Curse

System_Crush · Dec 26, 2007, 02:05 PM // 14:05

Afflictionist CC
“All life starts from death, and all death contains the essence of life; this is our circle, our only truth...”
Afflictionists are medicine men that believe the side effects of afflictions can outweigh their negative effects when put to positive use.
They cultivate diseases, parasites and viruses in their own body, changing and exploiting them to gain a benefit, or strengthening them too unleash them on foes.

This class is a general support class, they can cause conditions, they can use debuffs to protect their team and they are supposed to be able to heal allies without relying on spells;

Equipment

Energy:
30 base energy 4 at pips
The Afflictionist can get dual focuses to improve this.

Armor:
Base: 70AL
(The extra pip of energy regen is the armor's bonus)

The look of Afflictionist armor is for a change easy to describe, it looks like ‘order of whispers’ and ‘master of whispers’ armor.
Except in comes in more colors than only red.

Weapon:
The Afflictionist uses poison darts as a weapon, they can equip a blowgun to improve their range and damage.
Darts deal 0 damage with the original hit, but each second afterwards they inflict a small amount of damage for a venom duration, the venom duration depends on the type of dart.

Darts can be dual wielded, or used with a blow gun, sacrificing speed for range.

Example of a fast acting dart:

Sundering Jagged Dart
Damage: Piercing 0
Dark 3-12 each second(requires 9 Ambi-Dexterity)
For 3 seconds

20% armor penetration (20% chance)
Offhand/Mainhand

Inscription:
“Don’t fear the reaper: +15% damage while suffering from a hex.”

Damage +20%(Customized for Jonathan Meverus)

This amounts to 9-36 damage per hit, taking 3 seconds of continuous attacking to achieve the max damage per second.

Example of a slow acting dart:

Fiery Coiled Dart
Damage: Piercing 0
Fire 3-5 each second(requires 9 Ambi-Dexterity)
For 6 seconds

Offhand/Mainhand

Inscription:
“Not the face!: +10 armor against blunt damage”

Damage +20%(Customized for Jonathan Meverus)

Amounting to 19-30 damage per hit, taking 6 seconds of continuous attacking to achieve the max damage per second.

The darts are half ranged.
Darts without a blowgun have a low arch.
A dart wielded in the mainhand, has an attack time of 2.8 seconds.
For a dart wielded in the offhand the attack time is 3.8 seconds.

You can dual wield 2 darts, the mainhand dart will be your main weapon, but attack skills will be preformed by whatever hand attacks first.

Darts wielded in the mainhand will attack faster than darts in the offhand.
The dart attribute, ambi-dexterity makes you better at dual wielding, improving your attack speed with darts, and reload time for the blowgun.

Ambi-Dexterity decreases the attack time, it does NOT add a % attack speed bonus, meaning the speed will stack with any other attack speed bonuses.

If a dart is used together with a non dart weapon, while you are attacking, the dart will strike your fighting target, if that target is in range of the dart.
Meaning if your main weapon is a sword you will still go into melee(The dart will start attacking when you start hitting the foe); with a spear you will not move up to half range(the dart won't attack as the foe is out of range)

Additionally a blowgun can be equipped in the mainhand, the blowgun itself is not a weapon, it simply augments the weapon attacks of the wielder; and as it is a mainhand weapon these attacks could only be attacks with a dart in your offhand.

Gahki Flute of Warding
+10 piercing damage to weapon attacks
Darts have doubled range
+10 armor against elemental damage
Mainhand

Upgrades:
Mouthpiece| grip/wrapping upgrade components

The blowgun does not rely on an attribute and can not be customized or inscribed as it is your darts that have the effects of your attacks trough poison, the blowgun is only delivery.
Blowguns do add a set amount of damage and can be upgraded with grip components.

With a blowgun your offhand dart has spear/shortbow range.
With a blowgun your offhand dart has no arch, making if very useful against moving targets.
The blowgun has the attack speed of the offhand dart.

Focuses:
The Afflictionist can wield herbs as focus items, like darts these can be dual wielded, but the herbs are divided into restorative(offhand) and poisonous(mainhand) herbs, each with their own effects.
While herbs do not offer as much energy as offhands of caster classes, their additional effects are a big boon to Afflictionists.

Example of restorative herbs:

Belladonna
Energy +4(requires 9 Medicine/Toxicology/Rehabilitation)
The maximum health regeneration that will affect you is increased by 1(requires 5 Medicine)

Offhand

Example of poisonous herbs

Nightshade
Energy +4(requires 9 Medicine/Toxicology/Rehabilitation)
The maximum health degeneration that will affect you is decreased by 1(requires 5 Toxicology)

Mainhand

Upgrades:
Herbs can be upgraded with focus cores, and offhand item inscriptions.

All poisonous herbs have a secondary Toxicology requirement of 5.
All restorative herbs have a secondary Medicine requirement of 5.
If you are dual wielding herbs you won't have a weapon and will get a "unable to attack, no weapon equipped" message when you try to attack.
Normally you can suffer up to 10 health degen and be effected by up to 10 health regen.
Wielding herbs can change this to 9 degen and 11 regen, because behind the screen additional regen is stacks up to an additional + and -10, but it has no effect, herbs can change that.

Insignia’s:
Herbalist's | +10 AL while affected by a spore
Apocalypse Horseman’s | Move 10% faster while suffering from a condition (Non stacking)
Sufferer’s | +3AL for each condition suffered
Rodent's | +10 AL while affected by a plague

Toxicology (primary)
Every 15 seconds you gain 30 health and 3 energy for each condition you are suffering, for every rank in toxicology this happens ½ a second faster.

