A rune is a rune

[Halfhand]

There seems to be very little discussion on this forum about what we would like to see from the Runepriest class. So I thought I'd try to start a thread on the effects that runes will have, in game.

These could be types of healing runes, buffing runes, damage runes or anything else you can come up with. I'd like to see what sort of interesting concepts you guys can come up with and if you could add a suggestion to how they would be implemented, that would be great. It's time something constructive was posted here, without all the complaining about previous implementations of healing class in other games.

I'd like to start things off with one of my ideas (not exactly an original one), ground castable runes. These are runes that the Runepriest draws upon the ground where he is standing. They could be implemented as proximity traps, firing off when an enemy passes over them, or as timed blasts, or as triggered events that the Runepriest sets off whenever he wishes.

Possible effects could be damage, snares, healing, scrying, static font-like effects, or short range teleportation (but only if implemented properly, there are many pitfalls to teleport effects in games).

What do you guys think? And what other ideas do you have?

[ClownSt0pper]

There seems to be very little discussion on this forum about what we would like to see from the Runepriest class. So I thought I'd try to start a thread on the effects that runes will have, in game.

These could be types of healing runes, buffing runes, damage runes or anything else you can come up with. I'd like to see what sort of interesting concepts you guys can come up with and if you could add a suggestion to how they would be implemented, that would be great. It's time something constructive was posted here, without all the complaining about previous implementations of healing class in other games.

I'd like to start things off with one of my ideas (not exactly an original one), ground castable runes. These are runes that the Runepriest draws upon the ground where he is standing. They could be implemented as proximity traps, firing off when an enemy passes over them, or as timed blasts, or as triggered events that the Runepriest sets off whenever he wishes.

Possible effects could be damage, snares, healing, scrying, static font-like effects, or short range teleportation (but only if implemented properly, there are many pitfalls to teleport effects in games).

What do you guys think? And what other ideas do you have?

I wouldnt be suprised if there were say four types of runes.

Defensive, Offensive, Healing and Neutral.

Offensive = Clearly giving the priest the ability to damage others, whether he inbues his staff or armour in some way to cause damage.

Defensive = Boots players around the priest with a specific aura, the rune can also be cast on an individual to give a limited timed buff.

Healing = Healing runes, like defensive ones can be placed on a player, they last for a limited time and restore HPs when the player reaches a certain low health. Runes can also be consumed early or cast from the priest himself, that in turn extinguishes the players "held" rune.

Neutral = As you mentioned Neutral runes could be used in combat to give various scouting and siege abilities. Floor runes enabling quicker travel from one rune point to another, or way points on a map to alert others to enemies locations?

I dunno, all rubbish really!

[vehemoth]

In the interview I just read runes have several purposes.

It said runes can be place on people as buffs. After which health and vigor can be channeled. Rune enhanced players can also release the effects of runes, canceling the buffs and causing a powerful burst from within the rune. I take it to mean something like this:

Lets say a HoT rune is placed on a player. The player can then release ( cancel) the rune and the full healing potential of the HoT will be given to him. In other words, rune buffs that are released will act similar to a WoW palidans seals and judgement system, where the effect of the judgement is related to the buff.

Runes may also be "set in stone" and become an item. These runestones can be distributed to players via the trade system. Runestones may act as consumables, giving effects such as healing, short duration buffs enhancement buffs, etc. I imagien the variety of available runes will create many possibilities.

In addition offensive runes will do things like debuff, cause explosions, DoTs, etc. offensive runes will of course have duration. It seems to me that any direct damage abilities will come through channelling hurt into beruned enemies.

I hope this is accurate and helpful. If I've made any mistakes or left anything out I'd be more and happy to update this reply :)

[Kraus]

Lists of runes that are in the TT/FRPG (not sure which:

http://www.msu.edu/user/cooking3/dwarf.html#dwarf

Just a good thing to get a perspective on runes; but I would say dont expect any teleportation things.

