As with my Traveler class suggestion, I understand that this will take a long time to implement if ever, as the devs have other plans lined up in the immediate future. I do hope however that people will like the following concepts and that they will inspire future classes in Last Epoch. This suggestion inculdes a few skills, concepts and mechanics and I would love inputs with additional ideas.
This is my idea for the Warrior Class as it could be implemented by Last Epoch. The way I imagine it is as the opposite number of the Mage class in Last Epoch. The Mage is primarily focused on casting spells but has a melee mastery as well. The Warrior will be something similar, with 2 masteries focused on melee combat and 1 mastery focusing on casting. Base skills will include mostly melee attacks with a couple of spells. Masteries will include the Barbarian, the Beast and the Dragon Knight. Deals Physical and Elemental damage. Main attribute: Strength.
Barbarian type skills will focus on the use of weapons. Beast type skills will focus on the Unarmed effect, which will require the Warrior to be unarmed in order to use them. Dragon Knight type skills will focus on the conjuring of magical effects mostly relying on his shield.
Base skills:
Swing: Swings the Warriorâs weapon in an area in front of him. Hitting an enemy grants a stack of Madness. Each stack of Madness grants 5% attack speed and causes 1% of the damage the player inflicts to be reflected back to him. Conversion nodes include: Swing is now a Fist and can only be used while unarmed - deals more damage - Fist does not scale with weapon stats; Fist now slams the ground for less AoE damage.
Charge: Charges forward and swings his weapon while he charges. Stops the charge after a number of successful swings (swings which hit an enemy). Counts as a traversal skill. Conversion nodes include: Charge makes you move slower and have a larger amount of swings before ending the skill - no longer counts as a traversal skill; can now change direction mid-cast; can now be tied to other skills and casts them instead of swinging (swinging here does not mean the Swing skill).
Head Bash: Hits all enemies in front of the player using the Warriorâs head. Scales with equipped helmet. 10% of the damage dealt is reflected back to the player. Conversion nodes include: knocks back enemies and stuns them; charged for 1 second - more damage, knockback and stun; Head Bash now uses the playerâs entire body to attack - scales with body armor instead - more damage reflected to the player; Head Bash now slams the ground dealing AoE.
Boulder Throw: Hurls a boulder at enemies. Conversion nodes include: Boulder Throw is now an ice spell and scales with spell ice damage; rocks explode outwards and deal shrapnel damage to enemies; the player now places a boulder on the ground which rolls towards the enemies - less initial damage but scales with each enemy hit; instead of throwing a boulder it now throws small rocks in a larger AoE; throwing rocks donât deal damage but they encase an enemy in a boulder - the player can destroy the boulder for massive damage with specific skills.
Wall: Combo skill. The Warrior slams the ground with his weapons and causes a wall to form. The wall pushes back close enemies as it forms. The player then hits the wall with his weapon to cause it to move forward and hit enemies along itâs path. When a part of the wall hits an enemy it deals damage and is destroyed. Parts of the wall which do not hit an enemy continue until they expire. Conversion nodes include: the Wall now pushes enemies along its path - is not destroyed but deals less damage; the wall is now destroyed on the second hit throwing projectiles and damaging enemies; Wall now creates a second wall 15 meters away and the 2nd hit causes the 2 parts to close in on each other - deals more damage and enemies can only escape to the side.
Shield Firewall: Spell. Requires a shield. The Warrior bashes his shield with his mainhand weapon and causes it to emit a wave of fire. Applies 1 stack of ignite. Conversion nodes include: flames now stick to the ground, burning and applying ignite to enemies who pass through them; the flames on the ground now ignite the Warrior as well, granting him Berserk for the duration of the ignite - Berserk grants increased movement speed, damage and reduces all resistances and armor; the Warrior now stabs his shield with his main weapon and channels Dragonbreath dealing fire DoT all around him; Dragonbreathâs AoE now grows each second but drains increasingly more mana; Dragonbreath now spawns two fire pillars around the player, one moving clockwise and the other counter-clockwise.
