Samurai Profession #X

There are a few Samurai Suggestions out there, so this really isn't an introduction, but more of a thinking space. Here are some of my more recent ideas for a Samurai Class, and if you have some new ideas, or alternate ideas, or related ideas, feel free to post yours too.

Anyone else who has imput or ideas for a Samurai class can pitch in. I know my post is long, so if you don't want to read it that is fine, just pitch in your 2 cents, if you have something simular that is just fine, it just means we agree on certain features.

I was just thinking about a working weapon type and skill types which would be original and interesting, as well as attributes which would be diverse and skills that would be fun to use.

The idea I came up with recently is instead of having a single "weapon", the Samurai would equip a set of blades. A Katana, Wakisashi and a Tanto, all including sheaths. When equipped the blades would be in a defined manner, blade up, in their sheaths instead of in the wielders hand. Instead of holding the Katana in their hand, any character equip with these Blade Sets would have all 3 blades set in their sheath, until they targeted an enemy for attack causing them to unsheath the Katana for normal attacks. These Blade Sets are a 2 handed weapon. After the character disengages his target, he holds the Katana in a poise until the character automaticly returns to a calm state, where he would sheath his Katana again, these are the same poises that all classes have when they are in combat, but when wielding a Blade Set the calm state would trigger the sheathing of the Katana.

With certain Stances in one of the attributes the Wielder can hold the Katana in one hand and the Wakizashi in the other, either attacking with both in some fashion or using some sort of deflecting technique. Other skills would draw the Tanto for a quick piercing attack, and there can even be stances which cause the wielder to sheath his swords and fight with the just the Tanto, or just the Wakizashi, or other combinations of 2.

The Blade Set would have 3 damage figures, one for the Katana (slashing), one for the Wakizashi (slashing), and one for the Tanto (peircing w/50% armor penetration). The normal attack would only involve the Katana, a slow yet powerful attack, either as slow or slower than hammer (the number of attacks over time not how fast the blade is swung), and have simular damage. The damage figure for the Wakizashi would be lower than the Katana, about the same as Warrior Swords, and the Tanto would be weaker than a dagger attack, it has very low attack and very high armor peircing, both of these can only be used with certain skills or stances in the Samurai Attributes, and attack speed for stances with 2 weapons drawn can vary by skill.

I also dabled with the idea that the swords could be magically forged, or the sheaths had some sort of function which explains why they are neccessary, but I don't have time right now to develope something.

One of the unique skills used with these Blade sets are Counters which sheath the weapon and retaliate on the first person to attack them, or on players around them the next time they are hit with an attack. These counters last for only a few seconds, and stop an incoming attack with an attack of their own, sacrificing a period of normal attacks. All of these counter skills would have critical damage and some good figures, being the best attack counters in the game. As well there can be skills which cause the Wielder to sheath his blades, then other skills which do high damage if done with their weapons sheathed. These quick draw attacks would all be in one attribute, pick a name, quick draw is fine for me for all I care, Anet would make their own name up anyways if they did it.

The totaly unique skill type that I had in mind where the Dash attacks which I mentioned in my Samurai Concept before, and the Shinobi Concept before that. The Dash attack is a supreme movement technique which thrusts the character in one direction at high speed dealing damage to targets in his path. It is essentially simular to a projectile, which hits all targets in its path, but the projectile is the character. The character moves at a speed about 150%-200% faster than normal toward a target or in a straight line in front of them for a set number of paces. The number of paces (actual distance in steps) would increase with added points in the skills attribute, as well as attack damage. The idea I had for this class is skills which cost Adrenaline and Energy. This means the Samurai would have to build up Adrenaline and have energy available to execute strong attacks. I will elaborate further on Dashes further down because they alone are very complex. These are mainly in the (generic Katana Wielding attribute) and also use the Blade Sets, but there would be 1 or 2 dash skills in his other attributes.

There also needs to be a self preserving attribute, a simple skill which offer some defense and some healing. I think most of the defensive skills should be in the Dual Draw attribute if there is one, but if not they can be mixed here, or the dual draw and healing skills can be mixed for one attribute. In this attribute there should also be skills which pump adrenaline, like a signet or energy cost skill, which allows the Samurai to prep adrenaline for attack skills before engaging. And it should also have at least one decent healing skill which cost adrenaline.

