This post is a response to:
https://x.com/thomasmahler/status/1831970626015223902
For people who don’t have X:
I am limiting myself to Faith based builds as it is what interest me most.
Faith
I would like it if Faith leaned even more into the Zealotry of the Inquisition and go full Warhammer on it. Faith/Strength hybrids could be similar to warpriests from OG Warhammer. You split the runes in half, where one half is weapon skills and the other half is Faith based skills. Or you tie Faith bases runes to the offhands as well. Give us a holy book or a censor as a offhand, each of which has unique runes that can be equipped and offer a different playstyle.
I would love for there to be a Holy element as an opposite to the Plague. It could function as a primer, which you have to apply first, it debuffs the enemy and if you then hit it with the Holy element they explode in holy damage. It would have an internal cooldown.
The Holy Book could have religiously themed runes that are more magical in nature and focus on support and direct damage, such as:
- Holy Chains: golden illuminated chains hold an enemy in position and apply them with the holy element.
- Holy Hymns: a psalm from the holy book begins to sing on it’s own, Cerim are mute, when it is done casting/channeling it deals massive AOE damage, or it weakens enemies for the duration, deals damage with each tick, heals in an AOE (co-op), etc.
- Holy Bells: the bells from the church are summoned from the holy book and ring causing enemies to grab their head in pain as it briefly stuns them.
- Holy Ray: The book will float in front of you and shoot a holy ray at your cursor, like a channel.
- Spirit Crusader: Summon a ghostly Crusader which will temporarily fight for you and draw agro. (Tanky boi)
- Holy Orbs: Summon X floating orbs around you that seek out nearby enemies
The Holy Censor could then focus more on condemning enemies, debuffing them and buffing yourself, focus more on zealotry and judgement:
- Condemnation: begin swinging the censor releasing a cloud of holy smoke that primes enemies (functions similar to Molecular Prime from Nova in Warframe). It also causes them to cough in place for a while.
- Wail of the Forgotten: bring the censor up high and summon the spirits of the deceased as they wail in a holy chorus in a cone shaped AOE in front of you - deals Holy damage. Drains Focus as you use it, and gives you a small buff which increases in duration if enemies were killed by it.
- Holy Smoke Veil: spin around in a circle causing a smoke wall around you that briefly blocks all projectiles.
- Smoke Double: create a stationary copy of yourself of smoke which draws agro and then primes each enemy that hits it.
- Holy Miasma: release a holy miasma that increases stats like attack speed, damage etc whilst you remain inside it, enemies entering it are primed and debuffed.
- Last Rites: Wave the censor over a recently defeated enemy to gain a short buff and spawn an additional resource drop from the slain enemy.
So the Holy Book focusses more on ranged combat and support like abilities for priests and the censor offers more support for melee and deceptive abilities, offering more options for inquisitors or something. Basically each offhand offers a unique set of runes and playstyle that can then be combined with a melee weapon. I would love to wield both a hammer and holy book to roleplay as a warpriest, or a sword and censor and roleplay a holy assassin.
Pure Faith casters can then use both the Holy Book and the Holy Censor or a 2h staff.
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I think the old Cleric rules still applies here, clerics should be all about heals and fighting undead, maybe demons if the specialization is there in the future promised skill tree.
I like your ideas of runes, i think the casters could be separated in DPS and crowd control, with DOTs and pure dmg being more a fire mage, ice more CC and so on.
It will all depend on the skill tree they come up with, so we can even mix and match classes without being able to go too deep on a skill tree if you try to multiclass.
I hated Skyrims approach to this, being able to be good at everything was not ok in my book, if you specialize you should be more powerful in that role, but with less options than a jack of all trades.
