Hello everyone, and welcome to Lucas' Guide for Skillset Creation, and the official WoN topic for this topic as well.

First of all, I’d like to introduce this topic by saying it is not like the other one you may be thinking about. On the contrary, this topic is merely to help you create more original characters, and understand some balance stuff in the meantime.

So, we have a lot to read people! So be ready, because you’ll need this for being a sucessfull Character Maker.

Basics
Ok, let’s start. First of all, you should design your character’s skillsets at last when making a village/region/w.e you’re doing. Once you’re done with that (For more information visit this place), you’ll start to design your character’s moves.
First, we need to learn some basic things:

Skillset
Each character skillset consists of 4 unique skills and one Item move, which is basically the item you chose for your character, but that is not necesary (and shouldn’t be included) when creating a character. So, for our 4 skills, there’s also a basic estructure:
1 damaging skill, 1 invulnerability move and 2 other skills.
Now, this is just a “template”, as you can change it as you will. For example, you can make one of your characters not have an invulnerability move but another… damaging skill, and what not. However, it is important to outline that every character you create has a damaging move (even if it deals 5 damage). This is because balance tells us that every character needs to go offensive at some point.
With that said, we will go into more detail on classes now.

Classes
Not all attacks in WoN deal the same type of damage, not affliction, or anything of the sort. In fact, there are several classes of attacks that are used for balance reasons and also to increase the game’s effectiveness. The simple types are:
1- Melee: Used normally to describe an attack in which the attacker is close to the target, and hits them directly. For example, Jun’s “Enrage” is melee because he uses a sword to hit the enemy.
2- Ranged: Used normally to describe attacks in which the caster is away from the target, but still deals damage to them. For example, Asami’s “Precision Shot” is ranged because she uses a bow to deal damage from a safe distance.
3- Mental: Used normally to describe skills in which the caster uses his mind (normally because of a mind power) to target the enemy. For example, Akira’s “Passivism” is mental because she uses her clan’s powers to both deal damage and stun one enemy.
4- Tactic: Used normally to describe skills in which no damage is dealt, and the user requires some tactical mastery. These skills are also the basic invulnerability move.
5- Passive: Used normally to describe skills that take action without being used, and activate automatically.

Now that we’ve seen the general classes, let’s move on to affliction (damage that ignores damage reduction, protectors, limitations and invulnerability) classes:
1- Normal: This type of affliction does not have any class, and is immune to specific affliction removers (such as Jinsei’s “First Aids”, which heals bleeding afflictions).
2- Bleeding: These afflictions are normally caused by attacks that would cause the target to bleed, such as Jyouzu’s “Bloodletter Stab”.
3- Ki: These afflictions are cause by the target’s energy system’s disruption. For example, Hana’s “Acupunture: Paralyze”.
4- Burning: These afflictions are cause by things that cause the target to burn (such as fire, duh), like Hikaru’s “Firebury Strike”.
5- Poison: These afflictions usually are caused by poisons, such as “Poisonous Darts”.
6- Drug: These afflictions are caused by chemical substances and generally target allies (making them benefical), such as “Sake”.

And finally, we’ll see Persistence classes, which indicate how a skills acts.
1- Instant: The effects of Instant skills have no connection with the skill’s performer after entering the game.
2- Aura: The effects of Aura skills require the user to be alive. If the user dies, the Aura skill will end.
3- Channeling: The effects of Channeling skills require the skill’s performer to maintain contact. If the contact is broken, the Channeling skill will end. Contact is broken when the performer is stunned, or when the skill’s target becomes invulnerable to the performer.
These are the basics one should know when it comes to classes. Of course, this is only a part of all you need to know about classes and other WoN terminology. For more information, you can check the Game Manual.

Especialities
I’ll explain you briefly, the characters of WoN have 3 escialities:

1- Assasination: Characters that belong to this class usually deal high amounts of damage and don't have any other purpose on a team (of course they could have some other useful skills, but we use them for their high-damage output).

2- Disruption: Disruption characters are those who (by stuns, invulnerability, counters, etc) "screw up" you opponent's tactics, making it harder for them to achieve victory.

