Waffen

Staff 3D render by Carson Steil.^[1]

Weapons will determine a player's damage output alongside other conditions and stats.^[2]

Tank Sword concept (by Michael Bacon) and Shield concept (by Javier Perez).

There is an even split between melee and ranged weapons.^[3]

Axes (One and two handed).^[3]
Bögen.^[3]
Clubs.^[4]
Crossbows.^[5]
Daggers.^[3]
Hämmer.^[6]^[7]
Lances.^[8]
Maces (One and two handed).^[3]
Orbs.^[3]
Polearms/Halberds.^[3]
Potion launchers.^[5]
Scepters.^[9]
Shields.^[3]
Spears.^[10]
Spellbooks.^[3]
Stöcke.^[3]
Swords/Rapiers (One and two handed).^[3]^[11]
Wands.^[12]

Alpha-0 Mace.^[13]

Kaelar Tank armor concept by Mat Broome.

Die Ausrüstung hat etwa einen Einfluss von 40-50% auf die Gesamtmacht eines Spielers.^[14]

List of weapons

Item	Type	Set	Rarity	Level requirement	Source	Cost
Arcane Tome	Spellbook		Rare	12	Crafted items
Bludgeonbane	Mace		Epic	15	Crafted items
Chipped Greataxe	Axe	Chipped	Poor	2	Vendor	25
Chipped Greatsword	Sword	Chipped	Poor	2	Vendor	25
Chipped One-Handed Axe	Axe	Chipped	Poor	2	Vendor	25
Demonic Offering Aegis	Shield		Epic	15	Crafted items
Dented Shield	Shield	Dented	Poor	2	Vendor	25
Dull Greatmace	Mace	Dull	Common	5	Vendor	75
Dull One-Handed Axe	Axe	Dull	Common	5	Vendor	75
Dull One-Handed Mace	Mace	Dull	Common	7	Vendor	50
Eldritch Executioner	Sword	Eldritch	Epic	15	Crafted items
Eldritch Lightguard	Shield	Eldritch	Rare		Crafted items
Equilibrium	Mace		Epic	15	Crafted items
Glacius	Sword		Epic	15	Crafted items
Headlopper	Halberd		Epic	15	Crafted items
Iron Longsword	Sword	Iron	Common	1	Crafted items, Quest rewards
Iron Wand	Wand	Iron	Common	1	Crafted items, Quest rewards
Lava Forged Defender	Shield	Lava Forged	Rare		Crafted items
Lava Forged One-Handed Sword	Sword	Lava Forged	Rare	12	Quest rewards
Lava Forged Wand	Wand	Lava Forged	Rare	8	Quest rewards
Quill Of The Tundra	Wand		Epic	15	Crafted items
Ranseur Of Malice	Spear		Epic	15	Crafted items
Replica Of Dignitas	Axe		Epic	15	Crafted items
Sharpened Greatsword	Sword	Sharpened	Rare		Crafted items
Sharpened One-Handed Sword	Sword		Uncommon	5	Quest rewards
Silver Guardian	Sword		Rare	10
Spire Of Illusion	Mitarbeiter		Epic	15	Crafted items
Tome Of The Tundra	Spellbook		Epic	15	Quest rewards
Tundra's Torment	Halberd		Epic	15	Crafted items
Worn Mace	Mace	Worn	Poor	1	Vendor

Waffenfortschritt

Scimitar 3D render by Carson Steil.^[15]

Weapons will have their own progression paths and their own applicable types of skills.^[16]^[17]

The weapon use combo system determines special effects that proc based on weapon progression.^[16]^[18]
- Players can spec into weapon abilities that change what combinations are available, based on the type of weapon.^[16]
Ancillary effects proc based on enchantment types.^[18]
Ausrüstungsverbesserungen (power stones) can be applied to add elemental or energy types of damage.^[18]
A skill tree is used to grant effects: making them better or branching off into different directions.^[16]^[18]
Passive Fähigkeiten will enable players to work toward mastery of a weapon.^[19]
Dual wielding weapons will have its own progression based on the weapon types being dual wielded.^[20]
Weapon proficiency (based on length of use of a weapon) is not a planned feature.^[19]

Q: Are weapons balanced towards a proficiency system (i.e. the longer I use a sword, the better my damage will be), or will it be a normal RPG stat system with no long-term scaling?

