774 replies to this topic

[Radix]

draxynnic, on 13 December 2012 - 12:31 AM, said:

Shapehifter is a concept I toyed with a bit when speculating about possible new professions in GW1 until they stopped doing new professions.

In the GW2 context, though, there's really two main ways in which you can achieve transformations: You can do it through the profession special mechanic, or through utility skills. This means that, mechanically, elementalists and engineers are already acting as shapeshifters - elementalists have the 'change your action bar through the special mechanic' bit, while engineers do the same through utility skills. One could imagine, for instance, reflavouring many engineer kits as tranformations. A transformation profession, then, would thus be likely to end up having a similar playstyle to one of those.

With a relatively limited list and if kept to humanoids, I could see it being done elementalist-style, as there's more to the elementalist style than changing attunements - a shapeshifter would presumably be less focused on support and area effects and more on melee or single-target ranged, for instance. However, this does raise the question of where weapons fit in, and unless the answer to that question is 'it determines what forms you have available' (which would be even more of a mechanics-over-lore than skills being set by weapon already represents - if you pay attention to both friendly and enemy NPCs, you'll see them using skills that aren't available with the weapons they're wielding) then you'd be limited to four or five forms, including your natural one.

A more elegant solution would be through utility slot skills, as this would allow for a wider range of possible transformations. However, this would likely end up with a playstyle like the engineer - a shapeshifter would, again, presumably be more melee-focused than the engineer is, but the engineer already has kits that make them at least melee-curious, and mechanistically anything a shapeshifter could do, you could probably come up with a new kit or weapon for the engineer that would allow them to achieve a similar result. In fact, when you get down to it, Elixirs S and X already allow transformations of a kind, and transformation potions in general are a common trope - one could imagine engineers developing a line of transformation elixirs that allow them to be the transformation profession directly.

The big issue here is that it's a lot easier to come up with a new concept then it is to come up with a new playstyle and set of mechanics for it. Here, for instance, elementalist, engineer, and shapeshifter are all fighting over the same general playstyle - that of a character who has a wide range of options at their disposal and can adjust on the fly to whatever seems appropriate for the situation. Since ArenaNet found two mechanics to cover this and provided the two Es with different flavours of supporting skills, they managed to get two distinct professions out of it... although engineer and elementalist are still pretty close to the boundary of how close two professions can be while retaining their distinctiveness once you look past the magic/technology difference. There isn't a simple third mechanic I can see for the shapeshifter to use instead of stealing the mechanic of one of the existing professions, and the end result seems likely to end up feeling like an engineer with different graphics and more of a melee focus.

Hrrrrmn.

What might work is putting the shapeshifts on the utility slots and have them change up your entire bar and last for a set amount of time before going into recharge - kind of like mini-elites, except the profession is able to have more than one loaded at the same time. This would create a style that's less focussed around switching smoothly between options, but having something you can jump into for a short burst of power or a quick dip into another role, then back to normal play. This probably wouldn't be enough to form the basis of a profession - we'd still need to establish what the profession would do when not transformed - but it would be a way to distinguish between elementalists (profession mechanic attunement switching) and engineers (which can switch between kits whenever they feel like it.

Many good points! I like your elegant solution to making morphing utility skills. This leaves our F skills open to more class based options.

I would say a possible solution is to make some of the morphable creatures more melee based than either the ele or the engi. In this way we have a third possible "soldier" class but with completely new tactics. In regular form or possible humanoid form give them a new weapon a whip as a possible new weapon with slightly longer range but not as ranged as guns or bows or magic, but longer than typical melee--sort of mid field aoe range.

You are right in that their is an apparent scarcity to how many different mechanics are available to implement without coming to close to other professions. However, their is no scarcity of the different creatures that could be morphable using mechanics througout all of the already available classes. By creating this class as having different creatures that are all a bit good at all with limited ammount of morphability or extended cooldowns we can start to see a whole new battle strategy.

It has to be where going into battle the player has to be somewhat strategical about what morph he chooses--somewhat like engi or ele but our morph perhaps has different cooldowns or lasting effects.

[draxynnic]

One aspect of this design is that the profession would definitely need to have an 'identity' outside of shapeshifting, which should also be... reasonably different to the others. An engineer can potentially stick to their kits and never actually make use of their main weapon - some engineers play that way by default, for instance. The way I envision this style, though, the profession would probably not be able to remain shifted at all times unless, possibly, it loaded most or all its slots with shapeshifting skills, and then it would require undergoing a rotation and thus losing the versatility that shapeshifting is intended to grant.

