Classes, Skills, and Passives
Class Design
Judd briefly describes the process in which they design new and distinct classes/masteries within Last Epoch.
September 6, 2023
Rhykker: Amongst those 15 current masteries, each of them seems to fill some unique niche. How do you manage to keep adding more and make them all remain distinct?
Judd: Yeah, that’s a great question. So going into the design process of that a little bit you, of course, start with defining a strong class fantasy for a class when you’re working with the team there. You look at maybe what doesn’t exist in the game or what might be lacking or if there’s an element that might not be utilized enough in the game. Another tactic we use is making sure that we define what a class is not going to have. So, for example, the Mage class does not have minions and will not have minions and that keeps it from being so that the classes end up being homogenized in a way that we don’t want to end up having.
Rhykker: That’s very interesting. So for every class you kind of have like a “is not list” on it?
Judd: We do and it’s not always, you know, minions or something like that but there will usually be things that we say like this class isn’t going to have this type of element associated with it or it won’t have this mechanic or something like that. It does help us keep them differentiated.
Source: YouTube Link
Remaining Masteries
Both the Falconer and Warlock are set to release at 1.0. Mike provides a few details concerning active development of the remaining masteries – from their skills being designed and prototyped, skills being repurposed or incorporated into other skills, and even some visuals that are being worked on.
September 14, 2022
Q: When can we expect the missing masteries to be finished?
Dan: We’ve actually already have a pretty clear vision of what we’re going to do for the Runemaster. We definitely have kind of come together to talk about the Runemaster and figured out what we want to do. We’re going to be putting that together as we approach open beta and up to 1.0.
Source: YouTube Link
During the February 10, 2023 dev stream, Mike and Judd showcase concept art of the Falconer’s Falcon minion. Then on April 5, 2023 a texture mock-up of the Falcon is shown across EHG’s social media accounts.
March 17, 2023
Q: Can you describe some ideas for Runemaster or Warlock?
Mike: Not really. I think that – uh, we haven’t released a lot of info about it yet and so there’s not a lot I can talk about when it comes to these mastery classes yet. We do have their skills designed and some prototypes are being worked on right now actually for them. So there’s work being done on them again, which is good news for everyone waiting for those. They will be in at 1.0, I can tell you that much.
Source: YouTube Link
April 7, 2023
Q: When will the remaining masteries be unlocked or become available?
Mike: 1.0. We’re working hard on them right now. I know VFX – our lead VFX artist was doing a ton of work on them this week and there’s some cool stuff coming out. The visuals, the Falconer visuals, are shockingly difficult to get right but they’re coming together really nicely and I’m very pumped for them.
Source: YouTube Link
April 21, 2023
Q: Have you talked about adding new or completely reworking spells/skills to existing masteries?
Mike: Yeah, there’s a – here’s something, here’s a little leak for you, write this down, one of the three new masteries is actually going to be getting a revamped version of an existing skill as one of their mastery abilities. Yeah, like there’ll be other – where it’s coming from will have something else put in its place.
Source: YouTube Link
April 21, 2023
Q: Tempest Strike Falconer?
Mike: [Mike laughs] No. One of the abilities somewhere else on that class in general. For example, like one of the either Spellblade, Sorcerer, or Mage abilities is going to be on Runemaster…for example. I’m not saying it’s specifically that one. It could be one of the other two as well.
Source: YouTube Link
April 28, 2023
Q: Will the Runemaster have a pet like a water elemental or something?
Mike: There’s…uh, I don’t actually have an answer for this right now weirdly enough. Maybe. Two weeks ago I would have said no. [Mike laughs] The fifth skill slot for Runemaster is actually back up for negotiation after it got incorporated into one of the other skills.
Source: YouTube Link
May 5, 2023
Q: What’s the coolest unreleased mastery and why is it Warlock?
Mike: They’ve each got something really unique and cool and interesting about them that’s different, that we haven’t seen before, it’s a new mechanic, and it’s just different and new and cool. A lot of times different is a really big part of it. It’s kind of interesting stuff that we’ve tried to make work on other classes before, we tried to implement before, and just didn’t quite have the tech for it – things like that. I think I’m most excited about Falconer, personally. We’ve been working a lot on Runemaster lately so I’m really hyped on Runemaster, personally, just because that’s what we’ve been working on lately. We actually just combined two skills into one and added another new skill.
