Curse

System_Crush · Feb 19, 2007, 08:09 PM // 20:09

Redone concept class Feral

As my CC have failed to grab attention, someone (forgot who) told me the posts where to long making people less likely to reply, I talk too much I know this to be true.
There by I have chosen to redo my CC layout into 2 posts the first with attributes and skills and little info and a second with a deeper description and background.
Here goes:

Attributes
Channel Rage (primary)
For each level in Channel Rage non spell skills that target allies have 2.5% chance to last twice as long, and for every 4 levels in Channel Rage you can have 1 more empowering on you.
(This totals 0=1…4=2…8=3…12=4…16=5, points in attribute : maintainable empowerings)

Guardian Manifestation
With each level in Guardian Manifestation the damage you deal with a phantom weapon increases, also skills related to the physical and non-physical forms of your weapon become more effective with a higher level of Guardian Manifestation.

Brotherly Guardians
No inherent effect - For each level in Brotherly Guardians skills that rely on friendly guardian spirits become more effective.

Grievous Guardians/Grim Guardians
No inherent effect - For each level in Grievous Guardians/Grim Guardians skills that rely on malignant guardian spirits become more effective.

The weapon
Ferals are a very spiritually atoned class thereby they use a spiritual weapon.
They use a non physical version of the wind and fire wheel and similar weapons.

Phantom Wind
Damage: 8-15 (no damage type, meaning it's armor ignoring)
Re-swing: 1.862 seconds
Range: melee

As you can see the damage is armor ignoring, this is because the weapon is a non physical one you can see through it and stuff. When your weapon becomes possessed it becomes physical and no longer ignores armor.
(These are not final values, any suggestions for better balance are welcome)

Skills
Note that each class has a limited repertoire of skill types; 4-5 is about usual 1 of which rarer than the others, paragons are an exception as I counted 6 types on them and assassins have 8 because of lead-offhand-dual attacks being different types.
For example elementallists are the only profession without signets, they instead get glyphs.
The feral has a repertoire of:

Empowerings
Essence attacks
Melee attacks
Possessions
Sacrifices

I’ll thus try to make only skills of these types, there is actually room for 1 more.

Channel Rage
Channel rage serves the purpose of keeping the guardian spirits in the feral in check, enforcing them to cooperate and making sure the Feral is the one in control.
It has skills that work with empowerings, as well as several self buffs that work from the feral’s advanced mental discipline.
In other words its a energy management and skill manipulation attribute, like most factions primaries it does not have that many skills in it.

Rush of Control elite empowering
End all empowerings on you, for each empowering lost this way, for 1…3(4) seconds skills you use recharge 25% faster and cost 2 less energy.

Exhausting Dominion possession
For 30 seconds your weapon deals 11-14...17(18) chaos damage, but whenever you attack you lose 3 energy and all adrenaline.

Truth Returns possession
For 2 seconds the weapon of target ally deals no damage, but that ally gains 2...3(4) energy regeneration.

Sacreficial Concentration sacrifice
You start burning for 6 seconds, for each 3...2(2)health degeneration you are suffering from conditions, you gain 1 energy regeneration, if you die while under the effects of this sacrifice each all allies in the area gain 20...50(60)% or your current energy.

Guardian Manifestation
This attribute contains several attack skills, both normal melee attacks for when your weapon is in a physical form and essence attacks for when your weapons is in a phantom form, you can’t use attacks skills with a phantom weapon and no essence attacks with a physical weapon, thus they should be different types.
I do not think that this attribute should have empowerings, it might unbalance the class.

Combat Soul essence attack
If this attack hits target foe loses energy equal to 1…4(5)% of their maximum energy, if you are not under the effects of an empowerment you take that much holy damage.

Folowup melee attack
If this attack hits it strikes for +5 damage, if this attack is evaded target foe takes 12…25(30) blunt damage.

Burden of Competence elite possession
For 25 seconds your weapon deals 3-14...22(30) chaos damage, but whenever your attacks hit you suffer from weakness for 5 seconds.

Mind Wipe elite essence attack
If this attack hits you deal +4 damage, if that foe was using a skill that skill is locked for 4...11(13) seconds.

