your mace in front of you in a series of attacks. 1. Hit 1 - (53%🢆) Bludgeon damage 2. Hit 2 - (60%🢆) Bludgeon damage 3. Hit 3 - (47%🢆) Bludgeon damage 4. Finisher - (100%🢆) Bludgeon damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Finisher - (50%🢆) Bludgeon damage (60%🢆) Bludgeon damage Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Applies to struck targets Applies Chilled to struck targets Applies Volatile to struck targets Triggers Unstoppable Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Concussion 5. Extended Finisher - (133%🢆) Bludgeon damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Extended Finisher - (65%🢆) Bludgeon damage (82%🢆) Bludgeon damage Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Triggers Special Extended Finisher: Echo Triggers Special Extended Finisher: Perfect Timing Triggers Unstoppable Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Concussion
Scepter Combo Attack		Scepter	Swing your mace in front of you in a series of attacks. 1. Hit 1 - (53%🢆) Arcane damage 2. Hit 2 - (60%🢆) Arcane damage 3. Hit 3 - (47%🢆) Arcane damage 4. Finisher - (100%🢆) Arcane damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Finisher - (50%🢆) Arcane damage (60%🢆) Arcane damage Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Applies to struck targets Applies Chilled to struck targets Applies Volatile to struck targets Triggers Unstoppable Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Concussion 5. Extended Finisher - (133%🢆) Arcane damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Extended Finisher - (65%🢆) Arcane damage (82%🢆) Arcane damage Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Triggers Special Extended Finisher: Echo Triggers Special Extended Finisher: Perfect Timing Triggers Unstoppable Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Concussion
Shortbow Combo Attack		Shortbow	Fire your shortbow at your target in a series of attacks. 1. Hit 1 - (24%🢆) Pierce damage 2. Hit 2 - (17%🢆) Pierce damage (17%🢆) Pierce damage 3. Hit 3 - (24%🢆) Pierce damage 4. Hit 4 - (17%🢆) Pierce damage x 3 5. Finisher - (25%🢆) Pierce damage x 3 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Finisher - (27%🢆) Pierce damage x 3 Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Applies to struck targets Applies Chilled to struck targets Applies Volatile to struck targets Triggers Bullseye Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Arrowstorm 6. Extended Finisher - (21%🢆) Pierce damage x 5 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Extended Finisher - (23%🢆) Pierce damage x 5 Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Triggers Special Extended Finisher: Echo Triggers Special Extended Finisher: Perfect Timing Triggers Bullseye Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Arrowstorm
Spear Combo Attack		Spear	Stab your spear in front of you in a series of attacks. 1. Hit 1 - (46%🢆) Pierce damage 2. Hit 2 - (53%🢆) Pierce damage 3. Hit 3 - (66%🢆) Pierce damage 3. Finisher - (73%🢆) Pierce damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Finisher - (73%🢆) Pierce damage Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Applies to struck targets Applies Chilled to struck targets Applies Volatile to struck targets Triggers Swordmaster's Swiftness Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Concussion 4. Extended Finisher - (50%🢆) Pierce damage (50%🢆) Pierce damage (50%🢆) Pierce damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Extended Finisher - (149%🢆) Pierce damage Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Triggers Special Extended Finisher: Echo Triggers Special Extended Finisher: Perfect Timing Triggers Swordmaster's Swiftness Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Concussion
Sword Combo Attack		Sword	Swing your sword in front of you in a series of attacks. 1. Hit 1 - (40%🢆) Slash damage 2. Hit 2 - (40%🢆) Slash damage 3. Hit 3 - (53%🢆) Slash damage 4. Hit 4 - (47%🢆) Slash damage 5. Finisher - (80%🢆) Slash damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Finisher - (88%🢆) Slash damage Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Applies to struck targets Applies Chilled to struck targets Applies Volatile to struck targets Triggers Swordmaster's Swiftness Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Concussion 6. Extended Finisher - (133%🢆) Slash damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Extended Finisher - (147%🢆) Slash damage Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Triggers Special Extended Finisher: Echo Triggers Special Extended Finisher: Perfect Timing Triggers Swordmaster's Swiftness Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Concussion
Wand Combo Attack		Wand	Fire from your wand at your target in a series of attacks. 1. Hit 1 - (32%🢆) Arcane damage 2. Hit 2 - (42%🢆) Arcane damage 3. Hit 3 - (42%🢆) Arcane damage 4. Hit 4 - (32%🢆) Arcane damage 5. Finisher - (58%🢆) Arcane damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Finisher - (22%🢆) Arcane damage x 3 Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Applies Burning to struck targets Applies Chilled to struck targets Applies Volatile to struck targets Triggers Bullseye Triggers Prism Triggers Arcane Amplifier 50% chance to trigger Essence Harvest Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Catalytic Projectiles Triggers Heartseeker 4. Extended Finisher - (106%🢆) Arcane damage 25% chance to instead trigger a Deadly Extended Finisher - (11%🢆) Arcane damage x 11 Applies Bleeding to struck targets Applies Snared to struck targets Applies Wounded to struck targets Applies Dazed to struck targets Applies Staggered to struck targets Triggers Echo Triggers Perfect Timing Triggers Bullseye Triggers Refreshing Followthrough Triggers Ward Triggers Rhythmic Swings Triggers Inner Fire Triggers Heartseeker

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.

Aggro abilities

Threat (Aggro/Hate) is generated based on damage done, healing done, and modifiers on certain abilities.

• In PvE, aggro against player characters is based on a hate table.
• In PvP, aggro may force target switching to the Tank. Feedback on this will be sought during testing.

If we think about PVP settings and the role of taunt or hate, a lot of times for tanks in the MMOs that I've played- where you have a PvE and PvP scenario- those types of hate generation abilities don't really have cross application into the PVP realm; and that can feel bad, because typically a tank build-out can be delegated around how I generate hate; and if it has no cross application into PvP then effectively you're creating a class composition that just is not relevant in half of the game, or in that area of the game. So when we talk about how we're going to apply hate to player targets or taunt to player targets, sometimes that can move into the realm of target switching, or the ability to demand that target on the tank in a PvP scenario as well. That's something that we need to get player feedback on, because there's a lot of strong emotions around that type of mechanic. I for one am a big proponent of that. I think it's interesting. I think that it plays into the role of the tank and that it it hits a class fantasy that most tank players want to feel. And I think however on the flip side of that, it is a source of control; and anytime you're under the effects of some source of control, it's going to be a feel bad moment for the target that's being controlled. So that's why I think it generates a lot of feelings on both sides of the aisle. – Steven Sharif

• Balancing of threat generation between taunts, healing, and damage done will occur during Alpha-2 testing.

Right now the formula includes modifiers, so we can apply a modifier as we wish to either healing, values versus hate values. Those things are going to be balanced as we see play testing continue to see what's the right blend between the tank holding aggro, the healer not pulling it too often, and the DPS not grabbing it as well. So we want to have maximum flexibility in the formula and that's why modifiers exist there. – Steven Sharif

• Detargeting is the act of removing hate/threat/aggro from an enemy.
• There is a Taunt skill available for Alpha-2. In Alpha-0 testing there was a single-target taunt skill, called Hatred.

