Fanmade:Arcane Warrior

The Arcane Warrior is a highly magic-augmented warrior that could focus equally on melee or missiles. Her main skills are enchantments on her weapons and armor that add elemental or other magical properties.

The Arcane Warrior is not an official class: It's a fan class. Author(s) of the article are: Technomancer (Leord & Holyknight3000 assisted) Concept Art by Boqu

Background

Diablo III Class [e]
Arcane Warrior  Fan-made Class
Role:	Melee/Ranged/Caster hybrid
Primary Attributes:	Strength Dexterity Willpower
Class Skills
Skills and Traits
Background
Origin:	Sanctuary
Affiliation:	Vizjerei
Friends:	None Known
Foes:	Viz-Jaq'taar Assassins

Upon the destruction of the Worldstone 20 years ago, a Vizjerei elder concluded that the mortal powers of Order had failed. Secretly, he went to the Viz-Jaq'taar Assassins to share his concerns and make a proposal. Even though the Prime Evils were defeated, mortal powers and agents were still not powerful enough to save the Worldstone. He feared that following its destruction, things would get worse and proposed that the Assassin's lack of magic was weakness, that the time would soon come to fight fire with fire. He suggested that they should begin to incorporate magic to counter the coming flood. He was rejected outright by most of the clan, and nearly slain on principle, but one Assassin elder had reached a similar conclusion, but didn't know how to act upon it. With this opportunity, he stole away with the Vizjerei elder and a few of the younger clan members, to work on combining their knowledge and powers to create a new breed of mage-knight. Once the Viz-Jaq'taar realized what had transpired, they decreed death for all violators, but the group disappeared and no one had heard from them to this day. All knowledge of what had transpired was hidden.

They spent years hidden away from the world in the northern reaches near the ruined Mount Arreat. They honed their skills, focusing less on subversion and more on direct confrontation. From the Assassin's understanding of the mind and martial combat and the Vizjerei elder's understanding of the Elemental magics, a marriage was made into magically enhanced warriors. This combination of studies gave special insights into the nature of the world and gave these new warriors the power to tap into the very elemental threads that are woven into our world and weave them into their own bodies and equipment. They also gained some insight into exploring the Ether. They spent a great deal of time developing methods of countering and diffusing hostile magicks and it's practitioners, as per Assassin tradition, up close and at range. They also knew, however, that the demonic hordes need not rely on magic to wreak their destruction, so great emphasis was also placed on raw combat power and fortitude.

With the coming of the falling star, they knew that their time had arrived. They re-emerged into the world to discover what foul forces were involved. While two of the apprentices were away doing reconnaissance, their base of operations was utterly destroyed. Most were killed, the rest were missing. The elders were not among the remains, nor were there any clues as to the perpetrators. Had the Assassins finally caught up to them? Was it the mustering forces of evil? The two apprentices had no answers, but were determined to fulfill their duties. They ventured into the world on their own to discover what evil schemes plotted against Sanctuary and to put it to an end... or die trying...

Character Design

The Arcane Warrior is a highly magic augmented warrior that could focus equally on melee or missiles. Her main skills are enchantments on her weapons and armor that add elemental or other magical properties, possibly even castable on allies. In D2 terms, it'd be something of a cross between a Paladin, Amazon, and Assassin.

Attributes and Skills

Base level Enchantment skills are cast by the character and last until overridden with new Enchantments or dispelled. They can be passively augmented with more spectacular effects with different skills. Can have only 1 Weapon and 1 Armor Enchantment active at a time. When special effects are triggered, they automatically drain mana, and if there is no mana, effect is cancelled.

Arcane Warrior Skills

The Arcane Warrior skills are arranged into to three distinctive skill tree categories:

• Steel & Fire
• Pax Arcanna
• Terra Firma

All three trees have a combination of active and passive skills. Active skills are used in combat, while the passive skills boost or change the behaviour of the active skills.

In each tree, Tier I has a master Weapon Enchantment (2 in Steel & Fire), and Tier II has a master Armor Enchantment. Additional Enchantments are simply augmentations of those skills. The master skills are Burn, Jolt, Spellbind, and Frostbite for weapons and Flame Armor, Mystic Fortress, and Rockform for armor.

Steel & Fire Skills

This tree focuses on speed and raw destructive output. Uses Fire and Lightning. "A good defense is a good offense."

