Runemaster Concept Design

So in reference to this post i made earlier (A Realization about "minion classes" and suggestions) i felt i should devote an entire post to expanding on the idea’s i briefly covered there.

First and foremost: it is my belief that the developers intend for runemasters to be a minion oriented class (reasons stated in the other post) and so this concept will proceed with that in mind.

Philosophy: The Runemaster knows the best defense is a good offense, but a little bit of preparation never hurts. he keeps careful watch over the battlefield in search of the best locations to set up his offense to route and overwhelm enemies.

Mastery bonus passive: Runemasters have an extra resource called “runic power” that goes up to 100, runic power is used for a multitude of runic skills.

Skills

Runic Elemental (the one we already know the name of): Channel to summon a runic elemental, using 10 runic power every .5 seconds. runic elementals gain increased health, damage, protections, duration and threat generation based on how much runic power they consumed.

(Possible talents)
Runic elemental consumes 20 runic power, but can no longer be channeled.
Elemental supplements half of it’s channel cost with mana, but is less powerful.
Elemental gains damage reflect and taunts enemies.
Elemental becomes fire, ice, or lightning elemental, dealing elemental damage with it’s attacks.

Rune of Potency: Place a rune on the ground at a target location, increasing the damage of all allies within it by 25%, and mana generation by 50%, may only have 2, costs 100 mana and 15 runic power to cast. (spell only consumes mana for non runemasters, but has a duration)

(Possible talents)
Rune costs less mana and/or runic power, but has a (shorter*) duration.
Rune increases runic power regeneration/ further increases mana regen.
Rune now attaches to allies, but has a smaller area.
Rune halts the duration of elementals while they are within it.
Rune applies ignite, shock, or chill to enemies within it each second.

Runic Armor: Equip a suit of magic armor to yourself or an ally, granting 50% increased elemental protections and reducing damage taken by 20%. costs 15 runic power.

(possible talents)
Armor is more effective on elementals.
Armor grants an elemental damage aura.
Armor grants vitality instead of elemental protections.
Armor uses mana instead of runic power, but has a duration and you are limited to 1.
Armor converts damage taken into mana.

Rune of fortitude: Summon a rune at your feet that grants ward every second to allies within it. costs 15 runic power, may only have 2.

(Possible Talents)
Rune grants 50% increased ward retention while within it’s area.
Rune grants more ward to minions.
Rune increases health regeneration.
Rune stuns and slows enemies that pass through it.
Rune covers a massive area, but is less effective.

Rune Weapon Animate a runic sword at the target location for 15 seconds, dealing damage to enemies that pass by. Runic elementals can pick up one runic weapon at a time to augment their own attacks. Costs 10 runic power and some mana. (only mana for non runemasters, but with a shorter duration.)

(possible talents)
weapon becomes a spinning axe with a larger area and attack speed than swords, grants elementals a whirlwind attack.
Weapon becomes a bow, attack enemies from a much larger range, grants elementals arrow barrage.
Weapon becomes a hammer with increased stun rate, grants elementals increased stun rate and stun immunity.
Weapons return 2 mana and 1 runic power each time they deal damage, up to once every .2 seconds.
Rune weapon now summons 2 daggers at once, with reduced range, grants elementals the ability to dual wield with increased attack speed.

Rune of Hurt (temp name): Summon a rune at the target location for 8 seconds which deals adaptive spell damage to all enemies within it each second. Costs 15 runic power (or 50 mana), may have 3.

(possible talents)
Rune absorbs the mages fireballs, lightning blasts, and other direct damage spells to immediately do their damage to all enemies within its area.
(requiring the above) Rune grows larger when it absorbs one of the mages other spells, up to 200% increased size (after 10 spells)
Rune reduces elemental resistances of enemies within it.
Rune attaches to enemies.
Rune has no cost and lasts forever, but you may only have 1.
(doesn’t work with the above) Rune becomes a channeled ability, dealing significantly more damage.

Mastery specific possible passives (high tier passives):
Gain protections based on unspent runic power.
increased maximum runic power by 50.
Being hit has a chance to cast a random rune at your feet.
Enemies standing within 2 or more runes take increased damage.
Allies move faster within runes.
Enemies within runes instantly die below a certain health threshold.