Hortimonculus elite spore E10 A1½ R60
You are affected by hortimonculis for 10 seconds; when it ends you gain 10...31(38) health and this spore is reapplied for 10...7(6) seconds; if you are dead, for 30 seconds a hortimonculus grows at your corpse's location instead.
When triggered the Hortimonculis trap heals all nearby allies for 80 health.

Veined Vine spore E5 A½ R3
For 10 seconds target foe becomes affected by veined vine, when it ends up to 1...3(4) foes near the target suffer from 1 condition on target foe for 120...180(200)% of it's remaining duration;
If target foe dies while affected by this spore, all conditions on that foe and 100% of their remaining durations are transferred instead.

Airborne Agent plague E25 A- R80
For 80 seconds, whenever virus reapplies a condition to you, the same condition is applied to all nearby foes for the same duration. Each foe that receives a condition this way steals 2...2(1) energy from you.

Shamanic Vapors elite infection E5 A1½ R4
For 3...9(11) seconds you are dazed, you attack 50% slower, move 33% faster and your skills that target allies activate 50% faster.
If you are no longer dazed, Shamans Blur ends.

Deadly Mold skill E10 A1 R15
If you are under the effects of a spore, you and target foe become diseased for 4...16(20) seconds, if that foe is also affected by a spore, that foe is also poisoned for 10 seconds.
This skill has half the normal range.

Quote:

Menlo: Don't touch it! That is a deadly mold.
Devonna: How do you know?
Menlo: It looks like your cooking. >.>

Papilloma infection E5 A2 R10
You suffer from virus for 1...10(13) seconds, skills you use cannot be interrupted.
Papilloma ends when you stop suffering form virus, or when you successfully cast a spell.

Ambi-Dexterity
Each rank in Ambi-Dexterity increases your damage and chance to achieve a critical hit with a dart,
Also each rank decreases the attack time with a dart wielded in the offhand by 0,1 and every 2 ranks decrease the attack time for darts in the mainhand by 0,1.

Infect dart attack E5 A(next attack) R15
You begin bleeding for 12 seconds, if this attack hits, and you are suffering from disease, target foe also suffers from disease for 4…10(12) seconds, if you are suffering from poison target foe also suffers from poison for 4…10(12) seconds.

Spastic Venom dart attack E15 A(next attack) R10
If this attack hits, target foe moves 15...60(75)% slower for the venoms duration and is knocked down when it ends.

Curare Venom elite dart attack E10 A3 R20
If this attack hits, it inflicts double venom duration, and the venom does 10...25(30)% more damage.

Surgeons Precision elite preparation E5 A3 R15
For 24 seconds, all your attacks have 4...16(20)% more chance to achieve a critical hit, your dart attacks also have 50...80(90)% chance to be unblockable.

Deadly Toxins preparation E10 A3 R30
For 24 seconds, foes struck by your darts also suffer 5...26(33)% reduced healing effectiveness for the venoms duration.

Rabies elite infectionE10 A½ R5
For 10 seconds you suffer form disease, you attack 33% faster, have 1 less energy regeneration and all healing on you is reduced by 50...29(22)%, whenever you are healed you also gain 1...1(2) energy.
Rabies ends if you are no longer diseased.

Rehabilitation

Sedatives preparation E5 A3 R15
For 24 seconds, if your blowgun attacks hit, they cause the target to move, attack and activate skills 3…12(15)% slower for the venom's duration.

Trauma elite plague E5 A- R50
For 80 seconds, whenever a foe in your area that is below 50...71(78)% of it's max health causes damage to a creature that damage is reduced by 5...20(25), if that foe is weakened 3...12(15)% of the the remaining damage is transferred to you.

Intoxicating Dose skill E10 A2 R15
If you are poisoned, target foe is dazed for 1...7(9) seconds; if target foe is also poisoned, all foes adjacent to your target become dazed for 1...7(9) seconds.
This skill has half the normal range.

Parasitic Infections plague E5 A- R100
For 80 seconds, all nearby foes suffering form a condition also cannot achieve critical hits, and lose 1...2(2) energy when they would normally achieve one.

Sapling spore E5 A½ R5
For 12 seconds target foe is affected by sapling, when that foe inflicts a condition on a creature sapling ends prematurely and the foe and all nearby foes suffer from weakness for 6...21(26) seconds. When sapling ends on a dead creature all adjacent foes of the original caster become affected by this spore for 12 seconds.

Fatigue skill E5 A1 R20
For 1...6(8) seconds, target foe attacks and activates skills 20% slower, whenever that foe gains a strike of adrenaline they are crippled for 2 seconds.
This skill has half the normal range.

Medicine

Mutualisation elite plague E5 A- R120
For 80 seconds party members in your area suffering from a condition you are also suffering, gain 1...3(4) health regeneration, you suffer 1 health degeneration each affected ally.

Draped Bandaging skill E5 A2 R2
Target touched ally is cured of 1 viral condition and for 5…8(9) seconds that ally gains 3 health regeneration.

Bedside Manner plague E10 A- R60
For 80 seconds, whenever an other party member adjacent to you suffers from a new condition, that condition lasts 25...55(65)% shorter, but you suffer from that condition for the amount of time it was shortened.

Superficial Stitches skill E5 A1 R4
Target touched ally is healed for 80…230(280) health, this skill cannot increase the target’s health above 50%

Mal Practices preparation E10 A3 R25
For 24 seconds your Medicine attribute is reduced by 3….2(1), skills connected to it activate 25% faster and cost -2 energy.

