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Wait, channeling's changing? AGAIN!?

Short answer: Yes. Please understand.

Long answer: Time for a bit of a long history lesson, since things with channeling have been involved since conception. One thing we've struggled with is making it something that could fit in our canon, and with it, seem like something that could sorta fit in the games. We've gone through quite a few iterations in hopes of two things: The previous statement, and to make it as something comparable to hybrids. Without those, there's kind of no reason to not go the hybrid route unless someone simply doesn't care for the concept.

From the start, though, we've always wanted an option where those who wish to keep their characters as humans could undertake the Master Missions and get something for it. In the past, we had it where those who did the MMs got some sort of item from them; sometimes, it was a weapon. Other times, it was something else. And anyone who did the MMs at the time, even hybrids, would see something of this sort before we started shifting things and made that a human-only deal. Think of this as a precursor to what we have now with artifacts.

In the interest of not boring everyone, let's fast forward to why we've had so many revisions and overhauls with this. The short version is that all of the iterations before it have kinda ended up having less of a Pokemon feel and more like a traditional "RPG magic system" feel, which we didn't want. And with just one partner, it also didn't emphasize the importance of a channeler's Pokemon. All of them. Mix that with the general feeling that a channeler's capabilities couldn't compete with a hybrid, and it's unfortunately easy to see why we've struggled to keep to a given form of this system. But now, I feel we've finally got it where we want it, and I hope you all feel the same.

Sorry, I fell asleep. What changed?

You know, I can't blame you. So if you skipped ahead to this, let me just outline what's changing here.

1. Channelers will have a primary partner, but won't be stuck to JUST them.

This one sounds like you think it does. The primary partner is the one used the most, and would be like the single partner from our previous iterations. This Pokemon is the one that dictates not only a channeler's innate ability, but has two unique skills that only they and the channeler can do. Their other Pokemon won't cut it. You might remember these skills from our last iteration, where the fifth and tenth MMs granted a skill unique to the channeler's partner. The rest of a channeler's skills instead are able to potentially be performed by their other Pokemon of the same type, meaning a channeler can have potentially a whole team at their disposal.

Either way, this goes into our next point...

2. Skills are ALL Pokemon-dependent.

The skill tree thing, with the whole offense/defense setup? That's out. We'll be converting some of what was posted from that into examples for this iteration and keeping the rest for potential ideas later on. In the meantime, you'll still see that remnant, but I'll be trying to fix that soon.

Instead, skills depend on the Pokemon you're planning to use for them. Simpler ones might be able to have several work for it. Others might focus on a given Pokemon's traits and really only be usable with them. The ideal is that one will be using multiple Pokemon to channel with instead of just one, allowing two channelers of the same type to be completely different in their approach and have their own flair.

3. NO skills will be lost.

Now, we know that there's a few that have already done a fair bit with channeling, or even a lot with it. With our shift to what we're doing now, I can't stress enough that this won't be at a cost to a given channeler's abilities; if you have some from the last iteration we've done or an even older one that got shifted into said iteration, you won't be losing those. But, we the administration would like to start discussions to help you get those sorted out. For that matter, consider this a chance to have skills retailored to fit your character and their Pokemon if you wish. Either way, we'd like it for channelers, old and new alike, to get in touch with us. But the point remains, we won't be stripping skills from anyone by default, only retooling them.

Hopefully this covers and clarifies everything, but if you have any questions, let us know.