Primary skills

Alpha-1 preview primary skills.

If from the eight archetypes whatever you choose as your secondary, you're going to receive a choice of augments that relate to some core ideal of that class. You know like a tank is about controlling the battlefield, is about surviving. The mage is about dealing damage and elements and ability in AoEs. The rogue is going to be about stealth and critical damage. So those augments are going to to play towards those identities. – Steven Sharif

The idea behind the system is that you're kind of skirting the line through these augmentations of your role, right. We have the traditional holy trinity that's present in class designs for MMOs and it's often that those either are not deviated at all or completely deviated from entirely. The augment is to kind of offer a balance between that where you still maintain the semblance of that trinity system while offering the opportunity to customize your play experience towards one of the other angles in the triangle. – Steven Sharif

Primary skills (class abilities) are based on a player's archetype. Players can personalize their primary skills with augmentation from a secondary archetype.

The design behind augments is to not just change the flavor so that it reflects the secondary archetype, but it also fundamentally changes the core components of a skill. – Steven Sharif

• Each secondary archetype offers four different schools of augmentation. Each augment school affects a primary archetype's skills in different ways.
  • For example: A Mage offers Teleportation and elemental schools of augments. These augments will affect a Fighter's primary skills differently than a Cleric's.
  • Each augmentation has a level requirement.
    • Augments do not cost skill points. It was previously stated that certain augments will have more expense required on the skill point side.

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

• Choosing the same primary and secondary archetype increases focus on that archetype.

• Augments to primary skills will fundamentally change the way the ability works: Adapting what the ability once did to incorporate the identity of the secondary archetype.
  • The progression system for augments is very similar to the class progression system.

• Changing the augmentations on your skills will require you to go to a NPC in a Village node or higher.
• Some spell colors and general FX change based on augments.
  • Active skills could look totally different after an augment gets applied.

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

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

The ability list in Alpha One is nowhere near what the ability list will be, especially from like a level/progression standpoint. So you can expect it to be incredibly different. – Steven Sharif

Skill points

Alpha-1 preview skills user interface.

This is where players allocate skill points into either their active skills, their passive abilities- which can augment their usage of weapons and armors and health regeneration and passive stats and stuff like that-- but on the weapons side of things, that's where you will spec into certain types of procs based off of weapon groupings. So we've talked a little bit about this in the past: If you have a dagger, daggers might have a chance to proc a bleed on your weapon attack and that would synergize with an active skills' ability like let's say Backstab that does additional damage if the target is under a bleed effect. Now we have said in the past that players will be able to allocate skill points into their active skills that are more geared towards either action combat or tab targeting. – Steven Sharif

Players receive skill points as they level. These can be used to level up skills (increase their rank) within their active, passive or combat/weapon skill trees.

• It will not be possible to max all skills in a skill tree.
• In terms of skill progression, players can choose to go "wide" and get a number of different abilities, or go "deep" into a few specific abilities.
• Players are able to reset and reallocate their skill points.
• Augments do not cost skill points. It was previously stated that certain augments will have more expense required on the skill point side.

Making active skills capable of receiving additional skill point allocations and unlocking additional features so that from a player agency standpoint it's going to be up to you whether or not you want to be more diverse but less depth- wider and not taller, in some of these skill choices. Or if you want to be very very tall, that's going to be something that is up to the player in that regard. – Steven Sharif

Active skills

Alpha-1 Tank action bar (hotbar) early user interface design.

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

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

Some people like to have a very minimalistic number of hot bars. They don't need necessarily to have three, four, five hot bars that are available; but some people do like that: They want to have all their items listed on their hotbar as well as their abilities, as well as as their mounts, as well as anything that they can essentially interact with as an icon. – Steven Sharif

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

There will be multiple hot-bars that you obviously have available, because you're going to have consumables, you're going to have active skills and whatnot. But the number of active skills are not going to overwhelm necessarily the character and be irrelevant especially at certain stages. – Steven Sharif

Universal skills

Outside of class-specific skills there may be a subset of universal skills, such as active block and dodge.

• The developers will be testing the use of separate energy mechanics for universal skills in Alpha-2.
• Universal skill progression may align with a player's passive skill tree.

