Guild Wars 2

Anyone on Sanctum of Rall feel free to pm me in game if you are interested in helping to build a new guild focused on wvw mischeif and mayhem. Lords Of Krampus will steal away all foolish children that oppose Sanctum of Rall! and we will scare the crap out of any people living in any alpine region with vague druidic christmas terror.

The guild is small atm but we are looking to expand to almost entirely wvw gameplay, although FoM has been a lot of fun lately too. So like wvw, or fractals? like having a wvw guild that is mature and fun? Join us, you will love capturing and flying snowflake emblems for our world to rejoice upon. We are currently working on getting some oldschool commanders back on our server that left—only to regret it miserably. We want cool people able to follow orders and help others and not just spam map chat arguing—dont assume you know what you are doing, our lord regent Krampus sees all of it.

Thinking of transferring to SoR? Want a new start? Well then come over before transfers stop completely and breath in that cool mint shnapps air that sends shivers to our foes. Come help grow the future of SOR wvw gameplay—pm me in game. We want to make better an already awesome server with cool people.

Gargoyles as a playable race would be awesome. I want to look like a stone demon with wings!

I think they should do an expansion spotlighting the concepts of labyrinths, and jumping puzzles.

Make an expansion that unlocks an underground world made of dark tunneling, secret areas and new creatures or races. The one thing mmo’s still miss is that feeling of being lost or trying to figure out where to go—like zelda. It would be very immersive to have perhaps an instances labyrinth map sort of similiar to entering the wvw map.

The map would be huge—hopefully close to the size of tyria now except under it. Whatever the lore or storyline, players would start from a starting point in an underground city. From there, the tunnels would branch out in maze-like fashion. the tunnels lead you to different elevations, open up into beautiful areas or instances—if you can find them.

A main mechanic is that your map doesn’t work. To help you, you can unlock waypoints which will take you anywhere on the map you have discovered—BUT, the tunneling between waypoints is blacked out, so all you can see is your location and surrounding waypoints.

Finding certain doorways to certain other maps would be hidden in diffuculty and progress in diffuculty.

Also, another mechanic is that connecting certain instanced maps or areas will change periodically so when you are leaving an area you will transferred to a random other area inside the map. You can howerver transfer to specific areas you have found the waypoint to. Only by performing specific story line, or map unlocks will you get to go to higher level parts of the labryinth and progress to more rare places.

The laybrinth would also have a limit to the ammount of people on your current map. This is up for discussion as it could be simply a party of five, a lot more, or even you by yourself. Maybe even other players appear as periodic ghosts sort of like Dark Souls.

Another idea would be to have players of the laybryinth be able to craft maps by unlocking places, or finding rare items inside said places. There could even be “Legendary” maps that could be created that would take you to a place that unlocks legendary gear and weapons. Once you have the map you are able to travel to the instanced area which may be a small sort of mini dungeon—or maybe it’s just a nice cave with a shaft of sunlight on a legendary sword—that would be awesome to find.

So basically you are finding new places on your immersive journey, able to level completely inside the map if you want, and earning laybryinth specific weapons, gear and titles. You come across creepy NPC’s selling you items in certain areas and also come across creepy NPC’s that will lie to you and maybe even attack you. I think this type of immersion would be awesome for those of us who just want to get lost in dungeon type atmospheres. There could even be perhaps Spvp and even WvW maps with laybrinth type feel to it.

thoughts?

I think the dwarves would be cool but the only thing that I think stands in the way really is that they are sort of similiar to the Norn in that they fill that sort of beer drinking, barbaric, tough nordic guy with a beard—except for size of course.

One way maybe is if the dwarves became sort of stone elemental dwarves—playing in stone form so they become a little different than the common dwarf stereotype. It would be cool to play as a stout dwarf made of stone with glowing eyes or something.

What if this class is simply a “shifter” with different transforming abilities in our trait lines that can specialize the type of shifter the player wants to be. The shifter could transform into other lesser races, monsters, ghosts/demons, or animals.

