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[Hero Class, Outline] Cardinal - Now With Lore!
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Post by
donnymurph
At the helm of every great religion, men of untold fortune and power reside, far beyond the scope of the public eye. For over 7000 years, the Cardinals of the Holy Light have maintained an invisible political stranglehold over the kingdoms of Lordaeron and Quel'Thalas, pulling the strings of their respective figurehead leaders. Inherently corrupt, and having no real interest in their own religion other than for political and financial gain, these men nonetheless wield the power of the Holy Light with great aptitude. However, due to their shady nature, their talents are kept well hidden, often by the use of stealth, illusion, and other shadowy practices.
In recent times, The Lich King and the Scourge have threatened all life on Azeroth. However, this was not the only concern of the Cardinals of the Holy Light. Thanks to Kel'Thuzad's Cult of the Damned and The Lich King's relentless necromantic excursions, there had been a significant drop in the worship of the Holy Light. Having their vicegrip on civilization threatened, the Cardinals swept into action, forming their own assault force against the Lich King.
Wishing to keep their actions veiled, even from other members of the clergy, for now, The High Elven Cardinals relocated from the Sunfury Spire and took the Blackrock Depths deep inside Blackrock Mountain for their own purposes (1). Quickly joining them were their fellow human and draenei Cardinals. In this rarified air, the petty factionism of the Horde and Alliance is meaningless (2). However, outside their stronghold, these Cardinals still maintained a facade of hostile relations between each other.
Before the move, a high elven emissary was sent to the Dark Lady to inform her of the new developments, bearing in mind that most of Sylvanas' people were worshippers of the Holy Light prior to their undeath.. Smelling an opportunity to gain some political clout with both the Horde and Alliance, Sylvanas immediately dispatched some of her most powerful masters of stealth combat and shadow magic. These rogues and warlocks trained the Cardinals in the ways of battle, and in return the Cardinals taught them how to master the Holy Light (3). High Priestess Tannaria, a powerful blood elven priest, trained the Cardinals and their undead friends in how to transpose this knowledge of the Holy Light into effective combat healing (4).
With the Lady of Theramore, the Dark Lady, the Ashen Verdict, as well as many other brave raiders and champions of Azeroth finally preparing an assault on the Icecrown Citadel, the time has come for these brand new combat machines to grant themselves to the world. Once again dividing off into their respective factions, their mere presence would greatly boost the morale of their fighters, while their command over the Holy Light, and their shadowy magic ways, now greatly honed thanks to Sylvanas' intervention, would greatly aid their allies in battle.
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(1) Blackrock Mountain will be the Cardinal starting area for both factions. The reason I chose this area is because it is isolated (so fits in with the ideology of such shady characters), and it is in a level 40 area. This is important because this is when the imagined leveling block for a priest disappears and they become one of the fastest leveling classes. Cardinal trainers will appear in Blackrock Mountain, Dalaran, and on the Isle of Conquest.
(2) Like Dalaran, Blackrock Mountain will be a sanctuary, with all players, Horde or Alliance, appearing with a yellow health bar. The sanctuary will extend into the Searing Gorge (starting quests) but not Burning Steppes.
(3) Playable races: Human, draenei, blood elf, undead.
(4) Tannaria is the name of my priest :p
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The cardinal can wear cloth armor only, and can wield maces, daggers, staves and, with training, fist weapons. Instead of a wand, they carry a relic.
The power system is called "faith" (yes I ripped that straight from Age of Empires).
Faith is uncapped, and like mana, the bar starts at full and is consumed as spells are cast. It operates on a much smaller scale than mana, with basic regeneration of 1FP5*character level (ie 80 FP5 @ LVL80) , and further regeneration depending on spec.
Total faith is increased by stacking intellect, in a similar way but at a lower scale to mana. Stacking spirit does not affect faith regeneration, but reduces the faith cost of all abilities, by a factor of 1% for every 100 spirit points. Arcane torrent can be used to restore faith.
The three talent trees are:
Prophesy
- in line with a discipline priest, prophesy is focused on buffing, shielding and damage mitigation, but it also contains crowd control abilities as you might see on an affliction warlock
Faith is restored by 2FP5 for every point in the Prophesy tree - ie 55 points = 110FP5
Exorcism
- straight healing spec, holy priest style.
Faith is restored by 10% of healing done - ie a 1000 heal will restore 100 faith.
Corruption
- a little bit shadow priest, a little bit subtlety rogue, this is a DPS spec, although it does not contain the healing ability that a shadow priest can access through vampiric embrace.
Faith is restored by 10% of damage done
The talent-specific faith regen abilities must be specced into.
Talents and abilities:
Prophesy
Power Word: Faith (Spell)
Increases the attack power or spell power of the target (whichever is higher) by 140 for 30 minutes
Fury of the Destroyers (Talent)
If your Vision of Destruction spell is dispelled, there is a 25/50% chance that all party members will become immune to damage from the target for 3 seconds.
Meditation (Talent)
Exactly the same as for a priest or mage, allows 17/33/50% of your faith regeneration to continue while casting. This is most useful for Prophesy Cardinals with some usability for Exorcism and Corruption Cardinals
Vision of Glory (Spell)
The Cardinal enters the mind of the friendly target, sharing with them a vision of glory. This vision increases damage dealt by the target by 15% for 20 seconds, but also increases their damage taken by 10%.
