Curse

nebojats · Mar 19, 2007, 01:57 PM // 13:57

I'm open to supportive criticism and communal brainstorming. For skimming ease, I've divided the post into three sections:

I. The Aeon - For the skimmer: concept art, a quick explanation of the basic concept, attributes, strengths, weaknesses and originality.
II. Tactics - For those with some time on their hands, a brief illustration of a few battle strategies.
III. Skills - For the ambitious reader, a tentative list of skills.

I. THE AEON

Background:

Aeons are an elite corps of mercenaries devoted to the splendor of war. Skilled in melee combat, Aeons rely upon martial and magical arts to quickly dispatch enemy soldiers. Through ceaseless drilling, Aeons master physical discipline, learning to move with awe-inspiring speed and agility. To further enhance their prowess, Aeons study the arcane and learn to manipulate the temporal plane.

Able to land a flurry of attacks before the enemy is even aware of her presence, the Aeon is a formidable opponent. When she enters the frenzy, her presence disrupts the very fabric of time. She paralyzes nearby enemies and lends her allies bizarre quickness. Incoming arrows and spears present no threat… she is able to dodge them with unnatural haste. Melee attacks also have little effect on the Aeon since she can sidestep and counter the blows with ease. Her only vulnerability is non-weapon attacks, which are unavoidable despite her great speed.

Function:

The Aeon is a melee unit which is most effective against other contact fighters. She is adept at avoiding and countering weapon attacks, but is particularly vulnerable to non-weapon attacks. She influences spell casting, skill recharges, and attacks of both allies and opponents by manipulating time.

The Aeon has Monk-level HP, armor, and energy. Damage from her claws is slightly less than that of a sword.

Attributes:

Speed (Primary Attribute) – Improves the inherent ability to evade weapon attacks (1%…50%) and a variety of evasion and movement skills.
Agility – Manages attack skills, many of which depend upon being physically attacked.
Chronology – Affects time-based skills which support others.
Temporality – Improves time-based skills which sabotage others.

Strengths:

1) The Aeon inherently evades weapon attacks.
2) The Aeon has many skills which benefit from being physically attacked.
3) The Aeon can manipulate skills’ recharge and their effects’ timing.
4) The Aeon has maintained hexes.

Weaknesses:

1) The Aeon is vulnerable to non-weapon attacks… magic-users are her bane.
2) The Aeon has little armor.

Originality:

Time Manipulation

There are three main innovations with this class. The first is Time Manipulation. A potentially powerful and original ability, it can affect the speed of movement, attacks, casting, and skill recharging. However, the Aeon's options are limited when using this tactic. Although she commands several single-target spells, she can only influence multiple players at once by using stances. These stances affect all immediately adjacent players (including the Aeon), are short-lasting, and can naturally only be used one at a time. To cripple multiple enemies, the Aeon must suffer also. To aid allies, she must abandon the battlefield lest she benefit enemies as well.

Evasion

The second innovation with this class is Evasion. Although the Aeon has low armor, she is particularly adept at dispatching other melee fighters. Why? Her primary attribute increases the chance to avoid weapon attacks. Although she takes significant damage when hit, she evades enough blows to make up for her weakness. The result: a melee fighter that tanks weapon damage more effectively than a warrior, but is threated by other types of attacks like a spellcaster.

Countering

A third innovation is a variety of countering skills. When timed correctly, the Aeon's damage can be powerfully boosted by avoiding incoming attacks. Combined with evasion, countering leaves the Aeon lethally equipped to nullify enemy melee fighters.

II. TACTICS

Anti-Melee:

The Aeon runs into the fray, targeting the first Warrior, Assassin, or Dervish that she sees. Suffering significant damage, the victim may try to defend himself. Any response is ineffective, however, as the Aeon evades and counters most of his blows by using Agility and Speed skills. Realizing his attacks only worsen the situation, the enemy can pick another fight or run away. Either way, he will be dead soon unless a friendly monk or magic-caster provides support.

