Combat Discussion

We have not received permission from Denahi to share the quoted post.

In your model, does your character also have this sort of reaction when the mobs hit you?

I was going to pivot this discussion to the A/B test, but given the attack cones in the build we got, I prefer not to. I'll go the other way and address @Denahi 's direction instead.

Earlier in the thread we mostly hashed out the reasons why Ashes might be better off without any 'hitstop' on either side for basic melee, even in Action Combat mode.

Cooler animations with reactions are more likely to come out of the Weapon Skill trees, but if those get Hitstop, it would probably have to be 'instead of doing significantly more damage', because it would be an obvious optimization to 'make a build that just gets in close and then chains Weapon Skills until their mana is gone'. Maybe that's an intended Fighter build, though.

Originally Ashes was going to use a 'Focus' system, a meter you built up similar to the TP Gauge in FFXI (pretty sure that Jeff Bard was drawing a parallel, from the snippets I read). I have an obvious bias here, I can't ignore that. TP based Weapon Skills and the resultant 'Skillchains' are some of the most dynamic and obviously engaging/balanced MMO mechanics ever made. So much so that my bias is 'literally every game should have this, always, there is no superior system'.

And because of that, given the purpose of my contribution to this thread, I cannot discuss it, and this is going to limit my 'help with feedback focusing' for Weapon Skill related things.

That's why I didn't really respond before. I was sure that other people would explain about the Weapon Skills, and I basically 'can't' join in.

Because Skillchains are the Best. Thing. Ever .