New Class Idea: Strategist

I havent done a detailed search, but in my months of hanging around the sanitarium I've noticed many suggestions for various rogue/ninja classes, as well several very specialised/wierd caster-variations. And some unarmed brawler type classes. There's also a general acceptance that it would be good to have more melee-specialised classes. So I thought I'd try my hand in suggesting something that might be a little different, yet still fit well within the GW universe. Inspired by a certain character in the classic RPG Langrisser 4

(slight disclaimer. Dont pay too much attention to any example numbers for skill costs and stuff. I'm just making them up off the top of my head. Also, I wont bother deciding which skills will be elite or not. Those things can be worked out by testing.)

Class: Strategist. (or if you prefer, General, Commander, etc. But I like Strategist.)

Appearance/Armour: varies from formal-ish medieval military clothing, to light metal armor (eg, breastplate over heavy clothing, etc.) Armor values range from ranger's to slightly better than rangers. Lighter armours provide some energy bonuses. Strong against ranged damage. (piercing, elemental, etc.)

Role:As primary, provides a variety of "shout" style buffs and debuffs that affect the enemy and the party. Many defensive melee skills to protect against close combatants. As secondary, can be used for some buff support, or mostly to enhance melee abilities.

Purpose: I wanted a melee character that blended better with a caster secondary than the existing warrior. The 2 energy regen and small mana pool really limits the casting secondary. I also wanted a more energy-skill oriented melee class. As for a style reason, I like the "swordsman in normal clothing" look over the heavily-armoured look, being an anime fan and all that.

Special Skill types: depends on whether we are having new skill types for new classes, or whether new classes just reuse existing skill types.
*Battle Plan. (or Shout)
(Note: The effect of any battle plan ends if the Strategist is killed)
*Enhancement (or monk-style Enchantment)


Attributes:

This class has 3 pips of energy regen & an energy pool similar to a ranger.


** Primary Attribute: Influence.
This attribute increases the radius of effect of the Strategist's Battle Plans. At 0, they will be slightly larger than "adjacent", at 16, the radius will be 1.5 times the aggro circle.
Also, at 10 Influence, a fourth pip of energy regen is obtained. No further regen can be obtained from higher levels of Influence.

Skills in this line are powerful skills that will allow the player's teammates to turn the tide of the battle. They are probably mostly elite.

Example skills:

Spell Storm: 20E, 5s casting, 90s recast. Causes exhaustion.
Within 10s, the next offensive spell cast by target other ally will also be cast on 1..5 extra randomly chosen enemies within area of influence.

Overrun: 20E, 1s cast, 90s recast.
For 5..20s, affected allies gain 10% run speed boost and 33% attack speed boost. They do double damage in melee to enemies running away from them. The effect ends, for all allies, if any enemy "evades" or "blocks" an attack.

Assault at Range: 20E, 1s cast, 90s recast.
For 5..20s, affected allies have 10..50% increased range on their ranged attacks. Their ranged attacks also cause enemies to be Crippled for 10s. The effect ends if an affected ally moves.

Covert Mission: 10E, 1s cast, 90s recast.
Target ally and 0..2 allies adjacent to target become invisible and unable to be seen, listed with holding ctrl, or targeted for 5..15s. They move with 10% speed penalty. Effect ends for all if any affected ally becomes adjacent to an enemy, performs any action, or takes damage (eg, from AOE skills).

Preparing The Battlefield: 20E, 3s cast, 90s recast
All "traps" and "wards" performed by affected allies become instant cast, last twice as long, and recharge instantly. This effect lasts for 1..4 traps/wards, for each affected ally, before wearing off.



** Attribute: Duelist
This attribute substitutes for Sword and Axe mastery in terms of weapon requirements and damage. The skills in this line can be used with both sword and axe. (or alternatively, if we want to give this class a new weapon type of its own, then I'm thinking of light, single handed swords. Like rapiers, sabres, etc.)

Skills in this line are various defensive/counterattack style melee skills, and some conditional attacks. Emphasis is not on spamming attacks but on using them at the right times for powerful effect.

Example skills:

Brilliant Riposte: 10 Energy, Instant Cast, 45 sec recharge.
For 8 seconds, if target performs an attack, "block" the attack and Riposte ends. If the attack was melee, target takes 5..30 damage. If the attack was a skill, Riposte recharges instantly.

