Ability overload

[aaronmv]

Does anyone else feel like you just get too many abilities in this game?

I feel like between the abilities you can select at level up, spells you can design, combo abilities, relic abilities and the various reputation abilities, there are just so many abilities that many end up being useless.

Almost feels to me like I should select passive abilities with my level ups and let my reputation skills and spells do the rest of the work for me.

[Undead Llama]

Agreed, there are a lot of abilities and skills to keep track of in this game.

Personally, I think the UI is most at fault in this case - having only 10 inputs to manage hotbar abilities is insufficent. Adding shift and ctrl keys to interact/step the 1- 0 input to the appropriately bound ability or spell would help mitigate this.

[suejak]

There are a lot of abilities for sure, but part of the game is deciding which to prioritize and, as you say, maybe opt for some passives. Your reaction is normal strategic thinking that's obviously intended by the designers.

[Rowley]

There are far too many abilities shoved at you, yes. It'd be fine if you didn't get at least a half a dozen actives from faction reputation alone, plus artifacts. But if you're a spellcaster then things start getting redundant very quickly.

[Nod to get Booped]

I like the sheer amount of options. As time goes on, I find that new skills will make others that I relied on obsolete, but c'est la vie. And yeah, there is a definite lack of space on the hotbar; but you can pause the game (which, imo, this battle system is designed with pause/issue commands/unpause as a default) and open up the individual menus.

I can see why some people would have an issue with it, I just think more options is (usually) better.

[Sarsben]

I did feel this way somewhat, though I think I had a bigger issue with the number of collapsible submenus for different ability types than I did with the total number of abilities. I ended up mostly using standard combat abilities and some spells, occasionally using combo abilities, and very rarely using faction or item abilities (mainly just when I remembered that they existed).

As others have said, though, I think the abundance of abilities is less about saying "try to use all these abilities all the time" and more about providing a wealth of tactical and character build options to parse as you see fit. I think it also reinforces the open ended character advancement systems-- ie skills go up as you use them, abilities unlock as you level characters up, item abilities improve with use, reputation abilities are enhanced with bigger reputation changes, combo abilities are tied to companion relationships, etc, as opposed to to making it totally dependent on earning experience and gaining levels.

Definitely something that could be cleaned up in a hypothetical sequel or expansion though.

[Gertjan]

This is a good thing, it allows a lot of playstyles.

Specialise, share the abilities between the party and try to get synergies.
In addition, there is the pause ability, which largely removes the need for a larget hotbar.

[NPC_LUKE]

I fart uncontrollably at all times of the day. Is it strange that I find the smell of my own farts very satisfying?

[Undead Llama]

Originally posted by LOL_PENIS:

I fart uncontrollably at all times of the day. Is it strange that I find the smell of my own farts very satisfying?

Not at all; farting is one of the primal joys of life. Embrace your inner fart demon, and fumigate the world!

[MaDeuce]

They basically took everything ♥♥♥♥♥♥ about modern mmorpg designs and made a single-player game out of it.

[Nod to get Booped]

They don't have in-game microtransactions, MaDeuce, so they didn't take everything.

[Alex]

Loads of abilities, total confusion and boring classes. I can't get into this game even how hard I try. POE was even worse, though.

The problem isn't really that your character has many choices, that's generally good. The issue comes when you have to micro-manage a whole party and all of them got craploads of abilities. There really should be a "simplistic" setting for this game, because it's right up my alley if it weren't so incredibly tedious.

Real time should be less abilities, less mess. Turn based, bring all the abilities you want, devs, as long as there's some kind of balance.