So perhaps the trait lines gear towards more or less of which type of transformations the shifter wants to specialize in.

Trait lines could be:
Monsterologist—increases power/condition duration and unlocks monster traits and monsters.
Druid—increases precision/critical damage and unlocks animal traits and animals.
Mimic—increases toughness/boon duration and unlocks special races.
Shaman—increases vitality/healing power and unlocks ghost forms/spirits.
Ritualist—increases condition damage/curse recharge and unlocks special “natural form” abilities.

so ritualist maybe not—but, something with similiar abilites where the player can stay in his natural form.

thoughts?

~ Snakes
~Bats
~Giant Turtle
~assuran robot animals
~Animal hybrids, like a Liger maybe
~More Moa Varieties

honestly Centaur I would most want to play if I could although I know there are some constraints. The Centaur are just plain kittenery. If we could get around clipping problems, run speed problems and lower body gear problems I would say them as number 1.
Out of all the races, the Centaur are probably the coolest oldschool fantasy race in all of Tyria. Plus, they just have a tough feel to them, not like Charr tough, but a strong, hearty toughness. They are not as popular as elves, orcs, trolls and that like in games but are just as cool.

Advent.6193:

@Kenneth Dale:

I dig the Draken concept, but how would most Tyrians deal with a reptile race, considering the ED biz?

Another issue: Dredge are physically blind. Considering their aptitude for sonics, I can see them using some form of echolocation/enhanced smell. However, this does a number on UI vs. immersion. Do we go full immersion, and change a player’s UI for them being Dredge, or do we keep the same UI and wreck immersion?

I suppose they would have to have a distinct feel apart from ED lore and conceptually visually different. If they were closer to gators or simply drakes as found in swamps or water I wouldn’t see a problem as long as they were merely intellegent animals.

For the dredge, i would say that no matter there way of understanding their enviornment they still “see” in some form. If they in fact used smell or echolocation it is still a way to understand their enviornment regardless of sight so there might be ways to get around immersion breaking arguments. But in site of the argument, the UI could focus on perhaps technology allowing them to see in the sunlight—landing somewhere similiar to underwater breathing apparatus, while “undergound” they function as normal.

1.) Draken ~ a reptilian aquatic race resembling drakes or alligators. Gw2 could use an aquatic race. The largos are cool too though, but an alligator race would be awesome.

b.) Tengu ~ an avian type race would be cool—I wish they could somehow have wings though and fly like harpees slightly above ground on z axis.

III.) Dredge ~ an underground race, could have burrow mechanisms and elites.

Thanks lorewise!

The actual images aren’t mine though, I just hodge podged them together to get the feel of the profession. One is an actual gw2 character concept, the other a “monster hunter” graphic of monsters.

The profession could perhaps find a better name—Invoker sounds interesting! What if monsterology was merely a trait line? The other trait lines could then act as different type of “Invoker” studies such as.. traditional animals, demons, other races, and even ghosts.

As far as mechanics they are all up for discussion. The return to cart mechanic was one of many ideas i had. It could potentially be far more simple, and still have dynamique and original mechanics.

I think a shapeshifting profession has a lot of potential, and like you said, not just animals like the wow druid.

Cool wizard’s tower. What if it is not only meant to keep things out, but to keep something in—a prison?

wow, thanks Credo!

I didn’t play enough d&d to catch it. I didn’t base it off of d&d, although I know d&d is kind of monstercentric.

This is a new build I am trying out currently. I call it the Brave Mage mesmer build lol, cause you have to be brave to play this build.

I have been using it in pvp and am still learning. any suggestions would be appreciated.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQJARWlwzKoHVzoGa9ICqHbX39dkUoapWJF42FC

Basically it’s a compromise between greatsword skill power, escapism using clones or fighting using shatter skills. My main concept is trying to build a mesmer around greatsword and staff, as these two weapons I simply love. This build is for punishing enemies thinking they can own you with using retaliation and reflection shatters so that they are hitting themselves, while also getting the most from your greatsword, phantasmal berserker and being able to create clones while you dodge for more illusion shatters or escaping. Make sure to use signet of illusions so that you can recharge your shatter skills faster.

