Curse

Lydz · Jan 09, 2007, 08:59 PM // 20:59

The Essence

For centuries heroes have summoned the powers of nature to aid them in battle. The mighty Elementalist wreaks havoc with the elements, the ranger lives as one with nature, whereas the Ritualist boasts being its master. Until now, though, one question has always existed...what is nature?

The Essence, a sprite-wielding caster, gains its name from its very being. It is the essence of nature. Calling upon powers that have forever existed, but never been witnessed, they are key elements on the battlefield.

For each point put into their primary attribute, Attunement, plants and insects summoned gain an extra level, thus increasing their overall power. Attribute points spent on Growth lengthen the strength and duration of rooting abilities, which literally put a foe to a halt, and the amount of plants/insects that may be under the Essence’s control at one particular time. An Essence may feel their calling to be Light Prayers, spells which damage foes and may be cast at the speed of light, or the Dark Arts, which confuses and harms foes in the process.

The Essence’s weapons, sprites, makes use of Summoning to increase their overall damage and the chance of obtaining a critical hit upon impact. Skills can result in sprites exploding, causing bleeding, or even a deep wound.

On their own, Essences are powerful on the battlefield, but when combined with the powers of the Elementalist, ranger and Ritualist, there is no foretelling what may happen.

Armour etc:

An Essence’s default armour is different from other professions’ in the way that it is not clothes, more like an Elementalist’s everlasting aura. This aura closely “wraps” the Essence’s body in a cloud of swirling mist, that can be “dyed” and leaves a short trail behind the Essence when they move. Base armour would be 60, and energy would be 30 with 4 pips of regen.

What would give the Essence the “WOW factor (and I don’t mean World of Warcraft ^^), would be that the Essence floats/hovers above the ground instead of walking, increasing the impression of their attunement to nature.

Weapon:

The Essence is all about clouds, auras and nature, so what better than to make use of sprites as a weapon. A sprite is a tiny glowing being that is sent forth to do damage for the Essence. Instead of a Ranger’s arrow for example, a sprite will be used. Sprites are summoned by nothing other than mind power, and as a result require an inscription on the Essence’s hand to be called forth. The inscription in theory would be the weapon and the sprites what "comes out" of it. Sprites bear resemblance to the auras surrounding the Essence itself and colour will depend on their skill. For example, if the Essence were to make use of a skill that causes the next sprite to explode on impact, that sprite would glow red. Sprites move significantly slower than other forms of attack. This is to stop the essence from becoming too powerful and to give the poor little sprites as much time on the Earth as possible before they kill themselves at your command ^^

Skills etc:

To be honest, I really don’t think Anet would make use of any of skills I was to create due to the fact that they know what is balanced and I don’t. As a result, I’m going to give a more in-depth description regarding each attribute.

Attunement (Primary Attribute):

As said before, for each point in this attribute, plants and insects summoned gain an extra level, starting at one. So for example, an Essence with Attunement at 0 will summon level 1 plants and insects, and an Essence with level 12 Attunement will summon level 13 plants and insects. For every 3 ranks in Attunement, one plant or insect may be under the Essence’s control. The reason for these not being too high is to stop the essence from becoming another minion master. The Essence will need to rely on other skills in combination with their plants and insects to effectively deal damage.

Growth:

These skills relate to the summoning of plants and insects, as well as roots that firmly grasp the enemy and stop them in their tracks. Different plants and insects will cause different effects and deal different amounts of damage. For example, Tumbleweed may knock over foes as it “blows” into them, and a thorn bush can cause bleeding/a deep wound. What makes this attribute interesting is that plants and insects can work together to create an even greater force. A daisy bush may be summoned, which lasts for 30 seconds. The next time a bee is summoned, the daisy bush is destroyed as a result of the bee “using its nectar” and the bee’s stings cause a certain condition. These could be linked in the way an assassin links their attacks, or simply used “as-is.” Unlike the Necromancer, which requires corpses to summon minions, the Essence has no need for corpses. Instead, the ability to control fewer plants and insects than the amount of minions a Necromancer could animate at any given time makes up for this, as well as longer spell recharge times. There will also be no way for the Essence to heal their plants and insects, instead they would not suffer from any degeneration as would a Necromancer’s minion.