Mastery: Barbarian
The Warrior focuses on inventive and proficient use of his weapons to prevail in combat. Skills also benefit from Dexterity.
Skills:
Mastery Skill:
Chains: Attaches chains on the Barbarianâs weapons for his next 3 attacks. The Barbarian now uses the chains to manipulate his weapons instead of holding the weapons directly. Melee abilities with chained weapons can be cast at a range but they still count as melee. More damage and attack speed based on how far the attack lands. Conversion nodes include: enemies who are hit by chained weapons are now dragged back to the Barbarian after he pulls his weapons back (weapons are automatically pulled back after each attack) - the next chained weapons attack from the same cast of Chains against these targets retains the damage and attack speed of the previous chained weapons attack; the 3rd attack now causes the weapons to crash into the ground and the Barbarian uses the chain to jump to that location - Chains is now a traversal skill; upon landing the Barbarian now casts Head Bash/Wall. Unique Item: Chains is now a channeled ability. The Barbarian grabs the chain and starts spinning his equipped weapon(s) around him. The Barbarian cannot move while channeling this ability. The range of the spin increases each second. Enemies hit by the weapon take 50% more damage, enemies hit by the chain take 50% less damage. When the player stops channeling the ability the Barbarian will crash the weapon into the ground at the location of the cursor and jump there. Can no longer cast additional abilities on landing. 1 second cooldown. Counts as a traversal skill.
Sharpen: Requires dual wielding. The Barbarian grinds his weapons against each other to sharpen them. Melee attacks after sharpening have added melee physical damage and physical penetration for 3 seconds. Can stack up to 3 times. Conversion nodes include: if the Barbarian has used an elemental skill before Sharpen, then Sharpen will also grand added melee damage and penetration for that element - only takes into account the last skill that was cast; Sharpen now creates sparks which deal fire damage (fire damage from this node can receive additional fire damage and fire penetration from Sharpen). Unique Item: Instead of sharpening his weapons, the Barbarian now bashes them against each other. The weapons pulse and deal massively increased damage for their next 4 attacks. After 4 attacks the weapons break and they are respawned after 3 seconds. The Barbarian is unarmed in the meantime and can only use abilities which are converted to have the Unarmed requirement.
Lightning Strike: The Barbarian lunges to a nearby enemy with great speed and deals lightning and physical damage. Conversion nodes include: Lightning Strike now also summons a Thunder to strike at the enemy; it now pierces through opponents and lands the Barbarian right behind the first enemy hit; Lightning Strike now brings you back to your starting location - counts as a traversal skill - increased movement speed during the cooldown; Lightning Strike deals 3 quick hits in a succession. Unique Item: Lightning Strike now strikes the ground in front of the Barbarian. It sends lightning tendrils to up to 3 enemies which chain to up to 9 enemies. Enemies are shocked for 3 seconds. Enemies shocked by this ability take more damage.
Ferocious Attack. A fast melee attack. Has a standard attack speed which does not scale with weapon attack speed. Conversion nodes include: Ferocious Attack is now a channeling skill and lunges to enemies; if an enemy has been damaged from the warrior with all the damage types native to the Warrior (fire, cold, lightning and physical) in the last 5 seconds, that enemy receives more damage from Ferocious Attack; Ferocious Attack now lodges the weapon at enemies on hit and removes it before performing it again, dealing damage a second time. Unique Item: Ferocious Attackâs hits are now always chained. Has a dual-wielding and a double-handed variant. When dual wielding, the Barbarian will attack one enemy with one weapon, lodge his weapon to them, jump to their location, throw the second weapon towards a nearby enemy, jump to the new enemy and deal damage again to the first enemy (or group of enemies) when he removes his weapon from them. With a double-handed weapon he will perform the same process with the following changes: attack, lodge, jump, dislodge, target a new enemy, repeat. In this mode the Barbarian will also cast Swing when he lands.
