(Emphasis added to make my point)
Notice that the new schools will be replacing the old one so 'retiring' our characters is out of the question both IMO and with the dev's intentions. Give us new schools to branch out with along with a school to replace the current one and I'll be more than happy. Adding more classes to dragons could definitely bring new players in and even bring old players back to check them out. I fully support Amon's suggestions for the schools he described and I look forward to seeing them come to Blight and later to Order and Chaos.
Yes! Bring back the lost knowledge! I'd trade my wings to get the old techniques like Primal Vengeance and Eminence back ingame. But it would be a dealbreaker for me to have to make a new character just to get the new content... I'd have wasted 100% of my previous time getting my main to 100 in every currently available school just to have to do it again with a brand new hatchie.
As far as I can see that's not what's being suggested, the 'Juvenile' school isn't necessarily a hatchie school and the other two schools would be what we can branch out to not depending on faction but on what we choose to do so we could eventually have all 3 schools to 100.
No, absolutely no. I do not support this, it makes dragon classes too similar to biped classes primal magic is what dragons deal with and only bipeds have split the primal magic into elemental magic so it would go against current lore not to mention needlessly complicate things for the devs and us, and put an unnecessary division between the factions: Why should a Lunus have access to something a Helian doesn't and vice versa?
Istara's Chosen Guildmaster
Experienced Hunter, Healer, and Grand Master Crafter
But dragons have different elements to them already Breath of fire Breath of Ice, Breath of Lightning, Breath of acid. Im just deepening the divide between Lunus and Healian . If this would to go to effect epi might retire and I would become a Healian cause I love how ice dragons look in dragon lore
Face forward and you should be able to hear it now the only thing plugging your ears is your own fear. There is only one enemy and one of you so what is there to be afraid of ? Abandon your fear turn and face him, Don't give an inch. Now advance Never stop If you retreat you will age Be afraid and you'll die NOW SHOUT OUT YOUR NAME !!!
Dragons in Istarian lore are creatures of fire who moved to and became the first sentient beings in the prime. This explains the innate ability to breathe fire and our control over primal magic. Other breath attacks, as you should recall are not something we are born with as a dragon. They're the result of elementally imbued potions that give us the ability to breathe ice, lightning, and acid. And this is more than enough for me in the way of different damage types... we shouldn't have access to much beyond primal and slash/crush/pierce unless we are buffed with an (insert element here) attack spell or use a damage converting crystal.
IMO, the divide between factions doesn't need deepening. My main character is only Helian because when I chose the faction the helian rites seemed more fun (the reasons for her being helian IC came later) and because my main is a hybrid build, jack-of-all-trades but master of none I intended her to be a generalist who can fight equally well with tooth & claw and primal magic so she's essentially between factions and only chose one arbitrarily. Where would a deeper divide leave characters like mine? I'd have no choice but to focus more on the primalist/Helian-y side of things under your system simply because of my faction when I'd much prefer to still be able to fight however I choose and still come out on top. I also don't like the fact that content would be denied to people simply based on the faction they choose, it seems unnecessarily divisional.
Last edited by Machaeon; September 26th, 2014 at 12:39 AM.
Istara's Chosen Guildmaster
Experienced Hunter, Healer, and Grand Master Crafter
May I add to the above, that Lunus and Helian are a way of life?
I am as Lunus as it is draconically possible yet I love to cast spells, AoE + reflective shield farm and so on.
And I love to melee stuff to death hard as well.
I am a dragon.
I can.
Vahrokh Vain - Ancient dragon level 100 adv 100 craft 34M of untainted, fireworks and other crap free hoard.
Isarion - Reaver Healer Spiritist, many craft classes.
I can't say I like any ideas in this thread. There is NO way I am starting my dragon over.
My idea's are here http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...dd-to-Existing
which I think are much more do-able (without gutting all the existing dragon content), more quickly implementable, non-permanent (backing out would be possible), and choices instead of limits on the player. Well, one limit, the primal boosting ability would share a timer with gold rage.
Would like to see more comments and opinions/idea's in the other thread.
If they gut my dragon, it's game over for me. I do like my Dragon. So please, give some input over there.
Wow it's been a long time since I actually logged into the forums to comment. My name's even out of date. HAH.
Anyway.... I've got a few cents to add here!
You suggested replacing the current dragon class; you mentioned a "dragon juvenile" class. Here's my thought:
The only base class for dragons would be Juvenile. From there, every other class would be Prestige.
My thought is to require ascension to unlock the other classes. It would lock out the "Juvenile" class, preventing one from switching back to it - because, of course, there's no way to become a hatchling again!
