Malware Gameplay | Ethereal: Clash of Souls
Added 2023-03-17 01:30:00 +0000 UTCHowdy Patrons! Happy Thursday!
We have been wanting to showcase Malware for quite some time, however he has undergone many iterations and balance adjustments internally. We are comfortable with his current state and are happy to announce the new and updated kit which you will all get to play during our next open test which you will hear more about in the coming weeks. Lets get going with the changes!
One of the biggest changes for Malware is his Special Ability. As some of you may remember, Special Abilities are abilities with a positive and a negative effect that enhances each Myths unique playstyle. We want special abilities to be impactful and situational to the way a Myth plays. Malware's original Special Ability (previously known as Switch Statement) allowed him to switch stances for either defensive or offensive options. This felt more restricting than engaging to players and led to negative play patterns. Thus we decided to rework the ability to include Malware's unique design space while also allowing us the opportunity to create the first passive Special Ability in Ethereal. His Special now expressly dictates his unique Basic Attack pattern with a restriction and an added benefit of fully charging his shots to deal bonus missing health damage. This gives him a unique playstyle of an opportunistic Marksman that has viability in many scenarios.
Many of the issues with Malware internally have been giving both agency and reliability to spamming basic attacks and fully charging them. Originally he dealt bonus damage and gained bonus range for charging his shots. This led to increased safety but overall less DPS. We want his charged shots to feel impactful in the right scenarios and have their DPS values be roughly similar depending on the situations he finds himself in. As a result, we landed on a final iteration mentioned above and wanted to fully commit to the fantasy it brought to the Myths design. Overclocked (Ability One) got a quality of life improvement with an added effect of applying Corruption on every Basic Attack hit. This works in tandem with his other abilities that play off of Corruption stacks. Byte Transfer (Ability Three) also got an overhaul and deals damage based on Corruption stacks to nearby afflicted targets. These changes enable him to kill enemies faster and more reliably using Hello World (Ultimate) and allow him to fulfil the fantasy of a late game hyper carry that infinitely stacks Physical Power as he becomes an ever-growing threat on Elysium.
Passive - Corruption
Basic Attacking an enemy 3 times within a few seconds applies Corruption. Corruption deals damage over time, this effect stacks. When a corrupted target dies, they pass all of their Corruption stacks to the closest enemy.
Special - Exploit
Malware's Basic Attacks deal a reduced percentage of Physical Power as Physical Damage but he can charge his basic attacks over time to deal a percentage of the targets Missing Health as bonus Physical Damage based on charge time. Fully charged shots apply corruption. Charge timer scales based on Attack Speed
Ability One - Overclocked
Malware empowers his bow gaining bonus Attack Speed for 6 seconds. Every Basic Attack applies Corruption for the duration.
Ability Two - Firewall
Gains a spell shield for a couple seconds. Blocking a spell immediately resets the cooldown on Overclocked and applies Corruption to the enemy who cast the spell.
Ability Three - Byte Transfer
Malware infiltrates all nearby enemies affected by Corruption, slowing them and dealing Physical Damage per stack, increased on low health targets.
Ultimate - Hello World
Malware sends an arrow forward, stopping and dealing Physical Damage to the first Myth hit, sending them and himself to Malware's dimension for 8 seconds. Corruption's damage is tripled against the Myth, they are Grounded and Slowed by 25%, and if Malware kills the Myth while inside the his dimension he keeps a percentage of their Physical Power permanently.
We can't wait for you all to be able to play him for yourselves and let us know your thoughts in the discord!
See you again soon,
Undying Games
Comments
Bearded is going to be so scared of my malware in fire lane
Shaaddoee
2023-03-17 04:19:40 +0000 UTC