Outside of your class-specific skill tree, there's going to be a subsection of a few skills that are universal, like active block, like dodge; and I think what we're going to do- or at least what we're going to be discussing here- is those universal skills will have progressions that might align with your passive tree; and you can spec skill points into progressing additional features of those universal abilities that you will have access to. So I think that's probably going to be the direction that we're going to take. – 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

Evasion moves such as dodging and weaving will be present in Ashes of Creation combat.

• The developers are considering the inclusion of dodging in a subset of universal skills that apply to all classes.
  • Dodge rolling type skills were previously housed in the action skill sets of agile classes such as Rogues or Fighters.
  • The developers will be testing the use of separate energy mechanics for universal skills in Alpha-2.

• 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

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 is a universal skill that applies to all classes.

• Active blocking is present in Alpha-2.
  • The developers will be testing the use of separate energy mechanics for universal skills in Alpha-2, such as Mana and Stamina.

Active blocking might be an ability that- it's universal, of course it's universal- but it might be consuming mana; and you'll be able to adjust that mana consumption based off of your passive spec into your skill trees. In addition, it might also consume stamina, where that's something we're going to be testing as part of Alpha-2. – Steven Sharif

• Shields are better for active blocking, but any melee weapon can also be used to parry with a lesser amount of mitigation.

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

• 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.

They can be a challenge to implement sort of really reliably so you might not see them on every evasion or every block, but we do want that kind of stuff to show up. – Jeffrey Bard

Crowd control

Crowd control (CC/mezzing) abilities include root, snare, stun, sleep and slow.

• There will be diminishing returns on stuns, sleep and slows so as to avoid stun locking.
  • Diminishing returns on CC effects have not yet been implemented in Alpha-1 testing.

Diminishing returns in regards to crowd control and conditions like stun and sleep and slows and that kind of thing: Yes we will have absolutely diminishing returns. I think it's a necessary component to balance out classes that have high control ability. – Steven Sharif

• Lockdowns won't likely be tab-targeted skills. This is to avoid imbalanced combos with skill shot (action targeted) abilities.

• Hard CC's are stuns, knock downs, sleeps, paralysis, some roots, some silences.
  • Hard CCs may be housed in action oriented skills because they are skill shots that are more difficult to land.

We're trying to stay away from hard locks as much as we possibly can. We want to have the system be very play, counter-play, counter-counter-play kind of feel. – Jeffrey Bard

• Soft CC's are in the tab-targeted abilities.

• 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.

• 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 current Alpha-1 testing mounts are 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.

This section contains information from early testing phases. It will be updated as soon as new information is made available.

- None -

Mobility

Revamped Alpha-1 Mage Fireball ability.

The general approach that we're kind of 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 kind of 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.
  • The amount of mobility is determined by the weight of the weapon being used.
• 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.
  • 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

• 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

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

This section contains information from early testing phases. It will be updated as soon as new information is made available.

Skill	Icon	Rank 1	Rank 2	Rank 3
Blink		Blinks forward in the direction you are traveling.	Now deals damage to enemies surrounding your departure location.	Reduced cooldown.
Rush		Rush toward a target; and upon reaching the target, deal an amount damage with a chance to knock the target down.	-	-

Player movement

Walking and running shown in pre-alpha gameplay.

• Sprinting will consume a percentage of a character's mana pool. Sprinting will not be permitted while in combat.
  • A sprinting/dash skill with a cooldown was confirmed to be part of a class kit.

I've instructed design to incorporate a mana consumption that's percentage based for sprinting. So it'll be a similar amount of time that each class, regardless of their mana values, will have in order to sprint and it will not be accessible while in a combat. – Steven Sharif

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

• 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.

• Unreal Engine 5 mantling was demonstrated by the developers.

Collision

There are player and spell 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.

Interrupts

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

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

This section contains information from Alpha-1 testing. It will be updated when new information is made available.

