Stone Guard

[Sephalo]

Stone Guard

Introduction:
The Stone Guard is the quintessential dwarf – gruff, quarrelsome and taciturn. He is also your best friend on the field of battle, as any blow struck against his allies is a Grudge that is guaranteed to be repaid in kind. Equipped with his strong iron armor, and practicing his elite weapon craft, he is a steadfast defender. This dwarf is proof against even the most powerful attacks, standing by his allies and ensuring their safety amidst the swirling chaos of battle. It is said that there are few warriors in the world who can boast they are as tough as a Stone Guard, and none that can prove it.

When most people describe someone as "patient", they're probably talking about a Dwarf - but when a Dwarf describes someone as "patient as a mountain", they're probably talking about a Stone Guard. Clad in their legendary iron armor, they are the vanguard of any Dwarf army, leading and protecting their kin and allies on the field of battle.

Credits: General Frank for the model.

Ardor:
Nobody is as patient as a Dwarf, and no dwarf is more patient than the Stone Guard. Every second of battle serves to fuel his power. This in turn influences his every action – the longer the waiting time in combat, the greater the effect of the Stone Guard's attacks. The means by which the Stone Guard exacts justice vary according to his choice of attacks, but one thing is constant: A silent Stone Guard can be anyone’s deadliest foe.

Playing as a Stone Guard:
As a Stone Guard, your goal is to get between your friends and your foes and use your defensive abilities to absorb and deflect attacks. If you can't immediately claim a foe's attention, your defensive bonuses begin to make you a problem foes can't ignore as you grow more and more potent in the defense of your allies. Obviously, Stone Guards truly shine in groups but even solo they are very capable as long as they can get close enough to wear down foes with their axe or hammer.

Playing against a Stone Guard:
Fighting a Stone Guard calls for some tough choices: do you try to wear away the anvil or do you attack his friends and hope that the anvil doesn't fall on your head? The best approach is probably to remove the Stone Guard through magic and ranged attacks, aiming to eliminate him before he can bring his power to bear. Barring that, a concentrated melee attack on the Stone Guard may be your only hope to avoid creating an indestructible melee monster that knows your name and holds a grudge for a very long time. Always make sure that the enemy Stone Guard uses many skills. Because a deadly Stone Guard, is a patient one.

Preview:
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Abilities:

Cooldown: 10.00 seconds
Cast: 0.50 Cast Time
Range: Melee Range
Cost: 25 Energy and all Ardor
Description: Deals Str*2.4 physical damage to the target and knocks it back a littlebit. After the cast this inreases the Strength of the Stone Guard by 10% for 8 seconds and an additional 2% for every 10 Ardor.

Cooldown: 22.00 seconds
Cast: instant
Range: 600 Range
Cost: 35 Energy and all Ardor
Description: Charges towards the target and bashes it with your shield; dealing Str*1.4 physical damage while reducing the target's movement speed by 60% for 5 seconds. The duration of the slow effect is increased by 1 second for every 10 Ardor.

Cooldown: 45.00 seconds
Cast: Instant
Range: 300 Range
Cost: 45 energy
Description: Summons an Anvil of Forbearance at the targeted location for 30 seconds. Whenever allied players or the Stone Guard hit the Anvil they will activate the Anvil’s effect; increasing their Strength by 15% and Armor by Level * 1 for 12 seconds. Whenever the Anvil gets destroyed it deals Str*2.1 earth damage to nearby enemies.
Anvils can take 5 hits before they get destroyed

^{The abilities above are just a part of the hero's abilities and might change as well.}

 

[sonofjay]

Wow, this is the most complicated tank hero I ever heard in my entire gaming life, I mean he just don't do the work, of gaining enemies attack without benefiting himself, amazing job on this. And Stone Guard's background was also well written. +rep

 

[Arcisal]

Shield Rush makes kiting this beast relatively impossible (?) unless you have a disarm shield ability or something that doesn't enable him to use it. On the other hand, 24 classes in a single game means that pretty much nothing is short of being achieved PvP-wise.

Does the Anvil of Forbearance effect on allies when they hit it stack? Or is it simply a one time thing only. And when enemy players attack the anvil, does it count as one out of the 5 hits but they do not get the buff?

