Goblin Squad Member
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So they mentioned in one of the video blogs that the 4 classes they expect to be operational when EE kicks off are mage, rogue, warrior, cleric if I recall correctly.
If it takes 2+ years to max out a class, and people are motivated not to switch classes in order to gain the capstone skills, are all the "mains" of a good portion of the community going to end up being those 4 classes? How are we going to explore the other classes as they come online if the capstones encourage us not to branch out into other classes, and you have to pay to gain xp per character?
Destiny's Twin may alleviate this in some degree but I know personally that I'm not going to be paying more than 1 subscription. I just don't see how I'm going to play around with the other classes and I imagine others will be in the same situation.
In most MMOs you can just roll up an alt and start leveling it to check out a new class, but how do you do that here without shutting off XP on your "main" or paying an additional fee?
Are we going to see skew in class distribution as a result?
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Goblin Squad Member
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Somebody better at answering will link the needed blogs, but the gist of it is the 4 primary archetypes already have many of the base skills you need to train for the other classes. So while it is true that the first characters to cap out 2.5 years from now will be dedicated wizards, fighters, clerics and rogues; some of the other classes won't be too far behind. A Paladin for instance was training as fighter and Cleric before Paladin became available so they had a pretty big head start over a day 1 Paladin.
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Goblin Squad Member
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If I remember right, its not capstones anymore... Dont remember what though.
Either way, you can gain max skill in any "class" in 2.5 years. At any time you can change "class." At any time you max out a "class," you will get the maximum for that "class."
I use class in quotes since this is a skill based game and classes are in name only. Skills can be picked up for anything during any time.
You are never forced to be one class. Now, to add to that, you will have to slot abilities which may limit you to using the abilities of one "class" at a time.
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Goblin Squad Member
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So, a character which starts out as an Elven Wizard might become a Drow Sorcerer... BUT given that the class options don't line up perfectly, they could have a few Wizard specific options 'left over'. Obviously, the later the extra classes are added the greater this discrepancy will be, but all members of the new classes will be on essentially equal footing.
I suspect there are going to be a lot of 'mixed class' characters anyway. Given that low level abilities are easier to pick up than high level ones it will likely be tempting to grab a couple of minor 'out of class' options.
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Goblin Squad Member
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It's no longer a capstone ability, but rather a dedication bonus when using skills from one archetype or similar archetypes (such as cleric & paladin).
Discussed a little more in this thread here.
Effectively, take all the 'fighter' skills early in the game, build up your hitpoints, weapons skills, fortitude save etc, then when the 'barbarian' comes out, slot the skills you learn from that archetype and viola! You're a shiny, happy barbarian!
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Goblin Squad Member
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True. I plan on being a 'mixed class'. I will focus heavily on rogue but with a touch of wizard skills until sorcerer role comes out then will basically be a rogue/sorcerer.
The dedication bonus has never really interested me. Now that could change if the bonus is really impressive, but I don't want them to be overpowered.
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Goblin Squad Member
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It's no longer a capstone ability, but rather a dedication bonus when using skills from one archetype or similar archetypes (such as cleric & paladin).
Discussed a little more in this thread here.
Effectively, take all the 'fighter' skills early in the game, build up your hitpoints, weapons skills, fortitude save etc, then when the 'barbarian' comes out, slot the skill you learn from that archetype and viola! You're a shiny, happy barbarian!
I think the linked thread answered my concern, thanks Jiminy. If the dedication bonus applies to your slotted skills (as opposed to trained skills) and you don't permanently "lose out" on something (like a capstone skill) then my concern disappears.
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Goblin Squad Member
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...people are motivated not to switch classes in order to gain the capstone skills,
That motivation may be smaller than you think.
If you want to be the first to get that final class ability you'll want to stay 'pure'. But those who spend a month of xp dipping into other classes will get the exact same capstone skill - just a month later.
Which choice is 'better' in the meantime depends on your playstyle, your guild needs and a host of other factors.
Also, if you want to be the first to get the ranger capstone, then working from your existing archer fighter/rogue is going to be much quicker than starting a new character, since you already will have the stats and basic abilities.
Unless you want to wear a different face, there is no reason to turn off your main to focus on an alt - training everything on your main will just give you even more options.
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Goblin Squad Member
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True. I plan on being a 'mixed class'. I will focus heavily on rogue but with a touch of wizard skills until sorcerer role comes out then will basically be a rogue/sorcerer.
The dedication bonus has never really interested me. Now that could change if the bonus is really impressive, but I don't want them to be overpowered.
I have always been a multiclasser who prefers to experiment with odd combinations. I don't expect to cap for 5 years :(
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Goblin Squad Member
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This is where my confusion came from:
"At 20th level—the maximum level currently supported by the Pathfinder RPG—characters that haven't multiclassed earn a "capstone ability," a special and really cool power reserved for characters who chose to master a single class throughout their adventuring career."
I assume that's out of date, it was from an older thread than the one Jiminy linked above. That style of capstone ability strongly encourages you to not multiclass
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Goblin Squad Member
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This is where my confusion came from:
"At 20th level—the maximum level currently supported by the Pathfinder RPG—characters that haven't multiclassed earn a "capstone ability," a special and really cool power reserved for characters who chose to master a single class throughout their adventuring career."I assume that's out of date, it was from an older thread than the one Jiminy linked above. That style of capstone ability strongly encourages you to not multiclass
Long since gone the way of the dodo.
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Goblin Squad Member
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This is where my confusion came from:
"At 20th level—the maximum level currently supported by the Pathfinder RPG—characters that haven't multiclassed earn a "capstone ability," a special and really cool power reserved for characters who chose to master a single class throughout their adventuring career."I assume that's out of date, it was from an older thread than the one Jiminy linked above. That style of capstone ability strongly encourages you to not multiclass
Yeah, that was dropped for many reasons. Not least because you didn't see any benefit of 'class specialization' until you reached the end of developing the class (~2.5 years). The 'dedication bonus' system will instead grant a bonus for class specialization right from the start.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Yeah, that was dropped for many reasons.
Good to know. Someone needs to make/expand the PFO Wiki and keep it up to date with all the current known info :P Since a lot of it is scattered about in threads and blogs
I nominate Nihimon!
Just FYI, I'm on vacation today and tomorrow, so posting will be fairly light.
I very much appreciate the vote of confidence, but there are quite a few others who are just as capable of digging up the relevant info - as Jiminy proved above.