So, I've had this thought kicking around in my head for a bit, and it wasn't until we got this playtest that the thought actually started to form into something coherent as far as feedback goes. And this feedback is specifically related to the amount of actions we get.
To me, 6 actions across the board feels very unbalanced. It's really, really top heavy at a lower level. Like, even at E rank, yeah each of those actions may not be as powerful, but some of the combinations you can make at lower levels can completely make up for this fact. And then on the top end, it's super restricting. The only time 6 actions feels good to me, is around the midpoint of character growth, and really only for one mastery at a time.
So, here's my proposal:
Every rank past E for a mastery, a player gets an action slot for that type of mastery. For example, someone with a U Rank Offense Mastery, an S Rank Defense Mastery, a C Rank Alter, would have:
6 Offense Actions, 5 Defense Actions, and 2 Alter Actions.
Given the caps on how high you can take each Mastery, this allows people both progression and options. Say you want to go true glass cannon, you can take only offensive Masteries and this would allow you to stack every single Offensive Action available in the game, but you would have no capability for Defense or Support, which for some players is fine. Players who want to play true hybrid, won't be nerfed by having to choose from a limited pool of one or the other, when they can build Masteries in both and be literally ready for almost anything, like a true jack of all trades.
It even creates choices in how high to level an Alter. For example, Dynamism has 2 Actions (currently), so if going by pure action points, there's no reason to level it above C. Unless, you consider that you get bonuses from higher level Dynamism, such as additional movement points, or higher damage on momentum. So then, what is more worth it? Min-maxing the amount of action points you get? Or using one of your limited caps to get better bonuses from the Alter?
This also means that the "basic actions" such as a basic attack are actually useful, because that's all a player would have at the start. They can't use all the fancy tricks because they haven't leveled up their character, and this actually creates a power fantasy for those who desire to reach the highest of highs, while also strictly defining a "low level" from a "high level" player because of what actions and how many they have access to.
This also creates flexibility in people being able to take more general actions, especially the expensive Auto Assist, because any action slot can be used on those, from any mastery class. And the system itself is flexible as well. For example, you can have people only earn an action point at C, A, and U, creating three action slots for the highest mastery in a player's arsenal, while requiring them to take back up masteries of the same class in order to supplement with additional action slots.
These are my thoughts. I feel like this would give players an actual sense of progression and actual reasons to build more than one of the same type of mastery. Because one major flaw (to me) in the current system is the fact that I, as a player who wants Kat to be a glass cannon, has zero reason to take more than one offensive mastery for any reason besides flavor. Flavor is important, but the mechanics should back up the flavor, and I think this is a really good way to do that.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. <3
