Turbine Games Q&A/Character/Q-07

Original Link (now dead) - http://www.turbinegames.com/qa/view_questions.html?id=390

Will there ever be any hope for non-specialists?

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Asked:	2000.10.31
Name:	Amid Of Thistledown
Question Title:	Will there ever be any hope for non-specialists?
Category:	Character
Question:	In June there was a change to the specialization curve that boosted specialized skills 30-45 points over trained levels this is a significant rule-change and one that impacted characters made in good faith prior to that change. In theory a non-specialist's lack of specialization should be made up in bredth of skills however under the new rules that simply doesn't work. A non-specialized mage with melee D isn't going to be able to evade the hellfire and the chances that he's going to be resisted while being pounded on are painfully high. While these characters may be viable in the broadest sense of the world they are becomming more and more un-fun to play as higher level content is engineered to challenge specialists with that 35-40pt bonus and buffs on top of that. This in-game rule change affected characters created at the very beginning of retail, characters with hundreds of millions of experience points, characters based on the recommendations of patrons, game officials, microsoft's own strategy guide and hard earned experience with the game, characters designed to thrive at the higher levels of the game and now finding themselves slowly locked out. Will there ever be any hope for our characters in the PvM world as anything other than support roles? (PS, this question also concerns the viability of your very own warrior template). Thank you.

Answered:	2000.11.01
Name:	Dell
Answer:	One of the things that players can count on are updates, and therefore, changes in the game. The decision to make specialization into a worthwhile character decision was made before I became a designer, however it is one that I stick by. The largest benefit of being a character that is not specialized in any one thing IS the breadth of skills you can acquire, and though a mage that takes melee defense is unlikely to be able to solo with a monster like the Hellfire(which for the most part is tough for melee's anyway), he can actually fight a creature like a Hollow Minion, a monster that can break most people without melee defense over its rickety knee. Character Development in Asheron's Call is about making the most of what you have. Though you may not be as good in a specialist's area of specialty, you are able to approach tests in a number of different ways, giving you more versatility, especially when content slaps you in the face. :)