A: We will not be using a proficiency system as described, but players will have passives available in their skill tree that will increase effectiveness of certain weapons. Becoming a master of swords will be something that is possible, just not in that particular manner.^[19] – Sarah Flanagan

Ashes of Creation is all about providing many progression paths... The reason why we don't like the term endgame is because with the amount of progression that's available with the amount of diversity and player agency that impacts the world... We kind of want the weapon system [to] add an element of that as well... You can determine special effects that proc from currently the combo system; you can determine ancillary effects that proc based on enchantment types; you can power stone weapons to add different either elemental types of damage and/or energy that kind of play rock-paper-scissor with player defenses ... and then you can skill tree out how those effects that are granted ... you can make them better you can branch them off into a different direction.^[18] – Steven Sharif

Weapon skill tree

Players can spec into weapon abilities on their weapon skill tree (also referred to as Combat skills^[14], and Combat tree^[21]) based on their preferred weapon classes (weapon types/weapon groups) and the grade of the weapon.^[22]^[21]^[14]^[16]

The more skill points that are allocated to the skill tree, the greater a player's weapon familiarity. This in turn unlocks various proc effects on weapon use that can offer synergy with other active skills.^[23]^[21]^[16] This synergy also applies to active skills from other characters.^[24]
Let's say a dagger has some slashing effects that bleed the target or that cripple the target... Every time you attack you have a chance to proc that effect. That effect then can synergize with what your active skills tree has available to it. So let's say your backstab deals 30 additional damage to a bleeding target. If you attack with your main weapon first and the target gets the bleed proc off and you do your backstab skill then you're synergizing your effects.^[21] – Steven Sharif

Let's say backstab that you can apply to deals damage to the target and it'll have a conditional modifier on that damage if you're behind the target, and it'll have a conditional modifier deal additional 50 damage if the target is under a bleed effect. So you want to synergize essentially your weapon proc conditions with your active skills so that you're timing your certain active skills appropriately with the status conditions that the target has taken.^[14] – Steven Sharif
Waffenfortschritt such as set bonuses may change at what level any proc effects occur.^[23]
These procs may reduce or reset cooldowns on other skills on the player's hotbar.^[25]
Using a weapon skill will in general reset the weapon use combo system.^[25]

Weapon use combo system

A weapon use combo system (also referred to as Combo system^[16], and Weapon use ability^[26]) is utilized instead of a traditional auto-attack ability in Ashes of Creation.^[16]^[27]

The combo system consists of a sequence of combat animations based on the weapon type, referred to as a combat animation montage.^[23]

Let's say for example you're using a two-handed warhammer or something and you have a number of weapon combos that play animation style based on how many combos deep you go into an attack with that warhammer. So the first is going to be like a forward swing. Second is going to be a back swing. The third is going to be swing down and the fourth is going to be some twirl that you do; and that's what we call the combo animation montage.^[23] – Steven Sharif

This system plays heavily into the weapon skill trees, which are planned for Alpha-2 and beyond.^[28]

The way that the weapon skill tree works is that at different stages of that combat montage you have available procs that can occur. The first swing might be a small stagger that decreases your opponent's accuracy by 15, that could be a proc that you could that you could spec into that decrease in accuracy- might be a status condition called stagger or bewildered or whatever- and that might exist for three or four seconds. Your second option from a skill tree perspective might be on the swing back. You have some type of tapering slow effect that lasts over three seconds- some type of tapering snare; and then the third step strike down might be some potential one second stun status modifier; and each of these you can spec into additional points to increase the chance that these proc.^[23] – Steven Sharif

Depending on class skill choice these effects will have synergy effects with the combat montage.^[23]

Depending on what your class skill choice has been those are going to have synergy effects with the weapon skill tree. So my skill called spin-to-win might do 30 additional damage on a staggered target. So I see when my proc occurs with the stagger effect on my first swing, like for me as a player I might be only interested in landing that first swing, so every now and then I'm gonna swing once and then I'm gonna use a skill and then I'm gonna come back and swing again because that'll play my first swing montage, because it's been interrupted. So I won't move to the second one because I'm really just wanna hit that stagger effect. So that's going to be how my rotation lines up. However I might have some skill that on a stun target it might be an immediate cast and it's like some power you push or power hit; and that does- it knocks back a stun target. So if the target's stunned when this skill plays, it has an added effect of knock down and now they're gonna get knocked down for an additional two seconds. Now I might spec into that and as a result I want to finish through: swing, swing, and then knock down. So I get my chance at stunning that target with that weapon skill.^[23] – Steven Sharif

Waffenfortschritt such as set bonuses may change at what level any proc effects occur and therefore enable different combo rotations.^[23]

You may have items or set bonuses that change at what level those proc occurs. So I may have a full set of battle armor that changes all third hit combo procs to second hit requirements and now I have a chance not only on my second hit to land that tapering slow but I also have a chance to land my one second stun proc because I have the full set that changes my weapon progression. So that's the way itemization works with your weapon skill tree, is you can enhance when those weapon skill trees become available in your combat montage and that can be a relevant factor in how your skill rotations come to play; and mixes with your weapon attacks.

