Brainstorming - Active Skills

[Technomancer]

Since I've been here, I, amongst others, have been mainly focused on trying to create complete character classes which is a LOT to do. I've wondered about just trying to think of individual skills. Not trees, just single cool skills with maybe a passive or two to augment their functionality. I wanted to start a thread where folks could just jot down ideas and get feedback/suggestions. I guess I'll start:

Static Arc: Active. Missile attack. Fires a missile that continuously arcs electricity to any foes that the missile travels within a certain distance of. The missile can only arc to one foe at a time. Rank increases damage. (Hydra Rune can cause it to arc to multiple foes at once.)
Arc Spread: Passive. Increases the range from the missile that Static Arc can arc to foes.
Static Spray: Passive. Causes a Static Arc missile that hits a target to trigger an electrical spray centered on target that lasts for x seconds, causing damage to any foes within Static Arc range (including increased range from Arc Spread).

[theeliminator]

That Static Arc sounds a lot like my Ball Lightning (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=733849).

Grease : Active, The caster creates a large patch of slick grease on target area. Enemies in the grease have thier movement slowed. If a fire spell hits the grease it sets it a blaze and all in the area suffer fire damage. If a cold spell hits the grease it freezes it, making it like rock, immobilizing all in the grease.

[kavlor]

I was going to start a thread like this because I have Ideas but no char to put them on.I wish I could remember them now.

One was an aura type skill that adds straight damage to everyones attack but Im sure I had more to this Idea anyway it would be a bit like an auto enchant except physical damage,it would only be a small boost but could be augmented by other damage enhancing skills.Oh a name for it 'Inspired strength'.

Not got a skill for this could be the above but I was trying to come up with a skill that actually does something for multihit spells like Charged bolt,it could be something that adds damage to each hit but is so low that single attacks would not benefit from it but multihits would(Frozen Orb,Charged strike are other skills) obviously Im thinking of it as a party skill.

[LaZeR]

@Techno- Be careful with Passives. It seems your Passives skills are pushing Skill Runes aside.

Anyway, the main problem with designing Active Skills is Skill Runes. You can't make a skill too simple, like Smite or something, because that's a no-brainer and no-fun(er). Yet you can't make a Skill too cool, because then, as Bashiok said, "and then when you put a Skill Rune in it....".

Anyway, some skills I would LOVE to see in D3:
Invisibility- Come on! Just think of PvP (:
Distraction- Kind of like the Wiz Mirror Image, but instead summons like 20 copies of yourself in a circle around a target that attack together the said enemy, but making no damage.
Protective Shell- Smaller Slow Time bubble that your enemies can penetrate. The cool thing would be that you can cast it on other players/monsters.
Rain of Arrows- Simply for the animation: You shoot an arrow to the sky, it vanishes in a flick of light and then hundernds of arrows fall down for the skies as an AeO spell.

I'll come to you later with some more (:

[theeliminator]

@Lazer- Invisibility goes against every belief that Diablo 3 is about. Jay Wilson said D3 is about nonstop action. Invisibility would promote players to skip mobs that they just didn't want to fight.

I had a idea for a skill much like the Rain of Arrows skill. I was going to make for my Myrmidons where they would throw a Javelin instead of an arrow. I decided not to add it for whatever reason.

Animate weapon - Active, The caster Animates a target weapon that’s on the floor or in his inventory. After animated the weapon floats in air seeking out targets to attack. The weapon has all the states and powers it had before it was animated. At the end of the spell the weapon is destroyed. (Look wise, think of the animated weapon traps in D2)

[Pyrohemia]

Although this shares a name with the D2 skill it is very different.

Fissure: Several large jagged spikes of rock violently thrust themselves out of the ground. Any monsters that are slain by the attack are impaled upon the spikes and others are sent flying from the momentum of the rock shards.


Psionic Force: When cast upon a single monster invisible telepathic force crushes and torments the enemy dealing damage over time. When the enemy dies their body is crushed completely and their blood and guts explode out of the top of their body with a loud pop.

Searing wind: Wind blown flames emanate from the lower torso of the caster. These flames are then blown by hurricane force winds into a circle of revolving fire that licks at the ground around and chars anything that it encounters.

