Concept Class: The Mediator

The Mediator (think of a witch Plus a unique "Soothsaying" attribute)

-I envision this class to be the "enemy control" master. Mediators would have the unique attribute “Soothsaying” to control the the actions of enemy parties, either preventing aggro to occur, eliminating aggro in the heat of battle(for a limited amount of time), or divert attacks and movements allowing characters to escape. The ability of this class to prevent or eliminate aggro lies in his speech (a majority of his skills would be composed of "chants" which would behae like shouts but wuld last alot longer). In order to make this plausible, they should have 10-30% smaller agro circles and have 15-30% longer range than a bow has.

-In order to avoid making this class a purely support type one, it would include an attribute called “Fell Words” that would include armor-ignoring (can be light, dark, shadow or chaos damage) spells and hexes that could either be directed on a single target or diffused into a large crowd. The spells can be diffused into other targets because like the aggro control skills, it will also be in a form of shouts-like "chants". (think about how witches in the shows "charmed", "Buffy the vampire slayer", and "angel" use their spells). However, if the user chooses to spread out the spells effect or damage, effect duration and damage to be dealt would be divided equally among the multiple targets. Since this class would be more concerned in controlling aggro, the damage and effect inducing capabilities in this attribute would resemble damage levels of necros and smite monks. There are also spells that behave like enchantments that you have to maintain using 1-3 pips of natural energy regen that damage enemies after certain periods of time

-In addition to its offensive and agro control spells, it would also have healing and enchantment spells under the attribute “Divine Scripture”. The defining trait that would set apart this attribute from ritualist and monk healing attribute is that all spells in this set behave like enchantments that you have to maintain using 1-3 pips of natural energy regen. Another unique trait is that spells will be narrated (a continuous shout with multiple/repeating verses) which would activate healing, resurrection or an enchantment effects to specific allies or the entire party after a certain intervals of time as the spell is being maintained. If the user chooses to use a spell for the entire party, its energy maintenance increases by 1 per 2 allies in the party.

-the primary attribute would be “charisma” For each point in this attribute adds 2 enemy character levels in which the mediator can influence. This means that a character with 1 charisma point will only be 100% successful in influencing enemies that are level 1-2 while a character with 16 charisma points will be 100% successful in influencing enemies that are level 1-30.

-In the interest of balance, regardless of charisma level there is only a 50% chance in influencing boss monsters and “Soothsaying” spells that target non-boss enemies beyond the covered range have a 25% chance to fail. Also, since the mediator spells are shout-like, therefore its effects cannot be stacked

Armor: cloth type, 60-70 armor level (would look like Ambassador Zain or Baron Egan in Pre-searing) with armor bonus against shadow, chaos, dark, light, dark damage. Would also have scar pattern-like armor which offer additional energy.


Max HP: 480
Energy: 30 with 4 energy arrows

Weapon: a Gauntlet-like weapon that has wand-like energy projectiles (can be light, dark, shadow or chaos damage)
Focus: A Book or derivatives thereof

Ideal Secondary Profession: Mesmer (allows energy absorption skills and other crowd control skills using hexes and stuff)

Sample Skills:

Soothsaying
all skills are now usable in both PvE and PvP. I just changed the description

Ode of the Peaceful Passage (elite)
25e, 1/2s cast, 10s recharge
For x seconds, alll enemy parties will not attack even if party members enter enemy range.

Ventriloquism (elite)
15e, 3s cast, 20s recharge
Force all nearby enemy party members to attack a nearby enemy party member for X seconds. Effect ends if an enemy is attacked.

War Treaty
20e, ¼s cast, 20s recharge
Attacking enemy party stops attacking and chasing party members for x seconds (minimum 3 max 8). Effect ends if an enemy is attacked.

Incite Rebellion
25e, 3s cast, 60s recharge
This spell has half the normal range. Influence up to x number of enemy party members (minimum 1 max 3) to attack nearby enemies for y seconds (minimum 3s max 9s). Effect ends if an enemy is attacked.

