Spell System Revamp 2015-05-21 15:00 - [Dy7]

While we’re waiting for the WAKFU beta test tomorrow, here’s a preview of the spell system revamp for you.
Several reasons lie behind these changes, the chief of them being that the current spell system was based on 100 levels. At level 175, several issues became obvious, namely, the absence of player choice. Furthermore, having active spells spread over ten levels and passive spells spread over twenty levels created far too many restrictions for no real reason.
 
We have therefore decided to make changes to the system by reintroducing the concept of choice, by implementing active and passive spells across fewer levels and by rewarding the player with power spikes for unlocks (of spells, passive spells, “slots,” etc).
 

Decks

This is a set of spells and passive spells that you select at the beginning of a battle depending on who your opponent is. It will replace the old system and... will change everything! Effectively, it lets you put your strategy in place through the management of your spells and passive spells. Even so, there are still some rules:

• You must have added a spell to your deck before you can use it in battle.
• You must have added a passive spell to your deck before you can use it in battle.
• You can change the spells in your deck at any time, except in combat!

 

Active and passive spells

In the past, active and passive spells used to span several levels. We have removed the part where you had to build up your active and passive spells at each level with points.
From now on, active spells have only one level. As for passive spells, these will have only one or two levels.
 
Each active and passive spell is unlocked at a specific character level and passive spells level up by themselves at certain character levels. Here’s an example: a passive spell that is unlocked at level 20 and adds +60 Dodge would level up automatically at level 120 and would add +180 Dodge.
 
All of these unlocks take place as a character levels up, from level 1 to level 200.

Elemental spells

These have also undergone some significant changes. We increased the number of playable elemental spells by increasing the XP attributed to spells. For reference purposes, we began with a base of 5 elemental spells at level 1, increasing up to a total of 10 elemental spells at level 200. At the same time, we removed the limitation that meant a single-element character had less playable spells than a multi-element character, which has no purpose in this new system.
 
We also decided to replace the “spell lock” (padlock) system at level 100. The reason for changing this is to make this one of the level 100+ rewards, allowing players to easily alter their builds as they so wish.
In actual fact, all the changes made to this element in the previous patch mean it’s now quicker to decrease a spell’s level in favor of others if players want to change direction.
     

FAQ 

How do you add spells or passive spells to a deck? 

Simply open the deck management page (the default shortcut for this is S), which is about to replace the old spell interface. When you’re in the interface, you have two ways of adding a spell:

• Click on an empty spell slot, which opens up the spell page, then select the spell you want.
• Click on the spell tab, which opens up the spell page (which looks like the current interface). You can then drag and drop the selected spells into the empty slots.

 
Tip for pros: You can also drag and drop spells from one deck to another to swap spells!
Spells you add to your deck will appear in exactly the same order in your spell bar.
 
This will work in exactly the same way for passive spells, but via the passive spell page.
 
 

How many spells and passive spells can I put in my deck?

The number of spell and passive spell “slots” that are available will increase with character level.
We haven’t yet decided at which levels each spell and passive spell slot will unlock, but we can already tell you that at level 200–which will soon be unlocked–you’ll have up to 12 spell slots and 6 passive spell slots.
 
 

You mention “spells” and “passive spells,” but what’s the deal with “elemental spells” and “active spells”?

What we are now going to be calling “spells” includes elemental spells AND active spells.
This means that for each spell slot, you’ll be able to allocate either an elemental spell or an active spell!
However, you’ll only be able to allocate passive spells to passive spell slots.
 
 

Are these new active and passive spells going to be as good as my old active and passive spells?

The new active spells will be pretty nearly as strong as your old active spells at max level. The new passive spells are different than the old ones. We removed some of their bonuses, but we also separated them out into different passive spells, and we added quite a few new ones at the same time.
Among these new passive spells, some are “simple” characteristic bonuses, some are game mechanic-based–either existing or new–and the others are spell modifiers. The latter will change how a spell works, either to make it better or just different.
The new way this works has enabled us to create more clear-cut builds for characters, with greater emphasis on character speciality preferences.
 
 

It’s great that you’re increasing the number of elemental spells! But isn’t that going to be a bit too much?

Uh, no, since the limit on how many spells are actually playable is already managed by the deck system. In any case, even after players have reached the max level–whether it be level 200 or the current max level–they’ll continue to gain spell XP and, with a lot of effort, they’ll be able to acquire every elemental spell at maximum level.
 
 
For more details and to see it first-hand, log in to the beta starting tomorrow, Friday the 22nd of May!