Skills

[Old_ben]

Originally Posted by Morrobane

I'm not really sure where you get the idea that you'll die if you go into one pure class. As if you know something about gameplay that no one else does.

The idea of a warrior with magic abilities isn't unreasonable, the "battlemage" hybrid isn't an uncommon thing amoung RPG's, I think hybrid classes should indeed be present, just balanced correctly. I don't think the player should have free reign to train whatever skills they choose, no matter if it takes along time and is hard or whatever.

I think if a hybrid class is composed of healing abilities and warrior abilities a.k.a. paladin, they should be about half as effective as a warrior and half as effective as a priest. The benefit to mixing is that while less effective at a single task (tanking, dps, healing, etc...) the combination resulting from the mix has certain unique benefits that aren't possessed by other classes. For example, a paladin's (in WoW) ability to control aggro on large groups of mobs as long as it has mana, or effective counter to undead, or just its ability to keep itself alive while doing moderate damage.

You know, I actually like that idea and that way of thinking. It would be great to see that in Aion!

[GoldManGr]

yes that would be awesome, if anyone played SWG (after the main update)
you could use your points to either light(more defensive) or dark(more aggressive) side, and you could do some REALLY good choices if you knew how to play.


of course it was one different skill system for each class,
like for rogues there could be 2 different sub point system one that favors more of asmodians and the other that favors elyos (for example)

if you mean by having 1 system for all classes and a warrior can pick fireball(mage) and an archer can pick shield defense(melee) well that would suck.

[Shacti]

No, i think the wow system would be nice, you have class-specific skills to learn, then you can customize yourself a little with either "talents" or attribute points.

[Ether]

I used to be a big fan of battlemages. NWN/NWN2 Eldritch knights, anyone? Even in Fable, I saw the chance to go hybrid melee/caster. Jack of all trades, master of none? Maybe, but combining two play styles into one can be devastating if done properly.

Ultimately it falls back onto the game design, and whether everything can remain balanced. If balance can be kept, then I'm not too fused about hybrids and such.

[Marchosias]

Originally Posted by Wizards Essence

u people are acting like u can only have one class per character. look at wikipedia, u can have two professions. that way u are balanced, but ur not using every single class, for example if u, like me, want to be an elementalist, but are afraid of direct hits, get ur second as a fighter, knight, or rouge. its that simple. it may not be "pure" but pure is just a way of making urself vunerable.

Ok, I haven't read the wikipedia on it, but from my understanding based on other things I've read has said that you get 2 professions, as in CRAFTING, and one character class, as in combat skills. I haven't heard anything about FF-style dual classes (you'd get one main class with all the skills and whatnot and a secondary class at half the level of your main with the skills of half the level, and you'd have to level each separately).

I have to say I'm opposed to the idea of mixing classes and abilities just because it makes the game so much harder to balance. Having classes, each with fairly defined abilities isn't too hard. Now, when add customization like WoW's talent points, then it gets a little trickier, and then if you start adding hybrid classes into that you get balancing hell. What you would end up with is a couple specs or hybrid classes that are clearly better than others and a mass of people in this relatively low number of specs.

That said, I would definitely like to see a different sort of customization in gear. What I mean is that I think if a mage wants to use plate armor, they should be able to commit to it, learn the skill (instead of robes), and wear plate armor. However, they would have to take a hit to mana, casting speed, damage... whatever the devs thought would appropriately balance it out. Now, in a group setting this wouldn't be favorable for the mage, as they wouldn't be taking damage and thus wouldn't need the added protection. However, in a solo or PvP setting this could be potentially beneficial and worth considering. Every class would have this sort of option to look at. Assassins could use plate and a take a hit on attack speed which could result not only in hitting slower, but the enemy potentially dodging/parrying/blocking more often (assuming all those systems are in place, which they may well not be). I would say they could take a hit in movement speed, but I think it's very important to keep movement speed equal amongst all characters (not including short-duration abilities, like a sprint or charge) to ensure that kiting doesn't become a huge issue, which it is in a number of games.

Getting back to customized skills vs. classes, being easier to balance classes has another clear benefit. Since everyone has specific roles in a group setting it's much easier to plan PvE content that is challenging but not impossible. When you introduce complete customization in skills, you have near infinite specializations with a few that are clearly better, which means it's much harder to plan balanced PvE content. It will either be challenging for some and impossible for others or challenging for some and easy for others.

So, while customization within the class system is necessary to create diversity in the end-game, too much can lead to a horribly unbalanced game in both PvE and PvP (or in Aion's case PvPvE), which makes the game a lot less fun for everyone.

Edit: And shame on the OP for using such obvious wording bias in forming his pole (I don't remember what the technical term for the bias is, sorry). A simple yes/no answer would fine, but anyone who's ever taken a stats class can see that you're shamelessly attempting to skew the results of the question, especially in these "WoW is the enemy" days. So, when making future polls, don't word one side favorably (ie "Yah! that would be sweet! Who wouldn't want that?") and one side unfavorably (ie "No, I'm a tool and that is way too different from my normal, evil ways"). Sorry, I'm not trying to be mean, but I couldn't let such obvious questioning bias go unchecked...

[CasketReign]

Eve Online uses that type of system

[WindWalker]

this doesn't have much to do with the question but why the hell does the second question say "no, its to different from WoW" cos what if we dont play wow and dont want to were gona be urged to click the first option.

anyway i have no idea what its gona be like, im just hoping that the elemental can have a wind spirit at the beggining of the game :P

[Delgoth]

Originally Posted by Marchosias

Ok, I haven't read the wikipedia on it, but from my understanding based on other things I've read has said that you get 2 professions, as in CRAFTING, and one character class, as in combat skills. I haven't heard anything about FF-style dual classes (you'd get one main class with all the skills and whatnot and a secondary class at half the level of your main with the skills of half the level, and you'd have to level each separately).

Im glad that someone else caught on to his UO fanboyish antics

But seriously, i agreed with every point that you made! A game with a hybridization such as UO (and did you say Eve as well, casket?) wont be able to support a huge community, such as the numbers in WoW, soley because of the balancing issue that was previously mentioned. (i.e. too many battle mages, etc, etc)

[Red Reflection]

Wait for Ragnarok Online II.
That skill system seems to implement the system you're suggesting without making things unfair and just plain funky. (ex: a tank class that can cast ultra-mega spell of doom) :P

You can change your character into any class you'd like to whether it be first or second without any weird cross breeding of skills. Say you're a swordsman and have many swordsman skills built up and suddenly decide that you'd like to switch to being an acolyte for a bit. You simply pass the class change test with the proper job level and presto! The only thing is your previously gained swordsman skills are no longer available to you as you have changed classes. However, should you decide to revert back to your original class of swordsman at any time, your swordsman skills will return after you complete the class change test for the swordsman class again.

That way no one fruit's up their character and has to start over from scratch.
Smart move on Gravity's part if you ask me as this was a major complaint among players of RO1.

I'm actually a little torn between Aion and RO2 at the moment. I may end up playing both. They're just so sexy. (>_<)

Rawr.
R&R

[Aseenus]

i vote yes mis-clicked no >< , in runescape for example we would grind etc as a ranger but when we went to pk we would all suit up in plate, was good times

[Rixath]

This exact system your talking about is currently in a game called Fury, a pvp exclusive mmo. Fury - Online role playing game (RPG) with PvP combat