Engineer elite spec idea: Occultist

Engineer elite spec idea: Occultist

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Posted by: Lonami.2987

Lonami.2987

The occultist is a new elite specialization idea for the engineer. Occultism is a fringe school, widely resented, their members considered no better than lunatics by their own brethren. This art is the result of mixing archaeology with ancient magitech. Occultists reverse-engineer ancient technologies, and use them in battle, with deadly consequences. If you thought explosives and elixirs were unstable, you haven’t witnessed the ancient magic these foolish tomb robbers can unleash.

Aside from classic engineer weapons, occultists can use a staff, usually pillaged from some ancient cursed tomb, and enhanced with various gadgets of multiple types. They don’t respect the fabric of time, and you expect them to respect the dead? You haven’t been paying attention.

They also wield various mining equipment in combat, as well as multiple artifacts of dubious origin, which they are keen to throw at their enemies. Reported results include random teleportation, transformations, duplication, and dimensional portals to an unidentified location which can only be described as hell.

Finally, their magnum opus, something they call “the gatekeeper”. This seemingly sentient mechanical construct, looking like a floating spherical astrolabe made of golden junk, follows them wherever they go, and feeds off different types of magic. It’s almost like their pet. I don’t know if it’s actually supposed to do anything else than float and whirl emitting disturbing sounds, but it makes golems nervous, and for good reason. There’s multiple reports of malfunctions after long times of exposure.

They don’t pay me enough for this.

Occultist (AKA nutcase maniac)

  • New weapon: Staff (2H) (Probably stolen from a defiled tomb, should belong in a museum)
  • New utilities: Archaeology (Mining equipment, artifacts, and other unidentified junk)
  • New mechanic: Gatekeeper pet (Floating reality bomb, ban them from civilization until safe quarantine can be provided)

The council thought financing their expedition to Elona was a good idea. They would probably get killed roaming the Desolation, and we could go back to real science. We underestimated them. Now they’re back, and it’s worse than ever, because “they were right all along”, whatever that is supposed to mean. We should have wired their ship with explosives and let them prospect the bottom of the sea instead, but ethics and morality.

If you see someone carrying a bag of junk, and wearing a golden mask, just run away. For your own safety. If any gods exist, may they protect us from them.

Elonian elite specialization ideas: El: Dervish
M: Bladedancer – N: Scourge – En: Occultist – Ra: Swampstalker
T: Sharpshooter – G: Sunspear – Re: Hierophant – W: Corsair

(edited by Lonami.2987)

Engineer elite spec idea: Occultist

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Posted by: Kaizoku.1298

Kaizoku.1298

new elite spec – The Anet
new weapon – shield mainhand
skills – AI minion robots
class mechanic – cast robot skills without CD

(edited by Kaizoku.1298)

Engineer elite spec idea: Occultist

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Posted by: Lonami.2987

Lonami.2987

new weapon – shield mainhand

No jokes, shield main-hand could really work, and wouldn’t be any hard to implement. Just mirror off-hand shield animations through the skeleton and there you are. Then limit shield usage to one at a time, preventing dual-wielding.

Shields are kinda lackluster in this game, and main-hand shields could add some needed variety, with some new cool shield skills. Now that we are at it, scepter off-hand could be pretty awesome as well.

Elonian elite specialization ideas: El: Dervish
M: Bladedancer – N: Scourge – En: Occultist – Ra: Swampstalker
T: Sharpshooter – G: Sunspear – Re: Hierophant – W: Corsair

Engineer elite spec idea: Occultist

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Posted by: Toolbox.9375

Toolbox.9375

new weapon – shield mainhand

No jokes, shield main-hand could really work, and wouldn’t be any hard to implement. Just mirror off-hand shield animations through the skeleton and there you are. Then limit shield usage to one at a time, preventing dual-wielding.

But I WANT to dual-wield shields. Nowhere else lets me do it, either.

The class is always greener on the other side.

Engineer elite spec idea: Occultist

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Posted by: Pride.1734

Pride.1734

new weapon – shield mainhand

No jokes, shield main-hand could really work, and wouldn’t be any hard to implement. Just mirror off-hand shield animations through the skeleton and there you are. Then limit shield usage to one at a time, preventing dual-wielding.

But I WANT to dual-wield shields. Nowhere else lets me do it, either.

Dark Souls?
I specificly remember the chime shield in DS2 doing some pretty good damage as a mainhand weapon with block and magic on the offhand.

Engineer elite spec idea: Occultist

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Posted by: Kaizoku.1298

Kaizoku.1298

I want to dual wield shields and buckle up in a corner like how anet wants us to and let the AI robots fight for me, with all the “fuel” they have it should take a while for them to stop.

