Curse

Shadowmere · Dec 09, 2007, 10:38 PM // 22:38

Introduction
The Sapper is a combat engineer, they assemble battlefield impliments to aid allies, and twart enemies. The sapper uses many existing skills but expands on their use, most notably wards and item spells.
Constructs
The most unique aspect of the sapper is their ability to assemble constructs, these are autounamous mechancial devices (much like Asuran Golems), some are offensive, some defensive. What sets constructs apart from spirits and minions is their ability to use skills (and thus energy as well), every construct has one attack or defensive skill always available to them, additional skills become available to Constructs by skills available to the Sapper.

Roles: Supporter/Disabler

Stats
Armor: Caster (60 AL)
Energy: Caster (30 w/4 pips of regen)
Weapon: Caster (wands/staves)

Armor Insignias
Mechanic's: Reduces the activation time of Construct Skills by 25% (non-stacking)

Construct’s: Armor +5 (while you control 1 or more Constructs)
Armor +5 (while you control 3 or more Constructs)
Armor +5 (while you control 5 or more Constructs)

Defender's: Armor +10 (while you are within a ward)

Eccentric’s: Armor +5 (while recharging 1 or more skills)
Armor +5 (while recharging 3 or more skills)
Armor +5 (while recharging 5 or more skills)

Attributes
Engineering (primary): Deals mostly with skills that improve the effectiveness of Constructs, and other skills. For every rank in Engineering Constructs and Wards last 2% longer. Increases the number of Constructs you can control at one time (maximum of 6).
Construction: Deals with offensive constructs and abilities.
Fortification: Deals with defensive connstructs and abilities.
Sabatoge: Deals with skills the thwart, disable, and damage enemies.

Sample Skills
Engineering

Mechanic’s Fervor [Elite]:10E 1/4A 45R Stance; For 3…20 seconds your skills activate 8…50% faster and you cannot be interrupted.

Elemental Shielding: 5E 1A 20R Enchantment Spell; For 5…30 seconds target Allied Construct gains +20 armor against elemental damage.

Battery Drain: 5E 1A 25R Spell; Target Allied Construct loses 8 energy, you gain 1…14 energy

Mechanized Assembly: 10E 2A 30R Enchantment Spell; For 10…45 seconds all your Construct Skills recharge 30% faster.

Repair: 10E 2A 8R Skill; Target Allied Construct is disabled for 5 seconds, while disabled the Construct gains +40 armor and 5…30 health per second.

Construction

Iron Hound: 10E 3A 30R Construct Skill; Create a level 1…18 Iron Hound which dies after 30…120 seconds. Iron Hounds use "Hound's Bite" an attack that damages foes and causes deep wound on knocked down foes.

Assault Dryder: 25E 3A 30R Construct Skill; Create a level 1…18 Assault Dryder which attacks from range. Assault Dryders use "Serated Bolt" an attack which damages foes and causes bleeding. The Assault Dryder dies after 30…120 seconds.

Siege Ballista: 15E 5A 45R Construct Skill; Create a level 1…18 Siege Ballista which is immobile and its attacks affect its target and all adjacent foes. Siege Ballistas use "Unleash Hell" a preperation which causes it's attacks to inflict burning. The Siege Ballista dies after 30…120 seconds.

Siege Exoskeleton [Elite]: 25E 2A 30R Elite Form; For 10…58 seconds, you gain +25 armor and your attacks deal +5…20 fire damage. This skill is disabled for 120 seconds.

Zealous Construct: 25E 5A 45R Construct Skill; Create a level 1…18 Zealous Construct, every time a Zealous Construct uses an Attack Skill you gain 1 energy. The Zealous Constructs use "Static Burst" a skill which interrupts and damages all adjacent foes. The Zealous Construct dies after 30…120 seconds.

Adamantine Spear: 10E 1A 10R Skill; For 5…17 seconds all your Constructs gain the Adamantine Spear attack skill, Adamantine Spear strikes from range for 5…41 damage and has 10% armor penetration.

Fortifications

Power Generator: 25E 1A 45R Ward Spell; Set up a Power Generator at your location, for 5…17 seconds all non-spirit allies in its area gain 1..2 energy regeneration.