My fellow Faith lover. I fully agree they should let us embrace the Inquisition in the game since they are a major presence, even in the small snippet of story we have. Warhammer 40k is an absolutely awesome inspiration for how to let us specialize. When it comes down to it, I think there are some main “flavors” of Faith classes:
- Paladin
- Cleric
- Priest
- Zealot (ex. Vermintide 2)
It was said in another Enchantment thread but I think this would be a good opportunity to not only think in terms of buffs but other methods to support your allies. A tank does not only absorb damage by standing between you and and the enemy, they provide bastions of safety. I think that Paladins (Shields with high Faith requirements) could have runes that create a wall in front of you that you can move around with to block projectiles, or you can slam your shield into the ground causing strong Stagger/Poise damage.
I think it would be best to lay out just what each class/specialization could be themed around:
- Cleric
- Specializing in a blend of front-line but also spellcasting.
- Clerics are normally meant to be tankier but also wanting to help. They’d have a mixture of tools to stay in the front but also spells that can bolster themselves and allies.
- Priest
- Specializing in spells, supporting from afar.
- There spells can be supportive in nature but also condemning the heretics. A strong theme of fire.
- Paladin
- Specializing in being in the front protecting your allies.
- Runes to support this could be a barrier/wall that you project in front and it moves with you. (ex. Braum from League of Legends and Reinhardt from Overwatch)
- Zealot
- A more unique approach to a front-liner. They’d lay their life down for their allies and/or deity so they’re all about fighting until the end, a dangerous approach.
- It’d be interesting if they could somehow absorb the damage allies take and suffer it instead.
I think your Holy Book and Holy Censor are good ideas to help sell the idea of religious fanatics. I think it would be interesting if Holy Chains locked you into channeling the stun/root, being the support to let your allies dispatch them swiftly. Being able to prime enemies is also interesting as a way to buff allies without pure damage buffs.
Last Rites reminds me of Desecrate from Nekros in Warframe, haha.
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do you think we could “hijack” your post and just collect all the class diversity feedback here? I now yours is specific about faith, but i think it would be better if we had all class diversity suggestions in one place, and not a thread for each subclass?
let me know what u think @RomoloHero
@Chemile0n
I would prefer to keep this one exclusive to Faith based classes. I understand your intention since we might get multiple topics parroting the same etc, so information in one place might be helpful. However, I think exclusive topics might be more helpful since there is not much overlap between elemental classes and faith based classes. Faith based classes have almost no identity at the moment and need to be designed from the ground up. Whereas the elemental classes need a redesign.
I would also suggest limiting elemental class discussion to this topic as it is fairly recent:
https://forum.norestforthewicked.com/t/magic-diversity/13972
Again, I understand with wanting to prevent clutter in the forums, but I do think limiting it to two distinct topics: faith & elemental can also work out.
Cheers for asking tho.
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I think that could also be quite cool for co-op. If you play with your friends and you all roleplay as members of the church and inquisition and everyone picks a different role. I think having some kind of witch hunter from Warhammer could also be really cool. Give them a one-handed crossbow and sword, and give them some assassination abilities.
I also quite like your Zealot idea where you can basically become a martyr for your allies. Like some kind of chain link where you take X% damage from your ally, very cool. I do hope Paladins focus more on Tower Shields and are seen as divine protectors - and flails. We need flails to flay our enemies.
Oh that is 100% my inspiration 
I have too many hours into that game, Saryn/Ember main when I did play 
Also did some Nova Wormhole trolling xd
I think it should be more about builds than roles, since the inquisition is clearly the future enemy here, the Madrigal has no respect for the old Cerim ways of fighting the plague, she will open that gate by force and just make things worse.
We are Cerim, not inquisition, and the game is more action than rpg for us to make decisions and have different roles with choices and consequences.
Given what Thomas has said, he wants both. He wants builds to support the class fantasies we have in mind. I understand your point though about not being Inquisition-themed.
I’d still want the roleplay option of aligning myself with the inquisition tho. Maybe we get ousted for our decisions during the game and then later we fight the corruption inside the church and ensure that the Madrigal comes to her senses. Thomas did say somewhere that we could fix her so 
Oh im all for choices and consequences, but that would lead to a whole lot of issues since the devs should limit the scope of these choices or the amount of cutscenes will be too much for them to handle, would delay the game a lot.