Guarding Parry: 15 E, 3/4 Cast, 30s recharge.
For 3..20secs, if your target is "attacking" an ally adjacent to you, you have a 75% chance to "block" the attacks. Does not work on spells.

Weakpoint Thrust: 15E, 3/4s Cast, 5s recharge.
If target is moving, or performing an action (attack, spell, etc) against someone other than yourself, you will perform a single normal melee attack with 50% armour penetration, and knock them down.

Eye Slash: 10E, 1/2s cast, 5s recharge.
If this attack hits, target is Blinded for 10..30s.


** Attribute: Defensive Planning
No inherent effect. Skills in this line are similar to "shouts" and create various beneficial effects for allies. However, these effects, unlike most buffs, usually require the allies to do certain things or behave in certain ways to get the full effects. All Battle Plans are instant cast. They affect all allies in the radius determined by Influence.

Phalanx: 15E, 5s recharge.
For 5..10s, all allies will receive the shield bonus from all other adjacent allies carrying shields. Allies carrying shields will have their movement slowed 50%.

Strategic Withdrawal: 10E, 45s recharge.
For 30..60s, all allies have a 75% chance to "evade" attacks from enemies in front of them, when they are walking backwards.

Take Cover: 10E, 30s recharge
For 10s, allies standing next to a landscape feature (rock, pillar, cliff, etc.) have a 30..60% chance to "Evade" any kind of ranged damage, from arrows and spells.

Harassment: 10E, 30s recast
For 5..15s, all non-spell attacks by affected allies will interrupt actions. Effect ends prematurely if any affected ally has an action interrupted.


** Attribute: Offensive Planning
No inherent effect. Skills in this line are similar to "shouts" and create various beneficial effects for allies. However, these effects, unlike most buffs, usually require the allies to do certain things or behave in certain ways to get the full effects. Most Battle Plans are instant cast, unless stated otherwise. They affect all allies in the radius determined by Influence.

Ambush: 20E, 5s cast, 90s recharge. 4 pips regen to maintain.
While maintaining this "enhancement" all allies become invisible, unable to be targeted, unable to be seen by holding ctrl, etc. The entire skill is interrupted during casting if any affected member is attacked. The entire skill ends prematurely if any affected member moves or performs any action. The entire skill ends if an enemy moves adjacent to any affected character. The entire skill ends if player runs out of energy.

"Hold!" : 5E, 2s recharge
For 3..8s, all allies do 20% extra damage and gain a 5% increase in running speed. This skill will stack with itself up to 3 times. However, the benefit does not apply until the skill "Now!" is performed. The build-up effect is canceled if any ally moves or performs any kind of attack or offensive spell.

"Now!": 5E, 10s recharge.
Activates the bonuses provided by "Hold!".

"One on One!": 20E, 5s cast, 90s recast. 1 pip to maintain
While maintaining this enhancement, all affected allies do 10..50% more damage to their target, if no other allies are targeting that enemy. An affected enemy will do half damage with attacks and spells to an affected ally, if that ally is not targeting that specific enemy. This effect shows up on the condition bars of affected enemies too.

Etc. Etc.

Constructive comments, further ideas, etc welcome.

A great suggestion. Balance-wise, most of the skills are extremely cheap (e.g. spell storm + chain lightning.) But I like it because it's unique, and, given that the current 30 combinations of professions covers just about everything seen and done in RPG's, this has great potential for implementation (balance aside, but Arenanet will be able to take care of that.)

What I especially liked are the 2 planning attributes, and how their skills can negatively affect your team (e.g. phalanx), or can be wasted or cancelled if your team doesn't work together (e.g. "hold!"), and they really stand out. I think these skills should be elaborated more on if this profession is ever implemented.

Heheh, thanks. Yes, I wanted to suggest something rather different from the standard stereotypes in american fantasy games. (I dont take credit, like I said, Langrisser 4! Yay!). Unlike the various Contraptionist/Psionicist/Ninja/Samurai etc. ideas floating around, I thought this at least has some chance of "fitting in" with the GW look/feel. (especially given the clothing that male Elems and Mesmers wear, almost formal miltary attire already :P )

Yes, whilst writing this I was beginning to think the effects were horribly overpowered. But they can mostly be easily toned down, or additional restrictions added. (eg... "All affected allies must be below 50% health" etc.)

