First off I'd like to preface this post by saying this may be a bit longer winded than some of my other posts...
I would like to have a community brainstorm on sympathetic abilities. This was a system that I really enjoyed in Vanguard and I feel really gives combat a boost of depth.
In Vanguard some class abilities would flag a mob with a form of debuff that could be taken advantage of by another class for an effect greater than normal. These debuffs would fill the mobs UI box and for the most part made you look at a small icon to try and take advantage of this system. The system itself was cool but the implementation could have been much better.
I'm proposing that this system gets a true feature pass and really get integrated into the game in the way I feel it deserves.
My perfect system for these sympathetic abilities would not depend on visible debuffs on a UI. Instead the abilities could be defined by a graphical flourish or a sound effect. That way you're not looking at the UI instead you are watching the combat. These should be relatively subtle and only noticable when you are actually looking for this type of thing.
I'd like to post some ideas for combinations that I think would be fun and I'm hoping that more people also contribute.
1) Wizard spell "Burn" that does a very small DoT not very damaging on its own but a Ranger with some hand crafted "Flammable Arrows" could take advantage for some bonus fire damage.
2) A Monk trip attack that not only knocks down medium and smaller sized mobs but amplifies Warrior taunts for 2 seconds afterwards.
3) Break Ice comet into 2 parts and require a Summoner to make the earth part and Wizard to cast an Ice spell within a small window of eachother.
4) Maybe a Crusader prayer could ampify the next heal cast by a Cleric. The prayer on its own has little effect except to open a small window of opportunity for that big Cleric heal to hit.
I'll probably keep posting on this thread for a bit as I have ideas about these kind of abilities, interested to hear what others think about stuff like this.
Thanks for reading,
Kiz
Linkamus said:
As far as the implementation of such an idea, you could have your spell or skill icon automatically highlight as a different color or something if your current target has been made suseptable to said spell/skill.
No thanks... trying to get away from staring at my UI and to keep this feature for players that really know whats going on not the mindless masses.
Kiz~
Well let take my first example.
At low level Wizards could get a spell called burn... now this spell only does 3 damage per tic but costs very little mana to cast... maybe it last 2 tics or like 12 seconds.
Now rangers in their mid teen levels could be able to progress above making regular arrows and they could get a recipe for a "Flammable Arrow" this arrow doesn't do any more damage than a regular arrow and it costs 5 times as much to make.
Now why would a ranger bother making those arrows? Well a smart Ranger with a Wizzy buddy might catch on to the fact that when he times his Flammable arrows to land while the mob is burning it creates a direct damage burst effect.
Burning could be denoted by a small fire graphic at the mobs feet with a slight crackling of flame noise. When the Flammable arrow hits it should burst into flame so the player knows that something special happened.
There doesn't need to be any icons or helpers to show this system imo... smart players who catch on will do better over all.
Over time this is a easy system to grow with the game and offer new combos as new abilities are developed adding to the replayability.
Thanks for hearing me out,
Kiz~
So in your example, would it be any burning dot effect that would cause those arrows to do extra damage, or only that one specific wizard spell? The reason I ask this is that you would now have to have unique burning animations for every kind of fire dot if it was only that one specific spell that worked, wouldn't you?
Well in this case as the Wizard gets to higher levels maybe that burn effect could be added in to another ability so it doesn't take up its own spell slot anymore.
Also at some level maybe the Ranger could make a hotter burning arrow that could even cause more damage.
Either way I know that it would be tough to have enough particle effects to show off a system like this but subtle presentation of it is what gives combat that extra layer of depth imo.
You could really squeeze a lot of of the sympathetics in Vanguard if your group was trying... All the while most people just mashed buttons and called it good.
Thanks again,
Kiz~
This is a good idea, but only if it's not through the game UI (or we would be playing the UI instead of the game), and if the in-game-world cues are very clear and visible.
Otherwise, if they aren't easy to distinguish (and also think about people who play on lower graphic settings, especially in large raids where the number of players forces that on everyone who's not using top-end hardware), they will be missed most of the time, especially in any more complex fight.
Personally, I'd like it to show up in combat logs, UI and visually. To each his own, but distinguishing a particular particle effect on a mob being attacked by multiple players is often difficult. In larger fights there will often be 5+ particle effects on a single mob. At such times its nice to see an icon flash or hear a sound effect. Could always have the ole Vanguard chain rattle. I'm also a big fan of parsing my logs and creating custom sound triggers when certain events occur.
Aethor said:
This is a good idea, but only if it's not through the game UI (or we would be playing the UI instead of the game), and if the in-game-world cues are very clear and visible.
Otherwise, if they aren't easy to distinguish (and also think about people who play on lower graphic settings, especially in large raids where the number of players forces that on everyone who's not using top-end hardware), they will be missed most of the time, especially in any more complex fight.
Timing sympathetics with a raid is like an orchestra performing a symphony... with key members coordinating through voice coms and hotkey tells for perfect timing of abilities.
Kiz~
personally if we are going to do a combat chain system i would like to see it done exactly as it was done in Vanguard. my reason being that when playing with my longtime guildies it would be easy peesy to make the most of that system, but in a PuG it would be a pita to explain the system and implament it in the normal life of a group.