The Mannai

Hello folks... here's another specimen from my CC Laboratory. I'm open to supportive criticism and communal brainstorming. For skimming ease, I've divided the post into three sections:

I. The Mannai - For the skimmer: concept art, a quick explanation of the basic concept, attributes, strengths, weaknesses and originality.
II. Tactics - For those with some time on their hands, a brief illustration of a few battle strategies.
III. Skills - For the ambitious reader, a tentative list of skills.

I. THE MANNAI



Click here for more examples of work by jademonkeyx88

Background

The Mannai are an order of mystics that worships magic above all else. Unlike other mages whose talents are gifts from the gods, the Mannai work feverishly to unlock secrets of the supernatural on their own. Through intense study, the Mannai have mastered great power, but at a price. Their dedication has corroded into an all-consuming obsession. Entranced by sorcery, they constantly crave its most raw and potent form: mana. In the desperate hunt to feed their addiction, the Mannai resort to predation. By stealthily leeching onto other spellcasters, they engorge themselves off of magical activity, stealing mana from their unsuspecting prey in the process.

Function:

The Mannai is a concealable unit which steals energy from enemy spellcasters. She extends ally spellcasters' range and allows single-target offensive spells to be relayed to up to three foes. Being targeted by any energy-based skill increases the Mannai's energy stores. The Mannai may also sustain allies' energy very effectively.

The Mannai has the lowest armor in the game; a maximum of 50 compared to the Elementalist's 60. She has no weapons per se. Instead, she fires costless magical projectiles from her fingertips. To enhance these attacks, the Mannai embeds arcane gems in her gloves (one on each hand) which affect the amount and type of damage. Each projectile deals a maximum of 6-10 damage and has a refire rate of two seconds. Despite their low damage and slow recharge, the magical projectiles have two major advantages: they have the fastest flight time of any ranged weapon in the game and they can deal any type of damage.

Attributes:

Rapacity (Primary Attribute) – Improves a variety of links and link-related hexes as well as determining the energy gain (1…4) from being targeted by energy-based skills.
Sorcery – Affects self-help skills, many of which are dependent upon links.
Assistance – Manages skills which sustain allies’ energy, many of which are dependent upon links.
Predation – Improves stealth, damage-dealing skills, and the damage of magical projectiles.

Strengths:

1) The Mannai lessens enemy spellcasters’ effectiveness.
2) The Mannai extends ally spellcasters’ range.
3) The Mannai maintains allies’ energy.
4) The Mannai allows single-target offensive spells to hit multiple enemies.
5) The Mannai gains energy by being the target of energy-based skills.
6) The Mannai may conceal herself from view.

Weaknesses:

1) The Mannai is the weakest character in the game. However, to be effective she must remain close to enemies at all times.

Originality:

Camouflage

There are three main innovations with this class. The first is Camouflage. Simply put, Camouflage is a condition which renders the affected character invisible and untargetable when outside of another player's aggro circle. There is no indicator of the player on the compass. If a Camouflaged player enters the aggro circle she is targetable, but remains invisible. If the Camouflaged character attacks or is attacked, the condition ends. All Camouflage skills have at least a two-minute recharge.

The Link

The second innovation with this class is the link, which is essentially a maintained hex (an unexplores spell type so far). Succinctly put, a link does two things: 1) it allows single-target offensive spells to hit multiple enemies, and 2) it extends ally spellcasters’ range. To initiate and maintain a link, the Mannai must be in the area of her target. Links allow allies to target the Mannai, relaying offensive spells through her to linked opponents. Spells can be transmitted through up to three links (at a 40% spell cost to the Mannai’s energy stores for each snare).

Conceivably, having a cheap spell relayed through her links could actually create energy for the Mannai; at a cost of 40% of a 5 energy spell (2 energy), and a benefit of 4 energy return for the relay, the Mannai could earn 2 points of energy off of each link if she has maximum Sorcery. At the same level of Sorcery with 10 energy cost spells relaying through her links, the Mannai would break even. Any spell with a higher cost would deplete energy from the Mannai’s mana bar.