And perhaps one more secondary attribute which focuses on stances which draw 2 blades at once and attack with both or block attacks, and other skills which are dual blade oriented (Dual Draw).

The primary attribute I was thinking about was Accuracy, also from my previous concept. This attribute could have a few skills in it, but it is pretty good by itself too, each point in Accuracy would grant a 3% or 4% chance to hit the enemy reguardless of any evasive, blocking or countering skill they are using, and even any hex, condition or ward imparing your accuracy. Accuracy gives the Samurai a chance of hitting no matter what. It is a very useful but circumstantial attribute which would work wonders if the enemy is trying to blind you or evade your attacks, or do nothing if they are just depending on their armor and healing to survive.

With the Blade set, the Samurai actually has 2 or 3 attributes which all use the same weapon set, and all improve their use in a different way. The dash attribute would increase the damage of attacks with the Blade Set, by a higher ratio than other weapon attirbutes, but not increase critical attack, 25% or 50% more, you do the math and tell me what percent it is that would be the same damage as other weapons over time with critical attacks, that is how much more damage it would add to the Blade Set. The Quick Draw Attribute increases the Damage of Katana attacks very little, about 25% as much as normal weapon attributes, but it would increase the chance of critical more than other weapon attributes and the damage of critical by 0.2 for each point in this attribute (normal criticals are 1.4, quick draw adds .2 for 2.6 critical damage at 12 points). And the Dual Draw attribute would increase something else.... related to dual drawing skills, you figure it out.

This provides a very useful weapon attribute for secondary use, unlike Warrior or Assassin who have a primary attribute which further increases their damage, Samurai has 2 secondary attributes which increase their weapons damage, so any class can use Samurai as a secondary and pump 2 attributes for effective damage, that way they can actually deal damage with a melee weapon. And because this Class focuses on seldom yet powerful attacks, and movement based attacks, it makes it even more affordable for a caster to step in with a Samurai attack, and then step out, instead of getting schooled on their armor level. This class also offers some very valuable skills to Assassin and Warrior. The ability to dash into combat almost as fast as a teleport (although it requires a direct path). Most Dashes have a Delay, so if the enemy catches you using it he may have time to flee, but if they don't than you may surprise them with your sudden Dash toward them. The other thing that Warrior and Assassin would greatly benifit from is an Adrenaline based healing skill, with this the Assassin especially can use the adrenaline gained in battle to keep healing himself. And with Samurai adrenaline pumping skills, Warrior can prep his attacks before he gets to the enemy, making the Samurai Defensive attribute highly valuable even if a Warrior likes his sword and shield more.

And now for the in depth explaination of Dashing attacks. The distance is measured in Paces, a normal step distance, and the amount of paces as well as other factors would go up with whichever attribute described. Just for a general measurement guide, an attack which hits adjacent foes is approx. 3 paces in diameter, nearby is 5 paces, and area is 6, these do not hit in an area, but in a narrow line (about as wide as the character) along the path of the dash. Dashes would have more or less paces depending on function, some Dashes move "up to" X number of paces to target enemy or allies location, these would range from 3-5 paces in distance, perhaps 6 if they cost alot, these would be used to advance or escape wile doing damage. The second more prominent (and talented) form of dash would be the untargeted dash, which executes a movement directly forward, these would typically have longer distance, 4-7 paces, perhaps 8 for expensive or elite skills.

The Samurai I have in mind would have skills which cost Adrenaline, skills which cost Energy, and some which cost both, mainly dashes. Because most Dashes combine a movement skill with a damaging skill it would have to cost at least as much as 2 simular skills combine. Furthermore, Dashes have delay times and recast times, unlike many adrenaline skills, they suffer the difficulty of adrenaline skills and energy skills together. Dashes, and some other Samurai skills would also have a new "Delay" on them; like some spells which deal damage after a short period of time, some Dashes (primarily the ones with high damage) would have a delay. During the Delay the attack can not be interrupted, because it isn't a cast time, and the player can still move around (Delay time would be 1-3 seconds depending on skill damage). As an added tradeoff, if the skills need more cost to compenstate for their effectiveness, during a delay you attack is restrained and you cannot activate other attack skills. Movement penalties (hex or condition) reduce the distance of a Dash by percent, a Dash which moves 6 paces would be cut to 3 paces by Cripple because it reduces speed by 50%, and a dash which moves 9 paces (if there is one) would only move 3 paces under the common ice hex which is 66%. So there is a very effective shutdown for Dash skills in hex and condition form. Furthermore, speed boost can improve the dash distance by X% as well. The only way to stop an enemy dash is to Knock them down, if they are knocked down when the dash would have executed, it is canceled. And since Dashes are actually on the ground, they cannot go through barriers or circumvent them like teleports to get the difficult to reach targets, a few of these do go further than any other attack, including the distance of teleports, but they require a straight path, because you cannot turn during a dash.