Cleansing Bloom spore E5 A1 R10
For 10 seconds target other ally becomes affected by Cleansing Bloom, when it ends that ally loses 1 viral condition, if a condition is removed all allies adjacent to that ally are healed for 20...50(60) health, if the target is dead when Cleansing Bloom would end all allies adjacent to it's corpse gain the effects of this spore for 10 seconds instead.

No Attribute

Rampant Growth infection E5 A¾ R15
You suffer from virus for 9 seconds; You move 1% slower and have 5 more armor and an additional 1% and 5 armor each second you are under the effects of this infection
Rampant Growth ends when you are no longer suffering from virus.

Enduring Venom dart attack E10 A(next attack) R10
If it hits this attack inflicts triple the venom duration, but deals 50% less damage.

New Stuff

Condition: Virus
When a viral condition is removed, or transferred, off of a creature suffering from virus; without removing virus, then that condition is re-applied for its remaining duration.

(70% of real life viruses; E.G. the common cold, 20+ of the variations of influenza, and even HIV do not do something directly damaging to your body, they are just too small;
They do however keep your body busy or weak so it can’t fight off bacterial infections anymore or heal properly, HIV even shuts down your entire immune system, making even pond scum an infection that could kill you.
When docs say a virus killed someone, they often mean that person died of infections that we encounter every day, but that normally lack the strength to make us sick.
Hence the function of virus, to weaken a foe form the inside so they can’t recover from conditions as long as they are suffering from virus.)

Virus does not re-apply conditions that ended because of “conditions last X% shorter”
The re-applying of conditions caused by virus is affected by any X% shorter or longer conditions effects on the target, even if the original duration was already affected by it. (Just because it might be easier to program that way)

Virus only reapplies viral conditions, which are:

Bleeding
Deep wound
Poison
Disease
Cripple

Blind, Daze and burning are the most powerful conditions in GW, it would be unbalancing to have virus apply to them.
Nor would it be right to have virus reapply virus.

Mechanic: Venom's duration
Darts deal no damage on attack, but inflict damage for a random amount of seconds after they hit.
This stacks for however many dart attacks you or others might be able to hit the target with over the same duration.
Critical hits with a dart do not deal 0*2 damage, but instead have their base venom duration doubled, this applies before any other venom duration changes and is modified by those.

Additional 'on attack' effects like [skill=text]Apply Poison[/skill], Conjure X, or weapon spells, are applied to the initial dart hit.
Additional damage from dart attack skills, is however dealt each second with the venom's damage.

Many skills related to darts use the random duration of the darts venom to apply an effect for a short duration, effects from the same skill do not stack and the application with the most time left is the one that counts.

Skill type: Spore
A successful use of a spore skill, causes a magical seed to grow inside the target, for a limited duration(until it matures).
Spores do not have an active effect while they grow, but each application of a new spore kills any spore that was on the target.
After a set amount of time the spore matures and causes its effect, if the target is dead at that time, the spore grows into a fungus, strengthening the spore's effect or placing a trap at the location of the affected creatures corpse.

A creature can only be affected by 1 spore skill at the same time, applying a new spore to a target or a hostile copy of the current spore will overwrite the current spore.
You can use hostile spore skills to remove spores from foes.
You can remove spores from yourself by overwriting them with a friendly spore skill.

Spores only end when they are removed by another spore skill or when their duration runs out.
Like [skill=text]Aura of the Lich[/skill] they stack with themselves if applied over a previous casting and their effects trigger whenever they should end.
Like AotL if you are no longer affected by the skill when it should end, there is no effect.
unlike AotL spores still fire if you die, and can still be seen in your effects bar if you are rezzed before the spore ends.

Skill type: Infection
An infection is an effect maintained by a condition on you, they do not have a duration but instead end when you stop suffering from the condition.
If the condition is reapplied before it ends, the duration of the infection is extended.
Different infections stack with one another, with the correct use of 2 you might be able to maintain them indefinitely, but you will have to suffer from that condition indefinitely as well.
The effects of an infection are not tied to the condition; you can NOT transfer infections to foes by transferring the condition.
If the condition is removed, but instantly reapplied by virus it will not remove the infection.

Skill type: Dart Attack
An attack skill only usable with a dart equipped, they would not seem to deal much additional damage, but remember this damage can be applied up to 5 times instead of just 1.

Skill type: Plague
A plague skill creates an aura around the user in which either allies or foes(no plague affects both) have an effect reapplied to them every second(if they meet the requirements) that effects ends after 1.1 second.

You can only be the carrier of 1 plague at a time.
Each creature can however be affected my any number of plagues at any time.
You are not effected by the effect of plagues you carry, instead most plagues have some special effect only for their carrier.

=============================================
Well I hope you like it or at least some small part of it, I know its not perfect yet, so any comments, suggestions and ideas are very welcome; thank you for reading.

[M]agna_[C]arta · Dec 27, 2007, 10:48 AM // 10:48

Sounds like my Bio-Mage^^.
I like it^^, may I copy some of it for my Alchemist.
Just asking even if I already know you'll always say yes^^.

System_Crush · Dec 27, 2007, 11:31 AM // 11:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by [M]agna_[C]arta

I like it^^,

Glad you do, but no suggestions, or specific points you like, what so ever?

Quote:

Originally Posted by [M]agna_[C]arta

may I copy some of it for my Alchemist.
Just asking even if I already know you'll always say yes^^.

Well you already know my answer.