At the risk of being predictable, the obvious answer is 'druid'. There's a lot of demand for a nature-magic focussed profession, and while I've always been a proponent of giving that to rangers, but rangers don't really need it and if we do have a basis for a playstyle with putting it somewhere else, that would also work. Additionally, unlike games such as D&D, Guild Wars lore doesn't seem to draw a line between real-world animals that are 'natural' and thus available to druids and exotic animals that are not - while there are some that are expressly artificially created on one hand, on the other we have exotic beasts such as drakes, minotaurs and wurms that are simply parts of nature. Traditional druids are hard to do without muscling into the role of an elementalist, however.

So here's a potential twist in the tail: What about if the ranged options were druidic, but the profession in its entirety is based more along the lines of the playstyle of the 'dark knight' archetype? This might annoy people who really just want a death knight expy, but playstyle-wise the main distinction between the 'dark knight' and other soldier archetypes is a focus on debilitating and draining the life from their opponent(s) - in Guild Wars 2 terms, through use of lifesteal, poison, weakness, and similar effects... all of which have precedent for coming from nature-related sources. Give the profession a conventional weaponswap so they can switch between melee and ranged without blowing a shift and a suitable set of support utilities to give viable options that aren't simply loading up on shapeshifts, and a special mechanic and we might well have the basis for a distinctive nature-based soldier profession here, without the connotations of being evil or at least antiheroic that the traditional dark knight-y class has (but still having the option to be played that way).

Such a profession would be quite nornesque in nature, but it's still one that I could see any of the major races adopting (sylvari and to a lesser extent humans already have ties to druids and nature, asura might adopt it as essentially a magical profession that gives them the power to fight in melee despite their smaller stature, similar to asura guardians, and Blood Legion charr might see it as a way to get in touch with their inner ferocity).

[Heart Collector]

Radix, on 13 December 2012 - 06:05 PM, said:

I would say a possible solution is to make some of the morphable creatures more melee based than either the ele or the engi. In this way we have a third possible "soldier" class but with completely new tactics. In regular form or possible humanoid form give them a new weapon a whip as a possible new weapon with slightly longer range but not as ranged as guns or bows or magic, but longer than typical melee--sort of mid field aoe range.

I would say that fist weapons would be awesome for this - katars and the like to mimic the sweeping claws of the beasts! And they could use staves maybe for slightly longer range (they wouldn't be as long ranged as other professions staff mechanics and would also use them in melee defensively like bo staves)

[Radix]

A study on the monstrologist =)

[7thCylon]

My dream profession is a ritualist + martial artist + demon hunter + shaman = Ritualist 2.0

Pistol, shield, scepter, staff, focus, sword, axe, dagger EDIT: hammer

summons spirits... attacks are spirit/ rift based... ability to fuse with powerful souls transforming it and giving it a new weapon set...

oh and scholar class so light armor

Edited by 7thCylon, 27 December 2012 - 03:01 AM.

[Swarfega]

Monk pls

12 chars

[jthamind]

i would love to have some sort of a martial arts based character, whether it's a monk or something else. ftr, i never played the first GW, so i don't know what the monk was like in that. but i think it would be cool to have a melee character who only fights with their hands/feet and uses some sort of chi or whatever. i think the new monk class in WoW is something like that, iirc. but i think it would be awesome for this game. almost like Jade Empire in a way, but with a lot less boring dialog. lol.

[Dreikki]

jthamind, on 28 December 2012 - 04:26 PM, said:

i never played the first GW, so i don't know what the monk was like in that.

Monk was a pure healer/protection class with smiting (holy damage) skills that no one ever used. Anet already said one of the main aspects of GW2 is the lack of healing classes, so I doubt the monk of GW2 would use the same concept.

Edited by Dreikki, 30 December 2012 - 11:23 AM.

[HughPR]

I don't have anything specific but a descendant of the ritualist would be awesome. I reckon a 'Shaman' type class could be in the works, maybe a medium armor-wearing caster which would use staff, scepter, focus, mace, and maybe a couple of others. Slightly like how the Witch-king is portrayed in the Lord of the Rings films. I'm not sure how their mechanics would work, but spirits could function like more permanent clones and phantasms, but still maybe restricted to one place, and then a 6-skill point utility could be a SS type skill with a mid-length cooldown to prevent overuse.

