The Road to Edain 4.3: Helegwen, Winter's Arrow

[Lord of Mordor]

Greetings, companions of Edain!

Today, it is our special pleasure to present to you a hero who was created entirely by community demand. She is part of the Angmar faction, which always presents unique challenges and opportunities for hero design. Because it is the faction with the least amount of official lore, we need to fill its ranks with creation of our own - but still take care to create a cohesive faction that does not feel out of place with the others.

On our forums, a group of fans developed the idea of an archer hero for Angmar and came up with a design, backstory and unique abilities. We were so impressed by their efforts that we decided to make that hero a reality. We did add a couple of our own ideas to make her fit better into the Angmar faction we had already created, but tried to keep the spirit of the community concept intact. Silent, determined and merciless, Helegwen is Angmar's finest archer and the first to receive the deadly frost arrows created by its sorcerers. They allow her to halt any enemy's advance or even freeze their structures so Angmar can lay siege to them.

Helegwen, Winter's Arrow

Born in a village near the border of Arthedain, Helegwen knew from a young age what it meant to fight for her life. As the power of Angmar grew, winter was becoming harsher every year. Even as a girl, Helegwen frequently had to venture out into the cold to hunt what sparse game she could find. Her family died of starvation when she was still a child, leaving her to fend for herself. The day she came of age, her skill with the bow already surpassed that of most men. She was instrumental in keeping the village safe from wild wolves and ever-bolder hillmen raiding parties. All the while, she nursed a growing resentment at living under such miserable conditions when the people farther inland had so much more didn't need to fear the threat of Angmar.

Her life was forever changed the day the Witch-king sent more than just raiding parties and a hundred Hillmen led by the brigand Hwaldar descended upon her village. They expected an easy conquest - but Helegwen proved them wrong. Intercepting them under the cover of the forest, then retreating from rooftop to rooftop, she killed several dozen of the wild men before they managed to capture her and secure the area. After the battle, Mornamarth of Carn Dûm rode into the village with a small army of heavily armored soldiers. As it dawned on Helegwen that this was far more than just a simple border raid, Mornamarth ordered her village put to the torch and its people carried off as slaves. Of Helegwen, Hwaldar demanded to make a particularly brutal example for killing so many of his men. But after hearing of her prowess, Mornamarth had other ideas.

"Did this existence please you?", he asked the captive woman, gesturing at the burning huts and the weeping, chained villagers. "Living as a nobody, crawling through the dirt just to survive?"
She met his calculating gaze without fear. "No", she said at last.
"Of course not", Mornamarth replied. "I can see that much in you. You are not some Orc or Hillwoman, you are descended from the men of Numenor. It is in our blood to aspire to greatness. Now Arthedain... Arthedain is weak and failing, its days of glory long forgotten. But in Angmar, someone of your skill would not waste away her life in some pointless border hamlet." He gave her a wolfish smile. "In Angmar, you could be so much more. Allow me to show you."
Helegwen said nothing for a long time, then nodded.

As she travelled with Mornamarth and his men, she learned that her village had not been the only one sacked by the Hillmen. They had been ravaging throughout the countryside, and now an army from a nearby Arthedain castle was on its way to put an end to the attacks. Perhaps they would manage to free her? Despite his words, Helegwen was acutely aware she was still Mornamarth's prisoner.

After several days, they made camp on a hill overlooking a narrow pass. In the distance, she could see the army of Arthedain of approaching.
"They had no choice but to take this route", Mornamarth explained to her. "Villages like yours are ultimately insignificant, but drawing out such a powerful garrison... now that is a different thing entirely." And so, Helegwen watched Angmar spring its trap. As the Dunedain marched through the pass, they were ambushed from all sides by Mornamarth's men. One of them in particular stood out to Helegwen even from a afar: A massive monster of a man wielding a two-handed greatsword, carving a bloody path right into the center of Arthedain's army. When he was entirely surrounded, he summoned forth a wave of frost and shadow, devastating all around him. After that, it was over quickly.