For additional inspiration, check out the Tabula Rasa Exo-Bologist.
That is what inspired me to warp the SCU Afflictionist in a way that it was fit for GW.

TR is useful for class and skill inspiration and ideas, the whole game was set up to revolutionize MMO's.
And 30-40% of it is nice and original(not enough to be revolutionary), 50-60% of it is is buggy, 60-80% of it is poorly balanced.
Amazingly inspite of that I enjoyed it(not sure myself why...) and theres a 50% chance I will renew my account when I get a better video card.

Lastly 96%(23/24) of all deaths I suffered was because my FPS dropped to 0.000000000000000000001 for like 10+ seconds.

[M]agna_[C]arta · Dec 27, 2007, 12:31 PM // 12:31

I really love everything XD.
Why when I asked you if you could help me in the Alchemist you didn't share this brilliant Idea XD!
I'll be using your spore Idea for my Homonculus^^!

Thanks^^.
Hmm, suggestions^^.

Is there even such thing as Toxicology?
Why not try Virulogoy.
The Weapon doesn't fit GW.
Shaman Insignia taken.
Green Thumb and Life Saver's doesn't sound good.
And oddly your skills give adrenaline but you don't use any.
Is A = Activation or Adrenaline?

And please right a description below you'r Attbs, cause those are one of the major problems why I can't akways understand you'r CCs^^.

What is the difference of Rehab and Med?

System_Crush · Dec 27, 2007, 02:46 PM // 14:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by [M]agna_[C]arta

I really love everything XD.
Why when I asked you if you could help me in the Alchemist you didn't share this brilliant Idea XD!
I'll be using your spore Idea for my Homonculus^^!

Cuz spores are nothing like created beings, they are traps and wells that are placed where and when a creature dies...
Hence the Hortimonculis(Plant/Grown Creation/Being) which is a weird looking tree not a Homonculis(Similar/Copy Creation/Being) which kinda means clone...

Quote:

Originally Posted by [M]agna_[C]arta

Is there even such thing as Toxicology?
Why not try Virulogoy.

Virology is a kind of toxicology, it basically means anything that is bad for your body, much more than just infections.

Quote:

Originally Posted by [M]agna_[C]arta

The Weapon doesn't fit GW.

Hun? Why? It totally fits the shaman side of this class and the tribal side the Istan and Kourna back country have.

Quote:

Originally Posted by [M]agna_[C]arta

Shaman Insignia taken.

True... how does Carrier's sound?

Quote:

Originally Posted by [M]agna_[C]arta

Green Thumb and Life Saver's doesn't sound good.

It was the best I could come up with...

Quote:

Originally Posted by [M]agna_[C]arta

And oddly your skills give adrenaline but you don't use any.
Is A = Activation or Adrenaline?

A is definitely activation, its just that Rabies is a real disease that makes people suffering from it really angry and unable to eat or drink.
Skills like [skill=text]Natural Temper[/skill] relate anger to adrenaline gain, so I did too to keep GW lore unified, it is indeed not very useful, unless for a secondary profession.

Quote:

Originally Posted by [M]agna_[C]arta

And please right a description below you'r Attbs, cause those are one of the major problems why I can't akways understand you'r CCs^^.

What is the difference of Rehab and Med?

The attributes should display their function by their skills, in game they won't have a description but players will have too figure it out by looking at the skills.

So by the skills it is supposed to be obvious Medication heals people with touch based skills, there is too much of a focus on self only skills tough; I should change it a little to make people more likely to use it on their allies.

Rehabilitation has :
A skill to improve crit rate: making a weapon deal more damage.
Attack speed increase: making a weapon deal more damage.
Preparations: to make your ranged weapon stronger.
Skills to slow the foes their movement: making it easer to hit moving foes with a ranged weapon.
Slows foes their skill use: Making it easier for you to interrupt even with a weapon that has a flight time.
It does 60% of the things wilderness survival does in a different way, its a ranged support attribute.

Intentionally the slowing of movement and skills also slow the speed at which foes deal damage = protection for your team.

I should add an opposite of [skill=text]Protective Spirit[/skill] to it, to really show that off; Like a spore that makes a foe unable to deal more than 60...48(44) damage with a single attack or spell...

And thank you Magna, now that is something I can work with

[M]agna_[C]arta · Dec 28, 2007, 11:06 PM // 23:06

It may sound right with the shaman but fighting with a blowgun?
Doesn't sound appealing to gamers, well to some but not all.

I was thinking of creature, which doesn't suppose to be human.
It could be anything a chimera, hybrid, a bird, anything.
As long as you can get it's DnA to mix it up or create one up.
But it would need a host, when you have chosen it's host you can make the host pregnant, female or not.
When the host dies then it would deliver birth to itself.
And the corpse would automatically explioted^^.
Think of something like in "Alien(movie)" but less gross XD.

System_Crush · Dec 29, 2007, 12:18 AM // 00:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by [M]agna_[C]arta

It may sound right with the shaman but fighting with a blowgun?
Doesn't sound appealing to gamers, well to some but not all.

Well no class satisfies all gamers, IM(I)O; why else would the forums have a CC section

Sides the people that play ranged damage dealers in Monster Hunter on the PSP don't seem to mind.
*cough*2 people*cough*

Quote:

Originally Posted by [M]agna_[C]arta

But it would need a host, when you have chosen it's host you can make the host pregnant, female or not.
When the host dies then it would deliver birth to itself.
[snip] but less gross.

Thats seems pretty much impossible.