Brotherly Guardians
This contains skills fueled through the desire to protect your allies, and also the desire of the friendly guardian spirits of the feral to protect their friend.
It is mainly a damage prevention attribute, but also contains the skills the feral is supposed to use for self healing

Impasse empowering
For 2…6(7) seconds all damage on creatures in your area is reduced to 0.

Plea of Suppression possession
For 9 seconds target foes weapon deals no damage, but that foe steals 5...3(2) energy from you whenever it attacks.
(this skill has 50% chance of failure with brotherly guardians 6 or less)

Exalted Sacrifice elite sacrifice
For 8 seconds whenever you take physical damage all other party members are healed for 50…90(100)% of the damage taken, if you die while under the effects of this sacrifice all party members are healed for 50…90(100)% of your max health.

Rejection of Desecration possession
For 30 seconds your weapon deals only 1-8 damage, but grants 10...25(30) armor to you and all nearby allies.

Rentent Savior possession
For 20 seconds target foe's offhand grants 10 armor and energy, whenever that foe uses a skill on another creature it gains 1...2(3) health regeneration as long as this possession is active on that foe

Grievous Guardians/Grim Guardians
This contains skills fueled through anger and hate of the ferals' guardian spirits.
It's main function is spiking, apply able through melee damage, hexing, or area effects.

Sanguine Despair possession
For 35 seconds your weapon deals 10-14...18(20) slashing damage and whenever you are below 30…60(70)% max health you attack 25% faster

Nightmare Conduit empowering
For 6 seconds all foes in your area attack 20% slower and move 20% faster, any foe not moving suffers 1…4(5) health degeneration.

False Promises possession
For 10 seconds target foe's offhand grants 30...25(22) max energy and armor and all that foes skills cause exhaustion. Whenever that foe uses a skill, all adjacent foes take it's exhaustion as chaos damage.

Infuse With Hate possession
For 10 seconds target foes weapon deals 12-26 slashing damage, each time target foe fails to hit in melee that foe takes 50...110(140)% of the damage it would have dealt.

Unworthy Offering sacrefice
For 3...10(12) seconds target foe suffers from bleeding and deep wound, if that foe dies while under the effects of this sacrefice you suffer from weakness for 12 seconds.

Unnatural Force empowering
For 12 seconds you deal +1...3(4) damage for each enchanted creature in the area.(max. 10 creatures)

System_Crush · Feb 19, 2007, 08:11 PM // 20:11

Here I will explain more on the back story of the feral, and lots of interesting side information the quick skimmer does not really need.

Why this is new stuff
The ferals themselves, though we have classes for both damage and protection, we do not have a burster like the feral.
This burster means they are a highly strategic class to play, all ferals can turn the tide of a battle.
If the feral is attacked in PvP before the monk is, then I know I have done my job.
Well, before the assassin will do fine too, before the monk might be too much to ask as they do not try to controll the tide of battle, they merely change it to their favor.

The main addition is the empowerings;
These very short to short duration, instant to minute activation time and long recharge time skills, as Bahamut once said resemble stances, but they add a whole new approach to combat strategy.
They are not buffs that are cast always before a fight or that are cast to get out of a tight situation (though there are several that are useful for it).
They can be used in a chain, casting each as the last one ends, to maintain an increased effectiveness.
Or they can be used in a burst for a quick boost of power that allow you to quickly dispatch of a boss or the enemy monk, however you will be weaker while the used empowerings are recharging.
Unlike stances the effects are magical and powerful, because of this power they quickly run out, unlike stances they are not a way to support other skills or a method of defence, each empowering is different from the other and a way to defeat rather than resist, if they are used correctly.

The non physical weapons are capable of ignoring armor, and can incur special attacks that strike a foe's spirit, instead of their physical form allowing for several effects previously not done by weapons.

