We’re happy to see all the discussion regarding the new Evade mechanic we’re planning to include in 1.1. We have noticed that discussions can be hard to have without the full details about this new mechanic. As such, we’re posting a breakdown of the current implementation that we are internally testing here to help with the discussion.
Evade
Evade is a new universal movement ability for characters from level 1. This is a new tool to add onto your existing tool belt. We expect this to be a fun new mechanic that opens up new build opportunities and spices up combat.
Details:
- No damage immunity (no i-frames).
- New action button: Space by default
- Controller Button: B on Xbox, O on PlayStation, Button 3 on generic
- Does not use one of your 5 action bar slots
- Cooldown:
- 4s with 2 Charges
- 0.5% increased cooldown recovery speed per level
- It is affected by the Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed stat.
- This cooldown is independent and is not shared with traversal skills.
- Charges recharge sequentially, not simultaneously
- No skill tree
- Evade may have triggers or other mechanics tied to them through items, other skill/passive trees, and possibly new sources in the future, too.
- Increased travel speed (but not distance) with increased move speed stat.
- Haste does affect this.
- Distance is roughly 80% of Rogue’s dash.
Design Intention:
We are constantly working to improve the underlying gameplay systems. This is a feature that we have considered for years. In the past, we’ve gone so far as to prototype it, but the game wasn’t quite ready for it yet. Our intention with this version is focused around fun and feel. Evade brings a bump in battlefield mobility that enables new playstyles to flourish. With this mix of cooldown duration, charges, speed and “need to use”, we feel that Evade is usually available when you want it and you aren’t just using it on cooldown.
One of the goals of this new Evade ability is to make traversal skills feel like less of a necessity and more of a build decision. We expect that the majority of builds will continue to use traversal ability alongside Evade. This new option will open up some new builds that were previously too clunky to shine due to the limited battlefield repositioning you could do. For example, pure summoning builds or maybe a shapeshift form that needs a little extra mobility.
We also want to have the freedom to design harder and more dynamic boss encounters. Some new boss mechanics could heavily benefit from being able to get out of danger quickly. In the past, most players take a traversal ability, however not all do. This means that we have not been able to design encounters with abilities that too strongly encourage a movement burst, as it would force players to take a traversal ability in their limited ability loadout. Adding Evade allows us to design encounters knowing that all characters have access to move out of danger quickly. This does not mean that every fight will exclusively focus on fast-reaction one-shot mechanics. This is another tool that we can use to make new styles of boss fights. The degree to which Evade is encouraged to be used in boss fights will be varied to fit the mechanics of that individual fight.
While we’re finding many previously designed encounters that do benefit from this new mechanic, we will continue to update previous encounters with slight mechanic updates that may benefit from the use of evade if it fits with that particular boss encounter.