Class suggestion: Battlemage

This is just a tentative suggestion in response to those who would like to see a second "melee" class. Please feel free to critique it or dismiss it all together. You won't hurt my feelings, honest.

Class name: Battlemage.

Attribute:

Primary attribute: Battle Meditation

The battlemage has the ability to harness the energy of incoming attacks and convert it for his own use. The battlemage gains one energy for every 12 hits when the attribute is at 1 and 2 energy for every hit when the attribute is at 12.

Attribute: Weapon affinity

The battlemage has the ability to summon a variey of different melee weapons. Every point placed into this attribute will increase the effectiveness of the skills associated with it. The summoned weapon is considered an enchantment and may be dispelled/rended. The summoned weapon may be used in conjunction with warrior skills specific to that weapon, but not the other way around. The summoned weapon skills will NOT work on physical weapons. Unlike IW, the summoned weapon DOES NOT ignore armor.

Here are some sample skills from this line:

Summon sword: 5/1/10

Summons a sword that deals a minimum damage of 3-12 and a max damage of 4-22 for 30 seconds.

Summon hammer: 5/1/10

Summons a hammer that deals a min dam of 5-19 and a max dam of 10-35 for 30 seconds.

Summon axe: 5/1/10

Summons an axe that deals a min dam of 1-6 and a max dam of 6-28 for 30 seconds.

Hex imbuement: 10/1/20

Takes 1-3 hexes off of other ally and imbues it into your summoned weapon. The next time your weapon hits an enemy, that enemy is hexed with the imbued hexes, with the durations reset.

Graft Enchantment: 10/2/10

Takes the top enchantment off the target and imbues your weapon with it. Your weapon will do 3-10 extra damage for the remaining duration of that enchantment.

Chilling Spirit: 5/1/10

The next time you hit your target, all his/her stance skills become unusable for 5-20 seconds. The current stance is not disrupted.

Elemental Tap: 5/1/10

In the next 5-20 seconds, if you take elemental damage, your summoned weapon will do an extra 3 - 10 damage of that elemental type.

Sunder Summon{E}: 15/3/40

Destroys your summoned weapon to release a flurry of magical energy which does 20-50 damage to all surrounding enemies, as well as dazing them.

Attribute: Arcane Symbolism:

The battlemage is often able to craft and maintain symbols which alter the very rules of magic itself. Once a symbol is active, it may remain active as long as the battlemage maintains it. While the battlemage maintains it, he/she may not cast spells, but is free to move and attack using attack skills, or the symbol will be cancelled. The only method by which the symbol can be destroyed is by attacking the battlemage and striking him enough times to upset his concentration. Every point placed into this attribute increases the effectiveness of the linked skills as well as increase the amount of hits required to disrupt the symbol. At level 1, it will take one hit. At level 12, it will take ten hits. (Damage is irrelavent; what matters are the amount of hits, elemental or otherwise. So focused wanding will disrupt it just as well as a flurry of lighting spikes.) Symbols have an effective radius of about 1.5 times that of a ward.

Symbol of Fortitude: 15/3/15

While this symbol is maintained, the duration of deep wound and the hex "fragility" are decreased by 1-15 seconds on all allies.

Symbol of Pain: 7 adren/0.25/30

While this symbol is maintained, all allies' physical damage will be boosted by 1-8 points.

Symbol of Unnatural Soil: 15/3/15

No new spirits may be cast inside the radius and all existing spirits will experience 1-10 pips of hp degen.

Symbol of Fury: 7 adren/0.25/30

All allies experience an attack speed increase of 5-20% Will not stack with tigers fury/frenzy/flurry.

Symbol of Air: 15/3/60

All air damage dealt by allies are increased by 10-50%

Symbol of Fire: 15/3/60

All fire damage dealt by allies are increased by 10-50%

Symbol of Frost: 15/3/60

All ice damage dealt by allies are increased by 10-50%

Symbol of Earth: 15/3/60

All earth damage dealt by allies are increased by 10-50%

Symbol of Enchants: 15/3/60

All enchantments placed upon allies are increased in duration by 5-30%

Symbol of Blood: 15/3/60

Whenever an ally sacrifices health, the battlemage is healed for 30-70% that amount.

