If we ever do get more classes, I’d like to recommend beast race classes of each of the four main gods: Rahyeh (Osprix), Heorot (Wengari), Lagan (Nereid), and Majasa (Nagasa). Through some means that is unlocked account wide (maybe clearing a relevant Empowered Timeline to start? Could even introduce new timelines with these or a unique Act I) you’ll be able to forevermore create a Prestige class character. Given some of the revelations in the new Ancient era act, I’d think it would fit lore-wise for Eterra to seek a chosen beast to help the human race. While I’m not sure how this would work with MTX (I’m guessing each would need their own versions of existing/future armors to match their unique bodies) I think there is a lot of room to potentially create distinct classes based around each god’s beasts. Some ideas for each are below.
Osprix
I imagine martial Osprix built around a lot of thrusting style attacks, so their preferred weapons would be spears, swords, daggers, as well as having some skills and passives work around being unarmed by using their talons, instead (no weapon/shield/catalyst). They’d also be big on fire and ignite, of course, with some spell options, but mostly still working with martial weaponry. A few skill ideas and mastery ideas below.
Basic Skills
Talon Thrust, zero mana - Strike with a powerful and long reaching thrust from a spear, sword, dagger, staff, or strike unarmed. Passives could add a thrust combo, make it a channel of rapid thrusts, a traversal, and add fire/ignite.
Breath of Rahyeh, cone attack - Breathe a great gust of flame in an area in front of you. You could make it channeled, have it leave flaming ground behind, eliminate cooldown for some benefit, make enemies more vulnerable to ignite stacks.
Bird of Prey, traversal - Lift off the ground with your wings and dive the target location. Passives could give it usage stacks for a draw back, alter & work with Evade, become a focused attack for high “single”-target damage or improve its AoE and stun,
Master Classes
Gryphon Master - You can summon a gryphon fledgeling companion. I think an interesting approach would be allowing you to build around the Gryphon doing most of the work where it can attack with your own skills. It gains an attack with its summon skill (like Beastmaster companions or Falconer) that can be changed to be one of your own skills. The Gryphon Master would get at least one additional skill called a Command skill that is entirely the Gryphon’s own (meaning, the Gryphon uses it, not you), with a set of mastery tree passives that allow you to also turn one of your slotted skills into a Command skill. Certain “pick only one” style passives that provide a benefit with a thematic change to its appearance would also be great.
Reaver - Prevents equipping weapons, shields, and off-hand catalysts, instead giving a significant boost to base melee damage and Endurance. This class is entirely built around enhancing unarmed attacks, adding a significant base melee damage boost. It’s class skill could work around building or exploiting stacks of Reaver unique buffs/debuffs, either to benefit survivability or enhance damage output, that other skills can be built to also apply or exploit these stacks. Much of the class would also build around low life builds and leech, greatly enhancing Endurance & Endurance Threshold, perhaps even with a means to exploit Ward where instead of acting as a secondary health pool any ward you gain instead can be used to enhance your combat somehow.
Avatar of the Phoenix - Cannot apply any DoTs other than Ignite, converts Bleed to Ignite, and converts 50% physical to Fire. These guys are all about becoming walking suns, with options to enhance Evade by leaving fire trails, turning Ignite stacks into bombs, adding fire benefits to their attacks, and even reducing other elemental resistances for some other benefit, like enhancing fire damage, converting other damage types taken to fire, and applying full Armor to Fire damage and even some armor to ignite damage received. Unique fire-based debuffs would also be great.
Wengari
These guys would be big on two handed and dual wielding, with a mix of cold focused spells/attacks, throwing attacks, and plenty of bleed and stun for those that want it. As hunters, they’d also have various traps, as well as being another class that can use bows and quivers. Some basic skill ideas and mastery class ideas below:
Basic Skills
Boomerang Throw, zero mana - Throw an axe that boomerangs back to your hand after an arc. Passives can throw a second axe while dual-wielding axes or larger axe with a two-hander, add axe/melee damage to your throw damage, or narrow the AoE to create a precision strike location at the apex of the throw for more damage/crit. Can convert to Boomerang Shot and be used as a bow skill, or converted to throw spears.
Winter’s Bite, projectile spell - Create a magical vortex of snow and ice. Enhance to improve AoE and spawn more projectiles or turn it into more of a single-target spell, or even have it “attach” to enemies as DoT debuff.
Stampede Charge, traversal - Rush forward with your head down to crash your horns into the enemy. Passives could give it some control to turn and weave through enemies as a short channel, enhance stun and AoE on collision, or make it stop at the first enemy struck for some benefit.
Master Classes
Frostcaller - Adds cold damage to attacks/spells and builds around chilling, freezing, and frostbite as well as converting stun to freeze chance. Some attack skills can convert into spells, and a couple of the Frostcaller’s spells can convert into attacks, allowing this class to build hybrid, spell, or martial quite easily.
Outrider - Permanently mount an Eber with the class skill equipped with a movement speed boost as part of it. This class would have skills that work around the Eber, enhancing many melee skills with attacks from the eber. The class skill would work as a Traversal skill on use to charge the enemy. Some mechanic revolving around mounting and dismounting the eber could be interesting, with being permanently mounted as the default option.
