a battlemage

[NASE]

a battlemage

Hi,

I've given the battlemage a try the last couple of days, and I think this can be an interesting character. I'm not thinking of the paladin that never uses his magic in combination with physical skills and that use a shield and weapon, something I don't think is appropriate for a battlemage. And I don't really like the assassin either. The charge ups are just annoying, the elemental skills are kind of cheesy if you ask me and traps/shadow skills don't fit.


I think I can do better.


I envision the battlemage as a character that uses a weapon in both hands. The main-hard will use a fighting weapon (a sword for me), the off-hand will use a staff to channel the use of magic. He needs a combination of physical attack skills with both the sword and the staff, with elemental skills and magic from the staff and physical and elemental defensive skills.
The staff will be for elemental damage, the weapon for physical damage.

I think it would be interesting to have different kind of skills. I see 3 classes. The first class is the normal class. Skills that you can use whenever you want. You just need the mana. The second class are strong buff like skills that should only be cast out of battle. The third class are those skills that should only be cast in battle - mainly to have an opposite for those that have to be cast out side of battle.
Therefore, we need a new property that can have two values. One value is meditation for when things are safe, the other value is passions for in mid-battle. As you may already get, some skills are only usable when you are in meditation (M), other skills are only usable when in passion (P).

I'll try to come up with larger tree as soon as possible.
sword-based tree:
swordblock: a passive skills that offers a chance to block an attack when the character is idle or using a skills from the staff-based tree.
Stab: Simply a higher damage skills.
serpent staff (M): a temporary buff that changes the staff in a freezing snake. This snake has a freezing ranged attack and a strong poison mele attack. When using this buff, skills from the staff-based tree have reduced effect.
skin of the black wanderer (P): You call upon the spirit of the battlemage hero - the black wanderer - and bide him to help you out. The spirit offers you his equipment that cancels all of your current equipment, yet offers high weapon damage, high defence, high damage reduction and high resistance. However, you can't use magic skills when this buff is active - think of it like the druids shafeshifts. Some skills can be used, others can't.

staff-based tree:
staffblock: The same as swordblock.
concealed attack: you fake an attack with your sword, yet attack with your staff. This makes the attack slower then a normal attack yet offers high cth, %uninteruptable, high critical damage and high physical damage (for a staff).
demon fire (M): a buff that creates a large fireball that flies around the caster. This fireball shoots a number of firebolts at approaching monsters. It tries to distribute the fireballs to all monsters yet if impossible, all bolts will hit the same monsters, causing huge damage.
If you let this be cast in battle, things get overpowered to fast, as the firebolts should really do good damage.
ice cave (P) : Creates a half-circular (180°) cave of ice around the battlemage shielding it from all damage that comes from that direction. The cave has both a life and duration property.

I am aware of the fact that the class only has 2 trees at the moment. Yet I don't know what third tree might work. Suggestions are appreciated.


[edit]
There is this anecdote that I have to tell about demon fire. It's not a demonic skills, it's a normal skills. The idea comes from something similar to dungeons and dragons. The idea is that the character uses a part of his spirit to create the fireball. This means that even if the caster is asleep - or even dead - the fireball keeps working as it has some sort of own spirit.
Offcource, if you kill someone and his fireball keeps spinning, you quickly think of a demon? Hence the name.

 

[bhugy]

Re: a battlemage

I really like the general idea of the battlemage: a class that fights melee while throwing out spells here and there to thin out/disable mobs. And the fact that the number keys allow the player to cast a variety of spells on the fly makes it a pretty viable build.
In some capacity, I feel like the wizard, as far as we know now, could easily be the battlemage if you put skill points into the right passives. As such, I have my doubts that one of the remaining unannounced char classes will specifically be a battlemage.

I see a few problems with your specific concept for a battlemage, NASE. First, requiring the class to always have a sword and a staff equipped severely limits the gear it could use. Since gear seems to be the biggest factor in building chars, I doubt a class could/would be built around equipping specific gear. This is a similar problem that has been raised regarding the spear-using classes that some people have come up with. Since the direction that the game seems to be heading, especially with the exclusion of stat reqs on items, is that any class can use (almost) any item, I don't think a class that must use certain equipment would work.

Similarly, having skill trees based on using specific equipment wouldn't work either. If I were playing a battlemage and I found a mace that gave me the stat boosts I really needed, I would be kind of mad that I couldn't equip it without sacrificing an entire skill tree. So having trees based only on staves and only on swords wouldn't work.

Also, having a buffs-only tree doesn't seem to fit what seems to be the current direction of the known skill trees. Every tree, as of now, seems to encompass a concept rather than a function. For instance, it appears as though a decent wizard build could put all skill points into the conjuration tree. There are damage spells, defensive spells, and passives. Instead of trees devoted to one specific type of spell (like the all-buff paladin aura trees), skill trees in D3 are devoted to a theme, and the spells in that tree cover a wide range of spell types while conceptually remaining true to the theme of the tree.

