AO Ultimate Art Spells

Suggestions
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AO Ultimate Art Spells
effort 5.0 1 quality 0.0 0 reasonability 1.5 2
1

Essentially, what this idea encompasses is replacing the name of our current “ultimate art” checkbox for our spells with something else. Instead create specific ultimate art spells to take the place of what we call an ultimate art. In other words, the ultimate art check box is renamed and we have new ultimate art spells added.

These ultimate arts would be more in line with what we had in AA, and as a result will possess the raw power one would expect from an ultimate art. These ultimate arts would come in the usual common/basic, rare, lost, and ancient variations.

Basic Ultimate Art would be unlocked for strength/magic users upon awakening, but currently only pure builds would theoretically be able to use it as it would have a base requirement of 200 or 250 of their respective stat investment.

Note:
I’m terrible with names so don’t expect too much or take them to heart.
Every ult has a max tier of 5 vs the 7 I heard spells/techniques in AO have now.

Ultimates can be overcharged to a greater extent than standard spells, but will take longer to do so. Additionally, it takes 2 seconds for a spell to charge (I crudely tests this on blasts and explosion) for 1.33x damage, an ult after 2 seconds will have ~1.1667x

Ultimate Arts need to be earned through combat before becoming available. Landing hits and parrying attacks will eventually make the ultimate art available. You’ll lose the ultimate Art after being out of combat for a while.

Optional:
Every 2 tiers (tier 1 as a base, tier 3, and tier 5) amplifies an attack’s status by 1. In other words, Fire’s burning I becomes burning II at tier 1, burning III at tier 3, and Burning IV at tier 5.

Alternative Optional:
If intensity ever gained a mechanic like dodge reflex (level * 1.2 = tp; in this case x amount of intensity = a boost to your status tier). Then this could instead be a reduction in the stat requirement for a boost in the status tier (say it required 200 intensity for burning II, an ultimate costs 75% of that).

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Mage Ultimate Art Spell Type - Magical Cataclysm/Ruin
AA Lightning/shadow ult; could have amount slider to emulate other types of AA ults
Comes in two variations: Cataclysm or Barrage

  • Singular/Dual is determined by an amount slider of 1 or 2, and it essentially is whether or not you want the AA Earth Ult or AA Lightning/Shadow ult.
  • Ruin (barrage) is essentially our AA barrage, I know something similar is a planned lost spell (now archived) but that one is more for oppression rather than damage. Minimum amount is 10 blasts, and it caps at 40.

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Berserker Ultimate Art Spell Type - (Embodiment) Rush/Tremor
Choose an embodiment to encompass your shape and some modifiers, from here you can choose one of two variations.

Rush is essentially rushdown, which is boring, but it is significantly more potent and the stronger/faster of the two variations. Rush has 3 tiers of charge to it, each tier has a fixed range but the tiers each have different ranges (increasing as they increase), and power of your significantly. Each tier is signified by a small burst of aura around the berserker/juggernaut (subconsciously) or willfully (warlock; imbue mixes with the aura). Upon unleashing the attack, and precisely landing your attack you will grab your opponent and perform one of several actions.

  • Dual punch (imagine that dual punch Yamamoto did during his fight with Wonderweiss) which transfers most of the attacks force into the target, causing immense damage.
  • The Miguel O’Hara The 2nd option is a chokeslam where you grab your target by the throat and careen towards the ground before slamming into it with a massive shockwave which pushes back and damages nearby players. If your target is above the ocean, you throw them into the ocean until they hit the bottom (would require a specific build for this) or eventually slow down (hope they have potions).

Tremor is essentially the smash skill but on something else entirely. It is an immensely powerful attack where you smash the ground with such force that it shatters and upheaves the ground. Any rocks sent into the air travel less distance and are weaker the further they are from the epicenter. This attack’s power is based on the height of the player at the time much like the normal smash is.

Note: The ultimate art grabs are unblockable but they are parryable. The parry won’t stop the grab but it will apply the DR to the attack.

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Warrior
Each weapon has their ultimate art already planned if we are to go off of a specific weapon’s info. These ultimates could be made equivalently flashy, but they obviously all need a 50% CD.

Ultimate Art Option Replacement:
This part of the idea is less so a replacement and more of a rename with a potential rework. I’ll start with the changes, starting with charging mechanics. Mechanically, we can borrow some inspiration from the attacks King Calvus did, charging up a small orb of aether magic into a larger one. While not necessarily something that HAS to be visually represented, this’ll reflect on the changes to the charging mechanics. We can keep the inherent damage boost, but the size boost will need to be charged.