In pvp fights i will (of course) try to stay ranged as long as i can letting my team go ahead of me. I put 20 into domination to mainly grab greatsword training, but also took the empowered illusions trait. I also put 20 into dueling for phantasmal fury and deceptive evasion. At ranged I will spam as many phantasmal berzerkers as I can but between these use the deceptive evasion to create clones while dodging. This gives me some illusions right at the start at ranged and can sit back and switch between gs and staff if I want using null field, chaos storm, and time warp aoe’s on the fight. I try and get chaos storm down from staff on fight and then switch to gs to get my phantasmal berserker in their so that it can collect random boons—I try to this as many times as possible within cooldown, and filling in with preferential clones. The dodge roll clones I also simply like for easy extra clones and escaping fights.

Watch the enemies and pay attention to enemies that start to come out at you, this goes the same for one on one duels. Switch immediately to targeting the enemy targeting you that is closest and make sure if you don’t have any illusions out that you try and dodge roll to create some—try to get as many out on top of any berserkers you can create. Switch to staff when in being attacked so you can use phase retreat or chaos armor if you have to. Now use your appropriate shatters using the traits below. Also remember to immediately after shattering, dodge roll some illusions if you can, and use your signet of illusions to get your shatter back up for a second use.

Now I put 30 into illusions for the shattering effects and signet of illusions so i could recharge them faster. I also really wanted illusionary persona trait so that I could shatter on myself for melee attacking, as melee is usually what ends up killing the mesmer. Take masterful reflection so that your illusions can shatter on ranged attacking you, granting you reflection. All of this takes great timing which is why i call it the brave mage because you will want them to hit you but shatter timing must be skilled. If a warrior charges me or any melee is about to own me I shatter on myself causing retaliation and wait a second while they hit themselves, I also try to wait and give time for any of my illusions that are far away to be able to shatter on enemy before I stop kiting from enemy and let them “hit” me. If you have a lot of phantasms out, try to get them to go through a chaos storm before they shatter. Make sure to dodge roll if you can before they get to you if your existing clones are too far away or dead. If it worked or didn’t work the first time, make sure to dodge roll kiting away from them, and use your signet to instantly recharge your retaliation shatter—all this of course while you are damaging them anyway you can. If a ranged is attacking you I would pop chaos armor with staff and try to get your chaos storm on them and then switch to greatsword. Use your reflection shatter and try to get them to do a lot of the work for you while taking advantage of dodging and your greatsword. If none of this works try to dodge roll, and whatever else to confuse and get away, often, but not always, someone will show up and kill them before they can kill you with their health signiciantly down and your heal skill just coming off of cooldown =)

Everything else I am still experementing with. thoughts? improvements?

EroticAndHeretic.7398:

I really REALLY love the idea.

I was thinking we already have the engineer as a “scientist” class, but nothing is against having similar classes (for me, Warrior and Guardian are quite similar).

I think it should not revolve only on morphs, though. But what could this class have? And how would he morph? With potions?

The idea of a spawnable wagon with collected monsters inside of it I like. Then perhaps you are able to keep monsters in your utility and switch them out via the wagon, or perhaps even switch out f skills from your wagon. So maybe potions, but I like the theme of considering them medicines—sort of potions monsterologists consider medicines and keep with their shrunken monster heads lol so now he is more like a witch doctor than a scientist—using magic unlike a scientist.

At it’s core, this idea is a 1v1 dueling arena. Although this idea goes a little further. Instead of like spvp, the small map functions more like an ongoing and infinite wvw map.

The most simplistic explanation would be players enter a map with only one hold point. Players go head to head against one opponent to take control of the point and hold it for as long as they can. Players that are killed go back to a waypoint and try to retake it. The first person to reach a designated cap of points wins, the loser leaves the map and either exits the tournaments or goes to another map. The winner stays on the map for as long as he wants and a new opponent enters and tries to take the point.