Symbol of Ritual {E}: 25/3/30

The battlemage calls forth a massive maelstrom which causes all enemies in the radius to experience 1-2 pips of energy degen.

Attribute: Immortal Construct

The battlemage is able to command a powerful golem as his ally. For every point in the attribute, the golem will become stronger in terms of both hp and physical damage. The linked skills will also be more effective. The construct shares the same lifeline as the battlemage. Therefore, if the battlemage is injured, the construct will experience the same injury, though not neccessarily the same conditions and hexes. However, this life bond does not work in reverse. The mage will not feel the damage done to his construct.

Skills:

Immortal Construct: 0/0/0

Like the Charm Animal skill, if you carry it, you'll have a construct.

Reconstruction: 10/2/60

Ressurects all constructs in the area with 40-160 hp. All your summoning skills are blacked out for 10 seconds.

<some more construct attack skills which I can't creatively name off the top of my head at the moment>
_______________________________________


This character is designed to get hit and deal melee damage/disruption. The enemy team will have no choice but to hit him if his symbol goes up (you can only maintain one symbol at a time) or suffer the consequences. Since the limit of breaking the symbol doesn't lie in damage but in how many times he gets hit, monk enchantment stacking won't prolong the symbol that much, but the battlemage can use stuff like bonetti's, whirling defense, lightning reflexes, or have other monks spam aegis, etc, to keep the symbol up longer. Unlike a warrior, the battlemage WILL get hit and can attract a healthy amount of firepower. However, this class can also be piggybacked onto a warrior primary for the summon weapons skills and he can also relegate himself to a melee fighter.

This guy will get hit, and because of his primary attribute, LIKE IT. (As long as he doesn't die from getting hit).

Criticisms? Flames? Tweaks?

this class is already covered by a w/ele. they will not make this class because of one reason...balance.

battle mages are basicly w/ele rolled into one. so i take the battle mage class and then choose a 2nd class. i have effectivly 3 classes. not balanced will never fly. its fine the way it is.

It's like a warrior+ele+mesmer+necromancer+ranger rolled into one, with all of those effects.

Damage in melee, elemental damage, damage buffing, enchantment removal, and a pet.

FAR too much for a single profession.

how about battletoads!!!

I like this profession ^_^ Will the female version be sexier than the Mesmer female?

Lol all that typing just for it to be a big fat flop. haha

A battle mage? You mean like a W/E? Oh wow that's already invented, lmao. People need to get it through their skulls that class creation isn't something you can do off the top of your head.

Well, actually, the majority of the responses seem to dismiss this class as something already existent, when a more scrutinizing person famililar with the PvP metagame should find the element of TANKING this class offers to be at least interesting.

No other class currently in the metagame is able to truely TANK, as in, force the enemy team to attack you and draw off damage from the rest of your team.

Of course, you could say "Well that's what the monk is for. He usually ends up drawing most of the damage". However, the monk is underattack PRECISELY because he plays such an important support role. This class is able to convert damage and hits into useful energy to support or feed into the monk and the rest of his team.

This guy is meant to be a TANK: make the other team focus on him while turning that attention into tangible resource in terms of energy. This sort of TANK is NOT covered by the current metagame.

This is NOT a W/E, because a W/E won't get hit until he's the last guy ALIVE. This guy WILL get hit as soon as he throws a symbol up because the symbol cannot be dispelled or cancelled unless the battlemage is sufficiently wanded/spiked/flurried/tiger's furied. This guy will have to be hit or FORCE the other team to play with a disadvantageous hand.

Please show me a class that's in the game right now that functions as a capable damage drawer in the metagame.

