I don't know if other people mess around with designing kits for operators, but I really do! It's an engaging process figuring out how to come up with mechanics that suit the subclasses' identity. Alters in particular are often spicy, because they get to merge the influences of both their original form, and the general traits of the subclass.
I kind of wanted to document my thought processes along the way of figuring out a Rosmontis Alter kit, as a fortress defender! Loooong post ahead!
I was originally inspired by this thinking of how Kal'tsit could have a fortress defender alter where Mon3tr could be the projectile, flying back and forth across the map, before a friend of mine interjected that Rosmontis would be a better fit, and was forced to agree that it would be an incredible fit. So, time to line up the influences:
Rosmontis:
- Being a pseudocaster and dealing arts damage
- Deploying pillars
- Stunning
Flingers:
- Crowd control, typically from stunning
- Multiple damage instances
Fortress Defenders:
- ASPD gain
- Arts damage (mostly Firewhistle, but Horn s2 as well)
- Different performance when blocking vs not
- Large physical damage
Some overlap that all of these have to some extent:
- DPS units
- Splash Damage
- Overload, from Horn and Wis'Adel
- Expensive
- Huge range
I may have missed some and all of these have varying influence, but generally I think this is more than enough to start working on a kit. We won't take from all of these, this is just a means to lay everything out and really get the creative juices flowing. So; Rosmontis. Her pillars are big and scary, she can throw concrete walls at people like darts. Not only that, Rosmontis can fly! In the End Like This music video, Rosmontis is briefly displayed flying:
This is a great influence, and something her Flinger design never took advantage of. If you took it in such a direction, you could base an entire design off of her being a supporter, protecting allies at range with her pillars and delivering them quickly to the battlefield. I'm sure in the story Blaze has been thrown at opponents by Rosmontis via a pillar before.
But, that's not necessarily what I want to do. I think Rosmontis as a 'core annihilation specialist' should be leading the charge, doing the damage. But as a note, that demonstrates all the fun thinking that such an exercise invites! I can picture such a supporter Rosmontis clearly, even if that's not where I want to go.
So in my mind the picture I do have is of Rosmontis slinging pillars all across the battlefield. Moving them far more proactively, rather than where her S3 just puts two down and that's the end of it. Furthermore she's almost always depicted as having four, so there shouldn't be pillar fields, funny and charming as they are.
Even if she can place up to four, she still needs one to attack? So what if she drags it back; lightbulb. We're stealing from Ines s3; Rosmontis Alter's talent does that, but with the pillars, turning out like this:
Talent One:
(If attacking a blocked enemy, it will place a pillar directly in front of her)
So as an elaboration: whenever Rosmontis attacks and a location is available, she'll place a pillar. Because of how this is worded, there can never actually be four pillars on the battlefield; the fourth one will always return to her immediately, so that she can continue attacking. She needs at least one for each attack, right?
(60% attack when returning may or may not be necessary. Fortress Defenders have 1000~900 attack by default, which would be a lot if it was at 100%. I don't know how to gauge the balance with only theorizing.)
I had another eureka moment: what if the pillars can be retreated manually? And suddenly she has a huge amount of interaction since each one will turn into a projectile once you do! You can leave the pillars in the ground and mind other operators, but if you choose, you can nail enemies in a specific place as the pillar returns. This ultimately gives a huge skill ceiling to Rosmontis, and makes optimal use of her super engaging and stylish. If you're crazy, you could retreat pillars as Rosmontis attacks, so that whatever enemy is being blocked will get hit by the retreating pillar without moving forward.
Talent Two:
If you've used her s3 you know that she is liable to put them at the end of her range, making it so that she can't actually target the things that would have otherwise walked into range. This is fairly clunky and hard to work around (I myself only specialized her first and second skills), so we should address that with her second talent, maybe? Lets take influence from Shaper Casters and steal a part of their trait.
That way, since this kit centers around throwing pillars, she'll never run into issues. As for the second part, I figured that she should probably have some of that 6* flair, as well as supporting her teammates! I think that this contributes to her feeling good and fun to use. Keeping units like Mlynar and Wis'Adel in mind, having an operator not just be damage but giving something to the rest of the team is important. Anyway, time for her first skill:
Skill 1:
Given that Horn S1, Rosmontis S1, Firewhistle S1, and Wis'Adel S1 are all powerstrikes, we should have something similar. This is the initial foundation of the idea. Secondly, it should incorporate bringing the pillars back to her, and that's why a normal powerstrike wouldn't work; it would apply to her attack, not the space after her attack.
