Druid Speculation

[Sausageman]

Just saw this from Thessial:
"Thanks Sausageman! The current plan for Water is Druid Vs Necromancer. However this is part of a large internal debate we're having so I am not willing to put a guarantee on that yet. We definitely want it out there as soon as possible though. If it takes us longer than August, I will be surprised."
Sounds to me like it's likely that neither Druid nor Necromancer has Water trained, but that the cards are likely to feature in their expansion...

[Koz]

Just saw this from Thessial:
"Thanks Sausageman! The current plan for Water is Druid Vs Necromancer. However this is part of a large internal debate we're having so I am not willing to put a guarantee on that yet. We definitely want it out there as soon as possible though. If it takes us longer than August, I will be surprised."
Sounds to me like it's likely that neither Druid nor Necromancer has Water trained, but that the cards are likely to feature in their expansion...

Not sure that makes sense though.  Perhaps they are still making changes to the Mages and they are considering removing/changing schools for one or both of them?  I don't know, I just know the Necro is supposed to have frost spells, and what other school would frost be except Water?

[Hey_Daralon]

I would have no problem with the Necromancer just being Dark and having access to frost attacks, like just as part of his starter deck. Then, you can always take his spellbook apart and choose any other element. My guess is that most of his starter deck is Dark, but they left a few spellpoints over for him to load up on another element, they needed to give Water some exposure, so they threw in a few Water-type spells. Then outside of the deck is a bunch of copies, so you could make a Water-type Wizard if you wanted to. It's just that I've never heard of a Dark+Water Necromancer, I'm not saying it couldn't exist, but I'd rather choose which secondary element to give him, even if I'd being paying more spellpoints.

Or maybe it's the Druid that's Nature and Water-type and they had a few Water spells left over that are more like "Ice-type" and so they gave them to the NM to show some contrast.

[Sausageman]

I would have no problem with the Necromancer just being Dark and having access to frost attacks, like just as part of his starter deck. Then, you can always take his spellbook apart and choose any other element. My guess is that most of his starter deck is Dark, but they left a few spellpoints over for him to load up on another element, they needed to give Water some exposure, so they threw in a few Water-type spells.

This would definitely be my preference.

[baronzaltor]

Its also possible that Frost attacks will be Dark spells in a "chill of death" kind of flavoring rather than a "water attack" flavoring.

If:

Necromancer will have frost
Necro/Druid will not have water
Necromancer will have dark

Then, it can stand to reason that Frost attacks could be covered in Dark school even though conventional wisdom would be that its water.

[sIKE]

It could also be an "or" as in Dark or Water.....

[Preacher]

It could also be an "or" as in Dark or Water.....

Or some of them there double ones, water AND dark... wark if you will or perhaps dater.

(toomuchcoffee.com)

 

[Hix]

druid sounds like nature+ holy and war costs triple.  That is if they follow dnd style druids. nature almost a given, holy because heals, war bad because druids cannot use metal gear.

[reddawn]

Being a fan of the Dark and Nature schools, I'm eager to see the Necromancer and Druid.  The Warlock fuels the aggressive side of the Dark school, being Dark/Fire with aggro-y demons, so I imagine that the Necromancer will be focused on more on a controlling kind of gameplay, being Dark with ice spells with tenacious zombies and dead stuff.

Some basic things I think the Necromancer might have:

Spawnpoint: maybe some kind of Tomb that gets bonus channeling when creatures die.

Equipment: a staff that buffs undead seems obvious, or some armor that allows you to move damage from the necromancer onto your undead minions

Conjurations: something cool could be a conjuration that uses a Phylactery theme, where the Necromancer loses some life when the conjuration enters play, but gains a good bonus like extra channeling or more damage or something.  Or maybe the phylactery thing could give him extra life for an upkeep cost.

Enchantments: More curses, like one that turns a creature undead.  Then another enchantment that would be similar to Mind Control except it would allow the Necro to take control of undead creatures.  Call it Command Undead  

Attacks: Water spells with a freezing focus have been hinted at in other parts of the forums.  Maybe have them deal less damage but have high effect rolls to freeze or whatever.  Lots of damage upfront doesn't seem to fit a Necromancer--he'd probably rather just render his enemies useless and let his zombies eat them.


Druid:

Spawnpoint: Something interesting could be a spawnpoint that rewards you with extra channeling for having more and more nature conjurations, kinda like temples for the Priestess but more generally.  It would give off a feel that the arena was being invaded by a forest, which is a neat theme.

