The Brawler/Striker/Caster/Hybrid archetypes

[Sidestepper]

I've been thinking about the classification system that Darvin introduced back in the beta, and what it means exactly. Here's my take on the concepts.

DTD doesn't have a hard class system, and the baseline assumption is that every character uses some magic and some melee. These classifications are soft, and a given adventurer can change styles during the course of a dungeon.

Brawler: A character that relies on long melee exchanges with the enemy for victory. The Brawler archetype will usually have one or more of the following: high health, high resistance, improved health recovery, corrosion, lifesteal, and poison. Paladins, Barbarians and Monks are natural brawlers. Assassins can also be Brawlers if they lean heavily on their starting glyph.

Striker: A character that relies on very high melee damage to end battles as cleanly as possible. Strikers rely more on "free hit" mechanics more than resistance and recovery. Strikers will usually have one or more of the following: very high damage, dodge, death protection, first strike, slow. Rogues and Warlords are natural Strikers.

Caster: Casters rely heavily on glyph based damage, either from Fireball or Pisorf. Casters typically have one or more of the following: high mana pool, improved mana recovery, improved spell efficiency. Wizards and Bloodmages are natural casters, with Bloodmages usually being much more extreme. Assassins and Fighters can be Casters if they are using their special level up mechanics to land large fireball chains.

Hybrid: A character that mixes Caster with either Striker or Brawler. Almost all Strikers and Brawlers use at least some offensive magic, so Hybrid is a broad and subjective category. I personally like to break Hybrid into two subcategories:

-Switch Hitter: A character that has two very different ways of resolving battles, but rarely mixes the styles in any one given fight. The Elf Monk is a good example. She will play mostly like a normal Brawler, except with a bit more damage coming from fireball and a bit less from melee. However, her high elf mana allows her to abruptly switch to a melee-less style when needing to deal with tricky opponents, such as Bandits, Wraiths, Warlocks and Serpents.

Bloodmages also commonly become switch hitters, relying on Blood To Power to fuel a pure Caster approach most of the time, but then falling back on bloodpool health recovery to support a Brawler style as exploration runs out.

-Mixer: A character that has a strong mechanical interaction between their glyph damage and their melee damage. Sorcerers are the most obvious Mixers, as is anyone using the Witchalok pendant. The Piercing Wand can sometimes lead to a Mixer approach.

An Orc Pisorf user can also be a mixer, since both their magic and their melee is calculated from their base damage stat.

Discussion is encouraged, and suggestions for better names for the hybrid categories would be welcome.

[Tinker]