Nature Based Archer Classes

[fireflyege]

Ok so I am making my archer, and she is supposed to have interplay with nature spells based on 4 seasons. So far these are the ideas:

-WINTER: She has a spell named ''Winter's Breath'' which freezes all enemies with a chance. She also has a skill named ''Shattershot'' which shatters that ice dealing massive damage if the targets are frozen.
-SUMMER: She uses Bombshot often, which may burn her enemies. When she uses Summerflame, she removes that status from her enemy and applies Solar Warmth to herself, healing her over time.
-FALL: She has a spell named Fall Illusion, which does nothing really, except it is an AoE %35 dodge chance in both melee and magic so it is useful but cooldown is twice as longer than other seasonal spells.

But I feel those ideas are too mage-y for someone who is one with the nature. She is supposed to be a venatrix supported by mother nature herself, so I guess I may need some ideas about improvements.

 

[Raijinn]

Wait does she change form when the seasons change or does she just have those skills in the first place?

 

[Raijinn]

Well, assuming she changes form and everything when the season's change- here's my idea

- Summer (High Attack)(Low Evasion)
She has the skills Arrow of Heat, Falling Eagle and Solar Warmth(The name was perfect)
>>Arrow of Heat. As the name implies, when she attacks, the attack will get an additional fire affinity (High burn ailment rate)
>>Falling Eagle. She soars high in the sky and the shoots her foe (High Accuracy, High Critical)
>>Solar Warmth. She removes the "burn" ailment from everyone in the battle, and then heals overtime.

- Spring (High Defense)(Low Attack)
She has the skills Deer's Blessing, Poison Arrow, Stun Shot
>>Deer's Blessing. Restores mp/sp/whateveryoucallit overtime. High defense against all ailments.
>>Poison Arrow. An attack which has a high poison ailment rate.
>>Stun Arrow. An attack which has a high stun ailment rate.

- Autumn/Fall (High Evasion)(Low Defense)
She has the skills Camouflage, Red Fox, Hidden Arrow
>>Camouflage. She hides, making her opponent unable to attack her for a turn and then gain a high evasion rate for a few turns
>>Red Fox. Greatly decreases opponent's evasion rate
>>Hidden Arrow. A 100% hit rate, medium attack that will cause the opponent to panic

- Winter (High Agility)(Longer Cooldown)
She has the skills Winter Wolf, Frostbite, Freezing Arrow
>>Winter Wolf. Instills fear to the opponent, moderately decreases their defense
>>Frostbite. Attacks all enemies, low freeze ailment rate
>>Freezing Arrow. Attacks an enemy with a high freeze ailment rate

 

[Kes]

[dpost]Raijinn[/dpost]
If you want to add something, just edit your earlier post.

@fireflyege Yet again, this looks like you are asking for feedback on your individual game rather than proposing a wider ranging conversation. As I've said before, this section of the forum is not for specific game feedback and discussion. Please keep that in mind for when you are replying. Alternatively, post in Features Feedback.

 

[fireflyege]

Oh heheh sorry, where do I ask for those again? I asked many others but without a creative concept I am afraid I must get rid of that character (and I really do not want to because I love her personality).

Actually I was willing to take ideas from many other rangers from other RPG's. I just added my two cents about how I made it (which was a failure and felt like a mage-y approach as I stated) so you can take that as a thread for ''what should a nature based ranger be like'' thread.

Also to be specific I am strictly talking about people that are considered to be Wardens and Rangers, Marksmans and Archers are out of the question. For example a (preferably wood elf) huntress in the wilderness can be considered a ranger but a sharpshooter in a city would not be considered one.

@Raijinn sadly she only has 2 forms which are:

-DEFAULT: Her attack is named Shoot (%170 Attack + %60 Speed - %100 Enemy Def) and her attacks are able to build TP.

-INTENSE FOCUS: When her TP reaches 100, she enters Intense Focus, replacing her attack with Super Snipe (%250 Attack + %150 Speed - %100 Enemy Def, %100 critical chance but gains %1 damage per %1 critical chance, and always acts first) but only lasts 1 turn. During this time her TP rapidly decays to 0 and she is unable to gain further TP.

Her seasonal abilities would make way more sense if she was entirely based on seasons, but sadly if I implement it that would be too overloaded for a character and would be torturous for the player to check her status. So she just have those abilities.

But she just does not ''oh hey lets use a random season'' so she will have interplay with her spells and her physical attacks. For example she does not have a spell that makes an enemy burn, but her Summerflame is supposed to exploit burn effects so she has a physical ability that makes an enemy burn to effectively use Summerflame in my idea, and even though she makes an enemy freeze with a season spell, she relies on a physical attack to exploit that freeze effect.

