Last week, I had the opportunity to spend some time with the developers of Blade & Soul, who introduced me to the October update, Symphony of Destruction.
Our presentation began with the fifteenth playable class: the musician. In the game, all classes can play all roles, but some are better at certain roles than others. The musician therefore focuses on two axes: her "Divine" specialty makes her an excellent solo DPS, while her "Harmony" specialty places her as a support (with healing, buffs and debuffs).
The first thing I notice are the neat animations of the female character in a long dress, performing a lascivious dance, surrounded by flower petals. What's even cooler is when she sits down to play the zither. An interface appears with shortcuts for the twenty-six strings. What promise beautiful musical creations in game (even if I could not enjoy it, the presenter is content to hit buttons at random). Namely that, for the moment, it is not planned to be able to download or pre-record a song as is possible on certain games which offer musical instruments of this type. Everything must be played live! But it's a completely possible feature if the community requests it.
You can already test with this interactive video (you will probably want to watch it directly on YouTube):
She can be incarnated by the races Jun, Yun and Lyn. On the technical side of his skills, it's difficult for me to summarize everything the character can do. But, of course, it's all about the instrument, which is always the source of the cast abilities.
In DPS (Divine), the musician has what it takes to block, heal, stun, push back, absorb damage, dodge, increase damage... Immunity, of course, like all classes. A rather nice spell sends a multitude of stars on the opponent. How to inflict damage with class! An ability causes the musician to put her weapon on the ground and send out waves of attack.
In her support role, the musician collects a multitude of utilities. When thrown, a shield creates an area around it. The performance skill is arguably the most original, with different preludes that alter the benefits provided. The musician almost completely loses all her mobility during the few seconds when she concentrates entirely on her art. Even if another skill can reduce the duration by half, it still makes at least two and a half seconds during which the character risks taking damage without being able to flee.
The character design is keen to satisfy two styles of players. The first are the experts, who can switch from one style to another, and thus bring significant benefits to their groups, while continuing to inflict significant damage. The latter are the casuals who will no doubt be content to remain in the support role, but with appreciable help for their more experienced friends in their groups.
We take our musician to explore the Grim Nexus dungeon (Grim Nexus), a four-player instance with difficulty levels ranging from one to twenty, each adding debuffs (for players) and buffs (for enemies). Intended mainly for high-level players with exponential difficulty, the first boss, Asorak, however bows to us (well, it's far from obvious and it's only the first level left...). For the little story behind the fighting, we must investigate the actions of the Sinister Horns and carry out investigations in their village, located at the top of a gigantic tree.
Finally, an important addition concerns mounts, a feature that has been postponed for so long. The reason ? The studio was simply trying to find the right compromise so that the ability to walk on the wind did not become obsolete. When equipped, mounts will provide increased speed, as well as "water dash" (at this time, they will not be able to be used to do the same in the air or on walls). Mounts are intended as an extension of the player and will grow with them. It's also the opportunity to add a new collectible, a nice companion to customize with unique appearances.
Other elements arrive in the game, which I could not discover because they were not yet available in the version presented:
- The celestial battlefield, mixing PvP and PvE. Of course, it will be possible to fight against the other players to slow them down, but the victory will be with the side which manages to validate the PvE objectives first
- PvP cross server
- Improved interface (dungeon group, transmutation, damage display)
- Equipment guide (visualization of upgrade possibilities and necessary components)
- Inventory management with one button to move all items from inventory to storage
Finally, one last feature was presented to me, but it was also postponed, and will therefore not be included in the October update. The Qing Gong Race will be an event that will take ten players on furious races through the use of their windwalking ability. No fights planned, but the possibility of deploying traps, which you will have to dodge, to arrive first.
The update will be released on October 12! Or next Wednesday! In the meantime, if you have a creative soul, a contest is organized on the official site with the theme of musical creation.