Possessions are a special version of weapon spells, they replace the wielded item with a different one, instead of merely adding an effect to the previous one, also some possions affect weapons, while others affect ofhands; naturaly a offhand possesion will have no effect on a foe who is not wielding a offhand.
A spirit can not take control of a person who is too strong(meaning all players and mobs) but they can always affect any object, thus spirits possesses weapons and offhands, maybe armor too but have not thought of any skills of that yet.
When a item is possessed it loses all normal effects, so no inscriptions and upgrades, also the normal damage is replaced.
This allows you to change damage type, damage figures and the energy or armor received from a offhand, on both friends and foes.
The damage of the weapons is still affected by armor and the effectively of the weapon still determined by the users attribute.
This is not like Illusionary weaponry it changes the weapon stats it does not overwrite the on hit event.
Also you can't make an item useless, possessing a foes weapon will not completely remove the damage and possessions that affect offhands will grant some energy and armor.
Weapons also lose their effect caused by their type(dagger chance to double strike, Scythes hitting multiple foes + energy on staffs(used to require have attribute but they changed that in the past changes weekend))
Also if you have weapon sets you can switch out possessed weapons, if you switch back the possession will still be there.

This makes for a new combat mechanic that will make the way weapon sets and upgrades are used likely different, but for balance none of the skills will make you switch out the item. Mobs won't switch, so it should be balanced into that players wouldn't have to either.

Sacrifces, sacrefices are maintained touch skills, like maintained encantments they have a little icon you can double click to end them. They require no energy maintanance but have a maximum duration instead.
In addition to that you have to stay in touch range with your target to maintain them, this is no problem when you are the target, but can be rather dificult if you are targeting a foe.

For their identity, I know dervishes are holy wariors/zealots and the feral I've painted may be a little close to that. However ferals are spiritual not blesed/holy and although they do worship the gods they do so for their own perspective not as their duty as a dervish does.
This makes them free'er than dervishes (and also makes that their skills do not have the names of the gods stamped all over them) in that they can join anyone they like or strive for anything they like as long as they remeber to keep their mind in balance.
That is the difference between spiritual wariors and holy wariors, I hope it is diferent enough.

Description
The feral is a spiritual warrior, in that they condition their soul and in order to train their body. But more so in that the do not do all their own fighting; they let spirits take control of their body allowing them to perform feats they could not themselves.

A feral can have a strong belief that his dead father guides his hand when he needs the help, or a feral can be a confusing turmoil of dozens of spirits, it is entirely up to you how you chose to RP this spiritual possession of your feral.
But key to all ferals is that they need control over their emotions in order to control the guardian spirits that they have within them, as high emotional states are shared by the spirits within you and that is what allows these spirits to gain the strength they need to perform a empowering.

Role
The role of the feral is broad support, depending on their build they can protect their team, help dealing pressure
But whenever they want they can give up this supportive role and go all out, during one of these bursts they can be a good: damage dealer/ protector often allowing them to turn the tide of battle in favor you their team.

Mesmers and curses necro’s already do this using hex bursts, trying to shut down an enemy boss/target; it has proved so effective that bosses now have a permanent 25% faster ending hexes on them(I’m not sure if same goes for conditions).
Instead of sabotaging(or shutting down) the foe, ferals empower themselves to reach a similar end (that is one of the reasons why Empowering durations are shorter than most hex durations, as they can’t be removed/shortened)

Equipment
Ferals have 70 armor at 3 pips, with a base energy of 20, as their skills do not cost that much energy,
In addition to the 20 energy they get focus items with a max of +12 energy.
But because they are still a melee caster class, so they get a alternative offhand option, these have +8 armor and +8 energy. These special focuses are large highly decorated gauntlets that cover almost the entire arm(worn on the left arm only) The armlets use focus item upgrades.
All of those armlets rely on the channel rage atribute.

Their normal focuses are from Brotherly Guardians& Grievous Guardians/Grim Guardians, and are items that are supposed to remind the spirits in the feral who they where, things like broken swords, ruined bows, dolls or a chain with some jewel hanging on it (these are replica’s so you can make them at the crafter instead of having to look all over for something that actually belonged to the spirit)

Background
Lore:
Ferals are supposed to have some of the looks of Native Americans of north-America and Canada(and at that many other tribal cultures in temperate climates), but could also fit in to the Aztec theme which has been gaining popularity.

