I have been spending the past few weeks completely redesigning the Proficiency and Ability systems in order to enhance players' experiences in the MegaZone. At this point, I am pretty much finished with that task!

I ultimately enjoy this new system so much that I have also decided to retroactively implement it into the original battling systems as well. However, before doing that, I wanted to introduce the new system to everyone and allow everyone a week or so to get used to the changes before the changes go live. No, this does not mean that the MegaZone is releasing in a week. This is just pertaining to the new Ability/Proficiency system.

You can view the new Proficiency System via the following URL:
https://www.sylestia.com/proficiency/

*Please Note: You can only access this page by directly entering in the URL or clicking the link above. In order to view a specific Pet, you must copy and paste its Pet ID # into the URL where it says "pet_id="*

The Page is fully functional at this time. There are a few important things to note when you go to play around with it:

1. Whatever you select on the page will have NO effect whatsoever on your live pets. It will not affect their Stats nor their Abilities in anyway at this time. So feel free to mess around however you want. All saved data will be reset when the system actually goes live.

2. It will NOT charge you Gold to Reset Proficiencies nor to change Attunements. It will say it will cost Gold, but it will NOT charge you. So feel free to play with it as much as you want.


The Actual Changes

With that said, here is information on what's changing and how things will be different.

Firstly, this new system is replacing everything about the old system. While the new system does retain a lot of the same functionality, it will not rely on anything regarding the old system.

This means that once this system goes live, you will no longer use the current Proficiency Page nor the current Level Up Point system. They are going to be removed.

Additionally, once the new system goes live, you will have to re-set all of your Pets. So if you're interested in trying to set your Pets up the same way that they are now, I suggest writing it down somewhere for when the system goes live.

Choosing an Element

Just like the current system, there are still 6 Elements to choose from. One difference now is that a Pet can only be attuned to one Element at a time. I know some of you were using multiple Elements in the original system, so this will no longer be possible.

A Pet can be attuned to an Element at any time and it can switch to a different Element at any time. Switching will cost a nominal re-training fee of Gold. This amount increases at certain Level Tiers, getting more expensive as the Pet's Level increases.

Once a Pet is attuned to an Element, it will automatically learn all available Abilities for that Element. As it gains Levels, it will automatically learn new Abilities as they are unlocked. Players no longer have to spend points in the Ability Trees to unlock new Abilities.

Ability Expertise

Once a Pet has been attuned to an Element and begins to battle with those Abilities, it will earn Expertise for those Abilities. Once it earns a sufficient amount of Expertise, that Ability will be permanently upgraded for that Pet to the next Rank (this also happens automatically). There are a total of 5 Ranks for each Ability for each Element.

There are two important things to know regarding the Expertise feature. Firstly, Expertise is permanent. This means that even if you switch to another Element, that earned Expertise will still be there when you switch back. No progress will be lost.

Second, the plan at this time is that Pets can only earn Expertise for Abilities from content above Level 60. In other words, Pets will only gain Expertise while battling in the MegaZone.

Proficiencies

Level Up Points and the Stat Proficiencies from the current Proficiency System are being replaced with the new Stat Proficiency system.

Regardless of a Pet's Element, they will earn Proficiency Points that they can spend in boosts to Health, Strength/Intelligence, Dexterity, or Agility. Pets will earn Proficiency Points at the following Levels: Lvl 0, 30, 60, 65, 70, and 75.

The amount of a boost that a Pet receives depends on both its current Level and the Rank of the Proficiency. At Level 0, Pets receive a flat boost to that Stat. For each Level after that, it gains additional benefit. At certain Level Tiers, this benefit increases.

Additionally, increasing the Rank of the Proficiency increases the boost for all Levels.

This allows Players to still control the Pet's Stats, but should make the system much less tedious to manage and will allow Pets to gain benefit with every single Level that they earn.

The tradeoff between the current system and new system isn't 1:1. However, this new system allows for much higher Stats from Level 60 to 75, which was the intention. As I was testing the MegaZone, I wasn't noticing as much of a change as I would have liked from Levels 60 to 75. So this new system sought to correct that and I feel very happy with how it has.

So while you may not be able to reach the same max Stat for your Pets as they are now at Level 60, the tradeoff will be much further in their favor once they start leveling beyond Level 60.

Lastly, you can reset a Pet's Proficiency Points at any time for a nominal re-training fee of Gold. Again, this fee increases at certain Level Tiers; increasing as the Pet's Level increases.

Abilities

Abilities have received a huge boost; all Abilities! While each Ability pretty much retained its original use, it either received a significant boost to damage / functionality or received new functionality.

The end result is that all Pets should do more damage and be way better in battle under the new system (no matter which Element they are), than they currently can with the current system.

Additionally, this new system allows Pets to have up to 5 Abilities by the time that they are Level 75 - the current system would have only allowed them to have the first 3 Abilities of an Ability Tree in the current system. So battling will be a lot more dynamic and fun than under the current system.


To conclude, please post your comments / questions below. Additionally, if you encounter any issues using the Proficiency Page, please reply to this thread. Please post screenshots and be as detailed as possible so that I can help to fix whatever the issue may be.

Thanks! Its very cool!

Krin, this looks great! Thanks so much for all your hard work.

Wow I am impressed, Krin!

Thanks for the update.

Thank you so much for keeping us updated Krin!

By the way, when you mentioned "Expertise on Abilities", did you mean that Expertise affects the skills such as strength and agility, or specific moves that your pet uses, like Quick Attack and Mend?

Looks good! I'm gonna have so much fun retraining everyone to get their skills to max!

This means that once this system goes live, you will no longer use the current Proficiency Page nor the current Level Up Point system. They are going to be removed.

"Current" Level Up Point system. Does that mean that there's going to be a new version of it or there will no longer be a level up point system? I'm assuming the latter but just wanted to be sure because it heavily impacts how I set up my tank. (I do an agility/health hybrid shadow build throwing proficiency points into agility but level up points into health.)

Link: https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=44190&page=1#6 Author: Xnickyswagx Time Posted: 3/4/2017 at 1:35 PM Thank you so much for keeping us updated Krin! By the way, when you mentioned "Expertise on Abilities", did you mean that Expertise affects the skills such as strength and agility, or specific moves that your pet uses, like Quick Attack and Mend?

Expertise is how Abilities rank up.

Link: https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=44190&page=1#8 Author: Savynn Time Posted: 3/4/2017 at 1:47 PM This means that once this system goes live, you will no longer use the current Proficiency Page nor the current Level Up Point system. They are going to be removed. "Current" Level Up Point system. Does that mean that there's going to be a new version of it or there will no longer be a level up point system? I'm assuming the latter but just wanted to be sure because it heavily impacts how I set up my tank. (I do an agility/health hybrid shadow build throwing proficiency points into agility but level up points into health.)

There will be no more Level Up point system as is. So for a Level 60 pet, you'd have to put like 2 points in Health and 1 point in Agility.