User:Raine Valen/Musings/Broken But Interesting?

=Broad, Sweeping Changes.=

Primary/Primary and Primary/Secondary skills.
Primary/Primary skills are skills that scale with two attributes from the same profession. For example: These skills are only available to characters with said profession as their primary profession. An Elementalist may spec into both Earth and Wind Prayers, but will not be able to use Mystic Sandstorm. Primary/Secondary skills are available only to a certain combination of two classes, and scale with attributes from both classes. These skills take characteristics from both attributes. For example: Not every combination of attributes yields skills; this is especially true for weapon attributes, though there are some exceptions. For example, Marksmanship and Hammer Mastery will not generate new skills. There are no Secondary/Secondary skills. That is to say, a primary class cannot use Primary/Primary skills from their secondary profession.
 * Mystic Sandstorm, Dervish skill that removes enchantments and deals Earth and Cold damage for each enchantment removed, which scales with Earth Prayers and Wind Prayers.
 * Gladiator's Defense, a Warrior skill that gives a chance to block and deals retributive damage for blocked attacks, which scales with Strength and Tactics.
 * Insidious Parasite, a Necromancer skill that steals Health whenever the target hits with an attack, which scales with both Blood Magic and Curses.
 * Steam, an Elementalist skill that inflicts damage and Burning, and causes Blind if that foe was already on fire, which scales with both Fire Magic and Water Magic.
 * Anthem of Flame, a P/E chant that allows allies to inflict Burning with attack skills, which scales with Leadership and Fire Magic.
 * Shock Signet, a W/E touch-range signet that causes knockdown, which scales with Strength and Air Magic.
 * Banishing Strike, a D/Mo attack skill that deals holy damage if it strikes summoned creatures, which scales with Scythe Mastery and Smiting Prayers.
 * Shattering Assault, an A/Me attack skill that removes enchantments and deals additional damage for enchantments removed, which scales with Dagger Mastery and Domination Magic.
 * Cauterize, a Mo/E skill that removes conditions from an ally, but inflicts burning, which scales with both Smiting Prayers and Fire Magic.

Skill/Attribute Redistribution.
Some skills simply weren't in keeping with their attribute. Many attributes became difficult to balance because they simply did too many things. The skills contained in an attribute will share common themes. Though several different attributes may fulfill one task, they will approach those tasks in different ways. Furthermore, not all skills in an attribute will be designed to do the same thing, they will do different things, but in the same way. An easy example is Healing/Protection prayers. While Healing will focus on restoration, Protection will focus on prevention. While a Healing Prayers anti-damage skill will restore health, a Protection Prayers anti-damage skill will negate damage. While a Healing Prayers anti-condition skill will remove a condition, a Protection Prayers anti-condition skill will, say, prevent the next condition that would be applied to an ally. Needless to say, each attribute will need a specific theme set.

Assassin:

 * Critical Strikes skills focus on increasing critical hit rate and adding benefits for critical hits.
 * Dagger Mastery skills focus on increasing the effectiveness of dagger attacks, through both attack skill use and weapon buffs like Sharpen Daggers.
 * Deadly Arts skills focus on decreasing foes' ability to be healed or defended.
 * Shadow Arts skills focus on increasing mobility through Shadow Steps and stealth skills like Disappear.

Dervish:

 * Earth Prayers skills focus on increasing defense through armor increase, block, and Blind. Earth Prayers are often characterized by Earth Damage in addition to their other effects.
 * Mysticism skills focus on increasing the benefits of and otherwise manipulating Enchantments on their user.
 * Scythe Mastery skills focus on increasing the effectiveness of scythe attacks, through both attack skill use and weapon buffs.
 * Wind Prayers skills focus on increasing agility, rewarding movement awareness with skills like Harrier's Haste, and manipulating Enchantments. Wind Prayers are often characterized by Cold Damage in addition to their other effects.

