Class progression

Class progression in Ashes of Creation proceeds as follows:

• A player chooses their primary archetype at the start of the game.
  • A player cannot change their primary archetype.

• Players receive skill points as they level. These can be used to level up skills within their skill tree.
  • It will not be possible to max all skills in a skill tree.

• A player may choose a secondary archetype when they reach level 25. The combination of primary and secondary archetypes is referred to as a class.
  • The secondary archetype does not provide additional skills.
  • Secondary archetypes may be changed, but not "on-the-fly".
  • The player can then augment their primary skills with effects from their secondary archetype.

When thinking about how augments work, they represent the core function of the archetype that you're then getting augment schools for. – Steven Sharif

• Class progression does not relate to a player's artisan progression.

• World events do not directly impact class effectiveness but there may be ancillary effects in terms of availability of equipment, enchantments or tattoos.

Classes by archetype combination

With 8 Archetypes to combine, players may choose from 64 total combinations to create their class.

Secondary
		Bard	Cleric	Fighter	Mage	Ranger	Rogue	Summoner	Tank
Primary	Bard	Minstrel	Soul Weaver	Tellsword	Magician	Song Warden	Trickster	Songcaller	Siren
	Cleric	Scryer	High Priest	Templar	Oracle	Protector	Shadow Disciple	Shaman	Apostle
	Fighter	Bladedancer	Highsword	Weapon Master	Spellsword	Hunter	Shadowblade	Bladecaller	Dreadnought
	Mage	Sorcerer	Acolyte	Battle Mage	Archwizard	Spellhunter	Shadow Caster	Warlock	Spellstone
	Ranger	Bowsinger	Soulbow	Strider	Scion	Hawkeye	Scout	Falconer	Sentinel
	Rogue	Charlatan	Cultist	Duelist	Nightspell	Predator	Assassin	Shadow Lord	Shadow Guardian
	Summoner	Enchanter	Necromancer	Wild Blade	Spellmancer	Beastmaster	Shadowmancer	Conjurer	Brood Warden
	Tank	Argent	Paladin	Knight	Spellshield	Warden	Nightshield	Keeper	Guardian

Class abilities

Alpha-2 Bard primary skills.

If from the eight archetypes whatever you choose as your secondary, you're going to receive a choice of augments that relate to some core ideal of that class. A tank is about controlling the battlefield, is about surviving. The mage is about dealing damage and elements and ability in AoEs. The rogue is going to be about stealth and critical damage. So those augments are going to to play towards those identities. – Steven Sharif

Primary skills (class abilities) are based on a player's archetype.

• A player may choose a secondary archetype when they reach level 25. The player can then augment their primary skills with effects from their secondary archetype.

• Outside of class-specific skills there may be a subset of universal skills, such as active block and dodge.
• Class skills are not affected by the type of weapon that is equipped.

• Primary skills in Alpha-2 are expected to be very different to those in Alpha-1.

Skill points

Alpha-2 Ranger skill tree user interface (WIP).

What you're seeing at a high level here is just what you'd pretty much expect of a traditional skill. We're doing something a little more advanced than just like a bottom up structure, because we're being a little bit more free-form in this iteration. This will obviously see more UI iterations in the future, but you'll see a mix of active and passive abilities here. Actives are indicated by their square shape, while the circular ones are representing passives; and one thing to note as well is that these passives are aiming to be a little more interesting than just like, this ability does more damage now, or it has a lower cooldown. We do have some of those too, but the goal with a lot of these passives in addition to that is to allow people to lean into unique play styles. So you'll notice that some of them are are changing your gameplay in meaningful ways; and that's the direction we want to take um player and character customization as a whole. – Tradd Thompson

Players receive skill points at specific points as they level. These can be used unlock Active and passive skills in archetype and weapon skill trees.

• Skill points accrue at specific XP milestones, such as 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 progress through the level, so as to avoid creating an imbalance with experience debt.

We do have this concept of experience debt that does accrue and we don't want to create an imbalance between skill points acquired versus experience, so we're going to predicate your skill points acquisition based on benchmarks you reach when leveling through a level. So these are going to be at specific points in the level, like one quarter progress, to half progress, to three quarters progress: you're going to get an influx of skill points and then you'll be able to allocate them into your skill tree. – Steven Sharif

• Skill points can be used to unlock universal skills at the expense of unlocking class-specific skills.

• Respeccing (resetting and reallocating) adventuring skills may require travelling to a specific location rather than being able to be done on-the-fly.

• Augments do not cost skill points. It was previously stated that certain augments will have more expense required on the skill point side.

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

• It will not be possible to max all skills in a skill tree.
• In terms of skill progression, players can choose to go "wide" and get a number of different abilities, or go "deep" into a few specific abilities.

Class augments

A player may choose a secondary archetype when they reach level 25. Each secondary archetype offers four different schools of augmentation. Each augment school affects a primary archetype's skills in different ways. For example: A Mage offers Teleportation and elemental schools of augments. These augments will affect a Fighter's primary skills differently than a Cleric's.

When you reach the class phase, which is around level 25 and you introduce that secondary archetype selection to create your one of 64 classes, then you'll have a number of augments that you'll be able to apply on a per-ability basis; and your core ability kit comes from your primary archetype selection; and those augments will change the look and feel of those abilities; and some will have the affect to create more darker thematic aspects to it. Or just generally different aesthetics to the abilities that represent the secondary [archetype] selection. – Steven Sharif

• The player can then augment their primary skills with effects from their secondary archetype. Each skill in the primary tree will have several augment options from the secondary tree. This is an example of horizontal progression.

