My dream class

[flestiraef]

I've played a lot of games with a lot of different classes and they've all had some sort of description which included "Master debuffer" or something similar. I was always disappointed to find out that theres hardly ever more than 2 or 3 debuffs you would actually use in any given fight, and end up either A: Spamming lifedrains/manadrains, b: Spamming direct damage spells/skills after you put on those 2 or 3 debuffs.

I want a class that has NO DD other than autoattack!
I want to load your buff bar up with my debuffs to the point where I've hit a cap of some sort and your characters so weak now that I could literally autoattack you to death with a level 1 weapon.
DoTs I consider debuffs, if done right, something like an AoE DoT that does small-medium damage is always fun, as long as it doesnt "explode" in the end for huge damage.

Basically, I want a true debuffer. I doubt I'll ever see it, but it'd be so fun for me. Is there anything in the dark elf lore that might support something like this? Even if there was, I doubt 95% of the population would be interested in this class type, screaming about not having any burst damage and so forth.

[Estebar]

It's highly unlikely. Barnett, Hickman and the Crew have emphasised that they want everyone in WAR to be able to "get stuck in" with dealing damage in a fight. They're not the biggest fans of those types who prance around the edges of the skirmish constantly healing or buffing or debuffing without actually contributing any violence to the fight itself.

I'd say your best bet would be a Sorcerer(ess), seeing as they're likely to take the Dark Elf support slot and will probably come with debilitating debuffing curses aplenty.

[Xurré]

Not really. The closest you might get is the Sorceress, but direct damage is an important part of that as well. And the way most of us envision the class she might have some lifetap abilities too. For the rest most people do expect there to be a healthy number of debufs too, but not as the sole purpose of the class (and not to the extent that you’re describing).

[EDIT] Bah, Estebar beat me to it. :p


- Xurré

[Thrakkesh]

What you describe could very easily be a Nurgle Sorceror, as Nurgle Sorcerors in the TT had a number of damage over turn abilities (Nurgle's Rot. UGHHHHH.) and various abilities that lowered the stats of units/characters, stacking to pretty insane numbers. Unfortunately, the odds of getting a Nurgle Chaos faction this game are low, your best bet being some kind of Beastmen Nurgle Bray Shaman (IF we get new races for the expansion, IF it's Beastmen and IF the Beastman are Nurgle).

Alternatively, you could see it from High Elf, as High Magic was very strange, in being an almost anti-magic magic, but this is unlikely.

Debuffing classes are actually really, really rough to balance. If you make the debuffs crap and give them no DD or upfront damage, they're laughable. If you make them devastating, the presence of debuffers in assist trains becomes priority 1. This leads to wanting to make them mezzers, which can make it even worse, etc... etc... It's a tough balancing act, and is likely why you see it attempted so rarely. It's easy to be like "Class A has X mitigation Y damage, Class B has X - 3 mitigation and Y + 3 damage" (or similar effects) but the relative abilties of 'debuffs' is much harder to quantify.

As an aside though. I hated Nurgle Magic. It was scarier then Tzeentch if you went spell by spell.

[Dracnye]

I very much doubt that any game will ever create a class that could take a high level character down to the equivalent of a level 1 character. Another point to make is that, even if your class lacked the direct damage spells/skills to be able deal damage to other players unless they were very weak, doesn't mean that another player won't take advantage of your weakened target to kill them, while you still won't have had the time to be able to weaken them enough to be able to directly damage them.

A class that had debuffs, and their only attack is a basic autoattack would only work in a game where all fights could be fought in a 1-on-1 battles, or else people would just constantly kill-steal your weakened targets.

[Thrakkesh]

.

A class that had debuffs, and their only attack is a basic autoattack would only work in a game where all fights could be fought in a 1-on-1 battles, or else people would just constantly kill-steal your weakened targets.

I think the whole point of the debuff class is you weaken said target so other people can dispatch them. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that someone intersted in a class like that wouldn't be terribly interested in their place on some imaginary killboard so much as whether or not the game was won. (Sort of like a healer mindset with a really, really twisted purpose. And I like that! )

[flestiraef]

I think the whole point of the debuff class is you weaken said target so other people can dispatch them. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that someone intersted in a class like that wouldn't be terribly interested in their place on some imaginary killboard so much as whether or not the game was won. (Sort of like a healer mindset with a really, really twisted purpose. And I like that! )

Very well said.