Equipment: Not sure on this one...Druids don't strike me as really having a desire for equipment.  Maybe only one or two, since artifacts run counter to plants and nature in general.  Not really sure what they'd do...probably a ring for nature spells, maybe a cloak or armor of thorns for a damage barrier?

Conjurations: Give her some conjurations that can attack stuff in or near its zone, like aggressive plants.  She could spend mana to allow them to move, that'd be interesting.  Or maybe walls that can attack units that are near enough to them.

Attacks:  Vines that push or pull, blasts of harsh sunlight, lots of poison effects.  I'd like to see an aggressive Druid that tries to dominate the arena through gradually taking command of zones.


Well those are my expectations...anyone else?

[Paleblue]

The Necro might have undead only  / specific enchantments. For example various gruesome grafts that give armor or other benefits. I think the whole cause undeath then some type of command undead is a great idea!

[dexmark]

~~~~~~~~Wish list: Necromancer:~~~~~~~~

Abilities: Raise Dead: Once per round, if a living non-mage creature dies the mage may use as a quick spell to raise the creature into the following where the target died:

Skeletal Sentry (7 mana)
or Wraith (11 mana)

and Ghostform: As a quick spell for 2 mana the mage may move through walls without taking damage

Creatures:

1. Need more copies for the Skeletal Sentry in the expansion or a veteran version (with some armor)
2. Zombies with Disease type of conditions (Like Rot or reduce armor)
4. Ghouls would be nice too
5. Spiders
6) Undead Horsemen

Incantation:

1) Fear - Subject runs (roll directions)
2) Terror - Subject freezes (Incapacitated)

Attack Spells:

1) Chill spells
2) Sub-Zero Zone attack (damage and reduces armor effect)


~~~~~DRUID~~~~~~~~

Abilities: Nature's blessings: Once per round, the Druid as a Quick spell may get the trait of one of the following animals/Plants for 5 mana until the start of the next round.

- Bear +2 Melee
- Rhino + 2 Defense
- Snake +2 Piercing
- Lizard +2 Regen
- Tree of Life +1 Regen to all friendly creatures in the same zone

Creatures:

- Treant
- Elven Archers
- Wolverine
- River Fairies

Conjuration:

- Tanglevine

[Sausageman]

I'm wondering if the Necromancer will have a 'power enchantment' (like the Priestesses Divine Intervention, or the Forcemasters, err, Forcefield is it?) that costs 10 to reveal and turns them 'Nonliving'...  Into a Liche perhaps.

[Hypocrisy]

I really would appreciate a spell which allows the Necromancer to revive the top creature card from the enemy's discard pile and bring it back to the arena with the "finitive life" trait and a little bit lower stats for a small upkeep cost.  

[reddawn]

I see you use the Englishman's spelling of lich .

I agree though, I would definitely like to see the lich theme in some manner or another when the Necromancer comes.  I don't think any game has really done a good job with the balance or theme of a Lich well; understandably though, it's kind of hard since infinite life runs counter to balancing a game.  

I have faith that if AW does choose to go with that theme, they'll succeed.  Their team is quite good with perfecting the exact feel of a theme, yet making sure it's impeccably balanced.

[Maljeer]

The big thing to consider is; what will the Druid conceptually be?
 There is no guarantee it will be the stereotypical robed man with a long white beard down to his knees and a long wooden staff.
They may go in a totally different direction. Take the Warlock for example. If you asked me to picture what the warlock would be without seeing this game, I would not have pictured the lash of hellfire heavily armored battle mage image the game shows. I would have pictured a demon masked dark robed figure with a sacrificial dagger for example or someone similar to Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon.
So that being said, the druid may be the full on elementalist or some other unthought-of of direction that we aren’t considering.

So if the Druid is going to be the traditional robed bearded old man standing in a stone circle then I picture they will be primarily Nature with a secondary choice of one of the four elements.
I think the Dark school will be forbidden for them.  
I think they will be more spell based in their special abilities since the Beast master is all about the minion summoning. I think the Druid will be about non creature spells and may even be a more solo mage like the Force master.

But if they do go nontraditional and the Druid was the elementalist of the game. My only concern about a dedicated elemental mage is that the elemental spells are primarily attack based. I would hope the new expansion comes out with more elemental creatures and non attack based elemental spells to help make the schools better rounded.

I am really excited to see which way they take this mage.