Concept Class: Artificer

Yeah, I posted this once before, a while ago. I've since revised some of it, and want to give it a fresh start on the boards (BTW, mods, if you could delete the last version, a few pages down, I'd be grateful. Thanks.)

So I was thinking about the various skills and pieces of equipment the other day, and I got to thinking "What are some of the least used, least respected skill types in the game?" Signets. I started thinking, jokingly, about a caster class who specialized in signets. Then I realized that it actually had potential, if designed properly. Signets can do almost anything, from cripple, to heal, to harm, to restore energy, to rez.

What else gets no respect? Using wands/staves solely as weapons. Again, if given an attribute and maybe some skills, this too could go from being a joke to being an amusing yet playable possibility.

Yes, signets are its primary ability, but look too at its other abilities and its potential as a secondary class.

Artificer
Ar/

Description: Intended as a versatile caster, able to support/shoot/buff/debuff, but without the specialization of the existing classes. Equipment and items that others might simply use, these masters excel at. Focus on Signets and wands/foci/staves. Will treat caster weapons the way a ranger treats a bow.

Attributes:
Primary: Signets: Runs the gamut, from healing, to smiting, buffing, rezzing, hexing, you name it. Each level of this attribute not only increases the power of the signet effects, but also lowers the recharge time by 5% (anybody who's been subjected to a chain of smiting sigs from a monk knows that this has serious potential). Also includes a handful of skills/spells to buff signet usage

Smithy: Hexes/enchantments/weapon spells to degrade your opponents weapons/armor, and temporarily upgrade your own. Each point of Smithy also grants +1 armor vs. Physical and +2 armor vs. Elemental.

Wand Mastery: Much like a warrior's weapons, wands and staves are the Artificer's best friends. Various skills can produce extra effects on attacks, from interrupts, to burst-damage on impact, to energy denial. Levels of this attribute increase damage done per attack, and grant a 3% increase in attack speed per level while wielding a wand.

Staff Mastery: Much like a warrior's weapons, wands and staves are the Artificer's best friends. Various skills can produce extra effects on attacks, from interrupts, to burst-damage on impact, to energy denial. Levels of this attribute increase damage done per attack, and grant a 2% chance to block incoming attacks/level while wielding a staff.

Max armor: probably 65, not including skill bonus. They are a caster class, but because of their reliance on signets and equipment, they probably won't have any energy enhancements, so they only have the 2 pips of energy regen.


Skills:
-Signets: As I said, signets can do just about anything in the game. Really this would be renaming and reusing the existing sigs, but with acess to a wide range of effects. Sig of Disruption, Sig of Agony, sig of Judgement, midnight, bane, barbed, unnatural, etc.. I know the idea of reusing old skills is frowned upon, but many of these never get used at all. A few more would have to be added. Most damage dealers should be either Chaos damage or Shadow damage. How about:

Signet of Striking
cast time: 1 seconds
Recharge time 16 seconds
Sends out a bolt of energy. If it hits, target takes {2...14} chaos damage and {2...14} shadow damage.

Darkning Ring
Signet
Cast time: 1
Recharge: 30
Target foe takes {5...25} Shadow damage and {5...25} Lightning damage. All foes in the area take an additional {1...5} Lightning damage and are blinded for {5...10} seconds. You are blinded for {5...1} seconds.

Overwhelming Signet
signet
cast time: 2 seconds
recharge time 30 seconds
Target foe takes {5...45} shadow damage and is knocked down and exhausted. You are exhausted.

Signet of barriers
Signet
Cast time 2 seconds
recharge time 20 seconds
Target ally moves and attacks 25% slower, and gains {2...32} armor for {5...22} seconds.

Enchanted Gauntlet
Elite Stance
Energy cost: 15
Cast time: 1/4 second
recharge time 90 seconds
All your signets become recharged. All foes within melee range take (5...50) chaos damage. For the next (5...25) seconds you have a (10...50)% chance to block any incoming attacks. All non-signet skills you possess are disabled for (10...1) seconds. You begin bleeding for {5...1} seconds. You become exhausted.


