I am very late in commenting this, but i managed to catch up.. anyway
By a pure aesthetic point of view this is probably my favourite class so far, the design really gives a grim reaper vibe (a giant scythe would fit just perfectly)
I also like the fact that chains are integral part of the class considering the wraith himself is inprisoned between the realm of the dead and the realm of the living forever cursed so walk in both like a shadow but belonging to none, the chains themself are a constant reminder of his eternal torment
speaking of chains it remembered me a bit about Spawn
Which is totally not a bad thing
I wonder if the chains themsef will be visible in the fisical form or just in the magical/spiritual one
I also like the fact that the vest of the wraith seems to be part of him and that it dissipates in shadows near the edges
Shadows are also something that resonates strongly when looking at the arts, i like to think that is a rappresentation of the wraith being a shadow of an alive being (his former self) and not even to be considered a true soul/spirit
It also resonates with the fact the the wraith seems to be proficent with stealth and remaing hidden untill it choose to reveal himself and is hinted that they are frighteningly efficient as assassins to the point where they are sought among the undead when a job like that needs to be done
The spiritual form is also very cool, it's not the clearest view but it can be seen the core of the wraith screaming with agony and in the chest part is present a structure similar to a ribcage that almost seem to reinforce the concept of eternal torment and imprisonement in which the spiritual essence inside is constantly subject
So pain appears to be another theme for this class like fury for the revenant, insatiable hunger for the gouhl ecc.
The general design may be inspired (apart from the figure of the grim reaper which is probably the main source of inspiration) also by Nazguls from the Lord of the Rings (in the story of the class it is mentioned a terrifiying shrieking and i unconscontly recalled their cry from the movies
)
Another obvious inspiration would be hounted houses and castles with evil spirits infesting them, only glimpsed by the living while their sounds can be heard from time to time (also all the classic stuff: objects misteriusly changing place,dragged chains, voices, allucinations about humanoid figures at the windows ecc.)
Anyway i would love to see a video where they explain the refences and sources of inspiration about his appereance
In the class description is mentioned a ritual in order to create the undead wich means it could potially be the only undead artificially created, so to speak (although other means for them to come in existance may actually exist that we still we don't know of, for examples humans dying in a cursed place)
finally the class stats are basically 1/3 bar vitality, 2/3 magic and 2/3 essence so the last two will be presumably where the class can express itself better
with all this in mind i tried to imagine how the class powers could work (i premise that i am imagining the game to give different kind of damage depending by the status the character find himself in):
CHAINS/ESSENCE MAGIC:
Chain pain binding - So the chains according to the description seem to be like a sort of pain injectors capable of binding several enemies at the time, i imagine it to be a sort of AOE stun attack that gains additional negative status on enemies the more the battle continues
other uses may be
chains slashing/whipping - the attack damage the essence/soul of the enemy, the target feels a terrible and painful laceration inside despite no visible wound can be seen
chain sting . the chain retract and than dash forward like a scorpion tail to a single target producing essance/soul damage to the target, additional damage persist like a poison for a limited time
chain pull - the chains to which eventual enemies are attached are retracted by the wraith causing fall damage and interrupting their attacks
chain absorpion - the chains attach themself to an enemy to recover essence (this could possibli be a power up for the chain binding power)
chain rotation - the chains starts rotating at great speed providing essance/soul and fall damege and pushing enemies away from the undead
chain prison - it requires the wraith to stand still but with this power the wratih can prevent for a limited time anyone to enter or exit a space using the chains to form a sort of cage
chain constriction - a fusion between chain binding and chain prison, a single target becomes entangled and constricted by the chains for a limited time and receive essence damage
chain manifestation/change of phase (maybe if the player specialize in chain powers) - the wraith imbues the chains with magical energy wich makes them visible also in the magic and potentially in the fisical status of the creature
the wraith can now go full Spawn with them providing additional attacks and with a bigger reach, if the chains would't be visible in any way in fiscal form it may seem like the creature is using telekinesis
chain strangling - the chain strangle the opponent lifting him in the air and soffucating him (Darth Fener would be proud)
chain crush - the chains sorround the opponent crushing his bones
chain extension - a wide attack that sweap all the way 180° in front of the wraith making everything fly and receiving fall damage
if the enemies have the health low enough the attack will shear them in two
and much much more (actually reading again myself some of these moves could also work as finishing moves like for example ripping them apart using the chains)
i also wanted to insert an ultimate attack, (well assuming they will be a thing of course)
Since they are ultimate attacks they should be always one shotting opponents, the problem is against bosses
maybe they could allow the use of ultimate attacks only after the heath bar is below a certain threshold, i don't know
soul extraction - the chains anchor to the opponent attaching themeself to his very soul like fishing hooks
than the wraith just... pull
you can imagine the rest
just another one: pain release - The wraith anchor all his chains to the target and in one second it release whin him all of the suffering both present and past
he is/has been suject to killing him on the spot and leaving his body in a orrifying state
SHADOW/DARKNESS MAGIC:
the wraith can manipulate shadows/darkness and bend it to his will
dark shroud - if not in front of a direct source of light the wraith can sorround himself with shadows making himself totally invisible (i was inspired by the short stoy of the class for this)
shadow minor manipulation - the wraith can make shadows move and change shape, useful mainly for distraction
shadow fusion - the wraith may enter in any shadow (yes even that of an unlucky human), while in there it can't be attacked by physical means and his bars can slowly recover
