Upcoming Warden Rework

[Desue]

Small Time Announcement:
So it has come to our attention that Warden has had several shortcomings as a class, and therefore lacks a lot of usage. To fix this the Staff has been taking a close look into what mechanics to keep and what to rework. Though we have yet to complete it, we are looking at focusing the class around a concept of Purity (a counter to Heretic), and running it off a skill system different to most other classes. We will be sure to post some of the skills as we solidify more of the changes, but we would love to hear your thoughts on the matter!

Just reply with your thoughts and follow them up with why you feel as you do and what you hope to see from the class. Just a reminder though, Wardens are the direct opposition to Heretics so we are trying to focus on that mechanic when building the class up.

(Note: All updates about skills and concepts that are completed will be added to this first post for ease of viewing.)

[Murasaki]

"Tell us more you sneaky secretive mods!"

Well here's a few skill concepts out of our current list:

Purity Core

Beginner Skill

One of the special designs about warden armor is the ability to augment its functions through the installation of special gear. The Purity Core, a hard crystal formed from a careful formulation of anima and mana essences, is the kingpin making this gear stand out from just any other armor. Purity Core is automatically active whenever the Warden is equipped with Warden Armor. While it is active, any Corruption inflicted on the Warden will automatically begin depleting by 5 points each post as though it has been 3 cycles since exposure. Additionally, while this skill is active, the Warden may use "Arsenal Tool" skills and will passively gain 1 Purity Charge each post cycle. Purity Charges are used to augment other Warden skills. This effect is applied before any other effects that involve Purity Charges.


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Arsenal Tool: Riot Blade

Type: Offensive | Arsenal Tool | Arm

A skill most often utilized in close-quarters combat, the Riot Blade is an Arsenal Tool that extends from the Warden Armor at the knuckle area. The Purity Core manifests its energy in the form of a blue cylindrical energy sword that extends about half a meter forward. The concentrated energy allows the blade to cleanly cut through many physical objects in its path and leave behind burn marks from the point of impact. The blade, however, is extremely thin - roughly the width of a rapier in terms of dimensions. This skill has an animation time of 2 seconds to use. At the start of the Warden's post cycles, pay 1 Purity Charge or cancel this skill. Only two Arsenal Tools of the Arm Type can be active at a time.


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Defibrillating Charge

Type: Special

The Warden utilizes the armor's natural healing augmentation in order to treat their wounds more quickly. The armor responds by emitting a light electrical shock to the body muscles, relaxing them a little bit to ward away pain and slightly heal the Warden's HP by a decent amount. Due to the risk of prolonged electrical stimulation on the body, any further attempts tend to be fairly dangerous unless spaced properly. This skill has a casting time of 3 seconds, a cooldown of 30 seconds, and is considered a lightning-attribute ability. In addition, any character touching the Warden directly when this skill is used becomes stunned for 2 seconds. If the Warden was hit by a water-attribute effect since their previous post, the healing effect of this skill becomes damage instead. A Warden may use 1 Entropy Cartridge when activating this skill in order to triple its healing (and damage) effect.

[Bailin]

OOoooohhhh :D Interesting :)

I do have some small questions;

- Will the purity core replace the current Warden beginner skill and how do you (as mods) intend for it to work? (ie. like the direct opposite of Miasma poisoning with the same workings or slightly different?)
- 'While it is active, any Corruption inflicted on the Warden will automatically begin depleting by 5 points each post as though it has been 3 cycles since exposure. Additionally, while this skill is active, the Warden may use "Arsenal Tool" skills and will passively gain 1 Purity Charge each post cycle. Purity Charges are used to augment other Warden skills. This effect is applied before any other effects that involve Purity Charges.' and ' At the start of the Warden's post cycles, pay 1 Purity Charge or cancel this skill. Only two Arsenal Tools of the Arm Type can be active at a time.'