Rooting abilities are like nothing we have seen in the Guild Wars universe. Where spells and traps exist which slow and cripple foes, rooting an enemy can put them to a complete halt. This is a method the Essence could use to effectively summon plants and insects without taking damage from the foe. Simply root the enemy, send in your “minions” and deal damage. In order for these spells not to be overpowered though, high energy costs and long recharge times would be related to them.

Light Prayers:

Light prayers call upon the light to deal damage to enemies. Though not dealing much damage, the main attraction to these skills are the fact that they have extremely short cast times, thus being able to cast them at the speed of light. Light Prayers are AoE spells which deal small amounts of damage over time, but when combined together may result in rapid damage being done to any foe standing within the area of effect.

Dark Arts:

The Dark Arts causes darkness to envelop foes within a certain area of effect. Almost like an Elementalist’s ward, foes within the area can become anything from dazed to missing with attacks as a result of reduced sight.

Summoning:

Summoning is directly related to damage deal by sprites and the chance of them obtaining a critical hit on impact. Skills can cause sprites to explode, damaging the target foe and all foes in the area, cause bleeding, wounds as well as weaken the enemy.

In summary, the Essence is nature. One might say that the Essence’s Attributes are too broad, but if one looks at the Elementalist for example, they make use of many types of magic, but all the forms of magic are related to one thing...the elements. The Essence makes use of many forms of magic too, and all of them are related to nature itself. An Essence may combine many forms of magic to cunningly confuse and wipe out a foe, or focus on one specific attribute and rely on that to be their destiny.

So what does everyone think?

gameshoes3003 · Jan 10, 2007, 05:02 AM // 05:02

Nice idea, but I just have one minor comment on the attributes.
There are generally 4 primary attributes for each class (except for the warrior due to the various types of weapons). So uhh.. one will have to be taken out =/
Otherwise, I think this could have a potential future.

kKagari · Jan 10, 2007, 09:17 AM // 09:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by gameshoes3003

Nice idea, but I just have one minor comment on the attributes.
There are generally 4 primary attributes for each class (except for the warrior due to the various types of weapons). So uhh.. one will have to be taken out =/
Otherwise, I think this could have a potential future.

actually theres generally only 1 primary attribute for each class

Lydz · Jan 11, 2007, 04:57 PM // 16:57

Ya i see what you're saying, but the elementalist does have 5 attributes (energy storage, water magic, fire magic, air magic and earth magic), so this could work as long as it's balanced...

KiyoshiKyokai · Jan 13, 2007, 04:40 PM // 16:40

Interesting. I love the flavor (such as clothing descriptions and the hovering). I think you should come up with a few skills just to give us an idea of how a class combos skills together.

Also, instead of attunement being your primary attribute, why not make summoning the primary attribute? Increasing the dealt damage of all summoned creatures by, say 3% point per rank in this skill would make it a great primary to mix well with secondary ritualists and necromancers. Don't forget that if you make the primary attribute the major skill of the class, then it becomes totally useless as a Secondary Profession. Primary should be more useful for its inherent effect than the linked skills.

Also, it's a little unclear on the method of attack. You said that their weapons are the sprites they summon? ie: when I lock onto a target and start attacking, miniature creatures spawn and start hacking away at them (or self destructing)? I don't know how feasible this would be with GW's system of attacking.

These characters would also make great form users, if ANET has plans to give anyone but Dervishes forms.

Other than that, great work on a really innovative and interesting class. I'd love to see something like this in the next GW.

Dean Harper · Jan 13, 2007, 11:25 PM // 23:25

great idea, id play it in an instant