Ice lance: A beam of solid ice rapidly grows from the hands of the caster and engulfs anything in its path. What is left is a bar of ice held in mid air by the frozen bodies of monsters that it has encountered. This acts as a barrier to enemies and leaves those it has encompassed completely helpless. If the beam does not meet any enemies to support it it falls to the ground after casting and cracks to pieces.

Hurl: The barbarian picks up a small enemy and throws it. This does tons of damage to the thrown enemy when it encounters anything solid at high speed, but also damages and potentially knocks back any enemies that encounter this air born monster as well.

Germinate: A viscous jungle flower slowly grows from the head of the afflicted victim. This flower sends roots out that pierce through the enemies limbs and organs and then rapidly digests the flesh of its host. Soon all that is left is a flower blooming at the top of a zombie shaped plant.

Thunder bolt: The user of this skills puts enough energy into their bow that when the arrow is released it surpasses the speed of sound. This gives off a large sonic boom that is often mistaken for thunder. The arrow instantly strikes and pierces any targets in its path before disappearing into the distance or embedding itself in a rock wall.

Inventing these was fun. I will likely be back with more :thumbup:

I really liked Rain of Arrows, LaZer, that would be a really fun skill to use and would look very cool.

[Kalara]

Hmm lazer, that sounds a whole lot like a post I made months ago in a thread "weapons for the 'archer' class" ;)


I would also like to see a Rain of Arrows similar to what you would see from many archers peppering a battlefield with coordinated flights of arrows falling from the skies, something like a more concentrated wizard blizzard but with arrows. This could also work against monsters behind the first wave of attackers. Maybe put a minimum distance on it so it can't be use point blank.

You have some interesting and original ideas Pyro.

[theeliminator]

Psionic Force: When cast upon a single monster invisible telepathic force crushes and torments the enemy dealing damage over time. When the enemy dies their body is crushed completely and their blood and guts explode out of the top of their body with a loud pop.


Hurl: The barbarian picks up a small enemy and throws it. This does tons of damage to the thrown enemy when it encounters anything solid at high speed, but also damages and potentially knocks back any enemies that encounter this air born monster as well.

I like the Psionic Force skill though it don't seem like a spell that would have a cool effect outside of when it kills someone. How about if the target is slightly levitated?
I like the Hurl skill as well and its sad that it probly wont be in D3.

Energy Boomerang - Active, Caster creates a Energy Boomerang that is rotates around the waste of the caster damaging enemies that attack him. If the skills is activated while another boomerang is still around then the boomerang flies at the target mob, hitting all in its path then returns to the caster. The Boomerang stays in game till it deals x amount of damage.

[Pyrohemia]

I like the Psionic Force skill though it don't seem like a spell that would have a cool effect outside of when it kills someone. How about if the target is slightly levitated?


That is actually what I was visualizing when I created the skill, but I didn't think to write it down.

[LaZeR]

@Lazer- Invisibility goes against every belief that Diablo 3 is about. Jay Wilson said D3 is about nonstop action. Invisibility would promote players to skip mobs that they just didn't want to fight.


Maybe, but you can say the same about Horrify, which is by far a more "peaceful" skill than a "nonstop action" one.

To me, it wasn't Stealthy skill. Rather a stratigic skill, where you can disappear and attack the Fallen Shaman, for example, before fightning the little Fallens. Or as a panic skill, like Frost Nova, where you're swamped with enemies.

This would easily be balance with very short time period and with being disable upon an attack.

[theeliminator]

Maybe, but you can say the same about Horrify, which is by far a more "peaceful" skill than a "nonstop action" one.

To me, it wasn't Stealthy skill. Rather a stratigic skill, where you can disappear and attack the Fallen Shaman, for example, before fightning the little Fallens. Or as a panic skill, like Frost Nova, where you're swamped with enemies.

This would easily be balance with very short time period and with being disable upon an attack.

Not true, you need to agro mobs for Horrify to be effective. With Invisibility you wouldn't have to agro anything to just sneak by and bypass a mob.

Yeah you could use it for strategic and panic encounters, but I see a large % of players using it to make boss runs.

[Technomancer]

@theeliminator: I completely missed that! Static Arc is also similar "Ball Lightning" ;) from my Phase Knight (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=731546) (Channeling tree, Tier III). I had actually kinda forgot I had even done that one! Static Spray does make it a bit more like yours than mine though.

