Schools of augmentation

A player may choose a secondary archetype when they reach level 25. 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.

When you reach the class phase, which is around level 25 and you introduce that secondary archetype selection to create your one of 64 classes, then you'll have a number of augments that you'll be able to apply on a per-ability basis; and your core ability kit comes from your primary archetype selection; and those augments will change the look and feel of those abilities; and some will have the affect to create more darker thematic aspects to it. Or just generally different aesthetics to the abilities that represent the secondary [archetype] selection. – Steven Sharif

• The player can then augment their primary skills with effects from their secondary archetype.

The intent behind the augment system is not to provide new active abilities. They're intended to augment existing active abilities that are provided through your primary archetype; and so your secondary archetype selection completes your class selection, of which there's 64 types and you get augment skills that can apply certain attributes and mechanics to your existing active skills. So, if you have certain abilities, like a backstab as a Rogue primary archetype, and you take that healer secondary archetype selection, now the properties of your backstab will still remain the same as an active ability, however it might include things like life steal, or it might include things like susceptible weakness to the target, and reduces their healing because the definition of what those augments are intended to provide based on the archetype selected for the augments is within the schools of magic that live for that archetype: so a Cleric is about balancing life and death and the control of those types of hit points. – Steven Sharif

• Each skill in the primary tree will have several augment options from the secondary tree. This is an example of horizontal progression.
  • The progression system for augments is very similar to the class progression system.

• Each augmentation has a level requirement.

• 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.

• 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.

• Secondary archetype augments allow different aesthetics to apply to primary abilities that reflect the secondary archetype selection.
  • Some spell colors and general FX change based on augments.
  • Active skills could look totally different after an augment gets applied.

• Changing skill augmentations will require visiting a NPC in a Village node or higher.

Bard augments

Ta sekcja zostanie zaktualizowana, gdy tylko programiści udostępnią informacje

Cleric augments

Classes with Cleric as a secondary archetype are able to choose between life or death augments.

• Choosing life augments will provide self-healing benefits as well as limited life-giving benefits to other players.
• Some cleric augments applied to certain skills will indirectly provide the ability to heal others. These will not replace the need for a cleric archetype.
• Cleric augments will radically change the type of summons available from the summoner primary archetype.
  • Skeletons, zombies and other undead summons will be possible with death-based augments.

Any class that's going to choose Cleric as a secondary class will have the ability to pick from those augments to influence their skills to affect the life of others around you. – Steven Sharif

Fighter augments

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Mage augments

Mages will offer four magical schools of augmentation, such as teleportation, fire, frost, and lightning (electrical).

Say for instance, I am a Ranger that has a Charge bolt ability as my primary active skill and I've chosen Mage as my secondary and applied the elemental to it. I now have a Frost charge bolt, and if I fire that frostbolt and hit a target, they may be freezing for a period of time as a debuff and that might slow their speed. If a wizard applies a nuke on a target and that nuke is a frost-based nuke, those two stacking elements might then either further snare (slow the target) or paralyze and freeze the target. So, there are combination out effects that build up: A primary, secondary and some ancillary effect occurs when those are combined. – Steven Sharif

There's going to be four schools of augmentation for each archetype. One of the schools for the mage is the teleport school. You can take that teleport augment, apply it to your charge skill: now instead of charging x distance over time you're going to immediately teleport to the target dealing x damage and a condition modifier. If you were to apply the elemental school to your class ability you would then instead you would charge x distance; upon reaching target you would set the target ablaze if it's fire or you would electrocute them and deal with damage over time. – Steven Sharif

Ranger augments

Hunts will be a Ranger school of augmentation.

• Hunts do not interact with pets.
• Not to be confused with Hunt skills, which are toggleable self-buffs applied by a Ranger.

Hunts will be discussed in a future update. They are a Ranger specific mechanic, and also a school of the Ranger’s augments. They confer a number of different types of effects to your target, but the fx are particularly fun. – Steven Sharif

Summoner augments

Summoner augments are still in development.

Niektóre z poniższych informacji nie zostały ostatnio potwierdzone przez programistów i mogą nie znajdować się na aktualnym planie rozwoju.

• Classes with a Summoner secondary may grant augmented skills that summon weapons. These summoned weapons are not able to be equipped.
  • The word "equip" only applies to items. There are currently no plans to include summoning items into a player's inventory or character slots. It may however be possible to change the appearance and damage type/data of a weapon through the use of a spell.
  • There are summoned weapons that appear as a spell VFX to damage opponents for a period of time. These will not be able to be wielded, since weilding implies an item in a character equipment slot.

Rogue augments

• Stealth augments from the Rogue secondary archetype will incorporate stealth modifiers into a class' primary skills.
  • True stealth resides within the realm of the Rogue (primary) archetype.

There will be counter-stealth mechanics for sure. That's just a natural balancing act of stealth. But additionally with regards to secondary classes, one of those aspects is augments represent the secondary class and some of the- one of the most fundamental aspects of a rogue is stealth whether it be actual invisibility or the ability to sneak around in the shadows or something. So you can almost certainly count on the fact that should you go a secondary class of rogue that there will be the ability to influence your action items from your primary class with the stealth modifier. – Steven Sharif

Tank augments

Tank augments will enable an amount of threat generation.

Schools of magic

Different schools of magic exist within Ashes of Creation.

• Arcane magic.
• Blood corruption (Blood magic).
• Chaos magic.
• Regular corruption.
• Elemental magic.
• Summoning.
• Teleportation magic.
• Transformation (Shape shifting).

There are a lot of different schools of magic... whether it be transformation, summoning magic, arcane magic, elemental magic, blood corruption, regular corruption, chaos, electricity. There's a whole bunch of influences that exist across the player abilities, but also across the environments and the POIs and unique to each of the cultures. – Steven Sharif

• The developers adhere to a style guide for each school of magic.

See also

• Augments
• Classes