Let's TheoryRaid! #1(?) Jormungand vs Xeno'jiiva

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I'll be a little disappointed if Ashes is both 'here, manage just these two bars and your Cooldowns' and ALSO 'oh yeah and you don't have lots of complex decision making to do'.

Having nice synergies is great, but with just this, I would EXPECT the First Order Strategies to be the easiest ones. On the other hand, they've said that the game may be quite niche, so maybe the PvE will be challenging and most players who don't handle challenge well will just overlevel per main content and quests and I'll still get to have difficulty.

I'm okay with 'one special mechanic or meter per Class', and Stamina. I don't hate more complex things, but I play in group, and not all my group members can keep up focus for more complex classes/mechanics, and putting strain on them indirectly puts strain on me.

For those unfamiliar, Monster Hunter works the same. Blocking, Evading, Special Skills, Sprinting, and Climbing are all Stamina based. Only thing that isn't is 'standard physical attacks and combos'.

So yes, you can 'run out of Stamina at the wrong time and die to Xeno'jiiva as a result, and similarly, Tanks can lose the capacity to tank temporarily through Stamina mismanagement (Evasion Tank particularly). This is mitigated with builds and gear, but never entirely.

There is no such thing in FFXI, just cooldowns and Mana. Jormungand therefore manipulates the capacity for defense and Tanking explicitly, as part of the Encounter Challenge, not the Standard Challenge.

From the Ashes of Creation Wiki:

Raid mechanics
Raids contain intricate combat mechanics.[13]

Multiple phase boss fights.[13]
Adds.[13]
Random oriented skill usage.[13]
Telegraphed animations, but no obvious telegraphed templates on the ground.[13]
Fights will require location, mobility and strategy.[13]
Combat itself will be pretty intricate mechanics-wise. We're going to have different phases of the bosses, there's going to be a lot of adds stuff, there's going to be random oriented skill usage. We're not going to have telegraphed templates on the ground, but we will have telegraphed animations, so it's going to be location, mobility, strategic. It will be something that can not be repeatable in the exact same way from raid to raid, but has a variance between the combat, so raiders are going to have to be fluid in thinking on their feet. [13] – Steven Sharif

It has been brought to my attention that I need to put this here to put some context as to the discussion.

The reason the two bosses here were chosen are that one is from an MMORPG with a known similar mechanical philosophy and the other is from a 4-player high action game with a known similar mechanical philosophy.

This is why the raids for games that do not use this mechanical philosophy are not currently planned to be included in this or any further TheoryRaid data collection.

More potentially relevant information...

One of the design elements that we're implementing into our raids is that the raid will not be exactly the same every single time. You're going to have variables that can't necessarily be pre-planned out for. You can pre-plan out for a lot of the raid like how many DPS do you need and healers and support; where the key position and all that kind of stuff; but I think the compelling aspect of Ashes raiding will be the difficulty in achieving this content and having that content change from session to session as well. We want there to be variables that get manifested by you know what type of node got developed elsewhere. Is he going to have acolytes or cultists? What will the acolytes have skills [available] to them? What kit is the boss gonna have? What available skill repertoire will the boss be able to [wield]? ... A lot of those systems are influenced obviously by world development. So the raid kind of takes into account at what stage has the world developed: Are there two metropolises now available in the world? Okay well let's activate this skill in this skill. Now you have five metropolises, well now all these skills have been activated. Are there are they all economic nodes? Are they all military nodes? That we can change things based on that stuff. And it really is a threat assessment from the environment against the players. [12] – Steven Sharif

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For your information, therefore, this game is possibly going to contain actual 'FPS' level 'skillshots'.

I had two (which could also be used in Tab Mode, but this could change) on CLERIC.

If an enemy moved between my and my target, they would be hit by the ability instead.

There definitely are Ground Target template style things, but there were also definitely 'pinpoint' Action Abilities. Right now, it's up in the air, so the question (which is also about dragons being up in the air) is explicitly about 'aiming a non-instant projectile with a crosshair on the head of a moving target'.

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Your data is appreciated. I really am just trying to get a clear picture of what people expect and want, so thank you.

There is a certain type of player who expects to 'have to hit the flying weaving dragon' due to the type and level of Action Game they play, and many players like that were drawn into the original iteration (Ashes of Creation: Apocalypse).

That's part of the reason I check it. Basically, Apocalypse was, at the time, implied to be a test for some functionality for the game, and I can't say what functionality it was testing. Maybe when the new Combat Designers came and they got lots of feedback they threw that out and started fresh.

I guess that's a question for this month's Q&A, so thanks for that too.

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Both bumping this thread and addressing something now that I've seen the Cyclops.

The range on Wand attacks is currently just stupid.

I don't think even an airborne dragon could EVER reasonably outrange them.

Ranger attacks looking similar as of that showcase.

I'll focus there for now...