Apart from the stated goals of adding another melee class, with a twist, and some unique support functions, I had 2 ulterior motives :P

1. I want to see a bigger deal made out of positioning, movement, teamwork etc. Thus the skills like Phalanx, "Hold!" etc.

2. I want to see mass lightning bolts / meteors rain down from the sky and kill everything in sight. I dont care how many restrictions ("spells also hit allies". "Can only be performed if caster is the last ally alive.") or how pointless and ineffective you make it ("spells function at 1/3 power" "causes exhaustion for each additional spell"), I just want to be able to see such a beautiful sight every now and then

Invisibility is a no no.

Even with restrictions placed upon it? What kinds of penalties would it take to make it acceptable to you? Can you elaborate on the reasons you dont like invis so much?

I guess I don't care too much about invis, tho. I just thought "ambush" would be an interesting strategy. "covert mission" I just threw in there at the last minute. So yeah, if I get to keep Spell Storm, I'd gladly ditch the invis related skills :P

I doubt that they would put invisibility into the game. If they would, the draw backs would probably be the short time span and the fact that movement is hindered by a significant amount.

EDIT: Oops, didn't see that covert mission thing.

I think it could happen with a great deal of pennalty...

Something such as -3 health regen and -2 energy regen

This would prevent a long usage, and allow you to blur past those 6 mobs in the ring of fire.

---

Another solution to this would be a skill, with penalties as well... that cuts the aggro circle down to maybe 3/4, 2/3 or 1/2 the size, for a short (maybe 5..15 sec) time period.

I definitely dont intend the use of invisibility to sneak past PVE monsters. "Ambush" forces the invisible players to be immobile.

I'm regretting "Covert Mission" more and more. It's designed to allow you to sneak a subgroup out to do something sneaky, but given its potential to help runners and the like.... I've washed my hands of it. Pretend it's not there.

there would have to be limits on invis, such as "up to 1...3 adjacent allies"

as far as ambush goes, it would rape teams in GvG and HoH, or in any arena where you have time before you're actually seen.

A team of 2 S(strategist)/Mo, 4 E/Mo, and 2 Mo/E would easily win/hold HoH.

Bottom line

pros: something new, many possibilities, challenging class to use (because of nescessary teamwork)

cons: serious balancing isues, ambush would have to be {E}, several other skills would be {E} as well.

EDIT: disregard that, i didnt see the "no moving or making any action" which kind of destroys the worth of this skill IMO.

Yes, like I said, many of the skills would be {E}, I just didnt bother to figure out which. That's the sort of thing, along with other balance issues that is best discovered by lots of play testing, I think. I highly doubt anyone can create a well balanced game purely in their heads.

As for ambush, well, it's meant to be interesting, not effective. And it's meant to be an enabler to allow other skills to be more effective. Eg. A surprise multiple Ward Foes / AOE is much more likely to catch the enemy bunched up if they're running towards the front line, unaware of your presence. Or an ambush of Hammer/KD-Aftershock warriors in a group. Or even hide yourself in some out -of-the-way path, and when the enemy charges past, you charge ahead and gank their guild lord. And it requires some thought to use, since it has a long cast time and requires you to predict the enemies' movements ahead of time. (although that's not too hard with some maps, which only really have a handful of possible paths.)


Edit: Just had a thought, it'd also be interesting for the Strategist to have some skills that allow him to see the enemy's status in more detail, like reveal skills, see energy levels, enchantments etc. Not sure how useful it'd be in a fast moving game like GW, but it just popped into my head.

Heheh, another use of spell storm that I'd dearly like to see is a necromancer raising minions from a bunch of corpses all at once


Oh - it just occured to me that a new form of abusive spike group would occur - multiple strategists + multi elems + multi spell storm casting chain lightning...

How to solve? Only one battle plan can be in effect at any given time? That would be a big disincentive to take multiple strategists tho - they might have trouble finding groups. Perhaps when a battle plan is used, any other strategists carrying the same battle plan will have their copy of the plan "used" as well, extending area of influence but not multiplying the effects (and thus causing it to recharge as well). I'd like to prevent multiple strategists from stacking / chaining the same battle plan over and over... the powerful plans in the Influence line are intended to be only available for use very rarely.