The tribal culture because spiritual warriors are common in many of those cultures.
Also the notion that the spirits of ancestors and dead family is not looking down from heaven but right here next to you when you need them is common.
The ritual burial of a friend is of high importance to the feral, when the ritual is successful the spirit of the deceased will be able to chose a person to grant his help too.

As for the Aztecs their culture that dictated captives of war be sacrificed, as Grievous Guardians/Grim Gueardians requires the death of your foes in a ceremonial way so that you can claim their strength(spirit) as your own, it is almost a direct under build of part of what the feral is.

Appearance
Nothing too fancy, they are supposed to be spiritual warriors and not focus too much on the material.
I am going for homemade leather armor, richly painted with symbols or patterns.

The attributes Brotherly Guardians and Grievous Guardians/Grim Gueardians are good and evil counterparts, I think they should have several armor sets that allow them to demonstrate weather they have chosen a good or evil identity, or to look the opposite of what they are, their own choice of course.

A picture thanks to jademonkeyx88's great tallent and friendly contribution, it is a great picture of what the armor might look like, thank you for your help.

Gods
Each class has to be atuned to 1 or more gods , in that they got thier powers from these gods.
A feral prays to Melandru and Dwayna or Balthazar.
Melandru for a feral stands for balance and calm, they strive to gain the same balance and serenety nature has, but with a minimum of 2 enteties in one body that can be hard to do.
All ferals worship melandru as all ferals have at least once taken the spirit of another being into them.

The brotherly guardians attribute is devoted to Dwayna, as she is the god to pray to when you desire to protect someone.
The grievous guardians/grim guardians are devoted to Balthazar as users of this dark side of the feral know he is the god to pray to, to ensure your victory in combat.

Aside from that ferals are a spiritual class, they seek out places said to be haunted to see if there are any spirits there that need their help.
Elaborate burial ceremonies are important to them too, their full armgauntlets are a offhand item especially meant for these ceremonies.

I hope I have gotten my point over clearly, and that you like the idea or at least a small part of it
I am desperately hoping for some suggestions, because I know it is far from perfect.
Any other comments/flames are welcome too.

System_Crush · Feb 24, 2007, 02:52 PM // 14:52

Edited a few things in bios.

Just in case people are forsaking the post as they think empowerings are overpowered.
Empowerings have stats like
Energy 5-15
Activation instant to 1
Recharge 40-120 (perhaps the new rechage of 180 needs to be used for the highest empowerings)
Those recharges are what balances them, IMO it isn't owverpowered the way I've put them down...

Doesn't any one have so say anything?
Come on, please comment/flame/sugest, I've shortened the OP format especially to make it easyer to skim through.

Would I get more replies if I renamed them perhaps?
Zealot came to mind earlier, but dervish'es als readly have a armor set named that.
Another name...

jademonkeyx88 · Feb 25, 2007, 02:51 AM // 02:51

Here is my concept art for the feral.

Alternate colors
http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...feralgreen.jpg
http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...feralwhite.jpg
http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...feralblack.jpg

Hope this does the trick.

[M]agna_[C]arta · Feb 25, 2007, 03:00 AM // 03:00

When I saw you drawing the first word that came out in my mind is "Garuda"^^.
It's nice btw^^.

System_Crush · Feb 25, 2007, 03:58 PM // 15:58

Wow jademonkeyx88 it looks awsome, thank you.

Are you ok with me using it to show off the weapon?

Also jade and Manga what do you think of the class?
Please give me some feedback on their functions or disfunctionalities.

jademonkeyx88 · Feb 25, 2007, 06:56 PM // 18:56

Do whatever you like with the picture. Cool weapon too.

System_Crush · Mar 03, 2007, 09:27 AM // 09:27

There must be something horably wrong with the class that out of the 114 vieuws, noone has replied on its skills or atributes or its function.

Please tell me what is wrong with the class, I honestly can't tell and thusly can't improve on it.

Would it help if I said to think of Shaman King?
While the original idea was way back was not nearly based on it, I realise that with all the adjustments and GW'dification, it does resemble shaman powers from that series in several ways: spirit weapons, spiritual possesion and the weakness when they run out of furioku(i.e when all their empowerings are recharging).