[M]agna_[C]arta · Dec 29, 2007, 11:29 AM // 11:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by System_Crush

Sundering Gahki Flute of Warding
Energy +5
Damage: piercing 2-16(requires 9 Bedside Manner)
20% armor penetration (20% chance)
+10 armor against elemental damage

Inscription:
“Don’t fear the reaper: +15% damage while affected by a condition”

Damage +20%(Customized for Jonathan Meverus)

Oo"

And Steady Hands doesn't sound good.

System_Crush · Dec 29, 2007, 12:55 PM // 12:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by [M]agna_[C]arta

Oo"

Oops, I'll fix that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by [M]agna_[C]arta

And Steady Hands doesn't sound good.

Yea, I'll just call it blowgun mastery, even though I like the way it sounds even less.

Dean Harper · Dec 30, 2007, 05:02 AM // 05:02

me likes, me likes mucho.

add the Ebola Virus to your viruses list, and maybe add something along the lines of strains of the virus. Maybe even make it a whole new attribute!

Here are the Ebola strains:

Ebola Zaire
Ebola Sudan
Ebola Reston
Ebola Tai

Make each one do separate things

Zaire: causes deep wound/hemorrhage(a new condition- internal bleeding, which causes more degeneration than regular bleeding)

Sudan: causes short amount of burning (it causes a high fever and massive bleeding in real life)

Reston: nothing happens, as this strand does not affect humans, but it may evolve into Zaire, Sudan, or Tai at any time while on the target, in which case the duration would not increase, but continue until it ran out.

Tai: causes disease or poison.

these could also end up being random strains of the virus, the skill that causes it being called Ebola, and causing either Bleeding/Deep Wound/Hemorrhaging, burning, or Disease/Poison.

System_Crush · Dec 30, 2007, 11:56 AM // 11:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dean Harper

me likes, me likes mucho.

Thank you Dean, glad you do.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dean Harper

add the Ebola Virus to your viruses list, and maybe add something along the lines of strains of the virus.

Zaire: causes deep wound/hemorrhage(a new condition- internal bleeding, which causes more degeneration than regular bleeding)

Sudan: causes short amount of burning (it causes a high fever and massive bleeding in real life)

Reston: nothing happens, as this strand does not affect humans, but it may evolve into Zaire, Sudan, or Tai at any time while on the target, in which case the duration would not increase, but continue until it ran out.

Tai: causes disease or poison.

Quote:

Originally Posted by System_Crush

70% of real life viruses; E.G. the common cold, 20+ of the variations of influenza, and even HIV do not do something directly damaging to your body, they are just too small;
They do however keep your body busy or weak so it can’t fight off bacterial infections anymore or heal properly,

Well I'm no expert but from that description I'd say the Ebola virus is part of the other 30% of viruses.

I guess an Ebola skill would make a good Afflictionist version of [skill=text]Desperation Blow[/skill] which would have to be an infection, for putting virus on yourself and have a chance to deal several other conditions along its duration.

[M]agna_[C]arta · Dec 30, 2007, 12:46 PM // 12:46

What's Ebola^^?

nebojats · Dec 31, 2007, 08:05 PM // 20:05

So as far as I can tell, this CC is a condition spammer. The better its Toxicology rating is, the more the afflictionist benefits from suffering from a condition. It has skills to spread conditions, make conditions unremovable, and skills which affect targets upon conditions' termination.

A note on the new skill types:

So a virus basically makes a flesh-related condition unremovable? If a condition is removed while the target is viral, it will be reapplied with remaining duration and effects. If the virus is first removed, then the other conditions can be removed as normal. My one question: can people choose which condition they want to remove? In other words, is there actually a way for an ally to actively decide to remove the virus first and then move on to the other conditions? Either way, I sort of think the "virus" condition doesn't deserve to be a condition. It seems like there should just be a handful of skills that have the "viral" effect. Or something else... I'll get to that later.

The infection skill type is an interesting idea and I think it could offer an interesting playing style. The spore, on the other hand, not so much. A skill which requires death in order to be effective is cool in concept, but imagine it in practice... especially in pvp. Players would hardly ever use them since people simply don't die that much (this is sort of the same problem people pointed out about my Revenant's transcendence skills, although not exactly). I do like the idea of a spore building up in someone and then releasing all the conditions that person was suffering.

The attributes:

Toxicology is cool but I don't like spores the way they are... just too specific a skill-type. Infections are a good idea, although as I said above, how does an enemy overcome the virus aspect?

Blowgun mastery is ok, but not original really. Rehabilitation and Medicine have some gems, but nothing really pops out as me.

Here's how I envision the afflictionist: one attribute related mostly to viral things; he sets up virus fields around himself that are environmental fields of effect centered around him. So wherever he goes, people suffer from viruses more easily. There could be a handful of skills which target viruses more specifically. A second attribute is related to the weapon: he uses his blowgun to spray conditions in a more original way than the current setup (think back to the other class you made... the one with the weird flesh minion. particularly the multitarget ranged attacks). The two remaining attributes could be a) beneficial to allies; b) detrimental to enemies. Both would use spores and infections, although spores need to be different. Spores don't rely on death, their effects are just released after a set amount of time (maybe that time goes down depending on your spore attribute rank). Keep infections the way they are.

I'm in a rush, gotta go. Put more ideas up later.