@Lazer: Well, you can only add one skill rune to a skill, so this is like having multiple skill runes!! We know very little about what runes there will be, so it's hard to design around them. It's like the newer 7 Tier, all trees on one screen system. We know virtually nothing about it, so we just have to make do with what we've got.

@Pyrohemia: I like the Hurl skill too! It's pretty similar to another Phase Knight (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=731546) skill of mine called "Forceful Blow" with it's passive "Flying Foe" (Warfare tree, Tiers III and IV).

I'm noticing a theme here, it seems like a lot of ideas have been thought of at various distant points in time. I think that stuff is just gonna have to slide. Maybe just reply with "<insert skill here>: Me too - <link>". There's gonna be overlap. I think really it's just a sign that it IS a pretty good idea! ;)

[kavlor]

Glass canon:Points in this skill cost nothing although only 1 point can be put in it per level to a maximum level what it does is reduces your life ball permanently but the trade off is you gain extra damage that multiplies your damage by a %.This skill is for skilled players only as it will generally take more off your life than the damage you will gain but hey its a free skill.

[Technomancer]

At first I thought you meant when you use the skill it would permanently lower your health, that would be terrible, but you actually mean like a passive where 1 point could lower max health by 5% and increase all damage by 20%, right? That could be an interesting idea, but the way folks hoard life and vitality in D2, I don't think it would be really popular.

[kavlor]

At first I thought you meant when you use the skill it would permanently lower your health, that would be terrible, but you actually mean like a passive where 1 point could lower max health by 5% and increase all damage by 20%, right? That could be an interesting idea, but the way folks hoard life and vitality in D2, I don't think it would be really popular.

Yes thats right.I think some people might go for it as people like a challenge and thats all it is for to take the stakes higher I dont actually expect many people to go for it just like not many people would take a naked sorceress through normal although I expect a few more than would go for that.It might be a little overpowered on defensive builds or ranged builds but then the skill would be more like 5% life loss for 4% damage increase which multiplies the total and doesn't add % like other skills.

I guess it could be turned into a buff rather than a passive which would make it more desireable to more people(a lot more probably) but it would have less of the risk factor which people would get the high from.

[theeliminator]

Unstable energy - Caster fires off an orb of unstable energy that is absorbed by the target weakening them. Every hit lowers their stats and increases the chance the unstable energy will explode, dealing massive damage to the target.

[LaZeR]

Glass canon:Points in this skill cost nothing although only 1 point can be put in it per level to a maximum level what it does is reduces your life ball permanently but the trade off is you gain extra damage that multiplies your damage by a %.This skill is for skilled players only as it will generally take more off your life than the damage you will gain but hey its a free skill.


Amazing idea! (Althought hard to understand from the unclear description)
That's basically a trade-off for not being able to distribute your Stat Points yourself.
The only problem is- Which character will have it? 'Cause, I mean, they all deserve this kind of Skill...

[Technomancer]

I think that skill would work best as a castable buff actually. Being permanent would be a turn off, but usable when wanted would be pretty rad.

A variant of this might be a buff that would cause any spells cast to take more mana, but do more damage.

[kavlor]

A variant of this might be a buff that would cause any spells cast to take more mana, but do more damage.

Definately.I know some games the longer you hold on the mouse(or attack button) the stronger the spell when released but uses more mana so you have to be strategic if you use too much on weak enemies then you have no mana left for later enemies and of course the time/power ratio has to be worth it,it has to have a higher DPS the longer you hold on.

[Technomancer]

Phase Door: This is based on the D&D skill. Actually it's more like Dimension Door. You would cast the spell once and a TP style door would open up. Then, you cast it again somewhere else, within a Rank based range, and a second door opens up. The 2 doors are connected and allies can pass between them just like the portals in the Arcane Sanctuary in D2. I'm not sure if it should last until recast or just have a set duration. Can be cast on the other side of walls and out of sight.

I even thought of an interesting nerf! Make it to where the second portal could even be cast in solid rock or over water. Then, when someone travels through it, they take % based damage and pop out at the nearest open location. They wouldn't be able to use the portal to get back though. It could be used that way as a gamble to extend the skills range, or just screw with other players. Also makes it player skill intensive, not just fire and forget.

[Pyrohemia]

Ball Lightning: A lightning bolt comes down from the heavens and strikes where you chose. This bolt creates a ball lightning where it strikes and this ball flies around, randomly changing direction and bouncing off walls and enemies until a times goes up and it evaporates in a small flash. The original bolt does lots of damage, but the ball does little damage each hit. If the ball spawns in the middle of a mob, however, that ball will be trapped and bounce off each monster a dozen times or so dealing tons of damage overall.