Sentry of Flame: 10E 5A 20R; Construction Skill; Set up an immoble level 1...8 Sentry of Flame at your location all allies within its area gain +5…15 armor against fire damage and Sentry of Flame deals 5...15 fire damage to 1 foe in it's area every 2 seconds. Sentries of Flame use "Elemental Capacitors" a stance which allows them to gain health while taking elemental damage. The Sentry of Flame dies after 20…60 seconds.

Ether Barrel: 15E 2A 25R; Item Spell; Create an Ether Barrel, hold it for up to 10..23 seconds, while holding the Ether Barrel you gain +1 energy regeneration. When you drop the Ether Barrel all nearby allies gain 4…12 energy.

Barricade: 5E 3A 10R; Ward Spell; Create a barricade at your location, for 7…17 seconds all non-spirit allies in its area have a 15…50% chance to block ranged attacks.

Razor Wire: 5E 3A 15R; Construction Skill; Create an immoble level 1...8 length of razor wire at your location, creatures passing through the razor wire become crippled and begin bleeding for 5..17 seconds. Razor Wires use "Vampiric Barbs" an enchantment which gives them healt when they inflict conditions. The Razor Wire Dies after 20…60 seconds.

Sabatoge

Foo Gas [elite]: 10E 2A 15R; Item Spell; Create a barrel of Foo Gas, hold Foo Gas for up to 13…35 seconds once dropped Fu Gas detonates after 3 seconds, dealing 10…85 damage and burning to all nearby foes.

Jadite Explosive: 5E 2A 20R; Trap; When Jadite Explosive is triggered all nearby foes are struck for 5…32 damage and suffer from cracked armor for 10 seconds. Jadite Explosive automatically triggers after 90 seconds. While activating this skill you are easily interrupted.

Grappling Hooks: 15E 1A 45R; Spell; Target foe is struck for 3…17 damage, is knocked down and teleported to your location. This Spell has half the normal range.

Powder Keg: 5E 1A 8R: Item Spell; Create a powder keg, hold the Powder Keg for up to 10…24 seconds, once dropped Powder Keg detonates after 3 seconds, dealing 5…32 damage to all nearby foes.

Energy Trap: 10E 2A 10R: Trap; When Energy Trap is triggered all nearby foes are struck for 5…17 lightning damage and lose 2…12 energy. Energy Trap is automatically triggered after 90 seconds. While activating this skill you are easily interrupted.

Decoy: 5E 2A 10R: Construct Skill; Create a level 1…8 Decoy at your location, when the decoy dies all nearby foes are struck for 10…72 damage and become dazed and crippled. The Decoy dies after 20...60 seconds.

Precise Charge: 5E 1/2A 8R Spell; Strike target foe for 9…47 damage, if that foe was suffering from cracked armor Precise Charge deals an additional 5…52 damage.

Vial of Nitrous: 10E 1A 5R Spell; Send out a Vial of Nitrous at target foe. Vial of Nitrous deals 9…65 damage to all adjacent foes.

Hope you like it
EDIT:balanced some skills and updated some descriptions. Thanks for the feedback!

Sister Rosette · Dec 09, 2007, 10:48 PM // 22:48

Mesmer's sappin mah sentry?

You can't see me · Dec 10, 2007, 02:44 AM // 02:44

Sounds a tad like a Minion Master, a Paragon, and an Assasin tied together. There are a few skills I could directly link to Ranger and Dervish though.

Shadowmere · Dec 10, 2007, 04:32 AM // 04:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by You can't see me

Sounds a tad like a Minion Master, a Paragon, and an Assasin tied together. There are a few skills I could directly link to Ranger and Dervish though.

Precisely! It's really in the same vien as the ritualist, takes some abilities from other classess in different ways and also has some unique ones of it's own, that makes for a versatile profession.

The constructs are a bit like a happy cross between spirits, pets and minions. Though they are really no more effective than each of those, they wouldn't really step on spirits toes too much, and the equal level but much lower population cap would make them not as effective as minions en masse, and you simply don't have the same control over constructs as you do pets.

idk I think it'd work

System_Crush · Dec 10, 2007, 09:32 AM // 09:32

The concept is interesting.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadowmere

Battery Drain: 5E 1A 25R Spell; Target Allied Construct loses all energy, you gain 1…14 energy

Mechanized Assembly: 10E 2A 30R Enchantment Spell; For 10…45 seconds all your Construct Skills recharge 30% faster.