Essentially it is this using blast as an example.
Base boost: 1.2x damage, 1.25x size
Charging boost (additional multiplier): 1.5x damage, 1.8x size
Total: 1.8x damage, 2.25x size

For reference blast is being changed into:
Base: 1.3x damage, 2.2x size
w/ Charge: 1.729x damage, 2.2x size

From now on I’ll refer to the Ultimate Art Option for spells/technique as “Max”. In this case, max spells/techniques will still maintain that “one per magic/fs” aspect of them. You can have an Ultimate Spell and a max spell on the same magic, but you cannot have a “Max” version of an Ultimate Spell/Technique. Using a max attack also temporarily puts all ultimates on a CD (~10-15 seconds), and using an ultimate spell/technique places all max attacks on a CD as well (~10-15 seconds also).

Magic Charge times:
Basic/Normal: ~2 seconds
Ultimate Arts (current): ~2.5 seconds
Max Spells: ~3.5 seconds
Ultimate Spells: ~6 seconds

Magic Charge damage multipliers:
Basic/Normal: 1.33x
Ultimate Arts (current): Probably 1.33x
Max Spells: 1.5x
Ultimate Spells: 1.5x

Few things I should clarify, starting with the example for the stat boosts for max spells earlier (blast). That is purely an example, and I didn’t place too much thought around balancing it around an increased charge time. I also don’t know how much size if any spells/techniques get from charging, so I doubt my size reference for the blast ultimate art changes is necessarily accurate when charging the attack is factored in. The idea for max spells that I have is for them to be better initially, but benefit the most from charging. Although if the status improvements were to be added to max attacks via intensity, of which I mentioned earlier in this suggestion. Then theoretically max attacks could cap at 3, and ultimate attacks cap at 5 (hard caps, gels or not). Alternatively these status tiers could be attack tier based with max attacks being 1-2 status tiers below ultimates.
Here is an example to help explain what I’m thinking:
Tier 1 -
Max: Initial = 1; Max charged = 2
Ultimate: Initial = 2; Max charged = 3

From here an additional tier is added every 2 tiers (3 for max attacks), but max attacks cap at 3 or 4, and ultimates cap at 5. If max attacks cap at 4 then this will be exclusively if you fully charge the attack as ultimates already can only reach a tier 5 status if they charge to max anyways. The main concern about this comes from the raw DoT these attacks could do given how statuses work. This would be far better if status had received a rework that separated it from your attacks raw damage. The way statuses work right now make me consider this as optional, and even dislike the idea unless they are reworked.

Now then, something I didn’t mention earlier was that ultimate spells/techniques have a lengthy startup that MUST happen. It can be sped up slightly with attack speed, but it shouldn’t change too much in my opinion. During this start up it is very possible to have your ult interrupted by an attack, in particular grabs and I hesitate to say stuns because of hybrids/gels. Something I would like to be a thing but opted to not include was some form of DR penetration against blocking (not parried) the ultimate arts. This DR penetration would be weaker on attacks such as the barrage ult for magic.

If there are any questions I will do what I can to answer them.

2

this doesnt make sense im ngl, the system to activate an ult sure, but overall to get ult spells doesnt because youre just limiting spells/technique ideas that could be used in general and then if the player wants, can be made into an ult

3

The suggestion doesn’t remove ults, it renames them and changes how they work (for regular spells). It adds actual ultimate specific spells so that ults aren’t just a stat stick toggle with extra CD. I called them Max attacks or spells but you can call them whatever you want.

4

well yeah but youre also adding specific spells as ults, and that removes the option use the spells as normal attacks

5

I don’t get why you are removing customization options
We got pulsar and multi-shot blasts for mage… the former that will eventually get an ultimate art at a high enough level

6

You can have a “Max” (Example Ultimate Art checkbox rename) Blast and you can have an ultimate art spell. Nothing is being removed, the options still exist, I can make a poll on whether or not you would want the option to be changed at all or not. In other words, an option on whether or not the “Ultimate Art” checkbox for spells/techniques has the tweaked added, or if it stays the same and is just renamed. This is like Elden Ring vs Dark Souls, same thing (combat wise) different name.
All my change to the now former “Ultimate Arts” in name is renaming, and making it require you to charge it up first to reach it’s full potential. Ultimate Arts from this suggestion are a new spell which is unlocked after you awaken (every class with magic/fs gets this) and meet the stat requirements.