Q: There were a lot of concerns about threat [in the Alpha-2 Tank preview video]. A lot of people didn't understand how holding threat works, because you weren't holding threat at some point.

A: It's important to remember that these previews are done at a very low-level, so these are low-level skills and abilities that the archetypes have available to them; and so because of that, some of the functionality from these abilities they don't necessarily perform as well as you would want them to in a later stage of the game for that role. Now also keep in mind that balance is a perspective that needs to be incorporated also. So, threat is generated based off of a few factors: It's based off of damage done, it's based off of healing done, it's based off of threat generation modifiers that are on abilities. Now the tank in this situation I believe has two abilities that are going to generate additional threat. They have the slicing- the number two ability; and then they also have the shout ability. Both of those are creating additional threat. But with that being said, we need to tune probably those abilities up a little bit to contend with the DPS that's coming both from the ranger and with the heals that are coming out of the cleric. – Steven Sharif

Skill	Icon	Origin	Description
Desolate		Tank	Strikes your target and surrounding enemies for 150% physical damage. Generates 300% additional threat.
Grapple		Tank	Take aim and hurl a chained javelin at your target, damaging the first target it contacts and immediately pulling them to the caster. The target suffers a tapering snare for 3 seconds. Cannot be used on boss enemies.
Grit		Tank	Increase physical mitigation by 10% for 10 seconds. This can stack up to 2 times.
Inciting Strikes		Tank	Slash twice in an area in front of you, dealing damage (75%🢆) Physical damage damage per hit. Generate 3 Courage per target hit with each swing, up to a maximum of 10 Courage per swing. Generates 300% Threat.
Intimidating Aura		Tank	Emanate an aura around the caster for 8 seconds that deals (10%🢆) Magical damage with a 10% chance of applying Staggered every 0.5 seconds. Generates threat equal to 30% of your Maximum Health every tick.
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.
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.
Slam		Tank	Deal (200%🢆) Physical damage to targets in front of you. Generates 300% additional threat.
Taunt		Tank	Taunt target enemy, generating threat equal to two times your maximum health and applying Humiliated .
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.
Vengeance		Tank	Combo ability: Launch up to 3 consecutive attacks against target enemy. Each hit grants 1 stack of Vengeance to the caster, granting 2% of maximum health as temporary health for 8 seconds, up to 3 stacks. 1. Hit 1 - (120%🢆) Physical damage 2. Hit 2 - (130%🢆) Physical damage 3. Hit 3 - (150%🢆) Physical damage and applies Stunned Incoming damaging hits reduce this ability's cooldown by 0.5 seconds, and hits that were blocked reduce the cooldown by 1 second. This may trigger at a maximum of once per second. Generates 100% additional threat.

AoE skills

• AoE skills are intended to trade-off longer cooldowns and higher mana consumption against the size of the area of effect and the total damage output; and may not be as sustainable as single-target skills.

The paradigm I look towards is AoE abilities are not a sustainable farming approach or grinding approach as much as individual ability targeted abilities are. – Steven Sharif

• AoE skills will incorporate diminishing returns. These will be tuned based on testing and player feedback during Alpha-2.

Q: Should AOEs have an uncapped limit on the number of entities that it affects?

A: Our approach right now is no, they shouldn't be uncapped: that we're going to apply some diminishing return effects on AOEs, because we have certain instruments within level design or within encounter design that involve choke points, where we don't just want it to be about who can mage ball a particular location and prevent access as a result of that. – Steven Sharif

• Non-forced attacks, including AoE and status effects, will not hit non-combatant players.

• Players will be able to opt-in (via a checkbox) to allow their beneficial spells, or non-beneficial AoEs to hit combatants.

If you have that check-box for flagging with your AOEs and heals available then you will flag. If you do not have that box checked then on completion of the skill it will not flag you because the check was made at the start that there was a flagged party member; and then he will not he or she will not receive the beneficial effect as a result or the damage, if it's an offensive spell. – Steven Sharif

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

We have a few ideas on how we want to approach AoEs. There's a vein of thought that is regarding diminishing returns [on] maximum number of targets. I'm not a huge fan of that. There is a diminishing return as it applies to damage conveyed. There is just the fact that we're a collision-based game and there's a limited number of bodies that can be located in a particular choke point, or in proximity. There's still things that we're testing especially as part of Alpha 2 that we'll likely be testing and want to get player feedback on as it relates to curbing the AoE approach of most raid comps; and a lot of different games have done a lot of different things to achieve that. We're going to be testing a lot of these different directions and finding which works best for Ashes. – Steven Sharif

