New Profession: Arcanist

The Arcanist

Wise and all knowing the Arcanist are neutrals in past, present and future. Wielding unparalleled knowledge with the ability to aid his allies or harm his enemies. Best described as a Mesmer/Ritualist with new mechanics involved; Sole purpose as a support role.

Attributes:
Primary
Recollection – For the first rank in Recollection your skills recharge 3% faster afterwards every point adds 2%. (Limit of 33% at 16 Recollection)

Secondary
Research - No inherent effect. Many Arcanist skills, especially those related to the Research attribute line, become more effective with a higher rank in Research.

Wisdom or Arcane Magic– No inherent effect. Many Arcanist skills, especially those related to Wisdom or Arcane Magic, become more effective with higher Wisdom or Arcane Magic. (Can't decide on a name)

Concentration - No inherent effect. Many Arcanist skills, especially those related to the Concentration attribute line, become more effective with a higher rank in Concentration.

New Mechanics:
Revision – Works like Weapon Spells, cannot be stripped from target. Rather then being ended by enchantments, Revisions will end prematurly if target ally drops bellow 50% health, this excludes revisions that target your enemy. Revisions do stack.

Confusion – New condition, During this time your skill set is randomly rearranged.

Statistics:
Health: 480
Energy: 20
Energy Regan: 2

Equipment: (Ex)
Book Keeper’s Hood: 60 Armor +1 Recollection
Book Keeper’s Robe: 60 Armor +3 Energy
Book Keeper’s Gloves: 60 Armor +1 Energy
Book Keeper’s Leggings: 60 Armor +2 Energy, +1 Energy Regan
Book Keeper’s Boots: 60 Armor +1 Energy, +1 Energy Regan

Runic Helm: 75 Armor +10 vs Physical +20 vs Elemental +1 Wisdom -1 Energy
Runic Breastplate: 75 Armor +10 vs Physical +20 vs Elemental -2 Energy
Runic Gauntlets: 75 Armor +10 vs Physical +20 vs Elemental -1 Energy
Runic Greaves: 75 Armor +10 vs Physical +20 vs Elemental -1 Energy +1 Energy Regan
Runic Boots: 75 Armor +10 vs Physical +20 vs Elemental -1 Energy +1 Energy Regan

Doctrine’s Rod
Energy Dmg: 11-22 (req. 9 Wisdom)
+5 Energy (while health is above 50%)
Recollection skills recharge 20% faster (chance 20%)

Tome of Lore
+12 Energy (req. 9 Wisdom)
+30 Health
Wisdom skills recharge 20% faster (chance 20%)

Skills:
Recollection
Preparation – 10, 3, 45
Revision. Target other ally’s skills recharge 33% faster while you suffer from 2 points of energy degeneration.

Research
Knowledge of Conflagration – 10, 2, 45
Revision. Target ally's hostile Fire Magic spells gain a 10% chance to cause burning for 1...3 seconds. This Revision lasts second 2…..24 seconds.

Knowledge of Earth – 10, 2, 45
Revision. Target ally's hostile Earth Magic spells gain a 40% chance of causing weakness for 3...10 seconds on target foe. This Revision lasts for 2...24 seconds.

Yield to the Heavens – 15, 2, 45
Revision. Target ally's healing, protection, or divine favor spells have a 10% chance of causing 1...3 health regan for 3...10 seconds. This revision lasts for 2…..20 seconds.

Guidance – 10, 1, 20
Revision. The next stance target ally enters lasts 5….20% longer.

{Elite} Knowledge of the Elements – 15, 3, 45
Revision Target ally gains +1…2 in all elemental attributes for 2…..24 seconds.

Familiarity with the Winds – 10, 2, 45
Revision. Target ally’s arrows fly 2x faster and deal +3…7 damage. This revision lasts for 8....34 seconds.

Intuition Of the Duelist – 5, 2, 30
Revision. Target ally gains +1…4 attribute points in Tactics for 2…16 seconds. This ends prematurely if target ally uses a skill of any other attribute.

Secrets of Hell - 10, 3, 30
Revision. When ever target ally casts a death magic spell all of his minions gain 25....130 health, but you suffer 63....29 damage.

Pact of the Shadows - 10, 5, 45
Revision. Target ally gains a 10% chance to land dual attacks in melee. For every sucessful dual attack executed target ally gains a 1% chance to land a critical hit. This revision lasts for 4....18 seconds, and when it ends all effects (Dual/Critical) are taken away.

Untapped Energy - 15, 3, 30
Revision. Target ally gains 10%...25% more energy for 2.....15 seconds.

Bestial Frenzy - 5, 1, 30
Revision. Target pet ally attacks 33% faster for 6.....24 seconds.

Hardened Armor - 10, 3, 30
Revision. Target ally gains +10....34 armor but moves 18....7% slower. This revision lasts for 2....14 seconds.

