The thing is, I don't have a lot of experience with them and I'm not sure what they lack, what is too strong already and I need to avoid adding to, what may generally wind up being too imbalanced and just what would be cool ideas for stuff to give them.
I very badly wanted to play as a fighter/mage hybrid and got the idea for this after seeing how half-assed of a fighter the Arcane Warriors are, so that's where the main focus is. I'm also working on adding things to the base Mage line-up as well as Blood Mage just to make them more fun and varied since I'll be using those as well.
My ideas are very much incomplete right now, so I'll post what I've thought of so far. I'd like advice on how to improve them, and what you think should be added or removed.
Arcane Warrior base abilities rewritten:
Combat Magic: Increases Attack by (Spellpower*0.5), and Damage by Spellpower rather than Magic.
Ethereal Shroud: (Added to Combat Magic) +Defense (Cunning), Un-flankable.
Project a very thin and invisible aura of mana to feel the movement of nearby foes, creating a sort of sixth sense. Cunning allows you to more easily read and react to the movements of others, improving defense.
Mana Sheathe: (Added to Combat Magic) +5 Attack, +Armor Penetration (spellpower), +5 Spirit Damage
Coat your weapon in an imperceptible layer of arcane energy, improving it's ability to pierce armor and extending it's reach beyond it's perceptible physical edge.
Ephemeral Shield: (Added to Combat Magic) +Armor/Resistance (Cunning). (weakened by weight of equipped armor? Would be too strong in combination)
Carefully read the movements of nearby foes, applying minor force and substance to key areas within your aura to hinder and weaken attacks made against you.
I wanted to change this to make the Arcane Warrior into more of a cloth-wearing warrior that uses magic to replace the use of actual armor, mostly for aesthetic purposes, maintaining many of the same penalties such as Fatigue.
My intent is to make them use mage-type attributes such as Magic and Cunning to replace typical Warrior-type attributes such as Strength and Dexterity. Magic would now increase melee damage, attack and armor penetration, and Cunning would improve defense and armor.
Arcane Warrior Single Blade abilities:
Offensive Stance: +Attack Speed, +5 Attack, +10% Crit
Defensive Stance: +10 Defense, +Move Speed
Stance Mastery: Critical hits in Offensive now cause bleeding, and ??? for Defensive.
Activation: For the next 5 seconds, all hits in Offensive are criticals and all attacks are dodged in Defensive.
Shield Bash (Punch)
Below the Belt (Kick)
Shield Pummel (Slash, Punch, Punch)
Assault (Slash, Slash, Slash, Punch)
First off, every name here is a placeholder. With the attacks I've only listed the names of abilities whose animations I intend to reuse.
I wanted to make Arcane Warriors use a unique weapon style that seemed both fun and fitting; a single sword (or dagger) with no shield. Light, unencumbering, and leaves a free hand for casting.
This area is very underdeveloped in general, but especially with the attacks. I wanted the weapon style to focus on accuracy, mobility, and criticals, with a defensive option that focuses on moving and dodging.
In regards to the attacks, I've been throwing around the idea of how I could have them combo off of each other the same way certain spells do.
Mage base abilities, new and rewritten:
Fade: Significantly reduces threat and adds a 15% chance for attacks to miss. (1 second cast, 20% Fatigue, 5/s Mana Drain)
Invisibility: When Fade is active, it will attempt to initiate Invisibility outside of combat. Invisibility functions as powerful stealth that does not break on activation of items, but breaks when entering combat, attacking or activating a spell..
Combat Invisibility: Invisibility can initiate during combat, but will de-activate for 15 seconds after performing an attack or activating a spell. Additionally, Fade has +5% chance for attacks to miss.
Improved Combat Invisibility: The combat cooldown time on Invisibility is reduced to 10 seconds, and the activation cost of Fade is removed.
This is a new one. It gives mages a similar alternative to stealth. It's stronger and has greater combat application, but has a much greater cost (as opposed to.. almost none). The primary function, as you can see from the first ability in the line, is to shrug off enemies that target you. It can be used to sneak around, but it would have a time limitation since it drains mana while it's active.
Once you master it, it can be used to repeatedly pop in and out of sight in combat, deactivating it when the invisibility effect is on cooldown to avoid much of the cost associated with maintaining it and become a difficult target.
Two other lines I've yet to cover at all here would be the rewriting of the initial branch to focus more on arcane/basic spells and the improvement of spells in general, and another new branch that focuses on mana management and recovery.
I was throwing around the idea of having one ability that puts you into a temporary trance, incapacitating you while rapidly recovering mana. Another might have been to have you passively regenerate mana while stunned or sleeped, and another to grant +0.5 or 1 combat mana regeneration among other things.
Blood Magic abilities:
Black Blood: Apply 1 minute poison to target's weapon with 1 minute reset (similar to Demonic Poison or unique)
Coat a weapon with your own blood, infused with dark and malicious energies.
Regeneration: ???
I wanted this branch to focus on spells that use Blood Magic on yourself, and obviously it isn't very well developed. I also wanted it to have some good synergy with Arcane Warrior, which I think many would appreciate since it seems to be a common combination.
What I want Regeneration to basically be is pretty obvious; health regeneration (though passive, probably only while Blood Magic is active). The problem is it could easily be either too strong or too weak since health is used for spells with Blood Magic. I'd need advice from someone who's actually played a Blood Mage.
Summon Demon
I wanted to add a line to Blood Magic that would allow the summoning of demons. Most likely I'll just have something along the lines of Ability 1: Rage, Ability 2: Desire, Ability 3: Pride, Ability 4: Improved summons.
I wanted to add a chance based on some scaling factor (such as an attribute) that the summoned demon could turn on you as well as your enemies, with the chance being more likely with each grade of demon.
They would require Blood Magic to be active just like every other Blood Magic spell, and consume a fair amount of health.
It may actually be very interesting to have them always be hostile to everyone including you, but allow them to be made tame by using Blood Control on them.
Modifié par Kesaru, 19 janvier 2010 - 05:33 .
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