Backline Support:

Staying close to the spell-casters, the Aeon employs stances to speed up his allies' casting and spell recharging. She also manipulates the magic using skills like Deja Vu and Spell Stagger. All this allows for massive spiking of damage and effects. Enemies notice thegrowing intensity and leave the fray to deal with the mages. Or they would, if the Aeon didn't intercept them. Casting Time Sink and attacking with a fury, the Aeon slows and hampers her opponents' pursuit. They ally spell-casters harmlessly escape.

III. SKILLS

Speed

Bizarre Dodge – Stance. For the next 5…15 seconds, your chances to evade projectile attacks doubles.

Awareness – Stance. For the next 5…15 seconds, your chances to evade melee attacks doubles.

Swiftness – Stance. For the next 15 seconds, you attack 5%...25% faster.

Preparedness – Stance. For the next 10 seconds, your skills recharge 10%...50% faster.

Agility

Sweet Revenge – Enchantment. After 3…10 seconds, you deal a melee attack to current target for every melee attack evaded during this period.

Hasty Counter – Enchantment. For the next 3…10 seconds, you attack target opponent for every evaded melee attack.

Breakneck Reflex – Stance. For the next 1…5 times you evade a melee attack, you deal 3 attacks in response.

Catch Arrows – Enchantment. For the next 5…15 seconds, you throw all evaded arrows back at their source.

Pent-up Rage – Enchantment. For the next 2…8 seconds, your attacks deal no damage. When this enchantment ends, all damage is dealt.

Chronology

Spell Stagger – Enchantment. For the next 5…10 seconds, target ally casts spells but creates no effects. When this enchantment ends, all spells occur simultaneously.

Déjà Vu – Enchantment. For 5…10 seconds, target ally’s next spell is cast twice at no extra cost.

Time Vortex – Stance. For the next 3…10 seconds, you and all adjacent players attack 25% faster.

Temporal Anomaly – Stance. For the next 2…6 seconds, you and all adjacent players’ skills recharge 25% faster.

Temporality

Temporal Prison – Elite Hex. For 5…10 seconds, target other player moves and attack 75% slower but evades all attacks and spells.

Muddled Thoughts – Stance. For the next 5...15 seconds, you and all adjacent players’ skills take 25% longer to recharge.

Time Sink – Stance. For the next 5…15 seconds, you and all adjacent players move 25% slower.

Time Loop – Spell. For 5…10 seconds, target other player casts his next spell twice.

nebojats · Mar 19, 2007, 02:06 PM // 14:06

I need to stop thinking about CCs... it's ruining my cultural experience in Argentina to be thinking back to a videogame.

But this idea got in my head and wouldn't leave.

I'm posting it mostly so I won't forget about it. Aside from the story, it's pretty rough. The name I just added on a whim (I like Aeon Flux), and I'm not too sure about any of the specifics. Essentially, these are the basics I want to get across:

1) A CC that does well against your typical damage dealers and frontmen (wars, sins, dervs), but is vulnerable to the less armored classes. The evasion may seem overpowered and maybe it is... basically I want the Aeon to be able to tank against weapons like a Warrior, but run away from other types of damage like a magic-user.

2) Time Manipulation. It's unexploited in GW right now (movement, recharge time, attack speed, delay/speed up effects, etc.). Also, it's a nice excuse to allow for new playing styles. Most notably... stacking skill effects so you can deal mass damage at the price of temporarily doing nothing.

3) I like the idea of a class that uses counter-attacks and evasion (nod to the Stalker).

4) I like the identity, although maybe it could use some sparkle. It lies somewhere between a dark knight, a bloodthirsty mercenary, and a kung fu master (and Raistlin Majere! Yes... I was and still am deep down a Dragonlance nerd), and the more I think about it the more it appeals to me.