Kindle: The target enemy spontaneously combusts. This spell is extremely dependent upon the type of enemy it is targeting. If the enemy is not flammable then the fire is almost immediately extinguished and they take minimal damage. If the enemy is very flammable, for example a tree, then they quickly take lethal damage and the heat of the fire damages other enemies nearby and can potentially spread if they are close enough. Enemies that are on fire will tend to run around erratically before they die as they don't know how to stop, drop, and roll; and this increases the chance to spread the fire to others. (It would be cool if dealing fire damage beyond a minimum threshold from magically enchanted weapons or other fire damage spells could also set enemies on fire like this.)

Haunting Echoes: The witch doctor emits a noise that is something between a howl and a scream that reverberates from hills or walls around. This is heard by monsters as the fell voices of the prime-evils themselves making enemies delusional with terror. Each monster forgets what it is doing and starts running in circles as the echoes of this sound make it seem like it is coming from all sides at once. This allows the witch doctor to subsequently pick off the incensed monsters at his will. This spell has a similar effect to skills such as howl from Diablo 2 but instead of making enemies run away and forcing you to run to catch them the enemies run in circles so that it is more convenient for the player.

Rain Dance: Another witch doctor spell - this time inspired by the TF2 Heavy's Sandvich. The which doctor does a rhythmic tribal dance and the skies open bringing healing rain that falls upon the which doctor and his party. The rain continues as long as the witch doctor dances and both health and mana are slowly restored. The which doctor can still move while dancing, although not as fast as a run, but cannot do any other attacks. This keeps this skill as a fast way to recharge while traveling between fights but keeps the skill from being used during combat as the witch doctor is completely vulnerable during his dance.

Dust to Dust: The witch doctor and his minions melt into dust on the wind. The dust is blown to the target area within line of sight and reconstituted from the dust piece by piece. This is basically a slightly slower teleport for use in strategic situations to get out of danger or rescue minions. It would be very cool if this spell was allowed to be chained such that you can turn back into dust and be blown

[wooties]

Tomb of Akhenaten : When skill is activated a tomb/shrine(a building like structure) will rise up from the ground. It will spawn a ancient defender(golem or desert warrior or even zombies to fit the WD) every 5 seconds up to maximum of 5 defenders to aid the witch doctor in battle, meanwhile the tomb can also attack by releasing fearsome souls of brave warriors of the past that lies in the tomb. The souls will fly around within a certain range randomly attacking surrounding enemies dealing moderate damage (sort of like WD's original locust swarm but instead it deals direct damage like 2-5dmg each time it goes pass a target). The witch doctor can also use sacrifice on those defenders that has been spawned which will cause the defender to self destruct and deal damage. The tomb will last for about 1 min or less before the tomb and the defenders(those that have not been sacrificed) crumble down in dust and vanquish in to air by the end of duration. Only one tomb can be available at a time and maybe a cooldown time can be added to this skill. This is just a brief idea.

I got this idea from a spell called pocket factory from the hero tinker in warcraft 3. That might be a custom spell i am not sure, but personally i think its really cool.
What do u guys think? :D

[Technomancer]

That Tomb skill idea is pretty cool, but the first thing I thought of with this is that it would make an awesome Shrine. When any character clicks on it, it produces a handful of minions that will fight for the character. You could even make it to where certain character would either get different minions or skills, like the WD's, could be used on/with them. It could also make a righteous item that could be used in battle, but you could only have one in your inventory at a time. That's just where all this went in my head.

[Runestar]

Use any item - possible bard skill.

Effect: Class limitations on items do not apply to the bard, effectively allowing her to use any item in the game. However, for such items, she can only use items with an item lv = character lv-20 (or whatever number suits your fancy). Additional points reduce the lv disparity. :crazyeyes:

[wooties]

Yea, maybe they can add in that u need to sacrifice 3 mongrels or certain % of your HP or both in order to use the tomb skill or some massive skills that requires sacrifices. It seems dark and spiritual for the WD to trade blood and lives for something in return, it can also make the players utilize the skill that can make u invulnerable for a few seconds after sacrificing your HP in critical times for the massive skill.