Weapon skill choices and rotations will vary based on whether the player is more focused on PvP or PvE.^[23]

Right now some people might just say, "I don't care at all about my weapon attacks. I'm not going to invest a lot of points into that. And if I do, it's going to be primarily PvE focused where I'm more comfortable using just swinging my weapon, and I may not use them as much in PvP. I'm just going to be focused on skill rotations." That's okay, but the reason for those skill montages- back to your question- is they have a very relevant role in when certain procs come online from a weapons skill tree perspective.^[23] – Steven Sharif

Using a skill/ability (other than the weapon attack Q or left-mouse-click) will in general reset the combo.^[25]
- The developers are considering specific abilities might be able to be used without resetting the combo system.^[25]

It acts similar in the sense of the core loop of what an auto attack is so to speak; where typically your other skills have a cooldown period, they have a rotation or whatever: Our combo system is a repeatable skill effect that you can continually attack with but it's a little bit more involved than what a traditional auto attack is; and it has components from a from an advancement standpoint when it comes to the types of procs that your weapon can have during that combo system... It's not going to have the quick time event that you guys saw early on in PAX and gave great feedback on, but it is going to have development with regards to the power of the weapon the type of weapon you're using, the additional proc effects that you can skill into: Those types of things are going to make it a little bit more complex of a system capture.^[16] – Steven Sharif

Classes of weapons

In-game achievable weapons concept art.^[29]

Weapon classes (also referred to as weapon types and weapon groups) in Ashes of Creation.^[22]

Blunt weapons
Slashing weapons
Piercing weapons

Weapon targeting

Alpha-1 early hybrid combat demo.^[30]

You'll notice as I go into action mode, I have my reticle and when my reticle hovers over an enemy target, it'll turn red, essentially showing like "hey we know you have a valid target hit" that you can see; and when you press 'Q' you can lock on to that target. You can also hold tab to alternate between targets. So like that's an important aspect of the combat that we're trying to incorporate, which is mixing and meshing between tab and action, so you still have that action component but also are available to use some of your tab targeted skills.^[31] – Steven Sharif

Hybrid combat refers to the choice between tab targeted and action targeted combat in the Ashes of Creation MMORPG.^[31]^[32]

Q: Are you still considering whether the combined action/tab targeting combat will be replaced by either tab only or action only?

A: No, I think that we will find a healthy medium between the two. I think that really what it comes down to is the definition of action; and I think that there is a varying degree of opinions on what action targeting means so to speak. But as I've clearly defined in the past, and as you can research in on the Wiki, our opinion on- at least my opinion on- action combat is I think well represented in the way we want to hybridize that combat in Ashes of Creation; and I think that there is going to be a good balance between those two and it should be a seamless transition between the two as well. And you know we're going to be fleshing that out further as we move forward.^[33] – Steven Sharif

A toggle button (default Z, but can be re-bound to another key) allows the player to switch between action and tab targeted combat modes.^[34]^[35]^[30]^[36]

The action mode utilizes a targeting reticle and is very close to a third-person action game.^[31]^[30]^[36]^[37]
- The player does not have to be in reticle mode to use an action combat ability.^[38]
If you use an action combat ability that's going to be directional focused, you do not have to be in reticle mode to use that. It will fire where that reticle would be. So if you play by feel and you're in tab target camera mode, you can still utilize your action-oriented skills and abilities.^[38] – Steven Sharif
- The reticle will highlight/change color (to red) to indicate if the current target is able to be hit with the currently prepared skill.^[31]^[30]
- Action combat abilities will not have a lock-on feature but pressing Q while in action mode will lock on to the current target to enable the use of tab-oriented skills in action mode.^[34]^[31]
Action combat abilities will not have a lock-on feature so to speak. Some of those are going to be skill shot only. However because you can have a mix and match of tab abilities that require a target, you will be able to target lock in action mode as well. Right now that's delegated to the Q key as default, but you can obviously set that up you could put it on you know your left mouse button, or you could put it wherever you want; and when your reticle hovers over a target, it rapidly swaps your target ability and when you press your target lock it will then lock that target; and if you have tab-oriented skills, you can use your tab oriented skills and they will be used against that target.^[34] – Steven Sharif
- Holding Tab while in action mode will alternate between targets.^[31]
- Pressing right-click while in action mode will switch to tab mode for the currently highlighted target.^[30]
- The action camera is tied to the to player's reticle. There will likely be a hotkey that when held down will allow free camera movement.^[39]
- In future the user will have the ability to choose from different reticle appearances.^[40]

