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More Horizons Impressions - On Classes
ianubisi
Member Posts: 4,201
Horizons is turning out to be a lot more interesting than I would have thought. On the surface, it seems like a very simple fantasy-based MMOG: pick a race/class combo, kill some things to level up, and craft some gear along the way. I won't bother telling you about the crafting system...it is, as everyone reports, superb. So leaving that off the table, here's some more of what I've been able to observe in the last week or so.
The class system has some really interesting facets. There really is no such thing as a multiclass in Horizons, contrary to some popular beliefs. You are always one type of Adventure class and one type of Craft class. Where things become unique is how you decide to advance in Adventure classes and how that affects the abilities that that grants you.
Let's take for example the idea of being a Warrior/Cleric combination. You choose which one to advance in one at a time. As you gain XP that XP will be devoted to that class. While leveling up in a class you gain abilities related to that class. For a warrior, you will get Power Strike, Rend Armor, Negate Attack, etc... When I switch over to Cleric, however, many of those abilities will not be available to me. At level 4 Warrior, which would include the abilities mentioned, only Power Strike will remain when I switch to Cleric. Thus, a level 5 Warrior/(cleric) is not the same as a level 5 Cleric/(warrior), even those the levels of each of the schools is the same. This is how Horizons keeps someone from being every class at once.
But the trick of it all is that you do retain *some* of the abilities of each school you train in. So my level 10 Warrior that got to level 4 as a cleric will retain the Instant Heal I ability, which is damned nice. Also, my Warrior will be able to cast *some* spells from the Life skill, which is the primary casting skill of a Cleric. A level 10 Cleric will be able to cast better spells than my level 10 warrior (with level 4 Cleric school), and so on. I'm sure you see how this works out. It's perfectly possible to have abilities in each school (level 4 is the base level where you retain some kind of ability from your school, even if it's not your active school).
It gets a tiny bit more complicated. Because you can be all kinds of different levels, depending on which your active school is, you don't really have a level for your character. Instead, you have a "Rating". The rating is an aggregate of your various schools of Adventure (you also have a Craft rating, but that's not important here). My level 10war/4clr has a rating of 11. My level 9sprt/4clr/4mag has a rating of 12. I'm not sure how the math adds up, people seem to think it's in measures of 10, but I think there are more weights involved. The point is that your rating versus mob rating is what determines the XP value of the combat. So if you attack an equal-rating mob you will get, let's say, 200xp, whereas a mob 2 ratings below you will probably yield about 100xp, etc... When you switch schools, your rating will change dependant on the aggregate and the current school. My 10war/4clr will change to a rating of 6 when I go from Warrior to Cleric. This really affects how you level up as it's not exactly trivial for a level 4 cleric to kill mobs that have a rating of 6, and not that many of my Warrior abilities stayed with the transfer of schools. This is really tricky for my Battlemage character I'm working on now since I can't wear *any* of the Bronze armor my warrior had when I switch over to Mage in order to increase that skillbase.
In theory, this kind of system should mean that there are endless possibilities for players to devise their perfect character...probably more so than UO had, and many times more variety than EQ ever had. When you see a Cleric Rating 22 player, you never really know what other kinds of abilities and spells they may possess. It's also what makes character development rather interesting, as you really have to consider what you want to work on and work toward...if you gain too many levels in a school you'll never use it will definitely affect your rating, and that'll make your character advancement more tedious.
Then there is the whole world of Prestige schools. I cannot, for example, use Bronze armor when I'm working on my Mage side of my Warrior/Mage skills. But when I finally qualify for Battlemage (200 flame, 150 one-hand-slash skills...meaning appx level 20 mage and level 15 warrior) I will be able to wear armor as well as cast spells and wield swords. Some of the names of the prestige schools include: Battlemage, Berserker, Spearman, Shaman, Crossbowman, Reaver, and so on. I haven't reached one yet, focusing more of my attention on what kind of class combinations I really like and already deleting 4 characters that I didn't care for (the 5 character limit sucks, really, really sucks). I'm actively working on 3 characters: a Fiend that will become a Bloodmage, a Human that will be either a Paladin, Reaver, or Berserker; and a Gnome who will become a Battlemage...my current favorite combination.
Once I figured out how the overlap of school abilities worked, I got pretty excited about the game. There are so many possibilities to explore, it really opens up a lot of imagination. At least, that's how it seems so far...hopefully that will stand up to a few months of play.
Comments
FFXI eat your heart out! Multiclassing in HZ is much more rewarding than FFXI.
Nice opinions as well. You should write more reviews
"Whoever controls the media controls the mind..-'Jim Morrison"
"When decorum is repression, the only dignity free men have is to speak out." ~Abbie Hoffman
I agree it looks like a great game, just too bad I can't connect to it!
Just a simple warning to anyone with dial-up that this is basically a cable/dsl only game. With my dial-up I am constantly being booted, even when servers are light.
Support tells me I am basically getting booted to make room for the higher speeds. So an empty server and my con get disconnected to make room for someone with a better speed.
What I have seen of this game I hafta agree, it's comparable to UO. With the options of crafting, hunting etc. But it seems every game in the works is going to be including the same aspects. So it won't stand out for too long.
*A game does not rule all other games...espcially if it hasn't been released yet.*
Black Star Deceiver kills it all.
The sun lies waiting for a call.
_____________________________________
"Io rido, e rider mio non passa dentro;
Io ardo, e l'arsion mia non par di fore."
-Machiavelli
If by mops you mean mobs then I can assure you there are more than 2 in the game.
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Screw ENIX
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It's hip to be square.
Great review, excellent opinions, agreed, you should write more!
Kunou
GM - Desolation
www.desolation-guild.org/genforum
Richard J. Cox
"There were much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust."
I never understood why people call them mobs... what does it stand for?
I've always heard of them and reffered to them as Machine-Operated Player.
Black Star Deceiver kills it all.
The sun lies waiting for a call.
_____________________________________
"Io rido, e rider mio non passa dentro;
Io ardo, e l'arsion mia non par di fore."
-Machiavelli
Black Star Deceiver kills it all.
The sun lies waiting for a call.
_____________________________________
"Io rido, e rider mio non passa dentro;
Io ardo, e l'arsion mia non par di fore."
-Machiavelli