I am your Friend (elite)
20e, 3s cast, 30s recharge
For (5-15s) caster will be treated as an ally by humanoid and human enemy parties within the radar. Effect ends if an enemy is attacked by the caster. Does not affect bosses

Hate me not (elite)
20e, 3s cast, 30s recharge
For (5-15s) caster will be treated as an ally by animal-like (griffons, drakes) enemies within the radar. Effect ends if an enemy is attacked by the caster. Does not affect bosses


I am a Brethren (elite)
20e, 3s cast, 30s recharge
For (5-15s) caster will be treated as an ally by Demon-like, Shadow-type (nightmares, phantoms, grasps of insanity) enemies within the radar. Effect ends if an enemy is attacked by the caster. Does not affect bosses

Change your path
20e, ¼s cast, 20s recharge
Influence (1-5) enemy party members to divert their path for X seconds. Effect ends if an enemy is attacked.

Stand Down!
10e, 1/2s cast, 10s recharge
For X seconds, party members can pass throught enemy range w/o being attacked as long as no weapons/focuses are equipped. Effect ends if an enemy is attacked or if an wepons are equipped.

Fell your Kin!
20e, ¼s cast, 20s recharge
Up to 3 enemy party members near you redirect their attacks to each other for (3-10) seconds. Effect ends if an enemy is attacked. Attacks made by foes this way have a 25% chance to miss.

Confusing Sonnet (elite)
20e, ¼s cast, 30s recharge, -2 energy regen
All foes within the range of this "chant" have a 50% chance of redirecting their attack everytime they attack as long as this chant is maintained.

We are weak!
20e, ¼s cast, 30s recharge, -2 energy regen
As long as all party members have hp below 50%, the party can pass through up an enemy party without being attacked.

Rebel against your master!
20e, ¼s cast, 20s recharge
All bound creatures and spirits to enemy party members will be hostile to the character they are bound to. The effect lasts for (5-12) seconds

Fell us not!
20e, 3s cast, 30s recharge,-3 energy regen
As long as this chant is maintained, only one enemy party can attack your party at any time.

The weak will not fall!
25e, 1/4s cast, 60s recharge, -2 energy regen
As long as this chant is maintained, party members with an HP below 30% cannot be attacked or be targeted by enemy spells. For every 3s this chant remains active the caster loses (10-5) energy.

Fell Words

Curse the Flesh
5e, 1s cast, 2s recharge
Inflict 16-48 shadow damage to target foe or 10-22 shadow damage to 4 foes nearby


Tale of the Suffering
10e, 1s cast, 5s recharge, -2 energy regen
For every 3s seconds this spell is maintained, target enemy and up to 3 foes adjacent to him suffer 22-48 shadow damage. The direct target of this hex suffers from bleeding and cripple for 3-8 seconds when the spell ends.

Sonnet of the Damned
15e, 1s cast, 5s recharge, -2 energy regen
For every 3s seconds this spell is maintained, target enemy and up to 3 foes adjacent to him suffer 10-22 shadow damage, weakness, and bleeding.

Malcious Ode (elite)
15e, 1s cast, 5s recharge, -2 energy regen
All enemies within the range of this chant suffer -2 energy degen and -1 health degen. This chant ends if at least one foe within its range reaches 0 energy. When this chant ends, all affacted foes will suffer (1-3) chaos damage per energy lost.

Black Omen
15e, 1s cast, 20s recharge, -2 energy regen
All enemies within the range of this chant attack 33% faster but have a 75% chance to miss. when this chant ends, all affected foes will be dealt (6-12) shadow damage per every attcked missed this way.

In haste, you will fall!
10e, 1/4 cast, 10s recharge
for 5 seconds, all foes affected by this shout will move 33% faster. After 5 seconds, all affected foes will be crippledfor 15 seconds.

Magic is your bane!
20e, 1/4 cast, 60s recharge, -3 energy degen
As long as this chant is maintained, damage to foes coming from spells are increased by (7-15) points.

Curse of the Bloodlines
15e, 3s cast, 15s recharge
Target foe and all foes nearby with the same profession suffer poison and disease for (4-10) seconds

Anticipate your doom!
15e, 1s cast, 20s recharge, -2 energy regen
Target enemy and up to 4 foes adjacent to him suffer -2 health degen and 5% less movement speed for every corpse nearby.


