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		Ranger	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		Mage	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		Mage	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		Fighter	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		Fighter	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.
Cone of Cold		Mage	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		Cleric	Send forth a cone of radiance that deals radiant damage to all enemies while healing the ten nearest allies.
Divine Flare		Cleric	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		Ranger	Enemies are Snared while within Vine Field's area of effect.
Fissure		Mage	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		Tank	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		Ranger	Snipe has a 30% increased chance to critically hit against enemies beyond 20 meters.
Hunt of the Bear		Ranger	Call forth the spirit of the bear, imbuing yourself with increased physical mitigation.
Hunt of the Raven		Ranger	Call forth the spirit of the raven, imbuing yourself with increased physical penetration.
Hunt of the Tiger		Ranger	Call forth the spirit of the tiger, imbuing yourself with 10% increased critical damage.
Inciting Strikes		Tank	Slashes twice in a forward cone while adding additional threat.
Leap Strike		Fighter	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		Fighter	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		Mage	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		Fighter	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		Ranger	Marks the target, reducing their mitigation by 25%.
Mark of the Raven		Ranger	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		Ranger	Marks the target, increasing critical chance versus the target by 50%.
Meteor		Mage	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		Ranger	Headshot deals 50% additional damage to targets below 50% of their maximum health.
Piercing Shot		Ranger	Fire a projectile that travels in a straight line, piercing through and damaging all enemies in its path.
Quake		Mage	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		Ranger	Fires a dense rain of arrows 20 meters ahead, dealing high damage. Deals more damage to more distant targets.
Refreshing Headshot		Ranger	Headshot refunds 4 seconds of its cooldown when it hits a Marked target.
Shield Assault		Tank	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		Ranger	Charge a powerful ranged attack, dealing large damage after charging for 3 seconds. Deals 300% physical damage.
Tremoring Bellow		Tank	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		Ranger	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		Fighter	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

Ranger hybrid combat in Alpha-2.

Our desire has always and continues to be how we can create a mixture of tab target abilities and skill-shot oriented positional, directional-based ability usage and make something cohesive in that design. And I think that what we're achieving with that regard may not fully feel like an action-oriented game, but we've always intended to be more hybrid-oriented, leaning towards tab target. So you're going to see a mixture of abilities that require the targets and that don't; and then you're going to have an option as the player's perspective to utilize an action camera mode, which utilizes a soft target lock feature and our reticle. – Steven Sharif

Hard-locked friendly player target.

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: Is the development team moving away from action combat, or is action combat more prevalent with the melee classes, and the healing/range classes are more tab-target other than AoE spells?

A: We have not moved away from our hybrid approach to the development of Ashes of Creation's combat; and specifically to reiterate: that approach is incorporating elements of skill shots, fast and reactive gameplay that is situationally relevant, and incorporates the camera mode of both tab-targeting as well as action combat reticle. That's something that is still in progress. We haven't moved away from that however. To note, our approach of that hybridization is going to incorporate things like templated skill-shots, directionally relevant activated abilities, along with the ability to dodge to roll projectiles that can impact collision. Those are elements of action combat that are present. – 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.

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

• 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

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.

• Mounts 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

See also

• Hybrid combat
• Combat revamp
• Skills