Homemade Class: Geomancer - Battlemage/Runemaster/Spell Breaker

So Blizzard has stated that they don't thing they could add a new class every expansion, maybe every other though. We pretty much know that the next hero class will be a healer, and it's either gonna wear mail or leather since there are three plate, and three cloth classes but only two for leather and mail. There's not much debate going on about it, right now we're just giddy over Cataclysm and even more so up coming patches 3.3.3 and 5, but i'm always thinking and lot of the time it's about WoW. I'm a lore nerd so when i think of stuff I try to place it lorewise, but more importantly I think of thins so they fit in game, and are not copies of what already exists. Of course this includes classes. Now one of my favorite fantasy archetypes is the Swordmage, the spell caster who uses his magic to enhance his prowess in melee combat. Its why I like Enh Shamans, and to a lesser extend retadins, but wow lacks in my opinion a true melee spell caster. In keeping with the pattern of the death knight this class will be able to spec into either role no matter which tree the choose. The idea was to take some classes that already exist in lore and mesh them up, mix them with some things from existing classes in game, and shape them into a whole new experience. This will not create a list of talents and powers but it will have example of ones that would fit and play styles and mechanics of the different trees. It will also discuss the ideas behind the class. So let's begin.

Geomancer Armor: Up to MailWeapons: Axes, Swords, Two-Handed Axes, Two-Handed Swords, One-handed Maces, Two-Handed Maces, Daggers, Fist Weapons, Shields, Relics (Focus)Resource: Aether (Mana), QuintessenceRoles: Healer, DPSTalent Trees: Martial, Runic, BreakingA commonality amongst classes in WoW to fill multiple lore classes with one in-game class. The Shaman class mixes witch-doctor, spirit walker, far seer, shadow hunter, and shaman units to create the class, for example. in this case the lore classes of Runemaster, Battlemage, Shodo-Pan, and Spell Breaker. With some similarities to Enh Shaman, Ret Paladins, Dis Priests, Death Knights, and Arms Warriors in game. The true uniqueness of the class comes from it focus on melee. Each build will feature a different healing and combat style but they will all need to melee in order to heal potently. This comes from the Enh/Resto healing that use Maelstrom procs, and warhammer. The need for the player to be attacking in order to heal will make them play differently from other healers, what will keep this from being over powered will be the resources. Like Death Knights they will use a twin resource system where Runes and Runic Power are a sort of Energy/Rage set up where one regenerates at a set rate while the other is generated through combat. Geomancers will use Aether (basically Mana) and Quintessence (like Rage). There will be staple spells that use mana, primarily offensive attacks and standard healing wave type heals. More potent attacks and most defensive abilities will use quintessence. Auto-attacks and mana using abilities will generate quintessence. The class will feature stances called Channels which will grant various effects, lower levels will pertain to particular element while higher levels will focus on. They will also have a special class profession called Warpainting which allows them to place warpaint on themselves and their weapons, (arpaint on the body will be treated as an enchant on a neck slot item) the warpaint will be similar to runeforging and will require a specific location to be prepared but multiple warpaints can be prepared in advance and applied while out of combat but it places a cooldown on the removed warpaint preventing it from being applied for a period of time. The talent trees will focus your style in a specific way so players who prefer one type of healing over the other will have options.

Martial (or Martial Magic) tree will draw from the Battle Mage and Shodo-Pan lorewise. The Battle Mage and Shodo-Pan are warriors who have fused martial prowess with magical ability (this is true for the Shadow Hunter as well but they're a ranged class and will be used in a later article) allowing them to improve their potency in combat. In combat they can use a two hander of dual-wield having both dual-wield and two-handed specializations. They will also have a special talent called Spell Swordsman which allows them to treat main-hand caster weapons as one-hand weapons so they can be dual-wielded. For dual-wield it will emphasize greater spell damage so it will be essential for spell damage increase. Two-Handers will focus more on physical damage, but will have a bonus to spell power from attacks. The overall style of play will be essentially the same, just a matter of taste and a spell or two. Offensve spells will be balanced in that physical and magical portions of the attacks hit for equal amounts normally specing one way or the other will shift the balance as such. Dual-Wielding will be the healing standard since staffs cannot be used, though off-hand items and shields are options. Healing in Martial will be normal style healing with better AOE ability than other specs. Energy Channeling will cause auto-attacks to deal additional Nature, Fire, or Arcane damage based on the targets resistance and increase healing of single target heals by and amount.

Breaking (or Breaking Magic) comes from Elven Spell Breakers. They will have abilities that absorb magic and reduce magical damage much like unholy DKs. For DPS they will want to focus on two handers and will resemble a combination of and arms warrior and an enh shaman. They will be able to dispel buff and debuffs better than the other specs and will have abilities that drain resources, silence, and do extra damage by dispelling a buff and a spell steal like attack that transfers a buff from the enemy to the player. For healing they will use a Dis Priest like method focusing on bubbling to reduce damage taken. They will use spell shields and have talents that convert block to spell power and such as well as shield abilities to generate extra quintessence or mana. Their channeling of choice will be a spec specific one called Enemy Channeling which causes damage done by the shielded target to increase the amount absorbed by the shield by a portion of damage done and the player's attacks to drain mana.

Runic (or Runic Magic) is based of the runemaster. The Warpaint comes directly from this build and it will have talents to improve the effects of warpaint. They will also focus on dual wielding fist-weapons or maces and will have talents to improve them. Runemaster will have potent buff both for self and for party members, and will have attack that grant temporary buffs or refresh current ones. Active buffs will generate quintessence so they will have a more steady flow of it than the other specs, but the buffs are also the basic for their healing. Runic spec'd geomancers will gain an ability called Tap, which will reduce the duration of the lowest duration buff and heal the person effected. More than others they will need to be in combat in order to keep temporary buffs on the target to save the more potent long term buffs abilities. As healers they gain abilities that transfer a portion of damage dealt as health to the lowest ally or focus target and buff will go to a focus target or the target who gains the greatest benefit. This combination of buffs and healing will make them great tank healers. Healing mace and off-hand item will be standard, unless off-speced into martial for the Spell Swordsman talent. Channel Earth with reduce the chances that your buff can be dispelled and give a chance for tap not to reduce the duration of a buff, and increase physical damage done.

For DPS players there will be potent abilities called Wardances. Since they have less reliance on Quintessence (Q) wardances will act as a Q dump using large amounts of it and acting similar to bladestorm in that activate then and remain active for a time while the player can still use other abilities. While healers will have exteremly potent heals, for example Full Release for Runic will remove all you buffs from your target healing them to full health and healing nearby allies for x amount, on a long cooldown that starts after leaving combat. The class will add an additional healer to the game and create a whole new way of healing in WoW.

Next time around we'll look at a class that adds a second physical DPS to the game and once Cataclysm drops will harken back to the hunters of old.