The tab mode (MMO mode) facilitates tab targeted combat.^[30]^[36] A tab-targeted ability requires a target in order to utilize that skill.^[34]^[37]
- Pressing left-click in tab mode will attack the target (with the currently selected weapon).^[30]
- There will be a "target of target" capability on the user interface.^[41]

Hybrid combat is being tested in Alpha-1.^[31]^[42]

Targeting modes are able to be achieved through choice of skills/abilities.^[34]^[42]^[43]
- It may not be possible to be able to fully spec into just action or tab targeted skills. There might be a 75% cap on choosing skills from any one type.^[43]
- Different ranks of the same skill can change the skill from tab to action targeted or vice-versa.^[44]

Skill progressions, skill point allocation is determined by the player. The player will be able to choose either more tab-target oriented skills or more action-based skills and customize their playable experience to what accommodates their preference. From a balancing standpoint for us developers, we need to make sure that certain abilities house certain functions so that there's a balance between skill shots and tab-target abilities.^[43] – Steven Sharif

Action oriented and tab oriented versions of skills will have different characteristics. Variables will change based on which version is chosen.^[45]

Damage.^[45]
Charge up time.^[45]
CC effects.^[45]
Cooldown.^[46]
Energy consumption.^[46]
Cost to spec.^[46]
Attack range will likely remain the same; as it is driven by the weapon or skill itself.^[47]

As an example: Let's say you're playing a ranged class. You could have an action-oriented power shot in your skill tree or you could have a single target power shot that ramps up and does more damage. ^[45] – Steven Sharif

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

For the purposes of balance, certain skill types will be either tab or action oriented skills. For example:^[46]

Hard CCs may be housed in action oriented skills because they are skill shots that are more difficult to land.^[46]^[43]
Softer CC's would be housed in tab-targeted abilities.^[46]

Forward attack cone (cleaving)

Weapon attack cone in Alpha-1.^[30]

As I attack I am hitting multiple numbers of these opponents; and that's important because all weapons, regardless of whether you are in reticle mode or tab-targeting mode will be able to have a action-based type weapon attack. Not active skill, but weapon attack.^[30] – Steven Sharif

All weapons have a forward attack cone, regardless of being in tab or action mode.^[30]

The cone's arc and distance will vary based on weapon type.^[30]

Polearms for example will have a much wider arc and much further out. Daggers will have a more fine-tuned arc, so you have to be more precise in that regard.^[30] – Steven Sharif

This is described as a weapon attack not an active skill.^[30]

It was previously stated that cleaving will be a class ability for some classes.^[48]

Class weapons and armor

Waffen und Rüstungen sind nicht für bestimmte Klassen gesperrt, aber bestimmte Klassen sind mit bestimmten Arten von Waffen oder Rüstungen effizienter.^[49]^[50] Bestimmte Fähigkeiten erfordern, dass bestimmte Gegenstände ausgerüstet sind.^[51]

Weapons are intended to be somewhat agnostic in the sense that you can find a way for a weapon to be utilized by different classes. Not just the rogue is going to be able to use daggers. Because if you restrict equipment through that, it makes the economy more difficult to have sustainability across the market of items.^[52] – Steven Sharif

Rassenspezifische Waffen und Rüstungen

Armor racial appearances in early Alpha-1.^[53]

Violet light and myself are wearing exactly the same armor set right: Same stats, same everything, but it drops for her it looks one way, it drops for me it looks another way; and... a small part of that is gender, but then the other part of it is race. So because I was a Vaelune in that playthrough my armor was in the Vaelune style; and when she picked it up it was in the elven style because she was an elf. So that kind of gives you an example of sort of the breadth of looks that we're going for and how we kind of try to capture like who you are as as a character and kind of allow you to kind of build your look that way.^[54] – Jeffrey Bard

Dünir and Empyrean racially styled armor concept art by Keith Kovach.^[55]