Also I think a 'Dark Knight' profession would be good. It could function similarly to Cecil in FF4, in that you sacrifice health/debuff yourself to damage and debuff others or buff and heal allies. It would be difficult to play but monstrous if mastered. A sort of anti-guardian, so all skills in black/red. Soldier class definitely.

The main problem with these two is that these sort of things might be too popular...

EDIT: And I hope that monks will NEVER happen, as they would ruin the balance of the game.

Edited by HughPR, 30 December 2012 - 08:56 PM.

[Xellial]

Anything that uses a scythe. Seriously.

Inb4 Necro

[Italyguy08]

I would love for a new prof to have a two "stances" that it can switch into back and forth, like a yin and yang. You would have normal weapon switching and each stance would modify your weapon skills, lets say you had a staff and were currently using the "light" stance. In this stance your #5 skill would be an AoE light field that would cure conditions and give boons, if you then switched into the "dark" stance that same skill would change into an AoE dark field and corrupt enemy boons and weaken foes. Obviously this idea needs a lot of fleshing out but it would be cool to be able to switch between two styles of play on the fly.

[Thaddeuz]

Italyguy08, on 11 January 2013 - 09:42 AM, said:

I would love for a new prof to have a two "stances" that it can switch into back and forth, like a yin and yang. You would have normal weapon switching and each stance would modify your weapon skills, lets say you had a staff and were currently using the "light" stance. In this stance your #5 skill would be an AoE light field that would cure conditions and give boons, if you then switched into the "dark" stance that same skill would change into an AoE dark field and corrupt enemy boons and weaken foes. Obviously this idea needs a lot of fleshing out but it would be cool to be able to switch between two styles of play on the fly.

This is a half Elementalist. You simply change the 4 Elements for Light/Dark.

[draxynnic]

It also technically outclasses the elementalist, since it eliminates one of the elementalist's primary weaknesses (having only one weapon that dictates all of the weapon skills they have available, rather than being able to choose your own mix). It'd have to be very different in other ways for it not simply to be a better elementalist in feel.

Light and dark are also, conceptually, overlapping with guardians and necromancers respectively - you'd want a different pair of opposites that don't just make you a mix between existing professions, conceptually or mechanically.

[Perm Shadow Form]

Assassins - because Thiefs are not assaaains , and Ritualist.

[Avish]

Ritualist light armour or Dervish medium armour

[Italyguy08]

draxynnic, on 12 January 2013 - 12:26 AM, said:

It also technically outclasses the elementalist, since it eliminates one of the elementalist's primary weaknesses (having only one weapon that dictates all of the weapon skills they have available, rather than being able to choose your own mix). It'd have to be very different in other ways for it not simply to be a better elementalist in feel.

Light and dark are also, conceptually, overlapping with guardians and necromancers respectively - you'd want a different pair of opposites that don't just make you a mix between existing professions, conceptually or mechanically.

I agree with light and dark needing to be changed, maybe something like Ki energy, positive and negative energy.

So the two stances don't completely change the way a skill works like with ele attunements, I was thinking more along the lines of a greatsword skill that in the + stance would pull enemies close to you and the - stance instead would change the skill to push away enemies, or maybe a shield skill that when you put up a block in the + stance if you get hit you give your teammates aegis but in the - stance you would instead fear enemies around you.

So the main idea is that skills basically are opposites like push/pull, condition/boon, channel/instant, AoE/Single target.

[draxynnic]

Some of the distinctions between skills in elementalist attributes are already kinda like that, especially the more spammable ones.
(This effect is probably strongest between fire and water and between earth and air, but not exclusively so.) Still, I think I see what you mean - more of the distinction between Drake's Breath and Cone of Cold, less of the distinction between...

...errrr...

*flips through the elementalist list looking for a pair of skills that don't share characteristics with each other or have similar-but-changed effects on a skill in another attunement of the same weapon*

...Ring of Fire and Cleansing Wave?

I can see where you're going - basically the same skill, but change the effects slightly, like taking different metamagic feats as a D&D3.5/Pathfinder spellcaster. Has potential - in fact, something similar was proposed for mesmers before mesmers were revealed. Still, elementalist sets have a lot of skills that mechanically speaking can be described as a copy of another skill with a twist - maybe I'm being a little overly critical, but an argument might be made that the elementalist is in fact already largely doing that, it's just been disguised.

