Maiden and Spell/Stormbeast
Profile
An unknown chimeric fusion of creatures who wields the power of lightning. She is fast, reckless, powerful, and frightening... a monster through and through, she revels in chaos and destruction.
She approaches opponents with blinding speed and beguiling doppelgangers, and strikes them with shocking attacks.
Overview
Stormbeast is an incredibly agile character with a lot of room for variance in playstyle. Her most common gameplan revolves around walling with fully charged basic alongside her doppelganger to lock opponents down and force checkmates whilst using wide to catch opponents moving. She is strong in most points of a match, but walling with charged basic becomes much more powerful at smaller arena sizes as her projectiles start taking up increasingly more space.
Storm is not only limited to walling, as she can use her unmatched mobility and malleable attacks to surprise her opponents. She can rush into melee range and escape pressure quickly, all the while using a mixture of options to make it difficult to move easily.
Doppelganger, Storm's offensive special, is her premier tool. It is a stationary clone that mimicks her wides and basics, effectively doubling her pressure. Thoughtful clone positioning can open up many offensive options and is a skill new Storm players should learn early and apply often.
These strengths do not come without flaws, as Storm's two offensive tools manipulate her movement speed significantly, and because her base movement speed is so high she can be particularly hard to control. Whilst this downside may seem simplistic, it is actually a drastic factor in how Storm is played and micro, the act of changing your position in small amounts to thread small gaps, can be particularly difficult for beginner and even intermediate Storms. The difficulty in controlling Storm is the reason why she is generally regarded as a hard character to play, not too dissimilar to a glass cannon character in more traditional fighting games.
Move Speed: 16px
Focus Speed: 4.5px
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
|
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Movelist
Basic Shot (Unfocused)
 Bolt Strike
Cast
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|---|---|---|
   
| ||
| Shot Type | Startup | Cooldown |
| Major | Casting (30ms to 150ms) + 580ms (uncharged) 550ms (charged / in hands) |
|
| Radius | Speed | Angle |
| 75px (Uncharged) 220px (Full Charge) |
14px (Uncharged) 5px (Full Charge) |
0 |
| Move Speed Multiplier | Move Lock | Direction Lock |
| 15% Casting (30ms to 150ms uncharged) 15% Casting (min 360ms charged) 40%, 500ms |
0%, 500ms | |
| Action Lock | Combo Time | Invincibility Time |
| Attack, 700ms Spell, 700ms |
' | |
| Extremely versatile move. If released uncharged, moves fairly quickly, though its active time is related to when you released the cast. Once it begins charging, it will always gain a hitbox at the same time, regardless of when you release it. The greater the charge, the bigger it is, but the slower it will move when released. Can effectively uses as a melee weapon by holding onto it in the opponent's face while charging.
Gains full charge after 800ms cast time. Despite being a Major projectile, while Bolt Strike is being held in your hands, Novi Life cannot erase it. This protection is lost the moment you release it. |
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Basic Shot (Focused)
| Bolt Strike: Railgun
Cast
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|---|---|---|
 
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| Shot Type | Startup | Cooldown |
| Major | casting (30ms to 150ms) + 880ms | |
| Radius | Speed | Angle |
| 75px | 24px | 0 |
| Move Speed Multiplier | Move Lock | Direction Lock |
| 15% casting (30ms to 150ms) 40%, 500ms |
0%, 500ms | |
| Action Lock | Combo Time | Invincibility Time |
| Attack, 700ms Spell, 700ms |
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| Railgun is a significantly delayed version of your uncharged Bolt Strike, which travels much faster than the normal version. Used by focusing as you finish your cast, either with the minimum cast time or the move begins charging. As your clone shares your exact focus time but the Bolt Strike release time is delayed for your clone by 100ms, you have a 100ms window to either press or release focus after finishing your uncharged cast to have only one of you use railgun, and which one. You can use it to change up your pressure patterns by having a quick attack fill a hole, or by using its delay to fire something to meet up with you later as you're doing pressure elsewhere. | ||
Wide Shot
 Discharge
Hold
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|---|---|---|
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| Shot Type | Startup | Cooldown |
| Minor | 340ms > 500ms | |
| Radius | Speed | Angle |
| 15px | 16.5px | 65, -65, 115, -115 > 25, -25, 155, -155 |
| Move Speed Multiplier | Move Lock | Direction Lock |
| 130%, 420ms | ||
| Action Lock | Combo Time | Invincibility Time |
| Attack, 320ms | 420ms | |
| You move much faster while using this. Each volley fires eight bolts, two to your left and two to your right then two forward and two back. It has a pretty big deadzone near the user, but then, that's what Bolt Strike is for. It's not really that threatening by itself, but when it's coming from two places at once, and one of those places is moving very quickly, it can easily tag people who are trying to reposition to deal with Bolt Strike, making it a good passive movement restriction. | ||
Offensive Special (Unfocused)
 Doppelganger
Hold
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|---|---|---|
  
