This is a thread to discuss what will be the purpose of the biochemist.
This is not about how it works with other classes, how to balance it or anything like that, just a view on how we would like the biochemist to be.
So to help with it, i would like to put some questions for anyone who has free time and will, feel free to reply with your own view and discuss mine. I will also reply them in this post.
From the top of my head (does that expression exist?) the name of biochemist suggest he should be good at "modifying". That, of course, means players, both allied and enemies, even himself.
So, what that means? That means he will be mostly a buffer/debuffer, he will make allies better and enemies worse. That gameplay wise, will mean he is weaker than any other class but not for much time, once he starts spreading his diseases/modifies/potions/stings/farts he will build up. A class with ramp up time, sometimes you will feel like it wasnt a big deal and others you will feel like you should have attacked him first.
Now, he should also be able to make damage, even if its not much, he should also be able to be both ranged and melee (that would be the ideal thing, ranged/melee overload is never good) so he should be able to buff himself to do it (even if its only for melee, just the advantage of being range may remove the need of buffs to boost ranged). About the damage he will do, i will go once again for the build up option, mostly damages over time, maybe giving them some skills who make impossible or rather not good dispell them.
It also makes me feel like it should be support, a class who cant kill anyone alone, he puts pressure, makes enemies worse and also starts draining hp from them till the real burst damage arrives. Biochemist damage will be easily healable but will be spread and will stress healers making everyone loss hp so they cant focus on the targets who are recieving most of the damage.
So, long story short, biochemist will soften enemies and make allies harder, will be better if you never focus purely on one option.