Huntmaster - Builds around throwing, bow, and trap skills. Can equip a quiver with a spear and gain the quiver’s benefits for throwing skills that use or are converted to use a spear. Can’t think of anything much more specific, but having another bow user and giving them a unique use for quivers would definitely help find it an identity.
Nereid
The Nereid I imagine being the most caster/spell heavy of the beast classes, featuring a lot of physical and lightning based spells, though I have to admit I feel the most uncertain about ways to make this one truly unique without taking too much identity away from other existing classes, but here’s what I got.
Basic Skills
Skybolt, zero mana - Call down a lightning strike from the sky. Give it a cooldown & charges to call down greater bolts of lightning and spawn more strikes on crit, cause slows, exploit shock stacks when stunning to erupt in thunderous explosions.
Ocean Wave, wide physical piercing projectile - Crash a wave of water into your enemies. Add chill, imbue it with lightning, convert it to cold, add ravenous fish to apply bleed.
Surf, traversal - Ride a wave of water and smash through enemies. Passives could apply fragility, critical vulnerability, or heal yourself and/or allies.
Master Classes
Fury - Increases lightning spell damage and AoE for spells. The Fury would feature primarily heavy hitting high cooldown spells that focus on area of effect, many with or the ability to build around having a duration in the area they are cast, creating whirlpools and typhoons and rampaging storm clouds, or generating slow moving projectiles that create such.
Abyssal Caller - This one I like. I’m imagining something similar to the Lost Ark summoner class or Maria Renard from Netflix’s Castlevania: Nocturne. Convert 50% of spell damage to minion damage. These have primarily temporary minions, with many of their skills only summoning the minions for a single attack or a combo attack before fading back into the ocean they came from, or only lasting a few seconds once summoned. None of her “spells” actually cause any damage through her own prowess, instead relying on her command of the creatures of the deep, summoning them and making them strike on her whim before returning. Some base skills would also be able to gain minion tags in the passive tree to further augment this mastery. One or two could maybe be built to summon a “permanent” (long lasting) minion, but she would be restricted to only one permanent minion.
Lagon’s Chosen - Unique skill morphs them partially or fully into a tentacled creature like Lagon. While transformed, all skills gain some benefit, while the transform skill is replaced with a tentacle whip attack. This would last at first maybe 8-12 seconds and can be built to become permanent or built to transform back out quickly, where each skill used quickly stacks debuffs/dots or gives the player buffs but shaves time off how long it lasts, making it more bursty.
Nagasa
I can see the Nagasa mostly being martial, with some skills able to convert into spells. I think they also are a great candidate for another Void class, primarily through a mastery, given Apophis’s involvement with Orobyss. They’d also have a hefty amount of poison to spread or conversions of skill damage into poison chance & damage, even flat stacks per hit. I can see them also having the greatest access to armor shred compared to other beastman classes. They also would not feature anything minion related.
Basic Skills
Fanged Bite, zero mana - Strike an enemy with a high poison chance. Passives could spill poisonous puddles every time so many poison stacks are applied, shred armor and poison resist, or convert into a ranged attack as a poison spit.
Tail Swipe, physical cone AoE - Knockback enemies with an increased stun chance. Add a sand spray to blind enemies, rend their armor with your scales, or cause them to bleed to increase poison chance and duration of your next attack.
Slither, traversal - Quickly slide through and around enemies before winding up a melee spin. Make it leave a poison trail behind, convert completely to poison and make the AoE a poison shower.
Master Classes
Facet of Ruby - Gain Parry chance while dual-wielding or using a two-handed weapon, add/increase/more damage to channeled and cooldown skills. I imagine the two main build styles for Ruby would either be adding cooldown to skills and using cooldown skills for large, heavy hits or moving through the battlefield like a dervish using channeled movement skills. Some base skills and every Ruby skill would have a means to convert regular hit attacks to channeling, add movement, or add cooldown for some effect, or convert from one from one to the other.
Facet of Sapphire - Add Spell damage for every so much added Melee, Increase cast speed at a ratio of increased melee attack speed. Their unique skill would be a melee strike that creates a magical damaging effect, starting with a short-lived wave that can change to forking/chaining projectiles or a nova spread where every enemy hit by the nova then also triggers a nova, or something to that effect. Converting base skills into spells or adding spell effects, having skills and/or passives that build stacks with attacks to exploit with spells and vice versa, all sound like great ways to achieve identity
Facet of Obsidian - Add/Increase melee Void damage, 25% of all damage over time chances are converted to Time Rot chance, can only apply Time Rot damage over time. Their skills would split physical and void with options to convert to pure void for some effect. One idea for a skill–probably unique skill–that I have is Sunder Space where a rift in spacetime is ripped open. Enemies that enter the sundered space begin building stacks of a debuff that can then be exploited in various ways, building to either “erupt” when the sunder effect times out or some other effect, such as decreasing resistances or applying Time Rot or some other unique effect.