Defensive abilities

Skill	Icon	Primary	Description
Absorption Field		Tank	A field of absorption.
Aegis		Tank	Instantly dispels all negative effects on the caster, then creates a protective dome behind the tank for 15 seconds, transferring 50% of all damage received by targets within the area to the tank instead. All targets within the cone also receive increased status effect resistance for the duration.
Barrier		Cleric	Sacrifice 25% of your maximum health to place a health shield on target ally for 10 seconds. Does not stack.
Blood Fusion		Fighter	Return 100% of damage dealt as health and 50% of damage dealt as mana over the next 6 seconds. If activated while below 50% health, gain 25% increased damage mitigation and healing received over the duration.
Bulwark		Tank	Bash enemies in front of you twice. The second attack temporarily increases block chance. You must have a shield equipped to block.
Defiant Light		Cleric	Heal target ally for 50% of their maximum health over 10 seconds. If that target would receive fatal damage while under this effect, this effect is consumed and prevents that target's death, healing them for 25% of their maximum health instead.
Grit		Tank	Applies a buff to the caster, reducing incoming damage by 15%, but also reducing movement speed by 30% and outgoing damage by 20%. Each incoming hit consumes a stack of courage to reduce incoming damage by an additional 15%. Courage can not be generated while Grit is active.
Indomitable Spirit		Tank	30% increased max HP and 30% increased healing received.
Lapvédelem		Tank	Intercept attacks that strike your friendly nearby target, redirecting half of the damage taken to you. Must be within 10ys to Protect. If this range is exceeded for more than 5 seconds, the effect ends.
Repulsor Blast		Caravan	Blast away nearby attackers.
Rush of Courage		Tank	You feel a surge of resolve - gain 100 Courage.
Shell		Mage	Create a protective magical shell around yourself that absorbs a large amount of damage before breaking.

Dodging

Dodging in Alpha-1 early combat.

Another thing that's important about these action combats is the ability to dodge and moving out of the way of certain skill shots. – Steven Sharif

Evasion moves such as dodging and weaving will be present in Ashes of Creation combat.

• The developers are considering the inclusion of dodging in a subset of universal skills that apply to all classes.
  • Dodge rolling type skills were previously housed in the action skill sets of agile classes such as Rogues or Fighters.
  • The developers will be testing the use of separate energy mechanics for universal skills in Alpha-2.

• Dodging will not use I-frames (invincibility frames), but it may affect accuracy and mitigation stats when used.
  • Previously it was stated that hybrid combat will likely have true evasion skills relating to action-oriented combat and also have I-frames that apply to tab targeting.

So you see an animation windup that's a telegraph on what's coming; and then you have response actions that you can take as a result of that in order to dodge, weave, move, do whatever. It is both a combination of what your rotation is but also how you have reaction abilities ready to go that you save for certain circumstances that are important. – Steven Sharif

Active blocking

Tank active blocking with a Shield in Alpha-2.

The shield version would probably be better but you'd still be able to parry or whatnot with a two-handed weapon, or even maybe a dual wield. – Tradd Thompson

Cleric active blocking with a Shield in Alpha-2.

Active blocking is a universal skill that applies to all classes.

• Active blocking is present in Alpha-2. At present the developers are using a universal stamina-based energy system, but they will be testing the use of separate energy mechanics for universal skills in Alpha-2.

Active blocking might be an ability that- it's universal, of course it's universal- but it might be consuming mana; and you'll be able to adjust that mana consumption based off of your passive spec into your skill trees. In addition, it might also consume stamina, where that's something we're going to be testing as part of Alpha-2. – Steven Sharif

• Different types of equipment are catered toward blocking different damage types.
  • Shields are better for active blocking physical damage, but any melee weapon can also be used to parry with a lesser amount of mitigation.
  • Sigils are better at actively blocking magical damage.

Q: How are you designing encounters around active blocking? Will it be situational use, or would I expect to be laying on my block keybind for most of the fight to prevent getting deleted by bosses?

A: It depends really on the type of adversary you're facing. Some of them are going to have indicators or tells that a big attack is coming. It's an animation wind up where you'll have an opportunity to use active block in very unique situations that are based on timing and additional mitigation for those incoming one-off attacks. In other occasions you'll be able to use it off of rotational cooldowns, or if you're waiting for a particular ability or you're during the use of your Aegis. There's different situations for when active block is a relevant use-case. – Steven Sharif

• Some abilities may be able to overcome, surpass, or cancel active blocking.

If a player is in a state, such as an active block, or an active tumble state, there will likely be some types of abilities that interact with reacting to those types of states and will either overcome surpass or cancel out those states, particularly as it relates to not just active blocking, but also potentially passive blocking as well; and that would be something probably related to physical penetration values as a stat, or even CC breaks that could be relevant as well for those types of things. I think that's on the radar for the combat team. – Steven Sharif

• Previously the developers had not finalized designs for active blocking and were leaning toward using more traditional buff-oriented universal damage mitigation for the MMO, and were also considering interaction between action-based blocking and a passive block stat.
  • The Paladin's Might shield in Ashes of Creation Apocalypse had its own hit box and hit points (HP); that could actively block projectiles.

Továbbiak

• Küzdelem
• Készségek
• Utility skills