Hero Overview Design
Male trap specialist with a water/naval engineer theme. The vibe is a crafty saboteur — part underwater demolitions expert, part tinkerer. Think diving gear meets gadgeteer — waterproof pouches, pressure gauges, bubble-encased devices. Blue and teal palette with brass/copper metallic accents. B-rank complexity — clean design, readable silhouette. Should feel clever and resourceful, not brute-force.
Latch carries mines and trap-making supplies. The back element should convey 'loaded with ordinance' — could be a rack of water mines, a pressurized canister system, or a bandolier of bubble-encased charges. Key requirement: distinct back silhouette that reads as 'trap specialist' from behind.
Crossbow modified to fire both bolts and mines. Auto-attacks fire bubble-encased bolts at long range. For Depth Charge, Latch loads a water mine into the crossbow and launches it in an arc to the target location. The crossbow needs a visible mode-shift between bolt and mine loading. Animator will need both firing states.
Design Intent
Design Intent
Latch is the roster's only anticipation-based hero — a trap specialist who pre-places invisible mines on the battlefield that detonate when enemies cross them. Unlike Arsenika (who creates zones reactively through attacks), Latch's playstyle rewards reading enemy pathing and predicting where enemies will be. This introduces spatial thinking as a core skill for the first time in the roster. Deploy Latch when you want proactive battlefield control and the satisfaction of enemies walking into your traps.
Core Behaviour
- Latch is stationary on the ship and fires bubble-encased bolts from his crossbow as long-range auto-attacks between Depth Charge casts.
- On active skill cast, loads a water mine into the crossbow and launches it to the target location. Mines are invisible to enemies but visible to the player as subtle water/bubble markers. Mines persist indefinitely.
- When an enemy steps on a mine, it detonates — dealing AOE damage and applying slow (L1–2) or root (L3). Latch's weapon attacks then gain bonus damage against mine-affected enemies for a short window.
- Core loop: place mines during calm moments → enemies advance into mines → detonations trigger CC + Latch's personal damage spike → place replacement mines.
Expedition Notes
B-rank = strong Expedition deployer (easy to ascend). Mine placement in idle mode would auto-deploy on cooldown in optimal positions (nearest enemy spawn points or high-traffic lanes). Tidal Network scales with Water Expedition depth. Trap-and-forget playstyle translates well to idle gameplay — mines persist and trigger without active management.
Skills & Mechanics Dev
Active: DEPTH CHARGE
Launches water mines to target location. Mines are invisible to enemies, detonate on contact dealing AOE damage + crowd control.
| Level | Mana | CD | Mine Damage (% Hero ATK) |
Blast Radius | Slow Strength | Slow Duration | Max Active Mines |
Root (replaces slow) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| L1 | 25 | 6s | 180% | Medium | 35% | 2.5s | 3 | — |
| L2 | 30 | 5s | 220% | Medium | 40% | 3.0s | 4 | — |
| L3 | 35 | 4s | 280% | Medium+ | — | — | 5 | Root 2.0s |
Implementation Notes:
• Mines are invisible to enemies but visible to the player as subtle water/bubble markers on the field.
• Mines trigger on enemy contact (hitbox overlap), not proximity. Precise placement matters.
• Placing a mine beyond the cap removes the oldest mine (silent removal, no detonation).
• Mines persist indefinitely — no expiration timer.
• At L3, the slow effect is fully replaced by a root (complete movement stop). Root is a strict upgrade.
• Mines are NOT destroyed by enemy AOE or area effects — only triggered by direct contact.
• Multiple mines can be placed adjacent to each other. If an enemy triggers two overlapping mines simultaneously, both detonate (damage stacks, CC duration does not stack — longest applies).
Passive 1: PRESSURE SENSOR
When Latch's mines detonate, his weapon attacks deal bonus damage against mine-affected enemies for a short window.
| Level | Bonus Weapon Damage vs Mine-Affected |
Window Duration |
|---|---|---|
| L1 | +25% | 5s |
| L2 | +35% | 6s |
| L3 | +50% | 7s |
Implementation Notes:
• Triggers when any of Latch's mines detonate. The bonus applies to Latch's own weapon attacks only — not team-wide.
• Restricted to Latch's own mines: bonus damage applies only to enemies currently affected by slow or root from Latch's Depth Charge detonations. Slow/root from other heroes (Sylph, Triton, etc.) does NOT activate Pressure Sensor. This ensures Latch must earn his DPS window through active mine placement.