System_Crush · Jan 01, 2008, 10:19 AM // 10:19

Ty for the reply nebo, always happy to hear sum from you.
Though I was hopping it'd be a little more than a condition spammer, it was supposed to be diverse.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nebojats

A note on the new skill types:

So a virus basically makes a flesh-related condition unremovable? If a condition is removed while the target is viral, it will be reapplied with remaining duration and effects. If the virus is first removed, then the other conditions can be removed as normal. My one question: can people choose which condition they want to remove? In other words, is there actually a way for an ally to actively decide to remove the virus first and then move on to the other conditions? Either way, I sort of think the "virus" condition doesn't deserve to be a condition. It seems like there should just be a handful of skills that have the "viral" effect. Or something else...
how does an enemy overcome the virus aspect?

No you can't chose, and the conditions virus reapplies actually cover it.
The whole point of virus is, that you can't beat it unless you use skills that remove multiple conditions [skill=text]Purge Conditions[/skill].
I imagine other profession would also get skills to deal with virus, for instance [skill=text]Antidote Signet[/skill] being updated to also remove virus.

I think it would be a bad condition based profession didn't change the way other professions had to deal with conditions IM(I)O. It would boost the popularity of full condition removal as well as the "Conditions last X% shorter" skills, which need a popularity boost anyway.

Additionally H/H monks when failing to remove a condition because of virus will not attempt to cure a party member who is affected by virus with a skill that only removes 1 condition again untill the virus runs out.
If they have skills to remove multiple conditions, or to reduce durations they will use those instead.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nebojats

The infection skill type is an interesting idea and I think it could offer an interesting playing style.

The spore, on the other hand, not so much. A skill which requires death in order to be effective is cool in concept, but imagine it in practice... especially in pvp. Players would hardly ever use them since people simply don't die that much (this is sort of the same problem people pointed out about my Revenant's transcendence skills, although not exactly). I do like the idea of a spore building up in someone and then releasing all the conditions that person was suffering.

Well I wanted the spores to be average strength enchantment and hex like effects, now going over them I think I need to rebalance the pre- and postmortem effects of Hortimunculis and Deadly Fruit, so that they will be worth a spot on your bar even if the postmortem effect doesn't trigger.
I made several that place traps where the creature dies to just reapply the spore to foes triggering it; meaning the whole effect of being under the spore is what it's about in the first place.
I'll update the new stuff description to be a little clearer.

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Originally Posted by nebojats

Blowgun mastery is ok, but not original really. Rehabilitation and Medicine have some gems, but nothing really pops out as me.

I may try, but I'm still a chump with martial weapon attributes.

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Originally Posted by nebojats

Here's how I envision the afflictionist: one attribute related mostly to viral things; he sets up virus fields around himself that are environmental fields of effect centered around him.

That does sound cool, though;

Quote:

So wherever he goes, people suffer from viruses more easily.

Does that include allies?

And can you give an example of what the contagions would do? As a aura it is even less removable, so the normal effect of virus would likely be unbalancing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nebojats

There could be a handful of skills which target viruses more specifically. A second attribute is related to the weapon: he uses his blowgun to spray conditions in a more original way than the current setup (think back to the other class you made... the one with the weird flesh minion. particularly the multitarget ranged attacks).

With the speed of the blowgun I made sure it wouldn't really be a problem to switch targets to spread the conditions.
The idea is actually to use the blowgun for single target condition spamming, and the skills that transfer conditions as your AoE condition causers.
You are right though, my AoE condition causes aren't good enough ATM; I'll update them some.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nebojats

(think back to the other class you made... the one with the weird flesh minion. particularly the multitarget ranged attacks).

I should have added that growth that makes your Chimera fuzzy and a little more cute because of it

.

nebojats · Jan 02, 2008, 10:17 PM // 22:17

Alright, I get the virus condition now (by the way, I would call it "viral" instead since most other conditions are adjectives not nouns). Basically the only way to get rid of it will be multi-condition removal skills or ones which specifically remove viruses. You're right, I guess, that having the virus be an aura wouldn't work (not only because it would affect allies, but also because it would require this CC to go melee, which it obviously isn't intended to do).

I still don't like the idea of spores that need death in order to do anything. What about having them lay dormant for a while in the host, and then after a set amount of time they explode and have an environmental effect. Something like:

Destructive Fungus: After 10...5...3 seconds, target and all adjacent enemies loses 10...15...20 health.

Or even better, have spores which spread the virus in a similar fashion.

How about this idea for the martial attribute: have the weapon come in two parts (like sword and shield). Poison darts and blowgun. If you equip both hands with poison darts, you attack your chosen target and also the closest enemy within range simultaneously. If you instead choose to only use one dart and equip the blowgun, then you have increased range and damage. That at least makes the weapon have some originality.

I really think this class has some cool ideas, but not enough. I think that it should be combined with some of the ideas from the Fleshcrafter (they're both playing with the same idea anyway). The augmentations from the Fleshcrafter and the Afflictionist's spores are especially similar. The attributes might go like:

1) Blowgun Mastery (Afflictionist).
2) Virulence (Afflictionist). This would include spores and virus-related skills.
3) Mutation (Afflictionist/Fleshcrafter). A variety of self-targeted spores which augment the CC (although I'd stay away from the weapon augmentations since you already have the blowgun and darts).
4) I'm drawing a blank for the fourth attribute...

System_Crush · Jan 03, 2008, 11:21 AM // 11:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by nebojats

I still don't like the idea of spores that need death in order to do anything. What about having them lay dormant for a while in the host, and then after a set amount of time they explode and have an environmental effect. Something like:

Destructive Fungus: After 10...5...3 seconds, target and all adjacent enemies loses 10...15...20 health.

Or even better, have spores which spread the virus in a similar fashion.

