Hey guys! I know this horse has been beaten to death at this point, but just wanted to toss in my two cents as a fresh face returning after 3 years. I'm new to both awakening and succession so please correct me on any of this if I'm wrong ^^

As a witch main, I'm adoring the way they implemented prime skills here, but upon comparing it to pretty much every other class I immediately started to see the problems. Every skill having two prime variants to choose between is amazing, but in terms of sheer options alone it makes her awakening feel like a joke, and I think the fact that most other classes don't have the same level of versatility in their prime selection is certainly a problem. Here's my (possibly wacky) idea to bring awakening/succession in-line across all classes:

1. Making Absolutes Feel Meaningful: I think a big part of the problem with awakening for some classes is that there simply aren't enough skills to make the cons worth it (notably relearning your entire kit and dealing with constant weapon swapping), and while absolutes are technically functional, they literally only serve as stat boosts and thus don't feel that great to invest points into. So to fix this, I propose that the following changes be made to all other classes besides witch/wizard:
   • Lock absolute skills solely to awakening, and prime skills to succession.
   • Remove some of the absolute skills. Leave them only on skills that flow nicely between awakening skills.
   • Within this narrowed-down list, give each absolute skill two variants to choose between similar to witch/wizard succession, preferably one focused on control/survivability and one on flat damage.
   • Note that the animations should remain the same, the idea is to give absolute skills a focus on versatility (since I believe that's the point of awakening anyways) while prime skills remain as all-around better and flashier upgrades to the base skills.
     
     
2. Bringing Wizard/Witch In-Line: With all other classes being offered the same versatility through their awakening as witch/wizard have through their succession (a bit weird that it would be backwards, but I actually think it makes sense), now all that's left to do is bring witch/wizard awakening up-to-speed:
   • Give witch/wizard a few more awakening skills to make it a viable option next to their over-tuned succession.
   • Give them way, way more summoning utility. I believe that's the main selling point of their awakening, so maybe make it more of a focus rather than a passive damage boost.
     
     

So yeah! I think the take-away here is that awakening should have more of a focus on versatility and build diversity, since it's always been about weaving new skills into pre-existing ones, while succession should remain as flashier, more impactful baseline skillset.

The benefit here is that PA wouldn't necessarily have to add a bunch of new awakening skills to every class to make it feel more viable, which would just be throwing more confusion into the mix and making balancing even harder overall. Instead, they could focus their energy on making existing mechanics meaningful while also adding in some build diversity in the process, a win-win for everyone. Curious to see if this idea seems feasible :) And thanks for taking the time to read <3