Druid Speculation

[Hey_Daralon]

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.

True that. It feels like the Major schools have way more cards and options than the Minor elemental schools. Though, I imagine that it has a lot to do with balancing at this point (like the Wizard just having way more options than everyone else). Hopefully in the future, after a decent number of mages have been playtested and there are plenty of spells from every school, this will become a non-issue.

[Sausageman]

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

That's good, I am English

I also strongly suspect we'll see a 'go through yours or your opponents 'graveyard' and bring a living creature back out' card. It'll come back Nonliving and maybe have an armour tweak.

Either way, I'm excited by this, always loved the Necromancer.

[Preacher]

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

That's good, I am English

I also strongly suspect we'll see a 'go through yours or your opponents 'graveyard' and bring a living creature back out' card. It'll come back Nonliving and maybe have an armour tweak.

Either way, I'm excited by this, always loved the Necromancer.

Yep, a great opportunity to bring in some more cool, thematic and logical mechanics. I could see a 'corpse bomb' type of enchantment as well that sits on a creature and costs to activate when that creature dies, detonating the body and doing AOE of some sort.

Some version of undead toughness or something would be cool too, an armour buff or something as you say... perhaps even a whole new set of enchantments for non-living creatures.

*drool*

[Sausageman]

I'll put money on the spawn point being a graveyard too.

[Preacher]

I'll put money on the spawn point being a graveyard too.

That'd be quite a safe bet in my opinion  B)  that or Tomb maybe.

I wonder if we'll see more complex cards like a Life Bank (Phylactery from memory?) or a powerful enchantment with some upkeep that makes you Incorporeal.

Forcemaster and Warlord is cool but thematically I'm looking forward to the next expansion even more!

[Klaxas]

lots of interesting speculation here! I love reading it.  I wish I knew more than I did, us playtesters don't have a whole lot of information yet (at least I don't!) and what I do know i cant share but i love reading this stuff.  and who knows it might give us designers/playtesters some ideas!

[paradox22]

In the pic I saw of the Druid, she was wearing plants (think poison ivy from batman).  I'm pretty sure she'll have nature with an emphasis on plants.   Not sure about her secondary school...although holy or, like the wizard, 'chose an elemental' school could work.

[baronzaltor]

In the pic I saw of the Druid, she was wearing plants (think poison ivy from batman).  I'm pretty sure she'll have nature with an emphasis on plants.   Not sure about her secondary school...although holy or, like the wizard, 'chose an elemental' school could work.

Im still willing to bet that either the Necromancer or the Druid will only have 1 school trained.
Looking at the first 6 mages:

1 School:
Priestess- Holy+none (can remove conditions, gain life with holy spells.  high channel/low health)
Beastmaster- Nature+none (can make pet, quick cast creature, Battle Skill.  low channel/high health)
Force Master- Mind+none (force pull, built in deflection.  high channel/low health)

2 Schools:
Warlord- Earth+War (Vet Tokens, Battle Orders, Battle Skill.  low channel/high health)
Warlock- Fire+Dark  (curse weaving, make reaper, Battle Skill.  low channel/high health)
Wizard- Arcane+Wildcard Element  (Voltaric Shield, Arcane Zap.  high channel/low health)

So, its pretty even split throughout.   Seems like for every mage with 2 schools, theres one with just 1.

Other fun things to note-
-All mages with low channel/high health have Battle Skill, and can improve a minion(s) (Pet, Reaper, Veteran+Orders).  

-Wizard is the only mage who not only gets to choose his secondary, but also has no triple cost "opposite" Making him the most flexible in terms of spellbook cost control.

-Beastmaster Is trained in nature, and pays triple for Fire.  BUT, Warlock/Wizard trained in Fire doesn't pay triple for nature.  Whereas Dark and Holy are triple for each other in both cases of Warlock and Priestess.  
Warlord pays triple for Arcane while trained in War/Earth, Wizard who is trained in Arcane does not pay triple for War spells.   So it seems that the "opposite" spell cost penalty is bound to the mage archetype, not the spell schools arbitrarily.  So Druid may not share Beastmasters 3x Fire cost, and Necromancer may not share Warlords 3x Holy cost.

-Mages whose archetype starts with "W" have 2 trained schools.