Source: YouTube Link
May 19, 2023
Q: Any info you can give on any of the 3 unreleased masteries?
Mike: Sure, I can tell you where they’re at in development. So they’re all going to be released at 1.0, it’s the plan. The Runemaster is the farthest along, it’s got the most stuff done on it. It has all of its base skills implemented, skill trees have gone through ideation, base VFX is very far along on all of them, conversion for nodes we think we want conversions for are started for most of them and possibly finished, pretty sure animations are in for them. Ah what else…Runemaster is basically just like skill trees and good to go. Which is “just skill trees” – just five full skill trees…no big deal right? It’s a lot of work, but still yeah. I think that’s probably the next thing we’re doing on those masteries.
Source: YouTube Link
June 9, 2023
Mike: I’ve been working on skills again. I’ve been back in the skills saddle and apparently I really enjoy that, so that’s been great. I’ve been working on a new Runemaster projectile skill, yeah!
Source: YouTube Link
June 9, 2023
Q: Is there anything you can tease for the upcoming masteries?
Mike: Ah, not really. Um, one of them has a special UI element that goes with it.
Source: YouTube Link
June 16, 2023
Q: Has the dev team started work on the 3 missing masteries or not?
Mike: They are very much in work. All I’m doing right now is working on Runemaster, a bunch of us are. I’m working on – there’s two nodes left in one of their abilities that I’m struggling with. I can’t get a raycast to detect the right things, the right layer…something about the layer mask and the raycast, I’m not sure what it is. I’m almost positive it’s going in the right direction but it’s just returning nothing every time.
We’re trying to work out a new way to have abilities interact with other abilities, so it’s got to see if it’s going to hit another one and do something in response. It’s not playing nice. It’s being kind of a jerk, you know. [Mike laughs]
Source: YouTube Link
June 16, 2023
Q: Can we get a sneak peak of the Warlock and Falconer?
Mike: I don’t really have anything to share about those right now. Runemaster is definitely the farthest along of the three so far. Yeah, there’s stuff happening for them, they’re coming along, they’re advancing, they’re going to be sweet. I don’t really have anything to share with those.
Source: YouTube Link
June 16, 2023
Q: Will Runemaster be closer to Trapsin gameplay from Diablo 2, or you can’t say yet?
Mike: Ah no, it’s not going to be like a Trapsin. Trapsin was cool, but it’s not going to be like a Trapsin. Runemaster is huge, there’s a lot. I don’t know all the abilities off the top of my head. That’s all I’m working on right now.
Source: YouTube Link
June 16, 2023
Q: Are there any details that you can disclose about the new classes? Like high level mechanics/playstyle?
Mike: Not really. We’re kind of keeping that stuff under wraps, a little bit, until it gets closer to pushing it out. There’s some general stuff that you can kind of glean from it, just by what they are. The Falconer will be similar to Rogue – a high mobility class, lots of stuff it’s doing, fast attacking. There’s lots of stuff like that. There’ll be a falcon involved, you know. [Mike laughs] There’s not a lot of revelations I can share with it, sorry. They’ll fit really nicely into their classes.
There are certain abilities that we’ve kind of made and developed over the last couple of years with the masteries that are coming in mind. Like, for example, Glacier is kind of Runemaster-y, a little bit. It’s Sorcerer/Runemaster, but it’s Runemaster a little bit, especially the visuals if you look at how those spawn in. The same with Flame Ward, like you got those visuals there. We have sort of tried to preempt it with tie-ins from base class skills already, to the point where one of the Warlock skills is actually going to be – we’re taking a base class skill and it’s going to be one of the Warlock mastery skills.
Source: YouTube Link
June 16, 2023
Q: You previously said that the fifth Runemaster skill was back up for negotiation. Has that skill been filled yet? And did the pet skill win out?
Mike: It has been filled. It is not a pet skill. Also, it was Falconer with the fifth skill that we were talking about, I think, not Runemaster, and it has been filled and it is a pet skill. I could be wrong, maybe it was Runemaster as well. Either way Runemaster skills are all finalized. All of the Runemaster skills have their skill trees design finished and implementation is well on its way. We actually had our first internal Runemaster playtest this morning, just to get a feel for it, but mostly to see if the class mechanic was fun. [Mike laughs] Spoiler alert, it is!