This Samurai I have in mind would not have much if any Increased movement speed skills, instead it would use dashes, including a generic dash which simply propells the player in one direction 3-7 paces doing no damage. Like Assassin who naturally has higher attack speed with Dual Wielding and has almost no IAS skills, Samurai would have nearly no increased movement speed skills, but could benifit from a secondary with them to boost his Dash range.

The armor would be just a hair weaker than Warriors in defense, well maybe a bit more, at about 80 armor and 10 or 20 more armor wile (in a counter stance, preparing for or during a dash, other ideas, or 10 armor vs physical or elemental). It would have no energy regeneration, but +5 energy on the leg and foot armor. This is because, like Warrior, Samurai can use adrenaline skills, although his dash skills cost energy and adrenaline, he would also have adrenaline only and energy only skills. This further prevents Samurai from peeling out Dashes repeatedly, because he needs to build adrenaline before using dash skills, and wait for energy regeneration for a long period of time. Since this class only has a 2 handed weapon, and can't use an energy focus (like Assassin, a bleak oversight in weakness IMO), this class should have adrenaline gaining skills in his defensive attribute (whatever it be called) and maybe in accuracy as well, this allows him to pump up his adrenaline for a start out Dash before engaging into combat, allowing Dash players to evade melee combat and instead opt to pump their adrenaline with these skills.

The concept of a Dash would have to be added to the game, the only thing simular to it in the engine is projectile attacks. Like projectile attacsk, Dashes move very fast (faster), but cannot turn. But instead Dash skills would have to be qued to hit all enemies in the path of the dash, and be blocked by any ground surface barrier as well as wall surface barrier (although an elite dash which moved over ground surface barriers would be great). This new feature would also be great in the addition of new skills for other classes as well, including movement dashes for other classes, and attack skills which deal damage in a straight line as well. For example an elementist skill which deal damage in a line, Ritualist heals in a line, or even a hex/enchantment, which effects enemies or allies in a line to and/or through a target.

If you have a Samurai idea other than mine feel free to post it here, I intend for this to be more of a glob of samurai ideas and interest instead of a particular samurai idea. And if you have some creative juices going or some more insite on Samurai functional attribute names, please help, cause I don't feel like doing it.

P.S. if your going to make skill lists, only include skills which are examples of new skill types, not all the filler in skills which are simular to other classes.

Here's one I made:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s....php?t=3071828
Not many people had anything to say about it though, so it fell really far behind in the threads fast.

Weeelll... Someone's been thinking. And on the brief read-through I've had so far, it looks like it might have some potential, although I'll reserve final judgement until I can read through properly (which will be after I get back from the trip I'm going on tomorrow morning.)

As one comment, though - I'm not sure having multiple attributes pumping weapon damage helps make it more attractive to combine swordplay with sorcery. In fact, I'd be inclined towards the opposite - Str actually doesn't make THAT much difference (it only triggers when using attack skills, which unless you're spamming Whirling Axe or something is probably only one out of five attacks or so, and the bonus damage from skills ignores armour anyway), although I don't have much experience with Critical Strikes (haven't played a primary Assassin). What normally stops people combining the two - at least, from my viewpoint - is the vulnerability of caster armour in close, and the opportunity cost of putting points into a weapon attribute instead of more blasty or a protective attribute. Furthermore, spellcasters who like the ability to duck in generally have touch skills and point-blank effects that allow them to run in, deliver some damage, and get out.

Anyway, requiring multiple attributes to be invested in to get your damage output up may well prove to be a disincentive to using it to combine sword and sorcery (okay, I'm getting a disturbing liking for that cliche) rather than an incentive. I don't know about other people, but I generally only invest in 4 lines or so, and pumping two lines to make use of a weapon occasionally is would then be only leaving two lines for spellcasting.

maybe I will add something in later.

