Guild Wars 2

I have been thinking about this for a while and I’ve had this idea for a while, but i had to try and iron out some basics before posting it here.

First of all i would like to point out that it is still a work in progress and is no where near finished.

The new profession of course is The Summoner.

summoners are people who have the ability to summon help directly from the Planes of Psuche ( also known as the Planes of the Soul).

While a Summoner and a Necromancer have a couple things in common, Summoners are calling souls from a special plane of existence deep within the mists whereas the Necromancer is calling the souls of the dead.

now the concept of the summoner is simple.

By drawing on the energy present in nature you can summon a spectral object or creature to attack an enemy before return to the Planes of Psuche Among other realms of the Mist, these places are home to many unknown creatures, or creatures not seen on the surface of Tyria in a long.

unlike the necromancer, these creatures and objects may only be summon during battle and will only last for a few seconds ( long enough for a couple hits) before returning to it’s home.

Now Summoning is an ancient art that was one of the last gifts that Abaddon ever bestowed on the races of Tyria.

This art is highly coveted among all the races because it is so difficult to teach as only the strongest of wills can control the creatures you bring to Tyria.

Now the weapons of choice for summoners are as follows:

Wand
Dagger
Focus
Torch
Staff
Trident

Let’s start with a basic set up:

Wand Mainhand
Focus Offhand

This is the starting ideas I’ve had, but feel free to put in any criticism or ideas of your own.

I have been building on some starting ideas and with the help of a couple users on the thread, i think i am on the right track.

Now the weapons give all summons an inherent connection with at least one spirit. These serve as the basic attackers

Let’s start with the wand

as a user of the wand, your first spirit will a human spectre. These humans are remnants of some of the first humans who ever traversed the lands of Tyria, they exist within a different realm of the mists as guardians waiting for the eventual return of the Gods to Tyria.

Unlike most Spirits within Tyria, these spectres will float and have a transparent tail rather actual legs, their time in the mists have changed them, made them stronger than most normal spirits.

these spirits will attack entirely on the behalf on it’s master, staying within melee distance

these spirits only last 3 seconds each summon but can deal damage 3 times.

i have to put down at least 2 reserved posts for the rest of the weapons as well as unique character class abilities

final reserved post.

you may begin posting

no responses yet… :P

Hi Sam,

Actually your summoner idea is very similar to the phantasm mesmer in terms of mechanic. The feel and look is certainly different, but in order to create a viable profession you will need to make a unique playstyle and mechanic.

Also, summoning bears and wolves etc isn’t very “plane of soul”-like. more like a ranger, is it not?

Currently all of the professions have some form of summons. Some are permanent, others timed, but if you want to make a summons-specific profession you will need to develop your mechanic sufficiently.

Keep going, your creativity is greatly appreciated

yea it does seem a little.. rangerish :P

hmmm… perhaps giving it unique summons with unique attacking mechanics

i may need help with the initial attack

Necromancers do summon souls from other planes of existence. The Mists harbour all manner of variant worlds, including god-realms, such as The Underworld.

the underworld harbors spirits of the dead, but the mists is much more than that. it also houses planes of exisstence that are holmes to power spirits and dietys.

while the necromancer draws it’s spirits from the underworld, the Summoner is granting power spirits access to the mortal plane

a necromancer spends it’s time draining the life or sickening their opponents while a summoner is meant to bring forward powerful being to defend themself, but i am trying to work out a unique style of gameplay for the summoner atm

I see you have spent a lot of time thinking about this , i for 1 would deffinately love to see a summoner

I really feel that adding classes/professions post-launch is pretty universally a mistake for MMO development. Either the new class is redundant and thus renders an existing class redundant, which is bad for players of both, or the new class is genuinely unique, and inserting a unique class into a world that was designed and tuned without consideration for its unique attributes invariably manages to kitten things up. I wholeheartedly hope that Arenanet withstand the temptation to add classes to the game. If you want to see something new in character creation, new races are an infinitely better option. Not only do they not face the same problems as creating new classes, but they afford a much greater opportunity for expanding the game’s lore and ‘replay value’.

Arenanet wouldn’t simply throw in a new class without first fine tuning the game in preparation for the arrive profession. Plus having a new profession also adds replayability and lore as well. by expanding upon what we know about the mist, the Summoner is a plethura of new game lore

Worth going with an idea like this. Different places offer a different summon?