Source: YouTube Link
June 30, 2023
Aaron: People have asked me this a lot and I think I’ve incorrectly reinforced this idea that the Runemaster class will be focused around traps – like it’ll be a trapper class and the original plan where it was also going to have golems and all this type of stuff. Anything you can share as far as theming? Similar to how you talk about how Warlock’s going to be like Jafar. Can you kind of break down theming of Runemaster?
Mike: Yeah, I don’t have as strong of a touchstone theme that I can call on like that with Runemaster. It definitely hits a fair few similar theming notes as Sorcerer does. There’s a lot of theme overlap there for sure – not with mechanical theme but like theme-theme. What we’ve actually been working on is having those feel and be distinct from each other, which is pretty important.
Aaron: But golems – am I going to be able to have an army of golems?
Mike: No, sorry. No golems. I’ll tell you that one for free.
Aaron: So the three golems on screen right now that’s just where we’re going to be?
Mike: Those are your golems. Golems are, at least for now, going to be a Necromancer skill. Though, elemental golems is a theme that I feel like there’s a good chance we’ll revisit at some point in the future, but it’s not going to be part of Runemaster…sorry.
Source: YouTube Link
July 14, 2023
Q: Anything you can share on Warlock, Falconer, or Runemaster?
Mike: Uh, not really. I know there’s some more information that’s probably going to be available in the not too distant future. I wouldn’t say soon. Runemaster development is coming along very strongly. I’m very pleased with how Runemaster development is coming along. The other two are lagging behind a little bit right now but we specifically do one at a time so it makes sense.
Runemaster has a lot of options…a lot of options, I’ll say that. Like a lot of options. [Mike laughs] The number of options where like – when we were initially talking about it was like, ‘We could do this. Haha, yeah right! I mean, we could do that. Okay, let’s do it!’ [Mike laughs]
Source: YouTube Link
July 21, 2023
Q: My only criticism would be the missing classes. There have been so many tuning passes on all the unlocked ones that it’s very likely going to feel wonky and unbalanced for a while to come when the new ones get released.
Judd: Love to hear that you’re getting that much enjoyment out of the game already in early access. We have made significant progress on the remaining masteries and I must say they are showing us what we are now capable of and are very cool.
Source: Reddit Link
August 4, 2023
Q: Any Warlock leak/teaser?
Mike: There’s some new tech we had to develop for Warlock to work, concerning it’s defining mastery mechanic. It’s this thing that shows up here. [Mike opens the passives window and points to the “Passive Bonuses” section] I don’t really know how to tease that properly, I’m sorry. I got nothing.
One of the skills – so we’re making five new skills for Warlock, one of which is actually going to be added to Acolyte and we’re pulling an Acolyte skill into Warlock because we think it just fits really well.
Source: YouTube Link
August 4, 2023
Q: How often do you have to introduce new code functionality when developing new skills?
Mike: Every single skill that I’ve worked on has always had to add new functionality. There’s always been something new for every skill. It’s like, ‘Yeah we should add that.’ Sometimes they’re really tiny things and sometimes they’re huge things. There was a – Runemaster skills that I’ve been working on recently, I almost said the name of one of them…I’ll just call them Runemaster skills. [Mike laughs] There’s been quite a lot of stuff recently that have been introducing a lot of new mechanics for skills. It’s really common because so frequently whenever we’re making a new skill and we’re like, ‘Okay well it’s got to be distinct from…’ – like there’s so many other skills that are just naturally similar.
Okay, you’re making a projectile skill on Runemaster, let’s say, and you’re like, ‘Okay well we’ve got Lightning Blast, Fireball, Static, Disintegrate, Glacier, Volcanic Orb and they all have elements of that already.’ There’s so many things that have projectile elements to them. You may not consider Meteor a projectile skill but it kind of is in a sense and there’s just so many of these. So you’re like, ‘Oh it’s kind of like that in this other skill. How do we make it unique?’ Most the time it’s just like, ‘Well how we’re going to make it unique is by making new functionality that didn’t exist when we made that other skill.’ [Mike laughs]
There’s this new ability that’s a channeling ability but it behaves differently than other channeling abilities and so we had to make a bunch of new functionality around skills and channeling abilities to detect this new style of channeling ability. It’s got nothing to do with the skill really.
Source: YouTube Link
August 11, 2023
Q: What can we look forward to regarding the Warlock mastery? I was expecting what we got with the Lich. I’m ultra excited!