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I would like something like a semi-permanent manifest weapon for this class. Just have it be a bit different. Maybe require an actual weapon on the ground to animate. Maybe have them up to companion limit and they can be killed instead of timed. Stats based on the weapon animated.

okay, but then where does the weapon come from? are you talking about animating an actual drop? will runemasters have to carry around a bag full of weapons they can chuck on the ground at a moments notice, then have to pick them back up when the weapon dies? i’m not saying it’s a bad idea, but whats the logistics angle on this?
could animate their own weapon i suppose, it would give them a reason to use something like a 2 handed sword or something, maybe even prevent them from using melee skills while it’s active (which wouldn’t really affect anyone but maybe a spellblade hybrid or something…)

I have no precise idea about the Runemaster design.

I find the idea of suggesting the design of the new classes to be tough and very good. I hope it will interest the devs. :slight_smile:

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its a bad idea, see Animate Weapon in PoE - it doesn’t work like that anymore after 7 years of gameplay

I would just wait for the class to be released, if the devs needed ideas they would of asked the community for input prior. just provide feedback when its done

when I think of Runemaster I don’t think ‘minions’. I think ‘combo’ skill’s which give different outcomes depending on what skill was used first in that combination ie Runewords in D2…

well there is a reason it’s called feedback and suggestions my guy. of course they aren’t obligated to take anything we suggest seriously, but back in May i suggested an abomination skill for necromancers because i thought it was a cool idea, and lo and behold 3 months later we have an abomination ability.

theorycrafting has long been a hobby of mine, and my experience with closed betas, ptr’s, and feedback forums in general has led me to understand that devs do in fact read over concepts like these (there’s an item in diablo 3 that i suggested on the closed necromancer beta, and an ultimate ability suggestion was considered for a character in heroes of the storm)

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Yes, you would animate actual drops. The new PoE system is a good one for this. They have attack skills that leave spectral weapons on the ground that can be animated with animate weapon. The spectral weapons are of a very low tier weapon though, so animating actual drops would be stronger.

Just because it isn’t a top tier build doesn’t make the concept a bad one. It has a very fun gameplay. The new way of creating weapons to animate is a good idea to have alongside an animate weapon skill.

There could also be a different mechanic where when the animated weapon dies, the weapon drops on the ground again. Maybe it gets some instability and can fracture eventually (making it unanimatable).

The idea of the rune master to me isn’t a class that conjures magical things out of nowhere. They have to inscribe a thing with runes to apply magic to the item. Thus they have to have existing items they can magically modify.

If they are going to be a minion class, I would hope for the 3 lines on the tree to be;

Self Buffing - Applying runes to your own equipment to modify them in beneficial ways. Would maybe be a mana reservation type system to keep the buffs going. Maybe even allow this to be used on allies making it usable in party play.

Animate Single Construct - This would be similar to Animate Guardian in PoE where you animate several different pieces of equipment and the “Guardian” equips it.

Animate Multiple Constructs - This would be like animating several different weapons up to the companion limit, or animating golems (Stone, Mud, Wood, etc. Anything a rune could be inscribed into) up to the companion limit.

I would also like some of the attack skills to have modes that combo with the “animate” skills. An attack that can be specced so that your Animated Construct copies the attack or the attack has special interaction with the Constructs or Golems similar to Chrono Trigger Tech Skills.

i mean, that’s still incredibly worrying as an idea, if there was a class that required you to use actual inventory space just to have regular access to an ability, AND that ability destroys or has a chance to destroy it’s reagents, literally nobody would play it for more than an evening, not even you.

Not necessarily, people do use Animate Guardian in PoE, it’s a bit niche & they mainly use it for the buffs various uniques can give, but still.

i don’t play PoE, but the one time i tried i saw how tedious everything was and uninstalled it.

Fair enough, but, yeah, it’s a thing.

We’d been working on it for a while at that point. :slight_smile:

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The items wouldn’t have to disappear. If the guardian dies the items could just drop on the ground again. You could always animate a better piece of gear to replace gear on the guardian too.

The guardian in PoE is incredibly strong and with some of the best gear (for the guardian), he doesn’t really ever die unless fighting against the strongest bosses.

You don’t carry around the gear either. In PoE, the guardian doesn’t unsummon on logout. Even if they did it that way in LE, it should just be resummoning him and he assumes the most recent form.

I am not saying it has to be anything like PoE. I just like them as concepts.

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I don’t know about anyone else, but I want that area for testing in the end of time…

Specifically the multiple training dummies for AoE…

neat, but does that then go to mean that you DON’T read these posts? (which is a rhetorical question, as you had to read this post to comment that the post from may wasn’t a post that was considered for a skill described in the post)

(Edit: But like, if this is your polite way of saying that these design concepts aren’t ever considered, and i’m wasting everyone’s time by posting them, then i’ll lay off and just give purely flaccid mechanical feedback for already implemented features)

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