Tier I:

• Burn: Active. Enchants Weapon. Adds fire damage to attacks and increases accuracy. Enables additional Fire Weapon Enchantments.
• Jolt: Active. Enchants weapon. Adds electrical damage to attacks and increases attack speed. Enables additional Lightning Weapon Enchantments.
• Lightning Spirit: Passive. Increase attack speed and accuracy.
• Channeling the Flame: Passive. Increases damage done by Enchantments in this tree.

Tier II:

• Twitch: Active. Missile attack. Essentially a Missile based Zeal or fixed # Strafe.
• Flame Armor: Active. Enchant Armor. Deal fire damage to any melee attackers. Enables additional Fire Armor Enchantments.
• Flame Spray: Passive. Enchants Weapon. Adds a chance to cause a spherical firewall centered on target.
• Lightning Rod: Passive. Enchants Weapon. When enemy is struck, a lightning bolt goes from character through target. Can trigger multiple bolts from one attack. More useful for multiple missiles against clustered enemies.
• Missile Mastery: Passive. Increases Damage, Accuracy, and Crit. % of Missile attacks.

Tier III:

• Sweep: Active. Melee attack. Spins once in a circle, striking any surrounding enemies within range.
• Flame Sabres: Active. Spell. Creates floating swords made of fire that seek targets to attack and deal fire damage. They stay around until attacked and destroyed.
• Flame Nova: Passive. Enchants Weapon. Can trigger a fire based nova from target. Increasing rank increases size of effect.
• Chain Static: Passive. Enchants Weapon. Causes electrical damage to target that jumps to nearby enemies, quickly rippling through tightly packed groups.
• Conflagration: Passive. Enchant Armor. When hit, has a chance of causing the ground around the character to burst into flames for xx seconds.

Tier IV:

• Ricochet: Active. Missile attack. When a target is struck, the arrow jumps to the nearest target. Every time a target is struck, the arrow keeps retargetting up to a skill based maximum or until it misses one.
• Thunderclap: Passive. Enchants Weapon. When attacking, has a chance of calling down a lightning bolt on top of character, knocking all foes back next to character and dealing damage.
• Burst: Passive. Enchants Armor. When an enemy attacks, has a chance of causing explosive fire damage to targets adjacent to character, knocking them back.
• Fire Elemental: Passive. Activates if Burn or Jolt and Flame Armor are active. Transforms into a Fire Elemental, dealing extra fire and increasing Fire and Lightning damage. Also, absorbs fire damage.

Pax Arcanna Skills

This tree focuses on penetrating and neutralizing hostile magics and magicians. Uses skills that interfere with magic, and uses teleportation offensively and defensively. "What good is magic if you're unable to use it?"

Tier I:

• Displace: Active. Melee attack. On striking, teleport to another random position next to target. The confusion enhances your defense for x seconds. Has a 3 second cooldown.
• Spellbind: Active. Enchants weapon. Has a chance to silence target. Enables additional Magical Weapon Enchantments.
• Resist Affliction: Passive. Decreases the chance that negative condition magics can affect character, like chill, slow, silence, etc. and also decreases the duration of such effects if they get through.
• Enhanced Spellbinding: Passive. Increases the duration of all effects caused by skills from this tree.

Tier II:

• Dispel: Active. Spell. Sends out a shockwave that will dispel any negative magic effects on friendly units.
• Mystic Fortress: Active. Enchants armor so that when attacked, fires a silence bolt at attacker. Enables additional Magical Armor Enchantments.
• Interference: Passive. Enchants weapon to inflict a condition that causes target's casting rate to be greatly decreased.
• Skip: Passive. Enchant Armor. When attacked, has a chance of teleporting to a random location within range. Could be annoying to some players, but to those who thrive on chaos, welcome home! Could be a particularly useful defense for range-based characters. Will not teleport through walls or closed doors.
• Arcane Defenses: Passive. Increases resistance to arcane magics.

Tier III:

• Summon: Active. Spell. When cast on a target, causes them to be teleported right next to caster. Doesn't work on bosses or other characters.
• Short Circuit: Active. Spell. Cast on a single target. Caster loses half and target loses all mana, adjusted for Arcane resistance. (may not be very relevant, because they may not keep track of enemy mana. PvP uses would be neat-o.)
• Blood Price: Passive. Enchant Weapon. Adds mana damage and inflicts a condition on target that causes any abilities that drain Mana to drain an equal amount of Health as well.
• Absorb Magic: Passive. Enchants armor. Has a chance of absorbing spells cast at character, eliminating damage and restoring however much mana that skill cost.
• Enhanced Evocation: Passive. Increases chances that any Weapon or Armor Enchantments will activate.

