Class "tricks"

[Phoynix]

Something that bothers me with action RPG is where the player normaly starts out with a useless ability, or no abilities at all. Now titanquest removed the first annoying part but I still felt it could be done better.

Ive always thought that each class should have specific abilities that come naturally, which dont use any "mana" type resource but have a large cooldown.

Example
A Warrior class.
Simply by picking the tree you get a few natural abilities.

Throwing knife
While warriors are at home in close combat, sometimes a warrior needs to gain time to reasses the battlefield, or cripple a fleeing foe.
Enemy movement reduced by 50% for 5 seconds +/- 5% per monster level vs player level.
Cooldown 2 mintues

Stagger
The warrior kicks out hard staggering an enemy.
Enemy has a 60% chance +/- 5% per monster level vs player level, of 5 seconds of spell/ability disruption.
Cooldown 2 minutes

If these were in Titanquest added to the warrior tree as inate abilities they would have been useable all though the game without being overpowered or underpowered as they are based on player/monster level.

[R3D]

sort of like the innate abilities you had in diablo?

[3B0L4]

Stagger would be a good idea, but it's like the war horn skill.

I don't like the throwing knife idea. Warrior is close combat, and throwing knifes just don't fit into this portrait. If you want this so badly, keep or buy a good ice damage bow in your weapon swap.

[Srikandi]

Eh I dunno... still sounds like a wasted skill point to me. Hard to think of any abilities that would be useful throughout the game for players of ANY build, so they would be likely to support some more than others.

Unless they're passive abilities, like more life, defense, elemental resistence etc... but this kinda comes with class specific stat increases.

[Opal Monkey]

In a game like TQ where you start out without a class, therefor without the distinction of mage, warrior, etc... There could be several skills that anyone could do that would disappear after say, level 5? They would be a flat effect adjusted by monster level, as has been suggested.

Kick: Stun + Damage
Throw Rock: Reduced Movement + Damage
Yell: Fear or Reduced Defense/Offense

Just the kind of things that anyone should be able to do before they are trained, or get fighting experience and would most likely rarely or never be used after getting alternatives.

[3B0L4]

I like the fact that everyone starts exactly the same in TQ, and chooses their first mastery at level 2, but the idea to start as a single mastery with 1 or 2 attacks and a special appearance would be cool. A character appearance that changes even further with the choosing of the second mastery would be awesome.

TQ's had no real big issues (besides bugs) but the character creator was the worst i've seen. Not that I minded it since you're wearing a helmet and full armor in 5 minutes, but i was sad to see there was no choice.

[Opal Monkey]

I also liked the idea of starting classless. It makes sense when you just step off the boat with a rusty knife! I think it would be nice to have it stay the same in GD.

Just to clarify, my previous post is for classless skills that would be available to everyone, right off the start, without selecting a class.

[3B0L4]

I do not agree with you monkey. This skill you talk about would be the same for everyone, while the power of TQ in my eyes is the fact that there are 8 COMPLETELY different masteries. This, combined with the second mastery gives you a lot of choices.

To give everyone the same skill, would make it a bit stale. If they overpower it, everyone uses it. If they underpower it, noone keeps using it. Especially if you get skills that give, for example + fire damage if you're earth...

It could see it working for the first 5 levels of gameplay but you need a skill that can be used til level 75.

I could see a few skills that could be automatically used with certain masteries though. Warfare = Dual Wield, Defense = shield bash, Storm = AoE Hail, Earth = AoE Meteor Storm, Spirit = No Death, andsoforth.

[jamesL]

Originally Posted by Srikandi

Eh I dunno... still sounds like a wasted skill point to me. Hard to think of any abilities that would be useful throughout the game for players of ANY build, so they would be likely to support some more than others.

Unless they're passive abilities, like more life, defense, elemental resistence etc... but this kinda comes with class specific stat increases.

there is no skill point
he said these are skills that come naturally, so they are innate

Originally Posted by R3D

sort of like the innate abilities you had in diablo?

and what was in diablo ?
all I can think of is differnet classes had different amounts of life and mana automatically rewared per level

[Opal Monkey]

Originally Posted by jamesL

all I can think of is differnet classes had different amounts of life and mana automatically rewared per level

Let me check the Diablo Official Strategy Guide! ... The Warrior can repair items; the Rogue disarms traps; and the Sorcerer can recharge staffs. Those are the innate abilities I can find. Not that they were the most useful abilities, but I suppose they were mildly useful.

Hmm... why do I still have my Diablo strategy guide within arms reach? I haven't played it in years!