How bout instead of invisibility change it so u can run past enemies for a certain period of time without them seeing/chasing after you

I dont know why everyone's so fixated on invisibility... is there a culture of cowardliness on MMORPGs or something? Heh, maybe "Ambush" should be changed from "Invisibility" to "Dig yourself underground". Hey, that would be fun to do wandering patrols of scorpions... see how THEY like it, huh?

Anyway, IMO the invisibility is the least interesting of the stuff I was talking about... yet is seems to have gained the most attention... surely people have good ideas for battle plans? I'dve thought there would be plenty of good, creative possibilities there.

I like the concept. Some of the skills are funny though. "Quick! Do the moonwalk! I just used Strategic Withdrawal!" (while not attacking would be better )

As for invisibility, if anyone deserves stealth, it's the ranger... infact, it was once going to be their primary attribute. But as it was changed, I'm guessing they won't impliment it for any class in the future either.

My biggest concern is that if the primary attribute effects the radius of many of your skills, those skills (and practically the whole class) will be useless as a secondary profession.

However- good ideas with very powerful, but conditional skills- a very proteamwork class.

Hmmm, I was thinking of that while I wrote it. I guess the problem is addressed in my mind, but not in my writing.

First of all, the Duelist line is pretty understated from my descriptions... I had trouble thinking up of skills that were significantly different from many warrior skills. (Since I was only putting "illustrative examples" in there.). However, in the real implementation, as always they'll probably fill it up with a lot of dross skills just to make up the numbers. In which case, one of my ulterior motives will be fulfilled... make a good 2nd class to "melee-ify" a caster class. With many defensive and conditional attacks, a melee-oriented secondary strategist wont need to take as much time off casting to do melee, and can also effectively have the benefits of a warrior's weapon attribute and tactics at the same time, without needing to spend points in 2 things.

2ndly, the minimum radius is "slightly more than adjacent". Putting aside the effectiveness of skills in the Influence line (just like Divine Favour skills are mostly useless to a secondary monk). I think a secondary Strategist might actually be MORE interesting to play. Since you might be ok in melee range, then your role would be to identify clumps of teammates that might benefit from a battle plan, move through the battle to them and help them out.

I think in terms of 2ndary/primary usefulness, a Strategist would scale like a monk... most people say "be careful of trusting a monk secondary for healing"... but everyone agrees that monk is a very useful secondary class for most classes. I guess it all depends on the specific skills that get created. Not all the battle plans have to be useful over large numbers of people, and not all the Offensive/Defense Plans have to be "Battle Plans"... they can be "Enhancements" or other stuff as well.

A primary strategist might play a little like a monk - stand back from the battle , observe, and push skills when needed. But a secondary strategist has to be a more active participant. And I like that (I sometimes play an E/Mo with heal area as my sole healing skill. It's pretty fun to have to think about positioning yourself when you need to heal yourself, so that a friend or two gets it as well.)


Edit: Heheh, just a thought... in the (unlikely?) event that ANet DOES think a class suggestion as unique as this one is a good idea, and implement it, will they name all the things the same? Or will they just change all the labels around so as to not make it seem like they took an idea straight from the forums? :P

I love the idea...very creative. I like the idea of a "casting melee class" and another protection-type character.

Also, it beats all the "omfg ninja!!!" suggestions

Teehee, Manadar, I think I saw you at Augury Rock yesterday... or maybe a copycat :P It's the first time I recognised a name from the forums in the game... I guess you guys DO exist after all, and are not just a figment of my imagination :P

I just popped on to LOL at another new sanitarium post I just saw... "Class Idea: Sneaky Rogue type"...

Geez, they REALLY REALLY like their invisibility, dont they?!?!

I dunno - when I think of a chaotic medieval battlefield, somehow I dont picture someone sneaking around on an open plain, stabbing unaware peoples in the back... they're far more likely to get brained from all sides with maces or run over by a horse or something.

As for in forests, or fog, etc. Well, any old soldier can hide in those conditions, and create an "Ambush" :P

As for backstab - there's a similar skill in the Duelist line... but notably, it's a "stick the enemy through the side whilst they're busy attacking your friend" attack, rather than a "sneak across open, clear terrain for 30 meters, walk behind a guy, and somehow stab him with a dagger through plate armor without him realising" sort of attack :P

Hello, since we regularly get brawler and ninja class suggestions, I thought I'd bump my post for another looksee. Additional creative skill ideas for Battle plans are welcome. And ideas for Duelist skills.

