Curse

Aidan Gawain · Jul 19, 2005, 12:56 AM // 00:56

This is reposted from something I posted on another thread:

Rogue:
Lore: Survivors of the many cities destroyed in the Guild Wars and the subsequent Charr invasion, the Rogues are now refugees from all three kingdoms, living off the land as mercenaries, bandits, or spies.
Other info: Characters in this class will journey from poor refugee/bandit to skilled adventurer.
Color (e.g. Monk=blue, Mesmer=purple, etc.): Dark Brown
Symbol: Undecided
Appearence: Very varied, since these are people from all three kingdoms
Armor: Rouges will have AL and energy regen comparable to Rangers because they, like Rangers, are somewhere in between fighters (War) and casters (Ele/Me/Mo/Nec). They will generally be stronger against physical damage than they are against elemental.
Headgear: Mask
Weapon: Dagger/various handgear. Daggers are like swords with faster attack and less damage (rarely used at top levels). Handgear does low damage but gives bonuses like focus items and counts as being "unarmed".
Non-attribute Runes: Rune of Material Storage (bought at Merchant) - gives 5 additional storage spaces to your belt pouch to be used for common crafting materials only.

New Concepts:
Visibility: Decreases in visibility decrease your aggro radius and the range at which you appear on enemy players' screens and radars. Note that if you attack an enemy, you become visible to them, regardless of visibility decreases. Also, in PvP, if you cast a spell on an ally who is attacking or being attacked by an enemy or take damage from an enemy's AoE/trap, you become visible to that enemy regardless of visibility. Furthermore, in PvP, you lose all visibility bonuses while laying traps.
Deftness: Like adrenaline. You gain 1 deftness for each second you are near an enemy and are unarmed. If you equip a weapon or if you move away from all enemies for too long, you lose all deftness. Deftness is primarily used in Thievery and Unarmed Combat.

Attributes:
Scouting (Primary): Each point in scouting decreases your visibility slightly. This attribute gives bonuses to skills that decrease your visibility and otherwise aid in your exploration.
Skill examples: A skill that decreases your visibility, an elite skill that decreases your party's visibility, a "Flee" skill that increases your speed as long as there's an enemy behind you,...
Mask: Cameoflague mask

Thievery: No inherent effect. This attribute gives bonuses to skills that steal from your enemy.
Skill examples: Skills that make items drop (randomly assigned as normal), also skills that steal enemy health, energy, skills, morale,...
Mask: Bandit's mask
Note: Item/gold stealing skills only work on mobs, not players or enemy henchies. Thievery is still useful in PvP, though, due to the fact that the majority of its skills steal health, morale, skills, or the like rather than items and gold.

Unarmed Combat: Increases the damage done when unarmed. This attribute gives bonuses to skills related to combat while unarmed.
Skill examples: A combination of judo and dirty fighting, has skills that paralyze and inflict various conditions,...
Mask: Ninja mask

Ingenuity: Each point in Ingenuity gives you a 5% chance of regaining each crafting material spent on skills related to this attribute. This attribute gives bonuses to skill related to the use of common crafting materials.
Skill examples: Moa Bird Suit (give up feathers to avoid aggro while you don't attack - hilarious visual), Replenish Corpse (give up bones to replenish an exploited corpse), Ingot Toss (give up an iron ingot to do a height-based attack), Plank Bash (quick Flare-like attack with a Wood Plank that has a chance of breaking it),...
Mask: Workman's Mask

And, the first quest:
The Bandits' Betrayer:
This quest is recieved from a guard in Ascalon. He tells you that he had sent a spy to keep track of a gang of bandits outside Ashford, but that agent has been compromised and you need to find out what's become of him. He offers to give you some of the skills the agent taught him, and temporarily gives you Plank Bash, Energy Pin (stance that stops touched enemy from using spells and requires Deftness), and Pickpocketry (gold-stealing that requires high Deftness). The quest takes you to the Bandit Fire-starter camp near Ashford, where the bandits are discussing the disappearance of one of their members whom they've just discovered to be a traitor. When they see you, they attack. After you defeat them, a nearby Strider turns into the missing agent. He tells you he didn't need your help and complains that the guards underestimate him, but gives you the reward anyway. If you're not a Rouge and don't have a secondary, he'll offer to make you a Rouge.

