For High Elf/Hand Maiden:
Bow of Avelorn
Loosing arrows of mystical blue fire, it excels at setting vulnerable units ablaze and piercing the toughest armour.
Other than adding something like this, there isn’t too much to offer Kerillian for range as she isn’t a magic user(that we know of, anyways). A “Starfire Shafts” bow would basically do the same thing, but for Waystalker. Obviously you wouldn’t make both bows if they did the same thing, so just one and make it available to Waystalker and Handmaiden, or for just Handmaiden.
Melee options could be something like a great axe or whip. Having a great axe when you have a glaive though would probably feel redundant.
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I think it could have mild innate armor piercing, but not great damage - maybe if fully charged, but it could have a very long charge time to compensate, and then have a slight fire AoE.
So its niche would be that you can use it to plink at armored targets or spam at unarmored ones for kills - rather like the swift bow - or charge for a nice DoT and AoE effect/stun. While this would make it similar to Swift Bow in basic and Hagbane in charged, it would be balanced out by the overheat mechanic - it’s not the bow itself overheating, it’s Kerillian using a magical item to channel the ambient winds of magic that is becoming overcome. It IS a magical fire after all, but nowhere in the lore does it state that the Sisters of Averlorn are trained magic users - I think since all elves have some inherent magical talent (including Kerillian, since she talks about having prophetic dreams in the first game), I don’t think it would be too much of a stretch.
This overheat would prevent you from being able to spam down hordes, because you would quickly overheat, and she has no way of quickly getting rid of that. So this bow’s niche would be like the Handmaiden’s; providing good and useful support fire, without being too good at any one thing. And since she lacks ammo recovery, she’ll always have it as an option, so long as she hasn’t overused it.
I’d keep it restricted to Handmaiden, however, since the Sisters of Averlorn/presumably Handmaidens are the only ones known to use this bow, and they’re High Elf units.
I didn’t think about the attack whips from the Sisters of Slaughter, haha. That’s a crazy idea that could be fun.
I really like your concept for the bow design and you make a good point about elves/magic. And having it as some kind of anti-armor/special would be really nice, considering Kerillian has no way of dealing with super-armor units unless she crits right now. I could see it being balanced, useful, aesthetically pleasing, and really enjoyable. I would imagine the AoE would be like half the size of the hagbane’s.
I think FatShark could do something really creative with a whip. I’ll have to think on what light/heavy attacks it could have and such.
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I have been impressed by some of the ideas in this thread. I hope the devs see it and consider it. I have seen some really bad ideas on the forums, however this is a noteworthy good one. Combining all of the input in this thread the overall information here is very well thought out roll wise, mechanic wise, and even lore wise (from what I am reading here as I know nothing personally). I hope it gets some attention.
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Hey, thanks (though I know you don’t mean just my idea, of course). Appreciate it all the same!
Another aspect that I thought of just this morning that would be nice about this (that isn’t of PARAMOUNT importance, but is noticeable in-game), is that most Kerillian bow options just don’t match that well with the Handmaiden aesthetic. For Shade, the Repeater Crossbow looks right, but having leafy green and wooden bows for Handmaiden looks slightly off. An Averlorn Bow would look exactly proper for a Handmaiden!
I must say I agree with that as well. However, I must admit I would like it to be usable by WS and HM, but if the devs say HM only that is ok too. I think both WS and HM being able to use it would balance out shade having its only use crossbow.
I think lore-flavor is the only reason to lock it to Handmaiden, though I’m not sure how useful it would be on WS. Though I guess you could just totally build her away from ammo regen, which opens up some options.
I am into lore a fair bit, but honestly it wouldn’t bother me if WS got access to it. The real question is if it would bother Games Workshop? They keep a rather tight reign on lore-related things, and I don’t believe the Asrai use anything like the Averlorn Bow.
Exactly, so if there was any flexibility for WS it would be nice. I do get tired of always feeling like I have to do something for ammo to play my roll well if I play Elf at all. So it would allow someone to actually use some of those unused talents for variation of strategy or just for fun. But on the flip side if it was used for HM only I would actually use HM for something other than speed runs.
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Just a suggestion on Handmaiden (you may have tried this already, I’ve just been having a blast with it); try using her very aggressively. Her dash puts a pretty strong dot on enemies, and will actually kill slave rats after a few seconds. If you get a column in a horde, you can literally kill them all with a single dash. Pair it up with dual daggers and the dodge range talents, and you become the most mobile character in the game, with massive damage potential on charged headshots. It’s kind of amazing. It is very risky, since you have to be very close, though, so it kind of gets your adrenaline pumping. Put the trait for skill cooldown on crit on the daggers, and your ult will be up almost all the time.
Worth a try one day… but probably not on legend.
You’d be surprised! I was doing very well on solo runs with bots using this tactic earlier. 
