[Feedback Request] Alpha Two Midnight Magic Preview Shown in April Livestream

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Ok, had some time to mildly wrangle more feedback out of team members on this, so might as well.

Basically, no one seems to really like any of the Wand Procs or skilltree right now other than the passive elemental one.

Since Wand doesn't have the options for 'additional range' or 'extra cleave radius' on attacks, that seems to be the reason why we just didn't have anything to add before. The weapon itself seemed to have an obvious 'limitation' on how interesting you can make it. Turns out, after some thought, that's not quite true, for us.

So, this post is a combination of 'stuff we'd find interesting' and 'references to Predecessor related to it'. Our ranged user there plays Midlane https://omeda.city/heroes/Wraith and https://omeda.city/heroes/Fey . The Wand proc ideas are loosely related. Sometimes.

The idea of the 'Echo' proc is fine, but doesn't really feel like it incentivizes people to use the Wand more outside of Mage stuff. The beams are just 'more damage' and some guarantees, they look nice, but abstractly, it's kinda... meh (possibly short for meta!)

We'd prefer some things like:
Bubble Proc
Where the attack sends out a homing bubble that moves at a medium speed, and can be body-blocked, or maybe even has an upgrade where it does damage to things it passes through instead of being directly blockable. Elemental empowerment of this could not only look interesting, but also help with visual effects. This would also help Wand to deal with the whole 'accuracy' thing, without having a requirement to squash all Accuracy stats or make Wand basics themselves rely on magic Accuracy. It's a 'mini-spell', it can either 'not be a thing you can evade at all' or 'use magic accuracy'. This opens up more options for players to use Wand in situations where they need it, even against highly evasive targets.

'Puddle' Proc
Where the attack (bubble or not) causes a small ground AoE, barely enough to fit 3 people super closely together into its radius, and too small to get more than one of most larger mobs. This then does similar things, it gets away from the 'must have accuracy', adds a simple Ground AoE that can use all the standard Ground AoE code, and also benefits from either Elemental Empowerment or any other augments/effects innate to the wand like poison or HP siphons. In PvP, an opponent could simply move out of the way, but when they don't or can't, the player then has more options about when or if to ready their spell, rather than having to do all their wand attacks and then end up being somewhat more predictable about when they do it (though that isn't really a forced thing, just something we'd expect most people to autopilot if they're applying elemental status stacks)

'Splash' Proc
Basically just Ingenious Cleave from https://omeda.city/items/Mindrazor . If you were worried about AoEing something you didn't want to AoE, I'd figure the player has some way to control the combo proc to not worry about it. Can also consider the Chain Zap type from https://omeda.city/items/StormBreaker , but can see how this would get more messy. These would obviously be rarer choices to take if you're not the type to care about AoE (or to care because you're trying to avoid it), but it'd be somewhat good for those who normally use melee but 'when forced to backline for some reason' end up wanting the AoE.

The idea of Echo seems like it might be better served altogether if the Proc was just... doubleshot. Flourish Proc. The wand sends out two projectiles, or it treats the beam as a direct multi-hit. This improves on-hit effects of all kinds, including helping our beloved Wand Fighters build more Combat Momentum. Mages would get more elemental empowerment stacks and similar. If the goal is to improve the overall damage, we feel that just 'hitting twice', while a bit harder to balance sometimes, would offer more synergy options, particularly if it has to be a choice between this and anything offered above.

As for the 'cooldown reduction of next ability' or anything similar, that brings us back to Wraith's combination skill. (removing some of the full description of these, to focus on the ones that might have some interesting impact for Ashes):
Peekaboo! - Launch a piercing Nanite Grenade that deals 40/60/80/100/120 (+60%)(+35%) physical damage to all Units hit (which combines with...)
Fire a long-range sniper shot that pierces Terrain and deals 95/120/145/170/195 (+120%)(+75%) physical damage to the first Enemy Unit hit. Damage is increased by 40% against Enemy Minions. If Knock, Knock! Kills, or Damages a Marked Unit, 100% of the Mana Cost is refunded and its Cooldown is decreased to 1s.

The precise ideal of how this would work is important in a really subtle way. Reducing the cooldown of 'the next ability used' or anything similar has the 'problem' that certain buffs and defensive mechanics now become available as options, and in games like this, that's a big difference. Limiting the proc to 'an effect placed on the target that lowers the cooldown of the next (single target?) ability that hits from the same user, we'd consider 'safer', even if it did have the potential to vastly improve DPS.