Now the transition for old players would be difficult, but here are a few thoughts about how to handle that:
One: Don't remove Dragon Adventurer; perhaps revamp it, make it the middle path. When a Juvenile ascends, all levels are converted to Dragon Adventurer levels.
*Already ascended dragons would not change much beyond the class revamp and they could multiclass into Warrior/Adept if they so desired.
*Juvenile dragons would have their Dragon Adventurer levels converted to Juvenile levels. (I personally would like to see more of a dichotomy between hatchlings and adults, which is why I suggest this route - it seems silly to me that after the long rite of passage, all you really get is the ability to fly and some extra stats.
--Alternatively--
If the Dragon Adventurer school is abolished entirely, then old players could be handled one of two ways. First, they could have the option to re-class into either school of their choice, resetting their skill points and gaining appropriate levels in that school.
Secondly, they could be automatically re-classed based on their rites of passage; Lunus would become Warriors and Helian would become Adepts (because realistically, this is the most optimal path. However, this would cause lore issues: While lunus and helian are generically warriors and spellcasters respectively, it is my understanding that this rule is not absolute. It WOULD open up a rather compelling way to choose your ascension, however: having to undergo a very different quest to get a different class.
Closing thoughts:
I love the idea of a separate Juvenile class but I don't understand how it's intended to affect adult dragons. Keeping it available only to juveniles and then locking it away when they ascend would reward the players I know who enjoy playing level 100/100 hatchlings with something unique that nobody else has - but it would also allow for balance between hatchling and adult dragons.
I understand there are technical limitations, but as a leyman, I couldn't begin to guess there the lines are drawn.
Thoughts? Rebuttals? I know I'm a little late to the party. ^^.
There is absolutely no way I would retire my dragons and start them over just for the sake of new schools. There is time invested in those characters and items I do not wish to lose. The best is adding new branches of school to the existing schools in my opinion. Unless there will be a way for us to change our old characters' schools into the new ones, now that would not be so bad.
Last edited by Levana; January 26th, 2015 at 10:49 PM.
Order shard
Levanan: Ancient Helian drake - 100/100/28 ~ Navkiren: Ancient Lunus drake ~ Nordis: Adult Helian dragoness ~ Sarwulf: Hatchling ~ Aithne: Hatchling
DeviantArt: Iceveyns
I'll start a new character if I feel like it... Every time I do start a new character, I end up quitting. However, if my old ancient KNOWN BY EVERYONE character is useless because of a design decision that I have no power to rectify... uh... You realize how much time and effort some of us dumped into our characters? I think poor V and Amon, as you put it, just lost a sub.
The idea is great, Lightning, but yes while one has to think about the coders, they also have to think about their customer base and basically nuking their character into unrecoverable uselessness is a really bad thing.
Anyway, they should probably work within the system they already have, so less code is needed. Just add the classes you desire. Now, there's two ways you can approach this of course. You can make a dragon have to get 100 in the base class before it's allowed to multiclass, or, you can just set similar goals as you do for bipeds to allow a dragon to multiclass. I suppose you could also allow dragons to multiclass whenever and just make their ability to learn a new class when their highest level supports it.
Not sure why it has to be some big "todo" that's different than how it's done for bipeds. Why make it harder on yourself? Players just want to customize their dragon's class... like they should have been able to do 12 years ago.
I feel that making people having to restart is a very bad idea as the other players have stated that they have put blood, sweat and tears and even their soul into their characters it will make some people quit and I heard rumors of people leaving cause of the recent update changes.
Crafting has two prestige schools. It would be better to add new dragon schools as prestige adventure schools like the bipeds have that you can unlock after reaching a certain level or certain skill and can you can switch back and forth and ties in with each fraction choice you choose and just revamp the current dragon adventure school and rename it and use it as the main base. This would be less code work and it won't anger the community.
The community matters if you ignore the community the game will be sure to fall. The lore of the game is important and defines the soul and spirit of the game any new content needs to make sure it fits the lore of the game and fits well with game universe to not create a plot hole or discontinuity.
As for lightning claw there will be new breaths coming out using rift tokens I remember amon mentioning something like that, so there is no need to create classes based on elements. A dragon knows fire breath and all the ancient dragons in istaria are born from Druklar and have to travel threw the fiery rift to reach istaria, but they can learn and adapt to new breaths. To create new classes based on breath will possibly go against the lore of the game.