Skill	Icon	Rank 1	Rank 2	Rank 3
Bulwark		Bash enemies in front of you twice. The second attack temporarily increases block chance. You must have a shield equipped to block.	Additional increased block chance.	The second attack knocks down enemies.
Rush		Rush toward a target; and upon reaching the target, deal an amount damage with a chance to knock the target down.	-	-
Thundershock		Shoots forward a beam of lightning that damages enemies in a line in front of you.	Increased damage.	Now knocks down hit targets.

Animation cancelling

Animation cancelling will not be a combat mechanic.

• Players will be able to cancel channeled abilities.

Combat stances

The use of weapon stances in game is likely.

RNG

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

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

RNG is always going to play a role in Ashes of Creation whether that be in PvP or PvE, but one way to mitigate that is through the action system. The action system is going to be far less sort of dependent on those you know 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

Headshot mechanics

There are no headshot mechanics in 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.

Siege abilities

War Beast 3D render. Modelled by Jessica Jennings.

Group summons are activated by a party leader with that ability in their class kit along with additive components from other classes that are part of the group.

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

Up to eight players of the same primary archetype can band together to create monumental effects during a siege.

• The classes will need to be in the same group or raid.

These are the types of systems that we want to put in place where groups of a single primary archetype can come together to summon these types of effects that play off of what the identity of that archetype is. – Steven Sharif

Summoner

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

Summoners can collaborate to summon larger summons, such as Golems.

• A siege summon will have an incremental size based on the number of summoners participating in that summon activity, with a maximum of eight.
• The number of summoners participating in the summon will determine its overall size.
• All summoners must be in the same party and the party leader must be a summoner.
  • The party leader initiates the summon and then takes control of it.
  • Once summoned, the party leader cannot be changed.
  • If the party disbands, the summon ends. There will be a grace period to handle disconnects.
  • The party may also contain non-Summoners.

It doesn't have to be just summoners, but it has to be a party led by a summoner with other summoners in it. – Steven Sharif

Tank

Pre-alpha castle siege combat featuring a Tank siege ability.

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

If eight Tank archetypes each use one of their summon wall abilities it might construct a larger wall that can divide two raids in a moment; and would require damage and block skills and abilities for a momentary lapse of battle between those two raids. – Steven Sharif

Class progression

• A player chooses their primary archetype at the start of the game.
  • A player cannot change their primary archetype.

• Players receive skill points as they level. These can be used to level up skills within their skill tree.
  • It will not be possible to max all skills in a skill tree.

• A player may choose a secondary archetype when they reach level 25. The combination of primary and secondary archetypes is referred to as a class.
  • The secondary archetype does not provide additional skills.
  • Secondary archetypes may be changed, but not "on-the-fly".

• The player can then augment their primary skills with effects from their secondary archetype.
  • Each skill in the primary tree will have several augment options from the secondary tree. This is an example of horizontal progression.
  • Augments to primary skills can fundamentally change the way the ability works - adapting what the ability once did to incorporate the identity of the secondary archetype/class.

If a Fighter were to choose Mage as a secondary archetype, the fighter would become a Spellsword. This combination opens up augments that can be applied to skills in their primary skill tree. Fighters have a Rush skill that allows them to rush towards a target; and upon reaching the target, deal an amount damage with a chance to knock the target down. A blink augment could be applied to the rush skill, which would now teleport the player to the target; thus eliminating the charge time on the skill.

Class progression does not relate to a player's artisan progression.

World events do not directly impact class effectiveness but there may be ancillary effects in terms of availability of equipment, enchantments or tattoos.

Skills by archetype

Bard skills

Bards are a tactical support class. They will have more significance based on their mobility and placement in the battle.

• Bards are intended to not be purely support focussed. They will be a "jack of all trades", including offensive and defensive combat abilities in addition to support abilities and buffs.
  • Certain higher tier Bard abilities will utilize proximity-based ground templates that require the party or raid to move into (and out of) formations indicated by the template to gain added benefits or buffs.

Based on proximity, based on your mobility and placement within the battle you're going to have more significance. So it's going to be to a degree a tactical type scenario for those non-healing support classes to be cognizant of. You know, where on the battlefield they need to be positioned in connection with the group that they're trying to augment or support; and so that gives a little bit more tactical sense to these non-healing support classes that's more relevant to them than other classes per-se. – Steven Sharif

• Bards may offer proximity-based or proc-based healing to a much lesser degree than Clerics.
  • This may be outdated, as Bards have been more recently referred to as a non-healing support class.

