Wayfarers!

Oleis

Aetolia --

I am incredibly proud to announce the release of our game's first completely new class in more than a decade: Wayfarers. Brainstormed by Valdus and Razmael, this neutral-tether class embodies the archetype of brutal warrior. With axe in hand and an eye to the shifting tides of battle, Wayfarers will soon cross over from Albedos to inhabit every city-state on Sapience.

Hemold has agreed to share the skills of the Wayfarer with interested parties. Seek him out in Helba to LEARN WAYFARER FROM HEMOLD for the usual 40cr apprenticeship fee. All apprenticeship requirements are in place, including having a free class slot and having mastered your existing classes. Wayfarer will not be available through the character creation process until our experienced players have had a chance to familiarize themselves with the class.

As you explore this new class, you may discover occasional bumps or rough edges. We'll be making proactive changes over the new couple weeks to remedy combat balance issues and correct errors that present themselves in a live game. Be sure to make appropriate use of the BUG command (HELP BUGS) and keep in mind that if the first word of your bug is the name of a skill (Tenacity, Fury, etc.), it will automatically categorize itself for our perusal.

Get learning! Don't forget our Iron Coin bonus on any credit purchases (www.aetolia.com/Credits), and be sure to message me with any pressing questions.

Fyrren

Is this class eventually going to be attached to its own guild in the future or simply be a totally 100% neutral thing?

Oleis

Fyrren said:

Is this class eventually going to be attached to its own guild in the future or simply be a totally 100% neutral thing?

I have no plans for a Wayfarer guild.

Mihaketi

Just a nitpick, but weren't the Shamans an entirely new class?

Irruel

Also shapeshifters... please don't tell me they were more than ten years ago. I can't be that old.

Oleis

Mihaketi said:

Just a nitpick, but weren't the Shamans an entirely new class?

Technically, revamped Druids. So while they were new skills and a refocused theme, they were replacing a class that was going away.

Kelliara

I can't gush about Wayfarers enough.

Since the dissolution of the Atabahi, and Lycanthropes as a class, I've struggled to find a class for Kelli when she's not in her wolf-form that fits with her RP.

And, 'lo, like a gift from above Wayfarers are delivered unto me.

Edit: Rudely, I forgot the most important part of my comment.

Which is to say THANK YOU to all involved. I'm looking forward to exploring the possibilities inherent in this class.

Seir

Something, something, crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Something else about women folk.

That is basically the vibe I get from this class. Reminds me of Barbarian from D2 as well. Needs more spin to win.

Lin

This class is so badass that my chest sprouted a full beard. After testing my bashing attacks on a single lowly Spellshaper, I was confronted with the leaders and dignitaries of every NPC village in the game, pleading to be spared my wrath if they could ply me with wine, women, and song.



This class is what's good in life.

Leana

I have the book that picture is from.

Irruel

I've managed to do only a tiny bit of testing etc. It's been a rubbish week at work. Overtime, ew. Still, some initial thoughts.

There's a lot to take in. Functionally tenacity seems to be a short game of venom affs, with a simultaneous long game of limb damage, rather than it being mutually exclusive like some other classes.

The class has the least amount of defs of any class, at least until the mastery defs are considered, but I haven't made one of those work yet.

Fury is still a mystery to me. No testing there yet.

Axius

battlechanting:

as someone who's stood in a room next to someone else who happened to have it active.

Can we PLEASE reduce the 3rd person message frequency somehow, make it only tic off if it's giving an affliction or something? Or remove the 3rd person message entirely? That way it's like Symphony: Nobody else can see how spammy Symphony really -is- to the user, and whoever might be hit by whatever it actually -does-?

Razmael

Axius said:

battlechanting:

as someone who's stood in a room next to someone else who happened to have it active.

