WARNING - This thread isn’t made for new players or those that seek guidance on how to use said class, please look for proper threads regarding it such as class overviews and build guides. Design Breakdown is a design discussion thread only and has no purpose to help players on practical aspects of the game.
Starting another Design Breakdown with the real hidden class poll winner, the class with the most exquisite skill kit in the game and that references norse culture - Rune Caster. In case this is your first time on a Design Breakdown topic go to this link for some basic information.
Rune Caster - RANK 6 - ATTACK
“Rune Casters are wizards who use ancient symbols imbued with magic. Although it takes some time to draw energy from the symbols, they contain enormous power.”
Identity, Hidden Classes and Value
Hidden Classes don’t follow the same rules as regular classes, that isn’t only due the requirements to unlock but rather the fact they have to be done for a single rank. This alone forces them to have 5 skills (or 25 points) to take as it can’t go further, it keeps it in the average point distribution of 60% as from c1 to c3 the point allocation is at the minimum at 75%, 60% and 52%.
With so few skills it is hard to develop an identity that can be held by a theme in the same model that works for regular classes, there’s no room for relief skills or for specialization itself, and as they require long and harsh quests it is hard to make them attractive. That wouldn’t be the case if they bend the rules and make those classes skills capped at lvl 3 or 4 and have more basic skills but that can be overwhelming to deal with and having multiple hidden classes will easily consume an unneeded amount hotkeys.
The ideal way to deal with them is to turn them into classes of pure identity skill but that also funels the player base that would take them. It can be used as an excuse to give them to dominate an aspect of the game and make them mandatory to deal with game content and that would go against their own nature of exclusivity, not to say that depending on direction it can make it super unpopular and devalue class vouchers drastically.
Given those factors Hidden Classes are often broad unspecialized classes that have one or two gimmicks to be used in combination with other classes, or in some cases restrict class synergy, and this approach makes them more niche even not due their identity. That said no Hidden Class will be addressed on potential identities for the breakdown, instead they’ll have a Potential Identity segment at the end.
The word rune comes from proto-germanic and means letter, secret or mystery, and the historical side of them takes the first interpretatio. Also known as futharks, the runes were an alphabet composed by 24 characters divided into 3 groups, and were developed by norse and germanic groups prior to the viking age. Their lack of curves was a technical limitation as only hard materials were available to use as writing vessels and carving curves wasn’t nearly as easy as straight lines.
Each rune carried a philosophical and magical interpretation, the character and sound would often represent a deity or religious concept in the self, and this lead them to be used on fortune telling and to cast their powers. It’s known that english was influenced by runes as magic and writing are tied up, the most noticeable example is with ‘spell’ as it can be used both to communicate the execution of magic and to teach how a certain word is written. In fact in many fantasies the spell casting is done by having concepts, that can be rune, glyphs or even words, to be arranged on a specific order to produce magic, and that may be how norse magicians done their works.
Runes were also used on fortune telling, the person has to ask a question so the reader will get a rune blindly from a bag and interpret the meaning it has. Some sources point out that runes have to be rolled out as well as they can be aligned or opposed and that changes the meaning from positive, or in some instances a warning or trial, to negative. Taking those elements in consideration the Rune Caster class seems to be a blend of magic and fortune telling that takes 5 out of those 24 runes to express their powers.
As the Rune Caster itself isn’t as important on this breakdown we’ll focus on the runes and their meanings on the thematic aspect, each rune has several meanings and that can be changed if it is on the standard position or if is reversed or in horizontal. As an interesting design choice the class icon bears all runes used by the class.
Rune of Destruction (C)
Hagalaz or Hagal, translated as Hail or Hailstone, is a rune that is tied to catastrophe, destruction, regression, disruption and chaos, and in the magical aspect can destroy those same elements. On rune reading it can mean loss, disaster, correction, revolution and change, and when opposed it relates to catastrophe, suffering, hardship, weakness and blame. By using the same execution as Elementalist’s Meteor it goes for a direct representation of destruction and even brings collateral damage after the impact.
Rune of Destruction is a confusing skill. At first is seems like a straight up damage skill on an area but it carries a lingering effect that isn’t informed, in fact there’s no sight of targeting method nor how the damage carries over after the explosion. As any casting skill it also suffer from the binary nature of it and it would be interesting to change it into something more flexible.
To work around the casting limitation it’s possible to have the lingering effect changed into a debuff that makes enemy explode when they die, that can be tied to the casting time and allow it to be used faster, another option is to reduce have the hitbox based on casting instead.
Rune of Ice (D)
Known as Isaz, Isa, Is, and Ice this rune represents stagnation, preservation and cold, it’s believed that the use of this rune in magic is to stop a process or to reach a primal aspect. For divinations it can mean challenge, frustration, rest, self control and lack of motivation, and when in opposition it can be read as blindness, dullness, immobility, treason, illusion and betrayal. Rune of Ice goes for the straight forward approach and takes the Ice aspect of it.
Niche skills are always interesting to have but a hidden class isn’t the best place to do it. Rune of Ice is a skill that affects only Cryomancer, slightly Elementalist and at single skill of Onmyoji, knowing that there’s a whole class dedicated to ice magic already it’s hard to picture it being useful elsewhere in the future. The other troublesome component of it that the leveling factor is duration and that makes it binary to level, not to say it has no floor on it.
To deal with the duration and niche aspects of it it’s possible to add a Ice Property Attack component to it that increases with level, this solves the niche aspect of it as other classes with damage over time can employ it and also makes it interesting at level 1 for the current builds. As for the cast time it can be enough to have it tied to the buff radius, being casted at minimum for solo play and have full use to buff party.