2 minute cooldown.
Exorcism
Hallowed Ground (Stance)
The cardinal stands inside a ring of candles, 15 yard radius. Whilst standing in the hallowed ground, all damage taken is reduced by 20% and healing is increased by 20%. If the cardinal strays outside the hallowed ground without cancelling it, they will automatically have 100% threat with all currently engaged enemies.
Antidote (Spell)
Dispels poisons
Counter curse (Spell)
Dispels curses
Power of the Clergy (Spell)
When activated, will prevent the friendly target from falling below 10% health for 10 seconds. For the following 10 seconds, the target will receive 5% extra healing from all party members.
3 minute cooldown
Repentance (Spell, 51-point Talent)
Reverses the effect of the last harmful ability on a friendly target, and inflicts it on the caster instead. The target also becomes immune to damage for 4 seconds. This effect applies to any DoT effect, as well as curses and poisons.
3 minute cooldown
Corruption
Smokescreen (Stance)
Reduces all threat generated by 70%, and 100% of your intellect is converted to attack power.
You may now use the abilities backstab, hemorrhage, gouge and blindfold in combat, but you may no longer cast holy or prophesy spells.
Blindfold (Melee Attack)
The cardinal throws an empty sack over the target's head, reducing the target's hit rating by 25% for 8 seconds. There is a 10% chance that the target will attack his own allies in this time..
2 minute cooldown.
Vision of Destruction (Spell)
The Cardinal enters the mind of the target, sharing with them a vision of destruction, making the target unable to move or use spells or abilities for 8 seconds. This may be used on bosses and elite mobs, up to 3 levels higher than the caster.
3 minute cooldown
Polytheism (Spell, 51-point Talent)
Causes the target to convert and fight on the cardinal's side as a pet for 30 seconds, dealing 10% increased damage. While the target is converted, they may be healed by any party member. Does not work on elite mobs, bosses, or any target 3 or more levels higher than the caster. This effect may be dispelled. This effect causes a high amount of threat.
5 minute cooldown
Glyph of Polytheism
If your Polytheism spell is dispelled, the target will immediately take damage equal to 30% of its total health.
Post by
Orranis
No. It's a priest with energy? If we're going to have something like this, please, at least make it a different class lore wise, than add actual lore on why we can be them. I know your not done, but I already hate it.
Post by
taurenmoo812
The problem with people trying to think up 'new' class ideas is they usually just recog already existing classes, merge powers with another class, and give it a fancy name.
To have a new class, someone would need to think up a very orignal idea.
Post by
ArgentSun
On the other hand, the problem with people "grading" new class ideas is that they usually find similarities between a few existing classes and the new one, and dismiss it. Death Knights are not rogues/warlocks (poisons/DoTs == diseases) in plate, nor are they anti-paladins. Or warriors with magic bleeds.
I am not saying anything about this class, but I thought I should point out something I've seen a lot lately. Don't automatically try to fit new suggestions in old boxes, but try to critique them regardless of how (dis)similar they are.
Post by
Skreeran
Total faith is increased by stacking intellect, in a similar way but at a lower scale to mana.I would think more intellect would decrease faith.... :P *badum pish*
Okay, I'm done...
Interesting class idea. I'm not sure how well Spellpower and Melee would work together though for the Corruption tree.
Post by
donnymurph
Interesting class idea. I'm not sure how well Spellpower and Melee would work together though for the Corruption tree.
Stance: Smokescreen
100% of your intellect is converted to attack power.
Now if the cardinal didn't use smokescreen, he would have higher intellect for pure casting DPS, but with smokescreen on, he becomes more of a casting/melee hybrid DPS class like a Ret Paladin.
Post by
440334
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
donnymurph
There should be melee abilities only usable while Stance: Smokescreen is active, (kinda like Demo spec warlocks and their demon form spells) that cost Faith. I know your not done, but still, auto attack dps alone = fail, without abilities they're better off pure casting.
Stance: Smokescreen
Reduces all threat generated by 70%, and 100% of your intellect is converted to attack power.
You may now use the abilities backstab, hemorrhage, gouge and blindfold in combat, but you may no longer cast holy or prophesy spells.
This stance is designed to be semi-casting, semi-melee.
Also, I came up with this as a stance for Exorcism -
Stance: Hallowed Ground
The cardinal stands inside a ring of candles, 15 yard radius. Whilst standing in the hallowed ground, all damage taken is reduced by 20% and healing is increased by 20%. If the cardinal leaves the hallowed ground, they will automatically have 100% threat with all currently engaged enemies.
Still working on a stance for Prophesy.
I also have some lore ideas but I'm only on a 15-minute break so I'll be posting them tonight.
Post by
HiVolt
Melee attack: Blindfold
The cardinal throws an empty sack over the target's head, reducing the target's hit rating by 25% for 8 seconds.
There is a 10% chance that the target will attack his own allies in this time..
I love this mechanic, I wish there was more of this in WoW.
Post by
donnymurph
Just re-arranged all my posts, put all info into OP.
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