Skill	Icon	Origin	Description
Absorption Field		Tank	Throw a rallying banner to the target location that spawns an Absorption Field upon impact. You and allies that enter the Absorption Field are granted temporary health equal to 15% of your maximum health. This can only be applied to any specific target once per 10 seconds.
Aegis		Tank	Create a protective dome around the caster for 15 seconds, transferring 20% of all damage received by targets within the area to the tank instead. Can be toggled off early to cancel the effect.
Amplified Lightning Strike		Mage	Lightning Strike applies up to 10 additional stacks of Shocked based on its charge level when cast. Additionally, if cast at full charge, lightning strike will also hit other nearby targets at base power.
Ball Lightning		Mage	Create a large ball of charged electricity that travels slowly forward, rapidly dealing (50%🢆) Lightning damage and applying Volatile to enemies it overlaps with.
Battle Cry		Fighter	Apply Weakened and Demoralized to all nearby enemies and Riled to the caster and all nearby party members. Gain 5 Combat Momentum for each target Riled and each enemy target that was Shaken .
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.
Blizzard		Mage	Channel a massive blizzard around you, raining a barrage of hail shards upon your enemies while channeling. Periodically pulses Chilled to targets within the area. Each shard impact deals (50%🢆) Ice damage in a small area around it and applies Frozen to targets with Chilled .
Brutal Cleave		Fighter	Perform a wide sweeping attack, dealing (175%🢆) Physical damage to all enemies in front of you. This ability shares a cooldown with Overpower, and hitting an enemy with a weapon combo finisher refreshes its cooldown. +10-20 Combat Momentum (based on number of targets hit)
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.
Cathartic Melody		Bard	Nearby party members gain Cathartic Melody Melodies can be played concurrently with other abilities. Multiple instances of the same melody do not stack.
Chain Lightning		Mage	Release a powerful streak of lightning that hits your primary target and then chains outward to up to 5 nearby enemies from that target, dealing (225%🢆) Lightning damage to each and applies 10 stacks of Shocked to targets with Volatile . Aftershock
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 .
Chaos		Bard	Nearby party members gain Chaos This buff can stack once with itself at reduced efficacy. Generates Theme of Tragedy
Cheerful Melody		Bard	Nearby party members gain Cheerful Melody Melodies can be played concurrently with other abilities. Multiple instances of the same melody do not stack.
Chilling Lament (AoE)		Bard	Enemies in front of you are dealt (50%🢆) ice damage and afflicted with three seconds of chilled every second. Deals bonus damage to frozen targets.
Cleansing Wave		Cleric	Held ability: Fire a beam of healing energy toward a target ally. Charging this spell allows the beam to bounce to up to 4 additional friendly targets closest to the original target, based on how long it was charged. The initial hit heals for (300%🢆) healing and reduces with each subsequent bounce.
Climactic Whirlwind		Fighter	Perform a final swing in an area in front of you after ending Whirlwind's channel, dealing (175%🢆) Physical damage and applying Staggered to targets in front of the caster, while generating 5-10 Combat Momentum based on number of targets hit.
Collect Cargo		Caravan	Pick up cargo nearest the mouse location and add them to your caravan's storage if there's enough room.
Communal Restoration		Cleric	Restore health equal to (150%🢆) healing to all party members in range and apply Communal Restoration .
Cone of Cold		Mage	Blast a vortex of freezing wind in a cone in front of you, dealing (125%🢆) Ice damage and applying Frozen to targets with Chilled .
Conflict		Bard	Nearby party members gain Conflict This buff can stack once with itself at reduced efficacy. Generates Theme of Tragedy
Consecrating Wave		Cleric	Send forth a wave of radiance that deals (150%🢆) Radiant damage and applies Volatile to all enemies in front of you. Dispel 1 buff from each target hit that is Silenced . Restorative Consecrating Wave
Dark Lullaby (AoE)		Bard	Deal (25-75%🢆) spirit damage each second to enemies in front of you (scales in power over the course of the cast). This damage will not wake incapacitated targets. The final hit applies Stunned for 6 seconds to any incapacitated targets.
Desolate		Tank	Strikes your target and surrounding enemies for 150% physical damage. Generates 300% additional threat.
Destiny		Bard	Nearby party members gain Destiny This buff can stack once with itself at reduced efficacy. Generates Theme of Mystery
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
Divine Flare		Cleric	Place a targeted area on the ground that heals all targets after several seconds. Heals for (1000%🢆) healing divided amongst each target hit.
Divine Protection		Cleric	Divine Flare applies Divine Protection to allies inside its area of effect before detonation.
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.
Explosive Thundering Shot		Ranger	The arrow transforms into an explosive shot that deals 25% more damage and also hits enemies in an area around the target, but the number of stacks of Shocked applied to targets hit is reduced to 5.
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.
Healing Aura		Caravan	Provides healing to nearby defenders over time.
Hoarfrost		Mage	Unleash a blast of icy wind at target location, dealing (125%🢆) Ice damage and applying Chilled .
Hymn of the Mind (AoE)		Bard	Up to 4 allies in front of you gain mana equal to 0.8 + 4% magical power every second. Mana gained increases up to 200% based on the amount of mana the target is missing. This ability will favor low mana party members and yourself.
Inciting Strikes		Tank	Slash twice in an area in front of you, dealing damage (75%🢆) Physical damage damage per hit. Generate 3 Courage per target hit with each swing, up to a maximum of 10 Courage per swing. Generates 300% Threat.
Intercept		Tank	Rush to an ally's defense, granting temporary health to yourself and the target equal to 10% of your maximum HP for 10 seconds upon arrival.
Intimidating Aura		Tank	Emanate an aura around the caster for 8 seconds that deals (10%🢆) Magical damage with a 10% chance of applying Staggered every 0.5 seconds. Generates threat equal to 30% of your Maximum Health every tick.
Iron Aura		Tank	Reduces damage taken by 5% for all party members within 10 meters.
Joy		Bard	Nearby party members gain Joy This buff can stack once with itself at reduced efficacy. Generates Theme of Comedy
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 .
Lovely Serenade (AoE)		Bard	Up to five allies in front of you are healed for (50%🢆) healing every second. This ability will favor injured party members and yourself.
Maddening Dance		Bard	Deal (55%🢆) Arcane damage and dispel 1 buff on nearby enemies every second . Damage increases with less targets, up to (55%🢆) Arcane damage . Avert Your Gaze To your allies, this dance merely looks silly, but to your enemies, it is a maddening, horrific sight.
Magma Field		Mage	Erupts the earth at target location, forming a boiling pool of lava that deals (60%🢆) Fire damage and applies Burning at (50%🢆) Fire damage power every second to enemies within the area. Lasts 7 seconds . Pyromania
Maim		Fighter	Perform a powerful melee strike in a short forward cone, dealing (250%🢆) Physical damage to all targets hit. Deals 20% additional damage to recently Tripped targets.
Menacing Melody		Bard	Nearby party members gain Menacing Melody Melodies can be played concurrently with other abilities. Multiple instances of the same melody do not stack.
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 .
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.
Nimble Dance		Bard	Grants Nimble , Pep , and cleanses 1 debuff (favoring crowd control effects) from yourself and nearby allies every second.
Party Stride		Ranger	Applies Strider to all group members within 30 meters. Strider Increases ground movement speed of target by 10%.
Pensive Melody		Bard	Nearby party members gain Pensive Melody Melodies can be played concurrently with other abilities. Multiple instances of the same melody do not stack.
Raining Death		Ranger	Fire two consecutive volleys of arrows in a wide area in front of you, dealing (100%🢆) Physical damage and applying 1 stack of Wounded to enemies with each hit. Deals 20% additional damage to Shocked targets.
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
Resplendent Beam		Cleric	Held ability: Fire a beam of healing energy toward a target ally. Charging this spell allows the beam to bounce to up to 4 additional friendly targets closest to the original target, based on how long it was charged. The initial hit heals for (300%🢆) healing and reduces with each subsequent bounce.
Restorative Consecrating Wave		Cleric	Consecrating Wave additionally heals you and up to 10 allies for (250%🢆) healing .
Saga		Bard	Complete your tale with a grand finale, consuming all of your current themes. The specific saga you have access to is determined by the combination of your current themes.
Scatter Shot		Ranger	Fires a spread of projectiles, dealing (125%🢆) Physical damage to every enemy target in a cone area in front of the caster. Triggers Ammo Imbue effects, once per target hit.
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.
Shielding Dance		Bard	Heal yourself and nearby allies for (50%🢆) healing every second and apply up to one instance of 1 stacks of Shield to each target as they enter the dance radius.
Slam		Tank	Deal (200%🢆) Physical damage to targets in front of you. Generates 300% additional threat.
Slumber		Mage	Applies Incapacitated to targets in a small area around the primary target. Lasts 10 seconds .
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.
Triumph		Bard	Nearby party members gain Triumph This buff can stack once with itself at reduced efficacy. Generates Theme of Comedy
Vengeance		Tank	Combo ability: Launch up to 3 consecutive attacks against target enemy. Each hit grants 1 stack of Vengeance to the caster, granting 2% of maximum health as temporary health for 8 seconds, up to 3 stacks. 1. Hit 1 - (120%🢆) Physical damage 2. Hit 2 - (130%🢆) Physical damage 3. Hit 3 - (150%🢆) Physical damage and applies Stunned Incoming damaging hits reduce this ability's cooldown by 0.5 seconds, and hits that were blocked reduce the cooldown by 1 second. This may trigger at a maximum of once per second. Generates 100% 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 .
Wall		Tank	Summons a glorious Wall at the target location. Obstructs movement and blocks projectiles.
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.
Wonder		Bard	Nearby party members gain Wonder This buff can stack once with itself at reduced efficacy. Generates Theme of Mystery

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.