Elementalist:

 * Air Magic skills focus offensively on single-target damage, Blind, and knock-down. Air Magic skills can also increase movement or attack speed on allies.  Air Magic skills deal Lightning Damage and have inherent armor penetration.
 * Earth Magic skills focus offensively on wide-area knockdown, Blind, and Weakness. Earth Magic skills can also increase armor or give damage reduction.  Earth Magic skills deal Earth Damage.
 * Energy Storage skills focus on conserving and replenishing Energy.
 * Fire Magic skills focus on inflicting wide-area damage and Burning. Fire Magic skills deal Fire Damage.
 * Water Magic skills focus on snaring foes with hexes and dealing single-target Cold Damage. Water Magic skills can also increase armor or cause attacks to miss.  Water Magic skills deal Cold Damage and have inherent armor penetration.

Mesmer:

 * Domination Magic skills focus on caster shutdown.
 * Fast Casting skills focus on increasing celerity in casting, by reducing casting speed, spell recharge, or both.
 * Illusion Magic skills focus on physical shutdown.
 * Inspiration Magic skills focus on manipulating Energy and skill substitution.

Monk:

 * Divine Favor skills focus on Energy management and providing passive benefits to allies.
 * Healing Prayers skills focus on healing and restoring allies.
 * Protection Prayers skills focus on preventing damage and negative effects on allies.
 * Smiting Prayers skills focus on dealing Holy Damage to foes directly and as punishment.

Necromancer:

 * Blood Magic skills focus on stealing Health and manipulating Conditions.
 * Curses skills focus on passive damage and punishment.
 * Death Magic skills focus on animating, manipulating, and increasing the effectiveness of minions.
 * Soul Reaping skills focus on exploiting corpses.

Paragon:

 * Command skills focus on enhancing allies' abilities to perform specific tasks with skills such as "Go for the Eyes!" and "Make Haste!".
 * Leadership skills focus on providing various passive benefits to allies.
 * Motivation skills focus on restoring allies' Health and Energy.
 * Spear Mastery skills focus on increasing the effectiveness of spear attacks, through both attack skill use and weapon buffs.

Ranger:

 * Beast Mastery skills focus on pet control and increasing pet effectiveness.
 * Expertise skills focus on increasing the efficiency with which rangers perform physical actions.
 * Marksmanship skills focus on increasing the effectiveness of bow attacks, through both attack skill use and weapon buffs.
 * Wilderness Survival skills focus on placing traps, increasing defense through IMS or blocking stances, and utilizing of certain preparations.

Ritualist:

 * Channeling Magic skills focus on exploiting spirits to create powerful effects.
 * Communing skills focus on enhancing both allies' and allied spirits' abilities.
 * Restoration Magic skills focus on healing and restoring allies.
 * Spawning Power skills focus on increasing the users ability to create creatures and enhancing the benefits from creature creation.

Warrior:

 * Axe Mastery skills focus on increasing the effectiveness of axe attacks, through both attack skill use and weapon buffs.
 * Hammer Mastery skills focus on increasing the effectiveness of hammer attacks, through both attack skill use and weapon buffs.
 * Swordsmanship skills focus on increasing the effectiveness of sword attacks and parries, through attack skill use, weapon buffs, and defensive skills.
 * Strength skills focus on increasing damage output through IAS and IMS, knockdowns, and defense penetration.
 * Tactics skills focus on increasing defense through blocking stances and providing various passive benefits to allies.

Class Identity:
There was a point when each class did something, when every profession was unique, in their way. Monks healed, warriors had three-second knockdowns, rangers had their preparations and pets, assassins shadow stepped, ritualists carried ashes, etc. However, that was lost sight of somewhere down the line. Assassins became the knockdown class, eles became healers (and with ritualist skills, no less!), warriors became damage spam. So, in order to restore some measure of class identity, each class will stick to a set of features.

Assassins
Assassins will remain largely unchanged in many regards, while others will be changed completely. There are a couple of things that characterize Assassins as a class. Firstly, there are the shadow steps, which will remain unique to the Assassin profession, but will be mechanically changed. There are also the attack skill chains, which will continue work in the same way. Assassins will be reworked to focus further on critical hits, with skills similar to Way of Perfection and Dark Apostasy, which reward critical hits in different ways. There will be several different effects like this, ranging from inflicting conditions with critical hits to causing energy loss.