Sounds a lot like a Ritualist from GW1 to me..

in some ways yea it is a bit like the Ritualist, but i want the Summoner to be unique in the fact that summon help from the mist is the method of attacks and assistance with very few skills/abilities without an actual summons.

The concept while seemingly simples is in fact very difficult, espec ially when you want it to be unique to other professions

this thread has been bumped :P

I’m sure arenanet will already have ideas for profession (and maybe race) additions for their first expansion. GW1 expansion came with 2 new professions and 2 character slots, I’m assuming GW2 will be the same, and hopefully even include a new race or two. I don’t think they’ll randomly add another profession without an expansion, but I’m sure there will be probably 2 new professions whenever they announce and release an expansion.

I would, if I were you, put more detail into this profession idea of yours. I always read these posts (making my own atm) to learn things and ideas from them. The biggest difficulty with designing a new prof in this game is making it unique. Not just renaming a skill or making skill X produce a different boon/condition but full in depth descriptions. Going as far as explaining/making a youtube video with the attack skill look arn’t necessary but it needs a ton more information so people can understand what it is you are trying to show them.

To respond to the idea, I think a mist summoning prof could be interesting but what about skill types (Traps, physical, shouts, tricks, cantrips, things along the lines of these that offer different types of abilities)? What kind of elite skills (something to define the profession in an extreme way)? What profession mechanic (virtues, steal, pets, burst skill, these things fill F1-F4. Something that fits the profession and feels fresh/useful no matter what build you use)? There is a ton to put into a profession. Not trying to be rude, but just stating what I see missing.

Well NinjaEd, i stated right off that this was a very clear work in progress. I just wanted to get the very basic idea on the table and move on from there. This makes it easier to build and fine tune a workable suggestion

keep going, you’re teasing out some good ideas. If you need some guidance on organisation, see some of my own threads,
The Inquisitor: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Concept-Profession-Inquisitor/first
The Spiritualist: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Concept-Profession-Spiritualist/first

thanks :P ill give em a look

hmm a summoner could perhaps give more meaning to objects and pick-up junk if summoners can turn it into waste golems for example.
Perhaps they could place a field:if other professions do a cross-profession combo they can use the released energy to create a summon gate
or they could work with some kind of force field that they can place down on different spots on the battlefield.
Which can be activated to summon gate if a specific skill hits the field.
The summoner selects what type of skill is required for the gate to open
Could place summon fields to creategates for allies with supportive summoned creatures.
Or place field if enemies hit with condition,poison, it summons a creature that will fight against them.
So other professions have to be more careful and tactical about where to shoot their posionous cloud for example.
Also I’d prefer the summoner to have summonable creatures never seen until now in gw2

I love the thought of new mechanics,the gw2 professions are very inspiring.
Might update my own idea too at some point,its just that I have a brain hurricane that forces me to keep improving imperfect things in my mind ;p

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Profession-mechanic-The-Medium/first#post1460925

although someone over there has really been trashing all over the topic,i still want to update it.
And no matter what those trashing narrow-minded say.
Always voice a mechanic that you’d think is fun to play

Also,its maybe better to rename the topic to “summoner” so its not just another new profession topic

I like the idea of using junk as an anchor to summon creatures. it would definitely creatue some unique gameplay

ever the active thread forum. i have to bump this thread

We’ll I’d love to hear how you think the summoner should work mechanic-wise for example.Better to add something to your idea than just bumping it.
Every half an hour several topics pop up but that doesnt mean yours is less interesting

Sam Magicman.1395:

Well NinjaEd, i stated right off that this was a very clear work in progress. I just wanted to get the very basic idea on the table and move on from there. This makes it easier to build and fine tune a workable suggestion

Well like Redrex said, your teasing with not enough

Turning junk into allies would actually be quite unique but how long do you think these allies should last? (Health, durations) I await more info before I can comment on what is there (aside from the concept seeming exciting). You are free to blow our minds sam ^^

Boring ;p
/15chars

Boring? how is a new profession boring?