Combat 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

Balancing

Game balance in Ashes of Creation is group focused not based on 1v1 combat.

Q: As we start to see more talent trees and abilities I wonder how Ashes of Creation will handle unique playstyles and (maybe) "different" builds. For example, will we see (unique) Items and/or enchants which support a "Health instead of mana as resource" build? With class skill trees, augments, and weapon talent trees, won't there be too many playstyles to balance?

A: Will there be a variety? Yes, there will be many varieties. The approach with regards to a player being able to customize how their archetype and how their weapon and choices and gear choices interact with the broader ecosystem of other players and the encounter designs is to provide maximum flexibility for the types of decisions you can make as a player. Those are the types of scenarios I find most intriguing from a balance perspective, where historically what we've talked about is we're not trying to balance everything. That is not the goal. This is definitely not a goal for it to be balanced in a 1v1 scenario. Our balance is definitely more focused around group composition. And when we say 'group composition', what we mean is having present a number of the archetypes; and those archetypes aren't going to stand on equal footing with each other. There is going to be a rock-paper-scissors design when it comes to innate advantages that certain archetypes have over each other; and giving or affording the customization options lets you flirt a bit with where your rock-paper-scissor lines live. Perhaps you are a little bit better against the rock, as a scissor would normally be; and that's because you've made certain selections in either your archetype skill tree, your passives, your weapon selection, your gear choices: Those are all pieces of a puzzle that interact with the overarching balance choices between these different rock-paper-scissor designs. So, I think modern MMO gameplay has has moved away from that. They want everyone to harness the same power from a 1v1 perspective and I don't find that interesting. – Steven Sharif

• 1v1 matchups will have a rock-paper-scissors dynamic, where one build will be superior to another. Different skills, passives, weapon skills, and gear choice selections allows players to 'flirt' the line with rock-paper-scissors balancing.

There will be match ups in 1v1s where one class will be superior to another; and that application should be a rock-paper-scissors dynamic. We want there to be counter-play between the different classes... Instead it's going to be a group focused balance, where as long as you have the diversity of classes present, that's going to be an equal level playing field. It's going to be very dependent on skill and strategy. – Steven Sharif

• Several factors are taken into consideration holistically when balancing combat skills. Player feedback surrounding balancing will be validated against data and design goals to avoid excessive or unwarranted balance changes.

Balance-wise, there's a number of different interactions mechanically that you have within an ability that you can adjust in order to balance its power. The most most common ones are: Cooldown, Mana consumption, Damage done, Effect status conferred, Promotion of that effect status, Range. – Steven Sharif

Q: How will your team look to identify and adjust a skill or class when the rock is no longer beating scissors?

A: It's difficult to give an answer that's specific, because the use-case is a very broad one when we're talking about balancing design. But, I would say that it's done in a holistic environment and it is usually done in concert with some rubric we're using in order to anchor our design choices. – Steven Sharif

• Alpha-1 testing was focused on core functionality rather than combat balance. Balancing for Archetypes, Economy, Nodes, and Combat will be done in Alpha-2 phase-2.

When we move into Alpha 2 and we have a lot of data that's supporting the use of these particular abilities in combat settings, how often they're used, how often they result in death, what the average damage done by this archetype is comparatively to other damage done by different archetypes: All of that data gets logged and all of that data gets queried in order for us to refine the abilities so that they live in the environment we want them to. Now, that's not to mean that we're going to have a perfect balance across the board between the archetypes. Again, we're taking a rock-paper-scissor approach to balance, which means that some archetypes will do better against other archetypes and vice versa; and we're also not creating an environment where we want to have 1v1 balance. We are focused around group balance. Group composition is important. – Steven Sharif

• The sixty four (64) classes are partitioned into eight primary archetypes. Balancing of active skills only relates to these eight primary archetypes.
  • There are four primary groups of augments assigned to each base archetype. Balancing of augments relates to the four augment groups for each of the eight archetypes.

• Certain secondary archetypes are capable of "bridging the gap" between their counterpart.

Even though augments do radically change the way your active skills provide you abilities, there's still a primary focus on the base archetype itself and not the 64 whole classes. – Steven Sharif

Certain archetypes are capable of moving the gap between their counterpart per-se. If I am a Tank archetype and a Mage is my counter, I can take a Mage secondary and bridge the divide slightly; and then move my identity that direction ever so slightly. – Steven Sharif

Roles

Ashes of Creation has the traditional trinity of Tank, DPS (damage dealers) and Support (healer or non-healer) roles.

We have our eight base archetypes; and the trinity is a pretty strong influence with regards to the eight base classes. However the area in which we actually begin to play with that line between the trinity is in the secondary classes that you can pick. That's where we begin to blend those spaces and allow people a little bit of influence over their role and whether or not they fit perfectly within a particular category within the trinity. – Steven Sharif

• Although traditional roles are present, players should not feel branded by their primary archetype.
• Skill augments available through the class system allow characters to be personalized outside of their primary role.
• Players can also double down on their archetype choice to strengthen their primary role.

There is a significant amount of flavor change as well as mechanics change that exists when adopting a secondary archetype as we implement that in the future. That is the intent behind the augment system that it very much changes the class fantasy and adopts one that's more representative of those of combinations. – Steven Sharif

Synergies

Synergies exist between class skills, weapon skills, passive skills, proc effects, and status conditions. These synergies also apply to active skills from other characters.

Different abilities put status effects on creatures and then you can exploit those. Not only you can exploit that, anybody who's fighting with you can exploit them. – Margaret Krohn

Q: How much do you intend for those sort of synergy things to be done within one class, one character's kit, versus how much do you intend for them to be working with the other characters, the other archetypes and specializations to promote their things, or to also make sure you don't step on their feet and accidentally promote something they're trying to maximize?

