Choose My Adventure: Unveiling the Treasures of Trove

Hello again, friends, and welcome once again to Choose My Adventure. The results of last week’s race are in, and holy cow, what a race it was. Out of the gate, Pathfinder Online took a strong lead, but it wasn’t long before Skyforge pulled ahead. As we entered the final day of voting, it looked like a surefire victory for Skyforge, but in a surprise upset, Trove surged from behind to win the contest, garnering 47% of the vote compared to Skyforge‘s 29% and Pathfinder Online’s 24%.

So thank you, dear voters, for a riveting round of voting, and a special thanks to those of you who took to the comments to voice your opinions. But now that the die (or vote, as you will) has been cast, I suppose I should stop wasting time and jump right in. Let’s get this started, shall we?

As is tradition, the first order of business before I can jump headlong into the game is to decide on what kind of character I’m going to play. Unlike most traditional MMORPGs, Trove does not feature character creation in the traditional sense. Instead, each character’s physical appearance is based on his or her class. So really, the only choice that needs to be made before I can get things started is my class. Thankfully, Trove offers plenty of options to choose from. The first class unlock is free, but all subsequent unlocks are gonna cost me precious money — either in the form of cubits, earned in game, or credits, purchased with cold, hard cash — so choose wisely! That said, here are your options:

The Knight is the default class in Trove and is unlocked for all players from the get-go. It does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. But for those of you who want details, the Knight is described as a “durable, armored fighter” who specializes in melee combat.

The Knight’s first ability, Smash, is a conal AoE that deals damage to all enemies in its path in addition to knocking them away, giving the Knight some room to breathe. His second ability is Charge, which unsurprisingly allows him to charge toward the target enemy, dealing damage to it and all enemies in the vicinity. Last up is his ultimate ability, Iron Will, which restores the Knight to full health and drastically reduces incoming damage for a short time afterward. In addition to those three active abilities, the Knight’s passive, Retribution, powers up the Knight’s next attack for a short time after taking damage. So basically, when you hit the Knight, the Knight hits back way, way harder.

Although one might normally think that a ninja, given the emphasis on stealth and subterfuge, might go for an outfit that isn’t inset with Tron-style glowing neon lines, Trove begs to differ. The Neon Ninja is a melee character who prefers agile acrobatics and fancy footwork to avoid damage while dishing out some mean hits of her own.

The Neon Ninja’s abilities seem to encourage a suitably ninja-like hit-and-run style of play. For starters, there’s her Shadow Flip ability, which allows him to ninjaflip into stealth, leaving behind a decoy to attract the attention of her enemies while he sets up for the kill. The class’s second ability is called Stasis Blade and causes the Neon Ninja to dash forward and slice through any enemies in her path, dealing damage and rooting all hostiles hit by the attack for a few seconds. The Neon Ninja’s ultimate ability, Final Technique, infuses her blade with energy, causing her melee attacks to emit a ranged energy attack that deals damage and refreshes the root on any foes affected by Stasis Blade. Her passive ability, Shining Star, ties everything together by causing all successful melee attacks to grant the Ninja a single shuriken (up to a maximum of three at a time) that can be thrown from stealth for extra damage.

The Dracolyte is a short-range magic-using class that combines powerful pyromancy with an adorable dragon familiar to sear his enemies like a fine steak — assuming, that is, that you like your steaks dark and crispy. His first ability, Spit Fire, causes his familiar to — you guessed it — spit fire at the target enemy, while his second ability, Burnt Offering, tosses a dragon idol that, when attacked, detonates like a bomb, dealing damage to any enemies unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast.

The Dracolyte’s ultimate attack, Avatar of Flame, transforms the Dracolyte into “a living embodiment of draconic fury,” which provides a plethora of buffs to assist in all his immolation needs. His passive, Fire Walking, seems useful — albeit not especially interesting — as it simply grants him a movement bonus while moving through lava, but at the cost of nullifying his health regeneration for the duration.

No, you’re not hallucinating (as far as I’m aware, at least); that does, in fact, say “Candy Barbarian,” and no, it is not some esoteric new use of the word “candy” of which you were previously unaware. The Candy Barbarian is exactly what it sounds like: a berserk melee class whose arsenal is largely composed of various delightful confections that are sure to satisfy any enemy’s sweet-tooth — or perhaps more accurately, to remove it by way of blunt force trauma.

Her Sugar Crash ability sends him leaping through the air at his target, dealing damage to all enemies in her landing area, while her Vanilla Swirlwind attack — which would make a great name for a Ben and Jerry’s flavor — does damage to everything around her while also creating healing candy for herself. Her delightfully named ultimate, Eis-Crom Cone, calls upon the power of the Candy Barbarian deity Eis-Crom to drop a huge ice cream cone that deals damage to all foes in the area-of-effect. Meanwhile, her Gum Drop passive helps keep the Barbarian and her allies fighting strong by granting a bonus to attack speed and movement speed when consumed.