Engineer elite spec idea: Occultist

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Posted by: Kaizoku.1298

Kaizoku.1298

kitten fake advertisement i cri evrytim

Engineer elite spec idea: Occultist

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Posted by: Lonami.2987

Lonami.2987

I’m not very satisfied with the Occultist mechanic being a ranger-style pet (also I already have two better pet designs in the Elonian series with the corsair and the hierophant) so let’s try some new ideas:

  • Gatekeeper pet (plasma globe crossed with an astrolabe-like floating orb) is no longer a ranger-like pet. Instead, you summon it as a static minion through a new mechanic skill at the F6 button.
  • When summoned, the gatekeeper slowly absorbs boons from enemies and conditions from allies, storing them in a frozen state. Once it’s destroyed by direct damage, or the F6 skill is used again, it explodes, transferring boons to allies and conditions to enemies, as long as they’re nearby. It’s control style is similar to that of a turret, or the revenant’s Ventari’s Tablet healing skill.
  • Signets are the new slot skills. What makes them unique is that their active effects affect the gatekeeper too. Signets allow to control the boon and condition reserve without needing to destroy the gatekeeper, and also lets it cast various attack and support spells, together with basic movement options.
  • The gatekeeper can be customized, letting you chose between alternate artifacts with a different base effect.

So it would be pretty much a new genre of pets, static and placed like a turret. Call them relics, artifacts, or totems, they’re magical items that you summon at the battlefield.

Opinions?

Elonian elite specialization ideas: El: Dervish
M: Bladedancer – N: Scourge – En: Occultist – Ra: Swampstalker
T: Sharpshooter – G: Sunspear – Re: Hierophant – W: Corsair

Engineer elite spec idea: Occultist

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Posted by: Vagrant.7206

Vagrant.7206

Just say you want the Freemason spec.

Sheesh.

The great god Lagki demands sacrifice.

Engineer elite spec idea: Occultist

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Posted by: Lonami.2987

Lonami.2987

Just say you want the Freemason spec.

Sheesh.

It’s more like Egypt, “WW2 Germans”, and aliens, but yeah :P.

Elonian elite specialization ideas: El: Dervish
M: Bladedancer – N: Scourge – En: Occultist – Ra: Swampstalker
T: Sharpshooter – G: Sunspear – Re: Hierophant – W: Corsair

Engineer elite spec idea: Occultist

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Posted by: Lonami.2987

Lonami.2987

More information on occultists, and a few changes as well:

  • Thematic inspiration comes from archaeology, paranormal research, and secret organizations.
  • Relics are the new mechanic. They are floating objects, with no AI autonomy. They provide passive benefits, and you can command them to cast spells. They follow the occultists wherever they go, and can be destroyed by the enemy. Occultists can equip and swap between two different relics at a time.
  • Signets replaced by glyphs. Glyphs now change depending on the active relic.
  • The new weapon, the staff, provides additional control options for the relic. Some of its weapon skills are categorized as glyphs as well, giving it different skills depending on the active relic.
  • Relics are the driving force behind occultists, but they are also their weakest point. Relics must be protected at all costs, for losing them makes the occultist unable to use many of the relic-related skills.

Some relic ideas:

  • Forgotten Gatekeeper: This ancient mirror-like seal consists of four identical split quarters of a circumference. They can be commanded to connect and form a complete loop once again, opening different types of portals depending on the position and rotation of each piece, only for a short time. These portals can fire energy beams, pull enemies, absorb boons and conditions, or temporarily summon demonic entities from who knows where. The gatekeeper lets you get a glimpse of the many horrors the forgotten imprisoned across the centuries.
  • Infinity Hypercube: Seemingly asuran in origin, metallic and with a greenish aura. Formed by multiple magnetized cubes, that spread and then gather together again. Deals with parallel dimensions, and has the ability to replicate itself. Emits radioactive waves. For some reason, it’s disturbingly familiar.
  • Jotun Astrolabe: An ancient golden spherical astrolabe, with multiple floating rings with different functions, including astrological references, various calendars, mathematical operations, and even a compass. Has a white prism at the center, which changes its color depending on the positions of the rings. Aside from all those scientific functions, it’s an incredible weapon, able to fire energy balls of attuned light at a really fast rate. Makes you wonder why such a scholarly tool needed such defensive capabilities in the first place.
  • Mursaat Nexus: A set of elongated purplish carved jade shards, six smaller ones floating around a larger one. The shards move and emulate different forms around the core. Uses lost mursaat phasing technology, letting the occultist disappear temporarily from this plane of existence. Can fire potent shots of void energy, and also emits a cacophony of screaming voices.
Elonian elite specialization ideas: El: Dervish
M: Bladedancer – N: Scourge – En: Occultist – Ra: Swampstalker
T: Sharpshooter – G: Sunspear – Re: Hierophant – W: Corsair

(edited by Lonami.2987)

Engineer elite spec idea: Occultist

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Posted by: miriforst.1290

miriforst.1290

If i may comment of the style rather than gameplay for a little:

While i strongly dislike the name of the specialization (on par of giving thief the “paladin”, the mesmer “barbarian” or indeed the guardian “dragonhunter” spec in my opinion) the actual implementation seems interesting. The oroki-… i mean forgotten technology theme is a unique twist to the engineer who usually symbolizes progress and the future. Preservation of knowledge can still fit within the engineers realm.