• Bards will have a wide range of abilities to choose from, such as wordsmithing, acting, and musical aspects.
  • Bards may be able to play musical instruments, such as Flutes and Bagpipes.

• Bards will not be the "downtime" class. This is the role of social spaces within nodes.
• Bards will have utility outside of combat, like all other classes.
  • Restoring rested XP will not be a Bard utility.

In other games, Bards tend to be a relatively passive kind of way of playing and that's really not the direction that we want to go with it. We want every class to be fun to play. We want every class to be viable. We want you to feel like you are doing something: That your moment-to-moment gameplay is fun; so a lot of that kind of stuff is going to be based on combos, on reactive interactions between your party members and the mob that you're fighting, or the player character that you're fighting. There's going to be a lot of movement from the front lines to the back lines to kind of help out and make sure that everybody is supported in the way that they're doing it; and that you are also being active in what you're doing. You're not just sitting in the back passively playing a lute and not having any fun. – Jeffrey Bard

• Bard buffs include Songs, Stories, and Dances.
  • Bards can choose to activate buffs that augment tanking, evasion, DPS and healing abilities in their proximity.
  • Some buffs are related to how the bard performs in combat: If a bard lands a skill shot against a target, allies within a certain range might be granted a temporary buff that relates to the skill that the bard used.

Let's say the Bard is using a weapon, has a sword out and... does some gladiatorial looking performance attack and it looks so great. It inspires his friends around him to increase their multiplier on critical damage, and now they deal additional damage against targets for the next 10 seconds or 8 seconds. So, you're going to need to be active. You're going to worry about your position, the relation of the position of your party members to you in order to accentuate really what you offer the party. – Steven Sharif

Cleric skills

Restoration. Enhancement. Debilitation. Clerics keep their team in the fight by bolstering their combat abilities and cursing their enemies. Far from simply supporting their allies through healing, a Cleric is also capable of wielding destructive force in the face of danger.

Clerics have control over life and this may relate to utility abilities that relate to corruption.

Cleric combat abilities

This section contains information from Alpha-1 testing. It will be updated when new information is made available.

Skill	Icon	Rank 1	Rank 2	Rank 3
Castigation		Lashes your target with holy energy whip, dealing direct damage and restoring health and mana to yourself over time.	Heals you instantly for an additional amount upon hit.	Restores health and mana to nearby party members for the duration.
Chains of Restraint		Call forth spectral chains in a target area that stagger enemies within or stun enemies already under the staggered effect, then leave behind an area that deals radiant damage each second over 8 seconds.
Cleansing Wave		Releases a wave of healing energy to a target ally restoring health and conferring a heal over time. The wave jumps to 1 additional ally within range for each stack of conviction the caster has and places a buff on each recipient. Whenever a target with this buff receives a healing effect, the buff is consumed and removes the most recent negative effect that the target received.
Communal Restoration		Restore health to all party members in range. For each point of Conviction the caster possesses, targets receive an additional 1% of their maximum health as temporary hit points for 10 seconds.
Devotion		Launch an orb of energy into the air that will fall upon your target, healing them.	The energy orb will travel faster and heal for more.	The target will be infused with a slow, long-lasting healing effect.
Divine Censure		Hurls a radiant spear at the target, dealing damage.	Further attacks upon the target have a chance to heal the attacker.	The target has a chance to deal damage to itself when it attacks.
Divine Light		Heals your target with a flash of light. Reduces the cooldown of Devotion and Radiant Burst.	Increased healing.	Reduced mana cost.
Hallowed Ground		Fills the surrounding area with radiant energy that damages enemies.	The area provides a healing aura for allies.	Allies within the area will receive boosted magical defense. Enemies within the area will deal less physical damage.
Judgment		Heals an ally, restoring life to the target. If cast on an enemy, it damages the target with radiant energy and has a chance to generate Conviction.
Radiant Burst		Heals allies around you in a wide area for a large amount. Stacks up to 3 times.	Heals for a greater amount.	Cooldown removed.
Regeneration		Bathe your target with restorative energy that heals them over time.	Reduced mana cost.	Applies a 5% healing received bonus to the target.
Resurrection		Resurrects a dead ally with 25% health and 15% mana.	Target resurrects with 50% health and 20% mana.	Target resurrects with 75% health and 25% mana.