Magical Projectiles

As stated above, these gem-powered "weapons" do not deal much damage nor do they fire very often. Despite their apparent weakness, magical projectiles are incredibly versatile. Firstly, they deal a wide variety of types of damage. There are projectiles available which deal Elemental damage, Physical damage, Skill-only damage (Holy and Shadow), and Weapon-only damage (Light, Dark, and Chaos). Secondly, they have the fastest flight time in the game, making them very accurate. Thirdly, and most importantly, magical projectiles are the only true dual-wielding weapons in the game. Unlike Assassins' daggers which come in pairs, the Mannai can freely mix and match the vast array of gems available to them.


II. TACTICS

Enemy Spellcaster Disabler:

The Mannai is most effective when attacking enemy spellcasters. She first engages a Camouflage enchantment, allowing her to walk the battlefield unnoticed. Upon reaching the backlines, she sets to work. Linking herself to enemy spellcasters with her Rapacity attribute, she renders the opponents ineffective by leeching energy off of their magical activity. Once aware of her presence, enemies begin to attack the Mannai. Unfortunately for them, being the target of energy-based skills only increases the Manni's energy stores further.

Now with a steady supply of energy from her links and her enemies' offensive spells, the Mannai may spam self-sustaining spells and enchantments. Alternatively, she may flee, concealing herself from view once again. Still alive, the Mannai has distracted enemy spellcasters from the main fray, allowing her melee teammates to slaughter the enemy fighters.

Energy Support:

An alternative tactic is to remain closer to the main fray. With both allies and enemies in close proximity, it is a prime opportunity for the Mannai to energize her teammates and make her enemies less effective. Linking herself to enemy fighters, she leeches mana from their energy-based skills. The links supply the Mannai with a steady source of mana which she may then use to supply energy to her allies (using Assistance skills). This allows allies to spam energy-based skills. If her presence becomes too threatening, and she becomes the target of attacks, the Mannai may Camouflage and run away.


III. SKILLS


Rapacity

Mana Leech - Hex. While you maintain this link, you suffer one pip of energy degeneration and target foe’s spells cost 5…25% more. You steal this excess energy. If target foe leaves range, the link ends. You lose 20…10 energy when this link ends.

Debilitating Snare - Hex. While you maintain this link, you suffer one pip of energy degeneration and steal 1…5 energy for each spell cast by target opponent. If target foe leaves range, the link ends. You lose 5 energy when this link ends.

Engorge - Hex. For 8...25 seconds, target linked foe's skills cost 5...25% more energy. You steal excess energy.

Augmentation – Enchantment. While you maintain this enchantment on target ally, you suffer one pip of energy degeneration. Every offensive spell used by that ally is relayed through your links.

Hex Transfer - Spell. Transfer one hex from yourself to target linked foe.

Spell Stealer - Signet. Spell Stealer is replaced by target's next used skill for 5...15 seconds.


Sorcery

Nurturing Web – Enchantment. For each link maintained, you gain 1 pip of health regeneration for 5…10 seconds.

Appropriation - You steal an enchantment and its remaining duration from target enemy. You benefit from its effects for a maximum of 5...15 seconds.

Link Sustenance – Spell. For each link maintained, you gain 8…15 health.

Nourishing Sorcery – Enchantment. For the next 10 seconds, when you are targeted by an energy-based skill, you gain 5…10 health.

Mana Flow – Spell. You steal 2…8 energy from each linked opponent.


Assistance

Mana Support - Enchantment. While you maintain this enchantment, target ally benefits from +1 energy regeneration and you suffer from -1 energy degeneration.

Ethereal Vine – Enchantment. While you maintain this enchantment, you suffer one pip of energy degeneration and every time a linked opponent uses a spell, target ally gains 5…20% of that spell’s energy cost.

Sustaining Drain – Enchantment. While you maintain this enchantment, linked opponents suffer one pip of energy degeneration. You suffer one pip of energy degeneration for each opponent affected. Target ally gains one pip of energy regeneration for each opponent affected.

Mana Boost - Spell. For each linked opponent, target ally gains 3...7 energy.


