More weapons with different playstyles for the classes.
You can even do multi-classing with balancing:
Mage(lvl 10) + warrior(10) = Battlemage (lose your charge ability, now you can spellcast) [hard to swing + spellcast, shorter sword to make casting more feasible & nerf swing range, reduced spell damage, reduced armor, disable sword damage while casting as one option…)
Ranger + Warrior = many many options. But you could also do throwing axes for example, holding your trigger and releasing it to throw it (and a new one appears in your hands either after s seconds or when the weapon lands/hits - perhaps even playing a vibration on the hand to alert them besides video/audio(if you play audio for it)) - as just a type of weapon - not necessarily forcing them to use these weapons in a ranger+warrior combo. Perhaps you carry poisons on your waist & can apply them to your sword for s seconds or N number hits as another option. I literally mean dozens of interesting opportunities here.
- other combinations. It’s not like you need to have a mixed class for every base class either, they can just be requirements. So if Mage+Musketeer is too weird/difficult, no need to make it happen.
Pistol Musketeers
Crossbow Archers (or give poor warriors a crossbow for pulling ranged)
2h Warriors(2h axes, hammers, swords) - reduced damage by 50% if wielding with 1h (hands hand must be near at all times - technically someone could wear both controllers on 1h but I don’t think it would be worth it.)
Healing Mages (reduced magic dmg, gain access to heal spells). Not everyone wants to be a musketeer healer.
Frost/fire/arcane specialization (plz re-do the sound of arcane blast[annoying] & both sound/visual of arcane ray[weak feeling])
2nd weapon slot for smaller weapons (lower back/small of your back?)
Buckler warrior shields - low damage absorption - can parry attacks for reduced dmg to shield - more damage
MetaMagic - holding down trigger with your off hand and submitting a spell with your wand-hand simultaneously will proc metamagic if the first spell was a successful cast, taking in an additional symbol (like rituals) to either modify or mix the spell for different attributes (arcane orb + decurse for aoe decurse) (fire+frost for a single frost-fire spell with some increased damage) (icelance + firelance = firelance) (mana shield + arcane blast for aoe mana shield) (fireball 2 + arcane blast for aoe fire) (I daresay frost+arcane blast because of the follow up ice lance lol) - fire ray applying burning and aoe(arcane ray) ice ray applying slow and aoe (iceray - again OP ice lance followup though) mana shield + frost (additional armor, slow upon getting hit), fire+manashield (fire shield, fire dmg upon getting hit and a chance of burning)…affliction and so forth might have too much utility, or is worthwhile of a 4th tier talent in the current setup. Just food for thought though.
- might need to nerf icelance for this to be reasonable. It’s already a god-tier spell, nothing else is worth casting for damage if you are going for max dps. (maybe affliction 2)
Shortbow rangers - less draw distance to reach maximum damage (less than a longbow), shorter maximum range.
Summoners / Ranger pets…
Dual wielding warriors with combo’s involving both weapons, perhaps even based on the type of weapon (sword + mace). Crushing blows that reduce the targets armor, even brief stuns, reduce targets physical damage. Could even add cooldowns & enough combo’s to form rotations rather than spamming out one single combo repeatedly.
Also instead of “Your Wound combo causes the target to bleed for 15% of the damage dealt over 2 seconds.”, why not add cooldowns to warrior combos (yea there’s a learning curve to timing it), and add more combos? Like instead of wound now does 15%, give them a bleed combo that does 100%, 125%, dmg(or something comparable to wound). Again, to form new rotations and break the monotony of a singular skill being spammed & increase the skill ceiling.
Some more combo ideas randomly(that all warriors don’t necessarily need to have access to):
1] Take 25% less dmg for 3 seconds
2] Bleed (as mentioned above)
3] Root Target for 3 seconds
4] Add 5% to shield (shield breaks dip into hp)
5] Nearby allies take 15% less damage for 10 seconds
6] Reduce cooldown on horn by 1 second
7] Gain 15% move speed for 4 seconds, or return x stamina
8] Deflect the next ranged attack/spell cast at you within 4 seconds, taking no damage return angle is based off the incoming angle), & it can hit enemy targets (yes this is situational)
9] Brief stun (mentioned above)
10] Armor crush (mentioned above)
11] Reduce the enemy’s physical damage for s seconds (mentioned above)
etc?
12] You do 15% more damage for s seconds.
Can make this stuff up for days.
- new npc “trainers” & tutorials for using these new abilities as you unlock them.
with some new combos, abilities, and so forth… lot’s of potential for variety & interesting design choices.
Edit: of course, more importantly is an end-game and content that will be challenging & worthwhile. Shard dungeons & raids & such.