On a positive note, I really like your "Demon Fire" spell idea. If I were playing a battlemage type of char, I could def see this type of buff being helpful. It would really help thin out mobs as you hacked through them manually. Although, I see some potential for abuse if you activated the spell and then just ran some guerrilla tactics. I also like the idea of a class besides the barb being able to duel-wield.

p.s. sorry for kind of pooping all over your idea. Feel free to rebuke/disregard any of my claims

 

[NASE]

Re: a battlemage

In some capacity, I feel like the wizard, as far as we know now, could easily be the battlemage if you put skill points into the right passives.

There are things I miss about the wizards. Where are the cool physical attacks? And where are the strategic magic skills?
The wizard will be a mele wizard. Using his normal magic, spectral blade and buff/passive that are focused towards mele survivability.

Since the direction that the game seems to be heading, especially with the exclusion of stat reqs on items, is that any class can use (almost) any item, I don't think a class that must use certain equipment would work.

Perhaps there should be more weapons allowed. I mostly chose the sword because it looks so good when used with a staff, yet this isn't really needed for the class. If you make the right skills, the weapon side could use most weapon types for most skills and the staff side might even use a sceptre or orb.
It not a problem that can't be overwon.

And don't forget that there still is a 3rd tree that has undefined content. So a possible switch with different gameplay might help opening the different gear options.

Also, having a buffs-only tree doesn't seem to fit what seems to be the current direction of the known skill trees.

Where did I propose a buff-only tree? That really wasn't the idea, and I can't really see where I did.

On a positive note, I really like your "Demon Fire" spell idea.

Thank you, I like it too.

Although, I see some potential for abuse if you activated the spell and then just ran some guerrilla tactics.

That where the passion/meditation system should kick in. Hit and run tactics should prevent you from going into meditation state and thus from recasting demon fire. And one demon fire isn't enough to kill a whole mob. Just to do some damage fast at the beginning of the battle, possibly taking out some weak opponents.
And why should guerilla tactics be a bad thing? If people want to play like that, why not.

 

[bhugy]

Re: a battlemage

I think it would be interesting to have different kind of skills. I see 3 classes[...] The second class are strong buff like skills that should only be cast out of battle.

Oops! That was my mistake! I misread this as meaning the battlemage would have one skill tree of all buffs, but now I see you meant that buffs would be one the types of spells at the battlemage's disposal. My apologies.


I can totally see the idea of a weapon-based skill tree working with a battlemage class. I think it makes a lot of sense that this kind of class would have a tree focused on physical/melee attacks. My only problem was the fact that it was confined to a single weapon type. If, as you seem to be suggesting in a way, the "sword" tree became a broader "weapons" tree, I think it would work really well. Even your idea for the "swordblock" spell could work if the block bonus applied when idle or casting spells, or something like that.

Also, your idea for the Meditation mode and Passion mode is a pretty good idea. I can see how it would allow a player to use both an in-battle and out-of-battle strategy, give the players the choice of how much to focus on battle preparation skills vs. direct-damage spells for use in battle, etc. Increasing the amount of strategy in the game is something I would like to see.
Do you have any ideas on how Meditation and Passion modes could be implemented? I guess it could be a simple matter of determining whether enemies are on-screen or not, or if there is a wall between the player and the enemies. Or there could be some kind of aggro system implemented, but I haven't read anything about that.

And I guess I'm not entirely opposed to guerrilla tactics. I couldn't really see a player using Demon Fire and strafing as their sole strategy. Honestly, I would like to see situations where a player is forced to do something other than just stand still and hack or cast. Having the option of doing hit-and-run would probably be a good thing since it would expand the gameplay experience.

 

[bhugy]

Re: a battlemage

Another quick note, I always thought a battlemage type of character should wield a more raw form of magic than any kind of dedicated caster. Where the wiz can do things like conjure meteors from space and stop time itself, a battlemage, who has not spent as much time engrossed in arcane literature as a full-time wizard, would have simpler spells.

Light elemental spells would be good, something feasible for a lower-level caster to have control of, but something like throwing around unrefined, pure magic would be cool. I'm thinking of spells like the already-taken wizard skill "wave of force." Battlemage spells could do things like pin monsters to the ground under a magical weight, create a targeted explosion of messy, raw magical force, etc.

Abilities could border on being psionic, but I'm not sure how well a straight-up telepath would fit into the Diablo world. But a telepath makes for, in my mind, a more viable battlemage character since the powers are innate rather than learned (although i guess wizards have some amount of innate magical ability? I'm not sure about that though).

