BLUE PROTOCOL Episode 1: Class Introduction, Skills and Character Creation

Alright, so with the Closed Beta for Blue Protocol having just ended, I wanted to spend some time kind of.. condensing all of the things I learned over the course of playing the game.
The Closed Beta lasted several days, and Mrs Stix and I played for around 10 hours, experiencing the Imajinn system, crafting, upgrading, we obtained a mount, ran several different dungeons, tried a few classes and so much more.
I have several Blue Protocol videos coming, each covering various aspects of the game. Today, in Episode 1, we’re going to go over the classes available, skills, the skill trees themselves and character creation.

Bandai Namco confirmed that since this is the Closed Beta, customization options will be limited. They have plans on adding additional options, hairstyles and features moving into the future, but at least during this beta, the options were definitely limited.
You had a few different presets to choose between, and some basic body sliders. You could adjust your characters’ height, their width, and most importantly.. yup. You have control over what’s important.
There were some basic skin color palettes, and around 8 hairstyles to choose from. While there wasn’t much in the way of selection, the hairstyles themselves were actually surprisingly good.
There weren’t any sliders for facial customization, but there were a few choices for each part, allowing you to make a character that is kind of unique. More options will equal a more unique character overall, but due to this being the Beta, it was still pretty limiting.
You also have the option of mix and matching your outfit when finalizing your character. Granted, there were only 2 options and I went with what I felt was the best look, but when the game inevitably launches, it’d be nice to have a larger selection of outfits to choose between.

There are currently 4 classes available within Blue Protocol: the Aegis Fighter that wields both a sword and a shield, the Twin Striker that wields dual axes, the Blast Archer that wields a bow, and the Spell Caster that wields a staff and elemental magic.
Bandai Namco confirmed that while there are only 4 classes to choose from at this moment, they’re aware players are going to want a larger selection of classes to play and stated that they’re definitely open to introducing additional classes over time.
While they’d like to focus on the 4 that are currently available, and honestly, balancing 4 classes is difficult enough, they definitely have plans to expand if and when they can.
I asked the chat during the livestream what they wanted me to play as, and had hundreds of people request Archer. Why you guys wanted that is beyond me – I’ve always been drawn to Mage classes, so this was definitely out of my comfort zone but the Archer turned out to be a lot of fun.
An interesting thing about Blue Protocol is the fact that you can level each and every class on a single character. Meaning there’s absolutely no need for alts.
Additionally, every class has their own unique NPC that you can take quests specific to your class from, meaning you’ll be required to play each class if you want to fully experience the game.

By the time I’d finished streaming, I’d made it to around level 10 or 11, and had access to 6 or so skills.
Since combat in Blue Protocol is complete action combat, it required I make use of free-aiming. I had to aim where my arrows would fire and had to line up my AoEs onto the corresponding area while taking into consideration where and how the enemy was moving.
This was a little difficult considering the enemies often made use of charges, knockbacks and other attacks that left them with sporadic movement patterns.
Both the Spell Caster and Mage classes have access to their own self-heals. I believe initially the Fighter and Striker both had heals as well but I recall them making a note that they were going to be removing them.
Regardless, since we have access to our own heals.. if you’re standing in telegraphed attacks and end up dying, you have no healer to blame.
Since there is no holy trinity of tank:healer:DPS you’re required to be self-sufficient.
The Spell Caster has access to much larger AoEs than what the Archer seemingly has access to.
Mrs Stix played through the class a little bit and from what we gathered, it plays quite differently. Instead of rapidly clicking abilities like I was on the Archer, the Spell Caster requires you charge up your abilities to not only increase range, but also damage. Or at least that’s what we’d gathered.
Adding onto skills, there were what seemed to be stat-raising passives towards the right side of the skill tree. Since you have a limited number of skill points, you’re going to be required to choose which skills and which passives you want to level.
This will give players more control over their character and allow for players to adopt different playstyles.

Blue Protocol is an ambitious MMO. It’s beautiful, its combat is fast and fluid and seeing areas as populated as I did was refreshing.
But that’s the end of our first episode on Blue Protocol. Make sure you tune into the next one where I plan on touching on the game’s story, dungeons, the Imajinn system and the action combat!