-Wands/staves: Aside from damage dealing sigs, these will be a major offensive capability for Artificers. Many of the skills will probably have to be re-hashes of warrior or ranger skills (Distracting blow/shot, crude swing, etc) Yes, some of these will use adrenaline. Any damage done by these skills is the same type of damage as the wand/staff being wielded. Here's some skill ideas:

Staff Blast
attack skill
Attribute: Staff Mastery
5 adrenaline
If this attack hits, it deals equal damage in a burst to all {ground zero...in the area} foes

power flash
attack skill
Attribute: Wand Mastery
5 energy
If this attack hits, target foe becomes blinded for {1...15} seconds

Overcharge
Elite preparation
Attribute: Staff Mastery
15 energy
For the next {5...30} seconds, you suffer 3 damage for every attack you make with a staff, and each attack costs +1 extra energy. Every staff attack you make deals +{2...16} damage, and negates 3 energy from the target hit.


-Smithy: Primarily buffs/debuffs themed/based off of equipment.

Reinforcing Runes
Enchantment spell
Energy cost: 10
Cast time: 4 seconds
recharge time: 30 seconds
while you maintain this enchantment, target ally's armor ignores armor penetration effects, and target ally cannot suffer Weakness or Deep Wounds.

Weight of the World
Elite Hex spell
Energy: 5
Cast time: 1 second
Recharge: 15 seconds
The caster imbues one foe's weapons with the weight of the world for {5....20} seconds Their weapons increase in mass and require a great deal more effort to wield. Each attack exhausts the hexed character, and removes one strike of adrenaline. All the target's attacks have a 20% miss chance and do +5 damage.

Bulk
Hex spell
energy: cost 10
cast time: 1 second
recharge time: 10 seconds
For {5-15} seconds, target foe moves and attacks 5% slower for every 10 points of armor they possess.

Tetanus
Elite hex spell
energy cost: 5
cast time: 1 second
Recharge time: 15 seconds
For {1...32} seconds, target foe suffers -1 degen for each piece of armor he or she is wearing. This ends prematurely if target uses a signet. If target uses a signet, he or she takes 15 damage.

Sympathetic Smithing
Enchantment spell
Energy cost: 15
casting time: 3
recharge time: 35
Duration: 25 seconds
Target ally attacks 10% faster. Every time that ally deals damage, all allies in the area gain {1..3} strike{s} of adrenaline and deal cumulative +1 damage for {2...8} seconds.

Now, I'll address some of the criticisms I received last time I posted this (BTW, Mods, please delete the last version. Thank you.)

Rust: Yes, the rust spell will put a serious hurt on the over-signeted builds. But stop and think, how many people take the rust spell? Really? You hardly ever see it in PvP anymore. You see it some in some areas of PvE, but the monsters who use it don't use it well, and it is essentially useless. This class gives it back its reason for existing. The same goes for the other anti-sig spells/rituals/skills.

The name: Can you think of a better name for someone who relies on items and artifacts? I'm open to suggestions.

The skills: I tried to balance each positive skill with a hindrance or drawback, that's why some of them have serious negative effects on the caster. You have to choose whether the benefit is worth the cost, not just in energy.


Please, I'm open to almost any comments or suggestions.


------>Note: I edited Overcharge to reduce the damage dealt 3:31 PM, UAS Central time, 7-8-06<-----

As what a Men would say to a Monkey Knife Fight... "Its Good"

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for some reviews...

I think Artificer is a good name.
As said in your previous version, I had a similar concept class in my head as well, but you beat me to it. Now I lack the desire to write it out...<

On other matter, there could be some problme with an attribute full of Signet. Signet is too good. It is design as a energy mangement skill, where you could still use it even if you don't have any energy left. However, that is why most class don't have alot of signet, and even if they do, its not all in one attribute. Putting it all in one attribute would make it too easy to fouse on it, making all signet in that attribute to be good. so if you carry 8 signet at once, you could easily dump it all on one target at once (with no cost of any energy), which might make it even better than that of an assassin. (it could be better if added a few more anti-sig skills all around)

Well, that is one concern, but nothing big. Rest is great, as always. For rest, I will save it for my Conjuror

My biggest concern is not Rust. It's Ignorance. We don't see Ignorance much now, right? Or Rust? You're suggesting a character that depends on Signets. Let's suppose this character makes it into a later chapter. Ignorance will find its way on every Mesmer skill bar. Or Rust on every Ele.