Divine Scripture

Gospel of the Angels
15e, 3s cast, 5s recharge, -1 energy regen
For every 2s seconds this skill is kept active, all party members are healed for 20-45 hp, for every second in between, 25% of the damage received is diverted to the caster.

Book of the Empath (elite)
20e,1/4s cast, 10s recharge, -3 energy regen
As long this skill is maintained 25 % of the damage dealt to a party member is redirected to the caster while the remaining 75% is distributed to other party members.

Poem of the Protector
15e, 3s cast, 5s recharge, -3 energy regen
As long as this chant is maintained, damage dealt to party members within the field of this chant is reduced by (3-12) points.

Sonnet of Undying Love
20e,1/4s cast, 10s recharge, -3 energy regen
As long as this chant is maintained, all allies that die are ressurected 3s after their death with 40% health and +20 armor for (3-8) seconds

Song of the Mourner
15e, 3s cast, 5s recharge, -1 energy regen
For Every ally corpse nearby, all living allies gain a health regen of (4-6) and 20-40 hp for every 3 seconds this skill remains active.

Reflection Sonnet (elite)
25e, 3s cast, 15s recharge, -3 energy regen
As long as this chant is maintained, there is a 75% chance that damage dealt to any ally is reflected to a random enemy.

Song of Resilience
15e, 3s cast, 5s recharge, -1 energy regen
For every 3s this chant is maintained, 1 condition and 1 hex is removed. For evry removed Hex and condition, caster is healed for (22-44) hp.

Diligence of The Martyrs
20e, 3s cast, 15s recharge, -1 energy regen
As long as this chant is maintained, all allies attack move 33% faster and has a 50% chance to evade attacks and projectiles.


We will not Fall!
10e, 1/4s cast, 3s recharge
All allies with less than 50% of health will be healed for (25-45%) of their maximum health.

- more skills will come!
- I really hope you guys would like this idea of mine!
- And oh yeah, criticisms are welcome but take it easy please, this is my first draft
- Please feel free to post any skill suggestion or build modification you’d like me to do!

in my attempt to defend my proposed class, i should say that this class is feasible especially with the addition of new "faction wars" quests that are PvP in incredibly massive scales but are intertwined deeply in the PvE storyline. Since i doubt that this feature would be available in factions only, even with the addition of furrther expansions, its purpose in such large-scale PvP situations would be for crowd control. It has the ability to control crowds in such a way that it doesn't cause AoE damage,AoE hexes or conditions but actually taking control away from enemy players, causing their characters to run-off, attack something else, or stop attacking period for limited periods of time.

I would play this profession. Might not put many points into Divine scripture though...

I really like this class, maybe come up with another name for the "shouts" they use and don't make so many skills that end if you attack, but otherwise, the premise is good and the skills for the majority look balenced.

All Skills need to be usable (with same effect) in PvE and PvP.

Hehe wonder how to use this on pvp

This just seems useless. When I play, I don't try to avoid the monsters, I try to kill them for loot. Your entire class can be summed up with the skill Otyugah's Call, Mesmer (chaos damage ignores armor), and monk all mixed into one. Pretty pointless if you ask me. The only thing this'd be useful for is maybe getting the IWAY dogs to turn on their warrior companions or something ridiculous like that. Like maybe your Spirit would deal damage to it's ally spirits lol.

I redefined my class and skills now. In my new definition, the mediator is no longer an aggro control class but an enemy action control class. This way, its function would now be as a character class that would temporary disable a player's control of their character so that the character would be made to behave in certain ways. Its primary attribute might not cause damage, but it would be the first class dedicated to giving its allies an opening to heal, attack, cast spells, or escape.

Interesting, though some of the skills still seem to only have use and bearing in PvE. I like the idea of re-directing enemies' attacks, and the healing skills. However, for it to be balanced, the skills which direct at passing through parties of enemies without being attacked, and being treated as allies by enemy AI, need changing. With those things in it this class is still pretty directed towards PvE aspects. Good idea though, I haven't seen anything like this before. Nice work.

thanks for replying king symeon! i really appreciate the constructive criticism!
kinda sad though that only a few people bother to read my thread!
thanks anyway!

