LORE
“Cold hearted? Me? You’ve seen nothing yet.”
Anne was once the daughter of a feared privateer captain, raised on rolling decks and salt-stung winds, until a disastrous ambush sent her ship to the ocean floor.
Trapped in the sinking wreck, she awakened latent frost powers, an icy surge that froze the sea around her and saved her life, but not the people around her.
Wielding a saber rimed forever with frost, Anne sails the scattered isles as a rogue hero, hunting those who betrayed her and defending those too weak to stand against the lawless tides.
OVERVIEW
Anne is a frost-themed Bruiser built around preparing for combat before committing to an engagement.
Her toolkit combines self-buffs, crowd control, and powerful follow-up attacks, allowing her to withstand sustained pressure while remaining a significant offensive threat.
DESIGN GOALS
- Create a frost-themed bruiser with a strong identity
Combine sustained frontline presence with powerful attacks and crowd control, using frost mechanics to reinforce Anne’s commanding presence. - Build a clear pre-fight preparation loop
Encourage players to strengthen Anne before committing to combat, rewarding preparation with increased offensive and defensive power. - Blend crowd control with high-impact damage
Give Anne tools to disrupt and reposition groups of enemies with Frozen Grasp before following up with the more powerful Icebreaker. - Connect gameplay and character fantasy
Tie Anne’s abilities to her background as a privateer and her frost powers, ensuring both the nautical and ice themes are reflected throughout her kit.
DESIGN PROCESS
Anne was originally conceived as an Assassin, with a kit focused primarily on dealing high damage. As her character and backstory developed, however, that role began to feel at odds with her identity. A battle-hardened pirate captain who had survived the destruction of her ship felt like a character who should be capable of taking punishment as well as dealing it. I therefore shifted her toward a Bruiser role, retaining her offensive potential while giving her greater survivability and a stronger frontline presence.
From there, I built her combat loop around preparing for an engagement before committing to the fight. Anne can strengthen herself before entering combat, then use Frozen Grasp to control enemies and create an opportunity for a powerful Icebreaker follow-up. This allowed the final toolkit to combine the commanding presence I wanted from the character with the frost theme established through her lore, while still retaining some of the high-damage identity of her original Assassin concept.
ABILITIES
Autoattack
Saber Blitz
Anne slices forward with her saber, damaging enemies in a line. Every third attack deals increased damage.
crowd control
Frozen Grasp
Anne sweeps her cutlass in a broad arc, damaging and knocking back enemies in front of her. Affected enemies are also slowed and left bleeding for a short duration.
ultimate
Icebreaker
Anne unleashes a powerful attack that damages and knocks back enemies caught in its path, while also slowing their movement.
ultimate
Icebreaker (Talent)
Anne unleashes a powerful attack that damages and knocks back enemies caught in its path, while also stunning them.
ITERATION
Anne’s toolkit changed substantially during development as her role shifted from Assassin to Bruiser. Early concepts placed greater emphasis on mobility and burst damage, including a dash that carried her through enemies in a line and left an icy wake behind, damaging them a second time. While visually and mechanically fitting the frost theme, the ability encouraged a more mobile, hit-and-run playstyle that no longer suited the direction the character was taking, and was ultimately cut.
Another early ability called in a bombardment from Anne’s ship, striking an area from off-screen. Although it strongly reinforced her identity as a pirate captain, it felt disconnected from the increasingly close-range nature of her kit. As the design developed, these concepts were replaced by abilities that better supported her final combat loop: preparing herself before an engagement, controlling enemies at close range, and following up with powerful attacks. This helped consolidate the kit around a more cohesive Bruiser identity without losing the frost and nautical themes that defined the character.
IMPLEMENTATION & TESTING
Anne’s skills were implemented through the game’s existing CSV-based skill system, translating the ability designs into configurable gameplay parameters that could be quickly adjusted during testing. Once the complete toolkit was playable, I tested her both as an individual unit and within the broader roster, focusing particularly on whether her damage and survivability struck the right balance for a Bruiser.
Anne performed relatively well during testing, requiring targeted adjustments rather than major redesigns. Her self-buffs initially made her too durable when combined with her baseline survivability, so their strength was reduced to preserve the intended balance between offense and defense. Icebreaker’s range was also increased after testing showed that the original version was too restrictive in practice, making the ability more reliable to use without changing its intended role as one of Anne’s primary damage tools.
TAKEAWAYS
Character identity can help define gameplay
Anne’s shift from Assassin to Bruiser showed me the value of allowing narrative and character development to influence mechanical design. Her backstory suggested a more resilient fighter, and adapting her role around that ultimately produced a more cohesive character.
A thematic ability still needs to serve the overall kit
Some of Anne’s early abilities strongly supported her pirate or frost themes, but did not complement the playstyle her final role required. Cutting those ideas reinforced the importance of evaluating abilities as parts of a complete toolkit rather than individually.
Bruiser design requires a careful balance between durability and damage
Anne needed to feel capable of surviving prolonged engagements without undermining the threat posed by dedicated Tanks. Testing her self-buffs highlighted how quickly additional survivability can push an otherwise balanced Bruiser too far, especially when paired with strong damage and crowd control.