 

[Sephalo]

Shield Rush makes kiting this beast relatively impossible (?) unless you have a disarm shield ability or something that doesn't enable him to use it. On the other hand, 24 classes in a single game means that pretty much nothing is short of being achieved PvP-wise.

Does the Anvil of Forbearance effect on allies when they hit it stack? Or is it simply a one time thing only. And when enemy players attack the anvil, does it count as one out of the 5 hits but they do not get the buff?

Indeed. Stone Guards are hard to kite, however. All they got to trigger a kiter is Shield Rush. If they save up their Ardor for up to 10 seconds (which brings it to a maximum) they can increase the slow duration by 10 seconds, which means they still have the enemy unslowed for a few seconds. But saving up Ardor means that they shouldn't use ANY ability during those 10 seconds. Which questions; is it really worth it to sacrifice so much for a longer slow? A Stone Guard can technically achieve alot with just a few skills, but at some situations it might be better to use skills instead of saving them. That's up to the player ofc.
A good thing to say is that all melee classes have some abilities to counter kiting; since they really need this for pvp. A Redeemer per example can shoot out a net, while a Berserker also has a charge ability.

The Anvil's effect doesn't stack at first, however there is a very powerful Stone Guard talent that allows it to stack up to 3 times. When enemy players attack the anvil they remove one of its charges without getting the buff exactly. So in a scenario when enemies hit the anvil 3 times, only 2 friendly players can benefit from the anvil before it expires.

 

[Arcisal]

How is Ardor calculated? Is it for every second idle 1 Ardor, or do you have something else more complex in mind?

 

[Sephalo]

How is Ardor calculated? Is it for every second idle 1 Ardor, or do you have something else more complex in mind?

Ardor is pretty simple.
It can go up to 100 and you gain 1 Ardor every 0.1sec, so basically 10 per second. Nearly every ability done by the Stone Guard will reset his Ardor to 0. So it basically displays how long the Stone Guard hasn't been using an ability.

I have to say there will be various talents that manipulate his Ardor generation, per example: Increases the Ardor generated by 25%, but allows it to only go up to 75.

 

[Arcisal]

Question: For the skill Stone Slam, how is it that the skill can increase the Stone Guard's strength by more than the default 10% if it costs all Ardor? Unless for course, the Ardor it used up when the skill is selected instead of cast, giving the hero a max of 5 Ardor (0.5 sec cast time).

I am beginning to love this class. Looks like it relies heavily on auto-attack instead of skills alone.

 

[Sephalo]

Question: For the skill Stone Slam, how is it that the skill can increase the Stone Guard's strength by more than the default 10% if it costs all Ardor? Unless for course, the Ardor it used up when the skill is selected instead of cast, giving the hero a max of 5 Ardor (0.5 sec cast time).

I am beginning to love this class. Looks like it relies heavily on auto-attack instead of skills alone.

Don't really know what you mean, but every skill can benefit from a specific bonus based on the Ardor the Stone Guard had when he casted the ability (consuming the Ardor in the process).
In Stone Slam's case it will increase the power of the strength increasing buff. So if the Stone Guard has 50 Ardor and he uses the skill, he will gain 10% + (2*5)% because 50 Ardor gives 5 times a 2% bonus to the buff. So that's +20% strength for 8 seconds.

 

[MogulKahn]

Thanks dude ! He seems interesting ! GJ on him...
Can we expect more classes?

 

[Sephalo]

Thanks dude ! He seems interesting ! GJ on him...
Can we expect more classes?

I believe I released all Gryphonwing Classes so far.
There are still some Bloodbane classes unrevealed and some Defiler classes, but since I first focos on Gryphonwing it might take a while till I reveal those.

 

[Sephalo]

Cus you like him so much I started finishing the class.
Here's a pic of me testing him a bit.
Mistake: A spell should add him 15% block chance... not 105%!!! Typo's ftw.

 

[MogulKahn]

Can we expect beta this month ? =D

 

[Sephalo]

Really hard to say but I'm working my ass off on this atm. Most likely a closed beta in a month but chances are small for me to get ready for that in august already. But as I said I'm working really much on this and progression is being made every day!

 

[sonofjay]

No need to rush, I can wait here forever. LOL