[lmaonade]

Avish, on 13 January 2013 - 06:41 PM, said:

Ritualist light armour or Dervish medium armour

imagine the number of human female dervs that would run around

[gance]

Perm Shadow Form, on 12 January 2013 - 12:47 AM, said:

Assassins - because Thiefs are not assaaains , and Ritualist.

the first thing i thought when i tried thief class,
would Anet create a Assasin class in new chapter, let say when they open kaineng map.

i love assasin in gw1, thief in gw2 just doesn't feel the same.

if ever assasin will be in gw2, i like it to be more on shadowstep dependent than Stealthy(thief)

Erenod, on 24 August 2012 - 07:10 PM, said:

The Confuser - taking skills up and above common mechanics :
example :
- lose your target - makes you immediately without a target *you need to select him again to srike"
- demand weapon - swap opponents weapons/kits/elements
- command endurance - make opponent dodge 2 times in a row instead of normal action
- purify - make opponent press f1/f2/f3/f4 to empty his/her class mechanic
- true blind - screen of the opponent goes black for some time
- confuse - switches opponents skills in random orders (1 goes into 5, heal goes into 2, utility goes into 4 elite goes into ulitity 3 etc).
- sick movement - switches the foe mouse axis's
and many more - break the 4th wall class .

those are cool skill!
mesmers should have those skills!
at least on utilities or even elite

Edited by gance, 14 January 2013 - 03:09 AM.

[Tamora]

i still like the concept i made a while ago pretty much. it's archived meanwhile, so i'll post it again, so those ppl who are active now can make comments on it. many ppl would like to see a return of the ritualist. one decisive role of the gw1 ritualist was healing, but since there wont be dedicated healers in gw2, the ritualist would have to be reworked for gw2. that's what i did here, while trying to maintain the ritualist's feel. i also tried to provide a concept which might attract other classic hybrid fans, like druid or shaman players.


- the evocator -

"the spirit realm is here and now, just not for everybody."



- profile -

studying the ways of the ritualists for centuries taught the evocators to commune with the souls of the fallen, forge alliances with them, but also subdue some of the grim souls. even in case you get close to them they know very well how to take advantage of your strength and enhance their allies, in case they don't cut you in pieces themselves. so don't mess with someone who got access to a whole dimension you don't know anything about!



- playstyles -

similar the wow druid's forms, the evocator can choose between different evocations, which technically stands for different playstyles. since this adds complexity similar to the elementalist's attunements, the evocator can only use one weapon at a time. the evocator can switch the evocation at will as long as the healing skill is not on cooldown, however, when the evocator switches his evocation the healing skill is set on cooldown. this is not an issue for the player when he's not fighting, but in pvp it prevents getting the evocator an unfair advantage compared to the other professions. the player has to decide whether he wants to heal up or switch to a different evocation which provides him buffs, a pets or a companion. the evocator can fulfil all roles with each evocation and weapon combination. some weapons may be better for a certain role, but the evocations only affect the playstyle, not the role.

• f1 - evocation of spirits (summoner playstyle: inspired by the sos ritualist and the  city of heroes controller) unlike the necro playstyle, this is a very indirect, but active playstyle. by clicking the f1 key the evocator summons 3 spirits which last 2m (or until he changes the evocation). the f1 key got a cooldown of 1m, so u can summon 6 spirits in total. the spirits deal magical ranged damage and, unlike the gw1 spirits, are mobile (we all used summon spirits anyway, didn't we? ). the evocator doesn't deal damage himself. all he does is summoning his minions, making sure the enemy doesn't kill him or the minions with control skills, debuffing the enemy and buffing the minions and team mates with weapon and possession spells (i will explain possession spells later on). in order to encourage the player to buff his spirits, his boons add a significant amount of damage to the spirits damage (maybe sth like 50%). since it would break the balance if the evocator's allies would get the same boost, they are affected a lot less (maybe 5% or whatever the equivalent of the other cross-profession combos is). the evocator in summoner playstyle has to rely on his spirits. that's why they can't be one-shotted, like the mesmer clones.
  