Wow I never played through with Warrior and I totaly missed that, Strength only grants Armor Penetration on Attack Skills, very interesting. In that respect, perhaps Accuracy should only grant a chance to hit reguardless with skills as well, which is the only time it really matters anyways....

Since alot of people have Samurai Suggestions I invite everyone to post links to their samurai suggestions that way we can brief over them for concepts, I've read them all myself, but I'm sure others haven't.

This is my original Samurai Idea. http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s....php?t=3004827

I will go through the task of explaining Dashes so Draxy knows what I am talking about and how it is a great hit and run for casters.

P.S. Rikimarus idea is not samurai. This is not the class concept listing, please keep it to Samurai ideas. And if you have ideas from a non samurai class which you think would be good for a Samurai, just post the ideas, not the non-samurai class.

I finished updating the ideas I had for dashing and even some elaboration on the other attributes. Please feel free to add your ideas on Samurai, and if you have your own Samurai idea then post a link, so we can get all these ideas together.

I was thinking for the weapons, they could have triple blade sets with Katana, Wakisashi, and Tanto for effective use of Katana and Quick Draw attributes, and an alternate 2 blade set which had 2 equal Katana that improved use of Dual Draw skills and stances, but made Tonto skills unavailable.

Here is a revised version of my previous posted Samurai CC.
While it is still in the shadow of Warrior, I think some skills are intersting enough to make it somewhat unique.

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Samurai / Bushi / Keeper / Sentinel


Armor: Unlike other class, this class will offer two type of armor. One has wood-steel plated armor, which have about 75AL, but give no extra energy, and another that is cloth robe-like kimono that have about 60 AL, but give extra energy.
Energy: Depend on Armor. Go from 20 to 30 range. With 2 to 3 arrows.

Weapons: Katana, also can be called Blades, will be the primary weapon. There are two kind:
The Daito, which is a long, two-handed Katana, with attack damage range of 20 – 42, and attack speed of a hammer.
The Katana, shorter than Daito, but also two handed. With attack speed a bit slower than sword, have damage range of 24 – 32.

Many Blades will have inherent armor pentraction percentages.

Premise: Samurai is a damage dealer, which can be describe as a melee elementalist. Great damage, but slow to cast.

Attributes:

Self Defense: (Primary) For every rank in this attribute, you gain 1% chance of Dodge/Evade/or Block hits from melee or arrow (including attack skills). Also effect skill of this attribute.

Way of Katana: Skills that allow you to better us of Katana.

Way of Precision: Skills that allow you to aim at target spot and apply conditions. (work well with other concept skills of stealing/breaking armors)

Way of Serving: Skills that allow you to better aid your ally in battlefield.


Example Skills:

Self Defense:
Similar to Warrior’s tactics. Have Stances and other defensive related skill that allow you to tank and survive better.

Sheath Block:
10e | 1/2c | 25r: For the next 8…16 seconds, you have 50% to block income attack if your blade is Sheathed.

Zero Blade
5e | 1/2c | 5r: Block the next melee attack, and knock down the foe. Can only be use if you are not wielding any weapon.

Wind Dasher
5e | 1/2c | 5r: You move 50% faster for the next 3…6 seconds. If you do not hit an enemy whit in the duration, this skill will take 30 more second to recharge.



Way of Katana:

Battoujitsu (art of drawing blade from sheath), are line of skills which will have its damage depended on time (like Rituralist’s holding ash). When use the skill, you sheath your sword, which in this duration you can not move or attack or cast spell. Clicking on the skill button again at any time allow you to finish your attack (call “slash”), if your target is still within range.

Cut of Headless Man
10e | 1c | 30r : Sheath your blade for 1 to 8 seconds. When you Slash, if hit, will deal ((4…8) times T seconds you sheathed) extra damage, and Break its Helm for 50% for the next 1…16 seconds. (Reduce the AL of the helm by 50%)

Cut of Flying Crane
10e | 1/2c | 15r: Sheath your blade for 1 to 8 seconds. When you Slash, will deal ((7…10) times T seconds you sheathed) damage to all enemy in a row in front of you (range of about 20 feet)

Cut of Silver Moon
10e | 1/2c | 20r: Sheath your blade for 1 to 6 seconds. When you Slash, will deal ((10…22) times T seconds you sheathed) damage to all nearby enemy.

