Passives/perks in ao

Passives/perks in ao
effort 4.0 5 quality 4.0 5 reasonability 5.0 4

so recently I remembered that back in wom days, there was a thought of possible additions of passives, and indeed, an rpg without a sort of passive/ perk system feels slightly wrong,
so I decided to explore more of that idea and made a list of possible passives we could have that I update whenever I get a new idea

( the link: AO Passives - Google Docs )

passives could be a useable scroll that takes a skill/spell/technique slot, be a legendary gem or a legendary enchant

their aim would be to help more define your playstyle, or create new possible playstyles, while at the same time I believe passives should have a caveat, so they aren’t just pure powerup but more of a tuning your build to what you want it to do. (keep in mind the numbers I put in the doc are just to convey the general idea and in no way perfectly balanced)

6 Likes

Passives

Ever since wom days, i hoped for passives to make their way into the game- scrolls you use into your magic that would consume a spell slot and passively change something- and in my view, i felt like they could be game changing for players, although we haven’t heard anything about it ever, i felt like writing some random ideas for passives i had

Mage passives

Blockade: your projectiles have their lifespan halved

After the lifespan of any projectile ends, generate a blockade (possibly 3 max), classified as a hazard in terms of interactions

Blockades have hp based on the player level and the move used( move that has naturally lower clashing like Multi blast x20 would have low hp)

Blockades receive increased / reduced damage based on clashrate, additionally, blockades also react the same way magics interact ( ex: lightning would electrify a metal blockade)

Blockades would have effects based on magic used
Solid: Blocks both players and projectiles from passing
Non-Solid: only intercepts projectiles
Liquid: gives slowness to whoever passes through them
Heat: increases heat within the surrounding area and deals damage when in contact
Cold: reduces heat within the surrounding area
Also applies whatever status effect the magic is supposed to apply

Volatile hazard!: hazards lifespan reduced by 30%

Whenever a hazard breaks for whatever reason ( broken, or just timed out) they will minor damage around them and apply their effect if any

Arcane architect: Disables the ability to cause destruction

Your attacks will now reinforce whatever terrain they hit, increased their durability against destruction, reinforced terrain now counts as hazard (therefore interacting with other passives), reinforced terrain only applies status effects based on magic used, area and strength of reinforcement should be based on magics destruction and size stat

Elemental Recycling: Charging nearby hazards you generated will cause the hazards to expire, however, you will regenerate energy faster
Magical veins (Version A): Allows for the usage of a singular spell beyond your current energy capacity (30 sec cd)

Magical veins (Version B): Allows for the usage of a singular spell beyond your current energy capacity (30 sec cd), the spell will be casted as if it was fully charged during cast time, in exchange, said spell will now consume part of your health

Scholar’s protection: when your health hits 20%:

Consume all your energy to generate a shield

Hasty mind: -15% damage dealt

Your spells now charge up and reach their full possible output faster

Vengeful caster: +5% damage taken while casting (both startup and charging up)

Getting hit while charging up your spell will now empower said spell

Calm mind: Getting hit while charging up (not startup) spells will cause the spell to fail

You are now able to charge your spells for longer periods, increasing their possible max potential

Arcane shock: Synergies will no longer provide a raw increase in damage, instead they will now apply a dot that will damage over time (slightly higher than what the synergy would have dealt)

Fighting style passives

Alternance: landing two successive hits of the same range type ( 2 melee or 2 projectiles) will empower the next move of opposite type if its used within 3 seconds (example: shot, axe slash then crash, crash would be empowered)

Take-off: Set your air movement to 0

Your Movement type abilities reach farther by 35%

Human Bullet: -15% to size

Your movement abilities travel 15% farther

Acrobatics: -20% to distance traveled using techniques

+1 air movement charge

Burning Last grasp: When your health hits 15%:
You are now unable to heal beyond 15% of your health for the next
Gain overall bonus stats
Your health will now drain until it hits 1% (or 0% if it’s possible to make this effect stop when you kill the enemy)

The hunt: Landing a ranged move increases techniques travel distance

Cowardly tactics: Landing a melee move will improve your ability to retreat

Opportune hunter: -10% damage dealt

Hitting enemies during startup/endlage causes 20% more damage ( total of 10% net positive damage)

Non specific passives:

Passives i felt like could work on any class

Overcharge: Overcharging will now make your next used move empowered

All-out: once your energy is full in combat, your energy will start draining in exchange of increased stats, energy cannot be regenerated once the drain starts