Weapons and armor are not race locked, but armor will take on a racial appearance.^[56]^[57]

Erscheinungsbild der Rassen of gear is focused on Armor, not Weapons.^[58]

The customization of equipment per race is really focused on Armor sets not Weapon props. Weapon props will, from a model standpoint, will translate pretty one-to-one across the races.^[58] – Steven Sharif

Let's say for example you have the Eagle set or something, right: The Eagle set has in art, it has a thematic design that's going to include certain attachments to the armor. It's going to include color palette and theme. It's going to have some aspects to it that define it as the Eagle set, right. When a Elf wears the Eagle set or when an Orc wears the Eagle set, you obviously have two different cultures there; and you don't want to stomp out that culture by assigning a de facto 'This is the Eagle set and this is how it looks on everybody.' What we want to have is cultural influences play a role in showing how that set looks.^[58] – Steven Sharif

Erscheinungsbild der Rassen of gear sets is tied to the character model of that race.^[59]

When you say, what if I'm an Orc but want to look like an Elf and I want my Eagle set to be the Elf representation? Well the issue becomes there that you know Orcs have a different organic model. You know, their body is different than that of the Elf. So, from a scope-creep standpoint, it's one thing to add different influences that represent the cultures that are donning the armor; it's another thing to adapt each influence as a matrix that can be worn pretty much by everything. From a scope perspective, that's a very difficult task for the character artists to kind of tackle. So instead what we've done is, in order to facilitate a variety of cultural representation between the races but allow for the sharing of assets like different armor sets, we give different representations of those armor sets to each race.^[59] – Steven Sharif

Ausrüstungsplätze

Alpha-1 character sheet early concept UI by Ryan Pearson.^[60]

Es gibt 16 Ausrüstungsplätze in Ashes of Creation:^[61]

8 für Rüstung
5 für Schmuck
2 für Waffen
1 für Fernkampf

Items on back and belt

Backpack sockets (slots).^[62]

The idea is to kind of move away from the mundane kind of application of belts in previous MMOs where they don't really have a lot of character so to speak. But in reality you know as an adventurer you come with a lot of tools and things that you have to use out in the wild in order to achieve what you're trying to achieve. So we wanted to kind of represent that on your character and give you something that can actually be tangible for your character and see there. I think it adds a lot of character and flavor to your identity.^[63] – Steven Sharif

Magier character with material components for spell casting attached to its belt.^[64]

This belt has like my material components for spell casting so I definitely feel like I'm a witch right now.^[64] – Steven Sharif

Items attached to a character's back or belt represent items they are in possession of. Players can set the appearance priority for the items they wish to show.^[65]^[66]^[67] Only one item can show at a time, and that is determined by player choice.^[68]

A big component of the MMORPG that - half of that you know acronym is RPG role-playing game. And in order to role-play you need to be able to represent kind of what your character is doing in that world and you know part of what animation is doing is creating these sockets on the let's say the belt or the back that you know can plug in certain types of props or items that are created by the character team, like Carson, you know might be a scroll tube, it might be a potion, it might be whatever: Those players will have the ability as we've discussed in the past will have the ability to select what they want to be represented in those sockets and then animation will make sure that jibe well in movement.^[62] – Steven Sharif

Back slots include.^[68]

Belt (hip) slots include.^[65]^[68]

Melee weapon (2 slots - one on each side).^[68]
Potion, pouch, scroll.^[65]^[66]

There'll be a priority system behind that that'll determine... do I show the Bow if the Greatsword is unequipped or do I show the Polearm if the Greatsword is unequipped.^[67] – Jeffrey Bard

Ranged weapons

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Pre-alpha Waldläufer bow modeled by Jon Arellano and concepted by Jeff Delierre.

A character may equip up to two hand weapons and also wear a ranged weapon on their back.^[69]^[70]^[68]

Characters performing ranged abilities will switch to the ranged weapon, then can switch back to the melee weapon and shield or two-handed melee weapon.^[69]^[70]
There will be a setting to determine if the ranged weapon or main/offhand selection is your primary weapon to use for Q or left-mouse-button attacks.^[69]^[70]

Let's say you use Power shot: You click Power shot, you quickly switch over to the ranged weapon, execute the skill, and you're back to your primary focus, which is the the sword and shield; and then for weapon attacks like your Q or your left mouse button, you would have the option to to set which is your focus, the ranged weapon, or the main offhand selection and you can swap back and forth between that as you want.^[69] – Steven Sharif

Rangers are going to have a minimum distance requirement where they are eligible to use their ranged weapons.^[71]

Ergänzungen can increase the range of certain skills.^[72]

While melee characters have a max distance proximity where they're eligible to use their sword and melee weapons, Rangers are going to have a minimum distance requirement.^[71] – Steven Sharif

Q: Will we get any a longer range free aim weapons like we had in APOC, able to snipe players from long distances?