Cut of Flashing Bade
10e | 1/2c | 5r: Sheath your blade for 1 to 8 seconds. When you Slash, will attack 1…4 times (depend on T second you sheathed) to target foe.

Cut of False Buff
5e | 1c | 15r : Sheath your blade for seconds. When you Slash, will deal no damage. For every second you sheath, you gain +3…6 arrows of HP regent. You are easily interrupted when Sheath with this skill.


An another kind of Katana Skill require Precisions. The skill of this type will be at default have a 33% chance of fail when use (shown in a darker color). When you fight, for every strike, there will be a chance (randomly, at about 20% per strike, like rolling with a 5 face dice) where that precision skill will be “light up”, which imply that you found a weakness in your opponent’s defense, When use at this time, the skill will not fail. If not used, the skill will “light up” for 3 seconds, before going dark again, and back to rolling. This chance is independent, thus one precision skill will not effect another’s chance of “lighten up”.

Slash of Falling Sun
5e | 0c | 10r: (Precision) This attack for 24…48 extra damage.

Slash of Spitting Rock
5e | 0c | 10r: (Precision) Attack for 6…24 extra damage and Break target’s body armor (lowers its AL) by 50%.



Way of Precision
Skills that boost the Precisions to help the Precision skills, or target specific body parts of target.

Stalker’s Eyes
10e | 2c | 30r : For the next T seconds, all your Precisions skills (at its darken stage) will only fail at 66% time.

Seeking Weakness
10e | 1c | 30r : For the next T seconds, you increase the change of getting your precision skill “light up” is up by 25%.

Aim Eyes
5e | 11/2c | 15r: Your next attack will attack target’s head. 50% chance of causing Blind with this attack.

Aim Leg
5e | 11/2c | 15r: Your next attack will attack target’s leg. 50% chance of causing Cripple with this attack.



Way of Serving
(since Samurai have a better direct translation as “One who Serve”)
Skills that would help out your teammates, especially dealing with DP and Moral.

Helpful Hand:
5e | 2c | 30r: You take 15% DP from target ally, but add 15% DP to your self. You can only use this skill if you have 50% or less DP on you.

Preparing for Death:
5e | 2c | 20r : In the next T seconds, if you take DP (self induce or death), you take 3…6% less.

Selfless Victory:
5e | 2c | 30r: you sacrifice 20% of your HP, and the team will gain 4…8% moral boost for the next 20 seconds.



Balance:
While Katana skill can do great damage to a single target, it tend to be long and risky to cast. Precision skills are very chance base, and Battoujitsu can be easily dodge (by running away in time) or countered. Also energy could be a problem from them, if you are wearing a more AL Armor. Also like Warrior and Assassin, They are weak against DoPs and conditions. (but they can take a bit better elemental damages with their Armor).

I like some of the flavor and ideas AJ came up with (yeah I know you will call me BK in return), but I would like to point out some ideas I feel are broken.

The first and formost is an attribute with an inherent evasive or blocking effect, this breaks assassin combos and also gives an unparrallelled defensive boost. Evasion is nice, but I don't see how a samurai should be any better at evading than an Assassin, and as weak as Assassin is, if they don't have an inherent evasion boost to their armor or such, than how can Samurai? Having particularly effective evasion stances and skills is alright, but an evasion boost which doesn't require a skill is broken, because it will require all Assassins to bring anti evasion skills just to ensure their effectiveness.

And 1-8 second waiting times don't work in a real match, there are plenty of players who are capable enough to catch enemies with interrupts wile they cast, these immobile charging skills will basicly only work on dumbies who just want to get hit, exactly like DoT skills, but less effective. If you were at least mobile it would be alot better, but I perfer the use a a sheathing skill and other skills which require a sheathed blade to execute effective skills.

Like a Quick Draw skill, "Energizing Sheath", 5 energy, 5 recast. (Sheathing Skill) Sheath sword and gain 1-3 health regeneration per second, and 1 hit of adrenaline per second until sword is drawn. (Quick Draw)

Then a related skills, "Swift Retribution" 5 adrenaline. (Unsheathing Attack Skill), The next time you are hit by a melee attack you take 75% less damage and draw your Wakisashi hitting all adjacent foes for +X-Y damage. (Quick Draw)

With this you require a related skill to activate a powerful counter, but the related skill has a benifit of it's own. This is my preferance, not neccessarily better I guess, but you would at least need to be able to move for your sheathing skills to be effective, the fact that you are refraining your attack is enough to justify the damage the skill does, keeping up with your target (which will always be running if you have a skill that can devistate them) is a chore of it's own, even if your chasing them they could use a running skill or teleport to escape before you draw you weapon and still evade it, it shouldn't only work on people dumb enough to stand beside you wile you charge your skill. Any melee combatant that waits around to charge is a dead man in reality, the least they can do is move around and evade wile they are preparing their attack.

