Bardin runesmith - what kind of abilities you'd want?

[doom_hamster]

Just in broad strokes, how would you like the rune magic to be done?

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Usage of runes in warfare is enchanting weapons, armor, jewelry, or machinery with a huge variety of effects, or used in doom anvils which function like an artillery piece.

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Personally i would like an emphasis on offensive lightning magic with pronounced visual effects and powerful sounds.

Doom anvils might be out of his league lore-wise, but if not - i would like them to be a ranged weapon, with 2 or 3 anvils to choose from with different effects. They don’t produce overheat, they have ammo that recharges overtime.

Ultimate ability - when you press it, it activates the lightning rune on your melee weapon, your next strike will have a bonus magical effect. Upon contact, the rune will do a chain lighting staggering multiple foes for several seconds, dealing moderate damage… each enemy hit with the weapon strike will become a node to pass electricity. Have it a short cooldown of 30s.
One 30 lvl talent would change the rune effect with overhead attacks - it would make a bigger damage with lightning strike from the sky, at the cost of doubling the cooldown timer.

His armor or shields could be enchanted so that when he gets hit, an attacker gets a zap of shock, staggering and dealing damage.

Runesmiths also play a role of magic defense, dissipating enemy spells, so there could be a talent that will sap the energy out of vortex storms and leech grabs, nullifying them and recharging Bardins ultimate.

[Slayerkin]

I think that pressing F should activate the rune which Bardin has but the exact rune that he has should be decided by his Talents. To this also comes that I feel that the rune should be a buff to existing weapons or something else rather than an attack. With at least three, or more, choices between which rune we want we can have more diversity in the career and its use and builds.

But I do very much like the idea of sapping magic. In my opinion one use of the ult could be a “Rune of Dispelling” which will cancel any spells by leeches, stormers, Rasknitt, Halescourge and Nurgloth and perhaps even have a chance to stagger them a bit. Or it could be something like “Rune of Clearence” which sends out a shoch wave which staggers nearby enemies. The last one might be better as it could mean it useful also against non-sorcerer foes.

[Kitten]

Your suggestions sound awesome.

What do you think they should do in terms of ranged, or is having the devestating anvil on a long enough CD good enough to replace it?

We kind of discussed range in here:

Bardin Goreksson potential new career - Runesmith

Assuming Bardin is going to have the next career because of the order of the heros in the menu… [Forums] …and assuming the new careers are all going to be support based, I’d have to assume he would be a Runesmith. Note-this is what I think would be the best and coolest if this type of character were to be implemented. That is also applies to my ideas in the rest of the thread. Why Runesmith? Runesmith would be the best choice because in lore and in tabletop they are known for their supporti…

It would be interesting to see if the mechanics surrounding runes could be used as supportive buffs too.

" They are a suspicious lot and jealously protect the secrets kept in their anvils and hammers, guarding the knowledge that allows them to make magic items — weapons, armour, rings and talismans - of greater potency than items wrought by any other mortal race upon the [world]"

Find it hard to believe someone with such specific knowledge wouldn’t use that to help the U5.

As long as he’s a little more 3D in mechanical depth, when compared to GK, I’ll be happy.

Also, your idea about lightning gave me an idea for a good mechanic to make single target Melee Weapons, like Axe, Greataxe, 2H Hammer (Lights) deal AoE:

‘Dealing x amount of single target damage releases arching lightning from your Weapon, damaging x amount of nearby enemies.’

This would be on a hidden metre, so you could run around with 99% of the damage dealt, but your next hit would cause the proc.

Obviously the amount of damage can be used to make it viable in Horde situations.

It could also have a Talent that makes it work in a different way for higher Cleave Weapons. Would have to be careful not to make them too good though, as they already do better.

[doom_hamster]

@Slayerkin

I think that pressing F should activate the rune which Bardin has but the exact rune that he has should be decided by his Talents.

Ah yes, it would be really cool to have 30th level talents as different runes entirely, like having 3 distinct effects like lightning, cold, and something else (maybe explosion, earth magic?).

@Slayerkin

To this also comes that I feel that the rune should be a buff to existing weapons or something else rather than an attack. With at least three, or more, choices between which rune we want we can have more diversity in the career and its use and builds.

Indeed i would like the ultimate to be an empowerment to any melee weapon you take with yourself (or even ranged weapon). It will be more integrated into normal gameplay feel, at the same it could sound and look awesome. Instead of very “fixed” feel with Grail knights ult and other ranged ‘killshot’ ults.

@Slayerkin

But I do very much like the idea of sapping magic. In my opinion one use of the ult could be a “Rune of Dispelling” which will cancel any spells by leeches, stormers, Rasknitt, Halescourge and Nurgloth and perhaps even have a chance to stagger them a bit. Or it could be something like “Rune of Clearence” which sends out a shoch wave which staggers nearby enemies. The last one might be better as it could mean it useful also against non-sorcerer foes.

on its own the magic defense ultimate wouldn’t be worth because too niche, but paired with something else - yeah, can be good. But i was thinking about a talent that you pick (or innate passive), which works automatically.

[Slayerkin]

To cut it short. That a rune against magic could absolutely be a passive ability that the career has.

To give us something to work with I checked over the runes in the last army book for the Dwarfs, 8th edition, and provide a list with which effect I think could come from it. I won’t use Master Runes as those are perhaps a bit too powerful and I feel that it would be odd for Bardin to be able to forge them as he hasn’t spent a multi-century life time studying and practicing rune smithing.

Weapon Runes - For melee weapons

Rune of Daemon Slaying - No daemons in the game so far and thus might be skipped

Rune of Fire - Melee attacks causes enemies to catch fire akin to Sienna’s attacks

Rune of Fury - +10% Attack Speed

Rune of Dismay - Critical hits causes enemies in a small radius to freeze for, maybe, 1 seconds

Rune of Cleaving - Weapon becomes Armour Piercing or drastically increase armour piercing

Rune of Might - +5% Power against all foes

Rune of Striking - +10% more Crit Chance

Grudge Rune - +10% Power against tagged enemies

Rune of Parrying - Half Stamina cost for blocking attacks

Rune of Speed - +10% Movement Speed

Armour Runes - Strictly defensive

Rune of Fortitude - Regen 1 HP per 2 seconds

Rune of Iron - Permanently increase health with 20 but no active ult

Rune of Shielding - Halves damage and no stagger from range attacks

Rune of Preservation - 50 THP at an instant

Rune of Impact - Immune to Stagger

Rune of Stone - 10% damage reduction

Banner Runes - Not suitable for this game

Talismanic Runes - Mostly defensive and passive

Rune of Warding - 15% chance to completely negate damage from an enemy hit

Rune of Spellbreaking - Automatically cancel all enemy sorcerous effects within a large radius and character is also immune to enemy sorcerous effects like leeches, blightstormers etc. and 50% damage soak against magical attacks.

Rune of Luck - Add 20% to all effects, except critical hits, which works on %. Such as traits for items, but no active ult.

Rune of Furnace - Would give bonus against fire but since there’s only a single enemy with a fire attack, this would be too specialized.

Engineering Runes - For range weapons

Rune of Penetration - Add Armour Piercing, or drastically increase it, to any range weapons of the character

Stalwart Rune - Don’t see a way to add this

Rune of Accuracy - Automatical hits against tagged enemies with range weapons

Rune of Forging - Increase reload speed with 25%

Flakkson’s Rune of Seeking - No flying enemies, when everything works :P, so no use here

Rune of Burning - Attacks with range weapons ignites the target and adds flame damage