Rune of Giants (D)
Thurisaz is the rune of Thor and later known as Thorn on old english, it’s the rune of battle, lightning, storm, weapons and conquest, as for magic it has the effect of self improvement and strive. The readings on this rune are tied to knowledge, discipline, focus, reaction and growth, when reversed it reads as danger, wrath, malice and torment. The translation of Thurisaz is giants and that is the major element taken from it, tho the growth aspect is also present.
Rune of Giants is probably the most problematic skill in the class and was the most changed through time, the issue with it is how the new size has to increase all hitboxes to keep consistency but doing that also can break the game as skills are supposed to have an expected size and as result most skills can’t be used while giant. As it is a magic circle it can be troublesome if someone steps on it by accident, takes the buff and can’t use it due restrictions, and not to mention the information about skills that can be used while giant aren’t available in game at all. Along with that the skill lasts longer when leveled, it can be refreshed without being maxed and it may even be more beneficial to do so, and to make it worse it doesn’t have a floor. One interesting element of it is the stomping mechanic, that isn’t even informed at the skill, as landing on enemies deals an unknown amount of damage, it would be interesting for it to cast Earthquake instead but that can be too much for something that can be done all time.
For this skill it may be interesting to reduce the giant form size to something more affordable as giant size can range from half the height of a human to 20 times it, doing that may allow it to be useable with all skills if not most of them. On the leveling side it can have static PAtk/MAtk/PDef/MDef/Movement Speed bonus and a scaling HP bonus, and to accompany that a fixed duration for the buff.
Rune of Justice (A)
Known as Tiwaz or Teiwaz, this is the rune of Tyr, carries the traits of hero, honor, righteousness, sacrifice and fairness, and when used in magic brings victory, protection and strength. When applied on divinations it means responsibility, strength, duty, discipline, loyalty and honesty, the reading on reversed Tiwaz is seen as injustice, imbalance, failure and tyranny. It may be over analysis on this part but making it as a straight beam seems to represent the honest and direct nature of the rune and that is complemented by the holy property on it.
There’s not much to say about Rune of Justice. It’s one of the few, if not the only, holy magic skills outside of the cleric tree, and is a free cast skill that hits multiple enemies. It would be nice to have information about how many enemies can be hit with it and also the cast to be tied to the skill length.
Rune of Protection (D)
Going by the name Algiz or Elhaz, that may originate the word Aegis later on, is perceived as protecting both physical and spiritual realms and that also applies to the magical effects. The readings on this rune are related to safety, awakening, aid, courage and divinity, while the reversed reading means fear, disconnect and warning.
This seems like wizard’s response to the knock back and knock down issue as every single class branch has at least a skill to prevent it. Just like the others it also falls into the same duration increase leveling factor but this time going to extreme values on both duration and cooldown, as usual it also lacks floor. The maintain casting attribute is questionable as Rune Casters are unlikely to miss Wizard 3 and at that point Surespell is already at the table, not to say that as the skill requires a linker to be shared it loses on that aspect. Despite the skill design being terrible the skill itself is quite handy.
Potential Identity
Unlike other classes Rune Caster developed some iconic skills that are hard to readjust or even remove and that stands in the way for it to ever get an identity. However there is something that the theme allows and was stated on every single rune thematic aspect, the alternative reading.
Rune Caster can be a class that has skill effects based on the fortunate and unfortunate readings, tackling both the role as a support by delivering buffs or as an offensive class.
This can be achieved with four components.
- Have all skills to carry two modes, the regular one being a party oriented and the Merkstave for offense.
- A free skill that changes the reading to alternative state, it can have an attribute to make it toggle or for one time only.
- A Merkstave attribute for all runes so it allow them to be on the second state by default, using the change skill would change the state to regular.
- Having all skills to own a dual effect attribute available when maxed, allowing it to apply both states on cast for double the amount of runes and additional SP. This last element is important distribute power among point distribution, if all skills have multiple uses it will be more likely for them to have at least a point on each and allowing it to apply two effects at once can be a good way to have one or two maxed.
The interesting part here is how this change allow skills such as Rune of Ice and Rune of Giants to stay with the niche design and can even have more of those as long as the alternative isn’t, it also adds a choice factor that isn’t anywhere present on skill casting. However this new feature may not allow skills to have overheat and requires cooldowns to be longer, if that isn’t applied it the skills will either have to stop midway and compensate on overheat or have one side exclusive to niche use. Also the most important change to use such system is to change all skill names to their respective runes.
Conclusion
Rune Caster is a class that isn’t for everybody and that is due restrictions instead of having an unique gameplay or dealing with elements to appeal to all, it feels like one of those classes that are a cluster of skills based on a theme and that lack a north but at least as a hidden class it can be that. Aside the restrictive nature the it has to deal with the binary nature of casting and that itself makes it harder to be picked without specific classes, even with that ignored and going only for the buffs it has the least interesting leveling aspects in the game.
| Theme | B |
|---|---|
| Gameplay | C |
| Cohesion | C |
| Point Distribution | C |
| Dropout | D |
I hope this can be a worthy compensation for Shinobi’s transgression, there’s been some extra effort on the research part as i’ve found out about Merkstave when doing it. For the next breakdown we’ll have Mergen and following that another duo thread. Unfortunately i won’t be able to get polls as the next 4 weeks are settle, yet that’s a great chance to request a class in particular. As usual drop a comment on how you see the class to be design or even if you manage to see an identity within it (having all skills to be casted doesn’t sustain it) or how a possible identity can be worked for it.