Predation

Stalk – Elite Enchantment. For 15…30 seconds, you are camouflaged.

Lurk – Enchantment. For 10…20 seconds you are camouflaged and suffer 1 pip of energy degeneration.

Abscond – Enchantment. For 10…20 seconds you are camouflaged and move 40% slower.

Silent Hunter – Enchantment. For 5…15 seconds, you are camouflaged.

Rabid Pursuit – Enchantment. For 3…10 seconds, you are camouflaged and move 40% faster.


*** To give credit where it's due, System_Crush has really helped out with this one. Most notably, he's contributed some awesome skills, helped tailor the Mannai's balance issues, and suggested sustained hexes (a great idea which he picked up from a long-lost thread at some point). Actionjack's Spell Binder/Weaver provided inspiration for the links. BahamutKaiser really helped rewire links and the primary attribute. On the "Things Missing from Existing Professions Thread," draxynnic posted the best Stealth idea I've seen to date. My Camouflage is based upon his idea. I'd especially like to thank jademonkeyx88... he brings the Mannai to life with his amazing artwork. Finally, I perused the "Create a Skill" thread and used some offers as inspiration (Although who I am specifically indebted to, I can't recall. Please tell me if you see your skills.).

Like what you see? Check out my CC Laboratory for more examples of my work. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

For those of you who remember, I posted this along with the Shrift over a month ago (which I would love to get opinions on, if you get the chance). I've made some pretty significant changes to the class and have gotten rid of what I thought were some of the weaker elements of the previous incarnation. This is a great forum, and I love posting my ideas to get feedback from people with good criticism.

I have a few ideas I'm toying around with, and I wanted to get your opinions.

1. Obviously, the class is missing a fourth attribute. I think that it should be at least partially offensive. How to do that, I'm not sure. Here's one idea: a weapon which does damage based upon the target's energy. For example, say the weapon damage is 10% of energy stores (not energy capacity). More advanced weapons with higher requirements could do a higher percentage, and beginning weapons could do less. As the Mannai steals more energy from the target, the weapon does less and less damage, until it is essentially useless. This type of weapon would also encourage players using the Mannai to focus on debilitating magic-users, since they have the largest energy stores.

2. I'm not sure whether the Mannai's energy situation should be. I think that it should have relatively low energy stores, but high regeneration. Is this overpowered considering all of its energy-stealing abilities? Possibly, but most of the Mannai's skills require energy degeneration.

3. Since the Mannai is so weak, I'm thinking of trying to reincorporate a stealth idea. While purusing the "Things Missing from Existing Professions" thread, draxynnic posted what looked like the best idea I've seen so far on the 76th post. A fourth attribute could at least be partially devoted to that.

Thoughts?

It was a nice idea last time and it still is, especially since the changes weekend patch has removed the overpowerednes from mallaise, now my mesmer needs better energy degeneration skills for his unplug build.

This class has plenty of them so I hope Anet takes notice.
Perhaps too plenty, maybe a few more skills such as self heals(every class needs at least one) and other non leachings.
Most likely in the primary or perhaps in a atribute especially for them, or make the 4th attribute for some damaging abileties, not very strong ones likely the energy denial is already powerfull.

Asside from that I have a memory for things I do no need to remember(I only forget something when it is important)
Didn't the old mannai thread have a piece about them having a large enregy bar that did not fill up completely by itself?

And snares now seem a slichtly confusing name, as a snare in MMO slang is a debuff for speed.
But this is GW so its not a actual MMO Anet calls it a Coöperative Online Action Fantasy game.

I can see you put quite some work into it before reposting, good job.

System, as always, thanks for the feedback. I don't think the old version of the Mannai had an energy bar that didn't fill up by itself, although I like the idea. Maybe have a baseline 30 energy that could expand to 50 with stolen energy.

If that's true about the word, "snare," I better lose it. Too bad... it's such a great word. I opted for replacing it with link, as you can see above. It's a less sexy term, but more accurate now that I think about it. I'll try and incorporate some of your suggestions later tonight. Thanks again.

