MONSTER HUNTER
Roles: Ranged Physical Damage Dealer / Melee Tank
Resource System
Bullets, Junk
By using their primary attacks and abilities, Monster Hunters generate scrap materials (used cartridge brasses, empty injectors, etc.), that gradually fill up the Junk Bar. This resource can be spent to fire more powerful attacks (spread shots, defragmentation grenades, etc.).
Key Features
JUNK REUSE
Proficient engineers, the Monster Hunters can combine scrap materials on the field to create deadly explosives and empowered ammunitions.
RELICS (stances)
Monster Hunters keep slain creatures parts (eg. fur, hair, teeth) stored in specific reliquaries. They draw power from these items, gaining some of the distinctive features of the original creature to help them in combat (read below for more info).
INJECTORS (temporary buffs)
Unorthodox and often unethical alchemists, Monster Hunters are not afraid to experiment on themselves the effects of their researches. After years of studies, they became able to synthesize the essence of monsters and inject it to themselves to gain a temporary empowerment (read below).
SIGNATURE WEAPON: BLADED PISTOL
While being well trained in using any kind of ranged weapon, the Monster Hunter is the only class able to dual wield the iconic Bladed pistols, versatile weapons capable of both ranged offense and melee combat maneuvers (please, read the notes at the bottom of the post before objecting about them).
RANGED DAMAGE
Monster Hunters excel in dealing damage with any kind of ranged weapon.
MELEE TANKS
The most skilled Monster Hunters can use the blades on their guns as efficient defensive melee weapons and focus on defense, parrying and deflecting enemy attacks, while still being able to inflict consistent damage with slashes and short ranged blasts.
Class Description
Ok, here comes the long part. First of all, WHY a class of this sort should belong to the universe of Warcraft? Well, there could be a lot of reasons, most of which you could probably have figured by yourself. First of all, I grabbed inspiration from a well known lore character I'm not even mentioning (the pic speaks by itself )… I bet a lot of you were attracted by his Van Helsing-esque style and by his absolutely unique couple of weapons. Lord Godfrey aside, I supposed a witch hunter / monster slayer class would have been fitting very well with the whole Gilneas environment. Another reason I came up with this kind of character is that, while the idea of a technology based class was appealing to me, I was not that much enthusiast about a "Tinker" class (the one seen in Warcraft 3 has in my opinion not enough depth to be a playable WoW class, and most of what would be its main features are already covered by Engineering anyway).
Monster Hunter is just an indicative name for the class I had in mind, mainly centered around ranged combat, explosives and devices, with some melee features based on a unique, dedicated weapon, and involved with a mix of supernatural and science (and, of course, with monsters and legendary creatures).
Following there are some abilities I came up with, please take note that they're just ideas I wrote down randomly, and are not meant to necessarily work together as a balanced set of skills. Also note that three of the following abilities (Healing Spray, Acid Bomb and Cluster Rockets) are taken from the Tinker class from Warcraft 3, while Pistol Barrage is exactly the same ability Lord Godfrey has. To describe these skills I copy-pasted the original Blizzard tooltips.
In Depth Abilities
- Relics:
Sasquatch Fur
Increases Stamina and grants damage reduction (its effectiveness is increased when choosing the tank specialization)
Witch Hair
Increases Junk generation and explosives damage (advised for the Specialist build)
Vampire Tooth
Increases character's speed and ranged attack speed (advised for the Witch Hunter build)
- Utility skills:
Paralyzing Picket
Plants an ash wood picket in the victim's heart, stunning him for X seconds.
Silver Bullets
Deals X damage and incapacitate the enemy for X seconds. Only works on beasts and demons.
Ghost in a Jar
Throw a jar containing a captured ghost at the enemy. The jar breaks at the impact, releasing the imprisoned ghost which will make the closest enemy run in fear for X seconds.
Healing Spray (WCIII)
Sprays waves of healing mist that heals units in a target area.
