The goal of this thread is to be creative and make up abilities which you find fun. I like the idea of players giving the developers idea’s for abilities and ability synergies (class play). For those of you who are not creative or don’t feel creative enough please take time to at least describe what you liked to play in other games and why you liked it.
There are rules.
Why only 5? Why not 8?
This leaves 3 slots for utility or specialty situations. (socketed spells)
I’ll start
Instead of picking paladin, warrior or death knight, I’m going to pick ‘TANK’ because I’m not ready to jump into the hybrids just yet. I am going to be making what some may call 'complicated' ability structures. This does not mean yours has to. It is perfectly reasonable to have a damaging ability do damage and nothing else. etc.
Pro tip--It does help to name the abilities due to synergies needing text for other abilities and debuffs.
After you are done, describe a few fights which let us understand the fun of the build.
TANK
1) Iron Edge
2) Deafening Slam
i. While at 1 Charge, Deafening Slam now deals moderate damage
ii. At 2 Charges, Deafening Slam also pauses and slows the cast time of your targets spell or ability and gains 15% chance to critically hit.
iii. At 3 charges, Deafening Slam gains another 20% chance to critically hit and Deafening Slam now deals major damage
3) Commanding Strike
i. While Command Strike is afflicting your target you gain increased damage and crit chance by X% every X seconds (stacks X times) until you are attacked which then removes ‘Commanding Strike’. When Commanding Strike is removed, increase your Defenses by % for X seconds.
4) Defiance
5) Whirling Bulwark
Why I like this build.
Example fight
x3
x1
Puller brings back 3 mobs and a named mob.
The named is CC’d
On the other three mobs Begin using ability 1, Iron Edge, to gain stacks of defenses through ‘Know Thy Enemy’. Use this ability to gain three stacks rotating an attack for each mob. Whirling Bulwark should be used on main target whenever it becomes active to maintain threat. Deafening Slam can be used at 3 stacks of ‘Know Thy Enemy’ on main target.
If incoming damage or healing is not enough, refrain from using Deafening Slam often as to keep your stacks of ‘Know Thy Enemy’ which effectively gives you more defense.
One of the 3 enemies on you gets loose and begins attacking a DPS. Switch target of Deafening Slam and Whirling Bulwark to the loose target. Place Defiance on ally being attacked to redirect damage and gain damage to help build more threat).
3 targets on you die. Your abilities come off cooldown.
1 Mez target, named mob, breaks loose during discussion of it’s strengths and weaknesses and attacks ally. Mez cannot be put back on.
All allies engage, you have no threat. Activate Commanding Strike, gaining large stacks of damage and crit over time. Use Deafening Slam on cooldown, activate Defiance twice, forgoing the damage reduction in favor of the damage increase.
The damage from Commanding Strikes stacks, and the damage gained from Defiance combined with a 3 stack of ‘know thy enemy’ makes Deafening Slam hit extremely hard. You get a lucky crit. The named enemy turns and begins attacking you. Commanding Strike’s passive damage increases stay on you through a lucky dodge and parry, but are lost when you are hit.
Named mob is downed
#tankingisfun
I will be making more of these as time goes on. The goal here is to post up your wish-list of abilities for your character. Criticism is always welcome, but try to join in before going down that rabbit hole.
TL;DR
Take a class you like, Make up 5 abilities for it. Tell us why you like it, and give an example fight of your class shining!
Thanks again,
Keep it positive, if nothing else this gives me ammo for a Dungeons and Dragons style class/ability book I’m home-brewing in my free time.
-Todd
I have always liked it when people figure out creative ways to actually work with a class and character. No crazy spells and fluff. Straight up here is a concept and run with it. I think the same concept could be used for a Crusader or hybrid too. Healing may get messy but that part of the fun.
Now the no AOE piece is always interesting to me. I always feel that the tank basically creates and AOE but with Aggro/threat. How many tagets do want to engage well just add a few more mobs. This of course takes some skill to do so yes tanking is fun.
Great post!