• f2 - evocation of wraith (caster playstyle: inspired by the wow warlock, the allods warden and the warhammer white lion) with the f2 key the evocator enters the classic ranged caster hybrid playstyle. to set it appart from the other casters, it gets a wraith as companion. the f2 key does not only switch to this evocation, but it also toggles between a defensive and a passive stance of the companion. the weapon skills or at least some of them also affect the companion directly. it is a very direct and active playstyle, where the evocator and the wraith boost eachother. the wraith may die, but it automatically regenerates when it's dead, so killing it is only a temporary advantage. in this evocation the evocator got damage spells (spells like spirit rift, ray of judgement or maybe spells which look like little pets, like the fire energy or wind servant of the aion spiritmaster), possession spells and weapon spells as weapon skills. the possession spells and weapon spells support him and his companion. compared to the summoner playstyle the position of the boons are different though. the evocator applies boons at the enemy's location and the wraith applies boons at the evocators location. since the wraith is melee, it benefits from boons the evocators applies. the evocator's weapon skills affect himself and his companion. with the 1 key of every weapon in this evocation the evocator starts to cast a spell and simultaniously the wraith gets a speed boost and charges. player and companion boost each other for optimal performance. e.g. the player applies bleeding with a skill and the companion deals extra damage to bleeding targets with another skill or the companion stuns the target and the player applies weaken to stunned targets. in this playstyle the evocator might have some blink, teleport or "travel back in time" weapon skills.
  
• f3 - evocation of phantom (melee playstyle: inspired by the wow feral druids, enhancement shamans and the dervish) similar to the dervish the evocator got increased health when choosing the melee playstyle. like in the summoner and caster playstyles the evocator takes possession of the enemies' power and buffs his allies. in order to be able to deal damage, control and support with only one weapon, the evocator gets some chain skills in melee playstyle. since the evocator doesn't have shadowstep he needs to have other skills to accomplish the same effect. so one chain could e.g. temporarily reduce the movement speed of the enemies and increase the movement speed of the allies (step 1), hit them with an attack (step 2) and reduces the boon duration of the enemies while increasing it for the allies (step 3). some of the skills or steps in their chain could work similar to destructive was glaive, mystic sandstorm (modified to deal ghost damage instead of earth), drop a "block the next attack" aoe boon or drop a "splinter weapon" aoe weapon spell at the evocators position. so in this playstyle the evocator is like the eye of a hurrican. allies may want to stay close to him (and therefore provide good targets for the enemy's aoe spells) while the enemy might want to stay away from him or kill him. the longer the evocator is active, the stronger it becomes, at least till he reaches the max amount of boons, which he would want to maintain. as reminiscence to the dervish there might be a utility skill which summons a (temporary) scythe with different skills (e.g. u hit 3 foes instead of 1 since u spend 1 utility slot).

- mechanics -

• spirits - ranged minions when using the summoner playstyle which primarily deal damage.
  
• wraith - melee companion when using the caster playstyle.
  
• damage mitigation - in pvp the enemies usually ignore the pets and just go for the player. in the summoner playstyle the player itself is quite vulnerable, since he can't deal damage himself. the spirits are the tools he works with. to encourage the enemy to attack the pets/companion first, the spirits and the wraith mitigate damage the evocator takes (attacker hits a pet/companion -> pet/companion takes full damage, attacker hits the evocator, who got an active pet/companion -> the damage is split between evocator and the pets/companion, therefore the evocator doesn't take the full amount of damage and might be able to handle the incoming damage, attacker hits the evocator without active pet/companion -> the evocator takes full damage). so if the enemy kills the pets/companion first, he reduces the damage he takes, since only the evocator himself is able to deal damage when the pets/companion are dead, but if he kills the evocator first, he'll notice that the evocator is quite durable and he has to soak up more damage.
  
• possession spells (inspired by city of heroes kinetics power set) - applying conditions to enemies and simultaneously boons to minions and/or allies which influence stats like e.g. power/damage, precision/crit chance, toughness/armor, vitality/health, energy (for dodging), attack speed/cast time, duration (incl. the duration of the pets) and movement speed (the last ones are sort of manipulating time as reminiscence to the chronomancer). the conditions affect the target and the surrounding enemies (incl. minions) and the boons affect the evocator and the surrounding minions and players. the possession conditions and boons stack up to 3 times and one evocator is able to apply and maintain up to 3 lvls of conditions and boons himself. so u don't need 2 evocators to max out the conditions/buffs, but u might want to have a second evocator for different conditions/buffs.
  