It's not that it's entirely bad or even 'automatically assumed to be troublesome' this way, but some limitations might go a long way to not having to worry about some crazy interactions later. Wand Fighter as super-chase-unit is sort of interesting to think about, but at least if you are doing the leap on someone you have a Magical Mark of some kind, on, there's a bit of counterplay there, whereas there might be some situations where 'reset or drastically lower cooldown' on something like a Cleanse or Heal would become meta quite fast...

The various elemental passives are ok, hopefully there's some use for them even in basic situations for people who aren't in party, but if Weapon skill points are, as one would expect, per weapon as in FFXI and TL, no issues there. Basically, our wand-potential-users have minimal reason to take these, as of now, but could change.

The empowerment one that parallels to World Breaker's Fiend effect has the obvious same 'problem' that World Breaker itself has, though the subtle difference between boosting magical power and boosting magical damage must be considered... no specific strong suggestions here, it just seems very 'mage-only' in comparison to what we were expecting.

Only somewhat relatedly, someone brought up the idea of an Augment that causes elemental empowerment to cause the enemy to be illuminated under some condition (probably when using lightning or fire) so that it can help with anti-stealth and detargeting options. Not really wand-specific, but it came up as part of it, so figured would mention.

And finally, Fey's Ultimate attack is a 'draw in', and there was a little talk of 'maybe having a draw-in effect as a wand proc', sorta like a 'lasso' option to pull targets back into AoE effects, or things like that, but it suffers from that same issue of 'being a Proc that is really situational and might be a thing you want, but not often enough', leading the Wand user to not finish their combos. And of course, a big open question about how much 'pull' would be good and how it might look on large bosses, and so on. So, essentially, just more ramblings.

Good luck, Brian, even though we basically didn't like anything from this pass, we're rooting for you and all your work to perfect it, whether our input is helpful or not.

I do rather like the new skybox, and I feel like a greater emphasis on stuff in the environment that glows at night (say, magic mushrooms or whatnot) would help with the aesthetic. A greater emphasis on bloom lighting from abilities and effects could have the potential to make nighttime visuals really interesting and distinct... OR possibly overstimulating; a visual designer, I am not, I just adore Satorl Marsh in Xenoblade.

I couldn't find a video that cleanly shows the transition, but... here's Satorl Marsh in the daytime...





And here it is at night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv4TcWkFQd4




Beyond that... the Ball Lightning looked pretty great, but I'm not really a fan of the 'concentration' lightning spell staying stationary for quite as long as it does; I'd rather my lightning be a bit more spastic. But MECHANICALLY speaking...

Without good PVE, to me this mostly just looks pretty. A system is only as good as its mechanical depth, and in the process of watching I realized something important I felt Ashes was missing:

Interrupts from FFXI.

To explain... spells in FFXI have cast times (let's call it an average of 2-3 seconds, with 5-6 for certain spells), and if a caster - whether player or mob - gets hit sufficiently hard/fast enough while prepping their spell, it has a chance to get 'interrupted' and not cast. There's gear and buff effects that can mitigate the Interrupt rate, and it can be a valid thing to build for against some enemy types.

FFXI uses an auto-attack system, and player input comes from things like your specific positioning, spell casts, 'weaponskills', etc, but the Interrupt system especially made a strong impact on me (pun not intended) when I started playing. My first and most-leveled class in the game is Black Mage, see. I went into the game having a good general idea of how it worked and what I wanted to build, but my bestie didn't explain Interrupts to me at ALL - I speculate this was on purpose. So, the first time I went to fight some low level mobs outside of the starter city I chose and my spell cast was interrupted by an enemy, I STILL remember suddenly realizing - "Oh, hits MATTER."

FFXI has nowhere near the tactile feedback of a game like Monster Hunter, but systems like that fill in the blanks really well - when you're sufficiently immersed, you can FEEL those hits, and it greatly incentivizes learning enemy attack timings, so as to cast your spells with as little chance of getting Interrupted as possible.

TLDR I would argue that a system like this should apply to several of the ability types in Ashes - not ALL of them, of course, some things are intended to be instant and riskless to use - but I feel stuff like this adds substantial depth to a system, provides a crucial sense of feedback and consequence, adds strategic depth, makes mobs more threatening, boosts immersion, and gives players more to learn with each enemy type. And that's putting aside the potential PVP shenanigans that can ensue.