Skills Suggestion:

Duelist:
Groin Kick
(only works on male targets)
(target must be facing you)
"Touched target facing you is crippled for x...y seconds and takes +x1...y1 damage"
[does a kicking animation at the target's groin]


Very un-duelist move? Could be funz?

this is a very good post man
the idea is really good and with the skills it seems like a good idea too
you got everything pretty much you just need like 100+ more useless skills like the other classes

*roflmao* what is this? an elite-elite? 2 Strategists taking out an all-ranger team in like 20sec?
awsome skills, i must say good ideas, but (i must not test this to say so) every single one can be abused to the death! (with this values)

i also must not add, that invi is a no-no, as this was done like 35 times befor me

however, i love the skill ideas like:
just, that you should make this a single riposte-style skill instead of a stance, as any stance like that can (as mentioned) be abused to the death and make any fighter completely useless.

also i must say: how can a team without any primary strategist survive only 1 skill of an enemy strategist?
there is no class in guildwars that is a realy must-have-primary (only monk comes very close regarding tombs with like 96%) but strategist would be such a class and that's the great problem.

seems to me this character is a weapon of mass destruction i doubt it would fit in the guild wars universe. The developers pretty much covered all the possible classes in the game, i wonder how they will pull out new ones for the expansion

A good suggestion, original and I like it!

I imagine if the only classes were Warrior, Monk and Elementalist, people would just throw an absolute fit over these "Mesmer" things. Some people will just never be pleased until the entire game structure has been changed to accomodate a single new class.

Stealth is an important strategic and tactical element. Without it the class doesn't really bring anything significantly new to the table. I think it can be salvage by not making it so blindingly overpowered. Instead of making you completely invisible, the spells should make you disappear from enemy radars. Depending on the spell used, you character (and possibly nearby allies) would remain in "quiet mode" until you are too close, cast a spell, attack, or do a shout. You will also be "spotted" by an emeny anytime you're within 30m and he has an line-of-sight to you.

That would truly add a strategic dimension to the game. Ambushes would only succeed if you make good use of the landscape, requiring both knowledge of the map and planning in advance. In turn, to avoid ambushes, teams would need to have better situation awareness.

Along the same line the strategist could have a decoy ability. Decoys would show up in the radar as players. But when the opposing team get within visual range, they would see that they're just little dolls.

Wow, that's a very interesting idea. I mostly overlooked the UI as "untouchable", but if it becomes open to a class's abilities, then some creative possibilities open up. There'd have to be some careful changes on both server and client to prevent hacks (eg. Only send the information the client can see, rather than sending more and telling the client to "hide" it.)

We'd then have the opportunity for "information warefare"... hiding/altering: dots on the minimap, allies' names/classes, allies' health bars, etc.

Also I was thinking of informative skills - the strategist having skills that allows him to see his target's current Energy level, or spy on part of his skill bar, etc.
Or skills that allow allies' to see each other's energy bars, or see in more detail what conditions/hexes they are suffering.

In gvg, it means a Wa/Strat or Ra/Strat with running skills can be a powerful scout, he can discover things about the enemies' build and let his teammates choose their formation and location. Or allow an allied primary strategist to prepare to use an appropriate Battle Plan.

Hmmm, this might be too much power in the hands of one class tho. Perhaps a Strategist has very few skills (except for Duelist skills) that affect his own combat ability? All of his skills are either informative but functionally useless, or they affect the team only. (and often with tradeoffs, forcing them to behave in a certain manner to get the benefit of the skill).

That's probably my vision for the class. As a primary, its a supporting class, with some melee-based defense and support attacks. As a secondary, its a way of making a melee-oriented caster character with skills that make up for lower armour, and take advantage of higher energy. And require less spamming/attacking so they have more time to use spells and stuff.

Invisibility + GvG = Gank Fest

other then taht

OverPowered:
hm so basically i can sit there have 50% increased range on a longbow and cripple people for 10s. gg.
oh yes i can tottally see chain lightning being casted on 5 other people.

theres a reason traps are easily intereupted.
with this skill youd see people running up to a group of people and "spiking" spike trap and other traps for insane amounts of damage.

