New Advanced Classes! ( Focus on support )

[cabowse]

I've had these vague ideas for new advanced classes going around my head for a while, and I thought to myself what if each class had a new advanced class that focussed on support.

 

Now I play on the Empire side so forgive me for using the Imp's as an example.

 

Example #1 Agent Support ( Hacker )

 

Now not to go too full into detail, but this class would focus on Crowd Control. Now the original Inspiration for this class came from the Mass Effect multi-player, when I saw one of the classes putting down a support pylon that gave people ammo/ shield boost.

 

What if the agent could put down a buffing pylon that restored different classes energy pools over time, or maybe even more simply increased Alacrity by a certain amount. Another idea for this class was to be able to deploy turrets on the battlefield, in the same way you would with the pylon. So for example the class's skill tree would break off into Support and Dps. Where the Dps would be focussed on the turret and the Support on the pylons.

Also perhaps a passive skill that lets the "hack droid" skill reprogramme a standard or weak droid to fight for you for the duration.

 

There are ways that this class could perhaps cross over with the sniper class with it's engineering tree, as lethality did with the Operative, these are just things I have considered for continuity purposes. The problem there you may have is that the sniper would share two of it's class trees with other classes and looses some of it's individuality.

 

Maybe it would be better for now to have the support classes separate to the original advanced classes.

 

Here are some skills as an example for this class

 

You can't hide - 20 secs - 2min CD - 30m range

Target an enemy to make them far easier to spot with an orange outline around them that shows up behind cover and even in stealth, targeted stealthed units can be seen and targeted by anyone for the duration of the effect. Accuracy on attacks directed to the affected unit is increase by 25%.

 

Enhanced senses - 30 secs - 2min CD - self cast

Hacker gains 3 charges that increase damage dealt by the next 3 activated skills by 20%

 

Droid swarm - 12 secs - 45sec CD - 20m range

Hacker sends out a droid swarm that attacks the target dealing X amount of damage for the duration and decreases the targets accuracy by 15% for the duration of the effect.

 

Example #2 Sith Warrior Support ( Cannibal / Vampire )

 

This class would be a healing tank support class, now before you cry out, now that isn't fair at all you can't have a healing tank they'd be invincible. This class is more of a support healing class, to help the healer out. The healing that this class does on it's own wouldn't be anywhere near the amount that a specialised healer would do, and same goes with the tanking side.

 

On the healing side, most of the healing skills would actually be attacks, so you are really leeching health from the enemy and giving it to you or your allies, this is nice because it means you don't need to take a break from attacking to heal, but the heals will come as you attack. Any large heals that the class deals out would also cost them some of their own health as well as energy. Self healing would have to be looked into as most classes that want to self heal have try and get out of the line of fire to do so.

 

Here is an example of what healing skills this class may have so you get an idea

 

Leech - 15secs - 45sec CD

Class leeches 30% of all damage done as returned health.

 

Beat the odds - 1 min CD - 5 targets - 5 metre radius

You deal X amount of damage to targets around the vampire and heal for the amount of that accumulated damage.

 

Sacrificial strike - 30sec CD

The Vampire sacrifices 20% of it's health to heal 5 allies within a 10m radius for X amount over 9 seconds

 

Of course on the tanking side this class would have a higher armor rating than most of the Dps / healing so for example if DPS had 30% DR, tank had 50% DR, this class would have around 40% DR (average).

 

Example #3 Bounty Hunter Support ( Cryo warrior ) <-- for lack of a better name

 

Okay this particular support class would be focussed on Debuffing the enemy, though Slows, Armor debuff's.

Perhaps even this class might have a skill that could slow down the enemies casting times and global CD's.

This class would be a great anti healer, as in pvp sometimes healers are impossible to take down and you really wish for that window of opportunity to nuke them.

 

Now we have seen a few Cryo warriors in the game already, for one, the Gormak on Voss, so It could potentially make sense. Now I'm a player who loves both PVP and PVE equally so the class would have to work in both instances. In PVE This class would be key in accelerating the deaths of bosses.

 

here is an example of some de-buffing skills this class may have.

 

Cyro missile - 10 secs - 30sec CD - 30m range

Does X amount of damage and Increases damage dealt to target by 10% for 10 secs

 

Freezing spray - 5 secs - 1min CD - 3 targets - 8m range - 90degree cone

Players - Increases global cool-down by 300% and increases activation cast times after effect hits by 200% for 5 secs, weak and standard enemies are frozen for the duration.