Ox
ROGUE
Concept: Core sustained Rogue damage comes from auto-attack, with burst damage stemming from well-timed abilities with longer cooldowns. Rogues are risk takers, as such, some attacks have penalties for being unsuccessful or mistimed.
1) Puncture
Description: Puncture your opponent with your weapons for low damage, aiming for vulnerable areas. Decreases attack speed by X% for Y seconds. Low cooldown, low stamina cost.
2) Hidden Blade
Description: Strike from the shadows, dealing moderate damage. Poisons applied to weapons have their proc chance increased by X% for this ability. Medium cooldown, medium stamina cost.
3) Opportune Strike
Description: Requires from side or behind. Lash out at your target, interrupting an action. If no action is interrupted, deals low damage and increases threat. If an action is interrupted, deals moderate damage with no threat increase and has X% chance to apply Confusion for Y seconds, prohibiting that action from being used for Confusion's duration. Medium cooldown, medium stamina cost.
4) Backstab
Description: Requires from behind. Drive your weapon into your target's back, dealing a devastating hit. If target is Confused and below 10% health, activates Mercy Kill, causing Backstab to hit even harder with 1.X% damage. Long cooldown, large stamina cost.
5) Shadow Slip
Description: Fade into the shadows for Y seconds, decreasing threat by X amount and increasing stamina regen by Z%. Cooldown is reset for Confusion's duration. Long cooldown, low stamina cost.
@Sicario
Great build! I like the utility this DPS class has. Slowing attackers attack speed down, interrupts. The aggro dump 'shadow slip' looks neat. I wana talk about these more.
Opportune Strike is the most fun to me. Its an ability which requires you to pay attention and most importantly make decisions! I love how you have to choose to use the ability or hold onto it and plan. Too much threat would cause you to use Shadow Slip (awesome name) and you might want to save that for when you string together lucky crits. Managing threat is a 'thing' in this game. I like how smart you were for using that so well!
Shadow Slip to some might feel 'wrong' because dumping threat would cheapen threat mechanics and paying attention to them. However, with abilities you have which include built in threat management based on 'your choices' you can play almost a 'gambling' game with this. Shadow Slip has a long cooldown so you feel the need to hold onto it. I didn't understand what 'Cooldown is reset for confusions duration' meant.
Backstab is awesome by the way. looking for that 'confusion' opening sounds fun and immersive. I would increase that remaining health from 10% to 15% or 20% only because I want that huge 'mercy kill' ability to do tremendous damage.
Overall this was impressive, thank you so much for joining this workshop!
--Sorry to make this thread and dissappear guys. I'm back, just had a situation where I got hit by a car and had to make monetary decisions. But i'm back, threw $50 at this game to get a perma-forum account. Hope people are still interested in posting in this thread. I have a lot of fun and enjoy reading your idea's!
-Todd
Dhampir said:A lot of these abilities seem like they would fit in a faster paced game than Pantheon.
Hi Dhampir,
I think they can fit in if done correctly. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if there was some facet of synergy between abilities or abilities and racials or other passives. Also, cooldowns are always something that can be played with if there is a concern the game is too hardchore and needs to be drawn back for the more casual player.
From what I see of the game so far classes will get a large spellbook with several abilities but only 10 slots to fill those abilities up. With the lack of examples of multi-layered abilities its safer to assume the developers are looking into very simple abilities but making MANY of them so you can make your own unique build.
I personally find synergies and multi-layered abilities to be really fun (opinion)! But it could be said that multi-layered abilities and even synergies are at odds with what we have seen so far. This thread is a subliminal 'nod' towards the things I find are fun. I understand not everyone is going to enjoy the same things. Keep in mind the topic is open to anyone who wants to throw out 5 abilities which are not multi-layered. I am waiting for a poster to do just that.
Ability workshops like this one can help brew some great idea's for the developers. I'm inviting any 'bard' enthusiest to lay down their 5 and hopefully follow the rules and give us an example of how that will look. :)
-Todd