Spiral Knights - Beast family addition: Howler

Beast family addition: Howler

4 replies [Last post]

Tue, 05/14/2013 - 17:02

Qwez

Premise: A support-type beast enemy

Abilities:

Healing ability: Large area passive health regeneration(6 block radius); same potency as that of the small AOE heal of Silkwings, but a sixth as frequent; self-healing capability
Roar of Death: an aimed hit-scan roar "projectile"; deals low damage; all targets that are hit (regardless if targets blocked the damage) gain a Mark of Death above their heads and (EDIT:no aggro inc.); lasts 5 sec/Tier
Shadow Hides: a roar to the sky that causes all beasts in vicinity(10 blocks radius) to reduce all taken damage by 1/2 (EDIT:no invuln.) for 10 seconds (all Tiers)

Details:

Shadow Hides has equivalent cast time to Alpha Wolver roar (EDIT:not mender revive)
Howlers will have similar move AI as that of puppies (EDIT:not menders)
I used to picture Howlers as sleek, white Alpha Wolvers, with less bold/rough jaws (or something)
I now picture them as fat wolvers that don't move :)
Visually, Howlers will emit a faint area aura to account for the passive health regeneration "attack"

Fear the Beast! Thanks for reading <3

Tue, 05/14/2013 - 21:28

Hexzyle

Healing ability: Large area

Healing ability: Large area passive health regeneration(6 block radius); same potency as that of the small AOE heal of Silkwings, but a sixth as frequent; self-healing capability

This instantly qualifies it to be a Heavy-mob, at least, if not an Elite-mob.

Roar of Death: an aimed hit-scan roar "projectile"; deals 1 damage; all hit targets (regardless of block) gain a Mark of Death above their heads and increased aggro values; lasts 5 sec/Tier

Wait what? Hitscan? So you can't dodge it? And what do you mean by increased aggro value? Aggro isn't passive, it's active and recalculated every time a mob is hit. Therefore aggro is inflicted on monsters with a direction property, not the other way around.

all hit targets (regardless of block)

What does that mean?

Shadow Hides: a roar to the sky that causes all beasts in vicinity(10 blocks radius) to gain invulnerability for 7 seconds (T3 exclusive)

This is making it more of a boss than a mob. I'd recommend removing this because it's kinda silly. Either have the healing, or this, not both. Could you imagine two of these in the same room? Absolute insanity. The Howler itself better be unable to make itself invulnerable (and other Howlers can't make it invulnerable either)

Details:

I was thinking the howler to be some sort of turret. With the long cooldown for the invulnerability (I think menders can only revive once in their life, by the way) the immobility would at least make it mostly balanced.

Tue, 05/14/2013 - 22:51

Qwez

Well...

So you can't dodge it?
-What I was thinking... Is that these guys attack like all the other beasts, they start and end their attack animation at the same angle with some charge-up animation times. Therefore, you could dodge this attack.

*all targets that are hit (regardless if blocking)
-I tried to clarify that you can't shield this attack to somewhat force the player to move away. I should read when I revise my sentences. EDIT: nevermind I meant what I said, just didn't phrase it correctly

Therefore aggro is inflicted on monsters with a direction property, not the other way around.
-Okey... It would've been nice if it worked my way :(

This is making it more of a boss than a mob. I'd recommend removing this because it's kinda silly.
-What I was thinking is that this invulnerability should be long enough to matter and to recuperate health, yet short enough to not be OP or stupid.

I was thinking the howler to be some sort of turret.
-What, like a fat wolver that can barely move or something? Oh that imagery xD

With the long cooldown for the invulnerability
-It's not like menders use revive all the time, they only use it occasionally.

I think menders can only revive once in their life, by the way
-Hmmm then perhaps this would be a single use skill as well, if so, then it should make the Howler itself invulnerable. Hmm... Scratch That.
--How about this? This Shadow Hides effect would reduce damage taken by 1/2, and is no longer a long-cast spell.

EDIT:
Well... Well... after more consideration, Howlers would be too weak staying in the same spot if implementing said change to Shadow Hides... ... Well after more consideration, depends on the implementation of frequency of Shadow Hides and how accurate Roar of Death is.

Tue, 05/14/2013 - 22:31

Hexzyle

@Qwez

-What, like a fat wolver that can barely move or something? Oh that imagery xD

I was thinking some sort of dinosaur head XD

-I tried to clarify that you can't shield this attack to somewhat force the player to move away. I should read when I revise my sentences. EDIT: nevermind I meant what I said, just didn't phrase it correctly

Ah. It sounded like it always hits regardless of what blocks you are hiding behind.

Tue, 05/14/2013 - 22:50

Qwez

@Hex

I guess the best comparison would be Roarmulus/Big Iron lasers as to what I meant by hit-scan, but because it does low damage and relies on some player not really paying attention, I'm not too keen on having it show a tracer like those lasers.

I'm not sure if you caught it, but I reworked the Shadow Hides as an attempt to make this support enemy have an annoying ability.

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Beast family addition: Howler