Mike: Yeah, so I can’t give you too many details on the Warlock. Our sort of like touchstone theme is Jafar from Aladdin, like 1990’s animated Aladdin Jafar. It’s a touchstone so I don’t want you to go into details on abilities, what he can do, that sort of stuff. It’s definitely pretty far from what their actual abilities are, but that feel of like “I am a dark wizard, I am a powerful sorcerer that doesn’t care about rules to get the job done.” So probably more similar mechanically to the Sorcerer a little bit, in certain ways, but with more an Acolyte spin on it. There’s some unique mechanics coming for it too.
I know I just said literally no information about what’s actually happening and I’m sorry but I can’t share anything yet…I’d love to. Ask me again in a few months. I hope we do like a little a pre-teaser with it.
Source: YouTube Link
August 11, 2023
Q: That’s fair on not too much detail on Warlock, but I’m super excited!
Mike: Me too, I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. There’s one ability in particular that I know the visuals have been tested for. We did some early testing on visuals for the four new Warlock abilities that are being added, with one of them coming from Acolyte that’s being pushed into Warlock so that’s why I say four. We made some new movement, like the way the abilities move through the game space visually. We added some new tech to change that for one of the Warlock abilities…actually two of the Warlock abilities had to have new tech added for that. [Mike laughs]
Source: YouTube Link
September 1, 2023
Mike: Yeah, there was a bunch of work on – like as far as the skills work that happened this patch, there was a bunch of stuff that’s prep-work and work for Warlock and Falconer that’s already been going. So you’ll see the payoff for that at 1.0, which is really good.
Source: YouTube Link
September 8, 2023
Q: The only disappointment in minions I had was that Warlock will not get cool demon minions.
Mike: Yeah, this goes back to keeping the classes distinct and interesting. So with Necromancer one of the biggest things they have in their arsenal, the main defining thing, is that they’re a summoning class. That’s like the big thing about them and if we did Warlock as a summoning class too then there’s not really a lot of room for anything else in that mastery because you’d have two summoning classes and then one non-summoning class and you’d go okay, well the majority of the class specific stuff has to be minion builds and that’s really narrow for a lot of people. That’s not to say that we won’t eventually make a fourth mastery that has minions involved in classes that have two masteries already, but it just wasn’t time to add a second minion mastery to Acolyte.
I really think Warlock’s going to be awesome. I’m excited for it and work is well underway. I think Justin said he completed one of the mutators yesterday or the day before and there’s another one that’s well underway too, it’s great.
Source: YouTube Link
Missing Skills
There are currently a number of skills still to be added or implemented across the existing masteries. These include; one skill for Shaman, Healing Hand and one more skill for Paladin, two base class skills for Rogue, and one skill each for Bladedancer and Marksman. It’s unlikely all seven missing skills will be available at launch as the focus is primarily on the completion of the two remaining masteries.
April 7, 2023
Q: Are you guys going to add skills to classes that miss them right now? Like the Rogue having 7 + 3 instead of 8 + 4 like the other classes.
Mike: Absolutely! All of the classes will have the same number of skills at 1.0 launch. [Mike opens the Skills & Specializations window for Rogue] So there’s a missing skill here, there’s a missing skill here, missing skill here, missing skill here, and there are five missing skills here. So that’s five, six, seven, eight, nine. There’s nine skills missing on the Rogue. We are actively working on them right now. They will be in at 1.0. Some of them might come before, who knows, but definitely 1.0.
Source: YouTube Link
June 9, 2023
Q: Will the skill revamps/additions be coming before 1.0? e.g. Paladin’s missing 1 skill, Shaman’s missing 1 skill, etc. Not necessarily the missing masteries specifically.
Mike: Our focus right now is getting the masteries completed and in. We want to have as many of those skills finished and ready to go as possible. It’s really going to come down to how much time is left once we finish the masteries. That’s really what it’s going to come down to, so as many of those as possible. [Mike opens Mage skills & specializations window] In a perfect world we would launch with every mastery having five skills, every base class having four skills, and every non-passive – like add five to this and they’d all look the same, like every class would have this plus five more…would be the perfect world. We know we’re having to prioritize and everything and as much of that as we can get done as possible is the goal. The missing masteries are priority number one.
Source: YouTube Link
June 9, 2023
Q: Is the plan still for all missing skills from masteries and base classes, as well as missing skill trees, to be implemented for 1.0?