You know what ,I'll do both.
Spores will activate when they end, when they do they'll have some area effect, if the affected creature was dead at that time this effect will be stronger/different.

That way the fertilizer idea is still in place, but the skills are more useful as well.
Though it would probably mean I'd have to remove the passive effects, otherwise the descriptions would be like 3 pages long.

That means I need another skill type that is removable, but is not a spell.
As I view the debuffing abilities of the spores as greater than their buffing abilities(you have infections for that) I have no idea what to use that is not a hex...

Quote:

Originally Posted by nebojats

I really think this class has some cool ideas, but not enough.

Any ideas on a cool idea to use as a non spell hex?

Quote:

Originally Posted by nebojats

How about this idea for the martial attribute: have the weapon come in two parts (like sword and shield). Poison darts and blowgun. If you equip both hands with poison darts, you attack your chosen target and also the closest enemy within range simultaneously. If you instead choose to only use one dart and equip the blowgun, then you have increased range and damage. That at least makes the weapon have some originality.

The darts shot trough a blowgun are usually no good for throwing, but sacrifices to realism are common in this CC anyway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nebojats

1) Blowgun Mastery (Afflictionist).
2) Virulence (Afflictionist). This would include spores and virus-related skills.
3) Mutation (Afflictionist/Fleshcrafter). A variety of self-targeted spores which augment the CC (although I'd stay away from the weapon augmentations since you already have the blowgun and darts).
4) I'm drawing a blank for the fourth attribute...

Wouldn't be too logical to call the attribute that only equips a blowgun 50% of the time blowgun mastery though.

What would be a good spec...
Blowgun mainhand, attack damage +X(range: shortbow, no arch)
Darts offhand/mainhand, damage: 1-Y piercing(range: half-range, low arch)

Darts have a 2.5 sec attack time.

If they would strike a second target is would be the nearest target in your front arch
(like the scythe can't hit foes behind you with it's normal multi target attack)
Though I still wonder how a disease ridden shaman/mad scientist is going to bring up the concentration and ninja like ability to make accurate thrown attacks against 2 targets at once.

Also I have another idea which might work well with this. I've seen the wild-boys(yes I am ashamed of myself for watching that show...) use a blowgun on each other's /ss and the point that they did that proves the killing power of a blowgun dart can be classified as dealing 1-2 damage at most.

So I thought, I would have the darts deal 0 damage, but inflict a dot that deals 1-6(require 9 ...) damage each second for 1-4(random) seconds.
Making dart damage 2-24, dealt over time.
Each application stacks with ones already in effect of course otherwise 2 Afflictionists attacking the same target would constantly overwrite each other.
The damage fires at the end of each second, so it only starts 1 second after you hit.

Lastly your description of the abilities probably mutation especially, doesn't say anything about their preparations, I know 3 of them are too much like the ranger ones, are the other 3 also so unoriginal/bad I should get rid of them?
I'd thought they'd be useful, 'specially with with the poison darts idea as you have a set amount of random seconds during which preparations like sedatives could apply it's effect.

Ekelon · Jan 03, 2008, 07:05 PM // 19:05

Restore Condition > The whole afflictionist class.

System_Crush · Jan 04, 2008, 10:01 PM // 22:01

Updated weapon, skills and descriptions.
I'd though to make good use of the time steam said it would take to download S.T.A.L.K.E.R., but it wasn't even half as long as estimated; so you'll have to put up with a sizable lack of skills, especially from rehabilitation.

nebojats · Jan 07, 2008, 10:45 AM // 10:45

I'm re-reading the OP and skipping over the responses to try and get a fresh take on the CC.

First thing I notice right off the bat: the weapon explanation is too lengthy and confusing! Particularly the mechanics of the second dart. Trim it down and make it more readable. Besides that, I like the revamped weapon attribute, although it feels like you're trying too desperately to be original with the random second aspect. Didn't we decide a long time ago that random-based mechanics and playing styles wouldn't fit into Guild Wars? Playing should revolve around skill and strategy and involve as little luck as possible. I think it would make more sense to have a fixed number of damage-dealing seconds per dart. Another note on the weapon: wouldn't it be cool to have two types of darts to work with? One fast-acting and another slow-acting. For instance, one type would do 3-4 damage every second for six seconds while the other would do 6-8 damage for just three seconds. You could mix and match them with the same end result in terms of damage, but perhaps the variety would allow for different playing styles. If you implemented this idea, the blowgun would have to apply damage bonuses by percentages instead of fixed numbers, and your dart skills would need to be modified so as not to favor one type of dart over the other.

This is just my opinion, but I think a worthy CC must have a novel role on the battlefield. Every class's role can be broken down into two general parts that are described as follows: 1) if an optimum circumstance is met, 2) then the CC enacts its function. In the Necromancer's case, for instance, the optimum circumstance is environmental death (which gives the Necromancer energy to allow for hexing and minions), for Dervishes it is melee positioning (which allows them to maximize damage dealt), and for Monks it is passivity (so that they may fully focus on healing). As far as I can tell, the Afflictionist may have a novel function (condition spammer), but it has a very lame optimum circumstance. In order for the Afflictionist to shine in the battlefield, it needs to be constantly suffering from conditions. That's too specific an optimum circumstance.

Now for some thoughts on the skills. I like the idea of spores... a sort of ticking time bomb. I gotta say though, the effects you have listed don't seem very unique. I also don't quite get what makes infections particularly original. I like the idea of conditions that have both positive and negative effects, but none of your concept skills are really popping out at me.