[vehemoth]

:-D I am made very happy by this. Thanks for digging up this link :)

[Kraus]

Thank snorri, stole the link from him :P but its a good listing for information - dont expect stuff to be so powerful tho, if they did put runes like that ingame they would be a tad imbalancing.

[vehemoth]

I expect many runes to be adapted into the game in a balanced/ reasonable way as well as many missing and new runes. ;)

[Halfhand]

Well, thanks go to Snorri for the list and Kraus for posting it here.

Reading that did give me a few ideas. But one that I'm particularly interested in, is the number a runes a Runepriest will be able to place on an ally (or even himself).

Generally in MMOs we've seen the situation where, if someone can cast a buff on you then they do and any buff you can get, you get. But what if you were limited to say, 2 buffs? It would make you think for a minute about what 2 buffs you'd find most effective. Especially if these weren't generic like the much over used +# stat point buffs. With a varied list of slightly more interesting buffs than previously seen in MMOs, coupled with a variety of career paths for the classes receiving them, we could see a whole new element of stategy enter the game. As long as we don't end up with 2 overpowered runes that everyone uses, banishing all others from the Runepriest's arsenal.

This could be taken even further by give each player (not the Runepriests) a buff quota, similar to the concentration quota in DAoC. Then you have runes which take up varied amounts of this quota. Players could then decide to use a few weaker runes instead of 1 or 2 powerful ones.

Just a thought.

[Basa]

I wonder how they dwarfs will go about attaining these runes. Ive read that dwarfs dont use "traditional" magic so I assume that the buffs/cursese probably might not be a regular cast. Im wondering if they create them like warlocks do in WoW or if they are conditions for them to be made. It would be nice if they had an animation of them being drawing in the air, kinda like that female npc in diablo 2 that was in the beginning of act 4.


Generally in MMOs we've seen the situation where, if someone can cast a buff on you then they do and any buff you can get, you get. But what if you were limited to say, 2 buffs? It would make you think for a minute about what 2 buffs you'd find most effective. Especially if these weren't generic like the much over used +# stat point buffs. With a varied list of slightly more interesting buffs than previously seen in MMOs, coupled with a variety of career paths for the classes receiving them, we could see a whole new element of stategy enter the game. As long as we don't end up with 2 overpowered runes that everyone uses, banishing all others from the Runepriest's arsenal.


They probably will have a buff limit. But im not really worried about ppl using "the most powerful combination" just yet. We dont know yet what the opposing side is going to have. They may have spells that dispel or reflect casted spells etc, also my experience from playing healers and casters is that alot of ppl dont put all their spells to use. It takes someone that thinks outside the box and plays harder to show everyone what the potential is of a class. I see runepriests as being big time multitaskers in battle and Im excited so far. I hope they end up being like that.

[Kazgut]

They will probably have a regular cast, casting time is pretty much the time you take to either make a spell finger gesture, say the magical words, dance abit (I am serious >=O) or in this case write runes on people, objects, etc.

I am guessing the more complicated the magic behind the rune the more complicated the rune will be to write (Mainly more lines etc), so the cast time will be longer like normal spells.

[versuvius]

did you just say write runes on people? lol

Although being able to anchant other people armour might be good

[DwarfRunepriest]

Well they said somewhere or another that you actually have the oppurtunity before entering battle to imbue certain people with runes on their weapons or their armour or skin.

[versuvius]

Arent runes supposed to permanent

they were originally used to control and bind raw magic so when the user of a daemon banishing weapon or harbinger axe of gritty boom dies the weapon and the magic lives on onto the next generation...or cast down a well by magic feering idiots but whatever....

[Snorri]

Yes, runes which are engraved upon weapons, armour, and walls are permanent.
Although I am guessing for WaR we will see a few stretches of the lore, and some tempory runes will be made for combat.

I am hoping that "Runesmiths" are going to be a prime crafting class for the dwarfs, and that Mythic do not forget to add them.

I mean... leaving out Runesmiths from dwarfen society is like leaving out Slayers from Karak Kadrin!! :cool:

[Chilltouch]

If I see dwarf runepriests walking around casting Master Runes on people, I will be screaming.