• Multiple mine detonations within the window refresh the timer but do NOT stack the damage bonus.
• Window begins on detonation, not on Latch's next attack.
Passive 2: TIDAL NETWORK
Water team synergy — increases mine detonation damage and Pressure Sensor bonus based on Water heroes on the team.
| Level | Mine Detonation Damage Bonus per Water Hero |
Pressure Sensor Bonus per Water Hero |
|---|---|---|
| L1 | +8% | +3% |
| L2 | +12% | +5% |
| L3 | +16% | +7% |
Implementation Notes:
• Detonation damage bonus is additive to the base mine damage percentage from Depth Charge.
• Pressure Sensor bonus is additive to the base Pressure Sensor bonus from Passive 1.
• Example at L3 + 4 Water heroes: mine detonation damage = 280% + (4 × 16%) = 280% + 64% = 344% ATK per mine. Pressure Sensor bonus = 50% + (4 × 7%) = 50% + 28% = +78% weapon damage during window.
• Water hero count includes Latch itself.
• Design note: Previous version scaled slow/root duration per Water hero. This was removed — slows and roots are already powerful CC in WoE, and duration stacking led to oppressive 4–5s AOE roots at full Water investment. The reworked Tidal Network rewards Water investment through damage output instead of CC duration, keeping CC at fixed base values.
Interactive Skill Visualizer Interactive
Interactive skill range and area visualization. All distances in game pixels (1080×1920 screen).
Balance Tables Balance
Values marked [TBD] require a tuning pass before final implementation. All others are suggested starting points.
| Value | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mana cost (25–35) | Suggested | Low-moderate for frequent placement |
| Cooldown (6s → 4s) | Suggested | At L3 with 4s CD, can place 5 mines in ~20s — fast enough for setup |
| Mine damage (180–280%) | Suggested | Per-mine damage is solid; value comes from placement accuracy |
| Blast radius ("Medium") | [BALANCE TBD] | Needs exact unit distance — too large = no placement skill needed |
| Slow duration (2.5–3.0s) | Suggested | Fixed duration, no longer scales with Water investment |
| Root duration (2.0s) | Suggested | Full stop is powerful — shorter than slow duration to compensate |
| Max mines (3 → 5) | Suggested | Scaling mine cap rewards investment and skill level |
| Pressure Sensor bonus (+25–50% base, +78% max with Water) | Suggested | Personal DPS spike, restricted to own mines only |
| Tidal Network scaling (L3 + 4 Water) | Suggested | +64% detonation damage, +28% Pressure Sensor bonus — strong but fair |
Animation & VFX Requirements Art
Latch (Hero Entity)
- Standard idle, crossbow-fire attack animation (bubble-encased bolt projectile). Animator's call.
- Depth Charge placement: Latch loads mine into crossbow, launches in arc to target location. Brief visual shift on crossbow between bolt mode and mine mode. Animator's call.
Mine (Placed Entity)
- Mine marker (player-visible): Subtle water/bubble indicator on the field showing mine position. Must be clearly visible to the player but thematically 'invisible' to enemies. Animator's call on exact treatment (could be a faint shimmer, a small water ripple, or a semi-transparent icon).
- Mine detonation: Water explosion VFX at mine location with visible blast radius. Should feel impactful — a satisfying 'trap sprung' payoff. Animator's call.
Status Effects
- Slow effect on enemies: Standard slow indicator if one exists in the system (used by Sylph, Triton, Arsenika). Reuse existing slow VFX.
- Root effect (L3): Needs a distinct root indicator — enemies are fully stopped. Could be water tendrils or ice forming at feet. Animator's call.
Pressure Sensor (Buff VFX)
- Brief glow or aura on Latch when damage window activates (similar to other 'self-buff' indicators in the game). Animator's call.
Team Synergies Design
Team Synergies
Water control specialist. Key pairings:
- Sylph (Riptide slow + mine slow = layered CC).
- Triton (Tidal Rise zone + mine detonation for layered control fields).
- Wry (APM It Up cooldown reduction for faster mine placement).
- Sadie (Blessing of the Depth crit chance helps Pressure Sensor bonus attacks crit).
- Arsenika natural partner — Arsenika's poison zones + Latch's mines create a battlefield that's dangerous everywhere. (cross-element)