We will be going over everything related to group content and instanced content whilst touching later on the progression within these group systems in Ashes of Creation! This includes group dynamics, dungeons, raids, legendary equipment, and difficulty levels.
THE BASICS
General rules that grouping has in Ashes of Creation and the dynamics involved in that. Intrepid has based their content around group sizes of 8,16, and 40 players. Meaning, the standard group consists of eight players which is quite larger than what we are used to. As for loot rules, a party leader will have the ability to change the loop rules for their group whenever they’d like.
Ashes of Creation has four different settings which are: free-for-all, round robin, need before greed, and lootmaster. Intrepid is also looking to invest in a unique looting system which involves bidding for the items that drop which are great because most items that drop in world of Vera are not actually bound to you.
MOB TAGGING
When a group or just a single player hits a mob first, they are flagged as the first hitter and are required to do just 40% of the total of the boss’s health in damage to receive the loot. However, any attackers subsequent to the first hitter are required to do 60% or more to take over the tag. Meaning, if you’re higher geared than someone, you can forcefully take over his grind spot for the loot provided that you can do the 60% of the damage to a mob before the first hitter can.
TRINITY SYSTEM
Ashes of Creation is introducing a tank, healer, and DPS system. Designing encounters around the trinity system just offers more variety and flexibility to the bosses that all the major encounters in the game will feel light and new the first time around.
DUNGEONS
The game is featuring mainly on open world dungeons but are including some instanced ones for narrative storytelling. It was announced that it is going to be 80% open world and 20% instanced. These open world dungeons are going to be designed similarly to a delve adventurers may explore during a dungeon and dragon session. Meaning, you will take your group to the dungeon ruins after reading a notice from the local node’s bulletin board that asks to clear a nearby cavern or other different tasks.
They are planned to be sprawling with multiple routes that is big enough to house a few groups at a time without encountring each other. The dungeons are also going to be filled with traps and puzzles for your team to make their way through using the plethora of utility skills that are available to them. Making the dungeons really diversified going into these dungeons so they can discover all the hidden loot within.
RAIDS
Similarly to the dungeons, the raids are in an open world bosses setting. Intrepid explained that the instanced content for Ashes of Creation is going to be more narrative which would allow them to make much more unique encounter mechanics. Inside these instances will be balanced for specific group compositions and numbers. Meaning, the actual last phase of the world boss fight can actually be played out in a balanced environment with real spectacle and difficult mechanics.
LEGENDARY LOOT
All the world bosses out there have a chance to drop a piece of fully usable equipment. All the legendary equipment in the game will have a significant upgrade to their visual appearance. The world bosses will just be dropping the materials that will be used to create the legendary pieces instead of dropping them as is.
When it comes to general loot, the mobs will be dropping hunting certificates which really means trash loot. These are the grey items that you vendor for a set amount of currency. The goal of these are to give your character a limit to the amount you can carry before needing to take a short break and sell them because they’ll eventually take up the weight in your inventory.
DIFFICULTY
and does not cater to smaller groups rolling up to an area they have no business being in. Due to Ashes’ zero fast travel, finding a huge zerg to run over a boss is not going to be that easy. One thing to worry about when it comes to difficulty is when it comes to the narrative instanced dungeons, because having repeatable continuously increasing difficulty in content is a much desired type of activity people want in their MMOs.
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VIDEO CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
01:48 The Basics
04:37 Dungeons
06:37 Raids
08:06 Legendary Loot
09:39 Difficulty
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