passive skills ; new perspective
We have been screaming for new skills for ages now, true.
We have been asking for passive skills for ages too, true.
But this will be quite an original suggestion...
What if all classes shared the same list of passive skills?
Things like...
+damage %
+armor (%?)
+H/M regen
etc... maybe patch together armor and regen, hit and dodge...
and to add a bucket of coals to the fire, what if you dont add more usable skill points to compensate? That way, you honestly have to choose whether you really want to put any points into a particular skill, in order to save some for that awesome permament buff. finally, some differentiation from player to player!
and apart from the above classic passive buffs, what about %chance-to-activate abilities? And time based activated skills? This should probably be the main focus of passive skills anyway, so as to promote different playing styles and item sets. 'G knows we have enough clones walking around as it is...
note, these are merely suggestions. I DO personally vouch for ALL of them, but hey we have to be realistic here.
-%chance to reflect damage upon being hit*
-%chance to reset all skill cooldowns per autoattack**
-%chance to debuff hit/debuff armor/negative H/S on each hit***
-%chance to increase the players speed upon being hit`
-3/5/# second idle duration increases crit/hit/etc for the next skill used
-of damage inflicted, leech % life/mana (hard hitting character with low armor oriented)
*= dependent on whether the player is using a shield or not (nuke mages? better yet, use a bear with this maxed out to reflect the massive damage of the boss back at it! The best offense is a good defense!)
**=finally a use for fast, low damage weapons (did someone say DUAL SWORDS IN PVP??)
***=basically a permanent proc! (bears and birds relying on nightmares from mages for combo? no more!)
`=oriented towards weaker players, to allow quick retreats when large aggro pulled (more aggro-more hits-more chance for activation)
STS seems to want to push pvp into the mainstream player. Here are a few ideas to bring it home...
-Mana burn: every hit "burns" away some of the enemy's mana (anti-mage ability, and FFA support)
-Soft Spot: %chance to ignore armor per hit (anti-bear/str set using)
-Learn from Failure: Every subsequent crit on yourself lowers all enemy crit% until reset by death (anti-bird, best for people able to survive a crit in the first place, stacks best from crit autoattacks)
These passive abilities can work in congunction perfectly with other skills, both active and passive:
Mana burn is quite worrisome when a mage uses fireblast and everyone finds their mana cut in half, and imagine if it gets reset...
Soft Spot can very well make birds even more OP, since along with the crit/hit /damage added by waiting and charging your shot, blast shot might very well be a a nuke...
Learn from Failure is a classic tank-must, add in some iron skin to seal the deal and life leech to recover from every crit, and sooner or later you become all but untouchable.
The main reason I preach for them to be universal skills (not class dependent) is to stress what I personally think of PL being: Can be any class, and do anything (anytime, anywhere). I have read reviews that talk about the rigidity of the skill sets and play styles of the classes (wether or not the played enough to justify the opinion matters little if it is still out there for readers), and given the ability to equip the item sets of any stat (unlike SL) a matching mechanic in player abilities would solidify the theme.
Think about it. These universal skills could change pve and pvp COMPLETELY, satisfying our need for character specialization and want for new skills to try out for another 50 levels easily. Heck, many players already have all character types (int/dex/str-bear/mage/bird), but this could potentially make them try the same character... with a totally different skill set.
Comments? Opinions? passive skill suggestions? if you keep bumping this, I'll keep editing in suggestions for possible universal passive skills!
edit:
ALL THIS APPLIES TO SL TOO, if only because you can only map 8 skills at a time there.
changelog:
Jan12-posting date, first 3 %chance ideas
Jan13-movement buff idea changed to a %chance (#4) on reflection to how it makes parties unevenly spaced out, added idle duration skill activation idea.
Jan14-leech hp/mp and pvp ideas added
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