Tier IV:

• Shift Stirke: Active. Melee. Quickly teleport next to an enemy, attack, then zips back to her original location. If hit, she's stuck where she's at.
• Disruption: Active Spell. Sends out a shockwave that destroys any enemy spells, offensive or defensive, within the given radius. Does not affect friendly units (ie. use Dispel to get rid of negative effects).
• Tiamat: Passive. Enchants weapon. Adds elemental damage of fire, cold and lightning to attacks. Enhanced by Burn, Jolt, and Frostbite. Only works if Spellbind is active.
• Reflect: Passive. Enchants armor to have a chance of reflecting magics cast at character.
• Efficient Evocation: Passive. Decreases mana costs incurred when Enchantment effects trigger.

Terra Firma Skills

This tree focuses more on defense and fortitude. Attacks are based on strength more than speed. Uses Stone/Earth and Cold. "The mountain need not fear the storm." (Note: Earth elemental skills are only called that for conceptual reasons and cause physical damage, not an "earth elemental" damage type. That is, unless Blizzard adds that.)

Tier I:

• Ethereal Anchor: Active. Missile attack. A successful attack can anchor the foe in place, unable to move, but can still attack. Doesn't work on bosses or other players.
• Frostbite: Active. Enchants Weapon. Adds cold damage to attacks and chills targets. Enables additional Cold Enchantments
• Immovability: Passive. Decreases the chance that any effect can cause the character to move against his will, ie. knockback effects.
• Quenching the Flame: Passive. Increases damage done by Enchantments in this tree.

Tier II:

• Stone Guardian: Active. Spell. Creates a floating fist of stone that randomly attacks nearby foes. Certain runes may add Knockback.
• Rockform: Active. Enchants Armor. Increases Defense and Damage Reduction. Enables additional Stone Enchantment.
• Project Cold: Passive. Enchants Weapon. Chills enemies within a given radius.
• Inertia: Passive. Causes attacks to physically pack more force. Increases physical damage and with Missile attacks, increases the distance the missiles will travel.
• Melee Mastery: Passive. Increase Damage, Accuracy, and Crit. % of Melee attacks.

Tier III:

• Torque: Active. Melee or missile attack. Slower attack, but does much more damage. If missile, it travels faster (if engine supports that).
• Stalagmite: Active. Spell. Summons a spike of solid rock from the earth at the desired location. Any enemies nearby take physical damage and pillar remains as an obstacle until destroyed.
• Icicle: Passive. Enchants Weapon. Has a chance of causing a giant Icicle to fall on target, causing splash damage to nearby foes.
• Attunement: Passive. Increases resistance to fire/ice/lightning.

Tier IV:

• Anvil of the Earth: Active. Melee attack. Crushing attack with cooldown time that does highly increased damage to target and nearby targets.
• Ice Shield: Active. Spell. Creates a literal shield made of solid ice. If a shield is being used, it enhances it defenses and blocking. Without a shield, it floats near caster and confers double the blocking bonus that Ice Shield adds to a shield and can be used with 2-handed weapons.
• Jagged Shards: Passive. Enchants Armor. Causes sharp rock protrusions to spring from armor, causing physical damage on melee attackers. Against missile attacks, has a chance of shattering the missile, causing no damage. Against attackers that have weapon Durability (ie. PvP), has an equal chance of reducing Durability of attackers melee weapon by one.
• Earth Elemental: Passive. Activates if Frostbite and Rockform are both active. Transforms into Stone. Makes Earth and Ice skills do more damage, adds defense. Also, adds resistances to cold and lightning.

Development

The Arcane Warrior was first posted 9 June 2009 [1] by Technomancer on the Diii.net forums. It was re-posted as a wiki article by Holyknight3000 and Leord on 10 June 2009. The wiki and original post were updated by Technomancer with a major update/overhaul on 17 June 2009. The wiki and original post were updated by Technomancer to add more passives and change the skill layout to better match the Diablo 3 schemes on 22 June 2009.

Technomancer Notes

This is a pretty large overhaul on the original idea, which I kept in quotes at the bottom of the original message board post. This class is now something of a D2 combination of Paladin, Amazon, and Assassin. This is pretty much a full class now, without technical game stats. I thought it was a good idea to change primary gender to female, not just because of Boqu's awesome artwork, but I always thought it would be cool to have a female character that could hold the front lines shoulder to shoulder with the Barbarian!

Media

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  Arcane Warrior Concept by Boqu

References

• Original post
• Technomancer's profile
• Boqu's Profile
• Diablo Fan Art Gallery