Can anyone answer a few questions for me?

Well ive been away for awhile..come back and find a new combat systek and no more special attack.

Are the new abilities pretty much the same thing? do all require adrenaline? and do you get exp when you use them?

What are the new purple hitsplats?

...hmm and what are off-hand weapons? should i still use zammy book?

 

1) The new abilities aren't the same as specials, they are more unique. A special was a one-off attack that did a lot of damage. Abilities have different effects, as some do Damage over Time, or "DOT", for instance they will hit 200 every second for 6 seconds. Not all abilities require adrenaline. Basic abilities or auto-attacking is how you build adrenaline. Threshold abilities use a small amount of adrenaline, equal to approximately 2-3 basic abilities. The new system changed the way that experience is gained. Rather than gaining experience every hit, you know hit until the monster dies, then gain all of the experience at once.

2) The purple/blue hits you see are a critical hit. If you go into your equipment stats interface, you will see a critical chance percentage. The higher the percentage, the higher your chance for a critical hit.

3) Off-hand weapons are used for duel wielding. For example, wielding 2 chaotic rapiers. Zammy book would be used more as a shield than anything, which is still useful. They have abilities for users that still want to use a shield.

 

Sums it up pretty nicely.