by Cody Bye on Sep 28, 2007
Skills:
Q: It said that at level 50 characters could purchase the skills of the
other archetypes. How will this work and how many of those skills can
be purchased?
A: As you can read in the
Skill trainer journal, they can’t simply be bought, the
original designer/master skill trainer of the skill needs to be found.
Not all skill trainers live on the shards that are in release.
Q: Will there be a system in place for counterattacks? (Like
deflections, disarming, throwing your opponent off balance, etc. Will
shields affect game play, i.e. will I be able to use some kind of Block
ability or are shields just for show?
A: No. We’ve
had a combo system in place with ‘counters’, but
this turned out to be too hard and too complex in our fast paced
combat. Shields have no effects for the simple reason that all our gear
is purely cosmetic.
Q: Will the range differ per ranged skill?
A: In general, all bow
(ranged) skills have the same range. Some bow and ranged magic attacks
differ though.
Q: Ancestral mage questions: Will there be variations to pets, that
have a specific role (like have a tiger instead of a hyena for melee
damage) and what kind of roles will these pets fill (all of them, even
healing roles?)?
A: There will be
different pets who cover a similar role, but there are no different
appearances for the same role/pet. All roles will be covered, I guess
most pets cover 1 role well and might cover a second or third partially.
Q: Will skills have varying selectable levels? As in, if I purchase a
fireball skill (lvl 1), then the next most powerful version (lvl 2),
will I be able to assign any level of my choosing to the skill bar, or
will it default to the most powerful version?
A: No, skills scale with
your level, so there’s only ‘your current
level’.
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Q: Does the rune mage have casting time and how long it takes to create
a rune? Will creating different runes take longer cast times?
A: Not longer then casts
from other classes might take, there’s no ‘cast
bar’ that needs to be completed, cast time is a set length.
Q: How you can obtain items (sigil, rune, etc.) which can be placed
into skill slot? How do these sigils affect skills?
A: Both Skill- as Gear
sigils are obtained via drops, crafting recipes or quest rewards.
There’s a very wide variety of skill sigils, they range from
increasing the damage, reducing the cooldown to increasing the range.
Q: Will there be any off-combat skills (for example: sprint, hide,
track, seek for hidden treasure.....)?
A: No, all though a
skinshifter shifting into a boar so he can cross a dense forest
untouched, might count as one.
Q: If you find a skill trainer, but you aren't ready for the skill yet,
can you learn it immediately but can't use it, or do you have to return
later when you are ready?
A: The skill trainer will
not reveal it’s identity until you are ready to learn and use
the skill.
Q: When I enter combat my skillbar starts at 1 rotating through the
different layers as I use skills. What does reset the bar to 1 again?
Target death? Switching targets? How quickly does it reset?
A: The first tier is
reached again when: a skill on all following tiers was executed or when
the skilldeck timed out. Time out occurs after about 8 seconds of no
skill usage. It does not reset to tier 1 upon target death/switch.
Q: If I got that right, the aura of the Wrathguard affects enemies and
team members alike. Will the Wrathguard have an ability to keep single
targets (a single enemy for example) out?
A: No, choose your aura
wisely
Q: Will there be team abilities/combos that need more than one player
or will benefit from more players cooperating? "Team Abilities"?
A: No, like mentioned
before, only the obvious, for example: one player lowering enemy
physique while the other executes ‘crushing’
attacks, which benefit from having a higher physique then your target.
The system of these types of benefits is quite intricate.
Q: There won't be any class with skills that can resurrect players.
Will it be possible to teleport a player to the position of another
using a special skill? (Will there be items that can resurrect players?)
A: No, don’t
die.
Q: Will there be any form of Crowd Control and if so, how will it work?
A: One of the key
elements of combat in Spellborn is the always present combat
effectiveness of a player. There are no skills which reduce a
players’ combat effectiveness to 0, so you will always be
part of the combat until you’re dead. No traditional
mechanics to stun-lock, root, fear and polymorph. However, it is
possible to influence player movement speed, disarm etc. but these
skills merely reduce the combat effectiveness, not nullify.
Q: Do all abilities, except of self buffs, have the same effect in PvP
and PvE?
A: Yes, players might
react different to certain skills then mobs though.
Q: Can players successfully fight enemies of higher levels? Can a lvl 5
group for example win a fight versus a lvl 23 enemy? Will the enemy
resist or evade most attacks? Or is a higher level just stronger and
has more hit points than a lower level?
A: Yes, although the
difference in damage and hitpoints will be significant with a level
difference of 18 (as in your example), so that’ll probably be
very hard. There are no ‘unfair’ mechanics in
place, like reduced hit chances or damage modifiers, that would go
against Spellborn combat policy.