Automated flow: disable manual energy regeneration in exchange for increased natural energy regeneration

Defensive tactics: Blocking (not parrying) restores your energy partially (not disabled with automated flow)

Active flow: disable natural regeneration in exchange of increased manual energy regeneration

Cycle: -10% damage

For every unique ability you use, you gain reduced energy cost for 5 seconds ( refreshes and stacks)

Iron will: if you are hit 5 times within 2 seconds, gain 30% resistance

2 Likes

I 100% agree, there would be many more options in combat, and possibly some intresting combos

4 Likes

this sounds very cool

1 Like

The deck builder in me wants this

1 Like

sick

feels like savant will be profiting alot from this

aren’t gem effects already passive effects?

Current gems effects are just straight up stats, read the google doc to see what i am talking about

The idea of passives in this game sound cool but most of your ideas for new ones to be added in your document are incredibly situational, harms the player more than helps, or is downright useless and will see limited use in PvP. Only way I see it being used is those random PvE players who use it for some niche build

The ones regarding hazards and charging especially since people can just like move away from them and because charging isn’t used in PvP that much anyways.

1 Like

nonononono this is just wrong. especially if you have a magic that can clear statuses

honestly, i would like if you elaborated more as i am not sure on which ones you are talking about

though something i would like to say: hazards are indeed not great (only relevant hazards are the clouds ones currently) , charging up attacks is also not really used in pvp indeed (i doubt you meant charging energy, as that is always used in pve and pvp)

i am of the belief that just because something isn’t great doesn’t mean we cant make it better, and that why i thought of passives that would make use of niche mechanics and build upon them and hopefully improve them, as with proper execution and tuned numbers they should shine, even if only on some specific scenarios ( example: you could argue that hazards are useless in overworld hunts, but they could shine in certain 1v1 arena settings, or in clan wars ig), also i recommend not just looking at stuff just in a vacuum but consider it used alongside other stats and passive combinations

i would appreciate feedback on which passives you believe have too hard of a downside, and which passive could change it bonuses or tuned to become more interesting , and which ones you think are fine

(A storm hit our area so my pc’s internet is cooked and I have to write on a phone so bear with me)

Out of the magic passives the only one that might get use is Arcane shock since it deals more damage but a lot of them will never see the light of day.

The hazard related passives (Blockade, volatile hazard, and arcane architect) try to make the player do some kind of trap based playstyle but that doesn’t really work in a movement based game like AO. So they fall under being situational and obsolete.

The spell charging ones especially could use more work. Calm Mind sucks because of the fact that it literally makes charging anything useless due to the fact that getting hit causes the spell to fail. Then with hasty mind you nerf your damage just so you can be an easier target for mages and gun users. And with vengeful caster only the Oracle players will have the effective amount of health to not be dying because of it.

To me a lot of this could’ve been more useful in a game like WOM.

agreed that a hazard related playstyle seems farfetched rn, but recently the game has become far more slower paced with every balance change, and with the increase of tiers i have a hope of hazard gameplay being completely viable rather than a meme-like build, and i am sure a lot of people hope the same

about the charging passives, calm mind was supposed to be a situational passive when i conceptualized it- a high risk for good reward - only use it when you think you are safe

hasty mind yeah i agree, too big of a downside

though for the other passives- (not the mage ones) do you think they are fine ?

Me-wow! Is that the latest Felinor fashion? :3

Of the non mage ones that I like that stand out, I think cycle should be changed so that instead of permanent damage reduction it should be like Smash move staling (overusing the same attack weakens it), so that way more people would be inclined to use it.

Iron will, opportune Hunter, overcharge, and Defensive tactics + Automated flow is basically a direct upgrade

Cowardly tactics is kinda vague since I don’t know what it means by “increasing ability to retreat”

Human bullets positive stat should be replaced with attack speed

I don’t see berserkers getting much use of the hunt since they’re meant for close range

Take-off sucks since without the air movement you’re cooked, and the extra distance doesn’t make up for it.

Also Alternance seems cool but it should just empower the same type of move rather than the opposite move type

The other ones I’m neutral about or the stat is too vague to get anything from.

Is there any passives for weapons build? Because warriors are gonna get really mad if it’s put in the game but they got nothing.

i’m not the one who made this, just posted the list so it wasnt just a link

Oh, ok ssry

dw abt it