The other thing that can be done is to combine the inherent evasion idea with the sheathing idea, and have an attribute which grants a boost in evasion wile your sword is sheathed. In this way it still requires a skill, but it is more of an added perk to a common technique available to Samurai, although I don't particularly see sheathing ones sword as an improvement to evasion, blocking would be better.

BK.... Burger King?

I guess would count the primary as Blocking (I had evasion in there cause I was thinking of the arrows) I think it would be a nice primary, because Samurai are more train in blocking and dodging hits than that of Warrior. Also it help with thier lower armors (70AL - 60AL), and its benefit is cross multiple of classes. Beside, you can only get max of 15%, which isn't much if don't use the stance, and spells can alway hit you.

Battoujitsu are suppose to be hard to use. The fun is deciding how long to hold and when to slash. Of couse, one 1v1, it usually won't work well (unless you use the skill that have distant range to its attack). Usually you would want to use it when that oppoent is engage with someone else, and did not notice you. And would work even better in team, if someone can bound up that enemy for you. More so, you can use it as bluff, to scare people away. If you can hold for long time, than its attack would be very poweful, yet of couse come with the risk that you will be hitting nothing. Also if needed, can add a few feet of range to its attack distance, so it cover more ground than regular attack. Also should add the ablity to change target (or where you are facing)

Another line of katana skills that I want to add would be those that have long casting time, and maybe use Adrn. So something like...

Cut of Summer Sun
6adr | 2c | 0r: This attack deals 24...42 more damage and set target foe Burning for 1...3 seconds if hit.

I don't see how any amount of skill makes a Samurai better at overcoming arrows and sword blows than a warrior with a shield, it is vastly more effective, but Warriors Tactics attribute doesn't have an inherent Blocking function either.

An Assassins attacks require at least one lead up skill, if not 2 to complete their attack, any amount of evasion, blocking or missing impairments can totally throw off their whole attack, as one missed skill will break the Assassins combo. An inherent evasion or blocking skill is broken, and it outclasses Warrior for physical defense. If it was an inherent chance to reduce damage by a large amount, it would be acceptable, but totally evading even a small portion of attacks without a skill is a serious advantage. Mathematically 50% evasion should only block half of your attacks, but I miss almost 100 percent of my attacks for the 4 or 5 seconds after an enemy gains the guardian enchantment, even 10% evasion without a skill is a serious edge.

This is why I prefer the use of skills which not only block, but deal high critical, to make the use of a skill slot relavent, instead of trying for a monkey wrench worth of evasion which is inherent.

P.S. if you think my Forum initials has a wacky double meaning, try having the real initials of JC.

JC... the guy from Deus Ex?

I am not marry to the primary of % evasion, but I don't think it is a bad one... afterall, it is only at max of 15%, and it help offset for their lower AL. (Warrior's high AL can be consider one of their "secret" primary bonus effect). Again, Assassin can use skills to help them by pass the evasion if necessary, and I don't see one counter to one class is that big of problem. But its all on paper, and need real play test to know if it is workable or not.

Another possible primary might be Counter, where you have 1...20% chance of returning 1...30% of damage (from melee attack) back to the attacker.

Accuracy could work too, as long as can put some defensive skills into its attribute.

I don't see how the primary attribute needs to have defensive qualities at all, defensive qualities are neccessary, but not in the primary attribute, and not as an inherent effect.