Mike: I’d say there’s a good chance that some of them won’t make it into 1.0. I don’t know which ones but some of the existing missing ones will probably not quite get there. I’d say at least one base class skill on Rogue won’t make it there, I can tell you that.
Source: YouTube Link
June 20, 2023
Q: Are all classes having 5 active skills a concrete goal for 1.0?
Mike: As long as it doesn’t come at the cost of one of the new mastery skills.
Q: Why would it come at the cost of a new mastery skill? Isn’t the aim to eventually have 5 skills for every class? Or do you mean there’s not enough time to implement everything and some of those skills will be added after 1.0?
Mike: It is possible that some might come post 1.0.
Source: Discord Link
June 20, 2023
Q: Thank you Mike for making sure that each mastery will have 5 skills to create more playstyles.
Mike: They might not all have the full complement at 1.0 but will get them.
Source: Discord Link
June 23, 2023
Q: Any rumblings, rumors, innuendos, or whispers about Paladin’s 5th skill?
Mike: Um, ah, the skill…all I can tell…no, not really. I can tell you that the skill that we had originally planned to be its 5th skill got converted into a node for an existing skill. It’s not in the game yet but it will be. Mostly because it wasn’t distinct enough and we were having a tough time coming up with nodes for both of them. They’re so similar, why can’t… [Mike dies] Yeah, they were too similar and so we rolled them together. Since then we’ve come up with a new 5th skill. This was like 8 months when this all happened.
Source: Forum Link
July 21, 2023
Q: Can we get more mobility skills?
Judd: There is a new mobility skill coming in 0.9.2 that is internally a team favorite! We’ve been having some other general discussions on mobility skills that I shouldn’t share the details on just yet - but saying that so you know that mobility skills are on our mind and being talked about.
Source: Reddit Link
August 23, 2023
Q: Is there any plans or ideas about reworking Lich’s Reaper Form to make it more than just HP stat stick?
Mike: We have no intention of making Reaper form like the druid forms and giving a full set of abilities in the form.
However, it is likely that Lich will get a new ability specifically designed to have synergy with Reaper Form.
Source: Discord Link
August 30, 2023
Q: Will the Shaman be getting a 5th skill? Or more generally, will each class be updated to have the same number of skills before release? Separately, I remember when the Druid got its rework, there were plans to remove Ice Thorns and replace it, but it was left in for now. Is that still happening? Or is it staying?
Mike: Ice thorns is still on the chopping block, not sure if it will survive to 1.0 or not.
Each class will not have the same number of skills at 1.0.
Shaman will be getting a 5th skill, we have one planned for it that is going to go very nicely with the primary theme and I think be a lot of fun. I’m not sure if it will make the 1.0 cut-off or not.
And because we are talking Primalist, Tempest strike is still getting a big rework and another skill will take its place as a spam melee style skill.
Source: Discord Link
August 30, 2023
Q: Is the Paladin’s “Healing Hand” a placeholder skill? Or is it planned to give it a skill tree?
Mike: It will have a skill tree, it was supposed to get one a while back but keeps getting bumped.
Source: Discord Link
September 8, 2023
Q: Are there any plans to add one more skill to classes that only have 4 skills or are you happy with their current skill selection and don’t feel like any class fantasy is lacking?
Mike: So one thing we did decide this patch recently – so previously in the past I’ve always come into to the skill trees and been like, and lets just pretend that Frost Claw doesn’t exist and there’s this perfect grid of all of them, and I’m like see how they all fill up nicely. [Mike has the Skills & Specializations window for Mage open] It’s perfect and everything, great. Yeah they’re all going to be like this. Well…we decided that, why are we making them all the same anyways? Is it just for symmetry? Just so that it looks nice, like what’s the deal? Why are we even doing this? Um, and we couldn’t really come up with a good answer other than that it looks tidy and you don’t have people asking if there’s more skills coming or something like that.
There’s always going to be more skills coming and as soon as we start adding more skills it’s going to be off anyways so we figured hey, let’s just start putting it off now. This is part of the justification for adding Frost Claw because this does put it off from every other class immediately. So yeah, every class and every mastery will not have the same number of skills and the same skill complement as each other at 1.0. Maybe some mastery gets a sixth skill, probably not. Maybe some mastery launches with only four skills, you know, that sort of thing. There will be some slight variances in the number of skills that you see but it’s mostly just because we’re not using that as a constraint anymore.