GvG = Gankfest. oh boy i can see it now, 3 invisible guys walking towards my base.

so i put this on a warrior, stand next to whoever the warrior targets?
...
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oh boy 50% armor penetration + knockdown just from performing an action! (over powred 2 the max)

gg.
Sounds fun. we should have the whole team stand up next to the wall, have 3 people spamming this to keep it up 24/7.
and use that other skill that makes warriors useless. Guarding Party or whatever.
wow.
that sounds like fun.
2 people spamming that 24/7, have 2 interupters and oh boy let the fun begin.
Seriously, whats the point?
no comment nessecary.

i didnt bother commenting the rest of the skills because some of them were just plain horrible. i mean seriously.



Instead of just trying to think up "cool" skills, realize how 1 class will upset the current balance issues.
Anet will never implement new classes.
why?
because it will mess up the balance between all the skills, and every skill would have to be redone.
that being said, that was a great read.
too bad it will never happen.
and thats just the way i like it.

I don't know about the revealing someone's skill bar. That information should be read on the battlefield, I think. Most people probably don't want to reveal their build that easily either. One thing I enjoy doing is to go into random PVP arenas as a smiting monk and smite all the would-be monk-slayers to death.

The fact that you can't target a foe when he is in stealth mode already hides his class. An ability that let you disguise yourself as a different class would be pretty neat in PvP though. People would be wondering why a monk/mesmer is slashing away with a sword and shouting "For great justice!".

Hmmm, possibly, then show the skills being used by every member of the enemy party? In other words, in addition to the skill icon popping up in the hud, it appears above the all enemies' heads?

Although now I'm probably getting a bit silly

i would say its retartedly way too powerful, WAY too powerful for example ur eye slash 30 secs blind is crazy, considering its low cooldown, u can blind every enemy indefinitely, and meteor shower/spell storm would be lethal instantly because its basically 5 meteor showers in one.... and preparing the battlefield just means that rangers can swarm enemies with traps nonstop and they cant be stopped, and the nonstop crippling ranged attacks, all those spells are stronger than elites!

Ok, I'm fond of exaggerating for effect. But do you disagree with the general theme of the class?

What would you suggest as useful but balanced skills/battle plans that are creative and fun? Or perhaps you could suggest modifications to the skills I've listed that would make them balanced?

i quote myself:
a class giving a special advantage to a profession would only set up more builds with 1 strategist and 7 ppl of one other primary profession.
e.g. 1strat, 7ele/Mo; 1 strat, 7 W/x;...

to disable this, you have to weaken the effect or limit the area of effect where it takes place... lets say it can effect a maximum of 2 ppl or sth.
however, then you can still not allow any boosts for secundary strategists, or it would cause a wave of all-secundary-strategists... buffing each other all the time with incredible effect.

ok, now lets say only the primary attribute enables team-buffing and a primary strategist is very weak himself (low armor & energy [regen]) so that there cannot be any all strategist-builds.
THEN i figure out a problem what to do with the 3 secundary attributes... what to do with all of them? except duelism...

you see the problem? and btw, there was nearly none in this topic of us.
we just wanna make clear, how ppl would start abusing it to win HoH, as they are abusing everything else, they find.

it sounds ok but the names of the skills need work and they can't be unbalanced but overall im glad you thought of this good idea but put a little more thought into making the skills fair and stuff.

i Really like the suggestion its GOOD!

A new class should add an extra dimension to gameplay, and this suggestion definitely does; the very *position* of your allies is important, and you position relative to them. This is the most unique aspect of the class - it's similar to Heal Area, Healing Seed, the Wells - but different, and with direct affect.
Having not played elementalist to a high level, I wonder if this overlaps with some Wards? Shouts? Not in the implementation sense, but in the concept...

Also, in addition to the suggestion, there should be some Strat vs Strat action, similar to Mes vs Mes, in that they can choose to either support their team, or overwhelm the enemy Strat. This could help balance it up and provide a range of opportunities to specialise in.

And since it has gone uncommented, I agree with your vision for armor - like a Commanding Officer, not a fighter - more ceremonial than a warrior, less fancy than a mesmer/ele. And I would love to see Rapiers introduced as melee piercing damage.

