Editing AC2:Announcements - 2005/05 - Legions (section)

== Letter to the Players #6 ==
{{AC2 Article
 |  Link = <nowiki>http://forums.ac2.turbinegames.com/showthread.php?t=14876</nowiki>
 | Title = Legions Letter #6: The Hieromancer
 |  Text = 
With a race as steeped in magic as the Empyreans, it’s not surprising that their mages have a style all their own. Empyrean magic relies heavily on gestures, and their mages have developed a weapon that works with that idea. The Celestrum is a clawed contraption that fits over the mage’s gloved hand, exaggerating and empowering their movements.
<br><br>
The magic of the Empyrean base tree is potent, but simple, using lights and colors to create many of its effects. Because the magic tree provides useful powers such as health and vigor rejuvenation, nearly all Empyreans have at least a few skills from the base magic tree.
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{{big|'''Empyrean Magic'''}}
<br><br>
Code:
<pre>
23                Plasma Wave     Chromatic Edge          Illumination
              ___/    |        __/              \_______       |
             /        |       /                         \      |
18 Photon Burst   Blinding Ray                           Enfeebling Arc
       |              |       \___                             |
       |              |           \                            |    
13 Projected Force    |             Inner Light             Radiance	
            \____     |                 |                      |
                 \    |                 |                      |
8                Convergent Ray     Scarlet Rain          Refresh Mind
                          \_________    |                      |
                                    \   |                      |
3                                   Energy Bolt           Refresh Body
                                        |      ___________/
                                        |     /
2                                   Color Burst
                                        |
                                        |
1                                     Prism
</pre>
<br><br>
{{big|'''Skills In Detail'''}}
<br><br>
'''Prism'''
<br>This is a free skill given to all Empyreans. This skill cannot be increased. This skill does more damage when the target is vulnerable.
<br>Credits: 0
<br>Vigor: 32
<br>Recovery: 2 seconds
<br>Range: 1 meter
<br><br>
'''Color Burst'''
<br>A projectile attack. This skill does more damage to a target that is vulnerable.
<br>Credits: 1
<br>Vigor: 32
<br>Recovery: 2 seconds
<br>Range: 40 meter
<br>Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50)
<br><br>
'''Energy Bolt'''
<br>A projectile attack.
<br>Credits: 1
<br>Vigor: 60
<br>Recovery: 2 seconds
<br>Range: 40 meter
<br>Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
<br><br>
'''Refresh Body'''
<br>A targeted healing spell.
<br>Credits: 1
<br>Vigor: 100
<br>Recovery: 7 seconds
<br>Range: 40 meters
Damage Healed: 25 (L1) – 250 (L50)
<br><br>
'''Convergent Ray''
<br>A long-range projectile attack.
<br>Credits: 1
<br>Vigor: 80
<br>Recovery: 7 seconds
<br>Range: 60 meters
<br>Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
<br><br>
'''Scarlet Rain'''
<br>A self centered Area-of-Effect attack.
<br>Credits: 1
<br>Vigor: 80
<br>Recovery: 7 seconds
<br>Range: 10 meters, self centered area of effect
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
<br><br>
'''Refresh Mind'''
<br>A targeted vigor healing spell.
<br>Credits: 1
<br>Vigor: 160
<br>Recovery: 7 seconds
<br>Range: 40 meters
Damage Healed: 200 (L1) – 600 (L50)
<br><br>
'''Projected Force'''
<br>A projectile attack that has increased bonuses to critical strikes.
<br>Credits: 1
<br>Vigor: 110
<br>Recovery: 7 seconds
<br>Range: 40 meters
<br>Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Effect: 20% chance to critical hit for double damage
<br><br>
'''Inner Light'''
<br>A vigor regeneration buff.
<br>Credits: 1
<br>Vigor: 1
<br>Recovery: 300 seconds
<br>Range: Self
<br>Duration: 120 seconds
Vigor Regeneration: 3 (L1) – 25 (L50) per second.
<br><br>
'''Radiance'''
<br>A combat speed buff.
<br>Credits: 1
<br>Vigor: 1
<br>Recovery: 300 seconds
<br>Range: Self
<br>Duration: 120 seconds
Speed Increase: 5 (L1) – 40 (L50) percent.
<br><br>
'''Photon Burst'''
<br>A double-projectile attack.
<br>Credits: 2
<br>Vigor: 120
<br>Recovery: 7 seconds
<br>Range: 40 meters
Damage: 10 (L1) – 100 (L50) per bolt.
<br><br>
'''Blinding Ray'''
<br>A numbing attack.
<br>Credits: 2
<br>Vigor: 280
<br>Recovery: 7 seconds
<br>Range: 40 meters
<br>Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50)
<br>Speed Decrease: 10 (L1) – 40 (L50) percent.
Duration: 15 (L1) – 30 (L50) seconds
<br><br>
'''Enfeebling Arc'''
<br>A disease attack.