Definetly (spl?) sounds like a class I would play. Good job

Make another image for that class^^!

awesome is the only word i have for that idea, if i were anet tht would be my first pick

Thanks for the compliments! If you have any ideas, let me know.

An image is being worked on.

I added the Mannai's "weapon" and I am closing in on developing a fourth attribute.

hum wow.... i would say this is an awesome idea. There is nothing even similar in GW atm to this class but i ould say it seems a very difficult charecter to play. this may cause many horrible players playing this and very very few good ones, like mesmers times 100000. but all in all this could be very fun and very different

/signed

Another Wow, this looks pretty damn professional. I would have to say if you make skill examples they would be impossible to balance, something trial and error would have to correct over and over until an acceptable power is obtained. But the features are great, and given some use, Anet could come up with acceptable figures for competative play.

The Camoflauge bit could work that way only if there were counters in the game to disrupt and punish players for camoflauging. This could work in many ways. For one, the Camoflauge doesn't have to be removed if you attack them, instead it could continue it's effect, but be useless at close range. My best weakness suggestion is that it cost alot, counts as a stance which can be broken, and incurse a serious defensive weakness. This way it would render you undetected if you are at a distance from your foes, but you would incure a significant amount of damage if attacked. And since it is a stance it would require at least one other stance to break the effect prematurely. This would make it a bad idea to use up close, but a good idea at range.

A good elite version of Camoflauge would be the opposite, a stealth mode which blocks visibility if you are nearby or adjacent to foes. This would work simular to Shadow Form since it makes you untargetable by attacks wile close up, and to balance it, it could deactivate if you select any skills.

Another neccessary counter would be something like a Nature Ritual which makes all camoflauged foes visible, and perhaps offers some sort of penatly like health degeneration, also a counter of the same nature for Ritualist, a Binding Ritual, would also be a good counter. And something of a counter nature to either Dervish or Assassin, Assassin probably deserves it more.

It could be a powerful game breaking skill, but if proper counters are offered along with it, it would be fine. And speaking of counters, Earshot Range DoT spells are overdue.

I see the weapon it looks nice, I guess its pretty balanced you get to use focusi with it right?
which attribute do the rings relly on?
Though the weapon looks nice and balanced and stuff, I don't get how it really matches the class.

And the new skills you have added under the endurance atribute are nice, they would definatly help the mannai survive, though why endurance that is generally taken as physical endurance while the effects are link or magic related.

Man, I perused the thesaurus for so long and the best I could come up with was Endurance! I thought to myself, "maybe no one will notice the lameness." Thanks for giving me a reality check. I'll find a better title.

Focusi? As in the offhand items that spellcasters use with wands? Yeah, I agree it would make sense for there to be focusi that are available to the Mannai. She could choose to hold one in the offhand instead of wearing two rings.

Thanks for reminding me to assign an attribute to the rings. I think it should be Predation. Now that you mention it, how do the rings tie into the Mannai background? I was thinking that since the Mannai are so fused with magic all the time, it would only make sense for their basic attack to be completely magical also. And since the Mannai have unlocked the secrets of magic on their own, they have learned how to magically deal all types of damage (instead of other classes which are restricted to certain kinds). I'll make Predation the rings' attribute for now and get to the other stuff later. I'm tired. As usual, thanks for the feedback!

heres a lil concept art



I thought of an interesting thing That the Mannai is blind and is able to see through a magical sense, kinda like how a snake senses its prey(Animal Planet FTW!!!!)
I drew her with a sword +5e :P and a ring with a magical aura around it lol..... and yes Sex Sells!!!
it closely resembles rider from FSN and thats because she fits this concept class so well.

Awesome concept art, ShadowsRequiem! I really like the idea of the Mannai being blind and just sensing where magic is. Too bad the Ritualists already wear blindfolds. But then again, they aren't really blind...

