[Elite spec concept/suggestion:]Havroun

[Thornwolf.9721]

Havrouns are uncommon norn shamans. Their duty is to tend to the Spirits' needs in this life and after. They are able to cross over into the Mists to be with their patron spirit where they can live forever. They need no portal or ritual to cross over, unless they are taking others with them. There is only one havroun per Spirit of the Wild, although they may pass the havroun title to their apprentices once they cross over. Owl had a havroun who confirmed the death of Owl, and as such he was the last Havroun of Owl. No norn has been blessed as havroun for the Ox, Eagle, and Wolverine spirits in generations. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Havroun

The world is collapsing in on itself under the pressure of our various battles; Balthazars actions have led to chaos and war with both the magic now abundant in our world and the dragons themselves. The shamans of the north have felt this and the spirits bid them to take action; Though they are not as skilled in combat as a warrior they are immensely powerful and capable of great and terrible things. The havrouns have heard of the various mist walkers who have come back to this realm in the time of the jungle dragon; And have chosen to teach these beings how to follow the path of the spirits. Their ties to the mists make them capable of feats even the havrouns rooted in our world could only dream; When proven worthy of the spirits trust they become blessed champions who can both destroy and protect this world. "Walk with the spirits and know, you never hunt alone."

Points of interest

• The spec itself will focus on the spirits of the wild; Your F2 -5 will encompass their various shapes and forms which you take to do battle and empower your abilities. Within these states of power you become a werebeast; You maintain your weapons and gain mist armor ontop of your form. These forms Imbue your weapon skills with new effects and functions based upon your current form; The form lasts until toggled off or changed to the next form. There is also an Idea of a time limit upon the forms you take which would make more sense; Adding glowing markings upon the form which flicker with mist energy as it counts down. The stages in which this happens would start with for example Red=>Blue=>White=>Form collapse when this transpires both the player and the enemy would know when the form is about to drop; Meaning it could play as a good tell for those against the shaman and a good indicator for the shaman and his/her allies that they are about to loose or fall out of that blessing. This would make it function much like the old "Ursan" build from guild wars, making it you stay in the form longer the more damage you take and the longer you fight... but collapse out of it when there is no battle to be had.

Class specific buff: Ancients power. Ancients power is a buff which helps scale the damage of your allies by the amount of damage you take while in beast form; When swapping forms you will consume your stacks and send them tethering out to allies within the range threshold offering them increased power,condition damage and life leech as long as they stay within your range threshold. Additionally each of your skills grows by a % of the total stack amount you have. This roughly caps out to about 25 - 45 % toward your total damage increase; But you have to choose wisely because your allies are as much your charge to protect as your enemies are for you to destroy.

The weapons in question for this spec stand as either a Scepter or a Greatsword. With the Scepter I imagine they could give us a focus as well to really sell the shaman vibe of this class; Only letting our weapons change in function to be more melee orientated once we transform. The other Idea here is that when you transform into your beast form; You combine your weapons together to make a "Mist" weapon based on that blessing. For example when you turn into bear you could combine them together into a "Great-axe" and get skills based on that weapon, large AoE cleave melee damage that sunders and causes CC. Where as Wolf you might simply get your claws imbued with the power of the mists and get more of a bestial combatant who fights hand to hand with foes? I am unsure as of this point which would look better, but for the sake of the argument Im going to say Scepter/focus as we are melee heavy class as is and having a long range casting weapon who managed to put out decent damage would be nice.

Weapon Skills for Scepter/Focus: If you would prefer Greatsword than write up your own variant of the skills for this spec down below; Im merely going with what I would prefer. All Ideas are welcome.

1. Mist fang===> Mist Claw===> Mist collapse. The three hit combination of the scepter would focus on attacking your opponent with various spiritual bites, claws and then finally a collapse which has a 2s windup and knocks down your opponent. The collapse could share the wind up animation of the mace's fissure ability; But with a more deliberate tell so that the enemy could know what is coming. Mist Fang could apply vulnerability 2 stacks, and then mist claw could perhaps focus on a chunk of minor burst damage/ chill?
2. Ravens Descent: Summon a group of spirit ravens who burst forth from the caster Similar to the Trident's skill 4 which is a barrage of mist orbs. The Ravens after a short time launch themselves at your enemy dealing burst damage; The Ravens lock onto your target and will follow them as long as you are within range of your target. They gain more utility with one of your traits.
3. Howl of the Pack: Howl with the ferocity of wolf and summon three spirit wolves to aid you in your plight; The wolves last for a duration of 10s and teleport to your target harassing them with continuous damage. The teleport on the wolves consists of a knock down as its meant to act as if you are hunting with your pack, The wolves apply bleeding and weakness and explode for a bit of burst damage when they expire. They can not be killed for the duration and will vanish should the caster die or leave the range threshold of the skill, they bennefit from some of your traits.Focus Abilities
   • Maul: Swipe through the mists and rend apart your foes with the mighty claws of bear; Apply might onto yourself and allies around you upon activation and provide a two swipe ranged bash which knocks enemies back in an AoE cone infront of the caster. This ability applies vulnerability and bleeding, as well gives regeneration to the caster and the allies of the caster for 5s.
   • Leopards Charge: Call upon the power of leopard and become shrouded in invisibility for 15s; You gain super-speed and retaliation during the duration of this skill and with traits can shroud your group up to 5 people only for the duration.