This is a first draft... bash it to hell. I'd really like to hear some knee-jerk feedback on this one. This thread willl eventually be scrapped for another version when it's ready to make an evolution into something better.

tenshi_strife · Mar 19, 2007, 04:27 PM // 16:27

wow... this is WAY over powered, ok let me give some insight on how this over powered.
first lets just ignore the time manip for right now. dodges all projectiles and melee attacks... ok that would piss off all rangers, warriors, sins, dervish's, paragons, ritualists, and even ele's and some monks. so really only mesmers are not annoyed by this.

if your wondering how ele's would be affected, well in your post you state they can dodge magical projectiles but are hit by insta hit skills, well just a quick fyi im a ele and i basicly know all the ele skills and the ones that arnt projectile are very very few in number. Smite monks also rely on some projectile spells but not as much, really the only caster that relys on almost no projectiles is the mes.

ok now for the time manip, can you say WAY over powered, ok so i get you wanting to build on an idea that has not been done but this is just evil. so you can not only basicly shut down opponets complealty but you can also make your team mates into demi gods with no side effects.an ele's MS is cast twice with no extra cost, a sin can attack so fast he takes out 3 people in seconds, and an eles skills are recharged right off, all while the enemies spells recharge slower than frozen mollassas and they attack so slow a sin attacks slower than a hammer war and the monk is compleatly screwed.

now you throw these two together then tehre is not a single thing taht can stop you, you evade everthing and when an enemy is doning something you can evade you shut them down with time manip.

really this should be 2 classes and it should be nerfed down a bit, sorry for seeming harsh but this is what i think.

nebojats · Mar 19, 2007, 11:11 PM // 23:11

tenshi_strife: Alright, alright... like I said, rough draft. I had to get it down in writing before I forget about it. Thank you for the bashing/critiques though! It's easy to get excited about a CC without thinking about its faults...

But! I do think there is some major misunderstanding/lack of reading going on here.

Evasion: - First off, I didn't realize that so many skills were projectiles. I'll cut it down to just weapon attack evasion. In my mind, that doesn't ruin the continuity of the Aeon. (note: I said all weapon and projectile attacks, not all melee and projectile attacks)

Secondly, I think either I am being very unclear about the evasion aspect of this CC or you are just not getting it. The idea is that this CC can take damage from weapons (no longer projectiles thanks to you) like a Warrior. Why? With maxed out agility, she is only hit by every other weapon attack. Is this overpowered? No. Because unlike the Warrior, the Aeon has little armor (still don't know the exact numbers).

Think of it this way: The Aeon only gets hit half the time, but takes twice the damage. Over time, there is absolutely no difference in terms of damage taken from weapons compared to a Warrior. Unlike a Warrior though, she is very vulnerable to non-weapon attacks (she doesn't evade them and she has little armor).

Is it clearer now? Is the evasion concept actually a problem when I put it that way? I really don't see how it is. The end result is a melee character that can tank like a warrior against only certain types of damage.

Time Manipulation:

Some of the skills are overpowered. To fix that, I'll just just cut the effects down to a reasonable size (right after I post this).

All of the skills which affect multiple targets are stances... you can only have one at a time. They're effects are also really tight (adjacent only). You won't be able to slow down the enemy team and speed up your own. Instead, you can manipulate time in one particular way for everyone in your immediate vicinity. If the stance skills are overpowered, all I have to do is cut down the power of the effect.

For the non-stance time skills:

I don't think Spell Stagger is overpowered... all it does is change the timing of effects. Deja Vu's second spell effect actually does cost something (the cost of Deja Vu, which I envision being quite high). Temporal Prison isn't overpowered because it a) is elite, b) lasts for a maximum of ten seconds, and c) actually protects the target. Muddled Thoughts may be overpowered... I'll cut down the strength. Time Loop forces the target to cast twice... I don't really see how that is insanely overpowered.

Check out the changes I make to the skills and keep in mind the fact that you can only have one stance and they affect both allies and opponents (since the Aeon is a melee character, this is bound to be the majority of the time).

