There is an overwhelming amount of theorizing around skills in Last Epoch. Whether youre building a map clearing, Abby killing, flashy looking Paladin, or just a Primalist who collects furry friends because the Capybara needs buddies, you can bet your skills will need to be planned out. But what keeps a skill in check? What does it take to build something that looks good, feels good, and doesnt break everything else in the process? The answer a lot. Thankfully, we have a team of passionate and skilled developers who focus on these exact questions.

Today, we will hear from our very own Justin Carpenter, Technical Game Designer for Last Epoch, to walk us through the process of how a skill like Heartseeker was pulled from the Quiver of ideation and fired into the hands of Travelers just like you.

Justin? Take it away!

Ideation

When Great Minds Play the Same Game

We have an endless list of abilities we'd like to add for each Class, so when picking which new ability will be added, we try to choose one that fits what that Class or its Mastery needs most. For Marksman, the answer was easy: it needed a good single-target damage skill, and we were very interested in creating our own spin on Diablo 2's Guided Arrow, so we were certain that Heartseeker was the skill we wanted to add.

What was harder to answer is how exactly it should function.

[img src="https://forum.lastepoch.com/uploads/default/original/3X/7/b/7be2a342de94382253420e054ce858be63e5e5a1.gif"][/img]

Function

And Fashion

We created some quick prototypes of several different variants of the ability, trying out different mechanics for how the arrow would move or pick targets. We knew this would be a very spammable skill, so we had to ensure it was performant, would work well in online mode, and that the visuals could strike a good balance between impressive and not too noisy when used very rapidly. From those considerations, we settled on it picking a specific target and repeatedly striking it until dead, at which point it would pick a new target, always only ever striking its current target.

The arrow only ever striking its chosen target allowed us to do some tricks under the hood to make it much more performant than traditional projectiles, and keep the visuals responsive and accurate in online mode despite the arrow's exceptionally high speed.

[img src="https://forum.lastepoch.com/uploads/default/original/3X/d/b/db6cf20c228bbaa77c3ae2681d2d85e57a64969d.gif"][/img]

Balance

As All Things Should Be

What took a lot of discussion and math was the Recurve Chance. Heartseeker has a chance to "Recurve" upon hitting its target, which is what allows it to turn back and strike the target again. As this was the ability's unique property, we wanted to ensure players could scale this value up high and get arrows that persist for an impressively long time, but we also needed to avoid the stat becoming excessively powerful relative to other choices. After lots of math, formulas, and testing, we eventually settled on your Recurve Chance being multiplied by 0.8 each time it recurves. This was chosen because it helps constrain the value of stacking Recurve Chance, but also, quite importantly, it offered a simple description of its behavior that players could intuitively understand.

[img src="https://forum.lastepoch.com/uploads/default/original/3X/0/f/0f326726374b4b509c8c01d0c7a476403ad71f65.gif"][/img]

The Great Debate

What ended up being most contentious was how it would look when moving. We had two camps internally, with some wanting it to move in a straight line back and forth through its target, while others wanted it to curve erratically as it returned to strike its target. We ended up settling on having it move in a straight line as a base visual, and offered the curving visuals as a node in its skill tree. As a skill tree node, though, we had to position it between two extremes - it shouldn't feel like a wasted point for players who want the alternate visuals, and it shouldn't feel mandatory for players who don't want the alternate visuals. We opted to give it some slow chance, as that is a valuable effect unrelated to damage, and which can be fairly easily provided from a variety of sources.

[img src="https://forum.lastepoch.com/uploads/default/original/3X/8/a/8ab77bcd47c343b09e1bc2f94b65231b5f8f0a59.gif"][/img]

Designing the Skill Tree

A.K.A Studio Arbor Day

When designing the skill tree, our flow is to have many members of the team fill up a big list with any and every idea they'd like to see as a node, and then a single designer takes on the task of crafting the tree, using the list as a well of endless ideas to pull from. There are a lot of considerations for skill trees:

• The nodes and sections of the tree should be positioned in logically related spots

• There should be moderate amounts of depth to the tree, with a few options that are 4 or 5 nodes deep

• There should be a breadth of options closer to the start of the tree, especially with more interconnectedness near the start

• Commonly desirable nodes should be fairly accessible, while niche or unusual nodes are more difficult to reach

• The tree should offer a decent variety of ways to build the skill, and individual nodes should not be so potent that you feel forced to build it in a particular way

• Where possible, the overall layout should try to feel unique from other skill trees

With Heartseeker's skill tree, it ended up splitting fairly neatly into 4 general sections: Recurve Chance and effects, Damage Over Time, conversions and off-skill utility, and a catch-all section with effects like Crit Chance, Shadows, Dusk Shrouds, and the Puncture trigger.

[img src="https://forum.lastepoch.com/uploads/default/original/3X/e/e/eef0963cdc2df105a56ef990231dc7bd5166704c.gif"][/img]

Refinement

Honing Your Craft

Once the skill tree is designed, it tends to keep its overall shape, and from playtests, we refine the power and effects of individual nodes. Our Community Testers are a huge aid at this point as we try to uncover problematic interactions that need to be rebalanced. Nodes like Hidden Skewer and Returning Darkness needed several iterations to reach a comfortable spot in the design to avoid degenerate gameplay or major balance issues. After that point, the skill's design is complete, and all that's left is repeated number tweaks throughout the lead-up to launch.

[img src="https://forum.lastepoch.com/uploads/default/original/3X/b/4/b4b4f605fbb9fdc6c7179c612621021db5fc3b88.gif"][/img]

Closing

Well, if there was ever a reason to appreciate the work that goes into a game, I think this adds more than a few to that list. Thank you, Justin and the rest of the Design Team here at EHG, for all of your hard work. Heartseeker is a truly amazing and fun skill and a true joy to use. I think I speak for everyone when I say Im so excited to see what the team comes up with next.

This has been Making Last Epoch. Keep your eyes peeled for our next glimpse behind the curtain to learn what it takes to make an ARPG like Last Epoch.

Until then, we will see you in Eterra.