I can imagine an overflow of secondary strats to begin with... even more than usual with new classes... but as they learn the way it works, Strats will find equilibrium.

I don't think the class name suits the naming feel of the game... perhaps rethink it. Especially since every good player has the right to be called strategist as it is.

I live in Melbourne, too!

This is a good idea , however see a stragegist more of a ranger than a fighter , so the duellist skill would be less useful , what i mean is a strategist must see and be able to evaluate everything on the battlefield...

I also thought Prepare the battlefield could be Casting time 30 second : Any trap amd wards set within the influence circle and in the time prepare the battlefield is set , they last twice as long recharge instantly and are cast of 1 (maybe more) more level then usual

needs a way to find traps, that will be nice

This was suggested a long time ago.. I found it really interesting, so I'm bumping it; hopefully there are those who like this idea but didn't want to dig through 20 pages of threads to find it

For those who might flame, keep in mind that the skills suggested here and their strengths have been exaggerated incredibly - invisibility idea has been flamed, fairly, so ignore that! - it is the general idea that is interesting: that the relative positions of your allies determines your effectiveness, which encourages teamwork.

A Strategist would have a nightmare in Comp Arena, for example, because so many there simply want to fight their own way, and the only rule which SOMETIMES gets through to players is "Get the monk!" ... to fully utilise a Strategist, the team must be well organised. If a good team with a good Strategist seems overpowered, good on them!

Someone above asked the usefulness of the "Hold!" and "Now!" skills. After thinking about it for a little while, I could see...
You can stack Hold! up to three times, and during this time your allies must remain still. For every time you cast it, it improves the effect... however! This effect, and its duration, is only triggered upon the Now! skill being activated. So, scenario:
Team. Strategist says stop moving. Uses "Hold!" Waits for recharge. The enemy approaches. Strategist uses "Hold!" The enemy starts to attack. For the last time, Strategist uses "Hold!" just as you begin to take damage... and then "Now!" and from that point, you have the benefits of it all. It's a very tactical skill which highlights the discipline necessary in a Strategist-using team.

Perhaps the primary attribute line of the class could be the ~number~ of people near you that are affected by your plans, as opposed to the ~area~ that the skills affect. With a minimum of, say, 2, even secondary Strategists can benefit by standing next to another player. A E/St could stand next to the Monk and help keep her alive.

A Duelist attribute suits secondary Strategists - primary casters - and to combine with a Warrior primary probably wouldn't make sense. But then, there are other such attributes - using Inspiration with a primary Elementalist, for example.

An alternative spin, which could meld two ideas together, is changing "Battle Plans" to "Songs" and use a ~Bard~ theme. The two overlap slightly in that having one in a team would be enough, although...

Say you're unlucky enough to have two Strategists in your team, with similar skills... (this would be like having two Illusion Mesmers or Minion Necros) ... with the limited area of effect, one could guard the casters while the other supports the warriors... And ... I can now see this becoming overpowered.

The Phalanx skill is nice, and could be made to have negative effects.

Essentially this is the Buff-master. With some bite. And style.

Still, give it some thought, contribute, because I think this one is unique and, thank god, not another Ninja/Fighting Monk class.

I'm glad this post brought a lot more interest than a similar idea for a new melee class that I posted a while ago. I won't repost it since I reposted it on another thread, but I'll sum it up quickly

Attribs

Balance Arts - Increasing dmg using the weapon (thought of pole or double sticks, never knew the proper name for these) of the class and skills are based on ideas of balancing defense and offense.
Hypnotic Arts - This attribute enables you to use skills that mind-read and confuse the enemy, decreasing their effect.
Vocal Arts - This attribute enables you to use shouts/stances that positively effect your allies and negatively effect the enemy.
Trickery(primary attrib) - This increases the chance that the enemy will be 'confused' by you actions(they might see you do things you're not actually doing, or loose sight of you)

Armor: Main idea was crusader-style chainmail with cloth covering

Weapon: Pole or double sticks or double mallets or something else

I know this is not the same as your idea (e.g. hypnotic arts) but I can see some things that link in:

-balance arts, with the effects on offense and defense
-Vocal arts, shouting to do various things.
-trickery, linking to some skills you put in such as 'covert mission'.

Obviously many people would like to see a kind of new melee profession but that can be linked better with secondary casting.