The longer the player holds their title as “king of the mountain” on the map that player will recieve bonuses in the form of a designated currency to buy items. Titles might also be rewarded.

The obvious flaw in this type of pvp is certain professions might be better at holding a specific ground area than other professions. Such as a guardian may be better at holding a specific point rather than a Mesmer. This would perhaps seem like a big advantage/disadvantage amongst balancing professions, but the difference and it’s margin is yet to be really proven and I believe is smaller than people would think.

Taking this into consideration, there are many other things to think about.

The map itself must be designed with this in mind. Melee professions might appear to have a bigger advantage for they can stay within the point and force ranged out, but ranged has the advantage of staying outside the capture area and killing the melee, so melee must be forced to venture out of the area to kill the ranged. This should be an inherent strategy that gives each profession their own advantages.

Also in designing the maps and point of capture their may be varying diffulculty in maps. Or perhaps the point of capture may move to different locations on the map periodically. This gives a chance for some capture points to be located on fairly easy terain, while others may require some jumping skills to get to, or perhaps underwater, or even points inside cramped spaces. With the harder to get to points on the map, being able to hold your ground would mean different strategies than what we are used to, as knocking players off would come into play.

So basically, the maps would be designed to cater to all professions.

Traps might also be implemented and activated by players in different ways such as flame turrets, spikes, pit falls, etc. . .

Designing the maps, weapons, traps, and stuff would be the fun part. I also vote that a crown of some sort be worn by whoever is currently holding the point—would be cool also if “king of the hill” crowns might be wearable rewards. It might not be called King of the Hill, but thats what made me think of this type of pvp.

Anyone??

would be cool but perhaps mounts aren’t allowed inside main cities. I just hate the clutter and lag that may come with it.

Kalizaar.4729:

Sounds like a lot of fun. Would definitely be a very different play style and character type compared to what exists now.

The wagon is an interesting idea that would give you a lot of tools to work with unless it was destroyed in combat in which case you’d have to survive until the cooldown is over.

Yeah, it’s a little complicated but could be cool. I imagine you could spawn it sort of like a banking gollum. It could contain all the heads of monsters you have collected, and would have to be a switched quickly if you were in combat. The only thing is, does arenanet devs really want to create beheadable new monsters, with different mechanics and put them all over tyria? Would be cool, then there could be exotic monsters or perhaps even legendary ones to find.

I vote for a Druid/shifter class that can morph into other races. Both problems solved.

Zero Angel.9715:

It could work. I see it as being more like an engineer. The 1-5 skills would be either weapon skills or monster skills depending on what monsters you have transformed into in the 7-0 slots. Additionally there could be several different ‘tech trees’ for the monsters

• Ferocity – Traits that increase damage output or radius
• Infusion – Skills that increase monster condition damages and offensive effects (like CC)
• Presence – Skills that increase the player or monster’s mobility, range or stealth
• Survival – Skills, passive abilities and active ability buffs that contribute to a monster’s survival or healing skills
• Transformation – Skills, triggered effects and cooldown reductions that trigger on or otherwise affect monster tranformations

Elite skills could be temporary transformations into powerful monsters, the summoning of minions, dimensional gates or effects caused by the player channeling his monster abilities.

I like those ideas, all of the traits sound good for a shifter. Also dimensional gates sound cool. What if the dimensional gates could summon small armies of monsters to aid you, would be awesome in wvw….maybe more than one player is required to open the gates/click on them. Might be too close to a necromancer though.

I think the elites are fun to think about. What about shifting into two or three monsters at the same time? When you move, your monsters are like a group, travelling alongside each other, so you are controlling all of them. Perhaps their is now the option to attack all at once, or you can make one of them attack and command two to defend you or stay where they are.

More on Mechanics:

so extrapolating, here are some new mechanics that I believe would be cool.

