PT: 3 new Classes. Bard, Battlemage, Summoner

#41

POG epic

#42

Posted this on reddit, but ill post here too to see other peoples thoughts:

Did some very light testing, Bard is extremely cool but feels kinda clunky, i almost feel like it would be better as a held ability like ninja star. The duration is just too short for it to feel good, especially on a bow class where the range really isn’t needed.

But seeing as the abilities are the only focus, idk, its in a wierd spot. It’s REALLY good on melees and dagger classes but completely un-noticed by bow wand and staff classes. I feel like an increase in projectile speed could be an alternative way to go so that the impact is felt by all classes. The inspiration buff is also good, but feels like it was tacked on so that wand and staff classes wouldnt feel left out.

With its current config, the bard is in an odd spot where he literally sees no benefit from using his own ability.

The summoner is terrible, only due to the mechanics of the summoned thing. The prism thing is soooooo clunky, its almost impossible to use and feel good about it. Also, the starting location of the unit should be changed, as it is now the orb instantly rotates to your back which is useless. It also does 0 damage for some reason, it would be nice if it had some kind of indicator for how close it needs to be to damage something or some kind of projectile. This class could be really good, but with how bad the behavior on the summoned unit is, we’ll never know.

Havent really tried Battlemage other than just killing myself on oryx a few times, but it seems meh.

Might go back in later to continue testing/playing battlemage

#43

oh this is embarrassing

Lute

The range buff walks the line of being both useless and powerful. There are many circumstances where having more range (especially for such a short duration) will have zero impact on gameplay, and there are also many circumstances where having extra range will make certain content trivial.

Boosting range is a dangerous idea imo, it has too much exploitative potential. I would see it as balanced if it were given a flat +20% bonus for all tiers, a high MP cost, and a long duration. Having fluctuating range isn’t something that’s easy to take advantage of when you’re not the one applying the buff.

I also agree the idea of having the ‘range boost’ effect making arc gaps smaller. This would have great synergy with bow classes. (Which helps since the lute belongs to a bow class.)

From what I understand ‘Energized’ is a way to boost mp regen without affecting wis mods, which is a great idea, but the idea of boosting MP/wis/mp regen is flawed to being with. I think it’s fine as a UT concept, hence the paladin’s UT seal, but it does not fit as a tiered ability for a class.

The Lute is a cool idea at first glance, but it would find many hardships in actual gameplay. At the moment, the Bard is a relatively useless class when alone. (Which is funny since they’re generally useless in other games too, lol)

EDIT: I quite like Imasquash’s suggestion to make the range boost affect projectile speed rather than projectile lifetime, it makes sense. Perhaps you can re-visit some of these ability concepts after the community has had their word with em.

Gauntlet

I made this class concept right after DECA took the reigns, and since then a LOT has changed. The Battlemage is an old concept that I abandoned for the following reason.

It is not unique.
The Battlemage takes pieces from all three existing sword classes to make something of its own. Unless the goal is to make a class that is capable of a bit of everything, like a jack-of-all-trades, then the concept could be what you’re looking for.

After playing it on PT I was able to understand how it actually functions in-game. (Which was a very weird experience since I thought I’d never hear about this class idea again.)
It’s actually not as easy to buff your allies and debuff your enemies at the same time as I had imagined. That’s probably a good thing though.
I wrote everything as if you could buff allies with the ability since that was the original idea. Oops.

The 4.4 tile radius of daze really isn’t that much when you’re trying to keep your distance from something, so it encourages reckless behavior to make the most out of it. (Such as diving into a group of enemies instead of sitting back and bashing them from a distance like the knight.)

The +4 Def, +7 Speed, and +12 Vit were not noticeable to me at all when playing the class. I wouldn’t advocate increasing these stats until they are noticeable though.

If buffing a player with unmaxed speed, or a player with the speedy buff, then they may notice it. Which could possibly lead to a similar situation to when warriors could grief by speedy buffing all players, even if unintentionally. The speed should be removed entirely though.

The def and vit bonus would definitely be a nice addition if the recent concepts that were being tested in PT come around, (Vit ‘mod’ and def changes) but they would still be negligible. 6 Def and 12 Vit for a T6 Gauntlet may make more sense, but it still isn’t going to be very noticeable.

I would personally replace the def and vit bonus with a status effect that applies ‘super def’ (for lack of a better name) after all damage calculations are done (and to all players within a radius). That means it would go beyond the def cap and be unaffected by armor broken and armored.

I’d say that 7 ‘super def’ on a T6 with 4.4s of daze within a 4.4 tile radius would solve the original issue I had with the concept, but it could still use some more tweaking.

Jewels

The issue I have with this ability is that it is too simple. It encourages doing nothing, no ability in the game does this. (well, at least you’ve got to put some thought into using a knight’s shield)
The Jewel ability, in its current state, is something you would activate and then ‘forget’ about. There isn’t much thinking you’d have to do before or after using the ability, it’s just something you’d try to keep active as much as possible.

I’d recommend taking inspiration from the Orc King enemy to give this ability more personality.