A: When we talk about status conditions or keyword conditions and the promotion of those effects, there is going to be the bread and butter that each class kid has access to; and when they're creating the type of rotation with their ability system, they're going to want to emphasize those interactions that amplify or promote a particular type of status condition. So they'll have within the kit to their own interactions that they'll be able to leverage. But then in addition to that, they're going to have keyword status effects that help to either promote other classes' keyword status effects, or are the executed promotions of other classes initial status conditions. And when you think about the intent of the design: the intent of the design is that players are servicing themselves from a solo perspective when they want to go out and solo grind and solo experience and fulfill the quests. But when they come together to form a party to encounter group content, or a raid to encounter raid content: that the interconnectivity between those classes synergizes with these keyword promotions and/or effects; and there's a way to execute on that, that is successful and is effective, or a way that's not. And that's the skill ceiling/skill cap that requires interaction and cooperation and synchronization between, because there are limited time windows in which those keywords can get emphasized or executed upon when utilizing the ability. – Steven Sharif

When you think about it, it's very much a musical endeavor. When you think about a symphony or a concert, those instruments working with eachother to formulate this highly effective and very visceral experience of this music chain. When you accomplish that in combat, it's going to be noticeable; and that's the desire, is let's reward- let's dopamine hit when players are effective in their skill when executing on these ideas. – Steven Sharif

Meta

A goal of Ashes of Creation is to emphasise micro metas that work for specific encounters, and de-emphasize macro metas that work for everything.

What we're doing with this approach is we're de-emphasizing a macro meta and instead emphasizing a micro meta. And the difference between the macro/micro is that on the micro level you have metas that might form based on each individual type of encounter or experience. And in those senses, yes, there's going to be a most optimal: There's going to be a best in slot. There's going to be whatever that pertains to that particular challenge rating. But there won't we there will not be an overarching meta that says from a macro level, hey, if you got this shit, you're good to go for everything. That's boring, that's unfulfilling, that is not interesting; and it is just something that that dumbifies the experience. – Steven Sharif

• The effectiveness of classes, skills and gear is going to depend on the adversary or the encounter. There will be optimal builds for different challenges and difficulty ratings. This design aims to avoid any obvious meta or "cookie-cutter" builds in Ashes of Creation.​

• Different challenges are presented dynamically to players based on node progression and destruction. Situations that are based on a rock-paper-scissors design will inspire a horizontal gear chase. These dynamic challenges will change from month to month, causing a shift in demand in the economy as different builds are required by the new content.

• Increasing difficulty ratings inspire more of a traditional vertical power progression that is common in other MMOs.

Oftentimes you just have a very vertical power scale and that determines chase, but when you have a variety of relevance across certain types of adversaries and that variety changes over time because of player activity- and then that affects the economy and the crafter system and who was producing what for what demand- and everything gets shaken up. That's a very fun environment to exist in. It presents a more dynamic situation rather than a quote-unquote cookie-cutter type selection. – Steven Sharif

• The intricacies of how nodes interact with predicates in the world means that it may be possible but difficult to achieve meta server builds.

Q: Do you have any concerns on players eventually discovering a meta server build with nodes due to players heading to specific nodes and regions because they find that content more enjoyable; and if so how would you go about getting players to shift around the world to break up the meta?

A: I think it's interesting if players have a concerted effort across a server to interact with one another, learn from their actions, mistakes, successes, and effectuate that on the server. That's interesting, but I don't believe we'll see a meta form. I think that the intricacies are too great when it comes to how predicates are formed in order to elicit world state changes. – Steven Sharif

Power creep

The developers intend to limit power creep via item sinks, the lack of gear binding, and the absence of pay-to-win or pay-to-convenience in Ashes of Creation.

Weapon combo system

Alpha-2 greatsword weapon combo animation.

Whenever you get stab hits on the third and the fourth hit, those are actually procs. So, if you connect with the second hit of that proc hit you'll receive the additional effects, but you actually have to connect with a monster or player to receive the effect; and I think the proc rate is at a static 25 percent right now. We're looking at other ways to scale that. Maybe it scales with a stat, or maybe it scales with additional nodes, but right now it's kind of low. – Brian Ferguson

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

• The combo system consists of a sequence of combat animations based on the weapon type, referred to as a combat animation montage.
  • Combos are triggered by performing basic weapon attacks (default Q or left-mouse-click).

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. – Steven Sharif

• The number of steps and passive effects that trigger during weapon combos can be customized in the weapon skill tree.

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. – Brian Ferguson

• Depending on class skill choice these effects will have synergy with the combat montage.

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. – Steven Sharif

• Weapon progression such as set bonuses may change at what level any proc effects occur and therefore enable different combo rotations.

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.

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. – Steven Sharif

• Using a skill/ability other than a basic attack will in general reset the combo.
  • The developers are considering specific abilities that might be able to be used without resetting the combo system.

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. – Steven Sharif

• Certain weapon skills will be more synergistic with some archetypes than others.

Q: How will weapon combos work when the weapon doesn't necessarily fit the archetype? For instance, if I'm a Mage and I want to use a bow, how will that work?

A: We're letting players make choices that may not mix as well as other choices; and that's okay. It presents some interesting horizontal options to the player, but at the same time there is going to be something for each archetype or class that's present within each of the weapon skill trees. – Steven Sharif

Weapon skill trees

Alpha-2 work-in-progress Greatsword weapon skill tree.

The intent here is to give you choices. Either I want to extend and improve my combo, or I want just passive benefits that increase my attack speed or crit chance. – Brian Ferguson

Weapon skill trees unlock passive skills, proc effects, and status conditions based on a player's experience with each weapon type. These do not unlock skills that are usable on a player's action bar.

• Maces, shortbows, longbows, one and two handed swords, wands, and spellbooks are all expected to have weapon skill trees with ~30+ nodes per nodes per tree starting in Alpha-2 phase 1. Additional weapon skill trees will be available in Alpha-2 phase 2 and beyond.
• Weapon skills will progress approximately 2-3 times faster than adventuring skills. This is subject to change and tuning during Alpha-2.

List of weapon skill trees

• 1H Daggers skills
• 1H Mace skills
• 1H Scepter skills
• 1H Sword Slash skills
• 2H Spear skills
• 2H Sword skills
• Book skills
• Daggers skills
• Dual-wield daggers skills
• Longbow skills
• Shortbow skills
• Spellbook skills
• Wand skills

Switching gear

Alpha-2 Mage swapping from a Greatsword to a Wand while in combat.

• Switching weapons (default keybind `) is possible while in combat but armor cannot be swapped while in combat.
  • Some ranged or melee abilities require a specific weapon to be equipped. Weapons that are equipped in the character's ranged or offhand slots will be automatically swapped in and out as required by the skill.
  • Players can select which weapon they wish to use as their primary weapon for basic attacks.
  • Previously it was stated that swapping weapons (from inventory) into a hand or range slot is not possible in combat. Prior to this, weapon swapping was said to be subject to a cooldown period (in the range of a few seconds) following any damage taken or done by the player.

You may not swap armor when you're in combat, but you may swap your weapons; and there's obviously a few reasons of why this can be important: We're a itemization agnostic class design, so players equip with items that there are most necessary based on the adversary or the challenge that they're facing; and so we want that to be available for players to swap with weapons. – Steven Sharif

• It is possible to store and swap gear loadouts with a single hotkey button press when out of combat.