This character is able to amplify the attacking skills of his teammates WHOLESALE, as well as draw away enough attention from the monk classes so that they are more effective at what they do.

Why this class is not a Warrior: He's not there to sustain DPS.

Why this class is not an Elementalist: He's not there to max out spikes. He's there to take damage.

Why this class is not a monk: He's not there to do 1 on 1 support. He's there to lay down a full deck of cards for the ENTIRE TEAM.

Why this class is not a mesmer: He's not there to deal hexes or shut down casters. He's there to reshuffle prioirites.

Just because the skills have similar effects DOES NOT make this character a carbon copy of other classes.

I typed it up because it's fun for me. I don't believe it's a big fat flop because it takes a role that doesn't exist in the current metagame.

This reasoning is very wrong.

Any class can achieve those effects. Yes, they're effects, not roles.

For example, a mesmer could deal out melee damage with IW, indirectly buff damage with the inspiration line, and shatter enchants, not to mention the ability to do the latter two with a secondary.

Effects are NOT ROLES.

Show me a class combination in the current metagame that can attract damage like a lodestone and turn that damage into a support element.

I like the idea, however, as other people have said it is similair to a W/E or E/W.

Some professions are obviously distinctly more effective at some roles, however.

Rangers are the only people who get permanent pets, and in order to use them effectively, they have to give up many skill slots. Necromancers are the only other profession that have pets at all, balanced by a very conditional effect, corpses, and then degenerative to make them non-permanent.

Mesmers and Monks are the only classes that can remove hexes, except for Nature's Renewal on Rangers. Monks have the advantage in this department with the 2 multi-hex removals.

Mesmers and Necromancers are the only classes that can remove enchantments, except for Nature's Renewal on Rangers. Necromancers have the obvious upper hand, with the only multi-enchant removals (barring Nature's Renewal, once again).

No single profession is limited to 1-2 exact roles, and by providing a second profession, there're even more available.

Each profession is a stand-alone, as well as complimentary to other professions, if even for only a few skills (2 skills = 25% of the skill bar).
However, each profession also is lacking in various ways.

And that's the whole reason I don't agree with this suggestion-
This profession is too far-reaching. You've given it skills across the board that tend to be limited to only 1-2 professions, and a lot of them at that. Doesn't that sound, I don't know, balance breaking?

I'd love another melee attacker, but like others have said, this just seems FAR too munchkin. Plus I'm sure Anet has taken all the feedback requesting a second melee professions and will be giving us one at a future date. I'm thinking it'll be a brawler ala Little Thom.

Not at all - because I've also given it a new method of countering it. Hit the guy a few times and the effect is stopped.

It's not the effects that are the focus of this build. Those can be shuffled around. It's the idea that this character could be a potential TANK, a role which is completely lacking from the current metagame.

As for your idea of such being far reaching, I feel it's neccessary in order to make the tanking aspect of this class some force, making the effects much more difficult to play under IF they are allowed to be put up.

The whole weapon summoning line is done to make the character functional so that instead of being a PURE tank, he can still do some damage. The drawback? His utility in this line limits him to a melee role - a role which forces him to come in contact with the enemy, making him all the more vulnerable to the support class of the other team.

Thank you for that well thought out criticism, however.

Balancing can be reshuffled. I've balanced out the far reaching effects of the class with two things:

1. The casting time.
2. The method by which it can be countered (simply hit the character throwing them up)
and
3. The fact that the primary attribute of this character is conditional; the condition being the benefits are only gained when he's under fire.

As for the comment about Anet, I'm not here to advertise my class. I'm here to present a suggestion, garner feedback on how it would fit in, improve, or alter the current metagame, and through the discussion, gain some insight for all of us.

How so? Can either an E/W or a W/E perform as a tank in the current PvP metagame?


Yes, of course.

Pets? They serve the same role as everything else. Their skills include energy management, condition spamming, interruption, sustained dps, etc. They're not different from the other skills you use, except for one important thing: they're conditional. The condition? Their well being. Pet skills are just a conditional delivery system of the same set of roles that every other skill do.