Maybe the Mannai gouge their eyes out as part of some initiation ritual or something. Hmm, I'm gonna have to think about tying that into the storyline...

hmmm thats kinda..... gross lol

Gread Idea, if they can steal magic they could also steal magic effects like enchantments.
I think this way it's a bit mesmerish, the name is the main cause of that I guess, theivery is as of yet mesmer stuff.
Doesn't steal a skills so its quite diferent, however as the focus/identety of the mannai is diferent from that of the mesemer so I think they should be able to steal any type of magical effect, but as a aditional diference make it conditional, Anet uses that to copy skills themselves, add a conditional and its not the same as another skill anymore.
Converting Demur spell
Remove a enchantment from target foe, that enchantment and its remaining duration is applied to you. If the foe is target fo the same enchantment while this spell is in effect this spell is reapplied. (max duration 3...10(12) seconds)
Took the liberty of more acuratly defining what steal enchantment would be, its just a sugestion, but I think its less mesmerish(would need high energy cost and/or long cast time for balance I guess)

The duration was a good idea of yours, it would indeed be very unbalancing if you used it on aura of faith or some other very long enchantment.

Plagiarize Arms link

For 1...6(8) seconds any weapons spell applied to target foe, is also applied to you.

Sadly a weapons spell is and should stay non removable, but copying is ok I guess, It just seemed logical for the mannai to steal more than enchantments like mesmers do.

As for te sorcery attribute it fits in quite well.

Would the holy and shadow damage be affected by armor? Normaly they aren't unless they are applied to a weapon through a skill such as juges insight instead of direct damage.
Personally I love armor ignoring damage, as it is just as effective against all professions. But I guess every one would use shadow and holy rings, I fear.

Yes they are they are born blind and (become)attuned to spirits because of the blindness, letting their spirit see for them instead of using their eyes.

Yes.. Gross, but... also kinda cool!
If so they should definatly wear blindfolds Anet will never have a class that openly walks around with horefying holes where their eyes should be.

I've said it before but I'll say it again, Great job nebojats, Anet please implement this profession!

Here's my concept for your class.


And in different colors.
http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...oneptwhite.jpg
http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...onceptblue.jpg
http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...nceptblack.jpg

I was wondering one thing.
ANet says that skills are "carried in the form of rings on each finger", and for some reason, people in this universe cannot use their thumbs for rings nor can carry multiple rings on one finger.
Wouldn't this mean, for consistency with other lore and such, that the attack rings would take over the position of a "skill ring"?
(Not sure if this has been mentioned before...)

I don't think that is in the actual lore, the whole rings thing was part of the beta design, I've read through basicly all of the manuals and part of the stories and there is no mention of rings.

Besides, that makes little sense, if you gain magic from wearing rings, you could veriably wear several rings on each finger, and switch them out easily, and wear rings tied all over your clothing. Beyond that, physical attacks are not granted by rings either. Your wearing a ring of Cleaving?

If you can bring up where rings are still a part of the lore, I would like to see it.

I suppose lore was a wrong choice of words... I'm not even really sure where I got it from, but when I was reading around about the game (I've only had it for about a week, heh...) it seemed to pop up everywhere. If this is actually NOT the case, I apologize. =)

And yes, I thought of the concept as strange too, but you know.. ;P

@System_Crush: Thanks for the feedback and support of the Mannai! As usual, your posts are insightful and thought-out (unlike so many others on these forums). Good suggestion with the Magical Thievery. It's called Appropriation now and I made the changes (I don't really understand how Converting Demure describes the effect). I don't know about Plagiarize Arms. I think weapons spells belong more to the spirit world as opposed to the magical one (amd the Mannai doesn't really do much with Spirits). To be honest, I think it would fit in more with the Revenant (my other concept class) since that CC revolves around taking spirit form, etc.

As for the holy and shadow damage, I thought of this possible dilemma before you brought it up. According to Guildwiki's page on damage types, light and holy damage do not ignore armor when the damage is coming from a weapon. Since the projectiles are technically the Mannai's weapons, I think I've sidestepped this problem.

Just a side note: I believe you on the Ritualist thing, but how the hell do you know that? You like the gouged out eyes idea, too? I have to admit, it becomes more appealing the more I think about it...

