The Clan Lord Sentinel

New Abilities!

Now that bloodmages are finished and the Ash expansion is out the door, people have been asking me what else the GMs and I have been up to. So far I have skillfully avoided these questions with subtle deflection and outright misdirection. But you need wonder no more.

Over the next few days I'm going to unveil the newest set of abilities that we've been hard at work on. At first we were going to focus on healers and mystics, but then we realized that none of us actually played any of those classes. So instead, I'll be revealing the newest Fighter sub-subclasses. Sub-subclasses will be a bit different from fighter sub-classes. All their effects take place as soon as you join; no rank investment is required. The reason for this is all of these abilities are so overpoweringly cool that if we let you train them, you'd never train anything else. And we wouldn't want to encourage that.

If all goes as planned we'll try to release the sub-subclasses the first Wednesday of April. We plan to run a test in the fairgrounds which will be open to everyone (even healers and mystics, so they know all the fun they're missing out on) this weekend in order to iron out most of the bugs. We strongly encourage you to keep any exploitative bugs that give you unfair advantages a secret. We aren't interested in those. We also aren't interested in constructive feedback or words of encouragement. We're mostly interested in bugs about how the GMs have screwed you, or how we're incompetent, and how your two year child could have designed better sub-subclasses (which is why we need to release the development tools).

The Pyromancer

The Pyromancer is the first Bloodmage sub-subclass. A pyromancer has a persistent speed penalty, but in exchange is given the ability to shoot a cone of flames in the direction he is facing. The closer the enemy is, and the more on target the burst of flames, the more damage will be done. At a range it can be used to deal damage to multiple enemies at once. Furthermore, when things get too close and crowded; you can activate your bloodshroud to surround yourself with fire shield which deals tremendous damage to all nearby foes.

Some might question a speed downside which makes bloodblading nearly impossible as well as the distinct lack of blood, and argue that this might make a better Champion sub-subclass. But keep in mind, you use your bloodblade to activate the flame burst, and your bloodshroud to activate the flame shield. And both of those items have the word blood in them. Also, they're bloodMAGES, and mages do stuff like that all the time. So I think we have our bases covered.

The Darshak Spy

The Darshak Spy is the first Ranger sub-subclass. A ranger can become a darshak spy when they have gained enough esteem with either the darshak or the rebels on Ash Island. My team spent a lot of time on that island, so we're doing pretty much everything we can to force you to go there. With that in mind, the Darshak Spy will be extra powerful. Our hope is it makes all other sub-subclasses obsolete, forcing our island on everyone. A darshak spy can turn invisible, while invisible nothing can see them, not even other exiles. The only downside is this ability takes a significant amount of spirit to maintain. However, darshak spies are also ignored by creatures of the same family while they're morphed: giving them a slightly cheaper way to move unnoticed.

Once they've snuck behind the enemy, they can use their gossamer to instantly one hit any creature they have studied... as long as they swing from behind. Again, some might argue this would be a better Champion sub-subclass. But do champions ever use their fellblade, anyway? And besides, you should really be quiet until you see what you have coming. They're all really cool abilities, but not as cool as Rangers. Of course.

The Sylvan Scout

The Sylvan Scout is the second Ranger sub-subclass. I bet you Champions thought you were next, didn't you? To be honest, we forgot you had a subclass. We're making three new sub-subclasses just for you. I'll be sure to announce them as soon as we finish them up.

The Sylvan Scout moves very fast, and all darkus ranks are doubled in effectiveness. However, all histia ranks are halved. The scout can throw a projectile that will significantly slow anything it hits. Furthermore, the Sylvan Scout's collision mask is reduced in size, allowing him to slip into areas others can't, and making him harder to hit. All of these areas will be placed on Ash, because why would you need to go anywhere else? Despite the name, any race can become this class, but non-sylvans must kill 2000 sylvans and acquire a sylvan morph before they can join.

The Mystic

The Mystic is the second Bloodmage sub-subclass. Throughout the years the GMs have had a lot of really cool ideas for mystics, but they always get shotdown as "not mysticy" enough. So instead, we decided to give these abilities to fighters, but call the fighters "mystics". Just make sure that whenever you're talking to Joe you call them the "second bloodmage sub-subclass"; otherwise we might get in trouble.