You are able to collect and use the heads of different monsters as you level/progress. These monsters will have different cooldown periods depending on how they are created and the fairness of balance.

Also monsters you start with you will have unlimited use without cooldown. But as you increase in powerful monsters their cooldowns will become longer. Some collected monsters will have faster or slower cooldowns in accordance to their abilities.

If you want to morph into more powerful monsters you must spawn your “traveling gypsy wagon” filled with all the heads of your powerful monsters. This wagon will spawn nearby your character and will also last for a limited ammount of time, then you will have to wait on a cooldown to spawn another one.

Your monsterologist can take with him from your wagon only three different forms of monsters unless he returns back and switches monsters from the wagon.

So a big part of this playstyle is picking good monsters so you don’t have to return to your wagon, but also using your wagon in battle means a plethora of variations on skill play in battle.

If all your cooldown are blown than you must fight as your natural self, something I haven’t decided on what armor you wear, but probably light or medium as some of your monster give you a lot of armor so would be op maybe to wear heavy armor. I was thinking in your natural state the monstorologist gets a new weapon—the whip, that applies single target damage at aoe range, so you get a little farther hit but are able to switch targets easier. Basically, if you are fighting different targets within aoe range your whip will hit each of them in turn—at the rate of perhaps close to theif attacks.

So basically, a fight might go like this:

You spawn a wagon as you see nearby enemies approaching then dodge roll some of their ranged attacks as you morph into A Two Headed Harpy spitting fire balls at them. You kite them until a warrior comes at you and you morph into a Cyclops Minotaur, taking more damage and ramming the warrior as much as you can. Your minotaur runs out and then you morph into a Bionic Wurm for a short period of time, burrowing underground to get back to your wagon to select from more monsters. You can either run and kite as long as you can in your natural form, waiting on your cooldowns, or you can take a chance and quickly switch monsters from wherever you wagon is spawned and switch to new monsters.

Basically a dark sort of druid profession—instead of tranforming into animals, he transforms into monsters.

His main ability is to morph into a variety of interesting monsters of Tyria. He might only have a select variety of monsters he is able to morph into, all of them with different advantages and skill mechanics.

I also thought it would be cool to be able to find and become new monsters as he progresses throughout the world. Unlike a hunter, he cannot tame the animals, he must take their head. Once he has their head he must perform a medicinal ritual in order to morph into it. Once he collects the head, that head becomes shrunken and put inside of a jar inside of his gypsy like travelling wagon. After he has their head he can make the medicine he needs to morph, but he can only take a certain ammount of medicines into battle with him. This means he must choose wisely what monsters he takes, as each has a certain ammount of morphs and cooldowns before he has to return to his wagon. It is unknown wether these monsters act as trait lines or perhaps utility slots. Perhaps they are even f skills akin to elementalist tactics.

Perhaps he is sort of a medium armor profession armed with a whip—he could even be multiple armors as he can shift into monsters wearing light, med, or heavy depending on what he morphs into.
If he was a soldier profession perhaps he wears scale armor so that could be a third soldier profession.

What do you think? any ideas? extrapolations? It’s still sort of up in the air

This! A hodge podge graphic showing a possible druid type class. XD

A hodge podge concept I made with gw2 art and monster hunter art! I made the themed monsterologist color grey—sort of monsterish. Trying to also come up a good symbol for the monsterologist for fun.What do you think?

gargoyle form would be cool. stone gargoyle form

Kalizaar.4729:

I like this idea! I think I would prefer the morphings were unique rather than existing animals or “monsters”. The look of the morphs could be created to reflect the primary play-style of that particular morph. And of course through traits and stats the play-style can be pushed one way or another.

The process of morphing could come through various means. Magic mutation? Spirit possession? Mad alchemy? Crystals with unique properties?

I kind of like the idea of the mad alchemy. I can picture your character gulping down different colored beakers and then shifting. Reminds me of the Alchemist from Asheron’s Call 2 a bit.