Source: YouTube Link
Skill Updates
There’s likely to be several minor skill adjustments leading up to 1.0 and afterwards, but the often teased skill rework of Tempest Strike won’t occur until after launch. Tempest Strike is having its role changed to a heavier and bigger hitting skill that scales off of attack speed, with another melee skill coming in to take the role that Tempest Strike used to occupy and then they can finally remove the Ice Thorns skill that’s been on the agenda for years now.
February 10, 2023
Q: Any hints on the remaining Shaman skills or skill updates?
Mike: There’s not really anything I can say that I haven’t said already. There’s at least one new skill…
Judd: Are you talking about Tempest Strike?
Mike: I’ve mentioned…so what I’ve said about Tempest Strike – I’ve said Tempest Strike is going to be a pretty big overhaul, it’s going to have a new identity, it’s not really going to be sitting in the same space as Serpent Strike, Swipe, or Tempest Strike…it’s not really going to fit in that space anymore. It’s going to scale off of attack speed…ahhh, I think that’s all I’ve said about it. Oh, it’s going to be a lot heavier, a lot bigger skill.
Judd: Umm-hmm…Ice Thorns.
Mike: Ice Thorns is going. I know I’ve said that a million times over the years and no one believes me anymore, but it is. [Judd and Mike laugh] And yea, there’s another melee skill coming in to take the place that Tempest Strike holds and there’s…ahh, there’s not much else to say. There’s a new totem skill, I think, at some point. I could be wrong about that one. It’s either a new totem skill or a new branch to an existing totem skill. I can’t remember which one it is.
Source: YouTube Link
March 17, 2023
Q: Shaman 2.0 when?
Mike: There’s a bunch of Shaman reworks in the pipe. Contrary to popular belief, due to a certain video being circulated, we are not removing Tempest strike – never said we were. We are moving Tempest Strike from its current role to a new role and are changing the way it works very significantly, but the ability Tempest Strike and the core idea and fantasy of it will still remain.
Source: YouTube Link
April 7, 2023
Q: What changes are coming to Tempest Strike?
Mike: Yeah, Tempest Strike is getting a very large overhaul. It will not fill the same skill archetype and role as it attempts to fill now and fails at filling now. So yeah, they’ll be some updates. It’s going to feel a lot better, it’s going to be a lot more awesome…don’t worry.
Source: YouTube Link
April 14, 2023
Q: Is Tempest Strike on the rework list?
Mike: Yes, Tempest Strike is getting its role changed. So it’s not going to be a spammable melee skill early in the tree, it’s going to get moved later in the tree, and have its functionality tweaked – and something else is going to take that place.
Source: YouTube Link
April 21, 2023
Q: A few weeks ago you mentioned that Tempest Strike is having its general fantasy changed, can you provide any further information?
Mike: No, sorry I meant that the – I don’t know if I said fantasy – the fantasy I want to keep the same but the purpose, the functionality slot, the role it plays in your build will be changing – which is the primary thing. I don’t really have any more info other than that. It’s going to become a stronger ability – like a slower, heavier hitting ability than it is now.
Source: YouTube Link
April 21, 2023
Q: Are you moving forward with reworking Tempest Strike and its tree?
Mike: We have decided that we will move forward with that change to it. However, it’s not in the list of next things that are being worked on for skills. The current skill focus is on masteries.
Source: YouTube Link
May 5, 2023
Q: Judd mentioned that Primalist’s Ice Thorns is going away, what skill will it be replaced with?
Mike: Yes, that’s something we’ve been saying for years though so that’s not new info. Yeah, so it’s not happening this patch [0.9.1]. It will be replaced with – I don’t know if I can say the name of the skill – there’s a new skill coming that’s going to replace it. It’s kind of going to simultaneously be replacing Tempest Strike and Ice Thorns at the same time, in a weird way. There’s a bit of a shuffle that’s happening, but yeah there’s a new skill coming there. I can’t talk about it though. I’m pretty sure it’s a melee, well it’s kind of a melee skill – uh there’s no info on it yet, sorry.
Source: YouTube Link
The following was asked during the May 19, 2023 dev stream and Reimer responded in the Twitch comments so I don’t have any record of it beyond my word.
June 30, 2023
Q: Can we expect any complete overhauls of existing class skills for 1.0?
Aaron: I think Mike can answer this one but he’s going to say Shaman has some stuff going on.