Aidan Gawain · Jul 19, 2005, 04:24 AM // 04:24

Also, here are their armor types, in order of first availability:
Refugee's: Starting armor. No bonuses. Tattered-looking.
Survivor's: Large physical AL bonus. Small visibility decrease. Made of tough hides.
Spy's: Large visibility decrease. Small energy and physical AL bonuses. Has a dark cameoflague appearance.
[need help with a name]'s: Large energy bonus. Small physical AL bonus. Looks like a karate gee.
Highwayman's: Medium energy bonus. Increases deftness genereation. Looks like something an assasin or bandit leader would wear.

Ultimate_Gaara · Jul 19, 2005, 05:08 AM // 05:08

its a good idea, but it sounds too much like the one from WoW (or from what ive heard) and the whole invisibility thing is a little cheap, but remove that and i guess it would be good

one reason i feel the invibility is not a good idea is because everyone would want to be a rouge so they can easly slip past things and sneak up in PvP or what not, basicly overall the whole primary part is just a little... dare i say WoW-ish.. and i bought this game because its not WoW

Aidan Gawain · Jul 19, 2005, 05:19 AM // 05:19

You raise a good point about visibility, but I already though about that. It wouldn't be powerful enough to "easily slip past things", especially in PvP where visibility would have a very small effect. You'd have to use the same sort of timing you already do with other classes, it would just let a skilled player get past things that he couldn't get past otherwise. If you really wanted to get past things easily, you'd have to use an expensive skill like Moa Bird Suit (which would be ineffective in PvP, anyway).

As for being like WoW - with all of the MMOs out there, just about everything will be like something from another game. Just look at Warriors - I don't know of an MMO that doesn't have a Warrior-like class, but that doesn't make them any less useful.

Magus · Jul 19, 2005, 05:20 AM // 05:20

I partially agree with Ultimate_Gaara that this seems too... "archetypal" or "cookie-cutter." Many MMORPG's (and single player RPG's) besides WoW have classes like this, but I don't think that this is a reason not to use this idea. Any new professions will have to be very different in order to not overlap in any areas currently covered by the 30 profession combinations. I do agree that it does seem a little cheap though (and with the current "running" craze, rogues would probably end up being the super runner profession), but I don't think this is a huge problem if Arenanet balances it.

Ultimate_Gaara · Jul 19, 2005, 05:25 AM // 05:25

I have an idea, change the invisability to chance to dodge or evade enemy attacks... that may make a good character

Aidan Gawain · Jul 19, 2005, 05:49 AM // 05:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magus

...with the current "running" craze, rogues would probably end up being the super runner profession...

Yeah, I thought about this, but with their weak armor, they won't be noticeably better than the W/Mo's currently doing the running.

As for their being cookie-cutter, again, so are Warriors. People have been asking for a Thief class (which is actually part of what gave me this idea), and the GW classes are expansive enough that thieves will need to do more than just steal (especially since this game has so much PvP, where the conventional gold/item stealing won't work), so I took the Thief abilities and built it into a full class.

As for changing the invisibility to dodging, you may have something there, Gaara, though I don't think the visibility effects are enough to merit such a change (visibility is decreased in very small increments, so you're never really "invisible"). The reason I used visibility instead of dodging is because I wanted to give them something unique.

Thank you both for the suggestions, by the way. I appreciate any input on this.

Ultimate_Gaara · Jul 19, 2005, 05:59 AM // 05:59

well i guess they could say the lack of visibility is what makes them able to dodge so well or the target to miss, what ever goes best with it(of course this would be in small amounts much like the warriors armor penetration given by strength) of course then again i guess many people would like the dodgyness of these guys and once again flock to them.. but im sure if Anet picks an idea like this they will find a way to even it out