Those two skills aren't used now because, like you said, there's no use for them. So then...why suggest a class that would get completely castrated by one skill...with the goal of...either creating a new type of caster class (non-spell-based) or to improve the desirability of two hexes?

It just seems counterproductive, I suppose. We want new professions to expand gameplay options. I don't know if this character would necessarily expand gameplay options.

If you could create some skills that can pre-counter hexes like that, that'd be peachy. I'd rather not see this character have to go /Me secondary for Hex Breaker, or /Mo for Remove Hex or whatever. If at all possible, having one or two instant cast Signets to pre-cast as hex defenses in this character's line-up would be fantastic. Perhaps...

Mirage Signet
0 second cast time, 0 second recharge
For X seconds, Mirage Signet protects you from {1...5} hexes cast against you. When Mirage Signet ends, it is disabled for 5 seconds for each hex protected in this way.

I think a lot of the skills you've listed here are tremendously overpowered. Weight of the World seems excessive, as do Bulk and Tetanus. Not entirely sure how to balance those skills, because this hangover is still killing me, but for WotW...

Weight of the World
Elite Hex spell
Energy: 15
Cast time: 1 second
Recharge: 30 seconds
The caster imbues target foe's weapon with the weight of the world for {5....15} seconds Their weapons increase in mass and require a great deal more effort to wield. Each attack exhausts the hexed character, and removes one strike of adrenaline. All the target's attacks have a {20...10}% miss chance and do +{25...5} damage.

I'm leery of the Exhaustion. I like the idea of it, I'm just not sure how it'd play out. Other than that, I'm thinking my suggestions might be a bit better for the skill. They'd really encourage the character to try to max out that attribute line. heh

ooo, buff the bulk to around 100 or less points of armour. Wammo's average 400, and you're also including armour increasing skills too.

Reinforcing runes seems pretty cool. I dont have an opinion with anti condition skills. The only one that currently exists is Tainted Flesh... as far as i know.

Overcharge is... +52 per hit... The rangers elite skill Glass Arrows deals around 14...15 per hit, and doesnt last as long. The penalties arent sufficient to balance out the benefits, making this skill overpowering.

Power flash, reduce the initial to 1 second. Otherwise it seems like a good skill..

Signets are pretty cool, well done^^

Oh, sorry for my upside down reading... 6 am, im going to bed now...

So, an all-sig artificer primary would get screwed. Just like an all-sig mesmer, an all-blood necro, an all-smite monk, an all-trap ranger....

You can't over-focus. You need to diversify. If you're going to run a specialized build, you better have a good team backing you up. If you don't want to fret over a handful of enemy spells that cripple you (I'm looking at you, Primal Echos), then don't focus on signets. Focus on the weapon and hex lines instead. That's why they're there. Think also about how artificer works as a secondary class.

First time I saw the reply. lol

I don't think those are really fair comparisons, though. The Sig Mes is the only truly relevant example, and even then, it's a weak comparison.

We're talking about one hex dooming an entire character class. Ignorance is entirely "cast-and-forget." There is no hex in the game that can ruin an all-blood Necro, or Smite Monk, etc. Ignorance, however, can ruin Sig-based builds.

We don't see many Sig Mesmers. Do you know why? Not because of Ignorance. We don't see many Sig Mesmers because most of the Mes Sigs are clunky and pretty awful, and aren't worth designing a build around them.

For your class, however? A class whose main purpose (as you stated in the original post) is to use Signets? A class that should have good and viable Signets in the skill line-up?

Think about that for a moment, then re-check your suggested skills, because I just countered the entire character with an existing hex. And that is why I recommended Mirage Signet.

