Tier 6 Mystery Skills

[Nate]

Greetings Pit Masters!

I'm currently playtesting the new mystery skills and wanted to give you a little teaser. I'll give you the name of the skills (which are subject to change) and let you try and figure out where they go and what they do!


Entangle

Evasive Maneuvers

Ground Fighting


Keep in mind if during playtesting they turn out to not work so well they'll be replaced with something else. So far everything is going well and it proves to open up a lot of new options for builds.

Who thinks they have it figured out? :)

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Adoede]

Entangle - sounds like the long-awaited off-hand fishing net will be a reality for theatrics...
Ground Fighting - Something heavy wars have long asked for
Evasive Maneuvers - Defense on a Rage??? Interesting if it really is for the Rage class. Morphs the rages into potential lunge/dodge types...

Question: Will we have to pick one or the other tier 6 skill or will it be possible to have them both (since they currently both require 90 skill points in previous tiers...meaning we can only take one tier 6 skill)

[Alba Kebab]

Fishnets? always loved a girl in fishnets...

I would have imagined ground fighting is for rages and evasive maneuvers are for wars?

[Kreegan]

Erm... if Ground Fighting is for Wars, it might be a poor substitute to just fixing the Knockdown mechanics so they don't hurt Wars so badly (especially for a top tier skill which is supposed to compete with Armoured Fortress for your attention)... Then again, let's wait and see what it is supposed to do.

[Adoede]

I suppose ground fighting on a rage makes sense - perhaps allowing them to still activate skills while on the ground
But evasive maneuvers for a war? Even more defense?

I guess we'll wait and see

[Dainoji]

Entangle for Theatrics.
Evasive Maneuvers for Rage.
Ground Fighting for War.

[Nate]

Question: Will we have to pick one or the other tier 6 skill or will it be possible to have them both (since they currently both require 90 skill points in previous tiers...meaning we can only take one tier 6 skill)

They both will require 90 skill points and the skill cap of 100 will remain the same.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Sotc]

I'd guess:

Entangle - War

Evasive Maneuvers - Theatrics

Ground Fighting - Rage

[Thor]

Well, Nate wrote down Entangle first. As the rage is the "first class", it is highly unlikely that Entangle is for the rage. (People leaving room for guesses won't start with a 1-1, even if they change the order up for the other parts of a list.

Evasive maneuvers would fit the rage or the theatrics. (Yes, War has some pretty nice defense, but well, it's not evasive :D making armour feel lighter and stuff suits him, evasion not!)
Entangle could be on all of them, really hard to say. Probably also a nice defensive move. My guess is actually on the war here.
Which leaves ground fighting for the rage. It could be on all of them as well, but it would actually fit him, I guess. Get knocked down, doesn't care, wants to destroy some faces.

Really looking forward to hearing what they actually do! Speed up your testing a bit, Nate.

[Nate]

http://www.pitofwar.com/images/_Teasers/aa_mystery_skills.jpg

[FrosteeFyre]

So,
Entangle- Theatrics
Evasive Maneuvers- Rage
Ground Fighting- War

It looks like to me.

[Nate]

Hard To Hit - As a master of the Rage specialty, your gladiator has learned it is sometimes wise to pay attention to defense and is always on the move making them very hard to hit. They attack less often but get hit even less. By controlling their rage and being more level headed they also use endurance at a slower rate.

[FrosteeFyre]

Isn't that totally against what being a Rage gladiator is about? I thought us Ragers were the barbarians of the arena, disregarding our own safety and dishing out huge hits in return, "controlling our rage" seems against the will of a true Rage gladiator :P Just my opinion

[Nate]

And therein lies the beauty of choice. If you want your rage gladiators to be wild and out of control berserkers, train in Total Carnage. If instead you think there may be tribes in the Great Realm that learned attacking with reckless abandon all the time might not be the best idea, and instead decided to use their superior speed, strength and light armour to their advantage and not get hit all the time, train in Hard To Hit. :)

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Alba Kebab]

What, they are not in the game yet? I wanna try...

[Nate]

Down And Dangerous - As a master of the War specialty, your gladiator has learned most fights will go to the ground. While others struggle to fight while prone, your gladiator welcomes it. Knowing how to angle and position themselves boosts the effectiveness of their armour and defense allowing them to actively attack when they want. Quickly getting back up to their feet is another bonus awarded to your gladiator.

[Sotc]

Cool stuff. What about the new theatrics skill? :P

[Apoca1ypse]

Looks very interesting Nate :)

[Nate]

Here is the tooltip text you'll see when a gladiator is entangled. Should give you a nice little peek into what is on its way! ;)

"The gladiator is entangled and their offensive and defensive capabilities are being adversely affected by the amount shown. They also use their endurance at a faster rate while trying to escape."

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Sotc]

Looks like a fun skill! I foresee a skill change in a certain pirate's future.

[Fleet]

Will nets be added or will entangle just be a skill with no particular weapon?

[Nate]

http://www.pitofwar.com/images/_Teasers/net_whip_teaser.jpg

[Kreegan]

Hard to Hit and Entangle look really promising and I can already see quite some tactical uses but Down and Dangerous is really uninspired, judging from its description. That skill basically cancels itself (getting up faster) and gives no bonus if your gladiator doesn't get knocked down. Armoured Fortress already provides some extra defense, even for prone fighters. And the War tree already has more than enough "may or may not do something" skills.

