Hero Overview Design
Light-themed zone controller wielding a crystal staff that refracts brilliant light. The vibe is an elegant prism mage — crystalline elements, light-refracting surfaces, warm golden-white palette. S-rank complexity — high detail, striking silhouette. The character should feel luminous and precise, embodying the idea of focused light as a weapon.
Prism channels light through a crystal staff — the back element should reinforce this identity. Could be crystalline wings, a prism array, or a light-catching cape. Key requirement: a distinct back silhouette that reads 'light refraction' from behind.
Crystal staff with a prism at the top. The prism is the focal point — it refracts light outward during zone placement. Auto-attacks are short-range refracted light bursts from the staff. The weapon should feel elegant and precise, not brute-force.
Design Intent
Design Intent
Prism is the roster's Light team amplifier — a zone controller who creates areas of brilliant light that blind enemies and make them vulnerable to Light damage. She fills the critical Light self-synergy gap: Luminous Aura is the first passive that directly buffs Light heroes based on Light team depth. Unlike other zone controllers (Nightshade/Dark, Arsenika/Grass, Triton/Water), Prism's zones don't just deal damage — they amplify the entire Light team's output through the Light Vulnerability debuff. Deploy Prism when you want sustained area denial and the missing Light attribute identity.
Core Behaviour
- Prism is stationary on the ship and attacks with short-range refracted light bursts from her crystal staff between Prismatic Zone casts.
- On active skill cast, Prism raises her staff and projects a zone of brilliant light onto the target area. The zone persists for several seconds, damaging and blinding enemies inside.
- At L2+, enemies inside the zone gain Light Vulnerability — they take increased damage from all Light hero attacks (not just Prism's). This makes Prism the Light team's damage amplifier.
- Zones that run their full duration build Resonance stacks. At max stacks, the next zone is Empowered — dealing bonus damage and stunning enemies on placement.
- Core loop: place zones in enemy paths → enemies walk through zones taking damage + blind + Light Vulnerability → Light team focuses Vulnerable enemies for amplified damage → build toward Empowered zone for burst stun moment.
Expedition Notes
S-rank limits easy ascension, making pure Expedition deployment secondary. Zone placement benefits from active player input — idle/auto behaviour would need to default to placing zones in the nearest enemy cluster. The Light Vulnerability mechanic has reduced value in Expedition where team composition may not be Light-focused.
Skills & Mechanics Dev
Active: PRISMATIC ZONE
Projects a zone of brilliant light onto the target area, damaging and blinding enemies inside. At L2+, applies Light Vulnerability.
| Level | Mana | CD | Zone Duration | Zone Damage (% Hero ATK / tick) |
Tick Rate | Zone Radius | Blind (Miss Chance) |
Light Vulnerability | Max Active Zones |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| L1 | 20 | 10s | 5s | 40% | 1.0s | Medium | 30% | — | 1 |
| L2 | 20 | 9s | 6s | 50% | 1.0s | Medium | 35% | +15% Light dmg taken | 1 |
| L3 | 20 | 8s | 6s | 60% | 1.0s | Medium+ | 40% | +20% Light dmg taken | 2 |
Implementation Notes:
• Zone is placed at user-targeted location. Prism raises her staff and projects light to the target area.
• Blind: enemies inside the zone have a miss chance on their attacks. Miss chance only applies while the enemy remains inside the zone.
• Light Vulnerability (L2+): enemies inside the zone take increased damage from ALL Light hero attacks — not just Prism's. This is a debuff applied to the enemy while inside the zone.
• Light Vulnerability persists for ~2s after enemies leave the zone, so fast-moving enemies still get tagged briefly.
• Total zone damage at L3: 60% × 6 ticks = 360% ATK over 6 seconds.
• At L3, two zones can be active simultaneously. Placing a third removes the oldest. An enemy standing in two overlapping zones takes damage from both, but Blind and Light Vulnerability do NOT stack — highest value applies.
• Zones are ground effects — they do not move. Enemies must walk through them or be placed on top of them.
Passive 1: RESONANCE
Zones that run their full duration build Resonance stacks. At max stacks, the next zone is Empowered — bonus damage and stun on placement.
| Level | Max Stacks | Empowered Zone Damage Bonus |
Empowered Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| L1 | 3 | +60% | Blind → Stun 0.5s on cast |
| L2 | 3 | +80% | Blind → Stun 1.0s on cast |
| L3 | 3 | +100% | Blind → Stun 1.5s on cast |
Implementation Notes:
• +1 Resonance stack is granted each time a Prismatic Zone expires naturally (runs its full duration). Zones removed early by cap overflow do NOT grant stacks. This rewards patient, strategic zone placement.
• At 3 stacks, the NEXT zone placed consumes all stacks and becomes Empowered: zone damage bonus applies multiplicatively to base tick damage, and the Blind effect is replaced with a one-time Stun applied to all enemies inside the zone area at the moment of casting.