So if I understand correctly:
- Certain skills will cost PP (Purity points),
- The Warden can only Purify itself (Might be interesting to think up a skill that purifies others?),
- Corruption will, effectively, drop by 5 each time the Warden posts and +1 PP each post cycle (so, per example, a duel between a Warden and Heretic would effectively become 6 PP each post)
- The Arsenal Tools of the Arm Type are a bit sketchy, are they like the buff skills but limited to a certain location? (ie.: Arms, head, legs, torso, back and so on?)

Well that's about it for now :), It looks really interesting, especially the defib. charde + water ^^

[Murasaki]

- The Purity Core will be a new Beginner Skill added onto the list, much like how Swashbuckler has Ambidexterity Prime, for example. All of the classes will keep their passive party buff skill.
- Purity does not replace Corruption. So if prior to the Warden's turn, their Corruption is at 10 points and Purity Charge is at 6, Corruption is reduced down to 5 while Purity Charge goes up to 7.
- Arsenal Tools are essentially similar to the buff skills except that they will primarily target and modify the Warden Armor. Yes, they will be limited to certain locations.

[Esther]

Give them some kind of sentinel/tower/machine to use as a backup~
I know that the basic concept runs around modification of the armor, however I can't help but think these would be a great addition for them.

[Shuwen]

I may be reading this wrong, but isn't this awfully close to the same function as the Priest subclass?

[Murasaki]

Mhm, there were some thoughts revolving around deployables like turrets, first aid kits, trip mines, etc. I think it should be something to be added as well.

And the Miasma elimination effect essentially is the same function as the Priest subclass's, considering how Wardens were designed in-RP as soldiers fighting against the Miasma. It's just that the current iteration doesn't emphasize that at all. Seeing this, however, I might have to rework the Priest subclass effect so that a Warden/Priest may be able to get even more Corruption reduction.

[Spades]

Since you made the wardens to be essentially a check against the heretic's magics or a medieval cop wouldn't it make sense to create a skill that would take advantage of the corruption itself?

Warden's Judgement-
Tier II skill
Channeled-Melee abilty
Thanks to fighting Heretics since the creation of their order, many new techniques have been created to help restrain or execute the victims of extreme corruption. This technique was created by the warden's in a way to prevent unnecessary damage to the subject of corruption, the civilians in the area, and finally the warden's themselves. Once a warden has ensnared their target with tripwire s/he may choose to do any of the following; spend 1 purity points and reduce the corruption stage by 1, this will disorient the target to the point of causing confusion for 10 seconds (3 seconds to bosses) but the damage received from this will be minimal, or spend 2+ purity points and remove 2 stages of corruption, the warden performing this skill has no limit to the amount of purity points he can use to power this skill, due to the amount of force put in to severing the target from the corruption heavy escalating lightning damage is received but the target will not receive any type of debuffs from this skill itself. If used the original debuff of tripwire is immediately removed. This skill can only be used on targets of stage 4 and 5 corruption, once Warden's judgement is learned it will cause the wire to remain attached to the warden's arm but the target will still be slowed, if the effect of tripwire is removed in anyway whether due to time or the debuff removed by any spell or item then the wire will also disappear, also once the ability is activated the warden must remain in the same spot as when he cast the ability, if moved from the spot by any means or placed under crowd control at any point the damage stops at that moment and the ability goes on cooldown. Animation time of .5 seconds when 1 purity point is used and an additional .1 seconds for each additional purity point added to skill. 60 second cooldown, begins the moment the channel stops. Purity point cost minimum is 1; stage of corruption is lowered instantaneously to the lower threshold of it's respective stages no matter how many purity points are used to power the skill.

[Bailin]

OOOHH, this I also like :D

Anyway, I was playing with the turret idea, but I more or less came up with the following:

Would it be possible to have a few different settings for turrets, like: a healing turret, rocket turret and such? I did think that it might require the mechanic subclass, like the gunslinger (ie. I can't use guns but with gunslinger I can), however, I dare say it would become a tad too selfserving if I were to work it out completely and such... so perhaps someone would like to help me with it?