A: It's probably unlikely that you're going to see in a similar way to what we had in APOC with a long bow or the short bow, that type of distance traveled. I think in APOC we had a 250 meter cut off for the long bows.^[73] – Steven Sharif

Melee weapons

Melee weapons have a maximum range of effect.^[71]

There are two melee weapon slots: One on each side of a character's belt.^[68]

Dual wielding

Dual wielding will be permitted for one handed weapons.^[74]

Shields cannot be dual wielded.^[75]^[74]
Great swords probably can't be dual wielded.^[76]

Weapon swapping

Weapon swapping in Ashes of Creation Apocalypse.^[77]

Weapon swapping in the Ashes of Creation MMORPG will be subject to a cooldown period following any damage taken or done by the player.^[78]^[79]

The cooldown will be in the range of a few seconds.^[79]

For the MMORPG we want there to be some time between damage received or damage done before you can swap your weapon. It's not going to be substantial. It will maybe be a few seconds.^[79] – Steven Sharif

Players cannot switch armor while in combat.^[78]^[80]

Pistolen und Schießpulver

The Gilded Galleon pre-order pack cosmetic ship skin.^[81]

The potion launcher idea will be incorporated as part of how cannons operate on ships; and these will be very large potion launchers obviously. The storage of this ammunitions are going to be very important as well... It's not going to be the same potion every time. You can equip the cannon with different types of potions that have different types of effects from a munitions standpoint; and I think that's going to provide a very cool gameplay because as you see the different color of the trail that's coming out of the potion launched, you'll be aware of what your adversary is using and how that affects your ship; and you'll be able to counter based on maneuverability, based on whatever you want to counter that with. I think that's going to present a very interesting dynamic to the attacks with these ships.^[82] – Steven Sharif

Gunpowder (black powder) weapons will not be present in Ashes of Creation.^[83]^[84]

Schiffe will utilize a larger form of potion launcher in place of canons. These canons will be able to be equipped with different potions that have different effects.^[82]

I previously said there was not going to be gunpowder in Ashes. What there will be is something very similar to gunpowder but has a more arcane nature to it. It's not necessarily going to be explainable through the conventional means of chemistry, metallurgy, and physics and what not, but rather the Essence is the core component of many types of magic, one of which is obviously going to be evocation type magic; and that evocation can have some explosive tendencies.^[83] – Steven Sharif

Weaponry such as Potion launchers, Siege weapons and weapons used in Seekampf are based on the arcane arts.^[82]^[83]^[85]

The elements (evocation magic).^[83]^[85]
The use of radiance and darkness.^[85]

As we said in the past, were not really about that black powder life. Instead it's really going to be focused on the arcane arts: The elements; the use of radiance and darkness; and then those being employed in larger weaponry, such as the type of siege weaponry between ship battles as well as those and sieges. A potion launcher is an example of the arcane energies that can be mastered in order to facilitate these highly destructive alchemical blends that can be created.^[85] – Steven Sharif

Gear enhancement

Ausrüstungsverbesserungen (Kraftsteine/Runen) können an Waffen angebracht werden, um der Waffe Elementar- oder Energieschaden zu verleihen.^[18]^[86]

We are very likely going to have a rune system and then we'll have the ability to sort of enchant weapons outside of that too... That's not always going to be like a vertical progression... Some of it's going to be giving up something to get something else; so maybe I do less physical damage but more magical damage, that kind of thing.^[86] – Jeffrey Bard

Fortschritt in verschiedenen PvP Systemen, kann man Verzauberungssteine erhalten, welche temporäre PvP-Vorteile verleihen. (Sockelsystem).^[87] Performance is measured over six month PvP seasons.^[88]
- Gildenkriege.^[87]
- Arenen.^[87]
- Karawanen-PvP.^[87]

It's not as though you're going to necessarily acquire these once and then you're set for your PvP enchantments, but instead you'll have to continually perform month after month in order to keep having those slotted enchantments.^[87] – Steven Sharif

Enchanting

There are two types of enchantments for items: Vertical and horizontal.^[89]