The intent behind the augment system is not to provide new active abilities. They're intended to augment existing active abilities that are provided through your primary archetype; and so your secondary archetype selection completes your class selection, of which there's 64 types and you get augment skills that can apply certain attributes and mechanics to your existing active skills. So, if you have certain abilities, like a backstab as a Rogue primary archetype, and you take that healer secondary archetype selection, now the properties of your backstab will still remain the same as an active ability, however it might include things like life steal, or it might include things like susceptible weakness to the target, and reduces their healing because the definition of what those augments are intended to provide based on the archetype selected for the augments is within the schools of magic that live for that archetype: so a Cleric is about balancing life and death and the control of those types of hit points. – Steven Sharif

• Augments are intended to allow each class to feel different, rather than a minor variation on its primary archetype.

When we talk about augments, all we can say right now is what our intent is; and our intent is to execute on it in a way where it doesn't just feel like eight archetypes. So, whether or not we land that intent is something people are going to have to wait and see. But, know that our work is to ensure it doesn't just feel like eight archetypes. – Steven Sharif

• Augments to primary skills can be rudimentary (such as damage values, cooldowns, mana costs, distance, range, and targeting changes), or they can fundamentally change the way the ability works (such as its visuals, audio, and flavor).

Q: How much will a subclass affect the mechanics of your abilities vs the visual and audio flavor?

A: Some of the ideas that we have with regards to augmentation is that they could be very rudimentary mechanics that get adjusted, such as like damage values, cooldowns, mana costs, distance, and range, some targeting changes; but they could also be very fundamental changes, which would include visuals and audios and flavor for a particular ability. – Steven Sharif

• Choosing the same primary and secondary archetype increases focus on that archetype. Choosing different archetypes allows characters to somewhat flirt with their role..

• Each augmentation has a level requirement.

• Augments do not cost skill points. It was previously stated that certain augments will have more expense required on the skill point side.

There's going to be a certain threshold at which you can no longer augment your active abilities based on the decisions you've augmented previous abilities, so you'll have to pick and choose which ones you want to apply the augments towards. – Steven Sharif

• Changing skill augmentations will require visiting a NPC in a Village node or higher.

Universal skills

Universal skills, such as active blocking, sprinting, and active dodging, are able to be unlocked by all archetypes based on a universal skill progression tree.

We are currently implementing, for the purposes of Alpha-2, a universal stamina system that all archetypes share. When it comes to active block, sprint, and dodge: those will be a part of a universal skill progression tree that players can choose to invest skill points into; and those skill points will share with their archetype active ability and passive ability skill points as well. So, if they're going to divest themselves of further progress within their archetype in lieu of investing in the Universal skill tree, they will have access to benefits that those universal skill tree progressions provide; and some of those benefits do include stat bonuses when utilizing those universal skills. Some of them include different types of effects that can only be granted the player through the universal skill tree as well, such as the ability to potentially parry an attack, or something along those lines. We'll be talking about the universal skill tree somewhere probably mids summerish timeframe, or late summerish timeframe, because it's still actively being developed; but the idea is to have that be an additional knob of customization that influences the way your character plays. – Steven Sharif

• Universal skill progression is intended to provide synergy will all archetypes.

Because it's a universal progression tree, the intent is to provide interactions with all the archetypes. So, it's not going to be specifically more beneficial for one archetype over the other. The intent is that each of the archetypes will have some synergy interaction benefit to their general kit identity through the universal skill tree. – Steven Sharif

• Skill points can be used to unlock universal skills at the expense of unlocking class-specific skills.

Q: Will each archetype be equally efficient with universal skills, like dodging and active blocking, or will each of them have their own versions and flavors, or will some people be more powerful than others?

A: We want to provide a progression path that's shared for those universal skills across all the archetypes. So when you spend skill points, you can choose to spend them within the universal skill set and unlock particular ability types for the universal skills as well, but you will be spending them from the skill points that you would normally spend within your class-specific skill tree; and this offers again a different wheel of customization that I think is interesting. – Steven Sharif

Class-specific quests

There will be class-specific quests in Ashes of Creation.

There's going to be a lot of shared quests but there's also going to be class-specific quests; and the reason for that is that some classes are better at others than doing certain things and that'll play itself out through the general community quests. That's fine, but there are certain periods from a designer's perspective where you want to make an encounter be the antithesis of what a player is good at. It also gives them perspective because we have a more fluid class combination system where you can play the line in your traditional role by adding a secondary class that's different from your primary classes role. The benefit of having these class-specific quests early on especially in an archetype is that you can come to a determination and have greater experience for the things you're not good at. So you know how to progress your class in the future with the things you have access to that are different from what you're good at.' – Steven Sharif

• Those Quests will be influenced by the player's class progression via their choice of primary and secondary archetypes.

So you want to give them storyline that's relevant and make sense for them to their class progression. If I'm a fighter I should be going to a barracks and learning from this dude early on. Later on if I want to take on that mage secondary and I'm more arcane in the things I do, or more based in the essence, then yeah it makes sense for my also again for a catered quest to me that lets me focus on that route in the narrative. – Steven Sharif

See also

• Progression
• Skills
• Classes