I won’t go over the stats but I will go over the concept I’ve just thought up.
This ability spawns 2 creatures, each with a specific role. The healer and the bruiser.
They would orbit the user at different distances.
The healer would orbit at a close to medium range and heal by ‘zapping’ the closest player within range & the player who used the ability.
The bruiser would orbit at a close range and would be able to tank shots for the user a certain amount of times. (Dependent on its own stats) The bruiser will also be able to ‘zap’ the closest enemy within a certain range, so it’s up to the player to decide whether it’s worth dealing more damage or playing it safe.
Imo, an ability like this ought to have an immediate MP cost followed by an MP drain over time that can be dispelled by activating the ability again.

That’s a the first concept that came to mind when I thought of making the Summoner more active, which is done by positioning your minions into favorable positions. This concept could make for some really interesting UT abilities that specialize or do something completely new. It’d take quite some time to balance though.

After being told that my battlemage concept was in PT I decided it would be wrong not to provide some feedback, so here I am c:

Based on the composition of classes that are currently in PT I take it that y’all are planning on doing this with many of the community’s ideas, which is a good thing. I don’t think many of them will make it without some massive overhauls, but that’s alright. Here are a few of my favorite class ideas from the community in no particular order. (Classes that I hope y’all will throw into a future PT or take some inspiration from!)

Druid by Barablazer
Valkyrie by Dappertron
Shogun by JohnMH

Note:
#44

Pls make the scientist a wand class

#45

literal boomer ability

#46

Lute needs nerfing; 8/8 Bard with T6 lute can perma inspire & energize without a pet.

T6 Inspire allows melees to achieve 5.25 range. That’s powerful, not to mention the effects of energize.

imo T5 & 6 multipliers should be 0.05 more than the last tiers, not 0.1.

MP regen is too significant for the bard. Increasing the MP cost could stop the bard perma buffing.

#47

Hey, I’m on this list!

Also, I’m still working on the class and making updates. Since that thread, I’ve added two more skins, reworked the ST Set’s visuals and stats, replaced one UT visually and updated visuals of another, rebalanced every single ability and completely changed one of them, done a ton of name/description changes and visual changes recently, so on so forth… it’s really fun to do!

I just don’t want to open a new thread for Shogun for like, the 5th time, so instead I’m just going to pull a sneaky and share the Google Doc.

Oh, and this:
Shogun%20Presentation

Sidenote, I’d prefer that taking inspiration from my class - if done - would be minor, since I put my heart and soul into this and don’t want it to just be copied at all. It’s also something that’s being used in an outside project, so for my sake and DECA’s sake, it’d be better to not directly use it without a bit of discussing.

#48

Glad to see that you’re still improving your class!

I didn’t really consider that you were using the class itself for your project when putting it on that list, sorry. I’ll strike it out and put a note next to it to clarify your thoughts on the matter.

#49

Ey, it isn’t really an issue. If they take a little bit of inspiration from it, I wouldn’t mind, but that’s really about it due to how much I’ve enjoyed working with the class. (That, and like I said, if they did want to use that or stuff from it I wouldn’t mind discussing it.)

#50

Oh, you found that old thing!
Curious what you see in the Valkyrie in particular (over the other ones on that list) that you think it should be considered.

#51

For inspiration. It’s similar to the Battlemage and Bard, so if DECA is looking to add a class along those lines it’s worth considering all their options. (Plus I’m pretty sure it’s one of the things that inspired my Battlemage concept in the first place.)

I definitely like a few more on that list, but if DECA looks into what I’ve said they’ll see them all anyway c:

#52

if they make bard a wand class and battlemae a katana one we will achieve ultimate balance

#53

pls

I still like the ability how it is though / it is still a fun class. I didn’t care much for the other classes personally / I wouldn’t play them myself much

#54

But… what about bows?

#55

You dont get any exp if crystal bot kills someone. Is it intentional?

#56

We’re currently on 6 leather classes, 5 robes and 4 heavies, so factor that into your balancing equation too. :abacus:

#57

Just so everyones aware

image
image.png876x307 12.8 KB

also the battlemage now knocks back enemies in a cone

#58

Jewel changes: Good
I didn’t really notice the movement being smoother, but perhaps that’s because I didn’t spend much time with it. The projectiles were a necessary addition.

Gauntlet changes: Bad
Well, before I tried out the knockback feature that was added the first thing I see in chat was:
“knock it on me”
So I did.

As cool of a feature it is, it can be easily used to throw dangerous enemies onto other players. Sadly, I don’t believe something like this has a place in RotMG.

Lute changes: ???
I didn’t test enough to know why the energized radius needed to be reduced, but I do know that it doesn’t address any of the major issues the lute had.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that knockback on a melee doesn’t make much sense mechanically. You would want to stay close to the enemy to damage it, so knocking it back would be very situational.
However, if this knockback concept were to be merged with the range buff idea, then it would have good synergy as the player can justify knocking back an enemy most of the time.

#59

xD that was me

I think im in the same boat as you, knockback feels really cool and could be good, but the potential for abuse is just too high

#60

lemme just YEET this Janus key on everyone. If they implement a knockback system that should go straight to the Knight