Most of this is irrelevant, because specialized builds are due to specific skill selections, rather than an entire class centered on one idea. And I already mentioned how I think some of your hexes are horribly overpowered. lol

Sure there is. The Monk spell that doubles all health lost to sacrifice spells (Which is half of the blood necro's damage dealers). Pacifism. Shroud of Shadows. Blackout. Diversion. Power Block. Distracting shot.

As for your assessment of the class' primary focus, I point you to the description. Please try to read it this time.

Please try actually reading instead of skimming, junior. Someone who thinks they're going to "pwn" an artificer with one skill is just as foolish as someone who thinks "throw dirt" makes him immune to wammos. Doesn't work that way.

I'm not saying the class is finished. I've been editing and re-tweaking the skills, and wouldn't mind any serious help on the issue. But if you're like Siren, then please keep browsing. I don't need help from people like that.

And in attempting to counter my point, you ended up making my point for me by listing other "lockdown" skills, and allowing me to show how different 90% of them are.

Scourge Sacrifice. One, when have we ever seen this skill used in regular or semi-regular play? And two, how is this actually disabling the entire skill bar of the Necro, particularly when they'd still be able to cast/sacri?

Pacifism. Again, one, when have we ever seen this skill used in regular or semi-regular play, and two, we already have melee-based characters and never see this skill, so how is this actually disabling anything?

Shroud of Silence (that is the spell suppression skill, by the way). Out of the list, SoS is probably the closest thing to Ignorance in this discussion, but again, where are we seeing this skill? And two, smart spellcasters will always have a way around Shroud of Silence, since it only disables spells (as in, they're going to have options in their skill set), so how is Shroud of Silence actually disabling an entire character from the start?

Blackout. At least we see this in regular play, but it's only used in short burst maneuvers, or to nuke Adre on a Warrior (and a War is still a threat when auto-attacking, apparently), so with the short duration of 6 seconds, how are you able to say this is disabling an entire character like Ignorance would disable a character centered on using Signets?

Diversion. To lock out an entire character like Ignorance would do to this profession, you'd need to use Diversion seven times and catch each skill. Good luck with that, mate. lol

Power Block. I can't remember the last time I even heard of Power Block being used. I think there's only one person in the Mesmer forum that still has Power Block in their build. It's a gimmick Elite with a lousy cooldown, high energy cost, and it's an interrupt no less. I'm sorry, but I don't think Power Block is relevant at all, especially when we're looking at Ignorance shutting down your character without you needing to cast anything.

Distracting Shot. Disabling a single skill for an additional 20 seconds? I don't think that's very relevant here, either, since Ignorance--a single hex--will entirely castrate this character.

It would benefit you greatly to drop the punk-ass tone, because I read the "primary focus" and I think it's trash, no offense, because like I said earlier, your buffs are either overpowered or completely broken. Your hexes scare me because they're absurdly imbalanced.

I like the idea of someone using a staff to shoot, but you've only listed three skills, and those three are less than spectacular, bordering on useless or overpowered. And realistically, what kind of feedback do you expect when you provide a measly three skills for an entire attribute line?

Make no mistake here. Based on the meager offerings you've written in your original post, and the downright absurd nature of the non-Signet-based attribute lines, I have absolutely no reason to believe this profession's primary focus is not on Signet usage. Incidentally, if you want to prove me wrong here, provide me with more than a dozen skills...give me 75. Hell, I'd be happy with 50. Or even 25. But 12-13? You've got to be kidding me.

Oh and as I've no reason to believe this class so far will be doing anything other than using Signets, I've recommended making changes.

Like that? What, you think I'm here just to be a dick and not actually provide some feedback? I'm here to just say hurtful or hypercritical things, and outright ignore any positive aspects of your suggestion?

Get with the program and read the rest of my posts then, because when you do, you'll find that what I'm saying is designed to improve your suggestion. Hell, I even offered an idea for a (desperately needed) skill, bringing your grand skill total up to a whole 14 skills.

You want to accuse me of talking shit here, of just trying to flame you or whatever? Yeah, if I were so inclined to do that, I would have already. I would not have suggested changes. I would not have provided you with feedback and ideas that would strengthen and/or balance your suggestion.