The Alchemist

Yes, I know its archetypical of me, and someone already posted ideas of a "Chemist" So this may not go far, but we'll see.

I propose this class because it offeres a new form or backlne damage dealer, though with the use of ranged weaponry, in this case, the choice of staff or "Magitechnology" firearms. It adds a novel function in that it provides a useful alternative to stacking Elelmentalists. Another power damager Caster, though (i think) in a way that would be a bit more satisfying than simply spells that deal large damage numbers.

Primarily this profession is a damager, A ranged damager, though they may carry some skills that would benefit allies. Definately a damager thout, as their ally support all contributes to their damage output.

This profession would wear caster armor, at 60 AL.

Energy level. This is where its tricky. I wanted to create an innovative way to manage energy, there have been too many of the dame, base 30, 4 pips professions. I decided that the Alchemist, being more of a potions/glyphs user, than a high arcane mage, they would have high base energy with low regen. 50 base energy, 2 pips of regen.

They are decidedly a ranged profession. There are three main things that come of this. First, they use wands/staves, however, one attribute is a gun. It ties to the "Magitechnology" attribute. This is also range, operates like a bow. The third form of their ranged-ness is that many of their AoE damage skills would be thrown tonics/potions. these would be projectile spells.

Ok, now for the hard facts:
Attributes:
Lore Mastery [Primary]-For every point in Lore mastery, the recharge times of your skills is reduced by 3%
Chemistry-the tonics and elixirs, this is the direct damage line. This contains acids that can damage enemies in AoE (splash).
Magitechnology- Guns Require this attribute. Contains gun attack skills. No other skills.
Inscriptomology-contains many marks, glyphs, seals, and other PBAoE skills that will generally not do damage themselves, but work to augment the damage of themselves and others.

Wand/staff/offhands would require Lore Mastery, Chemistry, and Inscriptomology, all Firearms would require Magitechnology. Caster weapons would operate exactly like any current caster weapon would.

Guns are the Alchemist's spiking attribute, dealing large damage with fast moving projectiles, but carry a slow refire rate. At 2.0 second refire rate, the Firearm is the slowest weapon of all. many of its attacks focus on chance Knockdown.

Example skills:

Before I launch into the skills, i will say that the Alchemist would introduce two more skill types, all spells, but further devided. The tonic, and the sigil. Sigils are simple, they operate like wards. They may be cast around the caster, like wards, or they may be cast around an ally, or even around a foe. The effect of these would operate as wards classified as "Sigil Spells"

Tonics are self- or ally- affectng magical drinks that augment one's abilities. These cannot be removed as enchantments can, and unlike weapon spells, you may have several on you at a time. However, the more magical medicine you ingest, the more "overdosed" you become. I havent entirely worked out the details, but for every tonic beyond the first, you suffer slower spell activation time and slower movement speed, and at higher levels of tonics, maybe even a chance to miss with attacks.

Zealot's Draught: 5e/3s/60r Lore Mastery
Tonic. for 10...46...58 seconds, while you are activating a tonic or seal spell, you gain 0...6...8 arrows of energy regeneration.

Rusting Douse: 5e/3s/25r Chemistry
Spell. Send out a vial of rusting liquid dealing 10...40...50 dark damage and causes cracked armor to target foe and adjacent foes for 5...20...25 seconds.

Exploding Shot: 5e/attack/30r Magitechnology
Firearm Attack. Shoot an exploding projectile that, if it hits, deals fire damage and deals +2...16...21 damage and has a 5...12...15% chance to cause knockdown.

Mark of Envy: 10e/5s/45r Inscriptomology
Sigil. Targer touched ally has a sigil for 2...15...20 seconds. That ally, and other allies near that ally, deal +3...21...27 damage with attacks to foes that have more health than the attacker.

What do you all think?

hmm... well with the long cast times and recharges they should be fine on energy at least :/

First, Alchemy is not Chemistry. Similar but not the same, you are definantly thinking Chemist. An Alchemist would be someone who uses Alchemy Circles to transform objects, the anime Full Metal Alchemist is a perfect example.

Second, Lore Master makes me think of a Scholar or Librarian, not a scientist. As Lore is stuff like myths and legends. The terms Urban Legends and Folklore come to mind.

Third, "you gain 0...6...8 arrows of energy regeneration." would simply be "you have 0...6...8 pips of energy regeneration" pips not arrows.

An Alchemist would require an entirely different skill type to be made to be honest, and could range from "Healing Alchemy" to "Weapon Alchemy" (this would just use Weapon Spells) and "Element Alchemy" - could make the primary "Alchemy Mastery" and even have an attribute be "Forbidden Alchemy" (which would have all Elite Spells and be only obtainable in later parts of the game - resurrection and cloning, in a lore sense, would go under these).

As of yet, the only Alchemy in GW would be the Alchemy Circle.

1) Yeah, I realize this, but really alchemy is "Magical Chemistry" and judging from the Fullmetal Alchemist anime, the "Inventor" portrayal of the alchemist is well justified. The Alchemy circles are the sigils. mostly in Inscriptomology.