I'd suggest to move the faster recovery effect to Light as a Feather where it belongs from day 1 and come up with something else that is supposed to compete with Armoured Fortress. There are quite many possible alternatives. Damage deflection with returned bleeding at level 10 (Spiked Armour?), increased Critical Protection with some (reasonably low) chance to halve the attack damage at level 10, maybe even something offensive like reducing the off-hand weapon damage penalty and adding extra Attack Power at level 10 (Ambidexterity or something), just to name a few thing which would really make me think if I should take Armoured Fortress or the other skill.

[Apoca1ypse]

Nets and whips look awesome :D

I've been waiting for them to make an appearance for years :)

[Fleet]

Will nets and whips still do something if you haven't trained entangle?

[Sotc]

Nets and whips look pretty sweet!

[Pit Lord]

Like sugar?;)

[Dainoji]

All three skills look very cool Nate! Looking forward to seeing those whips and nets in action too!

[Prinny]

Hard to Hit and Entangle look really promising and I can already see quite some tactical uses but Down and Dangerous is really uninspired, judging from its description. That skill basically cancels itself (getting up faster) and gives no bonus if your gladiator doesn't get knocked down. Armoured Fortress already provides some extra defense, even for prone fighters. And the War tree already has more than enough "may or may not do something" skills.

I'd suggest to move the faster recovery effect to Light as a Feather where it belongs from day 1 and come up with something else that is supposed to compete with Armoured Fortress. There are quite many possible alternatives. Damage deflection with returned bleeding at level 10 (Spiked Armour?), increased Critical Protection with some (reasonably low) chance to halve the attack damage at level 10, maybe even something offensive like reducing the off-hand weapon damage penalty and adding extra Attack Power at level 10 (Ambidexterity or something), just to name a few thing which would really make me think if I should take Armoured Fortress or the other skill.

I don't agree with Kreegan on alot of things but this is one of those cases where we are actually on the same page. The fact that wars get stronger when prone yet get up faster really defeats the purpose of the skill as a whole + it's a skill wholy dependant on the opponent even knocking them down (or them being an idiot and slipping on a forgotten skull or something :p)

Let's put it in a war's perspective: I want to be on the ground! *trips* oh....*gets back up and dusts armour*

Something isn't adding up here :)

[Nate]

Thanks for the feedback, and I'm glad to see many of your are excited for the new skills. For those of you not interested in War's new skill that's ok and totally understandable, not everyone will like everything. For players who manage War gladiators and think a number of their losses are due to having to fight from the ground a lot, this new skill is another option for them, a new tool for their toolbox if they would like to include it. You may want to reserve judgement until it is actually live in the arena. If it still isn't something you want or don't think is useful, Armoured Fortress isn't going anywhere and may be the better choice for you in that case.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Kreegan]

I knew you would say that. :) The problem with this concept is that you are suggesting to lose less due to the excessively frequent knockdowns but to lose more due to the loss of defense that Armoured Fortress provides. I get it, it's a trade, but not a good one. You can build a strategy around getting hit less often or around reducing the fighting efficiency and exhausting the opponent but you can't really plan around getting eventually knocked down.

But OK, let's see how it works first. What are the chances to be replaced if it turns to be less-than-good?

[Nate]

What are the chances to be replaced if it turns to be less-than-good?

"less-than-good" is a value judgement based on opinion and perspective. Your "less-than-good" may be someone's "great". As always skills can be massaged and modified as everything else has been in the game but it will be done via data analysis, not complaining on the forums or gut feelings.


but you can't really plan around getting eventually knocked down

Now you can. :)


Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Kreegan]

I'll give an example. In my personal, biased and flawed in a completely human way opinion War Cry is a less-than-good skill because it has very very narrow tactical application and is completely neglected in the upper brackets (frankly I rarely see it used in the lower brackets as well). It is probably mathematically and statistically (i.e. what may happen on the average if you use it 10 000 times) a very nice skill but the practical usage shouts "it works not, man!". Maybe there is one particular, secret build out there for which War Cry does wonders but that doesn't change anything because there are dozens of builds for which Hamstring, Rampage, Brute Force, etc. skills do wonders and you don't need to dedicate time just to discover that build for the sake of it, their usefulness is self-evident.

So, what I'm actually asking is if Down and Dangerous turns to be another War Cry, is it going to be modified/replaced?

Ah, let me finish with something positive because the last few posts might just create the impression that I'm only criticizing (how terrible of me). The fishnets look really nice. And the whips... I can imagine a few Theatrics managers switching to female fighters just because of them. ;)

[Nate]

There will always be skills, races, builds, etc that some think are better than others. The majority might even think a certain way. That doesn't make it correct though. There are no sacred cows in the game, if data indicates something needs to change then one day it will change.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Nate]

Will nets and whips still do something if you haven't trained entangle?

Nets and whips can still be used like any other weapon without the entangle skill, however, they won't do any of the cool tricks that come with having the entangle skill.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-