My final thoughts is that any new dragon schools must be easy to add without forcing or messing up the old system, not shut out the old characters and players and respect the hard work done by them, must be approved by the community, flow with the lore of the game, less need for coding as just one bad code can cause a crash or disrupt something as I seen recently after the update therefore it needs be easy to implement.
I do support what Amon is trying to do and accomplish which I believe is improving the dragon race and its schools and bring new fresh content to the game. I want this game to truly succeed and last for many more years as this is one of the best MMORPGs out there and the others don't really compare to it yet.
Last edited by Spyrioyo; February 20th, 2015 at 07:09 AM.
The basic class should stay on the Dragon Adventurer we have now. It might be a lot of work, but giving it some thoughts IT IS possible to get a dragon multiclassed. It need to be thinked over which of the quested abilities should get masterable, and the one or other of these abilities might be bound to be used by dragon adventurer and other to the new classes.
For me it's a absolutly NO GO, not even debatable, to set existing dragons into a holding track, and that only newly created dragons are able to take the new classes. As I've a high rated biped, aswell as two ancient dragons, I know both sides very well. Even if the only way is to lose more or less of the abilities we have now, everything is better then being forced to have to start a new toon to be able to take the new dragon classes.
Terao (Gnome, Grand Master Crafter, Order [Unity])|Draigourn (Ancient, Master Lairshaper, Lunus, Order)|Echentrial (Ancient, Lunus, Order)
Yes, every game before and after Istaria I have played a main character called Vahrokh. Since 1994. In Istaria Vahrokh has seen the dawn of the game, has bravely fought countless battles to survive across dying servers, shards merging, catastrophic database crashes, companies splitting, merging, selling, buying this poor game.
He has fought the heroic fights to make dragons what they are today.
He can still fight the heroic fights to make dragons what they will be tomorrow.
Kill or make my dragon useless and I am gone the next second.
Vahrokh Vain - Ancient dragon level 100 adv 100 craft 34M of untainted, fireworks and other crap free hoard.
Isarion - Reaver Healer Spiritist, many craft classes.
Going from the other locked thread, I'm going to guess that Amon already knows that forcing us to create new characters to experience new classes would make most of the current player base annoyed, so I'm not going to repeat the same arguments.
I don't have any comments about the current proposed classes, other than hoping that they're not going to be tied to Helian/Lunus RoP choice. The true difference between Lunus and Helian is their attitude towards bipeds, not that they're all 100% spellcasters or 100% melee fighters.
As a caution, I have no idea how viable these ideas are. I'm good at coming up with concepts, but not with stats.
Class/Spell Ideas - Spellcasters
1. "I can do anything better than you!" class
On the Order server, there are dragons (myself included) who RP Primal spellcasters who study biped spells to alter their own spells. What I mean by this is, they're using the Prime to create a similar result to a biped spell. i.e. that dragon who gives out the quest for Drain Bolt.
A prestige class after adept could be based off this concept. You're a dragon studying a wide variety of biped spells, and trying to make them better. You're not copying them 100%, because being a dragon, you think you can do things better.
It doesn't change the damage type (it's still Prime), but maybe in addition to damage, the spells in that class have different abilities.
For example, a spell based off studying a druid or nature-y biped (or perhaps, learned from a dragon that studied them) could end up rooting the target. The reason for that being that you're altering the prime to encourage plants to grow or become more mobile.
2. Messing with other people's Prime class/spell
Another idea I've had for a spell - although I'm not sure whether it resembles anything a biped does and therefore may not qualify for the above and could be its own thing - is to have a spell that instead of throwing Prime damage at the target, is trying to take away the Prime from the target's body. This operates under the assumption that everything is made of Prime, which I feel like might have been mentioned in a quest somewhere but I am unable to remember where.
The problem is, I have trouble figuring out what the actual effects of such a spell would be. I'm afraid it'd be too close to Drain Bolt.
As a class, I think it would have to be based around debuffs and making the target weaker. Lore-wise it might even be considered unethical, but it's allowed for the sake of defeating the Blight.
3. Spawn minions spell
I have no idea how feasible this is, because I don't think there's even a class that does this. This might be totally impossible in the game, but still, I'd thought I'd suggest it.
I also happen think it would be cool because it's something a biped can't do, i.e. it's a dragon only thing that they have because they control the Prime.
The idea is that dragons have a somewhat limited ability to create new life from the Prime - or at least, animate previously inanimate things by funneling Prime into it. You could create a bunch of temporary, mini-treants for example. Or a single tiny treant. They're not very intelligent and don't follow commands, and will either despawn after the fight is over, or after a certain amount of time.