3- Collaboration: Collaboration characters are those who specialize on aiding the team, and they usually do this by heals, invul, and DR/Pr.

You should include the especiality of your character once the design is done.

Creating a Skillset step by step
Here’s the main thing: the design. Now, as for this guide, I’ll create a new character made right on the spot to help you understand. Her skills are based on Light techniques.
Let’s assume you have already created a story for this clan, and now you decide to make their skill sets.
First we have her basic template:

Name (xhp, x especiality)

Skill 1
Text.
Extra.

Skill 2
Text.
Extra.

Skill 3
Text.
Extra.

Skill 4
Text.
Extra.

We think about her design, and we write down certain things (such as name, story, and skill names) that won't be changed, and we'll have something like this:

Karu Yoake (xhp, x especiality)
One young warrior of the Karu clan, Yoake has the ability to release the power of the Sun on her enemies, as well as the ability to emit a blinding glow.

Mark of the Moon
Text.
Extra.

Rising Sun
Text.
Extra.

Overhelming Glow
Text.
Extra.

Yoake Evasion
Text.
Extra.

With that said, we decide to think about her skills reading what we wrote about her. And this is what we have: “Yoake uses her hands to touch one enemy, marking them with a skill she calls “Mark of the Moon”. The power of this skill recides on having side-effects, as it makes the target go a lil’ insane (as it potenciates their dark side). Additionally, Yoake can also use her main ability: The Rising Sun, which basically releases the glow and heat from the sun to any enemy who has been marked, provided that the heat and glow will feel stronger on an enemy used to darkness.
Not only that, she also has the ability to emmit a blinding aura that protects her team and also disrupts her enemies.”
We may have some sort of idea in out heads on how this character’s design could be, but skills in WoN do not have any explanation of the skill, but of its effects. For example, Akira’s “Passivism” doesn’t say “Akira uses her eye techniques to calm the body and mind of one enemy, while at the same time hurting them, stunning the target for two turns and dealing 10 affliction damage each turn”. No. We have to skip things and write only the in-game effects. So here is her basic design:

Karu Yoake (xhp, x especiality)
One young warrior of the Karu clan, Yoake has the ability to release the power of the Sun on her enemies, as well as the ability to emit a blinding glow.

Mark of the Moon
Affects one target with Mark of the Moon for one turn, reducing their melee and ranged damage by 5 during this time and allowing Rising Sun on the target for one turn.
Extra.

Rising Sun
Deals 30 affliction damage to an enemy affected by Mark of the Moon.
Extra.

Overhelming Glow
Yoake makes all team members invulnerable to ranged skills for one turn.
Extra.

Yoake Evasion
This skill makes Karu Yoake invulnerable for one turn.
Extra.

Now she looks pretty much cool, but there’s still some things missing. First, we have to give each skill a cost, cooldown, and their respective classes. Additionally, once the design in completely done and you’re satisfied with it, we add character’s life points and especiality.
For adding classes, cooldowns and cost I use the following format:

Cost:
Cd: None.
Class List: Mental, Instant.

You’ll note I use images for the cost of the skills, and this is merely esthetical and gives a nice touch to the character. If you wish to use these images, you must credit me, and here they are:
Blue (Intelligence) Red (Strenght) Green (Agility) White (Wisdom) Black (Random)

So now we add classes, cooldowns and cost, and as we see this character is pretty slow, we give her 100 hp so she can have time. Additionally, because of reducing damage and group invul, we decide to make her a Disruption character.

Karu Yoake (100hp, Disruption)
One young warrior of the Karu clan, Yoake has the ability to release the power of the Sun on her enemies, as well as the ability to emit a blinding glow.

Mark of the Moon
Affects one target with Mark of the Moon for one turn, reducing their melee and ranged damage by 5 during this time and allowing Rising Sun on the target for one turn.
Cost: None.
Cd: None.
Class List: Tactic, Instant.

Rising Sun
Deals 30 affliction damage to an enemy affected by Mark of the Moon.
Cost:
Cd: None.
Class List: Mental, Instant.