One last thing that keeps coming to mind. This class really seems like it could line up with the Symbiont's identity. Remember that class? It was my second CC ever! It was the predecessor to the Metabolist which later turned into the Mannai. The idea was some sort of wilderness druid that symbiotically attached its life force to those of other players. That kept popping up in my mind as I read the OP...

System_Crush · Jan 07, 2008, 02:02 PM // 14:02

First, I'd like the afflictionist to have a tipple function, just like a necro has.
With all the skills I have removed that has sort off fallen into neglect, I will try to fix it when I can.

They have a large function as a caster type class(without spells) that inflicts conditions on itself transfers them to 1 or more foes, and then transfers them among the foes as well; this is coupled with virus, which locks down 3 degen conditions on yourself, giving you infinite ammo to cause 5+4+3=12 degen on foes.
More a condition controller than a spammer, on that I should get some [skill=text]Draw Conditions[/skill] in it, to strengthen that role.

They also carry a martial weapon, dealing damage through pressure, and again using conditions to inflict heavy degen, used on a single target they are to render a foe defenseless to a rain of conditions and small successive damage figures, making that red bar keep going down no matter what their monk does.
That is a condition spammer in my definition of it.

Lastly they (are supposed to)have the ability to reduce the damage foes deal, by slowing movement, attack speed and skill use. As well as weaken foes and reduce damage output directly.
The point of that is to protect their party with fire and forget hindering, unlike direct shutdown, lesser reducing but spread over many reducing everything by some instead of 1 thing by a lot.

Because of all the hurts they inflict on themselves with the first option, they need a powerful self healing to stay alive.
To be a good martial class, without needing block chances or armor boosts they need a good self healing attribute.
If they can reduce the damage foes deal, they reduce the damage that needs to be healed, so a second rate healing attribute combined with a good damage reducer makes them useful as secondary or maybe even primary team healers.

^^
Thats what it's supposed to be, achieved through self buffing&conditioning and enemy debuffing&conditioning.
I'm not exactly sure what it is now though

Quote:

Originally Posted by nebojats

This is just my opinion, but I think a worthy CC must have a novel role on the battlefield. Every class's role can be broken down into two general parts that are described as follows: 1) if an optimum circumstance is met, 2) then the CC enacts its function. In the Necromancer's case, for instance, the optimum circumstance is environmental death (which gives the Necromancer energy to allow for hexing and minions), for Dervishes it is melee positioning (which allows them to maximize damage dealt), and for Monks it is passivity (so that they may fully focus on healing). As far as I can tell, the Afflictionist may have a novel function (condition spammer), but it has a very lame optimum circumstance. In order for the Afflictionist to shine in the battlefield, it needs to be constantly suffering from conditions. That's too specific an optimum circumstance.

Yea they need to suffer too many conditions, what was I thinking, an afflictionist should be able to get by with just 1 condition on him, not all 8+1.
I'll strengthen Toxicology, to boost their ability to have a indepleteable energy source at the cost of self inflicted conditions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nebojats

First thing I notice right off the bat: the weapon explanation is too lengthy and confusing! Particularly the mechanics of the second dart. Trim it down and make it more readable. Besides that, I like the revamped weapon attribute, although it feels like you're trying too desperately to be original with the random second aspect. Didn't we decide a long time ago that random-based mechanics and playing styles wouldn't fit into Guild Wars? Playing should revolve around skill and strategy and involve as little luck as possible. I think it would make more sense to have a fixed number of damage-dealing seconds per dart. Another note on the weapon: wouldn't it be cool to have two types of darts to work with? One fast-acting and another slow-acting. For instance, one type would do 3-4 damage every second for six seconds while the other would do 6-8 damage for just three seconds. You could mix and match them with the same end result in terms of damage, but perhaps the variety would allow for different playing styles. If you implemented this idea, the blowgun would have to apply damage bonuses by percentages instead of fixed numbers, and your dart skills would need to be modified so as not to favor one type of dart over the other.

I can agree with eliminating luck, and fast and slow acting poison darts are a pretty sweet idea, ty nebo.
Randomizing usually means I'm making an attempt at realism, rather than a viable game mechanic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nebojats

Now for some thoughts on the skills. I like the idea of spores... a sort of ticking time bomb. I gotta say though, the effects you have listed don't seem very unique.

I need to define attributes per condition, sticking things where they belong. Then I'll put in some new spores, cuz to old ones where sorta reliant on their passive effects.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nebojats

I also don't quite get what makes infections particularly original. I like the idea of conditions that have both positive and negative effects, but none of your concept skills are really popping out at me.

You are right, I should change/make new ones to get the task specific buffing function back, make them a little more specific and stronger.

I though yesterday, as I need a type of removable debuff, what if I make infections for foes too? A debuff you could maintain by maintaining a condition of target foe?

Quote:

Originally Posted by nebojats

One last thing that keeps coming to mind. This class really seems like it could line up with the Symbiont's identity. Remember that class? It was my second CC ever! It was the predecessor to the Metabolist which later turned into the Mannai. The idea was some sort of wilderness druid that symbiotically attached its life force to those of other players. That kept popping up in my mind as I read the OP...

I guess they have some similarity, though I wasn't going for that druidish in natural stuff, but did want them so know of nature and poisons.
Though the sneaking isn't much for it, and the leeching is more magical than Im looking to go.
However you did give me an idea, I'll make plague aura thingies, that offer condition reduction/removal for party members, while supplying you with either the conditions as ammo or the benefits from toxicology without suffering the condition.
I.O.W. condition leeching.