Character Design: Bastion! (or, You Can't Stop The Rockman)

Pygmalia found herself running, in tears, across the high gardens, searching through bleary eyes for the statue that she knew would be there.

A visit from the Enlightener is not one that you forget in a hurry. Her power, as it is, is to speak the truth. Not the truth that you want to know, but the truth that you need to know. Whatever it may be.

Pygmalia, the sculptor, was not a Templar. She wasn't cut out for the job. Her combat skills were non-existent, and she didn't have any magic potential to speak of. However, she did work with the Templars- after all, they're the ones who need the lavish carvings, the beautiful sculptures, the masterwork statues- so she spent a fair amount of time around them. In fact, that was how she'd met her fiancée, Peter Bastion. 

Pygmalia stopped before the statue. It was here. The Enlightener's words echoed through her mind.

Bastion was a strong man. A leader. Handsome, intelligent, charismatic, strong as an ox. Five years ago, they met. One year ago, to the very day, they'd become pledged to be married. Six months ago, he'd lead a group out to the Törska Mountains, in search of the homeland of a new race of savages who had been spotted near Kayne's walls. Three months ago, the party was due to return. Today, they were due to be married.

Instead, Pygmalia had received a visit from the Enlightener.

She'd said only four words.

"He's not coming back."

Pygmalia fell to her knees, hugging the legs of the statue of Peter. Her magnum opus.
Who can imagine how she felt when he knelt to embrace her too.

Bastion, the Stone Soldier, is a Tank with focus on damage mitigation and area of effect crowd control. His kit is built around getting into the middle of a group of enemies and holding them down for long enough for his allies to kill them.


Passive: Rock Solid- If Bastion hasn't taken damage in the last 3 seconds, the next attack to hit him deals no damage.
Rock Solid is Bastion's means of catching and holding the enemy's attention, as well as his means of dealing with Assassins and Novas. By mitigating only the first attack to hit him, he can utterly invalidate Assassin and Nova burst, but it's ineffective against Cannons, Fighters, Bruisers and Beatsticks, forcing him to single out high priority targets to avoid getting shredded anyway.

Q: Rock Hammer- Bastion strikes an enemy in front of him with his hammer, dealing significant damage to them.
Rock Hammer is basically a basic attack. It doesn't do much damage, it's on too long a cooldown to use as a decent source of damage. All it's really there for is to give him something to do between crowd control bursts.

W: Epicenter- Bastion smashes the ground with his hammer, dealing light damage to nearby enemies and slowing them for two seconds.

Epicenter is Bastion's primary crowd control ability. By getting into the middle of a group of enemies and hitting this, he stops them running if his team is winning, or stops them chasing if his team is losing. Win win situation!

E: Stone Slam- Bastion bashes his body into a foe, dealing moderate damage and snaring them for a second.

Stone Slam is Bastion's main "singling out" ability. By Slamming a squishy foe, he's making them an easy target for the rest of his team, and dealing a some damage while he's at it.

R: Boulderdash- Bastion curls himself up and rolls to the target location, dealing significant damage to and knocking foes he strikes on his way past into the air. When he arrives, he smashes the ground, dealing moderate damage to, slowing, and knocking into the air nearby enemies.

Boulderdash is Bastion's primary positioning tool. Essentially, he should be using this to get into the middle of a group of enemies so he can hit them with the rest of his abilities easily, and to exploit the crowd control on the arrival effect. More specifically, he should be aiming to use this to get slightly behind a group of enemies, partially so he hits foes with both the pass through and the arrival damage, and partially so he's closer to the people at the back, who are likely to be the weaker members of the team.

Still not an artist, I'm afraid.

Gameplay videos and screenshots will, once again, be put here once they're produced.

Any thoughts? Any questions?