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
Air Strike		遊俠	Leap a great distance forward and into the air while firing three projectiles in a line along the path, each dealing area damage and rooting targets hit for 3 seconds. Rotation control is enabled during cast. The root effect is nature based.
Ball Lightning		法師	Creates a large ball of highly charged electricity that travels slowly forward, dealing rapid periodic lightning damage to enemies it overlaps with and applying 1 Electrified stack to targets with each hit.
Blizzard		法師	Channel a massive blizzard around you, raining a barrage of hail shards upon your enemies while channeling. Each shard impact deals ice damage in a small area around it. All enemies in the blizzard also acquire 1 stack of Chilled periodically. Activate the ability again to end the channel early.
Brutal Cleave		鬥士	Perform a wide sweeping attack, dealing damage to all enemies in front of you. This ability shares a cooldown with Overpower, and hitting an enemy with a weapon combo finisher reduces its cooldown by 8 seconds. +10-20 Combat Momentum (based on number of targets hit)
Cataclysm		鬥士	Deal heavy damage and apply Shaken to all enemies in a large area in front you. Shaken enemies have a 5% chance to Trip when hit, and the effect is removed when triggered. This chance doubles when hit by Riled targets.
Concentrated Scatter Shot		遊俠	Scatter Shot becomes a held ability. After being fully charged, you instead fire a single projectile in a forward line that pierces through enemies and deals significantly increased damage. 30m range.
Cone of Cold		法師	Blasts a cone of cold in front of the caster, dealing ice damage and applying 1 stack of Chilled to each enemy hit.
Consecrating Wave		牧師	Send forth a cone of radiance that deals radiant damage to all enemies while healing the ten nearest allies.
Divine Flare		牧師	Place a targeted area heal on the ground that heals all targets within after several seconds. Total healing is split between all targets hit.
Ensnaring Vine Field		遊俠	Enemies are Snared while within Vine Field's area of effect.
Fissure		法師	Call forth a line of jagged earth spikes in front of the[sic] you, dealing earth damage and applying 10 stacks of Stagger to each enemy hit along its path while launching them upwards.
Grapple		坦克	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.
Greatsword basic attack		Greatsword
Heartseeking Snipe		遊俠	Snipe has a 30% increased chance to critically hit against enemies beyond 20 meters.
Hunt of the Bear		遊俠	Call forth the spirit of the bear, imbuing yourself with increased physical mitigation.
Hunt of the Raven		遊俠	Call forth the spirit of the raven, imbuing yourself with increased physical penetration.
Hunt of the Tiger		遊俠	Call forth the spirit of the tiger, imbuing yourself with 10% increased critical damage.
Inciting Strikes		坦克	Slashes twice in a forward cone while adding additional threat.
Leap Strike		鬥士	Leap to target location and deal damage around you, snaring targets hit for 3 seconds.
Longbow basic attack		Longbow	A slower, powerful, longer range basic ranged attack. Tapping the basic attack button will shoot normally. Holding the basic attack button will charge the shot (and root the player) to cause added damage.
Lunging Assault		鬥士	Spend 15 Combat Momentum to lunge in a direction a short distance and perform an upward swing upon arrival, dealing damage to enemies in front of you. You are immune to hard crowd control effects while performing this ability.
Magma Field		法師	Erupts the earth at target location, forming a boiling pool of lava that deals fire damage to enemies per tick while periodically applying a stack of Burning to enemies within the area.
Maim		鬥士	Perform a powerful melee strike in a short forward cone, dealing physical damage to all targets hit, plus 100% additional damage to recently tripped targets.
Mark of the Bear		遊俠	Marks the target, reducing their mitigation by 25%.
Mark of the Raven		遊俠	Marks the target, triggering bonus damage every time the target is hit. The lower the health on the target is, the higher the damage.
Mark of the Tiger		遊俠	Marks the target, increasing critical chance versus the target by 50%.
Meteor		法師	Conjures a massive flaming rock before sending it hurling toward target location. Upon impact, it deals major fire damage while knocking foes flying, and then continues to roll forward for its remaining distance, dealing additional fire damage while applying stacks of Burning to enemies along its path.
Mortal Headshot		遊俠	Headshot deals 50% additional damage to targets below 50% of their maximum health.
Piercing Shot		遊俠	Fire a projectile that travels in a straight line, piercing through and damaging all enemies in its path.
Quake		法師	Held ability: Cast a powerful earthquake that deals more damage the longer it was charged and applies 10 stacks of Staggered to all enemies around the caster. If the spell was fully charged, this applies Tripped instead of Staggered.
Raining Death		遊俠	Fires a dense rain of arrows 20 meters ahead, dealing high damage. Deals more damage to more distant targets.
Refreshing Headshot		遊俠	Headshot refunds 4 seconds of its cooldown when it hits a Marked target.
Scatter Shot		遊俠	Fires a spread of projectiles, dealing Physical Damage to every enemy target within a 20m cone in front of the caster.
Shield Assault		坦克	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.
Shortbow basic attack		Shortbow	A fast, low power, short range basic ranged attack. Holding down the basic attack button will repeatedly fire.
Snipe		遊俠	Charge a powerful ranged attack, dealing large damage after charging for 3 seconds. Deals 300% physical damage.
Tremoring Bellow		坦克	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.
Vine Field		遊俠	Summons 3 fields of grabbing vines, one at the target location every .5s for 1.5s. Targets hit are damaged for 10% physical damage and snared for 3s, reducing their movement speed by 40%. Targets that have more than 10s of snare duration are rooted. This effect can only trigger once per target.
Whirlwind		鬥士	Channeled Ability: Deal 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.

