Ya-Ren, the Silent Strike

Affiliation: Omni

Role: Firepower

Hit Points: 130

Super Short Summary: A melee firepower with conditional stealth and tactical play.

Strengths:

Mobility, stealth, some crowd control, decent damage on primary.

Weaknesses:

Low range, low hp and not much defense, somewhat difficult to gain energy, no true dash besides ult.

Lore:

Another Ren! His invisibility has nothing to do with Kaigin’s, he’s just trained in the art of moving silently. Details are up to Kaivee. 🙂

As a note, I envision Ya-Ren being somewhat androgynous / gender-non-binary. “They” pronouns, if that’s not too weird (I mean, it’s an android! Gender is a total construct for them, right?). The two skins I have in mind are one with long, flowing hair, and another with a short pixie cut.

Primary — Triple Fist — Blast Phase — No Cooldown

Strike 3 times around you, dealing 30 damage with each strike. (Punch left, punch right, karate chop center.) An enemy hit by multiple strikes takes an additional 3 damage for each additional strike. Gain 12 energy for the first enemy hit and 4 energy for each additional enemy hit.

Notes: Variable “3 things” targeter not unlike Kaigin’s shurikens, but max range of 3, max angle of 180, and strikes cover all enemies in their line (though fairly thin lines).

Mods:

Punch Your Lunch (2 points) (default) — an enemy hit by multiple strikes takes an additional 1 damage per strike.

Big Chop Finish (2 points) — the central strike is wider and deals an additional 5 damage, but do not increase damage for hitting enemies with multiple strikes.

Triad (1 point) — increase the maximum angle to 240 (such that you can have 3 evenly-spaced strikes, similar to Nev’s ultimate).

Battlefield Agility (3 points) — gain Haste this turn.

2 — Concealing Strike — Blast Phase — Cooldown 3

Strike in a direction, sending a wave of force that deals 24 damage to the first enemy hit (up to 6 range). If you hit an enemy, gain Invisibility until the end of the next Decision Phase. Gain 10 energy if you hit an enemy.

Mods:

Revealing Strike (2 points) (default) — if you hit an enemy, Reveal it until the end of the next Decision Phase.

Overwhelming Force (2 points) — the wave of force deals an additional 10 damage and has a 50% reduced cover penalty, but do not gain Invisibility.

Stealth Master (3 points) — the Invisibility lasts until the end of next turn.

Crushing Wave (3 points) — the strike pierces through the enemy and may hit any additional enemies in the line. Increase maximum range by 1.

Return to the Shadows (1 point) — if you do not hit an enemy, reduce the cooldown by 1.

3 — In Shadow — Prep Phase — Free Action — Cooldown 4

Create a smoke tile at your current location, and leave smoke at any tile you move through this turn. Smoke lasts until end of next turn. Gain 6 energy on use.

Mods:

Shadow Runner (2 points) (default) — gain Haste this turn.

Hard to See (3 points) — gain 15 shields until end of turn.

Pervasive Shadows (2 points) — smoke lasts an additional turn, but increase the cooldown by 1.

Crippling Assault (3 points) — hitting an enemy with direct damage this turn will Weaken it next turn.

Hidden Energy (1 point) — gain 1 additional energy for each smoke tile created.

4 — Roundhouse Kick — Dash Phase — Cooldown 3

Dash 1 square in any direction and strike enemies in a variable cone. Deal 28 damage to enemies hit and Slow them until end of turn. Gain 8 energy for each enemy hit.

Notes: Reticle is similar in nature to Elle targeter; up to 4 range / 30 degree angle from landing location or 1 range / 120 degree angle; center line of the cone must be within 30 degrees of the direction you dashed.

Mods:

Solo Takedown (2 points) (default) — deal 7 additional damage if only 1 enemy is hit.

Long Feet (1 point) — increase the maximum range (length) of the cone by 1.

Recovery (3 points) — you can move after dashing.

Knockdown (3 points) — enemies hit are Rooted.

Action Kick (3 points) — increase the dash range by 1.

Ultimate — Flying Skullcrusher — (Dash –> Blast Phase) — Requires 100 energy

Decision Phase: Choose a target tile within 5 range, and a directional attack (to a very small cone area about 1.5 length and 45 degrees in the direction you choose) from that target tile.

Dash Phase: Launch a kick, dashing to the target tile and dealing 20 damage to any enemies passed through.

Blast Phase: Deliver a powerful punch to the target cone, dealing 25 damage to any enemies hit and knocking them back 4 units.

