by The Drunken Dwarf
INTRODUCTION
At the Fanguard I had a chance to speak with several developers including Darrin McPherson (Talisker) and Doug Cronkhite (Elidroth). They were kind enough to take the time to answer several questions about the game. As with all pre-release information, the information they provided is all subject to change as the game is balanced and tuned during the beta testing phase. Please don't take this information as a guarantee or promise that these things will work exactly as described when the game is launched. All of the information here came from my discussions with developers and the general Q&A session... In an effort to report the most accurate information possible, I didn't include anything that I did not hear personally.
DREAD KNIGHTS
The Dread Knight will have limited crowd control ability in the form of a fairly long duration stun. He didn't specify the duration, but mentioned that it would be long enough to be effective... I'm thinking in the 20 second range. This stun will break if the mob takes damage... so in that respect it works like a mez. This gives the Dread Knight the ability to keep a foe out of the action. Depending on the duration of the stun and the recast time, this might be a way to hold a mob out of the action completely until the group is ready to deal with them, or it may only be a partial crowd control method.
Other classes will have abilities such as snares and roots that can be used in conjunction with pulling to limit the number of opponents a party has to face at once.
Dread Knights have an ability called Dreadful Countenance. This is always active. When he is in combat with a mob, the mob will be afraid and will suffer reductions in its combat ability (debuff). The longer the mob is in combat with the Dread Knight, the worse the fear becomes, and the more effect the fear has on its ability to fight. There are currently 5 levels of this fear. And at the highest levels, the fear extends to additional mobs.
This ability is NOT dependent on the Dread Knight having aggro... he just needs to be in combat with the mob... so it works even if the Dread Knight is not the main tank. This ability does not generate aggro.
PALADINS
Gifts of Virtue - We all know about Lay Hands... but Darrin told me about a Gift of Virtue called "Paragon."
Paragon is a powerful buff that lasts for 5 minutes. It raises all of the Paladin's combat stats (Strength, Agility, etc...) to the MAXIMUM for the Paladin's level.
He also said that there was a Gift of Virtue that would cleanse all diseases from the Paladin's party. This could definitely be useful in raid situations!
Paladins also have several "auras." They can have one active at a time and they are group buffs that can do things like increase the group members' damage, regeneration, etc... Paladin buffs will stack with healer buffs. Paladins will be able to withstand fear (unknown if this is a resistance/triggered ability/or immunity.
WARRIORS
Warriors are the most martial of the heavy tanks. They are battle commanders. Warriors have the highest DPS of the heavy tanks. (He made it clear that although Warrior DPS was noticably higher than the other tanks, it was not high enough to step on the toes of the offensive fighters in their role as melee damage dealers.) Warriors also have some buffs. One example is "commanding presence" which is a group attack buff.
INQUISITORS
Unfortunately, the only information we were able to get about Inquisitors is that they *may* not be ready for release. The developers would not give any specifics about the Inquisitor but it was obvious that they are excited about the potential of the class and several of the developers mentioned that they planned to play Inquisitors when they became available.
APPLICABLE TO ALL HEAVY TANKS
First is the relative value of a shield. We all want to know if it will be worth it to give up the extra damage from a two handed weapon to use a weapon and shield. Darrin said that shields will typically provide about the same amount of armor as a breastplate. Heavy fighters will not dual wield. Tanks *will* be able to use rescues while in aggressive stances... therefore when we're not the MT we'll be able to do better DPS and still provide protection for the squishies :) Rescues will NOT add aggro. ALL heavy fighters will be mitigation based. None of that mitigation tank vs avoidance tank balancing act. Offensive fighters will rely more on avoidance. Perception IS modified by intelligence, but for tanks, intelligence plays a smaller role in the whole perception equation than for spellcasters. I asked specifically about a build strategy for a high intelligence tank that relied on his perception to detect and counter major enemy attacks. He said that a tank who puts all his points in intelligence trying to do that will not be a viable tank.
MONKS (I know I don't cover Monks... but they seem so cool that I just had to ask a few questions about them!)
Monks are going to be very good at causing their opponents to suffer from vulnerabilities that other classes can then take advantage of.
Talisker gave an example (I don't know if it was made up just to illustrate the point or if it was an actual ability) of a ranger attack that might do double damage if the opponent is stunned. The problem is that the ranger can't set himself up for this attack because he can't stun the opponent (at least not with an opener). Time to call a monk... because the monk WILL be able to stun the opponent and allow the ranger to use his special attack to its greatest effect.
What if another class has an attack that requires the opponent to be off balance? In steps the monk again and sets the table for his comrades.
Talisker talked about several classes having skills that are dependent on other classes causing a weakness for them to take advantage of... and the impression I got from talking to him was that the monk will be one of the best at causing these weaknesses.
Talisker also talked about monk's attack chains having different effects based on the order in which they are used. To give an example with my own completely made up skills... If a monk uses Flying Kick and then Dragon Fist... the Dragon Fist could have a different effect than if he had used Diving Phoenix first and then followed it with the Dragon Fist.
To me, it sounds like monks will be one of the most versatile melee damage dealers. Able to cause whatever weakness their group mates need, and also able to tailor their attacks depending on their own needs.
GENERAL INFORMATION (from the Q&A with Jeff and Brad)
I asked if they had made a decision about group size and max raid size. They said that they are leaning toward a six man group size. Raids would depend on the specific raid, but would be multiples of the max group size. I asked if mounted combat would be different than normal combat or if it would simply be "sitting on a horse swinging your sword." They said that they wanted to provide a different set of combat mechanics that would provide a more realistic mounted combat experience. This will most likely not be in by release, but I'm willing to wait if they are going to do it right. There will be limited macro functionality (such as using an ability and tying a line of group chat to it) but it will be nothing like the extensive macros available in some other MMOs (like SWG). Harvesting rare resources in a dungeon could trigger spawns or events. (They said that if you decide to dig up that rare mithril vein deep inside a dungeon, you better be on your toes!) There will most likely be at least 1 alternate ruleset PvP server on release. They are also very excited about the possibilities provided by alternate ruleset servers and they are looking forward to doing a lot with this post release to give gamers more choices. PvP on release will most likely be fairly limited and will be tuned, enhanced and balanced later. If you build a player house in the wild, you can expect that wandering mobs will take exception to that intrusion into their realm and will attack it. Vulmane appearance will be changing in the next week or two. Expect them to have much more of a werewolf appearance. Weather/environment systems that actually affect gameplay will be partially in at launch and will be expanded post launch. There will be content that is restricted to those who have achieved certain "flags." The flags could be based on diplomatic actions, NPC kills, obtaining or even wearing certain items, etc...
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND THANKS
Cindy Bowens and Nick Parkinson did an amazing job of putting the Fanguard together and they went out of their way to help the Affiliate Site representatives get access to the developers so we could bring this information to you. I'd like to thank both of them for their time and effort.
April from the PR department made time out of her busy schedule to review the information I received during the Fanguard and clear it for release. Without her extra effort on this, you wouldn't be reading any of this information for several more days. Thanks April!
Doug Cronkhite and Darrin McPherson were absolutely amazing! Both of them made themselves available to talk about the game and answer questions. It was a pleasure spending time talking to them about a game that they obviously are very excited and passionate about.
All the Sigil employees who gave up their weekend to come share their game with us! I know they are working some crazy hours trying to get the game finished, and every one of the artists, GMs, developers... heck... EVERYONE seemed genuinely happy to be there and excited about sharing their game with us. Thanks all!
FURTHER DISCUSSION
There are currently threads about all this information on our FORUMS. Stop by and let us know what you think about the new information!