JagexRyan

That's very kind, thank you.

I would LOVE to sit and talk endlessly for hours about RuneScape design. Finding the right place to do that is the tricky part.

u/JagexRamen I've been mistaken for yourself, but as they have referred to you as a God, I am here calling for your almighty presence.

Sponge, myself (Ryan!) and Pigeon have discussed why certain abilities that look like channels aren't channels (even if they're 1-3 cycles long), but we have no answer to your question right now.

This is actually fairly in line with a concept we had early on for a 'Phantom' conjure. That it wouldn't attack but simply mitigate damage for you, with the 'Command' ability being more in-line with a defensive (e.g. you get it to increase the damage it mitigates for X seconds).

I'm not too sure what was said on the stream and can't find a specific clip, but as one of the Necromancy designers I'm happy to add some additional context/detail.

The ideal, is that we release a 4th regular spirit as a conjure (e.g. Phantom). For the release, we prioritised getting 3 released and the 4th was a stretch goal. In hindsight we probably shouldn't have added the skill guide entry until we added the 4th spirit.

Balance is definitely something to consider, as adding another regular spirit while keeping the idea of a 4th slot is completely additive, however there are numerous ways we can resolve this so it isn't inherently the blocker.

What we would like to do, is to find an opportunity to add that 4th regular spirit and then explore the concept of 'Hero' and 'Legendary' spirits. I responded to another comment on this thread detailing them a bit more, but the general idea would be that you could use one of these spirits but they would take up more ...

This has actually always been an intention of ours!

In the original design we discussed having regular spirits as the base conjures (i.e. Skeleton, Zombie, Ghost and Phantom) and then gaining access to 'Heroes' or 'Legendary' spirits (e.g. Barrows brothers, Ancient warriors, maybe even Vorkath) from other content which would use up 1-4 slots.

We haven't spoken too much about ideas that are on paper for Necromancy in the future, but this is just one of them. You'll find that most/all projects have a ton of ideas that don't come to fruition for the original release, but are written down to tackle and explore in the future.

Nope, that's what we're planning to do.

Sorry if my post wasn't clear. I was stating that the Equilibrium changes that are on the beta would be sheleved, and we will look to replace them with the alternate idea that Sponge has spoken about (Deadly).

A good amount of players mentioned that it was useful when you're using adrenaline consuming abilities (Thresholds, Ultimates and Special attacks) as they would always consume >=10% which meant that if you're over the threshold right now, they were used to be able to press it in advance (i.e it doesn't matter which order you press the buttons in).

If you enter 'Edit mode' from the menu, you can move it to a location that better suits you.

The changes mentioned in this post will be available in the next beta update which won't be until the new year.

I think it's a bit of a misunderstanding.

A number of the Necromancy features that we mentioned exploring for the other styles are, at a foundation level:

• Hit chance -> Damage potential (no more missing, just reduced damage per hit)
• Modern critical strike system (% chance to critically strike and +% critical strike damage)
• Hit cap increased from 10,000/12,000/15,000 -> 30,000

Then when we get to more specific Necromancy style features, they are much more complex to implement into each style without overhauling them from the ground up:

• Modernised 'Basic Attack' (replacement for the hidden auto-attack)
• Cleaner visuals (hitsplats line up with hits and animations don't overlap)

The beta currently has the foundation changes for Melee, Ranged and Magic which are very impactful changes on their own but also set us up for the future. They do raise a number of issues to the surface that need to be a...

Since you mention 'a lot more stuff that needs to be done for beta to come to live game'...

What do you think should be included before changes come to the live game?

I ask as we feel that incremental changes to the live game will be better than doing nothing. As it can end up resulting in trying to find a 'perfect' state which can push things back further and further.

In it's current state, and after discussions with various players, we don't feel that it's ready to go live yet. This is perfectly okay though, as it's exactly why we're running the beta!

We're going to spend some time in the New Year looking at alternate/better ways of improving the auto-attack/basic attack functionality without necessarily just making all styles utilise what Necromancy has.

It's one of those features that Necromancy uses that doesn't necessarily translate as well to other styles based on how they currently function (vs something like the 'Hit chance -> Damage potential' system which translates very well).

Hey all,

Just a quick update on the latest round of beta feedback, and what we're looking to address so far.

More information on what's included in the latest beta update: https://www.reddit.com/r/runescape/comments/18ia8d8/combat_beta_update_2/

Melee rewrite

• Reinstate the auto-attack from...

This is just a beta. We've acknowledged various issues mentioned with this potential change. Don't fear! We'll resolve whatever is needed to make sure that whatever the outcome is, it's not disruptive.

Narrowing of damage around the average.

Example:

Previously, if an ability was 20%-100% ability damage, it would have an average of 60% but with a wide range.

Squished values could be 55%-65% ability damage, which would still have an average of 60% but with a more narrow range, increasing the consistency of your damage.

Ah, thanks. I've passed this on to the Vorkath team as some changes they made there for the boss encounter likely caused this.

This is ultimately just the first iteration of the ability. If you think about greater abilities in other styles, how they enhance/improve an ability, that's what you might expect from this in the future.

Complete example, but... What if you could upgrade this ability so that after commanding it to enable the effect, you can then command it every X seconds (cooldown) to enhance/modify the effect? Think similar to how 'Spectral Scythe' has variations of itself.

There are also reasons as to why it's best not being a passive, which I'll talk more about this in the livestream later this week.

Thanks for the feedback. We definitely have some thoughts already based on comments, but want to see how it all plays out with the update today.

I mentioned it in a previous thread on Friday, but the Vengeful Ghost's command ability was overshadowing a lot, and there's a strong design strategy behind grounding that effect a fair amount. Doing this will naturally have you thinking about what you're missing. You'll more easily have those feelings of "I want this!", which will better help us, help you!

Noted! We saw a few comments about this over the weekend since the post on Friday.

We're open to feedback and making further changes. We wanted to get these set of changes into your hands and then work with you on making any further changes going forward.

A fix for the pathing has been completed but awaits an engine build.

We are open to making further changes, so please do continue giving us that feedback.

In reference to the 'Command Vengeful Ghost' ability, as it was over performing a lot, we feel that it's best to get it into your hands in a grounded position as then it'll allow you (the players) to get a feeling for what is missing and suggest those changes. Whereas currently the effect of the Ghost was overshadowing other elements of the style, so it is less obvious about what it could do instead.

TL;DR - Open to changes! We're happy to iterate on these after seeing how they play out and hearing from you.