Cleric passive abilities

This section contains information from Alpha-1 testing. It will be updated when new information is made available.

Skill	Icon	Rank 1	Rank 2	Rank 3
Cooldown Reduction		Reduce all ability cooldowns by 5%.
Critical Hit Rate		Increase the chance for damage and healing abilities to critically hit by 5%.
Defense Mitigation		Increase defense mitigation by 4.
Disable Defense		Reduce chance of being disabled by crowd control effects by 10%.
Health Regeneration		Generate an additional 1.5% of your maximum health per second.
Increased Healing		Increase healing done by 10%.
Mana Regeneration		Generate an additional 1% of your maximum mana per second.
Maximum Health		Increase maximum health by 75.
Maximum Mana		Increase maximum mana by 100.
Movement Speed		Increase movement speed by 5%.

Fighter skills

The Fighter archetype will include maneuverability and "closing the gap" mechanics to enable the fighter to quickly traverse distances on the battlefield.

This section contains information from early testing phases. It will be updated as soon as new information is made available.

Skill	Icon	Rank 1	Rank 2	Rank 3
Rush		Rush toward a target; and upon reaching the target, deal an amount damage with a chance to knock the target down.	-	-
Whirlwind		Damages targets in range and applies a stagger effect.

What we want the Fighter warrior to do is to be able to cut through enemy lines, get to the support area of a raid perhaps and take out healers with some quick DPS burst damage. We want them to be masters of different weapons. We want them to be able to be versatile in whether or not they want to be a ranged fighter or melee one. It's going to be up to the player. – Steven Sharif

Mage combat abilities

This section contains information from Alpha-1 testing. It will be updated when new information is made available.

Skill	Icon	Rank 1	Rank 2	Rank 3
Black Hole		Summon a black hole at the target location that reduces movement speed of enemies in the area.	Increased duration.	Explodes for area damage upon expiration.
Blink		Blinks forward in the direction you are traveling.	Now deals damage to enemies surrounding your departure location.	Reduced cooldown.
Drain Essence		Drain your target for damage over time, and gain return mana to yourself over the duration.	Heals you over the duration.	Reduced cooldown.
Fireball		Hurl a ball of fire toward your target, dealing direct damage upon impact.	Increased damage.	Burns the target for additional damage over time.
Gift of the Magi		Restores mana upfront, plus an additional amount over time, to you and a friendly target.	Increased duration.	Increased initial amount restored.
Lava Storm		Creates a field of lava at the selected location. Deals area damage over time.	Increased damage. Increased duration.	Increased damage. Increased duration.
Meteor Storm		Summons forth a Meteor Storm, dropping 3 meteors in the target location.	Adds an extra meteor.	Adds an extra meteor.
Prismatic Beam		Spawns a giant prismatic beam of energy that can be aimed around you. Deals large damage to enemy targets.	Increased damage.	Snares hit targets.
Thundershock		Shoots forward a beam of lightning that damages enemies in a line in front of you.	Increased damage.	Now knocks down hit targets.

Mage passive abilities

This section contains information from Alpha-1 testing. It will be updated when new information is made available.

Skill	Icon	Rank 1	Rank 2	Rank 3
Attack Damage		Increases attack damage by 5.
Cooldown Reduction		Reduce all ability cooldowns by 5%.
Critical Hit Damage		Increase the damage and healing bonus from critical hits by 20%.
Critical Hit Rate		Increase the chance for damage and healing abilities to critically hit by 5%.
Defense Mitigation		Increase defense mitigation by 4.
Disable Chance		Increase chance to disable by 15%.
Health Regeneration		Generate an additional 1.5% of your maximum health per second.
Mana Regeneration		Generate an additional 1% of your maximum mana per second.
Maximum Health		Increase maximum health by 75.
Movement Speed		Increase movement speed by 5%.