Just to clarify what you missed and what's been solved by my edits to the OP:

Quote:

Originally Posted by tenshi_strife

an ele's MS is cast twice with no extra cost (no, the cost is transferred to the Aeon), a sin can attack so fast he takes out 3 people in seconds (no, Time Vortex is now less effective and it also affects adjacent opponents, not just particular allies. To achieve the effect you describe, the Aeon would have to run around the battlefield holding hands with the Assassin and avoid making contact with the sin's targets), and an eles skills are recharged right off (same response as above), all while the enemies spells recharge slower than frozen mollassas and they attack so slow a sin attacks slower than a hammer war and the monk is compleatly screwed (a definite 100% no... you can only use one stance at a time!).

Unstoppable?:

No! Not at all! We are having a major communication breakdown! Against weapon attacks, the Aeon is essentially a Warrior. Against non-weapon attacks, the Aeon takes damage like a Monk! The only difference is that unlike a Monk, she can't heal herself... All it takes is a few well-placed spells to take the Aeon out.

The time manipulation may be overpowered right now, but it's the strength, not the concepts that need to be changed. Keep in mind, you can only have one stance that affects all adjacent players in effect at a time.

Responses? Questions? Flames?

actionjack · Mar 20, 2007, 12:35 AM // 00:35

Since its a nebojats CC, I won't go into too much trouble of using flowery languague to say how much I like it, instead jump into what I don't like.

2 Main question.

1) as you described, its is a melee profession... where is the weapon mastery that does that?

2) I always love the idea of Time-magic, but is it necessary to combin it with a melee-type? I would perfer they be all caster type, which player can always mix proff with a Assassin or Warrior if they do need to go close.

And how about an Argentina-cultural based CC?

nebojats · Mar 25, 2007, 10:49 PM // 22:49

With GW:EN coming out, I'm not sure if I should still be on these boards. But then again, I never really expected any of my CCs to be incorporated into the game, I just do it for fun.

@tenshi_strife: I redid a lot of the OP, particularly the Originality and Tactics sections. I tried to respond to the miscommunication we had and make it clearer that this CC has definite weaknesses.

@actionjack: Good point about the weapon mastery. It's sort of a problem, because between Speed and Agility I have skills related to evasion, movement, and countering. Evasion needs to be the primary because it defines the character. The weapon should also be in the primary because it's a melee character. That leaves weapon and evasion in the primary, and movement and countering in the second. I'm having trouble thinking of what unifies those ideas.

You could be right about the magic/fighter problem. I tried to tone it down some. The majority of the time skills are now stances which affect the Aeon's immediate surroundings. That reinforces the melee aspect and limits what the Aeon can do magically. Thoughts?

Haha, Argentina CCs. Here are some:

Magical Gaucho
Tango Master
Peronista

[M]agna_[C]arta · Mar 26, 2007, 04:50 AM // 04:50

When will we expect your CC's Artwork^^?

[M]agna_[C]arta · Mar 30, 2007, 06:49 AM // 06:49

Quote:

Bizarre Dodge – Stance. For the next 5…15 seconds, your chances to evade projectile attacks doubles.

Awareness – Stance. For the next 5…15 seconds, your chances to evade melee attacks doubles.

I think it's overpowering with Max Speed you will gain 50% chance to evade attacks, with this it will give you 100% chance to evade attacks for 15 seconds.
Especially with even Max Speed is too strong already 50% chance to evade lower it to 45% or 47%.

Quote:

The weapon should also be in the primary because it's a melee character. That leaves weapon and evasion in the primary, and movement and countering in the second.

Then how can other Profs use this Weapons if their Primary Profession isn't an Aeon?

What Unique Ability does you're "Claw" do? Like what you said each weapon should have their own Unique System.

Like Schytes can Strike 3 enemies at once.

Or maybe I have missed it, Lastly is this "Claw" One-Handed, if it is then lets just say this is just like a Sword but slightly weaker. If its Dual-Handed then we could just say this is just a "Dagger" that can't Double-Strike.

BTW, When will we be expecting the Appearance of the Aeon?
Will J. Monkey still be helping you with this?

For the rest Good Job^^.