Overhelming Glow
Yoake makes all team members invulnerable to ranged skills for one turn.
Cost:
Cd: 2
Class List:

Yoake Evasion
This skill makes Karu Yoake invulnerable for one turn.
Cost:
Cd: 4
Class List:

And that basically is one character made. Remeber that if you’re doing a village, you must submit 3 characters, and not only 1.
Now I will post 1 more example for you to see more stuff.

Janguru Kuripa (80 hp, Assasination)
Kuripa is a young boy that has trained for many years his clan’s abilities (forest stuff) and has developped them up to a point where he can basically kill a full army by himself.

Forest Field
For 4 turns, Burning afflictions will deal 5 more affliction damage, Drug Afflictions will last an extra turn and ranged and melee damage dealt by the enemy team will be reduced by 5. During this time, Tarzan! is allowed.
Cost:
Cd: 4
Class List: Tactic, Aura.

Tarzan!
Kuripa deals 50 melee damage to one enemy affected by Forest Field bypassing counters. Additionally, Kuripa gains 5 points of damage reduction against melee skills for one turn.
Cost:
Cd: None.
Class List: Melee, Instant.

Vines Assault
Stuns one enemy for one turn. On the following turn, the target is affected by a Drug Affliciton, dealing 10 affliction damage and stunning them each turn.
Cost:
Cd: 3
Class List: Melee, Aura.

Kuripa Evasion
This skill makes Janguru Kuripa invulnerable for one turn.
Cost:
Cd: 4
Class List: Tactic, Instant.

I this example you can simply realize this character is not only a spiker, but also a stunner, and because of being this way he is Assasination class. However, he is really good, so to balance him out we decide to lower his hp by 20 (100 is the average), making him have 80hp, which is low, and he could be spiked fast.
With this I wanted to show you several things:
1- If your character is good (not incredibly OP, but good), you can always modify their health points to balance them out.
2- Spike techniques usually cost more than one specific (this one costs 2 specifics of the same colour, but it’s usually 2 specifics and a random to deal about 70 damage).
3- Be creative.

Now, to conclude, we’ll see some things I called Balance Templates and “Character types”.

Character Types

1- Spiker: As seen above, a spiker is someone who can deal a lot of damage (normally around 60-70) in few turns. They are usually assasination class, and are weak to stunners.
2- Stunners: Characters who base their skillset on stuns, thus locking your enemies. They are usually disruption and are weak to spikers.
3- AoE (Area of Effect): Characters who have have their entire design based on a skill/skills that target multiple enemies. A good example of this is Kamiko. They can be every type, depending on what’s what they do. (AoE heal, AoE stun, AoE damage, etc). Weak to counters.
4- Healers: Characters who are usually put on a team as supporters, provided that they have healing skills to aid main characters in a team. Weak to spikers.
5- Wallers/Tanks: Characters who provide DR/PR (Damage Reduction/Protectors) to the team, and reduces the chances of them getting killed so easily. A good example of this is Smoke Bomb, which is a Tank item. Weak to affliction.
6- Batteries: Characters which at least of their skills gives you extra energy (Akira’s Tactical Mastery, Toraji’s Summon, Ryu’s Night Fire, Yuurin’s Blossom). Weak to spikes.
7- Instant Killers: Cahracters that have a skill that makes the opponent’s life points decrease dastly (and instantly, that’s the point). They are always assasination, duh. They usually are very weak once that instant kill attack is done/countered/stunned/etc. Examples: Nozuichi, Jikk. Weak to stuns.
8- Drainers: Characters who drain/remove energy from your opponent’s energy pool, decreasing the number of skills the opponent can deal and increasing your changes of winning. Examples: Hahen, Hana. Weak to spikers.
9- Cost Increasers: Name says it all. Examples: Kao, Yume. Weak to spike, stun and Batteries.

Balance Template
Note: All these (stun-drain-damage-etc) are based on targetting only one enemy.