[M]agna_[C]arta · Mar 03, 2007, 10:47 AM // 10:47

Name Suggestion for Edges of Essence, "Spiritiual Medium".
Cause it acts like a Medium to Spirits.
And also Can you comment also my Mediator^^.
Thanks.
cause I think nothing is special I need something unique with it, Thanks^^.
I really like the Weapon Spell^^.

Kokuyougan · Mar 03, 2007, 05:25 PM // 17:25

Sorry, but this is just way too similar to the Ritualist's Class...Spirits...Weapon Spells...Besides Weapon Spells are supposed to be exclusively for Ritualist...Like Glyphs for Elementalist. Very good idea though.

placebo overdose · Mar 03, 2007, 05:52 PM // 17:52

i love this idea and the armor(i would buy fow right away it is awesome) as far as being simmilar to other classes well creativity is hard to find and i think they did a great job and it is unique imo

lol i just realized something i wanted to say as far as the whole native american class thing goin be careful that is a very touchy subject that is bound to change the perception of natives as they were largely stereotyped in the past and are just now starting to be seen as highly advanced cultures

System_Crush · Mar 03, 2007, 06:21 PM // 18:21

Quote:

Name Suggestion for Edges of Essence, "Spiritiual Medium".
Cause it acts like a Medium to Spirits.
And also Can you comment also my Mediator^^.
Thanks.
cause I think nothing is special I need something unique with it, Thanks^^.
I really like the Weapon Spell^^.

Thats a interesing idea Manga.
Actually medium was a name I had thought of naming the class but rejected, as an atribue name it might be good.
Would not actually use medium but something like cohesion or manifestation to make it sound as a action instead of a person.
Thank you for your imput and I'll take a look at your Mediator.

Quote:

Sorry, but this is just way too similar to the Ritualist's Class...Spirits...Weapon Spells...Besides Weapon Spells are supposed to be exclusively for Ritualist...Like Glyphs for Elementalist. Very good idea though.

I thought skill types where exclusive untill another class that uses them came along. Spirits where ranger only untill the ritualist popped up.
I was hoping to make a class that is highly connected to spirits, as with the dervish and monk the position of a class closely connected with the gods is already swarmed.

Yea I tried to hide it calling spirits essences where I could, I guess I am again too close to the ritualist. I'll try to get rid of some overlaps with otherclasses, starting with renaming Avatar of Fear to not sound like a dervish form.
Any suggestions of how to further peal them off of other classes would be very welcome.
Thank you for sharing.

Quote:

i love this idea and the armor(i would buy fow right away it is awesome) as far as being simmilar to other classes well creativity is hard to find and i think they did a great job and it is unique imo

lol i just realized something i wanted to say as far as the whole native american class thing goin be careful that is a very touchy subject that is bound to change the perception of natives as they were largely stereotyped in the past and are just now starting to be seen as highly advanced cultures

Lol

thank you.
Yes I am trying hard to not be sterotypical in the use of native american consepts, so no sertain tribe will go "Hey they are talking about us!" but keep it general and GWish rather than making it a exact copy.
I hope that is enough and thank you very much for your support.

Kokuyougan · Mar 04, 2007, 03:22 PM // 15:22

Hmm...You asked for some ways to make it seem less connected to other professions, right?

Maybe you could Rename Weapon Spells to something like (Insert Weapon type here) Essences. Where you give the essence to them, and there weapon has an added feature along with a cool skin. Maybe with a downside too. Like it decreases their attack speed if the Essence is too powerful.

Maybe rename (and re-skin) Spirits to Totems, would be very appropriate to the armor and backround!

System_Crush · Mar 04, 2007, 03:46 PM // 15:46

Totems?
They don't even summon spirits, they use them to empower themselves, they don't chain them to the ground and tell them to do something.
How could a wooden statue be inside someone(no pornagraphic reference meant!) and make them do stuff?

Another skill type, hmmm if Anet could just ctrl-c the code under weaponspells I guess it would not cost them any extra hassle, but then again I'm not sure if it really is another skill type if you create it through ctrl-c ctrl-v.
Also that would make the primary less usefull, becasue a primary is meant to have some effect on at least 1 possible secondairy class.