I hate to be that guy who suggests changes to your baby, and indeed its hard to find fitting names that rolls of the tongue. Archaeologists is way long and clunky, archivist might work if you consider them preservers of history. Historian itself might sound a bit tame. Or we could simply call them Top Men.

Occultist is a perfect name for a necromancer spec. But in the same way that i would think it would be little bit odd with a “inventor” guardian or a “tinkerer” revenant (in before scarlet legend) i cant help but feel that the name occultist is a bit off.

I might be overguarding our theme a bit but in the same way i roll my eyes a bit when other elite specialization ideas turn up however briefly with high tech and gadgetry themes as if they forgot we are still here.

But as i said other than that the spec is interesting. Utilizing magical artifacts is, i suppose in the realm of concentrating and bottling magical effects in elixirs even if im not a fan (im even against implementing signets on the engineer as relying on magic rings is as far from the engi as it can be). Throwing powerful spells yourself is something i think should be avoided. It needs to be clear that whenever there is magic involved it does not originate from the engineer itself in any form (that’s why elixirs are borderline ok). Of course thats just like my opinion man.

And on a sidenote, the graverobber thing does seems awfully tempting for a thief spec when we get to the desert (what is there to steal there?). And that might open up for a support spec for them of which they are sorely lacking. Actually the more i think about it the more it makes sense for the thief (they got unused f keys after all) other than that they already got staff (scepter?). If anyone should be breaking into places and stealing things it would be those guys right? Following my own advice of placing the themes where they make the most sense.

(edited by miriforst.1290)

Engineer elite spec idea: Occultist

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Posted by: Lonami.2987

Lonami.2987

It’s not magical artifacts, it’s magical technology. That’s what makes it different, no other profession would be able to do anything with this “ancient alien technology”. Only crazy engineers try to understand how it works, and then harness its power.

The major themes of the occultist are a mix of alien archaeology and secret societies, cults where they share the secret information. It also draws from original alchemist themes as well, when they played with mercury and other liquid metals, instead of later chemicals. In fact, the armor piece of the specialization would be a golden brass mask, and the entire elite specialization would have that golden/orange aura too. Kinda Lovecraftian to a point as well.

They would also follow a series of rituals and customs when building and using their lost technologies. Nothing really magical, something more in line with… worship of technology, or perfection. Eternal Alchemy as a religion of sorts, only that more advanced. There could be unknown entities behind them as well, giving them scientific secrets in exchange of dark pacts.

Occultists aren’t magicians, they don’t cast a spell to “talk with the dead” or stuff like that. Instead, they use mysterious technologies, but the end result is similar. They aren’t technomages either, they don’t use magic as a tool. The “advanced technology can be mistaken by magic” phrase is very relevant here. The tombs around the Desolation would be full of these lost technologies, gathered by the Six Gods in ancient times.

Their cults would play a secondary role in the Elonian expansion, as various factions, allies and enemies alike. You’d find them at dig sites, hiring goons to pillage tombs, and performing occult rituals, that wouldn’t end up very well most of the time, with people melting, demons breaching our reality, possessions, etc. Demonology isn’t really explored at any profession, and engineers could use it in a cool and unique way.

The staff is directly inspired by the staff of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, only that more alien-ish. The overall theme can be hard to grasp, but in the end they’re followers of the occult, that have grown greedy, thirsting for more and more knowledge, playing with dangerous powers.

Elonian elite specialization ideas: El: Dervish
M: Bladedancer – N: Scourge – En: Occultist – Ra: Swampstalker
T: Sharpshooter – G: Sunspear – Re: Hierophant – W: Corsair

Engineer elite spec idea: Occultist

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Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

But I WANT to dual-wield shields. Nowhere else lets me do it, either.

https://youtu.be/70Z2t7nq_sU

Here you go good sir.

Engineer elite spec idea: Occultist

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Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

I really love the idea of this spec. The only thing I would change is you said in the main thread they will use glyphs. I think it should be signets. Engineer are the only class that don’t have signets, and what is a signet? It’s a ring imbued with magical power. Very easy to describe Occultist signets as these dangerous ancient artifacts dug up from a tomb and used by the engineer.

I really love the theme of the engineer digging up ancient technology and using it in a quasi-mage-like technomancer way. It reminds me of H.P. Lovecraft discovering ancient alien powers beyond human comprehension.