 

Cyro burst - 5 secs - 15sec CD - 10m range

Does X amount of damage and slows the target by 70% for 5 secs, leaves the target vulnerable to a Rail shot.

 

Danger area - 18 secs - 1min CD - 30m range - Point target - 8m radius

Shoots a missile at the targeted area that leaves a pool of ice, any target that is in cover is taken out of cover and cannot get back into cover until they move out of the Danger area. Enemy targets in the danger area are slowed by 30%. Too much movement within the area causes the targets to fall and incapacitate themselves for 3 secs, this is not affected by resolve and does not add to an enemies resolve.

 

Sith Inq support? Beast master? ( Not my idea)

Now I've heard this idea being batted around on the forums and I've heard the idea from a friend in game too, I can see where the inspiration has come from and I think it would be nice if the beasts of this game could be incorporated into this class to a certain extent, though I feel it would be a little wierd seeing a Wampa running around the Voidstar.

 

which brings me to

 

Example #4 Sith Inq Support ( Sith Alchemist )

 

Now we have seen a few examples of sith dabbling in this sort of stuff a plenty in the swtor universe, but thinking we already have a debuffing class, a CC class and an off-healing class, what we need now is a Buffing class. Not to say that these classes need to stick to those support roles and that be that but that's just the idea I've gone with to help with the creative process.

This class using stims and poisons would be more of a sort of Support / dps class. Maybe an element of risk for reward thrown in there too. Or perhaps even the skills are based on using certain base skills in a certain order to create much more powerful skills.

 

]Here are some example skills.

 

Base skills:

Poisoning blast - 9 secs - 20m range

Does X amount of damage to the taget plus X amount over 9 secs

 

Thunderpulse - 5m radius - 5 targets

Does X amount of damage to enemies in the radius

 

Firebomb - 2sec AT - 30m range

Alchemist throws a flammable Cocktail at the target that does X amount of damage on contact

 

Concoction - 15 secs - 30sec - CD self cast

The Alchemist gains a buff depending on which base skill they used last

-Poisioning Blast - Gains 25% critical bonus damage to all attacks and DoT's

 

-Thunderpulse - Gains 3 charges of static Shock that does X amount of damage to attackers and increases damage reduction by 5% for the duration

 

-Firebomb - Your next firebomb gains a powerful DoT that does X amount of damage over 6 seconds and slows the target by 70% for the duration.

 

Potion of haste - 10 secs - 2min CD - point target - 4 targets - 5m radius

Increases the movement speed of all allies affected by 30% and increases Alacrity their by 10% for the duration.

 

Okay, so there are my new advance Classes idea, it's nice to get them written down somewhere, but don't take these suggestions as Gospel if you think a certain skill that I have hinted to is too overpowered or sounds unrealistic within the game then I'd love to here any alternatives or other skill that could work with them.

 

Of course there is far more depth I could go into with the classes, you have Weapons set-ups and entire potential skill tree's that they could have. would the Alchemist have a large pool of force like the Sorc or be more like the assassin? Would the Cryo have two blasters or one and would it be a close range class? How powerful would the agent's turret be and how could you balance it in pvp? Would the Vampire be too hard to kill in pvp or would the heals that it gives not be worth the lack of dps in PVE?

 

These are all Potential questions to debate over, but if Bioware actually saw this Suggestion and considered making these I would be over the moon and I'm sure a few others may regain any lost faith. These classes would add a whole new complexity to the game, with new skills to ponder over and new class trees to figure out and experiment with.

[Nempo]

I'm going to say this now as it should be painfully obvious...

 

These classes bring nothing that isn't already there. You can support by being the tank or healer in a run. In PvP both are needed. Want anti-stealth? Be a sniper/gunslinger and actually stay put for a few seconds or make regular use of the hunter droids/flares on your trooper/bh.

 

There are new skills there, but they wouldn't necessarilly add hugely tot he game. Most of us sit high on accuracy without trying as our force/teck skills should literally never miss, and physical attacks don't need too much help accuracy wise after you take into account the skill trees designed to actually hurt the enemy all have accuracy skills. You do NOT want a class capable of regenerating the energy for everyone in the group, as once such a class is in the game it quickly becomes mandatory as they now have to balance for it being in existance.

 

One can be a great support in the current classes. I'd rather we just get 4th skill trees for new ways to use old skills.

[cabowse]

Thanks for the criticism, I do believe that these classes could bring something to the game though. Through new strategies to take targets out through teamwork.

 

As I said the skills were just examples of what could be, and I feel you mainly focussed on the Hacker.