"Zaphragor came from nothing, you know.", Mornamarth said next to her. "Just like you. In Angmar, power seeks out those who are worthy to take it. If you still want to throw in with Arthedain, I will not stop you. I will let you go, and I will spare not one more thought for you as you wither and die with the rest of your countrymen. But join my army, and even I don't know how high you might rise."
But he needn't have said anything at all. Watching the battle, Helegwen had already realized who would win this war. And she was nothing if not a survivor.
She looked at Mornamarth and said: "Then allow me to show you."

Abilities

Helegwen has a unique stance system that allows her to switch freely between three different types of arrows:

Ice Arrows - Can damage even walls and castle expansions and reduce the production and damage of targeted buildings by 50% for 5 seconds.

Steel Arrows - No special effects, but deal 33% more damage than other arrows.

Freezing Arrows - Slow enemies by 25% for 5 seconds.

These allow Helegwen to disrupt the enemy in various ways, both on open ground and when attacking their base. In addition, she has the following abilities:


Rank 1: Multishot - Helegwen lets loose a salvo of arrows, hitting all enemies in a target area. The arrows depend on her chosen ammunition type and apply its effects to everyone in the area.

This ability gives greater relevance to Helegwen's unique stance system by allowing her to hit large groups with her slow effect or freeze several buildings at once. These effects last 30 seconds.


Rank 3: Hail of Frost Arrows - Helegwen calls down a hail of Frost Arrows. Enemy units and monsters in the area are frozen for 10 seconds, while heroes are slowed by 50%. Buildings are disabled entirely for 30 seconds.

This amplifies Helegwen's role as a powerful disruptor. It can be cast at long range, thus letting Helegwen disable even structures within the enemy castle while standing outside its walls.


Rank 5: Ice Barrier - Angmar's sorcery summons a wall of ice in front of Helegwen that lasts for 30 seconds, but can be destroyed.

While Helegwen has little means of self-protection, this wall helps her kite enemies and halt their advance.


Rank 7: Whispers of the Northwind - For 30 second, Helegwen's vision range is doubled and her speed increased by 30%. She leaved behind a trail of ice that slows enemies.

This allows Helegwen to react even better to enemy movement. The increased vision also lets her scout out an enemy base for attack and spot targets for her Hail of Frost Arrows.


Rank 10: Winter's Gift (passive) - Helegwen's Ice Arrows now slow the enemy twice as strongly and her Freezing Attows' effect on buildings lasts twice as long. This also affects her Multishot. Furthermore, the damage bonus granted by the Frost Arrows for archers of Carn Dûm and Frost Ammunition for catapults is permanently doubled.

This powerful bonus allows Angmar to pursue a much more archer-focussed strategy than normally if you manage to get Helegwen to rank 10, making her an interesting long-term investment.


All these abilities add up to a powerful disruption hero. Helegwen does not excel at dealing damage like many other archer heroes, but she provides valuable opportunities to other units of Angmar by making the enemy vulnerable. She synergizes particularly well with barrow-wights, who are powerful but slow and need to reach the enemy to become a threat. Helegwen can help greatly with that. She is also a valuable ally to sorcerers and your ranged units by keeping enemies away from them. We are excited to see what strategies she will enable for you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j04CKHV-Bjw&feature=youtu.be

Behind the scenes

Helegwen was originally created by the Edain Community, spawning one of the most active threads in our suggestion forums. Among other things, the idea for her unique arrow stance system, her role as a disrupting hero and her power to weaken enemy structures as well as her name were conceived there. Moreover, the community also provided a design for the hero, as drawn by (Palland)Raschi:

Our modeller Adamin worked from these drawings to craft Helegwen's ingame model. Community members Beautiful Darkness, (Palland)Raschi, Eomer der Verbannte, Mornen, Skeeverboy and Der Leviathan all contributed to Helegwen. We find her a very interesting addition to Angmar's roster and hope you will feel the same!