Thank you for your imput I don't get the totems, but as for the weapon spells, even though they are weapons spells I guess I could make them a diferent skill type just so that you can have a Posesed Arm and a Weapon spell on you at the same time.

hmmm posesed arm, that makes me think of Scar from Full metal alchemist, his arm would make a cool weapon too... perhaps even better than the wind and fire wheel.

System_Crush · Mar 06, 2007, 09:18 AM // 09:18

Changed the name essence to Guardian( Spirit) I didn't really like essence as a name for the spirits inside the feral.
Only kept it for essence attacks as that was what it was suposed to be.

I've thought about changing weapon spells, I think it would be worth it to change them to Possesion skills, Just for removing the spell part from it making them skills and thus cause them to be interupted differently.
This would also have the bonus of them being stackable with weapon spells.

But! that would mean the primary has to be re-balanced as it would break its function for secondairy profession(also the obvious link between a F and a Rt would be gone gameplay wise)
Does anyone have any ideas how to keep the feral primary linked to ritualist or ranger(the other spirit users)?

[M]agna_[C]arta · Mar 14, 2007, 05:27 AM // 05:27

actionjack · Mar 14, 2007, 06:44 AM // 06:44

Its not bad, the usual System_Crush standard.
Can really see the quality difference between a Veteran of CC, as oppose to some of the newer greens.

Sorry didn't give it a review earlier, as kept thinking its the old Feral CC by arcanemacabre.

All look good, but cann't really say I am seeing anything worth WOWing about in there. True you do offer some new concepts and mechanics, but somehow still feel it would play like another enchantment monk. But again, I been a bit desensertised that that idea already...... hmmmm....

Anyway, here is another cousin of yours. (another CC with somewhat similar ideas) Might suggest take a look.
http://guildwars.incgamers.com/forum...d.php?t=441289

System_Crush · Mar 14, 2007, 09:38 AM // 09:38

@Manga Even though blood elves are the best looking things in the horde, a blood elf druid is just a tad to obvious nature oriented, they wear hides and fur ferals would wear more leather and runed armors.
It would be more like a elementalist armor with ranger armor textures, to take it crude and unoriginal.
If we must refer to WoW, I think there was 1 armor shamans use that ought to come closer to the feral than a druids look, this is just way too much of a tree hugger.

@actionjack, ya he has something manifesting weapons too, different approach to it though, worshiper actually creates weapons that might be a good idea to implement in the feral.
Originally my idea was that feral weapon spells force the target to change the way they use their weapon.
Making them overwrite the weapon completely might have interesting possibilities.
This settles completely, that I'll change weapon spells to possession skills.

Thanks for the suggestion action, though a focus was actually the empowerings, are they really like enchantment monks? If empowerings are as sustainable and stackable as the skills of enchantment monks than I'm doing something very wrong. I deliberately tried to keep away from the crawling controlled way of enchantment monks and go for something quick and flashy, something we didn't have yet.

Soul of the Scythe · Mar 14, 2007, 08:27 PM // 20:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by System Crush

I thought skill types where exclusive untill another class that uses them came along. Spirits where ranger only untill the ritualist popped up.

Nature Rituals and Binding Rituals are more different than you think. Binding Rituals either affect all enemies or all allies. Nature Rituals affect everyone.

Every class does have unique skill(s) set to them, not necessarily exclusive but they have more of them:
Ranger: Preparations, Pet, Nature Rituals
Ele: Glyphs
Mesmer: Signets, Hexes
Monks: Maintained Enchantments
Warrior: (Tough one)Stances, Adrenaline(?), Shouts
Necromance: Orders, Minions, Wells
Ritualist: Binding Rituals, Item Spells, Weapon Spells
Assassin: Chained attack combos, Shadow Stepping
Paragon: Chants, Echos
Dervish: Self Enchantments, Forms

Taking weapon spells and giving some to this class would not be a problem, rits still have item spells and binding rituals for themselves. As long as there is at least one unique skill type or ability the class has it is ok by me.

I have a question: Does he use a shield as well or is the weapon in both hands(one in each hand)?

Catsohori · Mar 14, 2007, 10:46 PM // 22:46

Isn't there already a Feral CC?