Damage
No cost: 5-10.
One random: 10-20.
Two randoms: 20-25.
One specific: 20-25.
One specific, One random: 20-35 (40 in only few cases that need a lot of prep).
3 Randoms: 30-40.
2 specifics from different colour: 35-45
2 Specifics from same colour: 35-50.
Note: these numbers may change depending on cooldown, classes and wether it’s piercing or not.

Stuns/Semi-Stuns
None: You can't stun for none, that'd be madness unless you had a pretty damn prep.
1 random: Currently, the only character who stuns for one random is Asami, so no, this skill can not happen for balance purposes (2 stunners who stun for one random would pwn the ladder).
1 Specific: The average damage (even if it is affliction) varies between 10-20 -in Niwa's case-. This also depends on cd and on preps. The more damage the skill deals, the less complete a stun should be. Example: Yuki's hard right deals 15 melee and stuns completely BUT that's Yuki's only offensive move, and has a cd of 1, and isnt' affliction. On the other hand, Niwa's stun deals 5 more damage, last one more turn, and has the same cost (one specific) and cd, BUT Niwa's stun only stuns certain skills, and because of that she's balanced.
1 specific+1 random: Should deal between 20 and 30 damage (1 cd is a must -unless: prep-), and again, the more damage it deals, the less it stuns.
2 specifics (same colour): There's no skill like this in WoN atm, but I guess it'd be something like... 40 damage and full stun.
2 specifics (diff. colour): 35 damage -maybe piercing if the stun is not full-, and stun.

Important note: All stun skills, for a question of balance, must have a cooldown of one or more.

Draining Skills
There isn't really a set structure for draining skills. They obviously are costly or require a preparation, but the skill will be very dependant on its duration and if it deals any damage. For example, yugana's drain is one of the best we have, and costs one blue, has a cooldown of one, requires prep and removes Drug Afflictions, while Hahen's drain deals no damage, merely drains one energy each turn and can be easily cancelled, costing one red and one white. So yeah, it is all pretty objective, and I'll need to investigate more on the subject to tell you how it really works, but try to balance the drains.

Batteries
Giving energy to the team is important, and clearly a very important team, considering the team can completely fail with no energy.
No cost: Shouldn't give energy UNLESS it requires a prep OR it's the character's main skill, with a high cooldown (2-3), and a skill like this shouldn't do anything else than this.
1 Random: Should give one random. Easy. It's a matter of luck.
1 specific: Should give 1-2 randoms but if it does give 2, it should give them under certain conditions. For example, Akira's tactical mastery grants all team mates 1 random energy IF they perform a skill this turn.
2 random: Should give 2 energies (luck), or should give more, but again, based on certain conditions (Yuurin's blossom).
1 specific, 1 random: Should give like.. 3 energies, maybe more. However, it'd be nice if this battery skill gave energy and other thing, while having a duration, like Toraji's Byakko.
More than this cost, you probably wouldn't use it, or you may, but wouldnt' be nice balance-wise.

Affliction
What if we want a skill to deal infinite affliction to a target? :D Here are the answers:
None: 5 each turn and should require prep.
1 random: 5 each turn. 10 each turn if it requires prep.
1 specific: 5 each turn (stack). 10 each turn if it requires prep.
2 Random: 10 each turn. 15 each turn with prep.
1 specific, 1 random: 15 each turn. 20 each turn with prep. 10 each turn -stack- with prep.
2 specifics: 20 each turn. 25 each turn with prep. 15 stack each turn with prep.


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To end up
Okay, I will be sure to update this if I see it’s needed, and thanks a lot for reading. Hope this was usefull.

Pies,
L

Some information are given in Game Manual but some are not included there.
Well, you should add how a character gets to its speciality.
Nice guide, keep it up and don't forget to check and upload this guide.

You should add-on to the balance template by including which effects you have on the skill.

I will sticky this, but as marcel said, be certain to keep this updated, should it fall too far behind I'll take it down.

Nice guide. I'm going to reread over it and perhaps pick up a few more pointers. More information is always good when creating characters.

5- Poison: These afflictions usually are caused by poisons, such as “Poisonuts Darts”.

^ Spelling error I found. "Poisonuts"

I agree with Chase. In the balance template, it should include skill effects.