@Poe just out of curiosity how in the world would this type of character concept be anywhere near as offensive to a person as a Super Nazi soldier? I mean to each their own, but that just baffles me!

Cool ideas Kalizaar, your spellblade is interesting but uses elemental shock so I think it is almost too close to an elementalist or even mesmer with title spellblade. Perhaps one of the “unique” monsters you speak of uses spellblade abilities lol. I like your in debth thought on the mechanics though—perhaps you can come up with some mechanics for the monsterologist too

The only thing I see with being a mad scientist or alchemist is that engi is already sort of an alchemist or scientist, although engi does come off a little more as an “engineer” than an alchemist, having a sort of technology/architect image. I think though, some sort of scientist that has a distinctly different feel to it might be viable. I was thinking of sort of a strange biologist field perhaps even belonging to a travelling carnival freak show or something—mustache, top hat, and monacle comes to mind even though i know engineer has a similar steam punk feel—although a distinctly victorian feel might belong to mesmers, that could also sort of work.

Remember a sort of guy that would travel by road wagon, where flashy clothes and maybe a straw hat? Selling “medicines” to people on the road such as tonics—sort of red stripes comes to mind. That is the kind of character perhaps this guy would be i was thinking—perhaps a little more ghoulish though. So they are lone travellers selling all sorts of mystical things, but have a secret society of shapeshifters—some working for travelling carnivals as freak shows lol. So it’s somewhere in there of a mad scientist, a gypsy, a travelling salesman, and a darker society of shifters—sort of like the masons, or those guys collecting money for the circus on the side of the road lol

@poe, any link with or without having to do with being lame between a shifter that can transform into monsters and a nazi super soldier or tele tubie profession does not exist. therefore your argument isn’t largely shared and is seen as a dull and vicious defiance based on personal elitism against the community.

@ Alt, yeah but summoning is just another pet class—the transformation is what makes this more dynamique in theme and playstyle.

The idea of the partial shifting is interesting and could be very neat. Wings would be cool as players could slightly hover above the ground such as a harpy—instead of “dove” they could be " wings of the harpy" giving you a temporary speed bonus. Perhaps they get krait legs underwater or something, or quagan fins? Perhaps elites could be whole form though, just for players who want to feel totally transformed?

Anyone who wouldn’t play a game they like because the community thought of a cool idea and it was actually implemented doesn’t really like that game. Look at engineer, all sorts of negative reactions when introduced, even i thought it was weird, now i like that profession. It’s all about working it into the game, and arena net could make it work easily—probably nothing like what you imagine. A shifter class wouldn’t be anything strange compared to an engineer. I just don’t understand how people could hate a shifter class that could change into monsters of tyria or animals.

How about making a dervish or ritualist sort of shifter? When you morph you get different curse abilities or bonuses for removing or applying curses.

Whatever forms were implemented they would have to be souped up versions of the in game forms. Like a player Kodan or Minotaur for example would be far more in debth than what they are now—whatever in debth means.

I really like the idea of a Monsterologist. Being able to shift into beastly horro forms perhaps somewhat vampiric, wherewolf like, creature of the swamp. .etc They wouldn’t be exactly so literal but could allude to those creatures—would give the class a very dark and odd feel to it. If not that than just creatures considered to be monsters, like drakes, wurms, harpys and perhaps new and more involved monsters—-one eyed tentacled things.

As far as the random mutations, i dissaprove as well—I think players should be able to actually trait into a monster some how, or lean one monster over others.

A cool ability would be also to call upon other monsters to help you in battle, or dig underground likd a dredge to excape/charge—maybe elites or something.

maybe character creation could be a specific type of mustache like this guy =)

yeah the circus/carnival image is a good one—but slightly more ghoulish and more freakshow/mad salesperson. The top hat would be great with perhaps seringes filled with “medicines”. He should be able to call a sort of gypsy wagon to store his bestiary of oddities lol.

I think this could be a very viable mechanic. It doesn’t have to be all ranged or all melee but could have to choose before entering battle his smartest option. perhaps morphing has a longer cooldown or effect.