Mods:

Flying Sidekick (2 points) (default) — increase the damage dealt by the dash (kick) portion by 5.

Extra Oomph (2 points) — increase the knockback range of the punch by 2.

Precision Strike (2 points) — increase the range of the dash by 3, but the dash (kick) portion no longer deals damage.

KO Shot (1 point) — enemies hit by the punch are Slowed next turn.

Martial Mobility (3 points) — you can move after dashing.

Builds:

Battlefield Agility (3) — Revealing Strike (2) — Nothing (0) — Knockdown (3) — Precision Strike (2)

— Designed to give you mobility, flexibility and crowd control. Knockdown and Precision Strike give you a great deal of control over your hard CC, and Revealing Strike can set it up. Great when you have team support. Substitute Extra Oomph for Precision Strike if you think you can get a good set-up and want the extra knockback.

Punch Your Lunch (2) — Overwhelming Force (2) — Hard to See (3) — Solo Takedown (2) — KO Shot (1)

— Duelist build, designed to give you lots of damage and value, especially against a single target. Hard to See lets you win a trade with on-demand shields, and Punch Your Lunch, Overwhelming Force and Solo Takedown all increase our single-target damage quite a bit. KO Shot is taken with the remaining point, and is also a good fit for this build, as the knockback itself would gain value with upcoming team support (but the enemy is more likely to unstoppable it) whereas the additional slow can gain value in a 1v1 (where they might not).

Punch Your Lunch (2) — Crushing Wave (3) — Shadow Runner (2) — Action Kick (3) — Nothing (0)

— This build is something of a chaser build, designed to give you immediate range and flexibility with Crushing Wave and Action Kick — great against elusive enemies that may try to outrange you. You can also run Recovery instead of Action Kick for a similar effect. Shadow Runner, in the same vein, lets us run down our foes and also makes for a great sprint turn by letting you lay up to 12 squares of smoke. The remaining points are flexible, so I just tossed them into Punch Your Lunch so you can have a hard-hitting primary once you catch up. Another option would be taking Long Feet and Precision Strike instead of Action Kick.

Triad (1) — Crushing Wave (3) — Crippling Assault (3) — Long Feet (1) — Flying Sidekick (2)

— Basically a sweet AoE build. Triad lets you hit stuff all around you, and Crushing Wave also lets you hit all targets in the line. These are great with Crippling Assault, letting you potentially mass Weaken. Long Feet, similarly, increases the AoE of what you can hit. Finally, Flying Sidekick is, you guessed it, more AoE damage. Consider substituting out Triad for Big Chop Finish — also a great mod when hitting multiple targets around you — if you can find a point to drop elsewhere (perhaps Long Feet, or replacing Flying Sidekick with KO Shot).

Punch Your Lunch (2) — Nothing (0) — Shadow Runner (2) — Recovery (3) — Martial Mobility (3)

— Very mobile build that can play offense or defense. This build takes advantage of the synergy between Shadow Runner and Recovery / Martial Mobility. The latter two let you move after dashing, and you can pop In Shadow as a free action to get on-demand Haste for that. Even if you don’t use them together, the combination gives you a heck of a lot of mobility. The remaining two points are flexible; I threw them into Punch Your Lunch but they could just as easily go into Big Chop Finish or Revealing Strike (or Triad + Return to the Shadows).

Battlefield Agility (3) — Stealth Master (3) — Pervasive Shadows (2) — Nothing (0) — Extra Oomph (2)

— Finally, we get to the stealth build. Stealth Master lets our invisibility last until the end of next TURN, not just next decision phase, which means we can conceal our movement as long as we land in a hidden / camo / smoke square. You know what’s good with that? More smoke. So we got Pervasive Shadows, which gives us smoke not just the turn we use In Shadow but for the next two turns as well. You know what else is good with that? Haste. Battlefield Agility can let us get to a camo square we might not otherwise be able to reach, and keep the enemy guessing as to our position. Since we’re (ideally) invisible so much, we don’t really need anything on the dash, but if we had 3 points (which we don’t — we only have 2 left) we might consider Recovery so we can dodge an attack or land a slow and still be able to find our way back to a hidden square. Not sure we need it, though, since, you know, we’re already invisible. Accordingly, we pick up Extra Oomph. We can probably position close to an enemy with our invisibility, so we don’t really need the extra range offered by Precision Strike, and getting a huuuuuge knockback is great when the enemy can’t necessarily see it coming.