Whenever I make my characters, I break it down by tiers of effects. For example...

S tier effect: Ignoring invulnerability, energy draining.
A tier effect: Full stun.

Some of the lower tier effects would be

C tier: Semi-stuns, piercing
D tier: Buffs on your own character.

I think by then you get that kind of idea.

It is then from there that it can then be applied to the balance scale. Say a character has a skill that drains 1 energy and only deals 5 damage, even though it's small damage output, the effect makes it far too good to make it cost no energy, in fact, far too good for even a random energy.

Another pointer I'd like to give is that whenever you're trying to balance a character to always keep in mind the fact that teammates will be on your team, thus if you have an attack that combines MUCH too well with other teammates, the effect should be nerfed accordingly.

One more thing, try to put yourself in your opponent's shoes and see whether or not if this attack was used on you if it's A.) Too powerful. B.) Not powerful enough C.) Just right.

Some information are given in Game Manual but some are not included there.
Well, you should add how a character gets to its speciality.
Nice guide, keep it up and don't forget to check and upload this guide.

Game Manual: Yes, I was sort of introducing classes and stuff for those who don't want to read v.v
Especiality: Added, first post, last part.
Updating: Yes, I will, thanks for the post! :D

I will sticky this, but as marcel said, be certain to keep this updated, should it fall too far behind I'll take it down.

I surely will. Thanks Nori! :D

Nice guide. I'm going to reread over it and perhaps pick up a few more pointers. More information is always good when creating characters.

5- Poison: These afflictions usually are caused by poisons, such as “Poisonuts Darts”.

^ Spelling error I found. "Poisonuts"

Fixed, thanks, and thanks again :D

You should add-on to the balance template by including which effects you have on the skill.

I agree with Chase. In the balance template, it should include skill effects.

Whenever I make my characters, I break it down by tiers of effects. For example...

S tier effect: Ignoring invulnerability, energy draining.
A tier effect: Full stun.

Some of the lower tier effects would be

C tier: Semi-stuns, piercing
D tier: Buffs on your own character.

I think by then you get that kind of idea.

It is then from there that it can then be applied to the balance scale. Say a character has a skill that drains 1 energy and only deals 5 damage, even though it's small damage output, the effect makes it far too good to make it cost no energy, in fact, far too good for even a random energy.

Another pointer I'd like to give is that whenever you're trying to balance a character to always keep in mind the fact that teammates will be on your team, thus if you have an attack that combines MUCH too well with other teammates, the effect should be nerfed accordingly.

One more thing, try to put yourself in your opponent's shoes and see whether or not if this attack was used on you if it's A.) Too powerful. B.) Not powerful enough C.) Just right.

Thanks for responses you guys, I'm still working on this, but I've added many more things. Thanks once again.
Edit: FYI, changes were done to the third post.
Edit 2: Added poll, leave your thoughts.

Hm... this is a nice guide?
I'm just surprised I never read it before.

thumbed because i may refer to this in the future and because it looks like you put alot of time and effort into it. it should also be noted that as of right now anyways all passive skills are Aura but im pretty sure there wont ever be instant passive skills.

thumbed because i may refer to this in the future and because it looks like you put alot of time and effort into it. it should also be noted that as of right now anyways all passive skills are Aura but im pretty sure there wont ever be instant passive skills.

Oh ty
Also, on the Passive thingy, I really don't fully get the idea of Aura class on passive skills. I mean, Crystal Skin, The Uncontrolable, Amaya's Night Rain's -dead-ally-effect, they all affect their own user, so I don't see how making them instant would change something.
An exception of this is Toge's Demonic Pressence, which should end when he dies, if it was instant, his team mates would deal 5 more melee damage forever, regardless if he's dead or alive.
Anyway, thanks Ryu ;D

Maybe a section on counters would be good?

Like how much certain counters should cost for their power, similar to what you already have there for the stunning.

Great guide. Maybe you should add something about DoT(Damage over Time) skills. just a thought.

Woah. I've never seen this guide before (wary)
Very useful guide, with some good outlines.
Nice Job! :D