@jademonkeyx88: Dude! These drawings are dangerously awesome... watch out you don't hurt someone with them. I dig the overall armor appearance. It's sort of Ranger/Elementalist/Assassin all rolled into one. It looks like the Mannai can rough it in the wilderness, sneak up and kill you in your sleep, and is a fiend addicted to magic. I also really like the stones or crystals or whatever you want to call them imbedded in the armor. In my mind, they sort of seem like focal points through which links are maintained. Also, the gems in the gloves could be a way around the ring dilemma posed by irCuBiC.

@irCuBiC: Just like I told System_Crush about Ritualist blindness: I'm sure you're right, but how the hell do you know this? Seriously, how do you get a hold of this information? In response, I guess I'd say I'm not too tied to the idea of the rings. jademonkeyx88's drawing makes me think that the projectile could be powered by gems or stones embedded in the gloves. Thoughts?

Nope skills are not rings, though the idea of this may have been somewhere deep down in the bowls of early game design it was likely not implemented in the actual game.

However it does bare some truth, signets are magical abilities contained in charged ornaments(necklases, pins, gems, rings or whatever, monks likely use reliquaries as their signets) you activate them by whilling the magic in the item to activate, as the magic is in the item they cost you no energy.

as to why we only have 8, I do not know i've never seen a solid explenation as to why my assassin For instance can't remeber more than 8 ways to kill people at the same time, or why a paragon can't remeber more than 8 sentances to shout.
For warriors and mages you can sort of figure out yourself as mages need reagents to cast spells of which they can only take enough for 8 spells.
And wariors are appereanly to dumb to remeber more than 8 ways to hit someone at 1 time(no offence intended).
Don't get the limit for rangers either...
But as it makes the game balanced I guess it does not need a explenation.

@ nebojats, yes where did I get that... it was in some other CC thread for Pit Fighter in post #58.
At you asking that, I did pick up my lore book and looked at the GW site, and found that my statement was wrong, ritualists are not blind this only goes for one of the spirit henchies.
They wear blindfolds to help them consentrate.
S'cuse me

&&
Demur means resitance as in a enchantment being a resistance to defeat(resistance to defeat... indead a lacking description of what a enchantment is)
and Plagiarism means idea stealing.
&&
You are probably right about weapon spells being too spiritual to be affected by magic, that is a good way to explain why we can't remove them too.
And "for X seconds, steal enchantment and its remaning duration" still sounds unclear(for 5 seconds, you get blood bond lasting 15 seconds; 5 or 15?)
The way I understood it was that if the remaining duration is longer than X seconds, it is shortened to that number, this in order to prevent abuse.

I like the idea of gloves with a crystal on/in them shooting projectiles more than rings shooting projectiles.
As for jademonkeyx88, great job you're even better than Action Jack at consept art(xcept that girl has got the legs of a guy )
But the armor is nice, and as the attunement to lyssa has been removed for a magic leaching story, all needs for a nature looking armor are gone.

At that I only just noticed the changed magic obsession story, nice I love role playing insane people(nothing to with my own state of metal health. SCRUFFY MUST KILL!! woops that one slipped out).
But if the nature attunent is gone, are rabid persuit, silent hunter and camoflage in general still named correctly?

I forgot to mention it before, but I got some inspiration for the mannai from the Izzet in Magic. You can see them here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/arcana/1025

Just thought I should give proper credit there.

In the early beta design the 8 skills represented 8 rings on your fingers, limiting your skill inventory. This was just a test feature and abandon in the actual release and lore of the game. 8 skills exsist simply to limit each characters abilities and enforce teamwork. It is in the lore that the gods split magic/abilities into parts that way no one user could wield every ability, which is why we have polerized classes with a single combination.

It is rather silly that our spell casters only have 8 skills to cast, and our attackers can only execute a hand full (literally) of attacks, but that is one of the simple restraint and competative features of the game it makes characters less independant.

I still wish they would consider 10 skills, but there are alot of balance factors to redevelope if they add more skill slots, and it could very well mean the difference between limited builds and unlimited builds. Still, I was hoping that some new features would be added to the game, and skills exclusive to those features be accompanied by 2 new skills slots, that way exsisting builds could function with the addition of new features instead of further competing for skill slots, but eh, nobody really considers details like that.