Mike: Yeah, so there is a plan for Tempest Strike to get an overhaul. It’s getting moved where it is in the unlock order, it’s role in the class is getting changed, a lot of this functionality is getting shifted a little bit, and it’s tree will get redone. I don’t know if that’s going to make it in my 1.0 or not. Our whole skill team is just masteries. Once the masteries are done we’ll look at things like Tempest Strike, which will probably first on the list.
Aaron: I would be very surprised if Tempest strike in its current state…
Mike: [Mike finishes Aaron’s sentence] …gets left out for 1.0. Yeah.
Aaron: I feel like I’d be pretty upset, just because…
Mike: I really hope not but it will not be a blocking feature for 1.0, I’ll put it that way.
Aaron: Okay, no that makes sense. Tempest Strike isn’t a, ‘Nope, we got to push it back!’
Mike: Yeah, we’re not pushing 1.0 because we didn’t get Tempest Strike finished or anything like that.
Aaron: Okay, that’s fair…that’s fair. I absolutely accept that.
Mike: But yeah, Tempest Strike’s the biggest offender for sure. There’s also other skills that are kind of underwhelming, and don’t really have the same polish as some other skills that are in the game – they also might be similar or on other classes, so then we get a little bit of that class envy that happens…and things like that. We totally see all that stuff, but the masteries come first. [Mike laughs]
Source: YouTube Link
July 28, 2023
Q: What is on your priority list regarding future reworks?
Mike: Tempest Strike and Healing Hands.
Source: Discord Link
August 4, 2023
Q: Is Black Hole’s meteor node actually using the Meteor skill tree now?
Mike: That’s what I saw from that video. I actually don’t know what the video is of. I got handed the video clip with no explanation of what it is so I don’t know, or if there was an explanation I didn’t read it. Maybe I’m the terrible one that doesn’t read too. The only thing I got was it was titled Black Hole changes.
Reimer: [In Twitch comments] It’s going to yes. Because it’s…you know…meteor.
Kain: [In Twitch comments] It’s being changed to cast Meteor instead of meteor, yup.
Source: YouTube Link
August 4, 2023
Q: Maybe I missed it but did you expand on the meteor clip you showed earlier and if not, could you?
Mike: I did not. Kain expanded on it directly below, “Black Hole is being changed to cast Meteor instead of meteor.” So right now in the Black Hole skill tree there’s a node that states “Black Hole creates Meteors” and these meteors are not affected by the Meteor skill tree. I think it’s the only spot in the game right now where you can trigger another ability that doesn’t use your specializations and it’s really disappointing. [Mike laughs] Especially because it has 200 mana cost so you’re like, ‘Well it’s clearly using the real one’ but it doesn’t. It’s just savage, but now this node will use your specialized Meteors.
Source: YouTube Link
August 11, 2023
Q: Skills like Sigils or Maelstrom need to be recast so often, honestly it’s a lot of busy work. Can we expect some options: a different way to cast them like “on hit” or after walking some distance like Static Charge?
Mike: Um, maybe. I don’t want to say like, ‘Yes you can expect these’ but I think it’s reasonable to expect that we at least look at it because I do agree with you that there is room for improvement. I know Sigils – we do have plans for changing Sigils already, specifically around this. I…yeah, I don’t want to say that, sorry. We’ll look at it.
Kain: [In Twitch comments] We generally don’t want the best way to use abilities to be, not use the abilities. We’re aware they need some changes, but making them more passive generally isn’t the goal.
Source: YouTube Link
August 25, 2023
Q: Are you planning to rework or tweak Shaman?
EHG: We are planning reworks to Shaman. But they’re post 1.0 and we’re not ready to talk about them yet.
Source: Twitter Link
September 8, 2023
Mike: I do think that there’s a lot of room for more complexity, more depth in some of these older classes that haven’t had much love in a long time. Like Shaman’s probably a prime example of that where it’s got a lot of room to stand out and shine but it just doesn’t yet. It’s going to be a constant thing we’re doing all of the time – updating classes and making new, awesome stuff.
Source: YouTube Link
September 11, 2023
Q: Are there any plans to update, revisit Shaman before 1.0?
Mike: Our primary focus for next patch for skill updates is going to be on the Falconer and Warlock. There are a few others that we would really like to work on if possible but aren’t guaranteed.