<br>Credits: 2
<br>Vigor: 220
<br>Recovery: 7 seconds
<br>Range: 40 meters
<br>Damage: 10 (L1) – 100 (L50) per bolt.
<br>Duration: 15 seconds
Vigor Loss: 3 (L1) – 30 (L50) per second.
<br><br>
'''Plasma Wave'''
<br>A powerful projectile attack.
<br>Credits: 2
<br>Vigor: 300
<br>Recovery: 7 seconds
<br>Range: 40 meters
Damage: 12 (L1) – 260 (L50)
<br><br>
'''Chromatic Edge'''
<br>A fellowship weapon buff. Weapons affected by this spell have a chance to do additional armor-bypassing damage on each hit.
<br>Credits: 2
<br>Vigor: 1
<br>Recovery: 4 seconds
<br>Range: Aura
<br>Applied Effect: 10 (L1) – 50 (L50) Damage
Application Percent: 10 (L1) – 30 (L50) percent
<br><br>
'''Illumination'''
<br>A fellowship accuracy buff. 50% of this buff stacks with other accuracy buffs.
<br>Credits: 2
<br>Vigor: 1
<br>Recovery: 4 seconds
<br>Range: Aura
Mastery Added: 1 (L1) – 50 (L50), Half Stacks
<br><br>
{{big|'''The Hieromancer'''}}
<br><br>
Empyreans who delve deeper into the magical arts become Hieromancers. Graduating from the simpler spells of the base magic tree, the Hieromancer concerns himself with three types of magic: Rites, Rituals, and Gestures.
<br><br>
The four Rites (Artifice, Enchantment, Strife, and Verdancy) act as catalysts. These are toggle-skills that do nothing by themselves, but they empower the Ritual spells in different ways. A Hieromancer can only have one Rite on at a time, so they must often switch back and forth between different Rites to get the effect they want.
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The Hieromancer also has seven Rituals in their tree. These elaborate spells take a while to cast, but each one has multiple attacks. The rituals are further enhanced in different ways depending on what Rite is enabled. Rituals scale to 150, while the Rites do not scale past 50.
<br><br>
Finally there are Gestures. With these, the Hieromancer performs a brief, deadly magical gesture and causes great pain to the enemy. Gestures do not gain any advantage from the Rites, however. Gestures scale to 150.
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'''Skill Tree'''
<br><br>
Code:
<pre>
40                                  Ritual of
                                   the Heavens
                                         |
                                         |
35              Gesture of               |               Ritual of
 	         Distortion              |                 Glamour 
                     |                   |         _______/  |
                     |                   |        /          |
30  Ritual of    Ritual of        Rite of Artifice       Ritual of
   Bombardment   Torpidity       /       |                 Blood
            \        |          /        |                   |
             \       |         /         |                   |
25           Rite of Enchantment     Ritual of         Rite of Strife
                     |         \       Agony                 |
                     |          \        |                   |
                     |           \       |                   |
20             Ritual of the      Rite of Verdancy    Gesture of Flame
                 Elements                |                  /   
                         \_____________  |  _______________/  
                                       \ | /
15                                Gesture of Pain
</pre>
<br><br>
'''Skills in Detail'''
<br><br>
'''Gesture of Pain'''
<br>A projectile attack.
<br>Skill Credits: 5
<br>Vigor Cost: 110
<br>Reset Time: 7 seconds
<br>Range: 40 meters
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
<br><br>
'''Gesture of Flame'''
<br>A projectile attack.
<br>Skill Credits: 2
<br>Vigor Cost: 160
<br>Reset Time: 7 seconds
<br>Range: 40 meters
<br>Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Fire Effect: 2 (L1) – 8 (L50) damage / second
<br><br>
'''Gesture of Distortion'''
<br>A projectile attack.
<br>Skill Credits: 3
<br>Vigor Cost: 200
<br>Reset Time: 7 seconds
<br>Range: 40 meters
Damage: 12 (L1) – 260 (L50)
<br><br>
'''Rite of Artifice'''
<br>This rite affects the spellcraft potency of a ritual, causing debuffs to be more effective. (Each Ritual explicitly mentions the effect of having this Rite enabled.) This rite remains active until manually dispelled, or until a different Rite is turned on.
<br>Skill Credits: 2
<br>Vigor Cost: 1
<br>Reset Time: 1 second
Range: Self
<br><br>
'''Rite of Enchantment'''
<br>This rite affects the accuracy aspect of a ritual, bestowing considerable additional accuracy to the projectiles fired by the rituals. This rite remains active until manually dispelled, or until a different Rite is turned on.
<br>Skill Credits: 2
<br>Vigor Cost: 1
<br>Reset Time: 1 second
<br>Range: Self
Effect: Inceases the accuracy of each ritual by 2 (L1) – 100 (L50) unless otherwise specified.
