THE LITTLE INTRO THINGY:
Hi there. Given the amount of unhappiness with Kerillian’s Handmaiden career (and other careers’ constant butchering with patches) in community, I’ve decided it might be productive and fun to spend an hour composing a list of changes that would suit her advertised playstyle without randomly flipping her numbers up and down. Being an amateur developer myself, I’ve tried to make as much impact achieved with as little new mechanics created and overall resources used, so it’s going to look like a mini-rework, basically. I doubt that devs will step out of reusing same talents everywhere and actually implement this, however, but I still keep my hopes and expectations high, so maybe if not completely, but at least partially, this thread can create a basis for Handmaiden’s future development, giving birth to a new fresh and fun playstyle. I don’t insist on using exact names, stats and so on, although it would be completely awesome if this rework ever sees the light as is.
For now, I am creating this thread mostly for entertainment as well, just to see if people like it, and if they do, I can always come up with more crazy ideas for underused heroes and careers.
That said, let’s begin.
BASIC STATS:
Health: 125% => 100% (She won’t be needing extra health)
-“Renewal” perk (We move her utilities into talents)
-“Ariel’s Bension” perk (We move her utilities into talents)
+”Elven Resilience” perk +30% damage resist (yes, we’re making part-time tank, without bonus health, however)
For “The Dance of Seasons” perk we make a passive and active part. Passively, Kerillian keeps 50% boost to her dashes (we basically add up bonus from “Shadowstep” talent while removing it, as it currently is a musthave anyway). Actively, Kerillian gets a buff, let’s name it “counterattack” for this thread, but we don’t need to name it in the game, actually. The buff activates if Kerillian gets hit by blockable strike while using her charge-attacks or push-attacks; “counterattack” nullifies that hit’s damage and all further incoming blockable damage for 1 (or 0.5) second with 100% stun resistance (first game’s modmakers have already proven this check to be possible). If this turns out to be too strong, successive attacks past the first one can be resisted only partially. If activated, “Counterattack” stack is consumed; it does not regenerate passively, it only gets refilled by Kerillian’s active ability use.
ACTIVE ABILITY:
“Dash” works the same way it previously did, however, it should also refill Kerillian’s stamina on activation, as well as “counterattack” stack, AND give her 1 temp (grey) hitpoint for every enemy she passes through. Cooldown should be around 20-30 seconds, as we are removing those boring 30% reduction from talents, like in IB Bardin’s case.
LEVEL 5 TALENTS:
(We are practically making the first row determine what utility Kerillian is going to have for the party, instead of just giving her stamina regen aura and nonfactor revive bonus by default)
1) Aspect of Ariel: Revives are uninterruptible and are 50% faster; 30 points of their temp (grey) health is replaced with permanent (green) upon revive (alternatively, lazy-mode, we can change health part to 50% resist on revive, like other tanks already have).
2) Aspect of Orion: Ammo pool is 50% larger. 30% stamina regeneration aura for teammates.
3) Asrai Sentinel: +1 stamina shield (2.0 stamina) and +30% effective block/push angle.
LEVEL 10 TALENTS:
1) Eldrazor’s Precision: Increases Hero Power by 15% but reduces attack speed by 5% (stock talent).
2) Gladerunner: Increaces movement speed by 5% (stock talent, moved from level 15).
3) Defiance: Reduce damage taken when last hero standing bla bla bla (stock again).
LEVEL 15 TALENTS:
(This is an interesting one, as we make use of Kerillian’s new ability to get grey health from her ultimate)
1) Hukon’s Tenacity: When Kerillian has grey hitpoints, increases stamina regeneration by 50% (reused and tweaked).
2) Wraithwillow Stance: Having grey health further improves damage resistance by 5% (reused name, maybe make resist even higher).
3) Spirit of Ashenhall: Grey health can go 20 points into “cursed” health (it is currently a funny bug with grimoires which can be reverse-engineered into a feature for Kerillian if needed).
LEVEL 20 TALENTS:
(I don’t think devs will be making an exception for this career specifically, so there’s nothing changed, really. The only talent I would’ve changed is the third one anyway)
1) Weavebond: Temp HP on crit.
2) Khaine’s Thirst: Temp HP on kill.
3) Champion of Loren: Nobody takes it so whatever.
LEVEL 25 TALENTS:
1) Gift of Ladrielle: Kerillian goes invisible for 3 seconds upon Dash activation (stock).
2) Bladedancer: (Or rename it into Bladerunner, kek) Dash now hurts enemies instead of just staggering them (enough to kill at least something this time, please), and generates twice as much grey health (reused name).
3) Handmaiden’s Grace: Kerillian can store up to two “counterattack” charges instead of one, but ultimate still gives only one (reused name).
Amongst some other mechanical suggestions that I’ve found pretty interesting, but which didn’t end up in final talents or perks, there are a few honorable mentions:
a) Make taking damage generate twice as much ability charge.
b) “Counterattack” activation gives Kerillian grey health.
c) Lower initial resistance, but it goes up if “counterattack” stack is lost.
d) Bumping into armor/shields during Dash ultimate generates extra grey health.
And that’s pretty much it for the career itself. As a sweet bonus, I would also like to suggest a couple of changes/improvements for her iconic Elven Spear and commonly underused Swift Bow which, I think, would be a great mix-up addition for Handmaiden’s playstyle if done right.
Spear changes:
The first change I would like to see on, possibly, every melee weapon in the game: make fully charged hold attacks guardbreak shielded stormvermin and break other shields. Guaranteed, and not a chance. They charge for eternity anyways.
Other than that, tweaking weapon’s properties. Decrease cleave on thrusting attacks, but at least double their damage on first target hit and improve headshot bonus. Maybe even give armor piercing props. Increase cleave power on sweeping attacks with more damage scaling working against hitting hard past first several targets. Make charged sweeping attack come out after push-attack without additional block cancels.
Swiftbow changes:
For raw stats, we only need to buff ammo pool. But in addition, why wouldn’t we make it work differently when character is crouching? I think it would be something new and fresh for sure, considering we will finally have some use for crouching in this game. Basically, crouching and using alternate “aiming” fire mode would mean planting yourself in one place with huge (maybe even 100%) movement speed penalty, and focusing all your power into barrage of arrows with extra speed (slightly faster than “normal” uncharged attacks) and extra damage on every hit (at least in this mode they should do significant damage).
Conclusion/P.S: I would appreciate community’s opinion on this topic, as well as any criticism or suggestion they have to make. If my work ends up being a success (at least in terms of entertaining people) I can make a few more of those for other careers which are too uninteresting ang generic, or too recycled with a lot of reused talents and properties (which HM Kerillian is suffering from a lot). Please ant thank you.