Mystics have the ability to shoot fireballs at any point in sight. When a fireball lands it deals damage to a large radius around that point. With enough spirit, multiple fireballs can be sprayed over the battlefield, or concentrated on a single target. Mystics can also slow down all enemies around them; useful for bloodblading or covering a retreat.

The Fengineer

The Fengineer is the first Champion sub-subclass. Unlike the Sylvan Scout, you must be a fen to join this class. Because fen are known for their selfless and caring nature, the Fengineer looks after her group. She can place a stationary healing fountain which heals the spirit and health of everyone nearby. However, it is susceptible to attack from creatures, and it doesn't heal the Fengineer. She can also place a rune which explodes when a foe crosses it, dealing damage to all enemies within range. Furthermore, she can construct a wall which will block enemies until they can batter it down; giving the group time to recover.

Because we made champions wait so long, the next two sub-subclasses we reveal will be Champion sub-subclasses. We're sorry, and we hope you forgive us. Please don't leave us for World of Warcraft. We know he is Class President and the Captain of the Football Team, but we were once Treasurer of the Chess Club. Without us there would be no snacks. And you can't very well play chess without snacks, can you?

The Paladin

The Paladin is the second Champion sub-subclass. An informal poll of fighters, performed yesterday when we realized we actually had to make something for champions, showed that the largest complaint fighters had was that they had to bring a healer along with them on all their hunts. Sometimes the healers would even insist on being shared, reducing total fighter experience gain. Paladins have the ability to heal their group for no earthpower or health cost. Not only do they heal faster than most healers, but their target also receives 10% damage reduction. A paladin gains earth power from healing, especially if they're reducing damage. While paladins can't heal themselves, paladins also get a 20x multiplier to any troilus they train. Furthermore, for a large earthpower cost, the Paladin can almost instantly heal all damage dealt to both themselves and the person they are healing, for a short duration.

The Pusher Gorvbot

The Pusher Gorvbot is the final Champion sub-subclass. In an effort to keep Gorvin from analyzing all the sub-subclasses to discover which one is best: we will automatically place him and all his characters in this sub-subclass. The Pusher Gorvbot has all his normal statistics multiplied by 14.391842%. Also, every swing he takes at an enemy results in the enemy being shoved backwards. Each Pusher Gorvbot is run by a dedicated 3 terahertz server capable of choosing the optimal shove-paths to ensure victory. However, Pusher Gorvbots will be limited to one speech bubble per hour in order to conserve bandwidth. (Those servers didn't come cheap.)

The Yorbot

The Yorbot is the final Ranger sub-subclass, and the Gorvbots' arch enemy. The Yorbot uses his machine-goss to rapidly swing at enemies as if he has received a deathblow. This allows a yorbot to use all his balance to very quickly destroy an enemy. To facilitate this, all balthus ranks for a yorbot are multiplied by three, but all darkus ranks are halved.

Yorbots and Gorvbots used to live in peace... until the Great Conflict. The Gorvbots accused the Yorbots of being overpowered. The Yorbot leader, a thoughtful and peaceful Yorbot, attempted to calm the Gorvbot leader with a friendly headbutt. The Yorbot leader was impaled on the horns of the Gorvbot leader's helmet, and the great mass of the fallen Yorbot leader crushed the Gorvbot leader. Although the Gorvbot leader was quickly rebuilt, his lasers never again functioned, and all Gorvbots have since vowed to use their hydraulic powered laser arms to shove all Yorbots down the stairs of extinction.

The Roleplayer

The Roleplayer is the final bloodmage sub-subclass. The Roleplayer's speed is reduced, because would your character run everywhere? Of course not! All the Roleplayer's statistics are halved, and she has no combat abilities. However, roleplayers have the ability to imagine that they have any abilities that they please. They could fly, shoot fire, or raise the dead, just for starters. As long as they don't expect to be able to go over walls, damage anything, or re-animate their dead friend*.

(* They can, however, push a body around and pretend it is alive.)