Mastery: Beast
The Warrior uses his animalistic strength to deal massive damage to his enemies. The mindless rage he goes into causes him to disregard his defences. A nice spin for this mastery would be to also give it passive debuffs instead of only passive bonuses (for example more health and damage, permanent penalty on armor and resistances, increased DoT taken). Certain skills require to NOT have a weapon equipped.
Skills:
Mastery Skill:
Weapon Throw: Throws his weapon towards enemies. The hit causes enemies to bleed. The hit scales with weapon stats. The weapon returns to the Beast after 4 seconds. During that interval the Beast is Unarmed. Conversion nodes include: the weapon now bounces at enemies before it returns - if it does not find an enemy within range to bounce to it remains on the ground; the weapon on the ground now pulses each second, damaging the enemies within range - scales with weapon damage; the weapon no longer bounces but deals explosion physical damage on impact. Unique item: Two two-handed weapons that can be dual-wielded together but not with other weapons, off-hand catalysts or shields. On using Weapon Throw, the weapons now continually travel around a range from the player, hitting enemies while traveling until they return. The weapon on the off-hand slot does not benefit other skills. One weapon grants increased duration of the Beast being unarmed, the other causes both the weaponsâ hits to deal more damage. The Beast can only benefit from the passive bonus of the weapon equipped in the main hand.
Hoof: Irrelevant of carrying a weapon. The Beast slams the ground with itâs hoof (leg), slows enemies hit and causes damage in an area around the player. Each hit has a high stun chance. Conversion nodes include: the skill is now channeled; increased area per second channeled; the Beast now moves during channeling at a slow pace - does NOT count as a traversal skill; Hoof now uses both legs with a small jumping motion but causes the Beast to take damage as well; it has a chance to summon a Wall or a Boulder with each hit - the Wall or Boulder auto-target the nearest enemy - double chance if the skill uses both legs; Hoof now draws enemies in. Unique Item: Hoof now leaves behind the Mark of the Beast. Mark of the Beast repeats the Hoofâs hit wherever it is placed. Can have up to 4 marks at once. Repeated Hoofs have a lower chance to summon Walls or Boulders.
Body Throw: Requires to be Unarmed. Requires a target. The Beast throws itself directly to enemies dealing AoE damage. Damage scales with Body Armor. A percentage of damage is returned to the player. Conversion nodes include: inflicts Bleed; shreds armor; can now channel to keep bouncing between available enemies; now also casts Head Bash on hit; now also throws a Boulder which travels at the same speed with the Beast at the same direction - does not work if boulder throw has been converted to a spell. Unique Item: The defensive aspects of your Body Armor are now applied as debuffs to enemies hit (for example, if the armor grants +100 life and +100 armor, hitting enemies with Body Throw will cause them to temporarily have -100 life and -100 armor). Effect is 10x for bosses. Can stack up to 10 times.
Primitive Roar: The Beast unleashes a roar. Enemies affected will deal less damage and receive ailments per second according to the playerâs chance to inflict on hit from all sources. Application of ailments chance granted by weapons persists even when the player is unarmed. Lasts for 4 seconds. Cannot stack. Conversion nodes include: Primitive Roar now also applies stacks of slow; the Beast deals more damage while the roar is active and it is unarmed. Unique Item: Primitive Roar no longer applies slow. Instead it will grant all enemies in the vicinity haste and cause them to charge towards the Beast. The enemies will only start attacking and casting their abilities when they are within melee range of the Beast.
Mastery: Dragon Knight
The Warrior employs dragon magic to boost his offence. Dragon magic is often unforgiving even for its user. Certain skills require a shield. Skills also benefit from Intelligence.
Skills:
Mastery Skill:
Scales of the Ancients: Grants the Dragon Knightâs skin scales of dragons. Temporarily boosts strength and intelligence. Grants increased spell damage. Conversion nodes include: scales now cause flat damage and % of damage to be reflected to enemies. Unique Item: Grants the Dragon Knight the Wings of the Dragon. When Scales of the Ancients is active, evade becomes a very fast moving skill with 3x the range (kind of what Palarus or Osprix Zealots do when they jump). Every spell is double-cast. If there is only one enemy close to the Dragon Knight, both spells are cast at the target location. The second cast costs 50% of mana and deals 50% of the damage.
