64. That’s the number of playable classes in Ashes of Creation. Aha! Got your attention!
Well, technically, that’s the number of classes produced by the 8 archetypes, from which you can pick twice: Fighter, Tank, Rogue, Ranger, Mage, Summoner, Cleric, and Bard. You are free to pick one of these as your primary archetype early on in the game, and then you can pick from the same list for your secondary archetype once you hit level 25.
Here’s a class list from the official website, posted December 2017:
And, yes, you can pick the same archetype twice. A Rogue-Rogue would be an Assassin, while a Bard-Bard is a Minstrel. But, the colorful variety offered by the system unfolds when you “multi-class” with a different archetype!
It does absolutely matter which archetype you start with: a Fighter-Cleric makes a Highsword class, while a Cleric-Fighter is a Templar class!
There are no archetypes you can’t mix in the Ashes of Creation. Fighter-Rogue? Shadowblade. Fighter-Bard? Bladedancer. Fighter-Mage? Spellsword. (There seems to be a “blade-sword” theme here.) Mage-Summoner? Warlock! What about Summoner-Mage? Spellmancer!
Thing is, secondary archetypes don’t give you new skills: they augment your existing ones from the primary archetype!
Let’s take a Fighter-Mage combination from our earlier list, for example: when combined, they become the Spellsword class. As a Fighter, you might have an active skill that allows you to charge a target over x distance, and upon reaching the target you deal x damage and some condition modifier.
Steven Sharif, the Creative Director behind Ashes of Creation, gave us two examples of augmentation schools that will come from the Mage: Teleport and Elemental schools.
With the Teleport augmentation, instead of traveling the x distance, your Spellsword will immediately teleport to the target. If you go with the Elemental school instead, you could set your target ablaze or electrocute them upon reaching them (depending on the element).
You can expect to see four augmentation schools per archetype. There will be level requirements and skill point costs associated with these enhancements, but that’s the exciting part of RPG leveling! Picking the same archetype twice to create your class will tend to bolster the original effects of your abilities. Of course, racial bonuses to base stats mean additional combinations.
Chances are, the resulting race, class, and skill combinations are numerous enough for the existence of very unique, or even one-of-a-kind builds on a server!
You can expect there to be class-specific quests, some of which might put your character in charge of tasks they are supposed to suck at! Interesting challenges will allow for you to learn your class build from an insightful perspective: by learning what your character is not good at.
Alright, AoC fans, we just covered yet another feature worth being excited for with Ashes of Creation. What are your thoughts on this? Too complicated to implement perfectly, too forced for some of the combinations? Or, quite versatile, creative, and promising? (Just like the rest of the game, tbh. Goodness, can this game just be released already?)
Let us know in the comments below!
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Mila Grish
Dedicated contributor at EIP Gaming and a part-time collector of books she will never have time to actually read. Jumps on the newest releases just as quickly as on the uncovered dusty collections from the basement. For her, shiny graphics can never be an excuse to not have a polished player experience or an immersive story.