I like this idea, nice thinking sam

I have editted my first post and added the first ability.. let me know what you think

Wouldn’t it feel too much like a memsmer using scepter with clones but with different skins?and should summons just be linked to weapons?
I’m starting to get the feeling that its more and more part of the spiritualist suggestion or the medium suggestion I’ve introduced a while ago.
And with a proper mechanic behind it I think such a profession could be a very unique profession;with all these suggestions one good/unique profession could be created.
Later on i’m going to take the time to photoshop my updated vision on the medium too.
I love how you invent stories to your ideas.

But for the summoner,perhaps you have to consider different directions..
No doubt a summoner would be a profession that feels the magical potentials within an area.
Would probably only want to start the process of creating a summon gate in areas where the barriere is thin.
So I think a cool mechanic for a summoner would be that they can place summon circles strategically
These summon circles would trigger based on different kind of interactions.
Some would require enemy skills->Aatxe bashes their skull for triggering the gate,
other summon circles require different interaction to trigger or cross profession combo.
If the summoner stands in one of thes summon circle types,different skills become available to them based on what type of circle it is(they can walk out of it once they have absorbed some of the energy flow the specific circle has created)
perhaps they use a hint of asuran technology with portable little remotes to create gates.
maybe you have to make the summoner a part of “the chronomancer”
A gw1 profession concept
Also would it be more like a pet profession?or just a caster?,..

it gets to a point where you could tie any idea to something, whether it’s relevent or not, but the trick is to make it for the most part different and unique to your idea only.

the idea with summoners, is that the thing you summon IS your sword, not just a shield. where you use your summons to defeat your enemies.

the idea of a mesmer is to confuse or trick your opponent with magical illusions that are living shields for the most part.

So the idea of the wand is ranged combat summoning spirit weapons to attack with you? Or is it summoning spirits from the mists to defend you?

Sounds to me like weapon skills are summons and maybe a skill shot to make them do something unique but guardian has utility skills like that (bow, sword, hammer, shield I believe). As a weapon skill kit it would be unique but the concept is already in play with guardians. I think a summoner prof may be impossible simply due to how much each prof can already “summon” or call upon so the feel of it couldn’t feel fresh.

Personally I wasn’t happy with how much each prof could do from the start simply because introducing new professions is near impossible without recreating the same thing, an issue many people in these forums have come across. But I guess that was their aim, probably makes balance/adding things a heck of a lot easier when there are less professions since the more you add, the harder balance becomes(something League of Legends is constantly having to deal with, their patch notes are full of changes to many champions each time)

the idea is to call forth a spirit who attacks for you. it gives summoners the ideal passive strength of being high in life points, but low in defence, giving it a fighting chance while your summons destroy your foes

Sounds like Necromancer and Elementalist had a baby.

An unnecessary baby.

how is it like an elementalist?

and the necromancer and summoners are only similar in the fact they pulled from the mists, but the similarities end there.

Elementalists also use summoned pets. We don’t really need three pet classes. Four if you count Mesmer.

Sam Magicman.1395:

these spirits will act as an extension on the player moving as far as 500 unit range to ensure the protection of their summoner.

these spirits only last 5 seconds each summon but can deal damage 3 times.

^Mesmer clone mechanic, anyone?

mesmer clones = living shields

summoned creates = absolute offense

Sam Magicman.1395:

mesmer clones = living shields

summoned creates = absolute offense

Actually Mesmer clones range from being living shields to damage dealers.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Phantasmal_Defender
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Phantasmal_Berserker

the phantasmal beserker is only one skill.

i want summoners to be purely offensive

Shameless self promotion for shamelessly self promoting.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/New-Profession-Demon-Hunter/

That would be my take on a summoner profession.

so… it’s a mesmer?

vespers.1759:

so… it’s a mesmer?

Re-skin of a Mesmer.

I like the idea of demon hunter, great tie in to lore, which is what i want my summoner to do as well

rididculous how willing you are to pick apart my suggestion Oglaf.

you know maybe instead of trying to pull it apart seam by seam, you could help improve it, make it unique in it’s own right.

If you’re insisting on yet another pet profession in light armour, I don’t see that happening.

well thankfully, it’s not your decision. all i can do is try my best to create a unique and lore worthy profession

Bro, if you can’t take criticism then don’t go making suggestions. I calls them like I sees them and your suggestion is really too close to what the Mesmer profession already does.

criticism i can take, but you really haven’t offered any real criticism other than just calling it a copy of the mesmer profession