• alteration - negating the enemy's positive effects (e.g. expire), turning them into negative effects or into positive effects for urself.
  
• items spells - conjured urns which trigger an effect when the player trops them. well known from the ritualist from gw1.
  
• weapon spells - directly applied to a target ally or minion and/or as ground targeted aoe spell.
  
• control skills - stuns, knockbacks, blinds etc..

- utility skills -

item spells should be available to each playstyle of the evocator, but there might be some item spells reserved for certain playstyles. therefore item spells could be used as weapon and utility skills. the other skills are only useful in certain situations, so it wouldn't make sense to tie them to weapon skills.

• item spells - like the ritualist item spells in gw1, they deal damage, control enemies, buff allies etc.
  
• skills which alter or nullify the enemy's ground targeted aoe spells, like symbols, wards, wells etc.
  
• anti-minions skills - skills which kill minions, temporarily take over a enemy minion (any profession incl. engineer turrets and warrior banners), prevent the secondary effect of minions.
  
• anti-stealth skills - skills which prevent stealth, skills which mark stealthed ppl, skills which damages stealthed ppl or skills which prevents stealthed ppl to use any skills.

- traits -

the five traitlines improve the following aspects of the evocator.

• traitline which boosts damage and helps while using a melee playstyle.
  
• traitline which boosts damage and helps while using a caster playstyle.
  
• traitline which boosts damage of companion and minions and supports them.
  
• traitline which improves possession spells.
  
• traitline which improves the survivability.

- weapons -

this professions also only got access to one weapon set at a time, since it got access to the different playstyles. which weapons it gets doesn't really matter, since it's only for flavour and immersion. all of the available weapons are available in each playstyle. just as an example:

• main hand - sword, mace, scepter.
  
• off-hand - sword, shield, torch.
  
• two-hand - staff.
  
• aquatic - spear.

- armor -

medium armor, just because hybrids usually use medium armor.


- theme -

the theme is a very important part for a new profession. in gw2 each profession of the same armor class can use the same armor, but still armors are inspired by a profession's theme. the ritualist's theme is very popular, but can't just be copied into gw2, since tattoos are now a norn racial feature, not a profession specific feature. instead of the ritualist's tattoos the evocator could use dervish-like hoods, which makes the evocator's theme a combination of the ritualist and the dervish. maybe some hoods could be made of transparent material, like that aeon flux hood. this would emphazise the mystic and ghostly appearance nicely.



the last one i found already shows a ritualist with a hood (but still with tattoos). it is a gw1 ritualist with norn armor and shining blade hood. so sth like this, but with gw2 graphics it would look quite a bit better.

the spirits in summoner playstyle look pretty much like the ritualist's spirit, except that they are mobile and therefore have no or different chains.

in caster playstyle the companion got more presence than the spirits in summoner playstyle.

maybe a little bit smaller than this fellow here and not a demon. maybe this size. but, unlike those examples, the wraith theme should be used.

in melee playstyle the evocator is (maybe temporarily) surrounded with a ghostly appearance, like trapped within a spirit. That way the character and gear, the player spent a lot of time on, is still visble, but it still got some transformation touch. the style could be like this, except for the horns and the size should be more like this though.

the evocator could also have some nature/restoration based skills, like using the power of gaia like in the final fantasy games and movies.

Edited by Tamora, 05 May 2013 - 06:02 AM.

[Tamora]

another caster concept i made was meant for our friends of pure and white casters. since there are no dedicated healers, there won't be a caster like the gw1 monk in gw2. so such a caster would have to be changed significantly and be more focused on damage and control than healing. i picked a cosmic theme to capture a pure and mystical touch.

- the oracle -

"predictions are easy, if you know the cycles of the sun and the moon."




- profile -

the oracles can't stop or skip the natural phases of the sun and the moon. they can use them though in order to prevent damage from their allies and in order to encourage them. but even if they get caught alone, the sun and the moon will assist them in defending themselves and guide them out of immediate threat.



- mechanics -

four kinds of magic are available to the oracle:

• summer sun (white spells): the glittering heat can be exhausting. summer sun focuses mainly on direct damage spells. a "heat wave" could be a cone attack, a "drought" could be a targeted aoe attack and a "solar flare" could be a damage spell which knocks you back and the enemy down.
  
• winter sun (yellow spells): warming sunlight is needed in tough times. it focuses mainly on support spells. a "sunbeam" could warm the allies and boost their movement speed.
  
