When Trion Worlds releases the Trove expansion called Mantle of Power, one new system is going to give players some awesome reasons to chase down and access the power of the elements: Gems. With the new gem system, players will be able to get hold of powerful jewels to socket that will create some amazing (and interesting!) new class abilities. Andrew Krausnick took a few minutes out of his busy GDC schedule to talk briefly about gems and, most importantly, to give us an exclusive reveal of a trio of awesome class skills that players will gain access to in Mantle of Power.
"In Mantle of Power," Andrew said, "we're giving players more stuff to chase for classes -- new stats, new levels, new gear. We're also including a new gem system that at its highest reaches can even change some class powers that can make your class better."
There are three types of gems, each type matching the elemental world on which it is found: Fire, Air and Water. Gems, as would be expected, will come in a range of qualities that can be used 'as is' or that can be refined to attempt to score a better quality. That refinement comes at a cost however. To refine gems, players will need to deconstruct gems to obtain 'dust'. A certain amount of dust is required for refinement which one would expect. However, refinement has the chance to fail. Failure can simply cost a player some of the dust or it can crack the gem that can only then be used or refined again once it's repaired -- a job that will require Cubits to fix. Conversely, gems can level once or, if really lucky, twice to a higher quality.
Character classes have nine slots available, three of each type, and gems are bound to a given class. Over time, lower level gems can be unsocketed and replaced with better gems of that same type.
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Really, though, what people have to want to know is, "What sort of powers will I get when I score a top end gem?"
We can answer that! Take a look:
Candy Barbarian
- Sugar Crash pulls foes toward you and applies a brief snare as you leap straight up and crash down on them.
Revenant
- Bulwark Bash loses its cooldown and applies a stacking DoT to damaged enemies, but no longer taunts.
Chloromancer
- Spawning a Leafy Lasher or Blooming Pollinator has a chance to spawn a gatling gun plant (seed projectile to a random spot in radius). Gatling gun plants grow very quickly, don’t last very long, and fire many projectiles at enemies.
Players concerned that these pretty awesome new skills might somehow disrupt the balance of Arena PvP need not worry. Andrew said that the Arena is pretty well-balanced right now and that this is not a system that they are ready to introduce at this time. While he left the door open to the possibility of it being placed in Arenas in the future, that time is not now.
So the burning question is when will players get their hands on the new gem system? At this point, Trion is looking to put Mantle of Power on the PTS sometime closer to the end of the month and marking the first time that players will be able to get a look at and to try out the new system.
The Trove team will be revealing more of the new skills that gems will give to players during the weekly Friday live streams between now and the arrival of Mantle on the PTS so be sure to check those out!
