Bond Spells

I checked the index and I searched and found nothing. I also wasn't sure if this could be qualified as a concept class, but I don't think so since this is only a spell type for a new class and not a class in of itself.

This is an idea I had for a type of spell unique to a profession, much like glyphs are unique to elementalists and shouts are unique to warriors/paragons.

They'd be called Bond spells. You'd cast on an enemy/friendly and it would immediately show 'charge' like adrenaline skills show charge. You'd at that point cast it on another enemy/friendly to create some effect between the two. Until it is successfully placed on two (or more) foes/allies, it does not take effect. Half the cost of the spell would be spent for each spell (indicating the entire cost of the spell to be spent only after it has been completely cast on both players). One doesn't have to cast it immediately, but it would expire like adrenaline skills expire if adrenaline isn't gained. Also one cannot be 'interrupted' inbetween the time to cast the second time. Other spells can be cast in the meantime.

An example of a bond spell might be:

"Bonded Fate (15 energy, 1 sec cast, 45 recharge) - Cast on two foes. For 30 seconds, whenever one foe is interrupted, the other is interrupted as well. Whenever one foe is knocked down, the other is knocked down as well."

The hex would have a link symbol on the spell avatar when cast on a player to indicate it is dependent upon another. The result of removing the hex on one would have various effects depending on the spell ability, but default behavior would be to strip both affected people of the hex. An example of a hex which explicitly states a different default behavior might be (counter anti-hex removal):

"Fool's Hex (10 energy, 1 sec cast, 30 sec recharge) - Cast on two foes. For 30 seconds while link spell affects both foes, hex does nothing. If removed from one foe, the other gains -9 health degeneration and deep wound for the rest of the duration of the hex."

So combined with the fact that bond spells risk twice to have it interrupted with the fact that they are easier to remove, it makes these spells very easy to screw up. Though, the rewards could be rather large. Think of bond spells like meteor to an elementalist. Big payoff.. big risk.

Though it wouldn't only be limited to hexes. They could be enchantments too. For example,

"Life Pool (10 energy, 2 sec cast, 45 sec recharge) - Cast on yourself and target other ally. For 30 seconds, all damage taken is placed on which ever one has higher life."

It'd have to be tested to get a good balance, but I imagine it would make for a nice magic attribute type in one of the new professions in Guild Wars 2. Perhaps the attribute type itself could be called Bond Magic? No doubt, it would be a caster's magic. The possibility could extend to more than 2 players, but I think that'd be a bit much.

Other spells could be added for support of bond spells in the same 'attribute' such as an enchantment that increases the time between finishing bonds by a percentage based on the points in Bond Magic.

Right now, I don't think the code for guild wars supports it, because hexes only keep track of the person hexed and the hexer. It would just have to keep track of an 'other bonded' pointer.

Thoughts?

*bump*

Thoughts anyone? I was sort of hoping to get some complements/criticism on the idea.

Cast on both monks in pvp and gg-ed? Most team uses 2 monks.
Or a team of 7 bonded fate can bond all 8 opposing players and gg-ed.

I actually didn't take that into consideration. I suppose since I didn't clarify, one could bond all enemies to one person and slam him for all you've got. Though, aside from the cost and general difficulty it would be to set that up, it probably be a little complicated to allow.

Probably it's better to say if a bond hex is recast on a person who already has a bond hex, it cancels the original bond on that person as well as his 'partner'.

But yeah, bonding both monks would make a nice strategy for that spell.

That class is way too complicated for the current GW system. There is no effective way for targeting two things with one skill, and the whole bonding thing is a new system the game has to keep track of...

Too difficult to conceptualize or too difficult to keep track of?

I would argue it wouldn't be too difficult to keep track of. The struct which carries player hex information would only have to have a 4-byte pointer to another player which is affected by the hex. I could write the code myself if I knew how their interface worked. As for network, 4 bytes is really nothing to worry about.

I might agree with you on the difficulty to conceptualize, however. Though again, I just see it as a big risk with a big payoff. If it makes it any easier, the bond spells might include you as a target. For that matter, you wouldn't even have to cast it twice, just cast it on the enemy to create a bond between both of you.

At that point, however, all bond spells must include you, an ally, which means no 'enemy-enemy' hexes. There's already an unofficial 'bond' spell that exists. Take a look at life siphon. The spell concept is very similar. You gain life and the other loses life. If it is removed from the enemy, you lose the life gain. The only difference here is that it isn't an 'enchantment' for you and hence cannot be removed. Though I would argue it would make for more interesting gameplay if there were.