Can we PLEASE reduce the 3rd person message frequency somehow, make it only tic off if it's giving an affliction or something? Or remove the 3rd person message entirely? That way it's like Symphony: Nobody else can see how spammy Symphony really -is- to the user, and whoever might be hit by whatever it actually -does-?

Well, I'm partial to keeping the Battlechant periodic message because it lets people know in a group fight who is dishing out the support buff, so they can coordinate and focus them down if desired. If anything, you should be yelling at people leaving Battlechant on all the time when they're idling.

Valingar

Have you considered artifacts to either reset or shorten the mastery cooldown? An IG year, which the AB file says is the cooldown to change your Wayfarer mastery, is 48 real-life days. That's a very long commitment once we do pick one, especially this early on when we're still testing these things and the skills themselves will probably be tweaked a lot and have already been tweaked a lot.

Kelliara

Oh, wow. I swore I read a season. But that might have been wishful thinking.

Razmael

No, it's definitely only a season long cooldown. I probably got confused by the time changes when I wrote the ab file.

Valingar

Having tested out Wayfarer some bit, I'm increasingly convinced Battlechants don't need to be heard, or at least heard so often. The spam is quite obnoxious once you have 2 or 3 in your group and necessiates gagging. There's also no real benefit to the enemy from knowing that someone is Battlechanting: you can already assume they do if they're Wayfarers, no reason not to.

Dato

Fury consume also needs some looking at, it has diminishing returns for gaining fury which go down to zero. But at the same time the health cost is consistent and it costs 3 seconds of fury Balance. You are already risking dying to damage by using the skill, so I think it could do without the diminishing returns. Or at least cap the diminishing returns so they doesn't get to no fury gained from doing it.

Valingar

If it works like other dimnishing returns, you might just need to wait 15 seconds without using consume to reset it, with each use within that 15 second period reducing the gains by a further 33% and restarting the 15s counter.

Dato

Also Shaman reclamation bypasses Repel. Is that intentional or oversight?

Eliadon

Dato said:

Also Shaman reclamation bypasses Repel. Is that intentional or oversight?

Depends. Was it unstoppable reclamation (i.e. 4 mentals, and you got the line that basically reads THIS SEEMS ESPECIALLY DEADLY OH GOD)?

Dato

No, it wasnt the unsoppable reclamation. I had no afflictions, was testing with Kheoss

Eliadon

Might be a thematic difference between instakills, because it's less Kheoss doing it and more the plants trying to eat you. Probably worth BUG-ing, though!

Ayegor

The initial announcement said that eventually, new characters could become this class during creation. Is there a timeline for the implementation of that? I'd be interested in creating a new character with this class.

Seth

Probably after the novice system is moved from guilds to cities.

Axius

I'm not so sure it will be. It could be a lot like lycanthropy as a class. I don't recall -that- being an option at the intro either. Plus, it'd be a bit of a bite on the arse if one could create a novice and avoid a 40 credit cost.

Oleis

Axius said:

I'm not so sure it will be. It could be a lot like lycanthropy as a class. I don't recall -that- being an option at the intro either. Plus, it'd be a bit of a bite on the arse if one could create a novice and avoid a 40 credit cost.

To be fair, that's exactly how other classes work in multi class. 

Seth said:

Probably after the novice system is moved from guilds to cities.

This. 

Axius

Oleis said:

Axius said:

I'm not so sure it will be. It could be a lot like lycanthropy as a class. I don't recall -that- being an option at the intro either. Plus, it'd be a bit of a bite on the arse if one could create a novice and avoid a 40 credit cost.

To be fair, that's exactly how other classes work in multi class. 

Seth said:

Probably after the novice system is moved from guilds to cities.

This. 

As @Oleis has spoken, so shall it be.

And while that is the case, Oleis, I also indicate that there are also ways to earn those classes without incurring a 40 credit cost to them either. They are all tied to guilds. Wayfarer demands a 40 credit cost no matter what, consequently. Which is sort of the thread my mind followed into my conclusion, heh.