Archmage -> Adept of Ghyran, Azyr, Hysh
Archmages use Winds of Magic. Every 3 seconds, they will gain 1 stack of magic at random (Life, Heavens, Light) with each type of magic being able to stack up to 3. Whenever you cast a spell from that lore of magic, it will consume one stack if present, and augment the spell.
Augmented is an Interbellum effect that several abilities across different classes have, and their are multiple ways to create augmented abilities. Augmented effects apply additional damage/healing, or extra effects to the skills. So Archmages can constantly augment their skills with the collected winds of magic, but do not always have control of the income of those winds.
Archmage have access to a 4th “lore” of magic which is Qhaysh. Qhaysh magic skills do not use your mechanic and exist as a way to use abilities whenever you do not want to augment your skills, such as saving them for an opportune moment.
Each specialization of Archmage will have spells from the other lores of magic, but they will gain their specialized wind of magic more often. Example, Adept of Azyr will gain Winds of Heavens more often than Life/Light. They will also have slightly more spells from their lore, and their passives/tactics will modify spells in a way that fits the theme of their lore of magic.
This is the only full mirrored mechanic in the game. The reason for this, is we could easily make 6 distinct specializations out of this mechanic as we pulled spells from 6+2 different lores of magic in the game. So while Archmage and Sorcerer both use the same base mechanic, all 6 of their collective specializations are still unique from each other.
Archer -> Shadow Warrior, Seaguard, Shadow Walker
Archers use the stance mechanic. Archer stances are off the GCD and have a 15 second shared cooldown. No ability is restricted to any stance. There are tactics and passives in each specialization that modify stances beyond the base values listed below.
Scout Stance – Gain 60% range.
Skirmish Stance – All of your abilities are now castable while moving. Whenever you deal direct damage to an enemy, you will dispel Marked from them. In addition, lose 2 mass.
Assault Stance – Whenever you deal direct damage to an enemy, you will refresh the duration of Marked on the enemy. You gain 15% outgoing damage and 1 mass but lose 40% range.
The default range on bow abilities for Archers is 75ft. This means you will have 120ft range in scout stance, 75ft in skirmish stance, and 45ft range in assault stance.
Marked is a status effect that Archers excel at applying but other classes have ways to apply it as well. Marked lasts for 10 seconds and reduced target’s damage reduction by 15%.
These changes mean that you swap stances based on the range of combat that you are currently fighting. The cooldown prevents you from swapping constantly, so if the combat changes quickly or you choose wrong, you are at a disadvantage. Scout stance obviously giving you ranged advantage with the power of 75ft skills at 120ft rather than 100ft power skills. Skirmish stances gives you great mobility and kiting at the cost of removing marked. Assault stance being your strongest stance, but at a very short range.
Our stat system removes the need to convert stats for melee skills like previously. So your melee skills are useful in skirmish and scout stance as well; although ofc they get that 15% damage bonus in assault.
Apprentice (of the white tower) -> Commander, Swordmaster, Loremaster
Apprentice mechanic is name Sigils of Balance. This mechanic is an incredibly modified version of the 1-2-3 mechanic they had before. Abilities can generate one of the following 4 sigils which last for 15 seconds until used: Eldrazor, Hoeth, Vaul, Asuryan.
“1” Abilities generate either Eldrazor or Hoeth in addition to their primary effects.
“2” Abilities generate either Vaul or Asuryan in addition to their primary effects. They also will consume both Eldrazor and Hoeth sigils in order to create additional effects.
“3” Abilities generate action points in addition to their primary effects. They also will consume both Vaul and Asuryan sigils in order to create additional effects.
First thing to notice here is that you are not locked into the next step. You can at any point spam any stage of abilities, or skip steps etc. Abilities which can consume Sigils will consume both, if active on you, allowing you to gain both additional effects. Every ability has a base effect that happens even if there is no appropriate sigils to be consumed.
So you could for example do 1-2-3 and gain one additional effect on “2” and “3”.
Or you could do 1-1-2-3 for two additional effects on “2” and one on “3”.
Or 1-1-2-1-1-2-3 for two addiional effects on both “2”s and “3”.
Or 2-2-3 just to get two additional effects on “3”.
Or 3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3 to regain action points.
This allows you much more versatility in the mechanic while still gaining actual benefits for using it rather than just being forced to do so like previous iteration. There is a control mechanism that makes using longer chains less often used. That is simply that the “3” abilities are your AP generators, while “1” abilities are cheaper AP costs than “2”. With the power levels of the skills distributed more evenly and less attached to the individual AP cost.
White Lion -> Axeman, Guardsman, Hunter
White Lions have a new mechanic called Ferocity. Ferocity has a base of 0 and stacks to 8. Ferocity is generated by the use of your pet skills. Pet skills are action point costing abilities that you personally use that are sourced from your lion. Ferocity powers most of your abilities that the caster utilizes.
Axeman does not have a pet. So they interact with this mechanic differently, with their over-time abilities costing AP and generating Ferocity for their direct damage skills.
White Lions use the tertiary mechanic of Bleeding. Some of your abilities apply Bleeding, and other of your effects deal additional things if the target is Bleeding.
Since pet abilities are off the GCD, this allows Hunter and Guardsman to use more abilities in a shorter time, but they run out of resources rather quickly. It also means that killing their pet severely diminishes their output since they are incapable of generating Ferocity.