• full moon (blue spells): being exposed to the moon for too long can make you moonstruck. main focus of the full moon is damage over time spells. one spell (the ultimate maybe) could call a "pack of wolves".
  
• new moon (turquoise spells): fighting at new moon is not very good idea. it's easy to get lost or to miss the target. new moon spells focus mainly on control. skills could be sth like "darkest night" which briefly covers the enemies with darkness, they lose their target and miss, "polar lights" which distracts them and leaves them confused or reduces their crit chance significantly or "gravity" which roots them briefly and gives them a movement speed debuff.

the oracle got two intertwined mechanics. the day and night cycle and the different phases of the sun and the moon, which are represented by a resource gauge in this style (not exactly like this):

a cycle start with an emptry phase gauge. let's say the char is in the sun cycle and therefore only got sun spells to choose from. each of the direct damage spells (summer sun) adds to the gauge. if the gauge is full for a certain short period of time, the day is over and the profession switches to night and the player only got moon spells to choose from. some support spell (winter sun) reduces the gauge, so the player can extend the time he's able to use sun skills. with moon skills it's the other way round. the oracle also got 4 ulitmate skills for each kind of magic at the f1 - f4 keys.

• most spells, sun and moon spells, add to the phase gauge. some support or control spells reduce the phase.
  
• the more completed a phase is, the more powerful all spells are.
  
• the 4 ultimate skills, one for each kind of magic respectively, can be used anytime, but are stronger the more the phase gauge is filled. when used, the ultimate skills reset the gauge.
  
• once a phase is fully completed, the day and night cycle switches between sun and moon spells and vice versa.
  
• the cycle and the phase gauge don't get reset when you log off.

- playstyles -

the oracle is a pure caster and does not have any special melee attacks, since spells don't have any minimum range. depending on how the player plays, the oracle can be played as direct damage dealer, with the sun gauge being reduced with a support skill or reset with one of the two sun ultimate skill, or as a kiting damage over time caster, with the moon gauge being reduced with a control skill or reset with a moon ultimate skill. it can also be played as a profession which uses both cycles and benefits from traits which encourage that playstyle. unlike the elementals attunement, the day and night cycle changes automatically.



- utility skills -

the oracle's utility skills are pretty standard. some signets could give the oracle a minor passive aura and, when activated, buff the nearby allies more notably for a short duration. similar to influencing the day and night cylces, the oracle might be able to influence time and therefore movement speed, recharge time, condition and boon duration of allies and enemies.



- traits -

the traits influence the four kinds of magic. the fifth traitline supports those player who don't stick with either sun or moon magic and adopt to the cycling kinds of magic.

• benefits for summer sun magic.
  
• benefits for winter sun magic.
  
• benefits for full moon magic.
  
• benefits for new moon magic.
  
• benefits for changing day and night cycle.

- weapons -

since oracles cannot directly influence the kind of magic they use, they get two weapon they can swap in combat. similar to the elemental's attunements, the casted spells are different, depending on the day and night cycle. the weapons have damage/support skills while in day cycle and dot/control skills in night cycle. some weapons may be more damage oriented, others mor support/control oriented.

• main hand: scepter, mace (which is used to cast spells, not to physically hit)
  
• off-hand: focus, torch, shield
  
• two-handed: staff, longbow (for casting projectile spells)
  
• aquatic: trident, spear (which is a ranged projectile spell weapon in this case)

- armor -

light armor, just like it should be for an innocent caster.



- theme -

although oracles are best known from greece, the profession could have a canthan or elonian style. but since neither character nor armor are tied to the profession, we would be able to create a char with each available style. the theme, at least regarding the colors, reminds of the paragon, but adds a lunar aspect to it. the color scheme of the spell are yellow/white for sun spells and blue/turquoise for moon spells. so additionally to the moon pic, here are some more pics which demonstrate the style of the oracle: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

[madmaxII]

I hope you did also post that stuff on the Anet forum, really well done.

However, to be honest, I would prefer if the devs spend some time making the eight existing professions more remarkable and diverse before they start adding new ones. I really miss the old Prophecies feeling when every classes had an iconic niche.

[Tamora]

madmaxII, on 06 May 2013 - 10:44 PM, said:

I hope you did also post that stuff on the Anet forum, really well done.