Wisdom or Arcane Magic (Can't decide on a name)
Forgetfulness – 10, 1, 30
Spell. The next skill used by target foe has a 50% chance of failing.

{Elite}Tome of Enclosure: 15, 3, 30
Hex Spell. Target foe’s movement speed is reduced by 33% for 4...16 seconds. Any ally of that foe, that the foe comes in contact with will move 33% slower for 2….12 seconds.

Signet of Misunderstanding – 5, 3, 20
Spell. The next spell target foe uses on an ally of himself is redirected to an ally of yourself instead.

Comprehension – 10, 1/2, 20
Hex Spell. If target foe is using a skill while this is casted, the next time target foe uses that skill against you it will fail and target foe suffers from confusion for 2…12 seconds.

Identify – 3, 45
Signet. For 2…..15 seconds you can view target foe’s skill set up. (Ideally meant to help Mesmers interrupt)

Faulty Armor - 10, 3, 30
Revision. Target foe has -20 less armor against attacks of any kind, if knocked down while suffering from Faulty Armor target foe suffers from confusion for 1...6 seconds.

{Elite}Sonic Boom - 25, 2, 45
Spell. Send out three shock waves, the first knocking enemies over, the second causing weakness for 2....15 seconds, and the third causing confusion for 4....20 seconds.

Mind Disrupt – 5, 1, 30
Spell. Target foe suffers from confusion for 2....10 seconds.

{Elite} Mind Collapse - 15, 3, 40
Spell. For 2...8 seconds every spell that target foe uses will take an additional 5....20 seconds to recharge.

Overlook - 10, 3, 25
Hex Spell. For every enchantment target foe is maintaining, target foe suffers an additional 1 energy deganeration.

Zeal of the Spirits - 5, 1, 20
Spell. All nearby enemy spirits suffer from 2....10 health deganeration. For each spirit you effect you suffer 5....20 damage.

Concentration
Focus – 15, 60
Stance. For 3…18 seconds you cannot be interrupted while using a revision skill.

Peace at Mind – 10, 2, 30
Revision. For 2…8 seconds target other ally does not suffer energy degeneration from maintaining up to 1…3 enchantments.

Healthy Form - 5, 1, 20
Enchantment Spell. For every Revision you introduce to an ally, you gain 15...45 health. This enchantment spell lasts for 30 seconds.

{Elite} Remedy - 10, 3, 30
Revision. Target ally cannot suffer from conditions for 2....12 seconds.

Clearity of the Mind - 5, 3, 25
Spell. Loose all revisions on yourself, for each revision lost you gain 2...9 energy.

Mind over Matter - 15, 3, 20
Revision. Target foe may absorb up to 35....165 melee damage. This revision lasts for 2....10 seconds.

No Attribute
Signet of Energy - 3, 45
Signet. Gain 10 energy, this action is easily interrupted.

Really nice.

That elite Knowledge of the Elements would be nice for an Elementalist primary. If there were independant self-healing skills in Research attribute, I would definately use that.

PS: There is already an Elementalist skill called "Mind Shock" so your Mind Shock skill would need a rename. Maybe "Brain Shock"?

funny but maybe too deja-vu as elementalist-ish stuff doesnt it ? :/

very cool - revisions are like bard songs right? (never played d&d in her life)

You missed the duration of some of the skills there.

The 'Tome of Enclosure' has no time defined for the foe you target, the time is set only for those who touch with him.

Still a very detailed and good job imo.

Updated it with some new skills and such. Well Restoration is a very powerful attribute line in itself, so self heals in that would probably over power it. Wisdom is kind of an offensive for them, and concentration is the heal.

Very well done. Comprehensive, well thought out, and almost perfectly balanced (I'd adjust some of the durations a little, but that's about it)

All in all, one of the best concept classes I've seen.

that is an awsome idea you should totaly do it and if you won'tg i will submit it to guild wars offical website

Thanks for the positive feedback, but some constructive criticism would be nice.

Thats very flattering.. But I don't think theres a possible way to "do it" and I'm sure Anet staffies check our forums often. So they'll have their choice of influence.

I thought that this would be overpowered, but it's really ballanced. Great job Nevin.

So, basically, it's a profession that boosts the damage and healing of other professions? Very nice.

It sounds good, seems like it would have a place in the game. However, it doesn't seem to appetizing to play. Relying completely on others for your build to work?

I like it. It would be nice to see a total support character in GW, although that may not fly with some people. It is one of the better classes I've read in a while.

The reason I didn't give the Arcanist anything spectacular such as how Monks have Smiting, Ritualists have Channeling, etc etc. Is because they make their secondarys very powerful, I'm guessing you have all been looking at Arcanists as almost just a buffer, but they can be much more. In reference to D&D Arcanists were kind of a jack of all trades. Sure they can buff their allies, but at the same time with their fast recharge and buffing power they'd be able to take full advantage of their secondary profession.