15% evasion against a skill which requires 3 hits to land in a row means that there is a 45% chance that one of them will miss, if the lead misses then Assassins are royaly screwed, if the off-hand misses than you barely did any damage and don't get a shot at the dual attack which is where the damage is, even if you get there first 2 attacks in, which have a 30% chance of failing, the Dual attack may miss totaly or partly, it is unlikely that both parts of the dual attack will miss if you manage to pull it off, but the chance that lead or off-hand have to miss is very great, making Assassin attacks very unreliable. Evasion as an inherent trait on any class will be broken against Assassin, and isn't very useful overall, I woln't say that Accuracy is the God all primary for a Samurai, but is is much more suitable for a Samurai than Evasion, and it is more useful and less broken

What an attack class "needs" is some sort of attack improving or cost absorbing Primary to deal effective damage. It is possible to make a class without one, but it wouldn't be a killing class it would be a defending class, and Warrior already sets the standard for defense and damage, Paragon will set the standard for boosting Allies and support attack, that isn't what I forsee for Samurai. Strength adds damage to attack skills, Critical strikes adds damage to attacks and energy return, Expertise allows Ranger to use more energy cost skills (not limited to just attack), and even Dervish has a primary which heals and restores energy. Dervish has the most defensive and least attack boosting Primary, yet it still nets a very significant amount of energy for their arsenal of attacking enchantments and other attacks. The only attacking class which doesn't have a Primary which is aimmed toward attack improvement is Paragon, and it is clear that it is ment to be a supporter with a working ranged attack.

P.S. people refer to Jesus Christ as JC sometimes.

/signed

i like the idea

But we already have a sword using profession, I can't really see why you want another one?

Wow, now this is an old one, I can't believe anyone responded to it. Thanks for noticing.

I would have to totally redevelope the idea to my current standards if I really got back into this one. And it is real obvious why I would want a Samurai class, perhaps you should read the concept a bit instead of asking a question that is clearly answered Roy.

We need a class with a new weapon. Swords are for the warriors. Spears are for the paragons. yeah... This class may just seem repetitive and shows low creativity in the guild wars world...

Agreed. While I like some of the ideas, what you have here is warrior 1.5. If anything these should be skills (or some kind of secondary primary attribute) that is available to warriors.

I'd just prefer to see more creative ideas than melee this, melee that. There are already 3 melee classes in the game and despite the particulars, they don't really feel all that different.

Moved to Concept Classes.

-Anarion

Such narrow sightedness, no really. Answer these Questions if you can.

What are warriors features and gameplay, and what is this Concepts features and gameplay? A multifeature weapon which has the closest equivalent to a Hammer and Daggers combine, attack skills which revolve around dealing damage to a path of foes and counter attacks, and gameplay which revolves around dashing through several foes and retaliation.

Now if Warrior, Assassin or Dervish feature these attack skills or gameplay you would have a valid point, but they don't and your making false and uneducated claims. Warrior features continuous presure and high defense, Assassin features surprise advance and retreat as well as heavy front end damage, and Dervish features minor group damage, extreme yet polarized transformation and enchantment enhancement.

If you could name a single feature which is shared with another class, it would be retaliation, which Warrior has 3 or so skills related. Yet involvement of a multifunction weapon, attack pause, and interception with retaliation makes it more than distinct from Warriors retaliation features.

Identity wise it may be alot harder to distinguish Samurai from Warrior and Assassin, the weapon works very differently than any other class, if not the most unique, and the feature of several blades and sheaths used in multiple ways is as different as it can get wile sharing the bracet of swords. You could very well relate any sword feature altogether of any nature sooner than blade sets to swords, and you could relate melee spears to hammers and javalins sooner as well. But what it really comes down to is that given the option between something less simular to swords and the blade set, which one is more attractive. I can honestly say that as far as weapons go, nothing else mentioned in any other class idea is as cool and attractive as a katana, wakizashi, and tanto set including sheaths for sheath and draw features. The dynamics and variety of the weapon in combination with 3 new attack and weapon weilding features makes it more interesting than all the melee weapons in the game combine.

Now they could have developed Samurai features on Assassin and it would have fit just fine, but they didn't. And neither Warrior nor Assassin meet a shadow of the Samurai identity. Placement wise it may not fit into the culture and theme or upcoming chapters which will likely be as original as possible. But a creative mind can invent ways to overcome obstercals to develope the very best in feature and characters.

