Seeing red with the blood warrior
When planning DestinyQuest Book Four, I had the opportunity to strip down the three different paths (warrior, rogue and mage) and really analyse how I could make each of these paths more unique. Whilst that has always been my goal with the previous books, I never felt I really nailed it. With Book Four I set myself the task of focusing on the core abilities that define each path – and how these might synergise with other abilities and combos to provide unique builds.
For those who may be unfamiliar with the term ‘build’, this is a certain way of customising your hero so that they perform better at a specific function. Perhaps you might want to create a warrior that can soak up loads of damage, or a mage that can turn their healing prowess into offensive magic. In The Raiders of Dune Sea, there are lots of different builds to play around with – and the abilities and careers have been specifically designed to support and synergize with these possible builds.
And so, to our first ‘path focus’ and what I have termed the blood warrior. I feel that warriors have two essential functions, to tank damage (with high armour) and to dish out the hurt (through offensive attacks). The blood warrior plays into the latter, with a focus on using the bleed passive effect to do maximum damage to as many opponents as possible, which then triggers other effects.
So let’s get started with bleed – a lovely passive ability that does a ticking 1 point of damage to a damaged opponent at the end of each round. Not bad, but made better when you combine it with sweeping attacks like cleave, scythe and cyclone that deal damage to multiple opponents. Now, all your dastardly enemies are taking the passive damage from bleed. So far so good...
Equip the gouge ability and your bleed damage increases by 1, pumping out even more damage. Now, your warrior will really be seeing red. Which is all rather splendid as the blood warrior wants to be splashing as much blood around as possible. New abilities such as unshakeable boost your damage score based on the number of damaged opponents – so you really want to be dishing out the hurt!
The blood warrior can take a hit or two also, and doesn’t mind those blows lowering his health – as once he gets into the ‘red zone’ (10 health or less), other potent abilities suddenly trigger, such as rapid pulse, which can further increase bleed damage on opponents. Bloody good fun, eh?
The blood warrior is just one of the many exciting synergies/combos that readers can discover as they battle across the Dune Sea. In the next update, I’ll be taking a look at the mage – and their new ‘spending magic’ dynamic.
Until then, happy adventuring!
MJW