I should probably clarify that at the top of my suggestion. When I say replacing the name of our current “ultimate art” checkbox for our spells with something else, I mean the name and not the option. The bit after will become more self explanatory after that is added.

New spells, the “Ultimate Art” checkbox isn’t being removed but renamed and the actual function is suggested to change into a more charge based one. In other words, if you want to get the size benefit from using the former “Ultimate Art” checkbox (in name), then you’re going to have to charge it. As you fight, you can eventually use the Ultimate Art spell in combat. This also prevents concerns about being sneak attacked by a fully charged Ultimate Art.

7

TLDR/More clear explanation is:
You don’t lose the option to use spells as a normal attack. These are new spells under a different category. Think of it like this, there are Regular Spells, and Ultimate Spells. Regular spells are what we have and they can become “Max” spells as they are called in this suggestion. “Max” as an option is the rename for our “Ultimate Art” checkbox, but works differently (focuses more on charging over a raw boost to stats). Ultimate Art spells are new spells that we get, and will take up a spell slot like any other spell. You can have a Max spell and an Ultimate spell on the same magic, but some cooldowns are enforced to prevent you from them immediately back to back. Additionally, Ultimate Art spells have a mechanic where you need to fight to actually use them first. You an start a fight with a Max spell, but not an Ultimate Spell.

Max spells are what our current Ultimate Art spells will be renamed to (or some other name). They will work a bit differently but at their core they are basically the same.
Ultimate Art spells are new spells that we have available to us with their own mechanic.

8

well yea thats what im saying, why have specific spells/techniques be “ultimate” when you could just add your “ultimate spells” as normal spells and just leave the ulatimate option as is

9

Admittedly the suggestion stems from an opinion of mine. The current Ultimate Arts are, to me, Ultimate in name only. Hence why I suggested adding new Ultimate specific spells to remedy this. These spells are more of a spectacle and very powerful, but they require work to achieve and earn.
However, this leads to a problem about there being “Ultimate spells” and “Ultimate” spells. Now we have two things named Ultimate, which leads to confusion and doesn’t make any sense. Which is why I opted to suggest renaming and changing how they work slightly to emphasize their new identity.

Max spells in this case encompass a spell at it’s absolute peak output that the mage is currently capable of doing. This, however, takes some time to make it powerful.
Ultimate spells are immediately powerful, but given their nature of being powerful they need a drawback. Beyond the obvious end-lag and start-up, they’ll in gameplay require you to fight first before you can even use them. This makes them feel like a final trump card in a pitched/difficult battle.

I say spells, but this also would apply to fighting styles. Having specific ultimate art spells/techniques also lets Vetex go a bit more wild with how they look or work. While you can have this available for each spell/technique (blast/crash, explosion/smash, etc). You’d basically be putting another spell/technique into a spell/technique. It makes no sense, and it’d be too much work if we did this for every basic/rare/ancient spell and technique.

10

Accidentally deleted this post, thank god I can bring it back :skull:

11

Well that’s purely due to the fact that the current spells that can be made “ultimate” aren’t very interesting to begin with once we get to the point that some rare/lost spells can be made ultimate then this issue doesn’t exist any more

I will go further to say, I like the method to activate an ult by attacking and stuff but idk if it’s necessary still

12

I will reiterate what I believe, I don’t think a bigger and more powerful pulsar/axe slash will address the issue. While I don’t think Pulsar will get the same or similar boosts as, say, blast (2.2x size and 1.3x damage). I also don’t think or expect Vetex to go out of his way to differentiate every rare/lost spell’s or technique’s ultimate art. It’s much easier to differentiate something if it is specifically designed to work differently from the beginning rather than doing it for each and every attack.

However, I can see the potential argument for some rare/lost spells that may look “ultimate” to begin with. Those as an Ultimate Art will genuinely feel “ultimate”, but this is unlikely to be a thing for a while (even with surge being a potential candidate from what I’ve heard of it).

13

Bro?

14

Guh?

15

Guh.

16

Maybe this could be changed so that instead of changing the current way ultimate spells work, some Rare spells obtained later on will be forced to be that magic’s ultimate art if you learn it?

17

While not changing how the way current ultimate arts work is fine. Renaming them and adding in Ultimate Art specific spells are kinda the main point of the suggestion. Although I’m sure some rare+ spells might look like good candidates for spells that will feel like an actual Ultimate Art once we unlock their Ultimate Art checkbox. I got my eyes on surge in particular.

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