Now really, if you think you can come up with a melee weapon half so unique, try it first and compare it to the blade set. What will you come up with? Every melee weapon will obviously include melee attacks, will it be a 2 handed weapon, or a one handed weapon. What is a mace more original than a blade set?, it works the same way as a sword or axe with blunt damage, but maybe you can come up with 4 outstanding features to make it more orignal than a blade set. How about a spear or lance, a peircing or slashing damage hammer?, make it work in 2 or 3 attributes and it will still look more simular to throwing spears than blade sets will be to swords. How about hand to hand?, beside being almost identical to daggers in use, will any sort of hand to hand combatant be as original from Assassin and Warrior as Samurai will? And how about all that radical and silly stuff which isn't a fraction as interesting and attractive as a set of blades, dash attacks, interception coupled with retaliation, quick drawing, using different functions of one weapon in multiple attributes, and stance activated weapon changing?

The fact..... FACT of the matter is that this weapon features enough original content to cover 2 classes, putting even Warriors 3 weapon options to shame. And you disapprove based on simple perspective weakness and unrelated bias. Yeah right, whatever, I will see you in the "Martial Artist" threads trying to justify the difference between that and an Assassin, and Berserker threads trying to distringuish a real "Warrior 1.5" from Warriors wile you pretend that a class with enough original features to cover 3 classes and an identity far more popular is too mundain.

You really have nothing but bias and blindness to bring to your defense, I'm not going to continue responding to weak comments. If someone has something significant to discuss than I am glad to brainstorm with them.

Dunno with you guys this CC is great^^!
I think it's unique a Multi-Function Weapon System.
I found a Female Samurai pic wanna see^^?

ive got to say, i love the idea, but if there is any hint of what will happen in the future from factions and nightfall, i dont think this class is plausable. so far, they take a continent, remake it in-game, then make its characters about region. and since samurai is an asian based character, i dont think its in the cards as factions is asian based. i think that the next classes are going to be about whatever type of continent they decide to base the story line on

3 words Guild Wars 2^^!

that is 2 words and a number

let me change that
Guild Wars Two^^!
Beat that =P!

It is likely that they will try to stretch into more and more diverse cultures, because adding more of what we don't already have is an important part of meeting peoples interests.

But there are very few identities and professions that can really bring home all the features of an idea like this, and if you get pretty technical, Samurai is a pretty exclusive identity of Japan, not the orient in general, and that is what factions is. About the only way I could see them offering Samurai in a chapter is a chapter which revovles around islands. In a good island and sea exploration chapter the cultures and background would be diverse, the way Tyria is. In this way your not limiting yourself to a particular culture like oriental or arabic/african, it is alot dynamic like Tyria was instead of alot of the same environment, and you can include several cultures including oriental features. Also with an island chapter your exploring the very different and obscure cultures of the world, hopefully. We can explore tropical islands, british islands, japanese islands, secluded islands, obscure islands, and even islands geniouses like Creatian/Atlantian.

When it comes down to it, how original and unique Samurai is, and how well it fits into a new chapter is just a matter of creativity, with enough creativity there is a wealth of solutions, if your not creative than all you will see is barriers.

This is a very very funny irony really. Before Anet announced there intentions for future chapters all the self proclaimed hardcore players assumed that GW would only feature D&D themes and european type cultures, and protested any idea of diversifying into other cultures and backgrounds, as well as any new classes being added to upset the very perfect balance the game had (see elementist for proof that was always a myth). And I was the leader in the debate that GW "had to" continue with expansions, "must have" new classes to diversify the game, and should expand into a culturally universal game with a diversity of backgrounds. Now I'm having to explain that yes, it is actually possible to do something even remotely simular to a previous chapter, it isn't taboo to come up with radically inovative features with a slight comparison to exsisting features, and doing something totally different isn't as good as doing something better.

Prophecies wasn't a totaly polarized european chapter anyway, it had mountainous themes, african and jungle themes, and desert wasteland themes. Likewise Nightfall isn't totaly original theme either, it has an arabic/african theme which partially repeats the Tyrian cultures of Kryta, and directly reuses the deserts of Elona, a perfect example of incorperation of exsisting content into future chapters. Yet would it be a crime if we had another dynamic chapter which includes an oriental nation and culture the same way Prophecies includes Kryta?. In actuality Oriental cultures are less explored than African and Middle Eastern ones, and European cultures really only cover a thrid of the first chapter.

Beside that, a Sea Exploration chapter really should be introduced instead of branching directly into every continent in GW, unless all the continents are side by side and there is no need to explore the sea before exploring another continent far seperated from the known world. Very truely, there is more opportunity for my ideas than you ever imagined.