Feel free to discuss the reveals. I also posted the previous teaser information below so all the new information is together.
Saved for thoughts Graphics Overhaul First and foremost the graphics overhaul is amazing. It took a white-washed looking game that, until now, I thought was intended to look that way and made it much better. The shadowing and lighting is much more like a 2017 game. If you look at the graphic video. I can imagine the landscape changing from a bright, vibrant and bustling city to a dark and damp place over-run with the dead during the winter months. Rain, snow, volumetric fog, light bursts, light scattering and other weather effects have been added as well to provide further immersion Race & Class Change The other major addition is the changing of archetypes. Now classes and races are separate which allows you to mix and match races (and their benefits) and the classes to provide more options for customization. So if you wanted to be a duelist but didn't want to be a hamster now you can. The races are: Human, Half-Elf, Nethari, Fae, Wood-Elf, High-Elf, Stoneborn, Half-Giant, Elken, Minotaur, Centaur, and Guinecean with the races being: Knight, Confessor, Templar, Ranger, Assassin, Druid, Frostweaver, Champion, Myrmidon, Cleric, and Duelist. Being able to mix and match race and class is something that really should have been there from the start but it's nice to see more options available. Not every combination will be available as animations take time to create and require funding so some more will be added later according to the devs but each race has about 3-4 classes each as shown in the chart. The combination of various races and classes will be interesting to test out as each race offers unique benefits... "For example: all Guineceans can burrow, Centaurs have a naturally faster run speed and all Fey will have access to powers that rely on the use of their wings". Best of all the developers have stated that due to the funding received from everyone they were able to finish the project without altering their release timeline. Disciplines Currently there are about 100 or so disciplines according to the developers which allows for sub-classes or professions to further specialize your character. Spoiler: Disciplines Major Disciplines Minor Disciplines Weapon Disciplines There are currently three types of Disciplines: Weapon Specializations, Major Disciplines and Minor Disciplines and are obtainable via crafting of runestones. Since it is craftable it is also tradeable and potentially lootable. These runestones are similar to the harvesting runestones with the exception that they do NOT decay over time. So they are infinite so long as you don't swap them out or get killed with one in your inventory. Since they are craftable they do come in rarity grades which offer better numerical stats to the runestone but does not increase or decrease functionality of the runestone. Since they can be destroyed by changing them it offers a constant demand for them and requires harvesters and crafters to make them. Supply and demand. Currently each character is restricted to: One Weapon Specialization, such as Master of Axes Two Major Disciplines, such as Archery or Scouting Three Minor Disciplines, such as Hand of Glory-Sparring-Mortal Sin or Furious-Sturdy-Burning Hatred So you can have two major disciplines, three minor and one weapon specialization. Weapon specializations allow you increased benefits for using a specific weapon type. Major Disciplines function like sub-classes further specializing you to one field or another. For example This allows each character to feel more unique when compared to their peer classes and with 35 major disciplines currently available (more planned) the possibilities are vast. Minor Disciplines function like talents and there are currently 41 minor disciplines available. These are more specific to a effect, power or passive. Passives: All of this will be available for testing as early as the next testing period, though they have stated the class/race functionality may be a bit longer to role out. So now we can test the various additions and see what works best for our release class.
Because I put my fucking comment in the conversation instead of the forum topic because I am a nub. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Glad to hear about the visual update. While the initial game did a good job of fleshing out the basic (putting the paint down) - it is honestly shaders/light that brings worlds to life these days. There is good and bad things about the archetype/race switch, I am a little disappointed that we will lose the ability to instantly tell a character's skill sets from shape but at the same time choice is always better than less. More of an MMO direction than open world MOBA. A lot of the classes don't really change all that much; frostweaver for example is mostly just the elves. As for disciplines, I'll hold judgement on them until I get a chance to play around with them. They just seem to be a better version (middle ground) between GW2 skill packages compared to GW1 free form skills. All in all. Not a bad update but I do fear that this game is trying to get a little too involved with the PvE angle but hey at least they didn't have to build their own engine. I am 100% sure it is going to have performance issues in zergs and large scale fights.
Loving the updated graphics, still keeping its sort of cartoon-ish style, but much better lighting and stuff.