During lunch I was describing Shadowflame and someone thought it sounded like a Fibonacci sequence. Then we started thinking, what if there was a mathematician class? It would deal damage and prevent damage using formulas. I'm not sure how this would work exactly, the only methods I can think of would be completely unbalanced.
As you level up you'd learn new formulas. Talents would allow you to combine formulas.
Formulas would act like DoTs offensively and absorbs or HoTs defensively.
Offense: Pick a formula, say, y=x-squared You would then deal damage in the form of 1, 4, 16, 25... (these would be multipliers of SP, say, 10%) and so on until the DoT ends or it is fully countered. To counter a DoT formula, the person being attacked would have to deal damage within a percentage of the next tick. So let's say we get to the fifth tick for 25 against a 1000 SP mathematician, you would need to do plus or minus 10% of the tick before it happens, so 2500 damage tick for 2250-2750 counter.
Obviously this could be very hard to counter if the mathematician is doing much less damage, but there's the strategy of it. Does the mathematician use big formulas which can be quickly countered or does he go for steady low damage which may not be countered before they have added up to a lot? I suppose linear attacks could be pretty difficult. There would have to be some upper limit as well, otherwise a missed exponential attack could be a guaranteed death. Maybe formulas would only be allowed which have self-imposed limits, such as trig functions (no inverses), anything with a horizontal asymptote, or functions which peak and fall, such as negative x-powers.
Defense: The mathematician attempts the reverse of the previous, attempting to create a formula which will nearly match incoming damage. Success will completely absorb the attack and then heal for some amount based on the previous values of the formula. For example, if you see a mage casting pyroblast (yes, he's standing around for 5 seconds) you might start a formula which on the fifth tick (right as the pyro hits) will hit 10,000.
They would also make pretty good tanks. Set up a pair, sine and cosine and you'll be able to absorb a great deal of steady damage, making them incredibly effective in AoE tanking. For bursts they could anticipate and set up a set of formulas which will reach various peaks around the time the damage will hit.
The mathematician would be very hard to learn since you'd have to anticipate just about everything, but if you do it correctly, you'll be nearly invincible... at least until someone does something entirely unexpected.
Yes, it's mostly a joke.
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