I see runes as basically being:

Healing:
"I cast Lesser Healing Rune on Angus Bellydeath."
"Now I can choose when to activate this Lesser Healing Rune whenever I want to heal myself! Awesome!"

Aggressive:
"I cast the Rune of Cleaving on Angus Bellydeath's [Gutbuster Hammer]."
"Cool! Now whenever I attack someone, there's a chance of me attacking two people at the same time! Ten charges!"
OR
"Cool! Now, I can select the Rune and the next time I attack, I strike two people at the same time! Ten charges!"
(I also expect Aggressive Runes to be debuffs or damage spells. Rune of Missile Magnetism and Rune of Immolation!)

Defensive:
"I cast Rune of Stone on Angus Bellydeath's [Gromril Chainmail]."
"Brilliant! Now I have got a massive bonus on my armour value! For five minutes!"

---

Of course, all of these can be cast on the Runepriests themselves. I say that everyone should be limited to having no more than one rune of each class at a time. Otherwise...

"Hi, i'd like five Major Healing Runes, a Rune of Flame, Rune of Cleaving, Rune of Fury, Rune of Fortitude, Rune of Spell Eating and Rune of Stone. I'm a living god."

Any case, looking at how the battles are from RvR footage so far, I would say the runes are going to be represented by a temporary flash of a rune above the target's head when cast.

---

Anyway, that's just my view and my ideas. Tear it apart at your own dispense, I know I have made it a bit too buff-based.

[Snorri]

Aye they will have to have short durations, and the Runepriest will have to be there to keep them active. This should avoid buffbots.

And when engraving weapons with runes, there is a rule known as The Rule of Runes. Which states only one master rune can be engraved on an item, and only three runes in total can be on any one item.

So you could have three runes of might on your axe, or a Master rune, a rune of cleaving and a rune of might on your axe.

I am sure there will be restrictions on the amount of "buffs" the Runepriest can cast and maintain as well.
But I hope runesmiths get added as a crafting profession. :-\
And the runes should cost lots of gold to make depending on their power :D (Runesmiths)

[versuvius]

oh thatd be a laugh....high level rune preist and his little very crap friend....preist buffs him to hell and back and the little noob get loads of xp by killing the highest level monsters all because of buffs...am i ranting here... good MORE ALE PLEEZ

[mongoose]

Generally in MMOs we've seen the situation where, if someone can cast a buff on you then they do and any buff you can get, you get. But what if you were limited to say, 2 buffs? It would make you think for a minute about what 2 buffs you'd find most effective. Especially if these weren't generic like the much over used +# stat point buffs. With a varied list of slightly more interesting buffs than previously seen in MMOs, coupled with a variety of career paths for the classes receiving them, we could see a whole new element of stategy enter the game. As long as we don't end up with 2 overpowered runes that everyone uses, banishing all others from the Runepriest's arsenal.

This could be taken even further by give each player (not the Runepriests) a buff quota, similar to the concentration quota in DAoC. Then you have runes which take up varied amounts of this quota. Players could then decide to use a few weaker runes instead of 1 or 2 powerful ones.

Just a thought.

Reading this gave me a flashback to playing my WoW Paladin and players demanding certain blessings and auras. /made my head hurt. It was especially painful when they demanded something that was utterly useless to them. This means you as the buffer would NEED to know which buffs work best for each of the 12 classes. That makes it a tough job right there and if someone dosent like what you gave them! :rolleyes: :p

[versuvius]

what does make people demand buffs ne ways lol

[Snorri]

oh thatd be a laugh....high level rune preist and his little very crap friend....preist buffs him to hell and back and the little noob get loads of xp by killing the highest level monsters all because of buffs...am i ranting here... good MORE ALE PLEEZ

What?
The whole idea of the runepriests is that he IS NOT some silly buffbot.
We will not have buffbots in WaR.

[versuvius]

im just saying thats what will happen if WAR brings in the uber buffer like alot of mmorpgs have

[Snorri]

Which thankfully they won't.