Are a tad too tech to be spells and fit into the surprisingly casterish class.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadowmere

Sentry of Flame: 10E 2A 20R; Construction Skill; Set up a level 1...8 Sentry of Flame at your location all allies within its range gain +5…20 armor against fire damage and all foes within its range are struck for 3…15 fire damage each second. The Sentry of Flame dies after 20…60 seconds.

Is gigantically over powered, 15 per second * 60 seconds = 900 damage, that is insane, nothing in GW deals that much damage.
It equals 7.5 health degen for 60 seconds, and on top of that it can trigger [skill= text ]Mark of Rodgort[/skill] for even more damage.

Also "within its range" generally means spirit range. Which is also a huge range, it is quite hard to get out of.

You also put "within its range" on some of the wards, wards usually read:"Non-spirit allies in it's/this area" with the pretty formidable power of the wards you described, they should probably stick to their area.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadowmere

Constructs
The most unique aspect of the sapper is their ability to assemble constructs, these are autounamous mechancial devices (much like Asuran Golems), some are offensive, some defensive. What sets constructs apart from spirits and minions is their ability to use skills (and thus energy as well), every construct has one attack or defensive skill always available to them, additional skills become available to Constructs by skills available to the Sapper.

As long as they are like Asuran golems, I like them.
Golems are created by a "Spel casting platform" imbuing inanimate material with magic to create a somewhat sentient construct, eliminating them from being mechanical tech.

So they do not have the problem technology has as with fighting against/along side casters.
"Even if Asuras somehow managed to build better AI than we currently can, a [wiki]Magnetic Surge[/wiki] would probably mess it up, so would an Ether Barrel, or anything that distorts the particular laws of nature required for technology in a robot to work.

Are their skills like spirit attacks? That just deal X damage, or do they have special effects as well?

As Iron hound had a skill, that is unmentioned; and sentry of flame has a mentioned effect, does that mean sentry of flame has another unmentioned skill effect?

I like the team battery part of it, might be a bit overpowered as you don't sacrifice health or corpses for it, but even when tuned down should be useful to deal with.
All in all it seems fun to play with, however a very tough nut in PvP.
Able to create a powerful force on its own, a team of them 7 + monk.
Might make an extremely dangerous force, turning 8 men into a max of 50, costing only energy and casting time.
Ritualist and ranger spirits over write each other in a team, minnions require corpses.
Plus rit only has 3 pure damage spirits, [skill=text]Pain[/skill], [skill=text]Bloodsong[/skill] and [skill=text]Anguish[/skill]; [skill=text]Disenchantment[/skill] and [skill=text]Dissonance[/skill] just happen to also deal some damage.
For balance you need a way to make the army creation harder...

What if constructs had no energy regeneration? To keep them using their skills you'd need to replenish their energy.
It would add more depth to the game play of the class, but only help a team of them as they can recharge each others golems more efficiently than alone...

uuhhhhmmm... need something that hasn't been done yet...
Longer material gathering times, perhaps;
The more (of 1 type of) constructs has been created in earshot, the longer the recharge and activation times of constructs in that range are, because it's harder to get enough material to form them out of.
Whenever a construct dies, the activation and recharge times of construct skills in it's earshot become shorter.
That works to boost the interruptibility of, as well as reduce the ability to re-summon constructs.
Of have it affect energy cost of the skills IDK.

Or non-defensive constructs could shamble, instead of following you they walk around aimlessly, only attacking if they see a foe, that would reduce the ability to summon constructs before a PvP match has started. You'd have to do it at or near the place you will be fighting.

Just a suggestion, of how it might work better, your class though, you can probably think of something better to balance it than I can.

Shadowmere · Dec 10, 2007, 09:29 PM // 21:29

Thanks for the review System!

Quote:

Originally Posted by System_Crush

a tad too tech to be spells and fit into the surprisingly casterish class.

yeah, but I guess the idea was to keep them more vulnerable to mesmer shutdowns along with other casters. idk it's kind of hard to walk the line between pyhsical and caster class with this one

and yeah, lol, I didn't really think about the sentry damage that much I guess

My first time writing up this many skills but, the sentry was intended to only have ward range, still rediculous damage though...hmm maybe it should incorperate a defensive spirit type thing "every time Sentry of Flame deals damage in this way it looses X health" or something? That and turn it down so it only damages once every few seconds rather than every second

Quote:

Originally Posted by System_Crush

Are their skills like spirit attacks? That just deal X damage, or do they have special effects as well?