There will be a loadout system that you can use in your inventory to help manage those different types of set that you can customize. So you can do a simple hotkey press and be able to swap your armors, out of combat of course, with a single button click. – Steven Sharif

• Artisan gear and adventuring gear do not need to be swapped for either to be effective when they are equipped on a character.

Raid mechanics

Boss fight concept art.

Boss fights will have fairly intricate mechanics.

Combat itself will be pretty intricate mechanics-wise. We're going to have different phases of the bosses, there's going to be a lot of adds stuff, there's going to be random oriented skill usage. We're not going to have telegraphed templates on the ground, but we will have telegraphed animations, so it's going to be location, mobility, strategic. It will be something that can not be repeatable in the exact same way from raid to raid, but has a variance between the combat, so raiders are going to have to be fluid in thinking on their feet. – Steven Sharif

• Multiple phase fights.
• Adds.
• Random skill usage.
• Fights will require location, mobility and strategy.
• Boss mechanics may be affected by changes in climate or time of day.
• Telegraphed animations, but no obvious telegraphed templates on the ground.
• Players can utilize boss mechanics against other players.

Anytime the boss is telegraphing an ability, that is an opportunity for you to direct the location of that effect; and so in that sense, yes you could use a boss's mechanics in an interesting way to affect an enemy raid. – Steven Sharif

Telegraphs

In specific circumstances there will be telegraphs (tells) to communicate something that's happening.

• Animation tells.
• Templates.

Player death

Alpha-2 Player death and resurrection during the Beneath the Stone Shadows event.

Alpha-2 Player death UI showing XP debt penalty.

When a player dies they disintegrate into ash. The ashes contain any items lost by the player due to applicable death penalties.

• These ash piles are immediately lootable by any player.

• Player flagging can be triggered by looting a non-corrupted character who is not in the same raid, party, or guild within a certain timeframe.

We have the concept of introducing flagging as a part of looting a body that is not a member of your raid, party, or guild; and if you do loot that body successfully after the required time you will be flagged and then can become a valid target in PvP.

• The developers intend to have a visual callout and a minimap indicator to identify a player's own loot pile.

• The loot UI will include information about the player's guild or node affiliation. This may include the player's guild icon.

• Certain bags may have reduced PvP looting times.

It might even be the case that their particular bag space doesn't have available location for a three-by-one log; and you're a lumberjack and they see you just chopping down these trees and you're like, there's no point in me engaging with this person, because I have nothing to gain due to my capacity. – Steven Sharif

• There will be a period of time following a player's death before their mule despawns. Other players must kill that player's mule to be able to loot it.
  • If the mule dies its corpse will contain the same percentage of lootable items according to the player's death penalties.

• Players do not lose gold upon death, no matter their corruption level.

• Glint looted from a dead character by any other player, regardless of affiliation, becomes stolen glint. Character's who loot their own bodies will recover their glint in its non-stolen state.

• Death by falling is possible.
  • Fall damage that occurs while mounted will be first applied to the mount; and if the mount dies as a result, then the remaining damage may overflow onto the player, but this will be determined based on testing.

• Death by drowning is possible.
  • Players that drown will respawn on shore. Players on destroyed ships may respawn at the nearest harbor.

Death penalties

Player death in an open world dungeon in Alpha-1.

There are three primary consequences for dying; and obviously the way you die can influence the balance of those three consequences. First and foremost is you have a death debuff that lasts for you know anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes depend depending on how often you've died. That death debuff is going to have some stat and dampening effects. It's going to influence you negatively. The second thing that you have that happens to you is you acquire experience debt. Experience debt is something that lives on your progression tracker. This is experience debt that you need to go and gain experience in order to recover. Okay, now experience debt- the more you accumulate, the more impact it has stat dampening on your efficacy in battle and this is efficacy in battle with PvP or PvE. It doesn't matter. Now, the ceiling for that is, if you accrue 100% experience debt within a level, you're going to have to work off that 100% experience debt; and you will have roughly 20% max ceiling on how much your efficacy is curbed. The third thing that happens on death is that you drop parts of your material inventory: a percentage of your material inventory. Now, you could drop potentially completed items if you're corrupt when you die, so it depends the state in which you're dying. If you're when you die: if you're participating in PvP, you will suffer less consequences across the board for those three things. – Steven Sharif

• Non-combatant (green players) suffer normal death penalties, which include:
  • A death debuff that lasts between 5 and 10 minutes depending on how often the character has died.
  • Experience debt (negative experience). Experience debt scales to approximately 3 to 4 percent of the total XP for that level (subject to change based on testing).
  • Dropping roughly 20-30% of carried gatherables, materials, and glint. The percentage values are subject to change based on Alpha-2 testing. Glint drops as stolen glint on death. Items made for final consumption are not dropped, such as consumable items created by the Cooking and Alchemy professions.
  • Skill and stat dampening, such as Lower health and mana.
  • Reduction in loot drop rates from mobs.
  • Durability loss.

  When players die and they take durability loss, our durability loss isn't like other games where it's a gold sink so to speak. It's a combination of both a gold sink and a material sink. So in a sense, even if you only have completed items, when you take that durability loss you are losing out on materials. It's just a debt to the materials that you are losing instead of the active loss of that material in your inventory. So now you are accruing a material debt if you want to repair and increase again the performance of those particular items that take that durability loss. – Steven Sharif

• Combatants (purple players) suffer death penalties at half the rate of non-combatants.

• Corrupt players (red players) suffer death penalties at four times the rate of non-combatants.
  • Corrupt players also have a chance to drop any equipped items based on their current corruption score, including dropping weapons and armor.

  Any amount of corruption allows a player to drop equipped gear upon death. The higher the corruption the greater the chances. – Steven Sharif

  • Corrupt players respawn at random locations in the vicinity of their death, not at regular spawn points. Non-corrupt players always respawn at the closest active respawn point (to their death).
  • Corruption penalties occur as the corruption is gained (not just at death).
  • Death penalties for corrupt players apply in every location, including naval PvP zones.

Objective-based PvP events accumulate lesser amounts of experience debt on death, but other penalties remain. Previously it was stated that death penalties are not applied to event-based deaths.

• Gear degradation applies on death during Caravan PvP.
• Materials (and resources) will still drop on death during sanctioned PvP events.
• Previously it was stated that death penalties do not differ between PvP and PvE.

Non-corrupt players suffer reduced death penalties in naval PvP (open seas) zones.

• These penalties will be less than those for a green player.

Q: We know that the normal death penalty incurs a myriad of penalties for the player, but we don't know the numbers behind this penalty. For instance, what percentage of materials do players drop? What percentage of glint is dropped? How severe is the skill and stat dampening? What is the average time it will take a player to work off XP debt from one death?

