They are both essentially very skewed looks at what a supportive class and a fighting class should be. So here are my ideas.
The Alchemist
Summary:
Alchemists are not the common types of support. They will rarely be seen healing their allies for health or for conditions. Instead, they concoct strange, gaseous and volatile mixtures right in the battlefield, and use them in even stranger ways. This idea came mostly from witnessing the usual complaints that it's never fun to play support. The Alchemist would be very quirky and fun, and their greatest strength is presence.
Attributes:
Potency (Primary): For every 2 points of Potency, the Alchemist's potion effects last 1 second longer.
Instability: Affects potions that have often chaotic results and sometimes have instant effects.
Curing: Affects potions that will aid allies more directly.
Toxins: Affects potions that will have battlefield-manipulative results.
Core functionality:
The way the Alchemist would work, is they would use slightly long-casting skills in relation to most classes. These skills would be a bit faster than Binding Rituals, but slower than most other non-spell skills. All potions will take long to concoct, with few exceptions. Because Alchemists would become only the second support class to use non-spell skills (Paragon is the other one), it would force new strategies to shut them down, and they would be unable to be shut down in the same way as a Monk or Ritualist.
After a potion is concocted, it is thrown at the target. The catch here is that the vast majority of potions will only be able to be thrown at the feet of allies, not enemies.
For instance, consider in the Instability attribute, the Alchemist is able to use a skill called Flash Gas Potion. It would look something like this.
After a potion is concocted, it is thrown at the target. The catch here is that the vast majority of potions will only be able to be thrown at the feet of allies, not enemies.
For instance, consider in the Instability attribute, the Alchemist is able to use a skill called Flash Gas Potion. It would look something like this.
Flash Gas Potion 3-second Cast, 15-second Recharge
Skill. Throws a Flash Gas Potion at the feet of target ally. When the bottle shatters, all foes nearby the location this potion landed will become Blind for X seconds.
That's a straightforward potion. Let's look at what a more complex one may look like. Let's switch to our Toxins attribute and say, for instance, we have a skill called Fever Toxin.
Fever Toxin 3-second Cast, 30-second Recharge
Skill. Throws a vial of Fever Toxin at the feet of target ally. Any foes in the area of where this potion landed that strike an ally with an attack will suffer from Weakness for 2 seconds. The Fever Toxin will dissipate after X seconds.
(Note: In this situation, both the Toxins attribute and the Potency attribute will affect the duration that this potion remains on the battlefield.)
Since we've looked at the other two attributes, I'd like to throw my idea out for the Curing attribute. It'd work differently than you may imagine, but is in fact a mirror of how the "offensive" Alchemist support skills function. This is to say that all potion skills that affect allies positively would instead be thrown at the feet of an enemy and affect allies near where that potion shattered. I believe this would add a very interesting (In a good way!) twist. For example, let's say we have a Curing skill called Potion of Cool Breeze.
Potion of Cool Breeze 4-second Cast, 12-second Recharge
Skill. Throws a Potion of Cool Breeze at the feet of target foe. All allies nearby to the location this potion landed experience +1 health regeneration and are healed for X every 2 seconds. The Cool Breeze Potion will dissipate after 6 seconds.
(Note: In this skill, the dissipation is fixed for the Cure attribute, but would still be able to be affected by your Potency attribute.)
And that wraps up the Alchemist. Later on I'll add my ideas for the Sentinel class! I hope you all enjoyed reading.