Either way, I feel like a battlemage should be a bit inept in the arcane arts, able to use only the basic forms of magic rather than focused or shaped forms.
Just a thought.

 

[NASE]

Re: a battlemage

Do you have any ideas on how Meditation and Passion modes could be implemented?

My original idea was to implement some sort of timer. Where it takes about a second - possibly shortable with a passive - to go from meditation to passions and an other second to get back to meditation after the battle. This last one should be about the time needed to look over the items and see if anything interesting dropped.
The timer from passion to meditation should be quite short, just the time needed to overlook the battlefield with alt. The timer from meditation to passions should be a bit longer. I would say the time needed for general monsters to close in - as that's where you should be with this character.
note that this means that there is a small time where you can't only use your normal skills. Yet if these skills are interesting enough and monsters aren't to close, this should work. It works for the barbarian.

The timer start to run when monsters are in the vicinity of you or not. De definition of vicinity are a question for the balancers, and perhaps we can have a passive for this too - although I don't want to many passives. Passives aren't always that fun.

Another quick note, I always thought a battlemage type of character should wield a more raw form of magic than any kind of dedicated caster.

I believe you can define this raw form of magic in two different ways. You can assume that unchanged pure magic is this raw form. However, you can assume that one start by learning what is visible in nature. And then simple elemental damage is your raw form.

Now, Elemental damage is easier. You can make easier and more interesting skills with it - that goes for me anyway. It's probably a good idea to have one or two skills that utilise unformed magic. I'll try to come up with some yet feel free to do suggestions.

 

[NASE]

Re: a battlemage

As promised, a more filled tree. With 14 skills this time.

staff-based tree:
staffblock: a passive skills that offers a chance to block an melee attack when the character is idle or using a skills from the staff-based tree.

concealed attack: you fake an attack with your sword, yet attack with your staff. This makes the attack slower then a normal attack yet offers high cth, %uninteruptable, high critical damage and high physical damage (for a staff).

demon fire (M): a buff that creates a large fireball that flies around the caster. This fireball shoots a number of firebolts at approaching monsters. It tries to distribute the fireballs to all monsters yet if impossible, all bolts will hit the same monsters, causing huge damage.
If you let this be cast in battle, things get overpowered to fast, as the firebolts should really do good damage.

ice cave (P) : Creates a half-circular (180°) cave of ice around the battlemage shielding it from all damage that comes from that direction. The cave has both a life and duration property.

bash: An attack that knockback the opponent back. With a minimum of points invested, you can knock your opponent off the screen, thus you can make a strategic selection of what monsters you want to fight when.

exploding marbles: A skills that emits small fireballs in a strafe like effect. You can very fast apply this skills to all monsters in range, the main goals isn't damage yet the faster hit recovery that is initialised when hit by one of these.
runes can alter this skill in an interesting way. You could forinstance make it target a single monsters, thus preventing it from taking action (reviving, summoning etc.) You could allow it to target the most dangerous monsters first...

ring of fire (P): The same as always. Creates a ring of fire around the caster damaging monsters that want to penetrate.

enchant (M): Similar to the enchant of the DII sorcerer. Adds a decent amount of elemental damage - probably cold as this is the least represented target at the moment.

magic shield (M): A buff that offers resistances and damage reduction. Good to survive heavy damage for a lower life character.

improved staffblock: a passive that now offers the chance block missiles as well as magic attack with a telekinesis effect.

blink (P): This character needs a fast relocation skills, for strategic reasons. This skill offers this relocation. It's the same a 8fpa teleport by the DII sorcerer yet comes with a 2 second cooldown - to prevent it from being used as a means of transportation.

staff mastery: increase all element mele damage done by the staff. This include possible elemental damage mods on the staff, enchant, charms etc.

elemental bolt (M): a 'charge' buff. you 'charge' your staff with a number of elemental bolts that can be used easily - and ias based - during battle by using the thrown skill on your staff. This skills will release a bolt that offers damage in all elements.

elemental knowledge: A passive skill that increase the effectiveness of elemental bolt. It alters the distribution of damage so the element that is least resisted is being used the most. i.e. lets assume the bolt does 100 fire, cold and lightning damage without this skill. If a monsters has 100 fire, 50 cold and 0 lightning resistance, the bolt would do 100 cold and 200 lightning damage with points in the skill.

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What if we incorporate the use of a one hand crossbow/staff combination in this build. It's original and this build has the potential to be a very good element ranged character. Certainly if we allow the skills to be used without a staff in the switch.
Then, you could choice from these possibilities: weapon/shield, staff/shield, crossbow/shield, weapon, staff, (cross)bow, weapon/crossbow, weapon/staff or crossbow/staff.