I may also think of an arrow enchanting system that makes all 4 skills share a long cooldown but does not spend a turn (like 3 turns). That would make the player also watch her stance to keep things interesting, but with Super Snipe I fear if that would be too much, I would love to hear your thoughts about 2 of them in a row.

So far I thought of these themes:

-Spring (Nature's Wonder): Heals based on her agility.
-Fall (Swift Leaves): High dodge chance.
-Summer (Sunburnt Sunbaths): Has DoT's and HoT's.
-Winter (Piercing Cold): Defense piercing and critical strikes.

FUN FACT: Super Snipe was a %600 Attack + %300 Speed critical attack that gained %1 damage for each %1 critical chance + %1 damage for each health percent the enemy is missing. Oh and yes she even got %50 more agility and %100 critical chance buff for the duration then I tried that and realized how ******ed that was. Just looking at that you can tell how I suck designing rangers.

 

[Raijinn]

@fireflyege Ah I see, it doesn't suck really. But it has lots of room for improvisation. And also, don't make OP characters XD

 

[Kes]

so you can take that as a thread for ''what should a nature based ranger be like'' thread.

Followed by a "here's how I've been approaching it."
That way it opens up the discussion more obviously and is likely to draw in more participants - and therefore potentially more ideas - as no one feels restricted to commenting on specific aspects.

 

[fireflyege]

@Raijinn I did not know it was OP back then. I thought it was epic and tested it. She proceeded to halve the boss's health with Super Snipe. After that I took power from Super Snipe and gave the power to the rest of her skills as utility. There is a hidden strenght this character has, and that is not being overly reliant on constant buffing because most of her damage is tied to a one big attack which is telegraphed to the player.

Still mixing magic with archery is pretty hard.

@Kes you are right I guess. Well who can blame me? You do not see wardens around, so I am willing to give and take inspiration.

 

[Manofdusk]

Well, I don't think my idea of a ranger is anywhere close to what yours is

When I make a ranger, I end up adding several unique damage types (bug damage, beast damage, plant damage, ect.) and end up adding each as a self buff (that removes all of the other ones) that exploits creature types (in the same way say, a spellsword, would exploit elemental types). For example, a giant wasp would be particularly vulnerable to "Bug" damage.

It may not be quite as engaging as a class with a lot of active skills (I'm keeping my move list per class very low) but it does give the feeling of hunting creatures. Combine that with yanfly's extra item drops and poach skills and it really hammers home the concept of "hunter" instead of "mage with a bow".

depending on how many skills you want to give this character, you could also give the character a load of instant cast but high cooldown skills that increase accuracy, increase crit%, increase atk, penetrate enemy defense, ect. in order to make the one shot you do get as loaded as possible (because you're not going to get another alpha strike for some time).

 

[fireflyege]

I have like 15 skills for every character, except mages which have 26, with the elementalist having 30 skills because he has attacks of all 12 elements the game has. I am looking for ways to reduce the amount of their spells but it would cost so much utility for them.

I increased the cooldown of her seasonal spells and made them instant so she will use the wrath of nature only when she needs to, rather than spamming it so frequently that the girl is actually a mage. I think I managed to make a character which is an archer supported by nature.

For not being able to use her seasonal spells that frequently, she enjoys decreased cooldowns on her multi hit skills, Focus Fire and Unload Quiver. She uses those attacks to do some damage and mainly to build her TP for her Super Snipe.

Your hunter idea is actually cool, I like it by the way. Unique damage types are not the thing I particularly like but it is a cool mechanic. Shame I do not have any characters with hunting themes. Maybe in Episode 2, maybe...

 

[Raijinn]

Whoa nice concept dude! I'd love to play your game when it comes out! @fireflyege

 

[fireflyege]

@Raijinn it will come out soon, since it is my first project it will be a non-commercial project by the way. ^^

 

[UnicornsVomit]

Something to think about but you can add posion/toxic skills, debuffs rangers (I would assume) get there skills in wooded environments, if you feel you're going to mage with your hero just give him debuffs like posion arrow or spike trap (bleeding damage) some cool skills to check out for a ranger would be from guild wars 2, they really nail it I feel.

 

[fireflyege]

Actually I started to rework all my characters. The ranger will stilll have instant high cooldown skills from each season but will only be able to use skills from her current seasonal stance. Seasonal change will have 8'ish cooldown but it will recharge faster when you are using your seasonal spells.

Changing seasons will max her mana, and will become her only option of increasing mana. You will not be able to pick the same season over and over again also. I thought of a fixed seasonal order and I am thinking about it.

Her TP will be used for her Super Snipe, and her physical skills will charge it. No changes on that one.