So instead, she gains an ATK buff for a short period, because returning pillars scale off of her attack. Next, she recalls all of the pillars on the field, which will deal a ton of damage all at once (assuming you laid them all out), but I think there still might be something else.
I think she should have an actual, direct, attack as well. Lets make it flinger style, hitting the same location multiple times with her pillars. Reminiscent of her S2 especially, and ultimately I came up with this:
(Mentally it's a very cool picture, where there's four boom boom boom booms that all hit in sequence.)
The first part is a bit different though: taking advantage of her fortress defender status. By having the different aspect of this skill, it makes it so that she can be very defensive, putting down shields directly in front of her, and applying a stun in a huge swathe.
This does less damage to units up close compared to four 150% attack hits at range given that the spread out hits won't land on the same target, so I felt as though it would be fair to have that oomph. Pure offense in the ranged attack, vs a bit more useful utility if she does end up blocking something.
(Another quirk of this melee power strike is that because it puts down four pillars, the one in front of Rosmontis immediately comes back, dealing another instance of return damage, and when she does a melee attack another one comes back again. Meaning that for the melee hit, she can get six returns all at once, rather than four. Returns do less damage than actual hits, but it equalizes the damage quite a bit.)
I think this is a really good skill! It takes heavy advantage of her trait, and fully utilizes her influence as a flinger and especially her skill two. It also reflects her fortress defender nature. I think that it utilizes its influences very well, and is very cohesive.
Skill 2:
The root of this idea takes inspiration from Gladiia and Ulpianus; pulling enemies closer so you can beat the shit out of them. Unfortunately neither of them really specialize in this, or benefit from this, or when used optimally engage in this, which is an understandable, yet missed opportunity. No longer!
This skill also takes influence from Horn's S2, where it continues to deal splash damage when hitting blocked targets. It's a really cool picture in my head of her bringing units to herself, then swinging the tactical equipment like a sword in an overhead swing, bringing it down onto whatever is in front of her.
This skill is a bit strange in the perspective of fortress defenders, given that it's effectively melee oriented, but unique enough for that to be okay, I think. It seems a fun skill, and could definitely used to bring enemies into holes, since every attack now imparts force.
Because of the gimmicky nature of the skill, it follows my favorite formula of being absurd when effective, but a bit tough to actually optimize. It requires units getting into her range so that she can actually start hitting them, but will start tearing through them once they do.
In my mind for the sound design her regular attack sound would be some sickening crunch, the sound of bones breaking, bodies being torn asunder.
Skill 3:
It's flying time. This one is going to ignore nearly every single influence, because I want her to fly, damnit! She's probably going to be capable of being one of the fastest operators on the battlefield now that she's mastered more of her skills and can readily surfboard on her tactical equipment.
This skill also follows something I noticed on Ascalon and Lappland, where their second skills deal more raw damage, but their third skills are more utility driven and trade that damage for gimmicks. I think it's an appreciable perspective, and it helped make this skill:
That's right, fast redeploy fortress defender. In my mind the balancing act for this, is the prohibitive costs of 28, then 42, then 56 every time you want to do it again. However, on the other hand, you instantly get a tanky unit, a huge immediate hit with a long stun, and extra pillars to boot. Vibes-wise, I think that this is a really cool skill with interesting gameplay implications.
Rosmontis arrives on the scene just in time to save the day, throwing down a pillar, raining death from above, and then crashes down, obliterating all of the foes. I really like the visual image of her zipping across the battlefield and smashing down repeatedly.
Because of the disjointed hitbox of just putting a pillar down and being taken off, she can't be prevented from pulling off the skill.
This skill offers usage to more casual and optimized players both, where it can be used as a magnificent (if expensive) panic button, or alternatively you can time it to hit specific locations and clear out huge crowds of enemies, and retreat her often to hit in similar ways in different areas. She rewards being good at timing and picking where she's needed most, but would also be a reliable, enjoyable operator for casual players when she comes in and saves the day.
So, all in all, here's the kit for Rosmontis the Reverberation:
A collection of ideas that makes me really happy and satisfied to look at.
Notes and Scrapped Ideas:
I wanted to give her a talent akin to Firewhistle's where she pulls the pillars back to herself and gains a bunch of stats, but ultimately felt like it might bloat the design. There's theoretically a much more defensively oriented version of this, but that's okay, and still fits, because Fortress Defenders are almost entirely offensively oriented! Horn has a second life, but often is intentionally killed for the buff that it gives. Firewhistle has that mentioned talent, but most of the time you probably want her to have the attack buff rather than the defense one.
