User:Lefthander75/druid

This profession has been submitted to Design-A-Profession Contest

Druid
The Druids are devout worshipers of Melandru. They are hermits who have spent a considerable time alone and have gotten attuned to the nature around them. Once they gain the ability to communicate with nature, they become Druids and rejoin society. A Druid can control the plants around him, he can call upon the spirits of the animals and can channel the power of Melandru to aid his allies in battle. A Druid is generally appreciated in a battle for his ability to provide stationary defenses through plants, mobile aggressive power through animal spirits and relieving pressure with his auras.

class
Druids are spellcasters, granting them armor level 60 with an inherent +20 vs elemental damage. They have standard base health and 30 energy base with +4 energy regeneration. A druid will use standard spellcasting weapons.

Attributes
The druid has 4 attribute lines, all distinctly different, and all usable in their own right.

Nature attunement (primary)
For each level of Nature Attunement, health of summoned plants and animals increases [0..40]%, and aura's withstand [0..100]% more damage before they expire.
 * The primary attribute boosts most skills from the other 3 attribute lines, but the skills in this line will involve:
 * spells for buffing yourself (natural armor)
 * affecting condition duration
 * conditional heals, condition removal

Animal attunement
This attribute determines how well the druid is capable of communicating with the spirit world. It also determines the amount of spirit animals the druid can command (attribute/3 rounded up).
 * Spells under this line will generally involve:
 * summoning spirit animals
 * boosting spirit animals

Plant attunement
This attribute determies how well the druid can control plants and how strong the plants can grow.
 * Spells and skills under this line will generally involve:
 * summoning plants
 * AoE snares and debuffs
 * condition-inflicting skills

Devotion
This attribute determines how well the druid can connect with the powers of Melandru.
 * Spells and skills in this line will generally involve:
 * Auras and party buffs
 * some minor direct damage spells
 * any hexes and/or hex removal

Summon Plant
These count as spells. All summoned plants are stationary and have -8 health degeneration. They should have a life span of roughly 20 seconds if left undamaged and unattended, meaning generally plants should have a maximum of 300-400'ish health. The caster is supposed to counter the health degeneration by using the stance 'Root' as described below. You can imagine the summoner supporting his plants by letting them 'suck' life from his feet to feed them. In practical game use, I imagine the druid setting up fairly powerful defenses, but then having to maintain them as well. Some plants should attack adjacent foes, some attack at range, others attack in a larger area.

Example skills related to plant attunement:
Root (5e 1s 10s) ( in nature attunement line)
 * Stance. While rooted you have [25..75%] chance of avoiding knockdown and gain [10..46] armor bonus. Summoned plants you control suffer no health degeneration, and you suffer -2 health degeneration for each summoned plant you control while in this stance. This stance ends if you move or if you are knocked down. The caster can still attack and cast spells.

Entangling Vine (5e 1s 15s)
 * Summon plant. Summon a vine with [50..200] health at target foes location. Target foe cannot move until the vine is destroyed.

Wall of Brambles {E} (10e 2s 20s)
 * Summon plant. A wall of brambles with [50..500] health sprouts in a circle target, trapping all creatures inside.

Thorned Vine (10e 1s 10s)
 * Summon plant. Create a thorned vine at target foes location that attacks all nearby enemies and causes bleeding.

Reverse flow (10e 1s 10s)
 * Spell. All summoned plants disappear and you gain [20..80] health for each plant removed this way.

Summon Animal spirit
These counts as spells. All summoned animals are ethereal in nature, cannot suffer from fleshy conditions and do not leave exploitable corpses. All animals are zealous, meaning the summoner recieves +1 energy whenever they hit an enemy. For each summoned animal, the caster suffers a -1 energy degeneration. If the caster is reduced to 0 energy, the summoned animals will disappear. Summoned animal should work like a maintained enchantment, the caster should be able to dispel them as he wishes. Still, they should not count as enchantments for the enemies to dispel. If the attack rate of summoned animals is kept at the level of monions, this is not going to be a energy factory. Also, the total number of animal spirits should be kept at (attribute/3 rounded up), allowing for a maximum of 6 spirit animals at 16 in animal attunement.

Example skills related to animal attunement:
Swarm of Bees (5e 1s 6s)
 * Summon animal. Summon a level [...] swarm of bees. You suffer -1 energy degeneration while swarm of bees is alive.

Giant Sloth {E} (10e 2s 20s)
 * Summon animal. Summon a level [....] giant sloth. You can only have 1 giant sloth at a time. Giant Sloth causes knockdown and cracked armor for 5 seconds on attack. You suffer -1 energy regeneration while giant sloth is alive.

Alpha Wolf {E} (15e 2s 20s)
 * Summon animal. Summon a level [...].Alpha Wolf. While Alpha Wolf is alive, all summoned animals recieve +2 health regeneneration and attack 25% faster. Alpha wolf causes bleeding on attack. You can only have 1 Alpha Wolf at a time. You suffer -1 energy regeneration while alpha wolf is alive.

Wolf Pack (15e 4s 45s)
 * Summon animal. Summon a pack of [2..4] level [....] wolves. If you also control an Alpha Wolf, each wolf causes bleeding on attack. You suffer -1 energy degeneration while each wolf is alive.

Auras
Spell. An aura is a new type of skill that primarily lies in the 'devotion' attribute line. It is a party buff that affects all allies within earshot range of the caster (i.e. not minions or summoned creatures).
 * An aura dissipates after the caster has received a certain amount of damage or after a set amount of seconds.
 * The caster can only use 1 aura at a time.
 * Any aura automatically ends if the caster moves or is knocked down.

An aura is not 'fire and forget' like a paragon chant, and neither is it an enchantment that can be dispelled. From a practical gaming standpoint this becomes interesting because you need to deal a certain amount of damage to the caster in order to cancel it, or knock the caster down. Generally, these auras should be able to withstand 20 - 200 damage before they expire. The auras do not block damage to the caster. The caster can still attack and cast spells while using an aura.

Examples of Auras:
Melandru's Hatred {E} (10e 1s 15s)
 * Aura. After [10..3] seconds, you and all nearby allies loose 1 condition per second for 3 seconds and for each second, all nearby enemies take [2-20] damage per condition removed that second (maximum 100). This aura ends after you receive 40 damage or if you are knocked down.

Shielding Aura (10e 1s 25s)
 * Aura. for 10 seconds, all allies within range receives a damage reduction of [3..15] whenever they take damage. This aura ends after receiving 50 damage or if you are knocked down.

Fellowship (10e 1s 25s)
 * Aura. for 10 seconds, all allies with range gain [1..8] health regeneration. This aura ends after you receive 100 damage or if you are knocked down.

Why the druid is different
Obviously, the skill examples are just on the top of my head. They are there to illustrate how powerful and/or useful a druid could be, but real playtesting will be needed. The auras need to be slightly more powerful than chants to balance against the fact that the caster has to be stationary. I think Auras could be very useful in both PvE and PvP - tactical awareness is required, and it opens up for different possibilties in teamwork. An animal attunement druid is different from a minion master, because he does not require corpses to generate an army. The down side is that a druid cannot have as large an army, and he cannot maintain it between battles due to energy constraints. A plant attunement druid is different from a ritualist because the plants a more powerful and dangerous. Combined with snares and some condition spreading, a plant attunement druid is a very powerful ally in defensive situations where you know the enemy is coming for you.

All in all, I think a druid class like I have described will provide new possibilities and challenges in terms of team strategy and combinations, and I think most Guild Wars players would welcome that!