Vertical enchantments are a power progression for a crafted item. More damage or mitigations, added effects or bonuses. Vertical enchantments include risks. ^[89]
- There isn't RNG in crafting but there may be a small amount of RNG in enchanting.^[90]
- Over-enchanting items comes with a potential risk that the item decays or is destroyed if a safety margin is exceeded. This system is subject to testing.^[91]^[92]

When it comes to over-enchanting things, what we're going to do likely is have a safety- and this is something obviously it needs to be tested- but we're going to have a safety period of enchantment you know like in Lineage 2 I think you could enchant plus four or something. And so we're gonna have a similar system where you can enchant safely and then when you start to take risks, that percentage of potentially damaging your item either through the decay system or completely disabling it through the destruction system will be a risk that's present.^[91] – Steven Sharif

Horizontal enchantments are more situational. For example: I'd like my sword to do force damage instead of holy damage because the monsters I tend to fight are incorporeal.^[89]
- This doesn't make the item more powerful, but instead more applicable to different situations, and less so to others.^[89]
- This type of enchanting assumes no risk, just time and effort.^[89]

Enchanting services are sold at player stalls.^[93]

Enchanting does not increase an item's level requirement.^[94]

You don't really push a particular item's level requirement or the identity of that item. You can enhance it, you can add enchantments to it, but it's still the item it is.^[94] – Steven Sharif

Power creep

Power creep is a balance issue... When it comes to gear progression specifically, the idea is to create an open market that is not heavily dependent on soulbound items; and having many item sinks and gold sinks within that economy that allows for the potential degradation and loss of assets within that closed economy; and not introduce items from the market that companies put in from a pay-to-win perspective or from a pay-to-convenience perspective that undermines the economy that players have built. That is a huge mistake that companies have made in the past and that lends to the imbalancing of what designers maybe have actually balanced well.^[95] – Steven Sharif

Item rarities

Item rarities in Ashes of Creation.

Legendäre Gegenstände

There is a small RNG chance of looting rare and legendary items or crafting materials from mobs based on the level, status and type of mob. This also applies to harvesting resources with a gathering profession.^[102]

There is a much higher chance that materials and unique recipes are dropped that can be used to craft items of equitable value.^[103]^[104]^[105]
Legendary equipment is only dropped by Legendary world bosses.^[106]
- Legendary equipment will have a roughly 6-12% improvement in base stats, subject to testing and balancing.^[107]

At each stage from Gatherer to Processor to Crafter you are required to have certain prerequisites before those elite types of materials can be essentially gathered, processed, or crafted.^[104] – Steven Sharif

Gatherers must have high quality tools to gather rare resources.^[104]
Processors must have high tier processing buildings on their freehold to produce rare materials.^[104]
Crafters must also satisfy certain prerequisites to craft legendary equipment.^[104]

The amount of effort needed and interdependencies across the different types of players – between raiders and PvPers and crafters and even role players and the taverns and businesses: the processors and gatherers – all of those systems will likely have a component that lends toward creating or crafting that legendary item... We want to stay away from the highly RNGd system, and instead take our multiple progression paths that we are offering the players and put the construction components for achieving these legendary items within them so it encourages communities to work together because it's going to be difficult for just one person by themselves to gather everything. Not to say that they couldn't in an economic sense, by buying those components, that's possible. But achieving them from a time investment standpoint we want it to be considerably less RNG focussed.^[105] – Steven Sharif

Discovery of legendary items will unlock further chapters of the Überlieferungen.^[108]

There are absolutely legendary items and they're not items that are attained easily nor are they granted out in a volume. There might even be items that are single items that will exist on the server at any given time.^[109]

A legendary weapon is easily distinguished by its visual appearance.^[105]

It will be a very ornate and detailed weapon, more so than any other weapon or piece of equipment in the game. It will also include some awesome looking effects that won't too gaudy, you know they won't be too bright and shiny so that it doesn't look good, but they will be subtle and people will notice it and know wow that guy has this weapon.^[105] – Steven Sharif

Legendary items are not intended to be temporary.^[110]

A notable exception to this is Royal mounts.^[111]

The fact there is only one of them... or very very few of them depending on what it is. I think that in and of itself is a balance component right and you need to make sure that the players who are striving for those legendary things and who are devoting the time energy, resources in order to achieve them are accurately rewarded... We do not intend on having legendary items that are temporary.^[110] – Steven Sharif

Ausrüstungs-Sets

Kaelar tier 1 (level 10) early Alpha-1 cloth armor non-cosmetic set 3D renders.^[112]