As Iron hound had a skill, that is unmentioned; and sentry of flame has a mentioned effect, does that mean sentry of flame has another unmentioned skill effect?

Yes, the idea is that each Construct has 1 skill at it's disposal to begin with. For example the Iron Hound, a minion-like construct would have a basic "power attack" sort of skill that would give it a bigger punch. Defensive Constructs like the sentry would have a self preservation sort of skill, an armor boosting stance, a weak self heal or the like. All these skills would be actual skills with energy cost and recharge time unlike spirit attacks.

The thing is, you can "upgrade" your Constructs temporarily giving them more skills to use, e.g.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadowmere

Adamantine Spear: 10E 1A 10R Skill; For 5…17 seconds all your Constructs gain the Adamantine Spear attack skill, Adamantine Spear strikes from range for 5…41 damage and has 10% armor penetration.

but now you've got me feeling creative about this again so here's a list of the basic skills for each construct

Iron Hound: Hound's Bite; 10E 8R Melee Attack; If this attack hits it strikes for +8...26 damage, if it strikes a knocked down foe that foe suffers from Deep Wound for 4...10 seconds.

Assault Dryder: Serated Bolt; 10E 8R Ranged Attack; If this attack hits it strikes for +8...30 damage and your target begins bleeding for 5...10 seconds.

Siege Ballista: Unleash Hell; 15E 2A 15R Preperation; For 15 seconds your next 1...5 attacks cause burning for 2...4 seconds. (note: siege ballista also has a slower than normal IAS due to it having AOE)

Zealous Construct: Static Burst 15E 1A 15R Skill; All adjacent foes are interrupted and take 8...24 lightning damage.

Sentry of Flame: Elemental Capacitors; 15E 1/2A 20R Stance; For 5...18 seconds whenever you take elemental damage that damage is reduced by 5...10 and you gain 5...10 health.

Razor Wire: Vampiric Barbs; 10E 1A 10R Enchantment Spell; For 10...26 seconds whenever you inflict a condition you gain 10...25 health.

Adamantine Spear; 10E 1A 4R Skill; Send out an Adamantine Spear at target foe. If it hits it strikes for 5...41 damage, this skill has 10% armor penetration.

Quote:

Originally Posted by System_Crush

What if constructs had no energy regeneration? To keep them using their skills you'd need to replenish their energy.
It would add more depth to the game play of the class, but only help a team of them as they can recharge each others golems more efficiently than alone...

I like that idea actually, you'd have to work more to keep your constructs in top shape, since a construct without it's skills is just a minion without an army.

Quote:

Originally Posted by System_Crush

Longer material gathering times, perhaps;
The more (of 1 type of) constructs has been created in earshot, the longer the recharge and activation times of constructs in that range are, because it's harder to get enough material to form them out of.

another good idea, it makes sense and also makes the order you construct and where you place them have a lot more thought behind it.

edit: "nefed" the Sentry and updated the constructs to briefly explain their skill.

Khasar · Dec 10, 2007, 09:44 PM // 21:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadowmere

Grappling Hooks: 15E 1A 45R; Spell; Target foe is struck for 3…17 damage, is knocked down and teleported to your location.

Oh noes I can see it now. Way imba imo. I can totally see 4 warriors camping around the sapper then totally raping whoever he drags over before the monk can heal him.

Other than that and the other spell that was mentioned it looks kinda cool.

System_Crush · Dec 10, 2007, 10:13 PM // 22:13

Quote:

Siege Ballista: Unleash Hell; 15E 2A 15R Preperation; For 15 seconds your next 1...5 attacks cause burning for 2...4 seconds. (note: siege ballista also has a slower than normal IAS due to it having AOE)

I love that one, can I steal the name for my artillery... thing... class;
Hmmm I should think of a name for a guy who orders bugs and siege worms about...

Shadowmere · Dec 10, 2007, 11:09 PM // 23:09

You're more than welcome to use the name.

I think I got it from the Romans originally