Ranger skills

Skill	Icon	Rank 1	Rank 2	Rank 3
Airstrike		Leap forward in the direction the character is facing, raining down three projectiles that deal AoE damage and roots enemies in its path. The root effect is nature based.
Camouflage		Grants stealth at a distance. At mid and short range the Ranger is revealed.	-	-
Quick Shot		Ranged attack that applies a debuff to the target. Each additional quickshot against the same target does increasing damage but consumes one of three charges that regenerate over time.
Snipe		A powerful charged attack.

Rogue skills

All classes are capable adventurers, but rogues excel at delving the deepest dungeons and finding the most hidden of treasures.

• Rogues will have utility skills that enable them to discover hidden doors, traps and additional treasures.
• These will be randomly spawned throughout different times of the day to ensure that encounters are not the same each time.

If you're in a party and you have a Rogue that's available, they'll be able to use that utility skill to discover these random doors that might exist in a dungeon. Now the way we make it so that it's not essentially the same door every time and it's just a first time thing and every time thereafter you know where that door's at, is these locations are randomly spawned throughout different times of the day so they'll change essentially as you go into a dungeon at different times. So it'll be important and relevant for parties to make sure that they have a diversity of archetypes available to them. And in particular for the rogues case because they can find those hidden type doors and then have access to different types of loot tables based off of that. – Steven Sharif

This section contains information from early testing phases. It will be updated as soon as new information is made available.

Skill	Icon	Rank 1	Rank 2	Rank 3
Stealth		This does not render a player completely invisible. Instead, there will be indicators that can help players "feel out" where stealthed individuals may be.	-	-

Summoner skills

The summoner uses many abilities that channel through their summon (also referred to as class skill pets). The summoner is essentially playing through their summon.

You gain your summons from your summoner class as an active skill and then skills can be further developed with points. – Steven Sharif

• Summoners can summon up to three Summons.
• Abilities from the summon appear on the summoner's hotbar.
• Summoner has control over their summon, unless the summon is under ancillary effects.

Summons adhere to the owner’s commands, unless otherwise under ancillary effects. – Steven Sharif

• Summoners can summon Tank, DPS or Support summons.
  • The choice of secondary archetype influences the role the summons perform best at.
  • Tank summons will have their own hate/threat generation abilities and will maintain threat against enemies independent of the summoner.
• Summoners may also have the ability to transfer pain to their summons, meaning that a portion of damage or threat taken by the summoner can be transferred to their summon instead.
• Summoner summons are not the same as combat pets.
  • Summoner's summons will add to the summoner's power when they are summoned, unlike combat pets, which take a portion of the player's power.

The Summoner archetype does not have that portion of power taken away when they summon their pet. That's part of their... power is their summon. – Steven Sharif

• Summons will exist until another summon is cast, the summon is killed, or the summoner logs off.
• Summoners will likely not be able to fuse with their summons (eidolons).
• Summons can be leveled through the application of skill points to their active skill.
• Summons will be able to use crowd control (CC).
• Summoners may be able to name their summons, but will not be able to change their creature type, which is part of the nameplate above the summon.
• Summons follow the same PvP flagging rules as players and share the player's flag status.

Summons follow the same flagging rules as players, if your summon pks someone, you gain corruption – Steven Sharif

Summoners summon different summons, depending on the class and augments they choose.

• Animals.
• Spirits.
• Zombies, skeletons and other undead creatures.
• Corpses (potentially).
• Some summoners may summon multiple things.
• Other summoners may only summon one powerful thing.
• Certain summoners may only be able to summon effects and/or temporary energies.

Augments from a secondary archetype can be applied to a summons.

