After City State Entertainment (CSE) presented the archetype of the Shapeshifters last week, the choice of the community this time fell on the three classes of the Scouts, one of three stealth archetypes (Scout, Veilwalker/-stalker & Archer) of the RvR MMORPG Camelot Unchained.
The Scouts are the only class trio in the game with the ability to actively sneak (Stealth). This is a very powerful sneaking mechanic that the Scouts need to be practical. However, since fighters with such a mechanic would be too difficult to balance, the Scouts cannot assassinate or kill their opponents, but they can certainly make their lives a hell with many tricks. More on this at the end of the article.
All this creates a unique class concept, especially intended for players who prefer scouting and supporting their team rather than actively fighting.
The Scout divides into the following three different classes:
Specters
Specters (Arthurian) are the cunning scouts of King Arthur, who do not appear dangerous at first glance. Instead, Specter appear rather average to others and lack any special combat skill, but their hidden talents are all the more impressive, as they are able to bring their shadows to life.
In this ghostly form, they move faster than the other classes and are also harder to detect (Stealth bonus) than the scouts of the other realms. This makes them ideal scouts and facilitates the discovery of enemies and the spying of important locations. However, their abilities go far beyond mere scouting. They can not only set traps that reveal the location of opponents upon contact, but also instill fear in and attack enemies from the shadows, which does not cause damage to the victim but drains their blood (similar to mana in other MMOs), which the Specter can now use for their own abilities.
Specters are hard to kill, regenerate quickly, and possess all the skills that make a good scout, thus often being a nose ahead of their two counterparts. While the other two classes are able to scout for quite a while when everything goes well, the Specters are subject to a time limitation. The longer they remain in shadow form, the stronger they become, but the damage they suffer increases as well.
Wisps
The Wisps (Tuatha Dé Danann) are able to summon will-o’-the-wisps with a magical lantern, which they can control individually with the help of their mind. At night, the abilities of the will-o’-the-wisps reach their full potential. The Wisps are thus excellent “spotters” as they can not only blind their enemies with light but also make them visible in the dark with the help of a light spell (AoE), making them an easy target for the allies of the Wisp.
At the same time, however, it is also most dangerous for the Wisps at night, as the will-o’-the-wisps begin to glow stronger with each ability they use, making even hidden will-o’-the-wisps easy to detect. Fortunately, thanks to their teleportation capability, they are not easy to catch. If an opponent manages to catch one of the will-o’-the-wisps, the Wisps can quickly switch to one of the other summoned will-o’-the-wisps or back to their own body.
In all of this, the lantern plays an important role. It serves not only to summon and transport the will-o’-the-wisps, but also heals them. Furthermore, the Wisps can pass their lantern to allies who can take it into battle, allowing the Wisp to remain in a safe location. If the lantern ever falls into enemy hands and is destroyed, it takes some time for it to regenerate and become operational again.
Arisen
The Arisen (Viking), also known as Draugr, are according to Scandinavian folklore the dead who continue to “live” in their burial mounds and pose a great threat to the people around them. Such a grave arises whenever an Arisen sacrifices themselves in a special ritual, allowing them to resurrect in a new undead form. As zombie-like creatures, they possess high regeneration, are very stealthy (better stealth than the Wisp) and have many other advantages. They instill fear in enemies and possess a range of debuffs that can drive their opponents to despair. They can, for example, hinder the movement of opponents with their “vomit”. This and many other abilities are hard to interrupt due to their unlife.
Such advantages come at a price. The Arisen is very vulnerable to damage from slashing weapons, fire, and light magic due to their undead nature. Moreover, they are also very stationary, as whenever an Arisen strays too far from their grave or it is destroyed, they disintegrate into dust. This makes them the scouts with the least reconnaissance range, but they can compensate for this with a trick. They can place a curse on an opponent that is invisible to them, which keeps the Arisen and their allies constantly informed of the location of the cursed.
Scouts are like Gremlins… weak but extremely annoying!
Scouts are the suitable class for infiltrating enemy defenses. However, they cannot only scout them. They can, for example, learn to use telekinesis to move, damage objects, thus causing chaos among the enemies. And even if they cannot directly attack a physical player, it is – according to Mark Jacobs – possible for them to rely on other things to harm opponents.
However, the Scouts don’t have it quite so easy. They can be hunted by other classes, and their projections can be caught and killed by enemies.
Scouts might be capable of passing through constructed objects like walls. And of course, it will be possible to stand against them, either through class-based skills, objects/traps, or special modifications made by craftsmen for walls and blocks.
There might even be ghost dogs inspired by mythological hellhounds. These could warn of Scouts or hunt them.
However, these subtleties of the sneaking system are still in development and may or will certainly change. The team has enough time for refinement since the Scouts are one of the four archetypes that may only enter the game after release in the following order: Stealth classes (Scouts & Veilwalker/Veilstalker), ghost pet classes, and finally the shapeshifters introduced last week.