Plus, neither rangers nor necros can serve as tanks.

Yes, that's right, but they can't tank.

Yes, that's right, but they can't tank.
Name me a profession combination that can play out well as a tank in the current metagame.

More ideas on how to reinvent the wheel...

How is it reinventing the wheel if the wheel (a class designed around absorbing damage) hasn't been invented yet?

Basically your making a class that can tank like a warrior yet have the countering ability of a mesmer and buffs that outdo those of any other class.

Absorb Runes reduce damage.

A W/Mo, N/W, N/Mo, W/N, Mo/W are good tankers. Anything better than them at their best and it's not balanced. But just so you know, I do like the fact people are actually interested in this game enough to think about the future.

How about this...?

Class: Expert
Defulat Max Energy: 20
Energy Regen: 3
Armor:
70 + 15 vs physical
60 + 25 vs elemental
Weapon Perfection- Primary. Allow hero to increase all weapon effectiveness. For each point in this attribute, shield effectiveness decrease. (contains different version of attack skills from each weapon than the oringinal)
Experience- Increase experience skills' effectiveness. (mostly stance)
Honor- Increase honor skills' effectiveness. (mostly self buff shout skills)
Shame- Increase shame skills' effectiveness. (mostly offensive shout skills)

Most shout of this class will be single target. (not all)
The only class that can use dual...?
Only have about 1-2 attack skills for each weapon in the weapon perfection line... except magical weapons.

Would probably need some balance in the shout... maybe making some skills that especially disable shout skills...

No, actually, NONE of those are tanking classes. You cannot force people to attack your W/Mo or your W/N or any W/x. In fact, the W/x is usually the last surviving class in PvP because no one bothers to attack the warrior. The warrior is probably last on the list of priority targets. The most you'll get if you're a superb warrior who can adren spike/sustain dps/do caster shutdown/edenial with "Fear Me" is a soothing images or empathy or spirit shackles slapped on you. So no, W/x's are NOT TANKS.

N/Mo's, N/W's are not tanks either. The N/Mo's and N/W's are probably also low enough on the target priority list (unless on dais maps and the enemy is willing to risk a fair amount to snipe out your putrid ability) that they'll go down AFTER the other support classes or damage dealers. If you're a N/Me, maybe you'll be targeted after the Mo's, Mes', and Ele's... but not before.

The Mo/W will probably attract a good amount of firepower, but that firepower will impede on the Mo/W's primary function, be it smiting or 1 on 1 support. Also, the Mo/W has no way of converting that damage to a useful and practical substance, unless he uses bonetti's or essense bond, but both has their downsides. He also has low enough armor that most of this damage will blow right through and KILL him unless he neglects his primary duties and spikes heavy enchants on himself, run like hell, or pull his support teammates on him to mitigate the situation. Any one of these solutions would heavily damper his primary function (not to mention the first of which is nearly impossible to run under NR and rend), which cuts him out as an effective tank.

What does that have to do with tanking? Tanking is the ability to draw fire away from your support classes onto yourself without seriously hampering your functionality on the battlefield. Absorb runes don't exactly paint a "HIT ME" sign on the warrior. In fact, it pretty much paints the exact opposite.

This is STILL horrible. A team could easily be comprised of 3 monks and a battle mage. There would be no way to lose.

How would the team deal any damage other than smites? How are those smites going to cause enough damage without compromising the ability to protect the battlemage from getting overwhelmed by damage? How are the monks going to stop an enemy ranger from dazing the battlemage with his three second cast symbols? Remember, the battlemage can't cast spells while the symbols are in effect, and the summoned weapons don't deal nearly as much damage as warrior ones, since they don't have the +20% customization bonus NOR the +15% >hp50 bonus, PLUS they can be dispelled.