Skill 2 could maybe use "+50% defense while skill is active" to better support whatever is going on, but none of the other fortress defenders, flingers, or Rosmontis have any form of defense gain on skill.
Another note was the idea of the pillars being persistent wherever her location, which made skill 3 even cooler, but ultimately I decided against it because there was already a lot going on, and I feel as though it started bloating the design. It could be argued to already be there, but in my mind it maintains complexity without being completely opaque.
Additionally was the idea that if she attacks the same location, instead of a pillar not deploying, it would stack the pillars. Either they'd have individual health bars or it would upgrade the pillar into two pillars, which would mechanically just increase the HP total of the already placed pillar. But its so wordy and difficult to try and also express in the talent, so I passed on it.
Making this post was really good for managing all of the off-shoot ideas and refining them down. I made a few revisions as I made this post. When you're thinking about this sort of thing, it becomes a mixing pool of ideas very quickly, and can be easy to lose ones.
Idea of a skill with charges, where the passive effect was that SP would be gained by hitting with returning pillars. So Rosmontis would throw one forward, and then using the skill would give back SP. Seemed promising and funny.
There were a ton of skill names that I cycled through and passed up. I think that they were all decent, but I like the stylization of all the skill names and how they all very refined and well practiced tactics.
- Annihilation Authorization
- Crunch Order
- Formless Grasp (good alter additive too)
- Gravitic Crush
- Living Weapon (good talent name too)
I try to follow the in-game writing and terminology as much as possible so as to make the game mechanics as clear and precise as possible. I don't think it's necessary but I often look at my library while coming up with a kit like this so that everything can be worded as closely to in-game examples as is feasible. Hence things why Stun is always capitalized and Take Off underlined. Dealing x% damage as physical attack is always interesting, instead of just being deal +x% damage, as well.
Basic - Piercing Spear: Lancer deals Lighting DMG to one enemy.
Skill - Scarlet Spear: Lancer sweeps his spear, doing Lightning DMG to all enemies. If the last two attacks in a row Lancer used were Scarlet Spear, he immediately launches an additional Scarlet Spear.
Ultimate - Gae Bolg: Choose between two different attacks.
Barbed Spear of Piercing Death: Deals extreme Lighting DMG to a single enemy that ignores 20% of the target's All-Type RES. If the target's toughness is broken, or if this attack would break the target's weakness; deals additional True DMG based on the target's missing toughness (increased by Break Effect). If the target is not defeated by this attack, has a base 200% chance to stun the target for 1 turn.
Soaring Spear of Piercing Death: Lancer charges his spear. On Lancer's next turn, he throws it, dealing significant Lighting DMG to one enemy, and moderate DMG to all other enemies. Deals additional damage based on the total current toughness of all targets hit (increased by Break Effect). Has a base 120% chance to apply 20% Vulnerability to all targets hit. Then advance Lancer's action by 50%.
Talent - Ath nGabla: Lancer gains a stack of Battle Continuation whenever he deals damage to a target, or when his health is reduced. Additionally, when any enemy target dies, grants Lancer 1 stack. Each stack of Battle Continuation grants lancer 5 SPD.
If Lancer would be knocked down while having 10 or more stacks of Battle Continuation, he is instead healed to 25% MaxHP, is action advanced 100%, gains Runic Enhancement which grants significant ATK and moderate Break DMG%+ based on the number of Battle Continuation stacks he has, and then consumes 10 Battle Continuation Stacks. If this effect would be triggered again, the existing Runic Enhancement buff is replaced with the new one.
Ability 1 - Protection from Arrows: Lancer has a significantly higher chance of being targeted by enemies. Lancer takes (=20% total SPD)% reduced damage from all sources.
Ability 2 - Disengage: When Lancer's turn ends, he heals for every stack of Battle Continuation he has. If Lancer has 10 or more stacks of Battle Continuation, he additionally cleanses all debuffs on himself.
Ability 3 - Spear Play: When Lancer's attacks kill a target, immediately launches a Follow-Up Attack dealing Lighting DMG to one random enemy (prioritizing Elites and Bosses), and slowing targets hit by (=10% total SPD)%.
Technique - Shoal of Four Branches: Lancer starts the next battle with 15 stacks of Battle Continuation, and immediately takes 100% MaxHP True DMG at the beginning of his first turn.