You've put a good amount of work into this. Nice tweaking on the skills, I see now why you made so many ended if you attack, doing that avoided an abusive shutdown of PvP teams.

Besides the minor tweaking A.net would probably apply to this class, it passes muster in my book.

"Signet of Approval"

Wow, a lot of work on this, and an original one too, nice work! A lot of the skills are interesting with creative effects. Unfortunately, it seems far too specialized for PVE, where many of the skils are overpowered (can you imagine a character that doesn't aggro enemies as a runner?). Secondly, how many players would want to play this? Most players like to bash things in the face, hence the popularity of the warrior class, or effect them in some other cool way. I don't see getting a lot of roleplaying enjoyment from someone who just talks the enemies into being giving up.

Though there are skills that are overpowered, i think this would appeal to players because a majority of the skills which i have posted, and the skills that i will post in the days to come revolve on redirecting and controlling enemy activity. At least in my point of view, this aspect of my concept class would appeal to the player community because this would be the first class to offer such skill.

and oh yeah, ive changed my aggro eliminating skills into elites. This way, players can only eliminate aggro for certain types of enemies, therefore minimizing exploits.

anymore suggestions guys?

too powerful
simular to ritualist
wont happen anyways


but it does exist!
Me/Mo
Protection prayer
Inspiration

Pacifism

um... how is it similar to the ritualist?

guys... any other thoughts on my concept? i would really like to hear comments from the people... just keep it respectful though...

I like this idea, the whole redirecting the attacks, immunity to spells under certain conditions, or the "shouts" you maintain, to boost your allies or annoy your enemies.
for the things I think should be reworked:

I think your first attribute soothsaying, the skills within it, need to be tweaked. Why? because it doesnt apply in pve and pvp, only pve. In pvp, the only use of the aggro bubble is to know the range of your spells. the "I Am Brethren" skill is too situationnal, and has no use in pvp. Also, a lot of your skills have a big energy cost (15, 20), and have in addition a high maintainment cost (-2 , -3 energy regen). The mediator s primary attribute is also too pve oriented.
for all i have said, I still think your idea is great, and with a bit of tweating on what ive mention (i hope i havent said anything too horrible to read), it would be more balanced, for both pve and pvp.

i actually adore the fact that you criticized me constructively.. thanks for your input... i'm tweaking the class as we speak.. i'll be posting an updated version in a week!

great! i ll be waiting for your tweak then

I love this idea

And yknow, so what if its pve oriented. Perhaps this character could be available for pve only? It would make for some very interesting gameplay experiences.

I too await the tweakage

I really really like this idea, and would choose this class in a second were it available. I personally enjoy Mesmer and other similar classes that focus not on basic damage dealing, be it magikal or physical, but instead on manipulation of existing energy. I dare say I'm not alone in my love of manipulative characters, and i think there's a bigger market for this sort of thing out there than all the méle fighters and lightning casters out there would have us all believe.

i likes it

Kinda late on the bandwagon, but I really really like this idea. Like, I would delete one of my characters to make one if i was out of slots, like it.

Very Keen.

Probably in the presence of the mass buffing and healing effects - they do overlap a little in concept to certain Ritualist spirits.

I think this class concept suffers a little from 'if ANet thought it would work in the game, they'd have already done it' syndrome. Much of the basic premise of your class - aggro control and forcing people to do things they wouldn't normally do - would, in my opinion, fit quite neatly in concept into the Domination and Illusion skill lines, so if they were to be introduced, I'd expect to see them there instead of as a new class.

However, even with the main basis for the class ripped out right there, I think there may still be some potential as a basis for a bard-type class with the chants and shouts.

This idea made me laugh, thinking of a Jedi Master...
"these are not the droids you're looking for"

I may have missed it but was there no direct affect atribute? Like marksmanship or fast casting? something that affects the char without skills - But i only breifly skimmed it, i may have missed it

Alos reconsider soem of those shouts/song/things the gosple one is way overpowered, constand healing? to everyone and a maintained enchantment.

Anyway good luck with getting this build published (for want of a better word)