essentially, i thought it’d be cool if i sparked some speculation regarding the post-launch PVP scene (both casual and hardcore). i know we can’t have a full picture before we actually play it ourselves, but it can be fun to try to gauge what things will be like and then see if we got anything right later.
as can be seen from polls, there’s going to be a huge amount of mages and magic hybrids, at least within the more dedicated AO community. now that synergies have been nerfed, we’ll likely get a bit more of other stat spreads, and less builds focused around stuns, but i still see lightning, fire and magma being really common in the community at large. i think it’ll take a few days until the new wave of players will get the hang of enchants, so it’ll be hard to tell exactly what is usually prioritized in combat. it’d be cool if there were a lot of people using wacky non-meta builds, like size/intensity or something, that might occur for a while as people get used to what is especially effective and what isn’t.
Magic builds will be very common on release, most notably warlocks and conjurers.
I’d say most of them will use water or lightning because even if stopping statuses were nerfed, they’re still very powerful and can badly annoy a player if used correctly.
Don’t forget Plasma, it’s easily one of Aaron’s favorite magics
I think it’ll be a chaotic place. Like the start of a new pokemon generation everyone is gonna wanna get their hands on the new toys available. The new rare spell, rare technique, and rare weapon will be absolute goodies for pure builds. Iirc all three are exclusive to their pure builds so Mages, Berserkers, and Warriors can look forward to that along with Embodiments/Blast Shapes, and nothing else for Warriors. As for hybrid builds they got an entire fucking new playstyle to try out and explore. We’ve had fighting styles before, we’ve had weapons, and lord knows we got magic, but this is a first where we can combine them.
I imagine hybrids being the most common since people can’t commit to anything to save their life. Gotta have punches and magic blasts, lord forbid one got locked off. I no longer thing Savant will be the most selected class but Conjuror or Warlock just might be. Who knows, could be mage, but I think people are gonna wanna not be one trick ponies and they’ll think if they go all magic they’ll be a fragile little mage. That also w- Fuck it might be Savant cause I can imagine people wanting to hybrid but also wanting some defense. Who knows. Anyways.
I imagine Mages and their hybrids (save for Paladin) would be most often seen in actual pvp. Not your average explosion spammer pvp but like blast exchanging pblocking pvpers. This could change since they’ll just go with the meta but mages seem like they could be a strong contender for the meta. Unless something broken in either weapons or fighting styles slipped by I don’t imagine they’ll take magics place.
are embodiments/blast shapes going to be pure build only? and yeah, hybrids will likely be more common than pure builds. i don’t want to lock myself off from melee either, since that sounds fun and it’s one of the many new things. savants seem like they’d be viewed as individually weak at each facet of their kit , and therefore less desirable, but that remains to be seen. it’s not going to stop me from making a savant in one of my secondary saves though, they seem fun!
once the 5 player limit barrier alleviates it’ll be hell for sure, because i know i cant have three sealed chests safely without having a sweaty pvphead on my ass solely wanting to kill me and nothing else