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| Shot Type | Startup | Cooldown |
| 7s | ||
| Radius | Speed | Angle |
| 600px | See notes* | Straight Left/Right |
| Move Speed Multiplier | Move Lock | Direction Lock |
| 0% 600ms | ||
| Action Lock | Combo Time | Invincibility Time |
| Attack, 500ms Spell, 500ms |
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| Sends out a clone 600px over 600ms that stays in place and mimics your basic and wide shots. Lasts for 15 seconds, or until Doppelganger is reused. Mimics your basic shot 100ms after you use yours, while mimicking your wide shot at the same time as yours. Because it mimics wide shot instantly, you can have the first wide shot come out of it out of its final position if used in the 100ms period after attack lock ends before it reaches its final position. Its position is interpolated from the starting point to the ending point over 600ms with the formula 3 * .5 * (time/600ms) * [1 - (time/600ms)]^2 + 3 * .95 * [1 - (time/600ms)] *(time/600ms)^2 + (time/600ms)^3. |
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Offensive Special (Focused)
| Shortened Doppelganger
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|---|---|---|
| ||
| Shot Type | Startup | Cooldown |
| 7s | ||
| Radius | Speed | Angle |
| 300px | See notes* | Straight Left/Right |
| Move Speed Multiplier | Move Lock | Direction Lock |
| 0% 600ms | ||
| Action Lock | Combo Time | Invincibility Time |
| Attack, 300ms Spell, 300ms |
||
| Variant of normal Doppelganger which sends it out half the distance over half the time. Otherwise considered the same move, keeping the same cooldown and overwriting / being overwritten by the regular doppelganger upon reuse. Its function to move into place is the same as regular Doppelganger's (but moving 300px over 300ms), although since the duration is only 300ms this is irrelevant to gameplay and is purely an aesthetic touch. | ||
Defensive Special
 Flash Step
Cast
| ||
|---|---|---|
 
| ||
| Shot Type | Startup | Cooldown |
| Intangible | Casting (min 30ms) + 300ms + distance/4 ms | 12s |
| Radius | Speed | Angle |
| 400px | Casting 39px |
Straight Left/Right |
| Move Speed Multiplier | Move Lock | Direction Lock |
| 0% Casting (min 30ms) | ||
| Action Lock | Combo Time | Invincibility Time |
| Action, 300ms + distance/4 ms | 200ms Casting 600ms + distance/4 ms |
|
| Hold down button to cast a shadow of yourself across the field, and release to teleport to it 300px later over a period of distance/4 ms from the position you finished casting from (not the position you were in when you teleported, as you have full movement after releasing the cast which is not accounted for in this). You can't act until you reappear, and the burst you make can't deal damage to your opponent but will destroy minor projectiles. You have Minor Invincibility from the moment you finish casting until 300ms after you reappear. The shadow will not travel closer than 85px to a wall, capping the travel time at 528.75ms if cast from one side of a full-sized battlefield to the other. | ||
Strategy
(Work in Progress)
go fast and shoot lightning
Addendum: While going fast, take care not to collide with your opponent's bullets.
Clone Positioning
(ToDo: Add Pictures)
One of the most versitile pieces of Stormbeast's kit and key in succeeding against any opponent. Generally you should always aim to have a clone active as the cooldown is lower than its duration.
The clone is most threatening when inside the arena, so try to avoid placing clones in undesirable positions such as outside the arena or in the wrong direction (if your opponent moves past you just before you cast it), as your opponent will have time to capitalise on you while you wait for the clone to come off cooldown.
Defensive Position
Since it is undesirable for the opponent to move directly through the clone due to the risk of being hit by a wide or charged basic, you can place the clone between yourself and the opponent and use it as a detterant to create some breathing room.
Pincer
By placing a clone on the opposite side of the opponent from your current poition, you can trap them in a pincer formation where your wide will generally confine them to a triangular space. Your opponent will also have to watch for attacks fired from behind while in this position, potentially making it harder for them to focus.
Denying Positioning
Because the clone becomes a threat simply by existing inside the arena, you can use it to deny your opponent of advantageous positioning (e.g. centre stage). However in doing so you might also deny yourself of perfered clone positioning for offensive techniques.
Charged Orb Techniques
Melee
Run up to the opponent and give em a big orb.
Walling
By utilising charged basic and positioning, Stormbeast can setup checkmates and effectively trap the opponent against a wall, forcing a defensive special or a hit. Like most of Stormbeast's moves there is no catch all strategy. Using this technique effectively boils down to understanding the positioning of yourself, your clone and the opponent. (TBC)
Flash Step Techniques
"Bombing"
Since Flashstep deletes bullets upon teleporting, you can tap-cast it to effectively clear all minor bullets around you (similar to using bombs in shmups). This allows you to get out of a sticky situation without giving up your positioning or risking being hit while casting. As a side note, the rubberbanding caused by this ability may briefly confuse your opponent.
Bypassing Obstacles
Because of its superior range, Flashstep can be used to bypass a wall of obstacles and get Stormbeast out of checkmate or otherwise difficult to dodge situations. However also be aware that Flashstep has a long cooldown so you should not rely on it to get you out of every bad situation.
Approaching
Flashstep can also be used to quickly close the gap between you and your opponent, allowing you to suddenly pressure them or follow up on other moves (e.g. teleporting in front of a charged orb). Because Flashstep has a tendency to rubberband, especially at higher latency, you may be able to tag your opponent with an unexpected wide or melee.