Icefall: Requires a shield. An Ice Dragon causes hails of ice to drop around the Dragon Knight. The Dragon Knight holds his shield up to protect himself from the barrage. Icefall deals hit damage to surrounding enemies. Hits that are deflected by the shield cause the hails of ice to drop next to the player, dealing increased damage. Conversion nodes include: Icefall now follows the Dragon Knight; every hail of ice that falls on the ground after being deflected by the shield now causes an ice explosion (a sub-skill); hails of ice now all fall on the shield; hails of ice now are not being deflected by the shield and deal more damage - the Dragon Knight is also damaged; Icefall is now converted to Thunderfall. Unique Item: Hails of ice now all fall on the shield, they are absorbed and charge it with each hail. The Dragon Knight does not benefit from the shield while absorbing hails of ice. When Icefall expires, the Dragon Knight auto-casts Ice Break (a sub-skill similar to Shield Bash) to nearby enemies every second. Damage and number of Ice Breaks depends on the duration of Icefall. Half benefit from the second cast if the Scales of the Ancients Unique Item is also equipped. If Icefall has been converted to Thunderfall it now autocasts Electric Strikes. Electric Strikes deals damage at a larger area.
Burning Shield: A Fire Dragon immolates the Dragon Knightâs shield. Drains mana each second. Can be toggled on and off. Has a minimum duration of 4 seconds. Attacks against the Dragon Knight cause fire damage to be reflected back to the attacker. Instances of DoT will also reflect damage. Conversion nodes include: every time the Dragon Knight is hit the Burning Shield retaliates with a Fire Pulse; Burning Shield is always active, no longer retaliates damage and is now a castable skill - upon casting the Dragon Knight will bash his shield releasing a Fire Pulse; after receiving 10 hits the damage reflected increases and the Dragon Knight gets 1 stack of ignite for every hit he receives - amount reflected and stacks of ignite received increase every 10 hits - hits from rares count as 3x and hits from bosses count as 10x. Unique Item: Burning shield now stores all of the hits received. Hits still deal normal damage to the Dragon Knight after applying modifiers (shield included). Upon reaching 50 hits, Burning Shield releases 5 Fire Pulses. Each Fire Pulse deals its normal fire damage and applies 80 stacks of ignite to enemies. 5 seconds cooldown before Burning Shield is able to start storing hits again. The equipped shield does not benefit the player during that interval. The double-cast from the Scales of the Ancients unique has no effect on the number of Fire Pulses cast.
Combined Arms: Dragon Knight attaches his main hand weapon to his shield. Both weapons receive a 10% buff on their stats. Skills cast during United Arms cost 5% more mana. Does NOT count as unarmed. Cannot wield another main-hand weapon. The Dragon Knight attacks with elemental attacks from his shield. A fire attack which throws bouncing fireballs which bounce for 4 times in random patterns around the player; it targets enemies behind the Dragon Knight less often. An ice attack which spawns ice spikes from the ground, prioritising enemies far away from the player. A lightning attack which chains between enemies and summons a thunder to strike at the last enemy it hits. Conversion nodes include: eliminating one of the attacks in order to focus on the other two; enemies who receive an ice attack take more fire DoT and are more likely to be stunned by a lightning attack plus damage on stun - enemies who receive a fire attack make the next lightning attack to hit the last two enemies with a thunder (can hit the same enemy twice if there are few enemies) and are more likely to be frozen by an ice attack - enemies who receive a lightning attack attack spread all their ailments to 2 nearby enemies and receive double the amount of ailments from the next fire attack. Unique Item: A sword which is already attached with a shield. When dealing a critical attack from any skill, there is a chance that a Dragon will throw a Fireball, Lightning Strike or Hail of Ice on the Dragon Knightâs shield, according to which element dealt the critical strike. The Dragon Knight absorbs the attack and throws out a Combined Arms attack.
Thatâs all I have, thanks for reading through!
