One thing about my character - he was aiming to become a pure fighter/tank so up to now blind, fear or root are three options i havent taken. In fact I only gained a few levels in magery - the majority of my work was in fight. I have played the tank role on several games in the past and quite enjoy the role of meat-shield in high end groups and keeping the more brittle group members safe. The only reason I took speed up was hopefully as a sprint replacement and so that higher levels might allow me to get from A to B faster.
By my guessing its making use of the above spells to assist in escape, seeing as Ozric doesnt actually post any helpful advice but continues to say an option is there and I am not thinking hard enough (yes i had considered these as possible options but that makes my character what he should not become a fighter/mage hybrid). This all makes me wonder about the games actual design - if specific skills are obviously far better than others ( the use of ID rather than bleed for example and having to take particular options rather than having a simple sprint facility as mentioned ) wont this make for a lot of cookie-cutter characters in Ryzom thus taking away from the diversity found in many other mmorpgs ?
Many players already have balanced a number of levels in fighting/magic/harvesting/crafting as they see a need to do so, however this is removing a lot of diversity from the game, at least from the low to middle levels. Couple this with problems with ranged combat and I have seen a lot of players running around with a 2hand weapon because this seems to be the way to go for many - range is borked and 1hand does less damage for more stamina - I seem to be living in a world of clones.
The combat in game so far is actually pretty bland with a limited number of options to use in most fights (I know that most mmorpgs you simply click attack and use skills during a fight but Ryzoms subset of usable skills in combat is limited to say the least), if the game actually pushes towards several skills being 'needed' as well, how many players will be playing this game far into the future ? Taking Asherons Call as an example - how many people on there went og mage or life archer ? I dont want Ryzom to becoma a game of cookie cutter characters.
It has been interesting to read on other threads how some players simply stick increased damage on autoattack to fight then use self heal when its up, or how mages use acid acid fear acid acid fear... it looks to me like the tactical aspects of fighting just aren't present.
Yes, I have complained about the poor con system and lack of a sprint option but just adding these to the problems above makes me think that Ryzom will become a very boring game as a fighter - pick fight you know you can handle (you will have died many times finding out which mobs are suitable) and cant lose from a mob wandering on its own, run up and click autoattack increase damage, rinse, repeat.
Compare this to a fight with my enforcer on AO who has brawl, fastattack, bioshield, trollform, layers, mongo, colossus damage buffs, perk specials etc, etc to use in a fight and can handle an add by either legging it or by careful use of timed specials in a fight and couple this with the far wider arrangement of equipment and skill options and you can see where I am going with this argument... In 100 levels time I will still be using increased damage X, still looking for a mob i can handle on its own. Looking further down the skill tree for fight I cant see any diverse combat options opening up.
Yes, you can train up in all skill areas in Ryzom and maybe most people will - this does sound good at first - everyone can be everything - but where is the diversity in the game WHEN everyone IS everything ?
I am beginning to get that feeling that Ryzom just isn't for me. I want my character to be an individual who lends his expertise to a group with his specialised skills or who can use good tactics in solo combat without becoming a mage
