TRroaringdragon
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A critical flaw in the current class system is that there atm, is no room for variety in class roles.
Since this is a game that allows for, or at least strives to, allow for both group and solo play, just as in AQW (before the power creep - now, the viability of a select group of classes to utterly annihilate any boss and hordes of mobs drains the game's enjoyability), there needs to be a diversity of what classes can achieve which has direct consequences in how players choose to play the game and how effective it is for clearing monsters.
There needs to be a clearer delineation between mobbing classes and soloing ones. Since there is no difference between Mage damage and Warrior damage atm (since there aren't separate categories of damage resistance and damage type), it is at the least necessary to make a more evident distinction between the Warrior's AOE mobbing capabilities and the Mage's ranged, burst DPS, likewise the Rogue's single target sustained DPS (i.e. soloing), and the Guardian's tankiness.
One step for doing this is adding more skills. More skills = more diversity = more potential for complexities in combat. This in itself is also a good thing because it improves the currently stale combat (as certified by the feedback of the majority of dedicated players).
AQ3D has a useful distinction from AQW in that ranged combat in AQW, aside from PvP, is identical to melee functionally. This allows for ranged roles.
The problem with mobbing right now is that AQ3D is based on a level progressive area system where you have very little incentive to train anywhere but an area befitting your level.
AoE mobbing in areas with enemies close to or above your level tends to end very messily in this game because of how strong enemies are. This relates directly to the problem of staleness between classes due to the little wiggle room for distinguishing between them.
A potential solution is to make different kinds of mobs in each area, in regards to health and damage.
E.g. for some quests, you will need to hunt three times as many monsters as usual, but those monsters have half the health of the typical fare faced right now, and are in greater populations closer together, allowing for abilities like Whirlwind to shine and for there to be reason to utilize AOE mobbers over other classes.
Mobs with higher health but in smaller populations, no clustering, and with lower number requirements for quests, would allow for burst DPS classes to shine. A nice feature is the health and mana regeneration that begins after the cessation of combat. Burst DPS farmers would do better here than typical mobbers.
In fact, the improvement to class roles is really quite secondary to the bigger impact of this which is that this allows for more enjoyable, diverse (this word is definitely a recurring theme here) combat - there is really no difference in feeling from farming/questing/bossing at level 3 to level 15 if level scaling is proportional to power scaling for both the player and monsters and bosses. Speaking of bosses,
Another off tangent suggestion - add more abilities to bosses. There is no need to waste artist time on churning out more bosses that do the same thing, but instead focus on even half as many bosses with diverse (again, this word) combat features.
An example of a well done boss in AQW - Tibicenas - makes you think and stay wary. Without features that could potentially compromise the success of your bossing exploits, bossing is lazily and half heartedly clicking away in order (and not even that for the particularly weak bosses). With features like Tibicenas' near insta kill, bossing keeps you on your toes.
This wariness of course should be a feature independent to the boss not to the player's class - boss mechanics should be what keep you wary, not your class's, because there's only so many hundred boss fights you can do with the same Doomknight class before even those exciting features become mundane.
Some vital (separate) class roles to ponder:
Burst DPS - Mage (at least pre nerf) (good for
Sustained DPS - Rogue, other classes (a typically a pretty loaded chassis in most RPGS, a good few classes would sit well here). These should typically be the best bossing classes.
AOE - Warrior, other classes (like in AQW, these are the farmers and another large group. There should be particular emphasis on enjoyability of skill mechanics in here, because of how grindy and long winded farming is.
Unlike bossing the enjoyability of farming depends almost entirely on the class so variety is important. Examples. an AOE poison stacker, a lifesteal farmer that allows players to ignore resting periods between fights)
Support - Awfully important category because this drives collaborative combat.
Very important to make sure power creep doesn't happen in this category. Healing, buffers, debuffers. Hopefully no support class can do all three efficiently because balance.
Tank - Guardian. These are also typically group dependent but should still be independent, I do like Guardian's design.
These following are not mutually exclusive class roles
Dodge - Dodge classes are fun, if only because it has a different feel (even if it isn't functionally different). A 5th rogue skill should focus on this aspect.
Ranged - As in a class like mage. Keep making these. They're alright, just keep out safe spotting from bosses.
Soloing is not a valid class role, and it ruins gameplay anyway. Avoid this. A good bossing class isn't necessarily a soloing class, it should be a class that significantly reduces time taken to take down bosses in comparison to other classes,.
I hope you hear out my suggestions AE. I really want AQ3D to succeed, and I do believe the most important aspect to that ends is improving combat system because in the end, it doesn't matter how many Drickens the developers can slot into the game map, or how attractive the latest war reward armor is, as long as combat remains poor and unengaging.
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