Offshoot of thoughts from quick mood boarding of public facing comps:
1. Spiritual attenuation of the shaman
2. Piety attenuation of the priest
3. Elemental affinities of the mage
4. Nature affinities of a warg-bond
Concept: Pure support class with AoE HoT and class-defining buffs, sustainability via lore-locked mechanics that tie them to a specific node (and its health) and provide singular pet that may operate in different modes dependent upon node state (seasons? node type? so many possibilities).
Light Motif: Stewardship/Service
Dark Motif: Dominance/Control
Contexts: Verran Acolyte, Node Speaker/Guardian, Lorax meets Behavior Economics.
Class Definition:
1. Warg-bond - nature bond to the residential node (when affiliated) or to the aggregate region of operation (when unaffiliated); provides difference benefits by node type, state, etc.
2. Elemental defense, protection, and countering - skins, thorns, mitigation, and proc-avoidance/dodge buff set - augments primary support classes, conflicts with other, secondary support spells and abilities - offers class maturation that mitigates those secondary conflicts with progression.
3. Piety - mechanically locked in conflict with node state; reliant upon affiliated node health and type for class defining boosts/benefits that support node stability over time; when unaffiliated, reliant upon maintaining local node(s) health for the same benefit (harder, longer, but possible).
4. Spirituality - mechanically locked to the spirit provided by the node (or local node(s) when unaffiliated) - spirit pet works for the node, not the player when affiliated, but works for the player in competition and/or control mechanic when player is unaffiliated.
Possible conflict/craft/economy hooks:
- Node or local region weather influence
- Traveler's Gift (road speed; caravan buffs)
- Battlefield shot calling (spiritual rallying?)
- Nature's Bounty - limited area effect material boosting
I know it's not up for gold (alas) but so long as it isn't announced, input and suggestions likely helpful.... I hope.
I would play the heck out of this class.