Function-wise, they would attack the nearest hostile thing and/or provide a target for the nearest hostile thing to attack while you hit it with spells.
This is not a minion class, mind you. It's a possible spell that could be rolled into a prestige class.
Class/Ability Ideas - Melee
1. Commander
You're really good at helping allies, leading, etc. Maybe provide buffs that derive solely from your charismatic presence? The problem is, this class might be very boring if you don't have anyone else to play with. Instead, it might work better as an ability that helps one of your group members become more accurate with hits, or something.
2. SPIKES EVERYWHERE Class
Dragons don't naturally have things like acid breath, but they can *learn* them - this class (or ability) would operate under the same idea. You're altering your body (and/or your Prime) for the sake of becoming a better fighter. Lore-wise, it could have been developed by a Lunus dragon wanting to be prepared and one step ahead of bipeds - for when the blight ends, or a Helian experimenting upon either themselves or their underlings to better defeat the blight. It could imply that you end up turning into something that is monstrous even to a dragon. Having spikes everywhere isn't conductive to hugs, for example.
You undergo a ritual that alters your body in different ways, or you alter your body over the course of several rituals - one for each new ability.
Some ideas are:
- Your scales can excrete poison/venom on command. It would be something like Spiked Scales, but with nature damage.
- You grow spikes (or tiny-tiny spines, so you don't end up having to actually alter the player's visual appearance after the character has been created) everywhere. This would be a constant ability, like natural armor. Maybe with less damage than spiked scales, so it's more balanced and you won't be forced to choose between the two abilities?
- More hardened scales? I'm not sure how far you can go with that before you become ridiculously tanky.
- Headbutt because, whether or not you have horns, you have altered your skull to be more durable. Crush damage. Possibly a stun. Insert hard-headed jokes.
- Stronger bones / infusing your bones with metal or crystal. I have trouble deciding what this would do, exactly. Function as armor? Make you hit a little harder? Probably the last one.
Last edited by Shemonster; February 22nd, 2015 at 09:16 PM.
As I don't have a lot of time to play and it has taken years to get my dragon to his current levels I just don't think I could start a second one just to get new schools and or abilities. If my dragon becomes less usable I don't think I could continue to play.
100 / 100 / 100 / 100 Lunus
"Mythclaws" Saris
If we going to add in the new school, since the community doesn't want be forced to start over cause like I said in an earlier post people put blood, sweet, tears and even there own soul into their dragon, nor people really want a change in the dragon adventurer school or new schools divided by fraction type really and if it did it wouldn't really fit the lore of the game which is also important.
There is still one problem the current dragon adventure school there are only certain quests that are available when you become ancient and that will have to change those so it not effected by that which will be much simpler and easier way to add in prestige or hybrid schools that aren't affected by fraction choice.
The list of Ancient only quests (Note: some of these should be with the other level 90 & level 95 tier quests):
Dragon Reach IX (LV 90): Yew Knew it was coming
Dragon Reach X (Lv 100): The Bigger They Are
Primal Instant Heal IX (Lv 95): On to the Island of Fire.
Primal Instant Heal X (Lv 100): To the Doom!
Drain Strike IX (Lv 95): Danger on Drakul
Drain Strike X (Lv 100): Trail of the Elders
Harden Scales IX (Lv 90): A Face Only A Mother Bloodsnout Could Love
Harden Scales X (Lv 100): The Final Test
Spiked Scales IX (Lv 90): A Different Sort of Sulk
Spiked Scales X (Lv 100): The Final Challenge
Making those quests available before ancient and like the rest of the normal quests can make it easier for ARoP and the final grind to Level 100 that would be a first positive change to the current dragon school. It make it easier to be able to add in new schools after reaching 100 too.
Whilst I would hardly refer to leveling dragon from 90-100 a "chore" or a "Grind" (they literally flew by for me) and I also advocate a significant powerlevel difference between ancients/adults/hatchlings perhaps make it so adults could get the IX version of each quest?
or preferably introduce a few other Ancient only abilities which none ancients can't match
Examples
(all require the highest current quest to attain as well as being an Ancient)
Enduring spiked scales - Increased duration otherwise same as Spiked scales X
Hide of the Ancients - a further bonus to armour or health
Savage - Improved ravage - +10 damage per strike
Ancients reach - Increase dragons reach to 60 (this way its slightly superior to a crafted ranged primebolt)
Gwain Drago - Mystic Paladin
Arzel - Knight of creation/Battlemage
Aurakvoar - Ancient Lunus
Instead of separating some of the abilities by "ancient only", since any specialization would really be best done outside of both faction, and growth status (Am I a Hatchling, Adult, or Ancient?), different bonuses can be added to Adult and Ancient which result in significant power differences.
