My Ideal Guild Wars 3, Part 2: damage types, conditions

[Arkham Creed.7358]

In my previous posts, linked here

 

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/94391/my-ideal-guild-wars-3-combat-system-controller-support-professions-multi-classing-skill-capture/p1

 

I made a point of mentioning the return of damage types for the game. So I thought I'd build on that here and explain what I was thinking. The first thing to note is that I feel it would be most efficient to categorize damage into three core types, with four damage sources within each type. The fourth source for each is a condition specific one. That does not mean that you can't have a damaging condition that does another time, for example burning would be a condition that repeatedly deals fire damage, but the fourth option is for a condition exclusive effect that wouldn't make sense when applied directly (you can't stab someone with bleeding, but you can stab them and make them bleed).

 

Here is the quick list of categories and the damage types within.

 

**Physical**

_Blunt:_ Smashing and crushing weapons, and most earth magic.

_Slashing:_ Edged weapons, whips, and some ice effects.

_Piercing:_ Stabbing weapons, projectiles, and some earth effects.

_Bleeding Condition:_ A physical tagged damage type often applied by weapons and earth magic.

 

**Elemental**

_Fire:_ From flamethrowers to grenades to elemental magic, great for area of effect

_Cold:_ Great for shanking people with ice shards or trapping them in a blizzard.

_Shock:_ Many elemental sources and technology could do shock damage, often chains to multiple targets.

_Toxic Condition:_ The pseudo poison of having a foreign material in your body. Good for venoms, radiation, or conventional poisons.

 

**Magical**

_Light:_ Smiting foes with celestial light, or sparking a really bright flare.

_Dark:_ The necrotic twisted power of corruption and death.

_Chaos:_ You don't know what it is. I don't know what it is. It probably doesn't either. But mesmers love it.

_Psychic Condition:_ Torment, Confusion, Fear...if you need a way to hurt someone without physically touching them or blasting them with energy, this is the way to go.

 

These three categories, and twelve damage types within, would cover nearly if not all possible means of hurting things in game. You could make reasonable justification for armor or resistance to each, as well as weaknesses. This also results in the ability to create specialist or generic armor. For example you could have Fire Resist Armor that gives a big bonus against fire, or lesser Elemental Resist Armor that protects from that entire category to a lesser degree. Further this creates an interesting concept for the professions; what if each is a specialist in a given damage category? This would make multiclassing all the more interesting, as well as make the classes themselves stand out more from each other. Here is a concept.

 

**Champions (guardians)** smite enemies with magical power, thus would be the Solider Magic class.

 

**Berserkers (Warriors)** specialize in raw offense and don't bother with flashy effects when a weapon will do, and are the Soldier Physical class.

 

**Dervishes** use the power to absorb magic from around them to active auras of power that burn, freeze, or shock foes, and thus would be the Solider Elemental class.

 

**Rangers** specialize in the use of bows, ambush tactics, physical traps, and wild animals clawing and biting foes, thus would be the Adventurer Physical class.

 

**Engineers** specialize in machines that burn, shock, and explode, and can mix deadly poisons with alchemy, thus are the Adventurer Elemental class.

 

**Warlocks (necromancer/thief hybrids)** use magic of darkness and death to vanish and assault foes, and raise undead minions, thus would be the Adventurer Magic class.

 

**Elementalists** obviously use magical eruptions of fire, ice, water, thunder, lightning, and earth to blast their foes, and thereby are clearly the Scholar Elemental class.

 

**Mesmers** use illusions to torment and confound their foes, and unleash chaos on the battlefield, and thus are the Scholar Magic class.

 

**Ritualists (monk revenant hybrids)** might use magic to heal, protect, and smite, but they also summon semi-tangible spirits to rip into foes and batter them with martial arts infused weapon attacks, and are thus the Scholar Physical class.