shadow teleportation - the wraith can teleport himself (maybe even other near him) to a shadow in his line of sight
dark armor - the wraith can create upon himself a sort of shell/armor made of shadow that provides additional protection
shadow veil - for a limited amout of time and in a limited area the wraith summon a dark veil that cover in a sort of bubble/barrier from the light both inside and outside, while in there the wraith powers are more effective (a more powerful version could be that it also prevent sound to enter or exit, a pain for mages)
shadow inbuement - the wraith cover it's weapon (maybe even others) with darkness making them more effective
dark tentacle - the wratih concentrete his energy to emit a gargantuan tentacle made of coagulated darkness in front of him that can smash or inpale the enemy on his line of efectivness
dark spikes - the wraith emit a brust of shadow spikes from his chest causing perforation damage
dark summons - this is kinda the summoner way if you choose to go in that direction while building your charcter, basically the wraith can summon any kind of creature made of shadows to attack his opponents
shadow essence - kinda like vampire mist form but being made of shadow, just to have an escape ability
shadow illusions - the wraith makes several doubles of himself made of shadow to confuse the enemies and avoid being hitted (a more powerful version could allow the wraith to control one of the clone like a drone to scout without putting himself in danger)
dark disguise - vampires for now are the only ones confirmed to be able to blend with humans but just in case, this allow the wraith to pass like a hooded creepy human
ultimate attack: Gate to the abyss - The wraith raise his arms, releasing green necrotic discharges of energy, and summon a giant gate
from the gate an uncountable number of clawed arms made of pure darkness dash forward grabbing anything in their path and lifting or dragging them inside the gate. The gate in my immagination dwarfs both undead and humans but anyway being an ultimate attack the general rule is that no matter how much the opponents in the effected area struggle or what size they are, they will be dragged inside as long as the gate is active and they are into reach
OTHER POWERS:
I'm still thinking about a path that could be taken for the wraith that want to specialize in vitality, maybe a life force absorpion path with powers that drain the vitality from the enemies and debuffs them but it would probably seem too similar to my first set of powers (even tho they are based on essence)
Other powers that could be considered racial (so only the wraith could use them) could be:
hexes: ghosts are often associeted to curses and i so i presume we could have a good dose of them whith varius effect (cover sound based hexes are the first think i would make since it's pretty much an assassin class)
but haxes can be also be found in other miths so i don't
intangibility: this is actually a power that i read in another post (wraith stuff in my mind posted by klokwerkaos) it grant the wraith the ability to avoid damage phasing between the realms as long as he don't use other powers (an outside combat use could be passing throuh walls a thing that ghosts usually love to do)
I also liked the idea about wraiths being immune to sound detection
possession: this could be Wight territory since it is essence based but i ipothise the wraith being able to possess an unanimated object (maybe even humans) and make use of it (a sword to attack for example but a more uncoventional way to use it could be possessing a paint or a table to avoid being seen by approching enemies)
SOME OTHER STUFF I COME UP WITH
this is actually me going wild with assumpions (and probably by this time no one is still reading
) but anyway
. The general role (even if i think pretty much all the classes will be able to handle themeself in all the roles) would be an assissin/debuffer class (so debuffing spells and a great variety of single target heavy damage powers would probably be the strong side of the class)
. The residence of the wraith is very fascinating but i can't quite tell if is a physical place (i think so) or it's more like a parallel dimension that exist only between the two realms (of life and death)
It looks vaguely ethereal but i'm pretty sure it's the first option
. The wraith seem to be the silent type, yet for the sake of interaction i suppose they speak sometimes (i mean, how would the dialogues be?)
anyway in my immagination when it's not deadly silint the wraith speaks in a dark, soft and somehow hissing voice with the tone of the voice sometimes suddently changing due to the poor think being probably pretty unstable mentally speaking
. The chains could be a visual indicator of the wraith mood (yes like a dog tail
), going from slowly moving when for example in a safe area, in unrest when the wraith is ready to fight and agitating like crazed snakes when in pain (i mean i guess he is always in pain somehow but you know what i mean) or in rage
. After reading about the creation of a Wraith i wonder just how much of his former self he is able to retain after the whole process has ended..
It was pretty shocking to read, i mean i wouldn't be surprised if the only memories the guy still have about his previous life are the ones about the ritual
Jesus
. The potential origin story intrigues me
We know that in order to perform the ritual the living must adhere of his own volition, at least at the beginning
this make me theorise a few thinks: first of all our unlucky protagonist could be the victim of some kind of loss (house, family, the whole village where he used to live ecc.) for which he desire vengence or maybe he has some desire (even a positive one like saving a beloved person or putting a noble cause above himself) but whatever his motivations may be, they must be insanely strong (the desire for vencence caused by the desperation of losing anything and the desire to save someone are just a couple i come up with, could be anything) and they must drove him to seek power, at any cost
At this point, i suppose someone (another wraith in human disguise maybe?), somehow, somewhere comes into play with a promise of great power that will come for a great cost: your soul
a contract is established and after the ritual has been performed finally the protagonist reach his objective, the thing he would sacrifice anything for
but i such a state that he couldn't probably even realise that is obsession is finally sated. Only this cursed shell of his own soul remains, cursed forever to serve as an executioner for the army of the dead. Ok enough with this i think i'm letting myself go a bit too much
Ok i guess i wrote way more that i inteded to, anyway i am really looking forward for this class (and for ghouls too)
I end here my delirious speculations