Ausrüstungs-Sets (also known as tier sets) are a part of Ashes of Creation.^[113]^[114]

Different tiers of gear are accessible based on a character's level.^[113]^[114]
Players gain bonuses depending on the number of pieces of the set they have equipped.^[113]^[114]
- An overarching set effect is granted to wearers of exclusively one type of armor, for example: all cloth, or all plate.^[115]
- Certain set bonuses may trade off core gear stats.^[116]
- There may be set bonuses that members of certain communities will obtain based on gear set type.^[114]
There are passive abilities that can be chosen to become more adept with certain set types.^[114]
There will be viable non-set builds.^[116]
Erscheinungsbild der Rassen of gear sets is tied to the character model of that race.^[59]
It may be possible to store and swap gear sets with a single button press when out of combat.^[117]

Approximately 49 unique gear sets are obtainable in Alpha-1 from crafting, quests, drops and exploration.^[118]

These are unique sets with different stats, but some may be similar in appearance.^[118]

Best in slot weapons

Best in slot weapons and armor is based on a character's role and the type of monster they are facing.^[119]

Erscheinungsbild der Ausrüstung

Alpha-1 female plate armor 3D render.^[120]

We want to be realistic with the application of particular types of armor, such as plate armor. In this regard for the different sexes there's a fine line that has to be drawn between accentuating the form of the sex as well as making it somewhat realistic and actually applicable to the environment.^[120] – Steven Sharif

Ausrüstung soll realistisch aussehen.^[121]^[122]

Es wird keine "übergroßen" Waffen geben.^[123]
Ausrüstung wird nicht übermäßig sexuell aussehen.^[122]

We're going for kind of a more realistic look; not necessarily realistic setting, but we want our characters to have weight and kind of feel like they're there.^[121] – Jeffrey Bard

I'm more of the mind that it wouldn't really serve a purpose to have bikini plate armor, just in like reality, if you're going to have armor, it should be protective. I think from a fashion statement is enjoyable for some people, but it's a kind of an immersive issue.^[121] – Steven Sharif

Ausrüstung wird Optische-Slots (Transmutation/Transmog/kosmetische Slots) haben, die das Aussehen eines Items kopieren können (in einigen Fällen).^[124]^[114]

Es gibt Regeln für Anwendung von Kosmetika auf bestimmte Gegenstände, im Gegensatz zu Kostümen, die keine Stufen-Beschränkung haben.^[125]
Rüstung wird sich visuell an die Rasse des Trägers anpassen.^[58]
Kosmetische-Slots können vom Spieler ein- und ausgeschaltet werden.^[126]
- Bei Belagerungen oder anderen groß angelegten Schlachten kann automatisch ein "Standard-Spieler-Erscheinungsbild" angewendet werden, um die Client-seitige Leistung zu verbessern.^[127]^[128]

Spieler können die Farbe der Ausrüstung mit Farbstoffen verändern.^[129]^[130]

Helme können ein- und ausgeschaltet werden.^[131]

Haare werden wahrscheinlich ausgeblendet, wenn der Helm angezeigt wird.^[132]

Partikeleffekte werden verwendet, um die Wichtigkeit und Seltenheit einiger Waffen visuell darzustellen.^[133]

Waffen können eingewickelt / umhüllt werden.^[134]

Appearance slots/Transmogs

Ausrüstung will have appearance slots (Transmutation/Transmog/cosmetic slots) that are used to copy the appearance of an item (in some cases).^[124]^[114]

There are rules when applying cosmetics to specific items, unlike costumes, which don't have level restrictions.^[125]
Cosmetic slots can be toggled on or off by the player.^[126]
A "default player appearance" may be automatically applied during sieges or other large scale battles to improve client-side performance.^[127]^[128]

Kickstarter weapon skins

Kickstarter backers will receive a unique weapon skin.^[135]

Usable on all types of weapons.
Include subtle and tasteful glow/particle effects.

Summoned weapons

Klassen with a Beschwörer secondary may grant augmented skills that summon weapons. These summoned weapons are not able to be equipped.^[136]

The word "equip" only applies to items. There are currently no plans to include summoning items into a player's inventory or character slots. It may however be possible to change the appearance and damage type/data of a weapon through the use of a spell.^[137]
There are summoned weapons that appear as a spell VFX to damage opponents for a period of time.^[138] These will not be able to be wielded, since weilding implies an item in a character equipment slot.^[139]