Hybrid combat

Alpha-1 early hybrid combat demo.

You'll notice as I go into action mode, I have my reticle and when my reticle hovers over an enemy target, it'll turn red, essentially showing like "hey we know you have a valid target hit" that you can see; and when you press 'Q' you can lock on to that target. You can also hold tab to alternate between targets. So like that's an important aspect of the combat that we're trying to incorporate, which is mixing and meshing between tab and action, so you still have that action component but also are available to use some of your tab targeted skills. – Steven Sharif

混合戰鬥是指玩家在遊戲中可以選擇以 Tab 鍵鎖定或無鎖定模式進行戰鬥。

• 點擊 Z 鍵 (預設快捷鍵是 Z，玩家可以設置成其他快捷鍵) 讓玩家切換至無鎖定或 Tab 鍵鎖定戰鬥模式。

• 無鎖定模式設有準星，與第三人稱動作遊戲相似。
  • 玩家無須處於準星模式來施放無鎖定技能。

  施放指向性無鎖定技能，玩家無須處於準星模式。技能會自動判定準星的位置施放。因此如果玩家使用 Tab鍵鏡頭模式憑感覺瞄準，也可以使用無鎖定技能。 – Steven Sharif

  • The reticle will highlight/change color (to red) to indicate if the current target is able to be hit with the currently prepared skill.
  • Action combat abilities will not have a lock-on feature but pressing Q while in action mode will lock on to the current target to enable the use of tab-oriented skills in action mode.

  Action combat abilities will not have a lock-on feature so to speak. Some of those are going to be skill shot only. However because you can have a mix and match of tab abilities that require a target, you will be able to target lock in action mode as well. Right now that's delegated to the Q key as default, but you can obviously set that up you could put it on your left mouse button, or you could put it wherever you want; and when your reticle hovers over a target, it rapidly swaps your target ability and when you press your target lock it will then lock that target; and if you have tab-oriented skills, you can use your tab oriented skills and they will be used against that target. – Steven Sharif

  • Holding Tab while in action mode will alternate between targets.
  • Pressing right-click while in action mode will switch to tab mode for the currently highlighted target.
  • The action camera is tied to the to player's reticle. There will likely be a hotkey that when held down will allow free camera movement.
  • In future the user will have the ability to choose from different reticle appearances.

• The tab mode (MMO mode) facilitates tab targeted combat. A tab-targeted ability requires a target in order to utilize that skill.
  • Pressing left-click in tab mode will attack the target (with the currently selected weapon).
  • There will be a "target of target" capability on the user interface.

Hybrid combat is being tested in Alpha-1.

• Targeting modes are able to be achieved through choice of skills/abilities.
  • 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.
  • Different ranks of the same skill can change the skill from tab to action targeted or vice-versa.

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

Action oriented and tab oriented versions of skills will have different characteristics. Variables will change based on which version is chosen.

• Damage.
• Charge up time.
• CC effects.
• Cooldown.
• Energy consumption.
• Cost to spec.
• Attack range will likely remain the same; as it is driven by the weapon or skill itself.

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

以下某些信息最近尚未得到开发人员的确认，可能不在当前的开发路线图上。

For the purposes of balance, certain skill types will be either tab or action oriented skills. For example:

• 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.

Spell/projectile 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.

• 坐騎 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

其他

• Hybrid combat
• 戰鬥系統改良
• 技能