While it’s unconfirmed as of this writing whether or not Trove has a man in black fleeing across the desert, if it does, this guy would follow. The Gunslinger is a ranged class that specializes in taking down enemies by filling them with lead, or pixels, or whatever it is guns shoot in the world of Trove.

The Gunslinger’s arsenal includes Charged Shot, which deals AoE damage around the target, and Blast Jump, which allows the Gunslinger to fire his guns downward, dealing damage in an area around him while also launching him skyward. His ultimate ability, Run and Gun, increases attack speed and movement speed while also granting him the ability to shoot on the move without any penalty to his mobility.

This mischievous fairy is all about, well, trickery, utilizing decoys and enchanted weaponry to whittle down his foes. When it comes to the Fae Trickster, avoiding damage is the name of the game, and successfully doing so activates his Ego Blast passive ability, which grants bonus damage to her primary attacks as long as she has taken no damage in the last two seconds. That particular challenge is made a great deal simpler by her Blink ability, which teleports the Trickster forward and leaves behind a decoy to draw the attention of her enemies.

Her Glitterbomb ability tosses a sparkling explosive that deals damage to and knocks back any enemies caught in its blast, in addition to presumably leaving them coated in glitter that they’ll be finding on their clothes days later. Her ultimate ability, Fairy Dance, is a dance only in the loosest sense of the word and in fact summons a trio of enchanted staves that act as turrets, unleashing a constant barrage of magical blasts on the Trickster’s enemies.

The Ice Sage is a master of cryomancy, utilizing a variety of glacial spells to damage and hinder his enemies. His Coldhearted passive ability instills his basic attack with frosty power, causing them to slow the movement speed of any enemies struck by them, while his Ice Crash (not to be confused with its estranged cousin, Snow Crash), ability drops a massive icicle from the sky to deal damage in an area wherever it lands.

He can also buff himself using his Frozen Ward ability, which increases the movement speed, damage, and attack speed of the Ice Sage, as well as absorbs damage taken while it is active. His ultimate ability, The Big Chill, freezes all enemies around the Ice Sage for a few seconds, and any damage dealt to those enemies while they are frozen is applied immediately when the effect wears off.

The master archer of Trove’s class lineup, the Shadow Hunter specializes in picking off her enemies from a distance with well-aimed arrows while befuddling any foes who venture too close with nefarious traps. Her passive ability, Dark Whispers, works in tandem with her primary damage-dealing ability, Radiant Arrow. Dark Whispers periodically marks nearby enemies with a “shadowmark,” which increases the damage they take from Radiant Arrow in addition to allowing the Shadow Hunter to see them through walls. Conveniently, Radiant Arrow is capable of piercing through walls (as well as other enemies) and can be charged up for additional damage.

If her opponents are getting a little too close for comfort, the Shadow Hunter can toss a Sun Snare trap, which damages enemies in its area-of-effect and stuns them for two seconds. Her ultimate attack, Arrow of the Goddess, immediately applies shadowmarks to all nearby enemies and empowers the Shadow Hunter’s next Radiant Arrow with additional damage and a knockback effect.

Last, but not least, is the obligatory piratical counterpart to the Neon Ninja. The Pirate Captain can use his First Mate ability to spawn a turret that constantly fires upon any enemies within range. His passive ability, the punnily named Plunderbuss, causes the Captain’s attacks to periodically spawn doubloons which, when consumed, restore the Captain’s energy in addition to upgrading his active First Mate turret.

The Pirate Captain is also a master of chicanery, utilizing his Pretend Pirate ability to spawn a booby-trapped decoy that will draw the ire of any nearby enemies. When the going gets really tough, he can call in the big guns with his Man o’ War ultimate ability, which spawns an especially destructive man o’ war turret to bombard nearby enemies with explosive shells.

Phew, all right. That’s quite a list, isn’t it? I certainly can’t say Trove doesn’t provide plenty of options, and now it’s up to you lot to pick one of them. As always, get your votes in before polls close on Friday, August 21st, at 11:59 p.m. EDT. Tune in next week when I’ll begin my Trove adventures in earnest, and if you’d like to join me in my journeys, add MVMatt to your friends list and keep an eye out this weekend. Just shoot me a message and I’ll be happy to party up!

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Welcome to Choose My Adventure, the column in which you join Matt each week as he journeys through mystical lands on fantastic adventures — and you get to decide his fate. Be gentle (or not)!