So you're seeing MINISCULE damage output from the battlemage, which is fine, because he's a tank and not a damager, one of those monks need to keep the battlemage from keeling over under all that damage, and so now you're down with 2 monks smiting to deal damage. The battlemage, as of the moment, has no way of buffing holy damage, so he's not doing any indirect damage either.

So now you've got 2 monks without support smiting against a team that's devoting nothing except a TF normal shot-quickshot-normal shot-quickshot with the occasional concussion shot slammed in shutting down TWO of your characters.

That's NOT a balanced team. That's not even CLOSE to a balanced team. That's a flawless victory for the other team because they're using one player to shut down two of yours and you can't do jack about it because

1. You can't do damage
2. You can't interrupt
3. Shutdown? Nope.
4. Sustained DPS? Nope.
5. Adren spike that ranger? Nope.
6. Snares? Nope.

and

7. You're screwed.

So, this is still impractical for PVE, and let me modify that by having something like this:

Battle Mage/Monk
Warrior/Monk
Monk/Mesmer
Elementalist/Monk

There could be a lot of combinations, the battle mage allows you to have one person taking the damage, one or two people healing that person and another 1 or 2 people to deal damage. It's really not that tough. They won't have to run away because, Hey! They're not taking any damage.

EDIT:

Also, just because your scenario worked out like it did, doesn't mean it will every single time. Perhaps maybe once or twice, but it won't happen all the time. You're giving one MINISCULE (haha) example of how they could be shut down.

Balancing for PvE is *MUCH* easier than balancing for PvP.

Who says the ai enemies have to attack the battlemage? They don't. The ai enemies are usually of a higher level than your players (unlike PvP) and would have no problems following their normal routine and just snipe out your supports based on armor class, like they currently do. They have enough hp that the extra buffs from the battlemage won't bother them and they'll have little problem playing under that sort of card. They'll have enough energy (500 energy musaat monk boss anyone?) that the e-denial won't bother them either. You're sacrificing one char slot to the battlemage. That means one char slot less for damage, damage prevention, or damage recovery. Since that battlemage can throw up one symbol at a time, he'll only be able to benefit ONE of your characters. That's not a very big effect at all!

PLUS, when fighting mes enemies that spam hexes, most teams have trouble getting up a firestorm or meteorshower. Imagine trying to get a 3 second cast symbol up when you're right up there with the warriors.

As for PvE balance in general right now... What balance? Balance as in a single Mo/W with 55 hp can take on every single monster in the hardest area of the game singlehandedly? Yeah right.

When was the last time you played tombs or GvG when the enemy team didn't bring in at least one sustained dps'er, be it qs ranger, stone dagger spammer, smite monk, flurry ranger, an INTERRUPTOR, an anticaster, or fragility build me? Any ONE of those classes will be able to counter the battlemage.

Please name a team build involving the battlemage that would make it overpowered against a team that you would normally expect in tombs or GvG. With a little skill and nuance, a team build centered around two or three battlemages could effectively shut down a spirit build, if the team was played with skill.

On the other hand, the same team build would get obliterated by a QS build or a smite team.

The first potentially overpowering team I can think of would be

2 battlemages and 6 quickshot rangers.

The 2 battlemages throw up Symbol of Fire and Pain (not easy, considering Pain requires adrenaline), and the 6 QS rangers run kindle QS spam under zephyr. That would be a hell of a spiking team.

However, it could easily be countered by shielding hands and aoe's against the bunched up rangers, not to mention spirit spam.


Edit: Sorry, double post.

Monks have a skill that convert damage to themselves and necros can sacrifice life to aid the party in battle. Along with warriors this pretty much covered in a sense.

UH.... no.

Sorry, in retrospect, that was a bit rude. Necro sacrifices have nothing to do with tanking

Monk's essence bond costs a skill slot and seriously detracts him from performing his 1 on 1 support or smite duties. Also, persist enchant builds are next to impossible to run in today's metagame.

None of these two classes are able to draw damage to themselves. Neither of these classes can be built into effective tanks.