[versuvius]

uber buffer...i love that word UBER

[Okri]

Reading this gave me a flashback to playing my WoW Paladin and players demanding certain blessings and auras. /made my head hurt. It was especially painful when they demanded something that was utterly useless to them. This means you as the buffer would NEED to know which buffs work best for each of the 12 classes. That makes it a tough job right there and if someone dosent like what you gave them! :rolleyes: :p

12 Classes? Am I missing something in Wow?

Anyhoo, I like many of the ideas presented here, and I do indeed hope that Rune Priests will fill a larger role than that of a "Buffbot".

[versuvius]

yeh....and a better spot than healer

[Zeb]

It s not that I like being weak, but it could be a good idea that we have strongly limited buffing/healing capacities (limited in time or in number of runes for exemple). So that we simply aren't able to heal/buff all the time, not becoming a bot, and having some time to go in the melee say hello to orc's skull with our staff :)

[Aweraw]

oh thatd be a laugh....high level rune preist and his little very crap friend....preist buffs him to hell and back and the little noob get loads of xp by killing the highest level monsters all because of buffs...am i ranting here... good MORE ALE PLEEZ

But he wont get much xp becuase he is grouped with the high level rune priest...

[Aweraw]

yeh....and a better spot than healer

I plan to play one, and i geniunely hope that they will be a healer mainly, ofcuase they will do several other things aswell, becuase Mythic stated there wont be healer only classes.

But i envision something like:

-Good Single target heals (both direct heals, and delayed "heal pool" rune heals)
-Some Morale costing Major group heal runes, either healing entire group, or serving as a group "heal pool"
-Snares (actually seems like the case from screen shots)
-Various short duration buff effects, powerfull effects, but have to be implied in combat, should be a challenge becuase you have to be close to your Melees that you want to buff, but you have to stay uninterupted aswell.
-Certain bolstering effects through hitting people with your big staff.
-Offensive Runes aswell, certain triggered abilities, possibly linked to snare, for instance a rune that "the next time the target is hit in melee he is snared by 40% for 10 seconds, the snare is unbreakable by damage"
-Protective triggered runes maybe aswell. like a rune that "Imbues target player with a chance to stun anyone who attacks him in melee the rune is broken after triggering, duration 4 seconds, chance 20%"

would give an interesting choice of:

"Do i want to spam heals to keep the Elf mage alive from the frenzied Choppa attacking him, thus tie'ing up myself, which might end up in that i get interupted and then the Elf dies regardless. Or do i want to cast the protection rune. Sure there is a risk that the Elf dies before it triggers, or before i can resume healing.

[Zeb]

The problem of giving the Runepriest too much healing capacities, is that he will certainly find himself doing only and exclusively that, being often the only one in a group able to heal. And if it's not the game on itself which who will park you in this role, it will be the other players. :-?

[Deger]

I think the runes will be set up like this:
A) Runes that last for 2, 5, or 10 minutes that are passive buffs.
B) Runes that last the same amount, but will be triggered either by a 'proc', or will be activated by the player. The rune will buff the player with bonus damage, attack speed, whatever for a certain amount of time, or with charges.
C) I have no idea on whether this will be in game or not, but a permanent buff to a piece of armor or a weapon.

[Doulos]

I just hope they actually make them what they should be. Items engraved on armour and weapons and other stuff that makes people harder. If this is the case I can imagine a skill tree where the more potent and long lasting runes last longer or the magic that goes into them is harder to wield, if we look at "the other" fantasy role play based on Warhammer imagery (cough, I'm not the only one who's noticed that the orcs and dwarfs are somewhat warhammer in that game am I? I would use the word ripped off but I feel generous) then crafting skills develop with practice and levelling but certain items take a lot more skill to make and rarer ingredients.

Just so long as I don't have to go and farm spiders with my trusted polar bear to make me some nice new gloves... tempory buffs from a rune just sounds stupid to me, sorry but I would be well annoyed if they lowered the lore of warhammer to make the rune smith a buffbot.