The reason for the accuracy boost would be in case of high defence targets, I know we all sit high on accuracy but an accuracy boost for example would work well against an Assassin using saber ward. The skill was a counter against classes that use In-combat stealth to get away, you would have to use it as a pre-caution though. You wouldn't be able to use it after the target had stealthed. It's also a more obvious target marker for healers who are trying to stay out of the fray. Even without the Accuracy boost the skill would be useful.

 

The energy regen was just a suggestion, more likely a 5% boost to alacrity or something, but a group of people stacked together near a pylon makes for easy AOEing so there is always that trade off.

 

What I have mentioned is just food for thought, but I have considered 4th skill tree's as well.

[TACeMossie]

So what you want is a 3rd advanced class for everything?

 

Ok, heres what I would do:

 

1. Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior

 

Now gets a heal/dps class option. Heal class uses a choice of 2 new lightsaber forms - Makashi and Niman. The Heal form - Niman form - allows force abilities to target allies and heal them, depending on spec, with a couple of new healing abilities. The Damage form - Makashi - is about the same damage output as an atayru sentinel, though with an armor penalty to make up for self-heals available, and focus's on AoE based attacks. The New abilities focus on support with armor reduction/DoTs for the damage tree, and armor increases/heal over time for allies in the heal tree.

 

This advanced class uses medium armor, a single lightsaber and a focus.

 

2. Jedi Consular/Sith Inquisitor

 

A pure damage tree. 2 class specific trees are Melee and Ranged. Ranged reduces force costs and cooldowns on ranged moves while melee focus's on using the double-bladed lightsaber that is gifted to it to do huge damage. Sorc/sage is still a slightly better ranged, while shadow/sage is still a slightly better melee, but they can't hybrid it at all, and sorcs are only better ranged because of the huge force pool, while shadows are only better melee cause of cloaking. New abilities are for move speed reduction and DoT for ranged tree, and armor/damage reduction for melee tree.

 

This advanced class uses medium armor, a double bladed lightsaber, and a focus.

 

3. Trooper/Bounty Hunter

 

A Pure Damage tree. In addition to the DoT option of pyrotech, the other 2 trees are melee and range focused. The ranged tree is able to use an assault cannon + generator (trooper)/2 pistols (Bounty Hunter) alongside the new Explosive Cell to do lots of AoE damage quite easily, while the melee tree uses a tech stave + generator (trooper)/2 tech blades (bounty hunter) alongside the new Vibration Cell (requires melee weapon) to cause heaps of armor reduction and slows on enemies.

 

This advanced class uses heavy armor. The republic version uses assault cannons, tech staves, and generators, while the Empire version uses pistols and tech blades.

 

4. Smuggler/agent

 

A tanking/damage tree. Despite no combat stances, and using medium armor, the new class for smugglers/agents is able to tank very easily, due to the skill tree giving the highest absorb and defence chances in the game (as opposed to the typical ~25/25/5% shield/absorb/defence chance that tank classes get by speccing in tanking prior to gear, this one gets ~40/40/20% shield/absorb/defence). Higher smuggler tank tree skills improve mitigation. The damaging tree is all about AoE attacks and effects.

 

Tanking is balanced out by having a much lower max armor reduction due to not getting the +115% armor that shadows/assasins get, nor the +60% on top of already heavy armor that warriors/juggernaughts/vanguards/powertechs get

 

This advanced class uses medium armor, and a pistol/blaster rifle (faction dependent), as well as a shield generator.

 

So there are my ideas for a new 3rd advanced class, if we implement one.

Edited August 13, 2013 by TACeMossie

[cabowse]

Some nice idea's here

 

I like the ideas for The Jedi knight and Sith warrior, the different forms would be interesting, perhaps having healing on both tanking and dps stances, but the Dps stance would be more risk for reward, where as the tanking one would be the safe option.

 

I wasn't as sold on the Inq/cons ideas though, it sounded like a mix of the two advanced classes that were already there and was not particularly bringing anything new gameplay wise.

 

BH/Trooper ideas sound cool, I loved the idea of giving them melee weapons, I'd love to be able to use a tech staff as a BH and be like Torian, maybe with the Cyro Idea that I had originally it would be a very good class for trapping people that need nuking.

 

I feel like the agent tank may fall short as without stances it would only be able to be a tank, and I don't think an agent tank would really work, but the idea was sound for having high defence and shield rather than armor rating. But it has sort have already been done with the Assassin/shadow who gains the huge shield boost from their tanking tree and has a lower armor rating.

 

Thanks for the idea though anyway food for thought