Number of hero abilities for dungeon crawler type map?

[Marsmallos]

I recently had a look at an old abandoned project of mine, it's like a dungeon crawler type of map (bosses and creeps to kill). I'm having second thoughts on the amount of abilities I added to each hero: six active abilities and one passive (bound to Q,W,E,R,T,V,).

QW are typically single target damage abilities you can use often, usually with some kind of synergy. I remember thinking that just standing there and shooting at the boss/mobs was boring so I wanted to add something more to do.
ERT are longer cooldown more situational spells like AoE and Polymorph, stuns, self buffs, heals etc.
V is a two minute cooldown ultimate.

Do you guys think this is too much? I'm thinking of cutting it down to one single target spell, two situational abilities and one ultimate (4 abilities in total), scrapping the synergies and passives. I'm thinking a new player trying the map will probably find that six abilities are too much to learn. How many spells do you think are reasonable in dungeon crawler kind of map?

 

[Mephestrial]

Six abilities is nice, I just wouldn't make them all available at level 1. That way they have time to get used to the first few abilities before unlocking the rest. Maybe even make one or two unlocked after getting a certain dungeon drop.

 

[cleavinghammer]

I'd say two passives, especially if it's a fighter.

Also, it depends on what type of character (a mage can handle more than one active, a fighter can't).

 

[Marsmallos]

Ok, thanks guys. I've kind of painted myself into a corner with the initial design of the game; having levelling abilities will be hard to balance vs the enemies, and I think you need all of the abilities (whether it's four or six) at the beginning of the game.

@cleavinghammer with four abilities and one passive one class would look like this

Q - Explosive Shot - Single target damage spell to break monotony of autoattacking
W - Explosive Trap - AoE spell to deal with big groups of weaker enemies (situational)
E - Freezing Trap - Stun to remove enemies from the fight (situational)
R - Rapid Fire - Ultimate which boosts attack speed and mana reg for a short while.
Passive - Wolf companion - you also have a Wolf companion whenever your hero is alive.

Don't you think playing a hero with only one active and the rest passives would get dull very quickly? I mean you are just auto attacking everything

 

[nhs325]

Why don't 3 abilities for each heroes? I mean, yeah, it is kind of weak (2 active, 1 passive) but this is multiplayer, which means players should backup eachother. Better, you can get scrolls that will give you a new spell permernantly.

 

[Xonok]

In any kind of map I think it it hard to start with more than 3 abilities.
However, with just 3 the player will get bored later on, so I suggest starting with a small amount of abilities and adding more over time.