A: You're asking about percentile values. You're asking about time that it takes to recoup the percentage and whatnot. Any time that we're at a stage we're in now, and that in Alpha-2 we're going to be testing this, those values are the most subject to change. So to be clear, we're going to do [a] best-guess balance pass for Alpha-2 with the full expectation and understanding that the purpose is- and take into consideration player interaction with those numbers, and what feels best. So just off the bat, those values are not what we should be focusing on at this stage; but, to give you an idea where we are: First of all, when we're talking about dropping items that are in your material inventory, whether that be glint or that be other material types, we're talking roughly between anywhere from 20 to 30% of a stack is going to be lootable on a per-death basis. Now, that is a value that can change based off of the types of bags that you are using to carry those materials. In addition, there's other progression that can allow you, and some stats I believe, that can allow you to mitigate that value also. When we are talking about the percentage that's lost, or excuse me, not lost, the percentage of your level that is accrued as experience debt from death, generally you can expect that that's going to live around three to four percent of the level in accrued experience debt per death. However, additionally, there is a way to mitigate that percentage debt; and that is through the resurrection ability that's provided to Clerics. So, Clerics have the ability to resurrect their allies, and that resurrection will return a percentage that would have been accrued as experience debt. And that return percentage is predicated on the investment into the resability [sic], as well as the stat of the Cleric that is tied to the resurrection effect as well. So those can return percentages, so you can mitigate that to a degree. How long will it take you to recover that, and what stat dampening occurs? Anywhere within a level, if you acquire 100% experience debt for that level, you max out the experience debt, essentially, you don't ever buy that down, you're probably looking around a 20% stat efficacy dampener. So on average, if you're at 100% debt for a level, and you got to work all that off before you can start progressing at the level again, you're at around 20% overall stat dampening. Time it takes you to regain that debt is predicated on the level you're at and how you exp. So, that's a highly variable value. – Steven Sharif

Mounted combat

Mount combat abilities are unlocked through breeding via the animal husbandry profession.

• Players can't use their class skills while mounted.

Mounts will have a variety of effective pvp abilities, some viable in larger scale encounters when organized correctly. – Steven Sharif

• Mounts will have combat skills based on the breed and rarity. There will also be some RNG to the mount skills.
  • Charging through opponents (to knock them down).
  • Abilities to create a lance while mounted have been discussed as a potential design idea.
  • Specific weapons systems may exist on different riding points on group mounts.

• Some crowd-control abilities can dismount a mounted player. In that case the mount would persist with its own health pool and other stats.

There is danger to traversing areas with enemies nearby; and there are specific abilities that knock a rider off of their mount should they venture too close to enemies. – Steven Sharif

• The intention is for players to gain knowledge about mount abilities through observation rather than having that information provided to them in advance.

Q: How will it be evident to players in a PVP scenario what types of abilities they might anticipate from an enemy's mount if its owner has a skin of another breed applied to it?

A: Mount abilities are really meant to be a learned information source. This is not meant to be something that I can look at a mount and know without interacting with that individual- that player what that mount is capable of doing; and as such, when they have skins applied, whether it be through in-game earned or through cosmetic purchase, you will get a learning for what that mount does by observing its use-case and taking that knowledge that you have learned forward with you. – Steven Sharif

Mounts can be killed by players, but can be resurrected after a certain cooldown period.

• Potions obtained from the Alchemy profession can be used to reduce the cooldown.
• Mounts that die a certain number of times within a set period might gain a debuff that requires a different material component to assist with their resurrection.
• Fall damage that occurs while mounted will be first applied to the mount; and if the mount dies as a result, then the remaining damage may overflow onto the player, but this will be determined based on testing.
• Flying mounts that are killed during an event, such as a siege or war, will incur an additional cost to use the mount when the cooldown period has expired.

Mounts can be targeted separately from the player while mounted.

• If a player dies there will be a period of time before their mule despawns. Other players must kill that player's mule to be able to loot it.
• If a player's mule dies its corpse will contain the same percentage of lootable items as the player.

Combat pets

Combat pets (also referred to as Item pets or Universal combat pets) may be acquired by any archetype.

• Combat pets generally have a horizontal progression, not a vertical one. Unlike Summoner summons, combat pets do not increase a player's power, but instead require a sacrifice from the player.

It’s important to note, combat pets are primarily horizontal in nature. Where as class pets (like summoner) are a very vertical mechanic. – Steven Sharif

• Combat pets may be tamed from certain creatures in the world.
• Combat pets are categorized by class and will adhere to a simple trinity structure (Tank/DPS/Support).
  • Tank pets will maintain threat against enemies independent of the pet owner.
• Combat pets will also be categorized into different rarities.
• Combat pets may not be able to be summoned in certain dungeons, instances or other spaces.

It will participate in combat. It will allow you different options sometimes, but it won't necessarily increase your power and... you'll be sacrificing something for it. – Jeffrey Bard

Naval combat

Alpha-2 Negalith naval raid boss.

This is one of the Alpha-2 raid bosses that are going to be in the ocean. That'll be interesting when you come across that, what might happen. Good luck. We should have added a scale there because yeah, it's a big boy. The number of ships needed for that one's going to be a lot. – Steven Sharif

Naval combat involves different types of Ships with varying capabilities, armaments and roles to play out on the high seas. There will be a balance and counterbalance between ships from PvP and PvE perspectives.

• Naval PvP is between ships.
• Naval PvE includes open sea raids and sea-based bosses.
• Certain ship classes and components may support ramming of other vessels or raid bosses.
• Ship weapons can damage both players and structures.
  • Damage done by ship weapons such as potion launchers will generate threat.
  • Characters can also use ranged skills during naval combat. Taunts and other threat generation skills can be utilised for tanking at sea.
• Coastal points of interest, such as harbors, offer objective-based naval gameplay during node sieges.
• There is a castle located on an island that is only able to be affected by naval combat.

Battles at sea will be epic. They will have some supreme rewards and/or losses if the battle succeeds or fails. – Steven Sharif

• Naval combat allows ships to be hijacked, destroyed and looted, but it doesn't allow the attackers to permanently keep the ships.

Q: Will there be a way to produce enough experience for a node for those who want to spend the majority of their time on the open seas?

A: The open seas have have a good amount of content; and that content when completed will give its contribution to a nearby node; and that is something that people who live on the sea, or desire to live on the sea, will be able to um contribute in a way. – Steven Sharif

Naval PvP

Ships moving into an open sea naval PvP zone (open waters/deep ocean areas) will automatically flag players as Combatants (purple). Corrupted (red) players will remain red while in the open sea.

Another important change that has occurred is the open seas is now an automatic flagged location. So when you move off of land we have a flagging system that protects and the open seas are international waters where you need to be careful; and there is a lot of opportunity at Sea; and because there's a lot of opportunity that's unique to that content- that's unique to that sea: that's treasure finding; that's NPCs; that's a lot of different stuff there needs to be risk associated with opportunity. – Steven Sharif

• Players entering an open seas area will be notified by the UI ahead of time.
• Death penalties for corrupt players apply to every zone in the game, including naval PvP zones.
• Non-corrupt players will suffer reduced death penalties in naval PvP zones.