2) Yes. a Lore master is a scholor or librarian, It takes intense research and knowledge to perform alchemy, thus the alchemist must be a scholar, the more points invested in Lore Mastery, the more efficient he becomes in using skills. Think of a robed dude carrying a book and a vial. He is not a practicioner of hard science as his "science" involves copious ammounts of magic. I never intended to portray the alchemist as a Scientist.

3) No. There is a distinct difference, if only in technicality. "You gain" means that these arrows of regeneration are added to your current regeneration, resulting in a total of 10 possible pips. "you have" would indicate that this ammount is set, replacing your standard regen with the new regen. Gaining "Arrows" of regeneration is the terminology used by Anet in their skills. See Blood is Power.

EDIT: nope, they don't use "arrows" as their terminology, but this doesntl change the fact that "have" and "gain" pertain to different things.

1) Fair enough

2) Fair enough

3) My point was the pip thing actually. And the 10 pips of energy sounds overpowered, to be honest. Wasn't paying attention to the whole gain/have thing. I would rather have it be 4...6...8 have pips instead of gain 0...6...8, as 10 pips is overpowered.

lol @ the skill recharges

use skills!..sit around...wait...wait..use another one!..waiting..

As turbo234 stated, recharges are a bit long, but I suppose you can't please people, either people say skills are overpowered, or they are underpowered.

As far as I know Alchemist is someone who makes metal into gold... at least that's what I've seen in some rpgs

nice job there.. some skills need to be nerfed by KokosNet (;p)
and if skills there need only 5 to 10 energy why such a big energy pool? with such a big energy pool there would be a lot Alchemist [Heal Party] Spammers

can i design the armor art and elite armor art? =D

well, in response to the energy thing, yeah, it might be imbalanced, but you only gain it while activating sigils and tonics, making it sorta like an attunement, but yeah, there is the definate possibility of overpoweredness.

those 4 skills are just an example, there may be much higher energy skills that I invent later :))))) point taken.

and, lol, I guess I didnt make this clear. Alchemists will have long cast times and long recharges, BUT Lore Mastery: For every point in Lore Mastery, the Recharge times of your skills are reduces by 3%

and, you can certainly design the armor art!

which leaves recharges at like 20 secs a piece still.

I feel like, instead of guns, this class should focus on bombs as a ranged weapon. Using crafting materials, the alchemist can create a limited supply of his own bombs. It can even be made so that when you run out of them, you just have a stack of 0 until you make more, so that you can customize them or add to them to make them more powerful.

I just don't think guns of any kind work well enough for a Magical Chemist type person.

Oh, and a fun utility skill would be Transmutation - Transform one craft item into another random craft item.

I think the point of this class would be to utilize many different skills, and use ALL of the skills on your bar, so if you had 8 skills with 20-60 recharge time, the decreased recharge rate would lower that initially, but since the skills would be higher powered it would balance out, and you would be forced to get creative with your builds, forgive me for picking on eles, but echo-d Searing Flames does get a bit old after a while.

Edit - Zealot's Draught: 5e/3s/60r Lore Mastery
Tonic. for 10...46...58 seconds, while you are activating a tonic or seal spell, you gain 0...3...5 pips of energy regeneration.

Voila.

it does seem sort of balanced, but balanced in the wrong way, maybe instead of long recharge shorter recharge, but less damage. Also maybe have it more focused of condition dealing...

I also had an alchemist idea profession, similar, but slightly different then yours that I posted on other sites.

Idea: Pretty much the same as a Paragon, Ritualist and a Monk, except the effects happen via potions, chemistry and symbols as opposed to shouts, spirits and spells. This is to bring a "modern" profession into the current game of Guild Wars (GW2), where we are 250 years into the future, and using the discoveries of black powder and potions.

Use: They are primarily a buffer, but they can do large amounts of AoE and conditional spread damage. So they are Mid to Rear line profession.

Armor: Same, 60

Energy: caster, 30/+4 (before armor and weapon buffs)

Weapon: Rifle/Pistol, however, the mechanics of this is the same as a staff/wand... so instead of head/wrap it will be barrel/trigger with the same components. This is to balance the profession out.

Attributes: Dark Alchemy, Light Alchemy, Metabolism, Lore.

- Dark Alchemy: This line covers offensive attacks... like a grenade of gun powder, or some biological poison blast/spray. This included standard damage and conditional spreading skill. This attribute can cause all conditions except deep wound.

- Light Alchemy: This line covers healing skills and condition removal. To cap this, they are not able to remove hexes like a Ritualist, but have greater condition removal. There are also straight healing skills in this line as well.

- Metabolism: This line covers you buffs and hindrances. This is kind of like giving your teammates steroids and elixirs to make them faster, hit harder, and cast faster, ECT. Also in this line has skills the can slow foes down and hinder their abilities. For balancing purposes, I wanted to split the buffer and hinder skills into its own line. This is so you are not over powered in one attribute and must spread the points out among multiples. Also for balancing purposes, some of these effects will have to have skills that "target other" to prevent over self buffing.

- Lore: This line is the primary attribute... this will cause effects to last longer and/or increase the level effects have on a target (increase health gain for example). This is also were some energy management skills will go, much like Energy Storage for an Elementalist to prevent Secondary Class abuse (unlike [[Auspicious Incantation]).