<br><br>
'''Rite of Verdancy'''
<br>This rite affects the armor bypassing aspect of a ritual. Each of the attacks in the ritual bypass a certain amount of the target’s armor. This rite remains active until manually dispelled, or until a different Rite is turned on.
<br>Skill Credits: 2
<br>Vigor Cost: 1
<br>Reset Time: 1 second
<br>Range: Self
Effect: Causes all rituals to bypass 1 (L1) – 50 (L50) percent of the targets armor unless otherwise specified.
<br><br>
'''Rite of Strife'''
<br>This rite affects the damage aspect of a ritual. When active, rituals do additional raw damage. This rite remains active until manually dispelled, or until a different Rite is turned on.
<br>Skill Credits: 2
<br>Vigor Cost: 1
<br>Reset Time: 1 second
<br>Range: Self
Effect: Causes each ritual to execute an additional 3 (L1) – 75 (L50) damage attack unless otherwise specified.
<br><br>
'''Ritual of the Elements'''
<br>A Ritual that destroys the Vigor of enemies.
<br>Skill Credits: 2
<br>Vigor Cost: 220
<br>Recovery Time: 12 seconds
<br>Range: 60 meters
<br>Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50) per bolt / 3 bolts.
<br>Effect: 30 (L1) – 300 (L50) Vigor Damage.
Rite of Artifice: additional 10 (L1) – 100 (L50) Vigor Damage
<br><br>
'''Ritual of Bombardment'''
<br>A Ritual that does area-of-effect bleed damage.
<br>Skill Credits: 3
<br>Vigor Cost: 240
<br>Recovery Time: 12 seconds
<br>Range: 60 meters
<br>Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50) AoE Attack / 3 attacks.
<br>Effect: 2 (L1) – 10 (L50) Damage over Time
Rite of Artifice: Additional 2 (L1) – 8 (L50) Damage over Time.
<br><br>
'''Ritual of Blood'''
A Ritual that damages the accuracy of enemies.
<br>Skill Credits: 3
<br>Vigor Cost: 220
<br>Recovery Time: 12 seconds
<br>Range: 60
<br>Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50) per attack / 3 attacks
<br>Effect: 5 (L1) – 150 (L50) attack skill decrease.
Rite of Artifice: Additional 5 (L1) – 50 (L50) attack skill decrease.
<br><br>
'''Ritual of Glamour'''
<br>A Ritual that enhances fellowship members’ weapons to do additional damage against a certain type of target. The exact nature of the buff depends on which Rite is enabled. (If no Rites are enabled, this Ritual does nothing.)
<br>Skill Credits: 3
<br>Vigor Cost: 220
<br>Recovery Time: 12 seconds
<br>Duration: Permanent (aura buff)
<br>Rite of Artifice: 1% (L1) – 10% (L50) increase to Arcane Damage.
<br>Rite of Enchantment: 1% (L1) – 10% (L50) increase to Decay Damage.
<br>Rite of Strife: 1% (L1) – 10% (L50) increase to Martial Damage.
Rite of Verdancy: %1 (L1) – 10% (L50) increase to Nature Damage.
<br><br>
'''Ritual of Agony'''
<br>A Ritual that strips enemy armor.
<br>Skill Credits: 2
<br>Vigor Cost: 200
<br>Recovery Time: 12 seconds
<br>Range: 60 meters
<br>Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50) per bolt / 3 bolts.
<br>Effect: Decreases the targets armor by 1 (L1) – 100 (L50). This does not stack with other armor debuffs.
Rite of Artifice: Decreases the targets armor by an additional 1 (L1) – 50 (L50). This stacks with other armor debuffs.
<br><br>
'''Ritual of Torpidity'''
<br>A Ritual that reduces Combat Speed.
<br>Skill Credits: 3
<br>Vigor Cost: 220
<br>Recovery Time: 12 seconds
<br>Range: 60 meters
<br>Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50) per bolt / 3 bolts.
<br>Effect: 5 (L1) – 40 (L50) percent combat speed debuff.
Rite of Artifice: Additional 5 (L1) – 10 (L50) percent combat speed debuff
<br><br>
'''Ritual of the Heavens'''
<br>A Ritual that does grave damage and also causes knockback.
<br>Skill Credits: 3
<br>Vigor Cost: 220
<br>Recovery Time: 12 seconds
<br>Range: 60 meters
<br>Damage: 12 (L1) – 260 (L50) per bolt / 3 bolts.
<br>Effect: Target Knockback Effect.
Rite of Artifice: Knockback becomes Area of Effect.
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The Hieromancer is a bit more tactical than some other classes. The rites require the player to make decisions based on what they’re doing and fighting. And the rituals, with their slow, powerful attacks, require some strategy to use successfully. This is not a class for the button-masher. But with skill, the Hieromancer can be one of the most potent classes around.
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Discuss this Letter.
}}