If you are not corrupt and you enter the open seas you will be taking a mitigated form of the death penalties, which means you will have a debuff applied upon death and in addition you will still suffer the gear degradation or gear decay upon death as well. But you will essentially be either significantly reduced in the experience debt accrued through death in the open seas if you're not corrupt, or there won't be experience debt accrued in the open sees if you are not corrupt. – Steven Sharif

• Open sea zones have better resources in more abundance to compensate for the added level of risk.

We have a very intuitive UI that as you approach the border between open sea and coastal area you are notified of that. You are warned ahead of time. There's a countdown when approaching. We interpolate the distance travel and speed you're moving and you get to see "I'm entering open waters"; and when you do you have this big trophy call out on screen that says "You have entered the open sea. Territory fraught." – Steven Sharif

• Lawless zones will be present in Alpha-2 until open-sea content is implemented.

Operators of a ship's weapons platform can initiate naval PvP against another ship in the following cases.

• The result of events (such as guild wars or node wars) between the parties.
• As the result of open-world PvP, utilizing the flagging and corruption system.

Addons/ DPS meters

Addons, DPS meters, and threat meters will not be supported.

My decision is not to allow DPS meters nor add-ons. I feel we have adequate measures in place to prevent a majority of potential third party trackers. I know this subject has passionate voices on both sides and I respect the various opinions and positions many of you have expressed. – Steven Sharif

• The developers do not want addons/mods to be necessary to experience the game.
• The developers believe that DPS meters (parsers) can cause toxicity and other negative behaviors.

What role DPS meters provide in online communities that I've noticed in the past my experiences: they can be a bit toxic, they can be a bit exclusionary; and that's why we don't want the DPS meters. – Steven Sharif

• Threat meters will also not be present in the game. There will instead be visual in-game cues to indicate threat.

Meters in my opinion are a removal from the game immersion; and what I mean by that isn't necessarily even the fact that having the meter takes you out of the game per-se, but it is- there's a lot of diegetic approach that you can take that doesn't rely on UI elements like a meter to indicate how you should do a thing; and when you're not utilizing those types of meters you can do different types of strategies and encounter design. You can have things that can be more subtle and aren't going to be immediately given away by a meter indicating something; and that's the type of gameplay that we think that I believe we want to emphasize; and for that reason, we're not going to be including threat meters. What we will be including however are animation indicators. We're going to be including ability indicators to show the tank "hey I might be losing aggro here." I'm observing in the world these immersive elements that are not tied to any specific type of UI, but indicate to me that this monster might be moving off to attack somebody else in a very immediate future; and now I should be using the abilities that I'm saving to regain that aggro, or to lock them down with a taunt or something. That to me is a bit more representative of the type of gameplay we want to to bring in our encounter design. – Steven Sharif

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

• There will be integrations available for streaming services such as Twitch and a few other services, but it's not something that will be exposed through an API just yet.
• The design of the game API is still under consideration.

Combat logs

There are combat logs in Ashes of Creation.

We will be providing combat data for individual players in their chat window, that players can filter and analyze for themselves. The goal is to mitigate and make the practice less prevalent through the ease that DPS meters provide. Also to place actionable enforcement for players who attempt to circumvent the decision by use of 3rd party programs, for which we will be monitoring. – Steven Sharif

Floating combat text

Alpha-2 Floating combat text work-in-progress UI.

Damage you take, which is indicated in this red number, floats towards your left-hand side; and when you do damage to a target they float to your right-hand side. Now one of the very important aspects of these floating texts is providing the player with customization options that they can adjust the size of the floating text. They can adjust the color composition on how these texts are represented. They can also include damage icons to indicate the ability that's used for those floating texts; and importantly we also call out the crits that you do in a separate way: how they pop in they're slightly above the other number; and then more so, we also have additional functionality for cumulative damage. – Steven Sharif

Floating combat text shows damage taken, damage dealt, cumulative damage, crits, heals, XP gained, and other important combat indicators.

• Damage taken appears in red and floats to the left by default.
• Damage dealt appears in yellow and floats to the right by default.
• Crits appear larger and are slightly above the other numbers by default.
• XP appears in white and is slightly lower on the UI by default.

Floating combat text can be customized by the player.

• Damage Dealt Font.
• Critical Damage Dealt Font.
• Damage Taken Font.
• Critical Damage Taken Font.
• Health Dealt Font.
• Critical Health Dealt Font.
• Health Taken Font.
• Critical Health Taken Font.

Providing maximum flexibility and player customization options for these floating texts I think is super important. – Steven Sharif

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

• Damage icons to indicate the ability used.

Videos

• 2018-04-04 Video - PAX East Pre-Alpha Gameplay
• 2018-08-17 Video - Ashes of Creation Apocalypse - First Look at Action Combat
• 2018-09-01 Video - Ashes of Creation Apocalypse Alpha Gameplay
• 2019-03-08 Video - Ashes of Creation Apocalypse Castle Siege Gameplay
• 2022-06-30 Video - Ashes of Creation Alpha Two Basic Melee Weapon Attack Update
• 2022-09-30 Video - Ashes of Creation Alpha Two Basic Ranged Weapon Attack Update
• 2022-12-02 Video - Ashes of Creation Alpha Two Night and Day and Other Heavenly Things
• 2023-01-27 Video - Alpha Two Tank Preview
• 2023-03-31 Video - Alpha Two Story Arc Systems Preview and the Lore of Carphin
• 2023-04-28 Video - Alpha Two Mage Archetype Preview
• 2024-01-31 Video - Ashes of Creation Alpha Two Caravan PvP Update
• 2024-05-31 Video - Ashes of Creation Alpha Two Node Wars Preview
• 2024-08-30 Video - Ashes of Creation Alpha Two Citadel of The Steel Bloom and Firebrand Preview
• 2024-09-27 Video - Ashes of Creation Alpha Two Lionhold Preview

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• 2020-05-22
• 2020-05-17
• 2020-05-16
• 2020-05-14
• 

  2020-03-29
• 

  2020-03-28
• 

  2020-03-28
• 

  2020-03-28
• 2020-03-28
• 2020-03-28
• 

  2020-03-28
• 

  2020-03-28
• 

  2020-03-28
• 

  2020-03-28
• 

  2020-03-28
• 

  2020-03-27
• 

  2020-03-27
• 

  2020-03-27
• 2019-08-21
• 

  2019-03-12
• 

  2019-03-12
• 

  2019-03-12
• 

  2019-03-12
• 

  2019-03-12
• 

  2019-03-12
• 

  2019-03-12
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  2019-03-12
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  2019-03-12
• 

  2019-03-12
• 

  2019-03-12
• 2018-12-06
• 2018-12-03
• 2018-11-07
• 

  2018-10-31
• 2018-09-01
• 

  2018-09-01
• 

  2018-09-01
• 

  2018-09-01
• 

  2018-08-31
• 

  2018-08-24
• 2018-08-18

Community guides

• Ashes101 - Combat

See also

• Archetypes
• Classes
• User interface
• Looting