Perhaps mad scientist isn’t the right image as engi’s could also do that. What about a sort of vaudiville travelling circus character? There is always stuff about carnivals but no class really represents the carnivals. The Monsteroligist could be spotlighted as sort of the carnival freak show type collector. Give him some distinct medium armor and a whip as new weapon.

I also like this idea and have actually commented about it before. I think it would be cool if it was largely underground and perhaps your map didn’t work so you couldn’t see where you were underground—only see entrypoints to the surface. Then there are titles and skins you can get for finding really hard places to find—like legendary places.

good ideas! perhaps the monster are sooo cool in modality that players need not to show off their armor as much, some players like being creatures and care less about armor. Even so, the humanoid approach is a good idea, although I like the idea of becoming something very monsterish and devoid of any human shape!

Perhaps some monsters are humanoid in order to display armor and others aren’t—this way players choose which monster they enjoy the most. for instance, their could be a vampiric form where you turn into a hellish looking bat humanoid—still has on your armor. or you could turn into a big blob of slime

I think the monsterologist could be quite distinct apart from the engineer. Monsterologists would have to use something other than potions or elixers like engi’s but perhaps they use medicine’s of a sort—sort of like a witch doctor. Perhaps their science is more organic and natural than the engineer—maybe they even use cauldrons to create their morphing formulas, along with chanting. this makes them kind of dark engineers, using witchlike brews and concoctions instead of technology.

Me and guildies were thinking up possible future professions and came up with this wacky idea, which really isn’t wacky but pretty boss. The Monsterologist

Possible lore direction: Strange happenings have been going on, and a new science has been stirring in the darkest labs of Tyria. The strange mad science of monsterology is born, bringing with it a strange new profession—perhaps the strangest of all. Shapeshifting, a possibility only thought to exist to Norn has taken on new meanings. Unlike norn druid-like abilities to transform into our animal spirits, a darker science allowing heros to morph into monsters of all variety has become apparent in Tyria."

Profession Image: This class takes the trope of the well known Druid and “morphs” it into something a little darker, a little weirder and definately more fun. Unlike a nature loving druid, Monsterologist are a little twisted, morphing into monsters of a strange variety. They aren’t perhaps as dark and evil as necromancers, but their love of the strange and odd monsters of tyria has made them very distinct and very strange, studying all manner of monsters. There dress is somewhat mad scientist, or think wierd gypsy salesman traveling by wagon—it’s what happens when an Engi goes mad , although Monsterology is a theme all it’s own.

Profession Mechanics: This can go in two main directions, one more extreme than the other: 1.) Heroes can morph into a variety of existing Tyrian “monsters” (not “animals”) such as: wurms, minotaurs, harpy, griffons, karka, trolls. . .or anthing else created that makes the cut as a monster and fills a certain niche in battle.
b.) Heroes can morph into a selection of semi-classic monsters representing different classic horror tropes. Such as some sort of batlike vampiric creature, a swampy slimy scaley creature, a hairy wherewolfy type creature, a giant one eyed creature etc. . .The point is to create monsters original and distinct but allude back to classic horror monster tropes.

Whichever type direction this goes in (if not a little of both), our heroes main mechanic and distinction is to Morph. Morphing would be our F button mechanism, and once morphed our skills and utility bars change. The different monsters we can morph into have different niches and create much specialization within our hero. So someone might choose to trait more to be the minotaur and be more tanky build, or someone might choose to trait more for harpy and do more damage (or a little in both.) In any case, a selected advantage of which monster you choose to morph into can be built upon. The elites could be very fun, as you could pick a mega monster to morph into for a period of time—just think of morphing into a Giant Wurm, or Griffon! Boss.

Thoughts? Ideas?

ps. originally, the idea was to simply be a sort of Mimic, able to morph into a selection of lesser races such as quaggan, skritt, dredge, hylek, krait, kodan etc. . . . .