Nice idea. That will end all monk-bashing, everybody will blame defeat on the arcanist

On the up side, I like the idea of a fully support-dedicated class ; furthermore, it is balanced (balanceable), and would find its own niche in the game. On the down side, it will be interesting but probably hard to use this class in PUGs, as it will require a lot of team coordination (which there isn't enough of). Garanteed hit in PvP I guess. We could also expect to see a lot of Arcanists secondaries in solo builds. A lot of Ar/Me too (fast recharge Mesmer, who needs fast casting).

Two small (fine tuning) notes :
- why the larger mana pool ? (I'm just not sure right now, but the norm is 20, right ?).
- why cap Recollection benefit at 30%. People pump their attributes up to 16 with hat+runes, maybe more with conditionnal effects. Why not give a 3% benefit for the first point, plus 2% per extra point, totalling a nice 'round' 33% at 16 points.
- this class will have very little in the way of self-defense. Maybe a slightly increased defense, or increased resistance to magical effects maybe (as an armour option).


Anyhow, a _very_ intriguing proposition.

Well their spells are relatively low cost, but they only have 3 energy regan... I think I may alter this. I wanted to strive for something different then the generic 40 energy and 4 pips of energy regan. But it seems unavoidable. I'll alter some stuff. Well, PvE can in fact be rather spastic. Not only do I see Arcanists as a support role, they might as well be the ones forming parties. Personally in PvE I form my parties for every mission (as a monk) Because I wanna get it right the first time around. Thus my parties are usually experienced and understand the situation, otherwise if thats not available Arcanists can simply look at what professions are in his party.

A pure buffer, very nice. I think a class (or two) along these lines would be very nice.

Update: Edited some skills, fixed some. Still thinking of new armors.

you realize one of the rules of guild wars it seems is, no buffs/whatever you want to call them can have a negitive effect of the person having it casted on, so that secrets of hell would have to be fixed.... and some others, I don't blame you for it though, if I tried to make a new class, it would be crap

this class seems pretty cool, buff everyone

this sounds like the ultimate support prof. - very strong elite type of prof, sounds tricky but really interesting.

Only problem i can see is that the skills seem to designate one profession as their target. This wouldnt be very useful if you had a varied group, and i dont think it would work well in RA but maybe good in TA and HoH. Keep up the work, and i like the idea behind the class.

Also, in GW usually if u have plus 1 energy regen you have minuse XX energy. I could be wrong, but thats what i thought.

One more thought.... might be a good support for 2 person farming??????

hell~

I certainly like this class. Well thought out concept, and I beleive that this is what Anet was hoping to do with physical character buffs with the Paragon, but this would fit with spellcaster buffs instead of physical buffs. Revisions might not fit in as unshatterable and stacking, but just 1 of those would fit in well, unless we get a rival for this class in that can shatter these buffs. I thought of some nice ideas. How about these:

Research:
Book of Maps{E}: Cost: 15, Cast: 2, Recharge: 35
Revision. The next 1...9 traps set by target other ally are not easily interupted.

Tome of Hexes: Cost: 15, Cast: 2, Recharge: 40
Revision. The next 1...7 hexes cast by target other ally recharge instantly.

Wisdom/Arcane Magic
Call for Silence {E}: Cost 5, Cast 3, Recharge: 25
Hex Spell. For 5...13 seconds, target enemy cannot use shouts or chants.

Thinking anti-Paragon already! Call for Silence came up since the word "revision" makes me think of the Arcanist almost like a Librarian, but in a good way. Overall, I think this s the best concept class I've ever seen. I hope that Anet will implement this class in one way or another.

Side Note: don't be suprised if I pop in and suggest some new skills, I'm almost excited with this...

I'm supporting this, as this is not a Lame copy of Elementalist. They are beyond magic, and they know stuff that nobody else dares to learn.

by the way, dont all casters have 4 regen? and you beter find more complicated spells

Convenient :-), doesn't look like a lot of fun to play though :S

This seems interesting and would be a great 2nd profession to deepen or buff other magic casters e.g. eles. Keep up the good work. ^^

Some pics I found fitting the concept, enjoy ^^


http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h4...ch_smaller.gif
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h4...ETED_Large.jpg

even for a buffer class, you will probably want some pure damage skills. And 4 pips of energy sounds like a good idea, because many of your skills have a 10+ energy cost. Im really interested in this concept class, but it seems like it may not be very fun to play without some -actual- damage skills. Monks have Smiting, Ritualists have Channeling, it would just seem natural for the Arcanist to have something to spread some pain, right? But all in all, this is a great class, you have skill!