Hey all! As promised in the last update, here's one last look at the Enchanter skillset, going into a bit more detail on each skill with some short gifs thrown in! This will be a long, relatively detailed read, so please enjoy!
To start with, classes in Crystal Horizons have a set number of roughly 15-20 skills depending on the class. 5-8 of these are available at Rank 1, with the remaining skills unlocked over time until Rank 10. Enchanter has one of the highest total skill counts in the game, at a staggering 21, with most of those being spells and very few being passive skills. Across this wide array of skills, Enchanter primarily boasts a massive number of supportive spells. Alongside support, the class offers decent damage, a small amount of healing, and a whole three elements with which it can interact with the field through Elemental Reactions.
In order to not overwhelm players with massive lists of skills, the Skills menu groups skills into categories, keeping mechanically (or thematically) similar skills within the same submenu. For Enchanter, these submenus include Aspected Magic, Conceptualization, Magic Weaving and Blade Weaving. On top of those four categories, Enchanter also gets either Sword Arts or Dagger Arts depending on their equipped primary weapon.
First, Enchanter has two passive skills: Duelist and Equilibrium. Duelist allows the Enchanter to equip a Dagger to their off-hand, granting additional base evasion for doing so. Equilibrium grants the Enchanter one of two buffs depending on the actions they take; Cut or Tie. Standard attacks grant the Cut status, while using spells grants Tie. With Cut, using a spell increases the damage of the spell by 20% and grants 15 FP after the skill resolves. With Tie, using a standard attack or Weaponskill grants an additional magic power boost and restores 15% of the unit's Max MP. Both statuses are consumed upon granting their effects, encouraging the class to weave between physical and magical skills.
Aspected Magic features offensive spells such as Aspected Spark and Aspected Flare. These spells normally do unaspected (non-elemental) damage, but while an element is Internalized (more on that soon), the element of the spell changes and some additional effects are granted. Aspected Spark is the simplest, a ranged spell that hits in a plus shape, featuring a simple damage boost with an Internalized element. Aspected Flare is more expensive, but does more damage and hits in a wider 3x3 pillar, which hits units even high above the targeted area. This additional power comes at the cost of removing the Internalized element.
The Conceptualization category features three important skills: Conceptualize Fire, Conceptualize Lightning, and Conceptualize Water. These skills are performed as Move actions, consuming the Enchanter's movement for the turn but allowing them to still take a standard action in the turn. Using a Conceptualization skill grants an Internalized element status to the unit, such as Internalized Fire. With this buff, the Enchanter's physical damage is augmented and split into 50% unaspected physical damage and 50% elemental magical damage. Conceptualization also changes the properties of skills such as Aspected Spark, Externalize and Vital Strike. Releasing a Conceptualized element can be done with Release Concept as a free action.
Magic Weaving is where the majority of Enchanter's spells sit. Light Weave, Dark Weave and Time Weave all grant Threaded buffs to an ally within range, granting health regeneration, lifesteal, and haste (increased speed) respectively. Externalize grants a buff to an ally based on the current Internalized element. Internalized Fire would grant Realized Fire to an ally, causing them to deal additional Fire damage to any enemy they deal damage to. Mass Restitch allows the Enchanter to spread either a Threaded buff or Unraveled debuff from one unit to all other units on the same team around them. There are a number of other unique support and utility spells, which I'll not spoil just yet.
Finally, Blade Weaving holds the Enchanter's unique physical skills, such as Vital Strike and Unstitch. Vital Strike deals damage while ignoring 20% of the target's defenses, and if an element is Internalized, inflicts Elemental Resist Down for that element (such as Fire Resist Down). Unstitch also deals damage to an adjacent enemy, but inflicts Unraveled, reducing the speed of the target. Unstitch is especially potent when combined with Mass Restitch, allowing the Enchanter to spread the debuff across a large number of enemies.
That was quite a long writeup, but I hope it helps get across our concept and idea for the class! Enchanter will be one of four playable classes in the upcoming AVCon build, alongside Lumimancer, Knight and Thief. We're just over two weeks away now; I hope you're all looking forward to it as much as we are!