So I would agree with Zyrimshadowheart to just allow all the quests across the board (for the most part).
Why? This allows the combat specialization to be done in different ways, most notably of which should be done in some way which is not tied to political faction (my biggest peev about dragons for probably 9 years running).
I am not advocating making hatchies ultra powerful. But untying many of these from arop, would have a bonus effect of allowing combat specialization to be implemented in such a way as that it can apply to hatchies, adults, or ancients. If someone knows they want to play a caster dragon, why should they have to wait until arop is done to effectively do that? And untying it from factions also means existing ancients can try caster if they originally went Lunus, or try conqueror(melee) if they went Helian. Sounds good eh?
One way this could be done, in the case of Breath attacks, is adding a nice dragon breath skill boost to adults, and an even greater boost to Ancients.
So, Path of Lunus, Path of Helian could both have an additional bonus of say +100 Dragon Breath. Adults should have significantly more powerful breath than a hatchy. For Arop, the bonus could be an additional +400 Dragon Breath (for both factions). Dragons will want to finish Ancient, to become stronger. which only makes sense. And the much larger ancient dragon really should have a more powerful breath. This allows ancient to be stronger, but has nothing to do with faction, or the quests such as breath accuracy (anything that applies to breath attacks).
I've suggested similiar ideas for a really strong primal roar and determination, here: http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...dd-to-Existing
As most of these ideas really fall under the "Add to existing" proposal, rather than the "New schools". Although, I think a combination of both is possible.
A new school could be added. Conqueror for a melee focused dragon. Could be joined at any level, any growth stage. It would have it's own version of a determination style buff. This new buff would overwrite the old determination when used. The old determination would need left as is, available, and usable. This allows the new change to "add to existing" which is the only way all the old dragons can do this new stuff. It's just that this new version is only usable by Conqueror, while also being much stronger per level than the existing determination. In fact, this ability could be quested in the same way as other dragon abilities. But only usable by "Conqueror", and overwrites the buff of any tier of the old determination. The new version should be 150% the stats of the old version (maybe more). In this way, it doesn't matter that the old quested abilities are "available" in the other schools... you will not want to use them, because the new version's buff overwrites the old. New attacks can also be added to Conqueror class, that require to be in Conqueror to use them.
Want to try Primalist? Go join the new school by visiting the trainer. Conqueror abilites may be present, but are not useable. You get a stronger primal roar style ability (200% stronger than the old), following the same ideas above for determination. New abilities' effect overwrites the old.
Heck, in an effort to make the classes differentiated, and fit with all the existing quested abilities which are not tied to a school, joining conqueror could simply be a passive ability, Conqueror: 150% base t&c, 70% base primal. Gain a melee skill boost, loose spell skill. Same thing for Primalist school: 150% base primal, 70% base tooth&claw. Can even add some strength and power to these as well, and even in the +/- form. 110% base strength, 90% base power, etc.
Want to go back to your old build? Go join Dragon Adventurer, everything is back to normal.
Add schools and abilities, allow some multiclassing, and allow switching back and forth. The powerful new stuff can be tied to the 2 new schools.
I agree with Guaran any new school shouldn't be tied to political fractions like helian or lunus. In addition it shouldn't be tied to stage like hatchling, adult or ancient cause there are some people who just want to be a hatching and don't want to be adult or ancient and same cause for some adults who don't want to be ancient. People shouldn't be forced to adult or ancient to do a school or some adventure quests skills all it does is make people not want to play the game. Especially forcing people to start over to do new schools that just make people quit.
Also like he said there should be some multiclassing and base it on skill and able to stack. It shouldn't be based on fraction but there can be little changes based on fraction but very minor cause I heard of helians who want to be fighters and Lunus who want to be casters. It shouldn't be so strict it should be fluid like water.
New schools could be tied to the fractions, for the Lunus they may be called A) and X, Y and Z as quest givers. The same school with it's own name and same quests for Helian may be called B) and R, S and T and quest givers - if it's need to be for the RP, that shouldn't be a real problem. And I don't move from my point of view, if done well and with ideas, the current Dragon Adventurer could be the basic school of them all. No need of tricking around.
Terao (Gnome, Grand Master Crafter, Order [Unity])|Draigourn (Ancient, Master Lairshaper, Lunus, Order)|Echentrial (Ancient, Lunus, Order)
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