However, to be honest, I would prefer if the devs spend some time making the eight existing professions more remarkable and diverse before they start adding new ones. I really miss the old Prophecies feeling when every classes had an iconic niche.

thanks for the nice feedback. i wasn't quite sure where to post it there. it takes a lot of rework, since they use different formating rules and u can't post pics there, but i at least posted the evocator in their suggestions forum.

Edited by Tamora, 19 May 2013 - 06:37 AM.

[ZCKS]

Main 4 themes I like & think are most possible/plausable are

1: Dragon knight/corrupted knight. It makes sense lore wise since we learn in Arah Xp mode that the risen can be freed from the control of Zhitan. Each trait tree could be related to a specific dragon & have effects related to each dragon.

2: Druid/shape shifter theme. Pretty clear here, you shape shift into various animals to gain different abilities.

3: Shaman. Much of the stuff related to them is already in game & in use by the varius primal recaes like Grawl, Jotun etc,,,

4: Monk, no not GW1 style but shao-lin kick your arse style monk. Probably would be introduced if they ever bring Cantha back. (would likely use 1 handed swords, staffs, bows & daggers.


Though before they add these I would much rather they introduce cross class abilities.
IE a signet & shout for use by all soldier professions, Magic ability useable by all casters & trap/trick/something useable by all adventurer's.

Edited by ZCKS, 19 May 2013 - 01:44 PM.

[Lifeline75]

I was trying to think of something that would be fun to play … how about A Dragon born?
**just noticed some others posted dragon lord**

Background and story mode -

We understand through GW2 lore there are evil dragons, what about the good?

The evil in GW2 comes from dead dragons, So where are the living and the good dragons?

You’re from an ancient bloodline called the Dragon born; those blessed to up bring dragons and to coach and train dragons for combat. The only ones able to communicate and have the ability to hatch a dragon egg.

The PVE story mode tells your story as you discover who you are and the search for your different dragon eggs scatter through out Tyria.

Different eggs hatch different dragons- colors indicate their skills, strengths and abilities.

Like a Mesmer and Necro, you can summon more than one dragon, some may fly and circle around your character as you run, others may perch on your shoulders and others may wrap around your arms and legs or simply run along side you, like the rangers pets.

The focus is equally about your character leveling but also your dragon companions leveling.

As they lvl they increase in size and damage.

Having dragons that are more defensive-offensive-aoe-direct damage etc..

Play styles possibilities? -

As your character in itself is not a combatant, cloth or even the civilian clothing can be used.

]Weapons and Dragons

Calling your dragon out grants you 1 weapon skill and 1 utility and although they will not die like a necro’s minions or shatter like a mesmers clones, your fragile character can.

Early levels you start with three dragons and the story mode can have some beautiful elaborate introduction to you hatching your eggs.

The characters weapons act more like a commanding tool for your dragons and a dragon skill changes according to the weapon your character wields.

This will allow for interesting combinations at level 80 with 5 dragons swarming around you each being tied to a skill and utility and the weapon affecting that skill.

A dagger in hand may grant aoe damage on one dragon, but another a heal etc…

Although your dragons are powerful, your character is relatively weak, this allows for anet to provide some balance … where dragons need to be used to defend your character … allowing for

Range –aoe- defense-healing-dps etc styles and combinations.

Unlike the ranger’s pets, your dragons follow your command directly and attack only as commanded by your skill bar. They cannot be killed or downed or stunned etc.. This will avoid the problems with current pet Ai in regular play, dungeons, fractals’ wvw etc..

IE(ranger war horn skill calls the birds to cause bleed, similar to this)

Traits

Trait trees are for the trainer to better command or improve certain dragon types etc…

I have not thought much about it as Anet if they did go for something like this will need to adjust it to the games needs.

Final Words

I don’t want to see a warrior with a dragon; I want to see a complete different class to play as a dragon tamer.

The character will have to be mobile and fluid and combat will be a dance of dodging and orchestrated commands to instruct dragons to attack.

Following the same idea of the dance animations of the Ritualist from GW1 plus being able to move.

Combat for the dragon born becomes a mesmerizing fatal death dance with flying attacking dragons, aoe damage, flame scorching from her shoulder from a perched dragon, healing bubble created from her armed wrapped dragon as she twists and points her weapon directing her dragons to destroy her enemies.

Edited by Lifeline75, 14 June 2013 - 10:19 AM.