New Utilities: Meditations

1. Blessing of the Wilds: Upon activation call forth for the spirits to aid you in your battle; Call forth the Arctic winds of the far north to surround you in a hurricane of healing and protection for 5s. All projectiles in this time frame will be reflected as you will also apply chill to foes who dare step into your malestrom; Allies as well yourself will be healed for the duration for a large amount. The skill as a 3s cast time but is extremely powerful; Offering good utility for both solo play and group play as it is both a Heal and technically A CC.
2. Blessing of Bear: Become Immune to damage for 10sThink Endure pain. And become immune to cc for the duration; Within this time frame your attacks are unblock-able but at the end of the skills use you gain vulnerability and cripple upon yourself for exerting so much of your power.
3. Blessing of Wolf: Howl with the might of the ancient alpha, granting boons to allies and causing a shock-wave which silences those who dare oppose you. A tiny bit of "Save yourselves" in this one. Upon activation this skill also provides alacrity to all those within the immediate area who are on your side, and causes enemies to be chilled.
4. Blessing of Snow Leopard: Teleport to your enemy and strike at them from behind knocking them down with a mighty blow; Activate again to teleport back to your original location within a 3s window.
5. Ult. Blessing of Raven: Call forth the power of raven and become imbued with his dark spiritual power; upon activation you will roar with his cry and from you will blast black feathers that fire outward all around you. Enemies hit by this ability will become rooted and will suffer the bombardment of spirit ravens who continuously swoop down upon them and deal damage, and cause blindness. The Ravens also life-steal for the caster and for each enemy struck by their bombardment the caster will regain 10% health for each blow landed, the skill last roughly 15s.

TraitsMinor Traits:

1. Mist walker: Gain stability when swaping legends, upon entering into a beast form gain retaliation and might 4stacks.
2. Warden: Upon taking damage gain a second more of your beast form; The more damage taken the more time gained.
3. Spirits chosen: Spirit of the Wild utilities offer bonus effects based upon specific conditions. ( When under x% Health get life leech, EcT.)
4. Gain Energy while taking damage at an increased rate

Major Traits:Top Row Traits:

1. For Glory!: Whenever you change to another legend the power of the wilds imbues their skills with new and terrifying effects. Example: When swapping to shiro and using his heal skill your jade blades will become imbued with the power of raven; Thus summoning six raves who ALSO fly forward and collect healing as well cause damage.
2. Primal Echos: Your beast forms now gain specific benefits dependent of what legend you happen to be in? Example: When taking on a beast form in mallyx you will apply more torment and burning than prior, as well your weapon skills will appropriately alter themselves to be best for your build based on your legend. (We see this with the triden.)
3. Mountains Defiance: Upon being put into the downed state become surrounded by pillars of the north for a short time, within these pillars the spirits will "Attempt" to aid you and bring you back from the brink of death as well keep enemies away from you. Lasts 10s and has a 60s time out.

Middle row of traits:

1. Roar of the legends: Upon activating a new legendary stance proc a massive roar which echos out over the shaman; The roar is a mass CC which knocks enemies down and offers protections to the caster and those nearby. It also gains bennefits based upon the legend you are swapping too( when swapping to shiro it will apply five stacks of vulnerability, mallyx will corrupt boons ect.)
2. Champions Stance: When in Beast form you become less likely to take immense amounts of damage, gain protection and retaliation while within your beast stance as well gain a buff based on your current beast form. ( Bear gives more health, wolf gives more attack speed, raven gives bleeds and leopard grants swiftness.)3.Shamans Gambit: Your "Ravens Descent" And "Howl of the pack" abilities have a longer duration and summon more ravens/wolves. They also now provide increased life leech and grant you more "Ancients power".

Bottom Row of traits:

1. Havrouns Calling: Increases your healing effectiveness, and vitality by a % of your current power threshold.
2. Alpha: When surrounded by team-mates take 10% less damage for each person in your group near you, Like wise increase their effectiveness in combat by half of your total damage reduction %.
3. Shattered blessing: Upon the end or interruption of a blessing summon a mighty bear spirit who will knock down your enemy for 3s, This ability can only proc every 35s and can be dodged.

The armor that should come with this should look something like the havrouns armor that is currently in the game. Something similar to this, if that means it must be an earn-able outfit than so be it. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/f/fb/CulturePaletteNornNPCs_-_render.jpg

Some more information on the Norn spirits and the havrouns as a whole can be found here ====>https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/A_Spirit_of_Legend

Werebeast Concept Ideas that A-net never used, these come with markings included so that way when in these shapes you can have a tell as to when they will run out. https://wiki.guildwars.com/images/6/64/%22Were_Beasts%22_concept_art.jpg

The Guild wars 1:Eye of the North cover art of a norn bear form, which could also be used. http://www.tribegaming.com/filedata/fetch?id=715515&d=1344091704 Granted that this would need to be expanded upon the fit the other spirits as well but it is doable as the models and assets are there.

Conclusion:Thank you for reading my concept and feel free to post your Ideas down below, I would love to get worthwhile feedback as well have people discuss what they would like to see and what they could add to this to make it that much better of a concept @Arenanet please review this concept and see if it is worth exploring.