[Drealin]

-Mages whose archetype starts with "W" have 2 trained schools.

Lol, I didn't notice that before!
Of course neither Druid nor Necromancer begin with "W", so that trend may not continue, wish I knew for sure...

[baronzaltor]

-Mages whose archetype starts with "W" have 2 trained schools.

Lol, I didn't notice that before!
Of course neither Druid nor Necromancer begin with "W", so that trend may not continue, wish I knew for sure...

Druid vs Wecromancer

[jonatep]

what I think the necro should have are spell to kill creature, the warlord is a dark aggro, the necro should be a dark control.
Spell like:
destroy a non mage creature for high mana
destroy a non mage, non flying creature
destroy a non mage, living creature
etc

I think of a druid with a ramp deck with cards like mana flowers and so and a new type with a key word like:
mana source: when you play a mana source, attach it to your mage (face up) as long as it is attach, it's consider as an anchantment.
All of them will have: during the upkeep, destroy NAME_OF_SPELL, add X mana to your mana supply.
And the druid can have big 20 mana cost guy.

[jonmaior]

Necromancer:

I think some sort of zombie that infects on a succesful bite attack.  Infected creature would get an infect token that does 2 damage, and then one additional infect token each turn.  then, when it dies it comes back as a zombie creature with the infect trait.

Druid:

Big legendary treant type creature with hydro immunity.  Rivers for wall conjurations.  Treant is healed when it crosses river, or gaind regenerate 3 when adjacent to a river.

[metadust]

Necromancer: Corpse Markers
Whenever a monster is killer they leave behind a corpse (max of 1 per zone) allowing the Necromancer to manipulate said corpse with:

During upkeep, the opposing mage may pay mana to remove corpses from the field (as if they were status effects) so the necromancer doesn't have a constantly growing advantage in terms of field control.

Raise Dead: Summon creature like normal, but have the option to spawn them in place of a corpse (the corpse is "consumed" by this.)

Corpse Explosion: Detonate a corpse causing X damage to everyone in the zone, and inflicts Rot.

Death's Embrace: Target single creature in zone with corpse, creature is crippled. (presumably the corpse grabs them.)

Typical stuff but I'd just really enjoy the corpse mechanic in general, also the ability to bring it into play when you incorporate any corpse abilities into your spellbook (slight tactical disadvantage, as not being a necromancer you tip your hand slightly when you have to keep track of corpses.)

Also to aid in corpse making, the necromancer has spells that allow for ranged sacrifices, so they can set up where corpses can be, at some kind of benefit to themselves. (Sacrifice weak creatures, get mana/health/whatever in return. Some creatures return to your spellbook on sacrifice rather being discarded.)

Necromancer: Spirits & Souls
Being a necromancer isn't just about moving dead bodies around and the like, it also has a lot to do with spirits. If the corpse mechanic would be too cumbersome clogging up the board with bodies, spirits/souls could be collected from the fallen and allow for abilities to be turned out with them. Such as spectral summons can be cast cheaper using souls for mana, even creature that require souls to be summoned in addition to mana. Not to mention the possibility of equipment that is fueled by souls (Robes of the damned only protect you on rounds where 1 soul upkeep is paid.)

Seems like mages going forward should have a sort of specific reason to play them, we don't have an infinite array of magic schools. When they overlap hopefully they can be unique enough to never have "Well X dark mage is pretty much the best, any kind of mechanics existing on same schooled mages don't make up for their lack of power."

[Paleblue]

Bunch of new information in the latest newsletter. States that Druid uses nature and dabbles in water (isn't clear if she simply has the spells in her book or its actually something shes trained in) whereas the Necro its implied that he uses Dark.

Also has an overview of there play styles with some nifty art, really looking forward to it !!

[Locusshifter]

I'm VERY excited abou the Necro; I have been since I saw the picture of him so many moths ago.

I think that he will use a combination of conjurations and enchantments that only affect living creatures. I can see him making zones painful, embuing those that enter with negative status effects, damage and more. I also would think there will be conjurations and enchantments that boost non-living, more specifically undead; though I wonder if there will be some that are just non-living allowing him the chance to use other non undead non-living creatures to his advantage.

I'd also like to see an enchantment that grants you control of a creature that dies.