Hopefully Anet will step into some more creative additions in the future. Thus far, as grand and useful as our additions were in nightfall, I am still not satisified with our character options and gameplay limitations. And as much as I like Nebojats concept classes, they are also not what I'm looking for in a character.

Sadly, Assassin is one of the identities I could have attached to, but they never made their enjoyable abilities useful, so I never could enjoy playing them, and they let the ball roll way to long before making improvements to the class overall.

@System_Crush: I tried to capture the essence of your suggestion for Appropriation. Unfortunately, I hate being wordy with skills, so I had to cut it down some. I also made the magical projectiles powered by the gem-embedded gloves... you're right, it works better (and would probably look cooler... who wants to squint to see tiny rings?). Just a note: I don't actually envision the projectiles physically coming from the gems per se... I just imagine them giving the Mannai the power to throw/materialize them.

You noticed the change in the background story? I'm glad you like it. I enjoy having characters be sort of psychotic (you may have noticed a similar theme with the Shrift and the Revenant). On that note, I'm still wondering about the eye-gouging thing. I guess if Ritualists aren't actually blind afterall, then I wouldn't feel too cheap doing that. It's true the Mannai is no longer nature-oriented, but I still sort of like the wilderness vocabulary. I guess I think of the Mannai as a magical predator, essentially. Words that describe a sort of "survival of the fittest" situation seem to fit nicely... for me at least.

@jademonkeyx88: Ah yes, I can see the resemblence. Your drawing has a much more down-to-earth, no-nonsense feel to it, which I like. Your concept art rocks my world!

@BahamutKaiser: Sometimes, I agree that the current professions could be greatly expanded upon and we don't need any more classes... but then I wouldn't be able to come up with concept classes! So usually, I ignore that perspective and get back to imagining. I'm glad you like my CCs. Maybe someday, I will come up with one that offers what you're looking for in a character. Some day...

The way I think of the 8 skill limit is that it's something like the cleric or wizard (or even better, if you have the expanded material, the spirit shaman) preparing spells for the day. Basically, even though the character 'knows' all the skills that are unlocked for them, they spend some time before leaving town meditating on the specific skills they intend to use to make sure they're fresh in the character's mind.

Yeah, I agree with draxynnic. Particularly with magic-users, it makes sense that they would have to devote a lot of time to memorizing a few spells they think will be necessary for the upcoming event. Sort of a "curse of the magi" thing... they have great power, but they need to spend a lot of their lives just sitting their rememorizing incantations. With the fighters, it's meditating on a few key moves they think will be necessary.

And then again, it is a game...

Actually, I like the idea of a profession with that Camouflage-thing
It's a really good idea...

/signed

Thanks for the support, Sterrekat! It seems like stealth should be included in the game, doesn't it? This particular version of it is essentially based off of draxynnic's version that he posted in the "Things Missing from Existing Professions Thread."

Like my pic for your class^^?

the spells that link you to another player should be a new type of spell called link spell or something instead of hexes.and i was just thinking the other in aspenwood how cool it would be to be invisible on the radar.and since i play mostly caster roles i can see alrdy how much would hate this class,possibly as much i hate mesmers.(i have an ele and a rt.)but it sounds cool and i would prolly make one just to make other ppl angry.

Ok, so my addiction to these forums has returned. I got this idea from Necrosity's Psion... that CC's primary attribute make the class steal energy from opponents in the area for every spell cast. This idea seems to fit in well with the Mannai.

As it is, the Mannai's primary attribute gives her energy for being targeted by spells. Should that be changed to be more like the Psion... should the Mannai inherently steal or gain magic from having spells cast near her? Gaining energy off of having spells cast through her could perhaps just be a self-enchantment rather than a whole attribute. Thoughts?

Try checking my Sopphetio^^.
Wish I could do my Mystic, My Mystic is like an improved Sopphetio^^.

@Topic
Not really sure, I'll think of it^^.

Ijust realize now you have n skill for yu gems^^.