For example: If your summon had a sweeping attack with a claw, or had the ability to bite an opponent, or rush an opponent; and you took teleportation, you could rush them similar to how I've given an example with the tank: Teleporting to a target instead. Or, its claws could combust on impact on a target dealing some burn damage that persists. Or... let's say your summon traditionally was some type of bear or bear cat, you could apply an elemental augment and now it could be a transparent flaming bioluminescent cat; and its damage would be fire based. So, that's how we want to influence the active skills with how augments apply; and that's how it would apply with Summoners. – Steven Sharif

Tank skills

Tanks will not be forced to have a shield but it will definitely be a viable option. – Jeffrey Bard

Tank combat abilities

Skill	Icon	Rank 1	Rank 2	Rank 3
Aegis		Instantly dispels all negative effects on the caster, then creates a protective dome behind the tank for 15 seconds, transferring 50% of all damage received by targets within the area to the tank instead. All targets within the cone also receive increased status effect resistance for the duration.
Grapple		Takes aim for a moment before hurling a hooked chain in a line, damaging the first target it contacts and immediately pulling them to the caster. The target suffers a tapering snare for 3 seconds.
Grit		Applies a buff to the caster, reducing incoming damage by 15%, but also reducing movement speed by 30% and outgoing damage by 20%. Each incoming hit consumes a stack of courage to reduce incoming damage by an additional 15%. Courage can not be generated while Grit is active.
Inciting Strikes		Slashes twice in a forward cone while adding additional threat.
Shield Assault		Bashes the target with your shield, dealing damage and applying the shaken condition. If the target is already suffering from the shaken condition, stun the target instead.
Tremoring Bellow		Releases a thundering shout in a forward cone, applying the staggered condition on enemy targets. Also stomps the ground dealing damage around the caster and tripping enemies affected by the snared condition.

Tank passive abilities

This section contains information from Alpha-1 testing. It will be updated when new information is made available.

Skill	Icon	Rank 1	Rank 2	Rank 3
Block Chance		Increase chance to block attacks by 20% (Blocked attacks deal 20% reduced damage).
Cooldown Reduction		Reduce all ability cooldowns by 5%.
Critical Hit Rate		Increase the chance for damage and healing abilities to critically hit by 5%.
Defense Mitigation		Increase defense mitigation by 4.
Healing Received		Increase the amount of healing received by 10%.
Health Regeneration		Generate an additional 1.5% of your maximum health per second.
Mana Regeneration		Generate an additional 1% of your maximum mana per second.
Maximum Health		Increase maximum health by 75.
Movement Speed		Increase movement speed by 5%.
Physical Evasion Bonus		Increase physical evasion bonus by 5.

Combat targeting

Ranger hybrid combat in Alpha-2.

Part of what we're exploring with this approach of our hybrid combat is offering the player the functionality to utilize either tab targeting or a reticle-based action camera mode; and you know there are benefits to each; and both of them are providing the player what they feel most comfortable with playing. All of our attacks are going to be stat opposed unless they're a templated attack, in which case there will be certain bonuses and/or stronger applied chances for certain types of CC effects to be applied or potentially evasion and accuracy aspects of it. These are all things that we plan to to test throughout alpha two to see where the player base lives in those two options of the action or tab target based attack modes. The important part here is that this is still a work-in-progress. This is meant to give you a look at where our approach has now been living over the past several months when it comes to combat based off of what we learned in alpha one, what player feedback has been along the way and how we can create a compelling system of combat between these very different classes and weapon types. – Steven Sharif

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 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 future the user 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.

• 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: What the benefits are for tab versus action. I feel like a lot of people feel like tab is just easier so why would I use action?

A: If you're in a massive brawl, the ability to pick and choose targets that are far in the back line that might might be more advantageous towards tab target users because they're able to click, but the reaction time to acquire a target for a cursor versus acquiring a target for a reticle is much faster and less cumbersome because it doesn't require as many actions on behalf of the user. – Steven Sharif

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

• 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.

• 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.

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

• 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.
• For the purposes of balance, certain skill types will be either tab or action oriented skills.
  • Hard CCs may be housed in action oriented skills because they are skill shots that are more difficult to land.
  • Softer CC's would be housed in tab-targeted abilities.

As an example: Let's say you're playing a ranged class. You could have an action-oriented power shot in your skill tree or you could have a single target power shot that ramps up and does more damage. – 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.

See also

• Archetypes
• Classes
• Skills
• Combat