Creating the BattleMage

[Talen]

Right...before anyone says something (and they probably will anyway) - this isn't serious. It is simply speculation and idle musing. An exercise in fun. Yes...I know it'll never happen. That never stopped me before. It’s not going to stop me now. I will also not be considering, for the most part, how this would affect other specs. And I will not be going into a huge amount of detail such as secondary effects. And yes, I could have based this on the Death Knight, Balance druid or a couple of other classes.

I did this for fun. I did this as idle musing. And mainly because, being stuck on a night shift at work I have nothing else better to do.

Anyway, over the past few weeks, there has been some speculation about that the next Hero class will be. One of those that keeps cropping up is BattleMage. Like Archdruid, I don't think this will ever happen...not as a full class anyway as, like Archdruid, its really a subset of an existing class. Several people have even described their "vision" - a plate wearing spellcaster capable of melee.

Accurate? Maybe. Maybe not. And before anyone mentions healing...that can be reduced via the proper mechanics, and we've seen mages heal in the fiction; they aren't good at it, its like using a hammer instead of a priests scalpel but they can do it.

Regardless, some of their visions struck me as being similar - very similar to a Shockadin. Hence...this little exercise.

What does it lack? Compared with other spell DPS - it has weaker scaling. It lacks CC. It has no decent ranged AoE. There is the usual lack of DPS utility. Spell crits do less damage. It lacks mobility, escape and gap opener tools.

Overall, however, the class is fairly close to that of a ranged DPS caster.

So....taking those last few steps.

Talents - there are about 25 talent points which support Shockadins in the existing tree. Some can and are shared by Holydins. But there is room for extra talents. The difficulty would be in balancing the roles of healer and DPS, but that could be done, as with Ferals - if only by ensuring a true DPs build requires so many talents that healing suffers. Yes, not going to happen...but definitely possible.

CDs - the class already has AW (baseline) and DF (talented). GAnK could get an extra role but letting it act as Rets version, spawning at the target and increasing spellpower as well as STR could work. Of course, GAnK could do with an overhaul - but separate discussion.

Survivability - the class has limited mobility and escape options. SoL and possibly PoJ. However, it has Divine Protection, Divine Shield, Holy Shock as an instant heal and would be more adept at melee than most casters. Also, though the relative advantage has been diminished, plate still offers fair protection vs physical.

However - first new ability goes here: Holy Strike - deals X damage plus an additional X% of your spell power as Holy damage per HP consumed. Essentially, the old Crusader Strike remade as a finisher to ensure the class does have some melee viability for survival. Uses spellpower so shouldn't be too useful for the other specs.

Rotation
The rotation can be said to be the core of any DPS class. So it is important that we get it right. IMO, regardless of class or spec, it needs to be effective, it needs to provide options, it needs to avoid being too static.

Looking at other spell DPS we see how they manage. Frost, for example, has a standard spammable nuke with its rotation broken up by procs and situational tools and CDs. Other classes have priority systems or the need to manage DoTs.

So can we develop a meaningful rotation with the tools the class has? Yes, but I think things can be improved.

First, the class has access to Holy Power. This provides a mechanism for a rotation, for varying the setup and to allow for different moves. The question is "how" it would do so - currently, the set up would be using Holy Shock once every 6 seconds to generate 1 HP Charge. So instead of powering a finisher, HP could empower something else...increased mana regen, lowered cast times, and so on. Or it could, as I suggested for some other moves, empower the casts. Certainly a number of options there.

However...back to basics. What about the core rotation? We have Exorcism, Holy Shock and Judgement. I don't think Exorcism is "flashy" enough to anchor the rotation. So, second new move (and no, its not an original one): Holy Bolt: Fires a Bolt of Holy energy at the target dealing damage. Has a 3s cast time. No CD. Holy Shock remains as it is. Judgement gets the mana regen mechanic built in as standard. What about Exorcism?

Well...Exorcism worked well, to a point, the way it was. Having BOTH a CD and a cast time was what worked against it. So...revert it to a 10s CD instant cast spell that acts as a proc.

So...core rotation (single target) is spam Holy Bolt, and use Judgement for mana return (part of the mechanism), Holy Shock to regen Holy Power and Exorcism as the proc mechanic for a little RNG. Holy Bolt could also have a (talented) chance to generate HP for a little more RNG. Consecration and Holy Wrath become situational tools - not a part of any standard rotation, you use these based on your own Judgement, with Consecration emanating from your target and not the caster...and HoW remains as an Execute move.

The main AoE tool could be a spammable Consecration...but I think that would work better as a situational tool.

Instead, I would suggest a talented tool for a channelled AoE. To differentiate this spell from others, the Paladins would be able to cast this twice....you cast once at a targeted area but have the option to cast a second time to create two channelled effects - two targeted areas but with lower damage at each - say 30-35% of maximum.

As for Holy Power - a mix of abilities may be best. The main intent would be to use it to empower your next or current cast. However, you can plan ahead, save your HP and then activate another spell of appropriate power.

As for Beacon of Light....that too could change. I can see several possible offensive uses for the spell - such as "homing beacon" or "target of beacon casts the spell" or making it a passive beacon that can be placed and used to act as the origin of a spell....place the ebacon using a reticle and, while active, your Holy Bolts will be cast from the Beacon of Light.

The Beacon would also, IMO, make a nice specialisation bonus instead of Holy Shock. Combined with a better melee capability than most casters, this may make a strong CC capability unnecessary. If it is still needed, then Repentance could be used…though you’d need a mechanism to prevent usage by Prot.

For balance...and there would need to be balance...I will reiterate my (current) belief in a stance system. Namely, if you want to deal spell DPS, healing and melee DPS won't be as good. In addition, as the Light is used to actually deal damage, "against its nature", spellss are subject to resistance.

Final touches? Glyph of the BattleMage - all Holy damage is now considered Arcane, but the paladin can now also wield daggers, staves and his INT bonus from plate now also applies when wearing cloth items.

Too much? Lets not forget the down side - Gnome BattleMages!!!

Well, that's it...very sketchy, yes and no, you're right...I didn't consider balance. Never said I would. This was really just an exercise in fun. And even then, the concept isn't fully fleshed out.

EJL

[Jämeson]

Interesting idea, but you will get a lot better discussion outside the Paladin forum.