Acid Bomb (WCIII)
Hurl a flask of acid at a target. The flask breaks upon impact, splashing a powerful acid on nearby hostile units. Decreases armor; deals slightly less damage over time to nearby targets.
- Bullet based skills (each of these attacks generates Junk based on how many bullets are spent):
Blast
(costs 1 bullet)
Attack the target with your gun, dealing X damage.
Recoil Jump
(costs 2 bullets)
You shoot with both your guns on the ground, jumping ahead for X yards for the recoil.
Pistol Barrage
(costs 6 bullets)
Fires a constant barrage of bullets in a cone out from the caster. Any enemies within this area take X Fire damage every second they remain inside. Lasts X sec. Movement interrupts the effect.
Point Blank
(costs 2 bullets)
Close range attack that violently hurts the target, knocking him back. If used to trigger Timed Bomb, its knockback range is doubled (Tank specialization: no longer knocks back, but hits more targets. Generates high threat).
- Junk based skills:
Junk Blast
(costs 20 junk)
Shoot a handful of scraps instead of standard bullets. Deals X damage and Y damage per second as bleed
Frag Grenade
(costs 50 junk)
Throw a bomb that explodes at impact dealing X damage and Y damage per second as bleed
Chain Bomb
(costs 80 junk)
Throw a bomb that explodes at impact and jumps on other four targets damaging them in the impact. Does less damage for jump. If there are no enemies around the target, instantly deals 5x damage to him.
Timed Bomb
(costs 70 junk)
Place an explosive on the enemy target's chest. Explodes 7 seconds after, or instantly, if triggered by Point Blank.
Cluster Rockets (WCIII)
(costs 100 junk)
Bombards an area with rockets
- Tank specific abilities:
Glove Slap
Melee range taunt
Spread Shot
(costs 60 junk)
Shoot a wide amount of scraps that spread around hitting all enemies in front of the Monster Hunter, damaging them and making them bleed for X seconds. High Threat ability (basically an AoE Junk Blast).
Crossed Slash
Deal damage to up to 3 enemies, making them bleed for X seconds and reducing their armor.
Attaque au Fer
Disarm the opponent for X seconds.
Beat Parry
Deflect the next melee attack received, entirely nullifying it. When the effect is consumed, the Monster Hunter gains increased parry for X seconds.
- Injectors (they all share cooldowns):
Mummy Extract
Increases Stamina
Werewolf Blood
Increases Attack Power
Abomination Ichor (possibly one of the max level talents)
Increases damage dealt by X% and for the next X seconds cause your body to spread a deadly fog that slows down enemies and damage them over time
Talent Builds
Witch Hunter (DPS)
A ranged fighter who uses dual pistols as his main source of damage, while still having a solid arsenal of junk based backup attacks. Signature abilities: Pistol Barrage
Specialist (DPS)
Prefers two handed ranged weapons to inflict massive damage to the enemies by using explosives and devastating ammunitions. Signature abilities: Rocket Cluster, Point Blank
Night's Bane (Tank)
Sacrifices his range to focus on more powerful and threatening close ranged attacks. Mixes the use of ammunitions and blades for both damage and survival. Signature abilities: Crossed Slash, Spread Shot
(I'm adding pictures, sketches and updates soon)
NOTES:
- About Bladed Pistols and Blizzard never going to implement a new weapon type just for a class.
The weapon was just suggested to me by an already existing item in the game (although maybe technically not existing as an item itself, it exists as an NPC weapon, and has even a signature attack going with it). I'm aware of the fact that Blizzard is unlikely to develope a new weapon type for one class. My idea, as I explained in a post below, was that they could actually just implement Pistols as a new kind of ordinary ranged weapons also usable by Hunters, and give the Monster Hunters a way to attach blades to their weapons, almost like DKs forge their weapons to make them runeblades.
Another option could simply be that MHs are just supposed to use regular ranged weapons (one of the DPS builds is already supposed to do so), while the tanks could dual wield blades (although that would make tough to keep that "Sword and Gun" feel that I thought would be distinctive of the class)