• "Stun on cast": when the Empowered zone is placed, all enemies currently in the zone area are stunned. After the initial stun, the zone continues with normal Blind for the remaining duration. Enemies that enter the zone after placement are NOT stunned — they receive normal Blind only.
• After consuming stacks, Resonance resets to 0. No stack decay timer — stacks persist indefinitely until consumed.
• Empowered zone at L3: 120% ATK/tick for 6 seconds + 1.5s stun on placement. This is the big payoff moment every ~30 seconds of sustained play.
Passive 2: LUMINOUS AURA
Increases Light Vulnerability applied by Prismatic Zone based on how many Light heroes are on the team.
| Level | Light Vulnerability Bonus per Light Hero |
|---|---|
| L1 | +5% |
| L2 | +8% |
| L3 | +10% |
Implementation Notes:
• Increases the Light Vulnerability debuff applied by Prismatic Zone to enemies inside it. This bonus is additive to the base Light Vulnerability from the active skill.
• Example: L3 Prismatic Zone base (+20%) + L3 Luminous Aura with 4 Light heroes (+40%) = enemies in zone take 60% increased damage from all Light hero attacks.
• At the extreme: L3 + 5 Light heroes (mono-Light) = 20% + 50% = 70% increased Light damage taken.
• Light hero count includes Prism herself.
• Note: Luminous Aura has no effect at active skill L1, since Prismatic Zone L1 does not apply Light Vulnerability. The Light synergy 'turns on' when the active skill reaches L2.
• This is the Light self-synergy anchor the roster has been missing — directly rewarding Light-stacking team compositions for the first time.
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 (20) | Suggested | Moderate — sustainable with Flora support but not spammable |
| Cooldown (10s → 8s) | Suggested | At L3 with 8s CD and 6s duration, there's a 2s gap between zones — no permanent uptime |
| Zone damage (40–60% per tick) | Suggested | Sustained damage, not burst — total 360% over 6s at L3 |
| Zone radius ("Medium") | [BALANCE TBD] | Needs exact unit distance — too large = free area denial, too small = enemies walk around |
| Blind miss chance (30–40%) | Suggested | Strong defensive value without completely shutting down enemy attacks |
| Light Vulnerability (+15–20% base) | Suggested | Team-wide amplifier — strong with Light investment, modest solo |
| Resonance empowered bonus (+60–100%) | Suggested | Should feel like a significant power spike every ~30s |
| Empowered stun duration (0.5–1.5s) | Suggested | Short AOE stun — impactful but not oppressive |
| Light Vulnerability linger (~2s after leaving zone) | [BALANCE TBD] | Prevents debuff from being useless against fast enemies, but too long = free damage |
Animation & VFX Requirements Art
Prism (Hero Entity)
- Standard idle, staff-thrust short-range light burst attack animation. Animator's call.
- Prismatic Zone cast: Prism raises staff, prism at top refracts outward, projecting a cone/beam of light to the target area. Zone materializes as a glowing circle of light on the ground. Animator's call on exact cast animation.
Prismatic Zone (Ground Effect)
- Persistent circle of brilliant light on the field. Should be clearly visible to the player as a friendly zone. Edges should shimmer or pulse. Animator's call on exact treatment.
- Empowered Zone (Resonance 3): Enhanced version — larger visual presence, brighter, prismatic rainbow shimmer. Placement should feel impactful (flash + burst on cast). Must be visually distinct from normal zone.
Status Effects
- Blind effect on enemies: Visual indicator on affected enemies inside the zone (e.g., stars, darkened vision overlay, stumbling). Animator's call.
- Stun effect on enemies (Empowered): Standard stun indicator if one exists. Applied as a burst on Empowered zone placement. Animator's call.
- Light Vulnerability indicator (L2+): Subtle visual on affected enemies showing they are weakened to Light attacks (e.g., faint golden glow, prismatic shimmer on their body). Should be visible but not overwhelming. Animator's call.
UI Elements
- Resonance stack indicator: UI element showing current Resonance stacks (0–3). Could be small gems, dots, or a fill bar near the hero portrait. Animator's call on presentation.
Team Synergies Design
Team Synergies
Light attribute anchor and team damage amplifier. Key pairings:
- Turbo (burst DPS) — benefits massively from Light Vulnerability. His burst hits even harder against debuffed enemies.
- Ace (Inspiration buff) — stacks with Light Vulnerability for multiplicative damage.
- Gin (melee assassin) — dashes through Prism's zones to hit Vulnerable enemies.
- Midas benefits from the passive while contributing economy.
- Flora (mana engine) — sustains Prism's zone casting. (cross-element)
- Neon (cooldown reduction) — allows more frequent zone placement. (cross-element)