Source: Discord Link
Skill Progression
There’s a plan to eventually improve the advancement of skill trees in the late game, though this likely won’t take place until after launch.
May 5, 2023
Q: Judd mentioned in his interview with Ziz that he feels there’s a sort of plateau once skills max out at 20, but there are plans to smooth that out and offer further progression for skills beyond that. Any specific ideas that could be discussed on that subject?
Mike: Uh no, I’m surprised he said that. I didn’t actually watch that clip. I’m surprised he mentioned that, but yeah we do have something in the works that we do plan to implement that will umm – I’m just taking your word for it that he said this…you could just be taking a shot in the dark and I’m like, ‘yeah, it’s true!’ [Mike laughs]
Yes, there is a plan to alter the progression curve on skills and how that unlocks and progresses into endgame. It’s in concept phase still, but it’s going to be good I think.
Source: YouTube Link
June 2, 2023
Q: Any plans to increase the impact of additional levels for skills?
Mike: Yes we do because yes that’s a good point. This is something I’ve noted before is that the value of a point in a skill tree changes based on the total number of skill points you’ve invested previously in that skill. Usually the first five points, at least, are less impactful than the next 10 points and then the next five points after that are less impactful again is usually what happens. You get those middle ten points, like the really juicy points. Usually it’s where the build comes together – you get specific key nodes, you get multiple key nodes that are really important, and then it kind of falls off again which is unfortunate.
So we do have a planned mechanical systematic change, which I know is a bunch of buzzwords, to help alleviate this problem and breathe some life into late game skill tree advancement. Am I going to say anything else on the matter? Nope, sorry. It’s still one of those things where someone’s like, ‘I got a plan’ and everyone’s like, ‘that’s a good plan, we should do that one day right? Yeah probably.’ So don’t expect it next patch.
Source: YouTube Link
Passives
The Druid rework in patch 0.8.4 brought forth the introduction of threshold nodes. Several nodes within the Druid’s passive tree received additional bonuses for placing a certain number of passive points into them. This system was well received by the community, but has yet to be fully implemented into the remainder of the base classes and their masteries.
The two remaining masteries will likely have these threshold nodes incorporated into their newly created passive trees while older passive trees will gradually see them added over time as they receive updates after launch.
June 16, 2023
Q: Are passive tree threshold nodes for all base classes & masteries a 1.0 feature or a flex feature that’s more hopeful to have by 1.0?
Mike: I would call it a flex feature. It’s something that I think will happen, or at least expanded on. Getting a few in is not that big of a deal. Some of the passives need more attention than just like, ‘Hey let’s toss a few of these nodes in.’ It’s hard to make changes like that without taking a more granular look at those trees. So, I’d say, it’s going to be an ongoing thing, and that’s just the nature of passives, in general. They’re going to continue to evolve as we go.
Source: YouTube Link
June 23, 2023
Q: Are you going to add milestone passive nodes to other classes?
Mike: Definitely yes. We have added some of those since they first initially launched and we will continue to add more. I know that we were just working on a new passive tree that does have milestone passive nodes on it already.
Source: Forum Link
New Base/Mastery Classes
Expect new masteries for the current roster of base classes to happen far in advance of new base classes being added. However, don’t expect either to happen until sometime after launch.
June 23, 2023
Q: Will there be new base classes in the future, such as a Monk, or is the roster filled?
Mike: We do plan to add more base classes in the future. We plan to add more mastery classes before we add more base classes. [Mike opens the Mage passives window] So there’ll be a fourth mastery class added here, to Mage, before there’s a sixth base class added. I say the Mage one because we know what that one’s going to be. [Mike laughs]
Source: Forum Link
June 23, 2023
Q: Will there be other characters than the originals after 1.0?
Mike: Yeah, like base classes? Yes, we do plan to expand the base classes. However, we will expand masteries first. So there will be a fourth Mage mastery before there’s a sixth base class.
Source: Forum Link
August 11, 2023
Q: I just want to punch and kick stuff to death. Do you think a class archetype like that might ever exist in LE?
Mike: I do think it will. I have a good idea as to where it might show up. It won’t be by 1.0, I can tell you that for certain. I also can’t guarantee it will because I don’t know for sure when it’ll show up, but we do have tentative plans for that type of archetype to show up in one of two places right now. We do have a little bit of an unarmed viability. There was a unique item that came out recently that helps you do a little bit of unarmed stuff but not fully.
Source: YouTube Link