- *Preface* -
After writing some minor posts here and there I realised there is alot more to be said about priests. Alot more in depth things that could be brought up and discussed So I have desided to make a mega post about the subject and hope it becomes usefull for the game devs. I have changed this essay so many time to try to focus on the subjekt at hand and I hope this can be helpfull.
- Warning to the devs -
To start this post off I want to issue a strong warning to the devs. Ive mentioned this before and I will say it agian. Whatever you do, dont give priests several healing speccs. All speccs will ofcourse have basic heals but making several healing speccs will become hard to balance and make life harder both for the devs and the player base. Trying to make both healing specc viable and boosted will create a massive pendulum effect that will get out of hand sooner or later. Forcing priests to have to change between them, not because they want to play the other specc but because the pendulum will make it so the community expects that priests change with the pendulum swing.
Its better to have a single healing specc with choises built in than have several that will create balance issues down the line. Within a single healing specc there would be ways to build it towards big powerfull heals, protection, aoe healing or healing over time and clensing magic.
- The making of an holy order -
In any and all game universes priests have ties to some type of holy entety or religion. It can be some strange holy power, gods or Idol of some sort.
To create the foundation of priestly order you have to create a core, from where are the priests getting thier holy powers?
This is where the idea "Order of the Pheonix" was born. The Pheonix is a symbol or warmth, healing and protection. It carries clensing fires, rejuvinating tears aswell as raging fire and sharp tallons.
This symbol of power as a religious foundation would give priests in SoH a very unique background while also giving a physical entity they pray to and would give new symbols that is not a basic boring cross.
They revere these powerfull creatures, learn from them and protect them as they protect thier followers. This would also bring very fun lore and quest where priests have to travel to diffrent temples and learn from several ancient phonixes.
- Armor & Weapons -
I dont like to say "cloth" or some other thing that locks you into graphical boxes. The term "light armor" makes more sence to use and should be what clerics of an religious order wears. Paladins who I would guess also have thier place in the religious order are the heavy fighters who turned to religion and use their bodies and weapons as a way to protect those around them. This dosent mean that all they should use are robes. There should ofcourse be diffrent types of armor depending on what a priest does.
With this it is only natural to think that they would use very basic holy weapons like Scepters, Staffs and Hammers. One exeption would be if priests had a melee type specc. More on this later.
- Specialisations & Skills -
I dont think every class should always have the 3 specc limitation that wow has created in the world of mmos. A class could have 2 or 3, hell even 4 or 5 speccs as long as they seem to make sence and bring fun and interesting gameplay!
For priests I only think its natural that they should at the very least have 2. But I can easely think of 3 at the top of my head. But maybe there could be room for a fourth or a fifth? Who knows?
The problem with discussing Specialisation and Skill is that they very much walk hand in hand, each specc will give diffrent skills and empower some of the basic skills every class. So to make a "Basic Skillset" and "Advanced Skillset" you first need to discuss specialisations. So to make this readeble I have seperated it into 3 specialisations. Basic skills at start would be a small set of heals, dps etc that gives players a good feel for the class.
1. Cleric
Clerics invoke the kindness and protection of the pheonix to heal, protect and clense thier comrades.
The cleric would have emporwered basic heals and gain specifik heals while building the character. I think as a base all priests should at the very least have 2-3 basic heals. As we specc our priests as Clerics, we would gain powerfull heals and some of our basic heals will be empowered or even replaced by better heals.
Giving Clerics the exclusive specced ability to resurect other players would also be a very good way to set them apart from other priest specialisations. They should also have clensing spells like "Tears of the Pheonix" to remove debuffs from the targeted ally and giving them a heal over time.
2. Inquisitor
Inquisitor's invoke the flames of the phonix to root out and punish evil. They call down sacred flames to burn and clense the wicked.
This is the basic spell damage side of a priest. They will smite the enemies and call down Righteous Flames from the heavens. Other than a basic attack and flames from above another spell idea I have is to make a flame resembling a pheonix that flies towards the target, explodes and cause aoe dmg and fire damage over time. I have no idea what to call the spell. "Summon Pheonix"?
The "clense the wicked" part is the idea that they would have a spell that remove buff from enemies by "clensing" them. Making it a very usefull dps to have by your side.
3. Monk
Monks of the order internalize the sacred flames of the pheonix to empower thier bodies. Bringing devestating hits and charred wounds on the enemy.
This one is the one that stands out. It would use staff or unarmed(Fist wepons?) to fight. Breaking the normal "Staff/Scepter/Hammer" mold. As it says you internalize the flames of the phonix.
The Monk will have a buff at all time that is consumed using sertain burst damage modifiers to your character.
Just as an example:
All monks have a buff called "Inner flame of the Phonix". This buff greatly imrove the defence of the monk. Lets say it gives 30-50% more armor and greatly improves HP.
Meaning he can be in melee range even with light armor. He would have powerfull staff or fist strikes like "Pheonix Strike" who deal fire damage. But as an intresting mechanic, monks would have burst skills that consumes the "Inner Flame" for a time, like 20 seconds or so.
One idea could be:
"Cry of the Phonix"
Releases(consumes) your Inner Flames releasing power from within.
Deal x Dmg to all enemis within(short range). For 20 seconds all attacks deal 50% bonus damage as fire. Melee attackrs suffer x Fire damage.
60 second cooldown.
Not sure if more burst releases would be neccesary at this point but I hope my idea is clear.
This is some ideas Ive had in my head for a while and I have desided this is a good time to tell others about my ideas. I hope this gives some ideas to the devs and I look forward to see this game grow into something amazing!
EDIT: This also works with a god or pantheon of gods if that fits better into the lore of the game.
Edit 2: Was reading up on the game lore and it mentioned old gods. All of this could work with that very well without the pheonix stamp. Inner flame of the pheonix could be renamed Inner Peace or something. But I hope my points still comes across. Thanks for reading =)
Last edited: 2022-04-08 14:04:45