Maul (Hate-Fueled)

UNIT NAME: Maul (Hate-Fueled)

ALIGNMENT: Dark

CATEGORIES: Dark Side, Attacker, Unaligned Force User

HIDDEN CATEGORY: Large character

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Twisted, broken, yet sustained by hatred. Those are the pillars in which Maul (affectionately known as “Spider Maul”) was born from.

In reviewing our anniversary celebration plans, we knew this was the prime opportunity to bring this partially mechanical menace to the holotables. 

What team he was part of was a big point of discussion. We felt the Starkiller team made for a great home as that group inherently is a bit of a hodgepodge of different characters from all over the Galaxy. This also had the added benefit that we could more closely design Stranger and Maul together, making sure each brought unique mechanics that amplified the team’s overall power. The team had nervous glee at the idea of putting Starkiller, Stranger, and Maul all on the same team. 

We hope you enjoy using Maul as much as we enjoyed making him!

Basic ability - Fractured Fury

 

Deal Physical damage to target enemy and inflict a stack of Bleed (max 6), which can't be dispelled or resisted, until the end of encounter.

Gain a stack of Edge of Madness (max 100 stacks) until the end of the encounter, which can't be copied, dispelled, or prevented.

Once per encounter, during his turn, Maul inflicts Fracture on target enemy until each of his allies has taken a turn or until he is defeated, which can't be copied, dispelled, evaded, or resisted. 

Bleed: -5% Speed and Tenacity, and lose 5% Health each turn; remove 1 stack when any Health is recovered

Edge of Madness: -2% Defense per stack

Fracture: Speed set to 0, can't gain buffs, bonus attacks, or bonus Turn Meter. Against Raid Bosses and Galactic Legends: -50% Speed (doesn't stack with Breach, Pinned, or Speed Down), can't gain buffs, and -30% counter chance

Design Notes: This ability when coupled with the maximum invested version of his second Special ability is a potent combo that gives Maul and his team a way to selectively lock key targets down for a limited time. Fracture and Bleed are both excellent ways to synergize with the Stranger’s abilities.

Inspiration: In this snapshot of Maul (from Lotho Minor when Savage finds him) his mind is a bit broken from the trauma of his duel against Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon Jinn. We wanted to capture that thematically with a fun nod to the Fracture debuff as a bonus.

FAQ: 

• Question: I really want to Fracture someone early, but should I really open with a Basic ability?
  • Answer: Check out his second Special ability, “Howl of the Broken”. If you have the Zeta for it, Maul will call his Dark Side Attacker allies to assist, which includes himself! (he is his own favorite ally). This means you can open with Special02 to distribute debuffs and damage, and Maul (so long as he is not prevented from assisting) will followup with his Basic, Fracturing your target. Keep in mind he can only Fracture someone once per encounter, so choose your targets wisely. 

Special ability 1 - Relentless Malice  (Cooldown 3)

Deal Physical damage to target enemy four times and inflict a stack of Bleed (max 6), which can't be dispelled or resisted, until the end of encounter. If the target already has max stacks of Bleed, trigger their damage.

If Maul has 30 or more stacks of Edge of Madness, reduce the cooldown of Howl of the Broken by 1.

If Maul has 60 or more stacks of Edge of Madness, he deals an additional instance of True damage to target enemy equal to 30% of his Max Health.

While in Territory Wars: Deal Physical damage an additional four times.

Inflict an additional 5 stacks of Bleed (max 6), which can't be dispelled or resisted, until the end of encounter.

If he has 30 or more stacks of Edge of Madness, reset the cooldown of Howl of the Broken instead.

Design Notes: If you feel as though the best form of locking a target down is by defeating them, then this is the ability for you! This ability has very high damage potential against single targets. Since (when fully invested) Maul’s second Unique gives him the ability to ignore taunt effects during his first turn (spoilers, for further below, sorry), you could choose a key target to potentially defeat outright as Maul’s first move, saving your Fracture play we discussed in his Basic for a later point in the battle (though you’ll lose that juicy ignore taunt benefit after his first turn).

Synergy: This ability greatly benefits from Maul’s Max Health value, so make sure you’re modding him appropriately. 

Inspiration: While his mind may be fractured, his body still has echoes of that deadly quickness we saw during his duel with Kenobi and Qui-Gon. We wanted to showcase that those metal spider boots aren’t just for show, they’re made for hurtin’. 

FAQ:

• Question: Why so many instances of damage, why not just one big number?
  • Answer: Thematically we wanted to lean into his many metal legs, and mechanically this makes him extremely deadly against mechanics like the Gungan Shield Generator or B1 Droids which lose stacks based on instances of damage. 
• Question: How do I deal with Bleed when I am facing Maul? 
  • Answer: Health recovery of any amount removes stacks of Bleed and is the best way to counter it. Protection recovery won’t remove stacks however. 

Special ability 2 - Howl of the Broken (Cooldown 4)

 

Deal Physical damage, Daze, and inflict Healing Immunity for 2 turns on all enemies.

Call all Dark Side Attacker allies to assist.

Maul gains Critical Damage Up and Offense Up for 2 turns. If he has 50 or more stacks of Edge of Madness, inflict Fear on all enemies for 1 turn, which can't be copied, dispelled, or resisted.

Remove 60% Turn Meter from all enemies and all Dark Side Attacker allies gain 60% Turn Meter.

While in Territory Wars: If target enemy is inflicted with Bleed, inflict a stack of Bleed (max 6), which can't be dispelled or resisted, on all enemies until the end of encounter.

Increase the cooldowns of target enemy by 1, which can't be resisted.

Design Notes: Compared to his other Special ability, this deals relatively light damage but it has a lot of power and synergies to lift up Maul and his allies. Bleed can be removed with heals, but Mr.Bond, how can you heal if you are… IMMUNE TO HEALING!? Which this ability provides for a cool 2 turn duration on all enemies. Additionally, using this when fully invested calls Dark Side Attacker allies to assist which includes himself and the Stranger, a deadly combo indeed. 

Synergy: This has a great deal of synergy with other Dark Side Attacker allies and is Maul’s primary battle control ability, letting him lock down whole teams for a limited time through Fear or Daze.

Inspiration: While all of his abilities capture elements of his physical prowess and do have nods to his madness, we wanted an ability that also acknowledges he is still a potent force user and trained under one of the most powerful Sith alive. Combine that training with his unhinged state and you get this ability.

FAQ:

• Question: Does Maul call himself to assist with this?
  • Answer: Yes. If he didn’t, it should say “Call all other Dark Side…”.
• Question: Does the Turn Meter gain on his Omicron rely on removing that Turn Meter from enemies? So if an enemy is at 0% Turn Meter, do we still get 60%?
  • Answer: It is not reliant on the Turn Meter removal, it is handled through two separate effects and checks. He removes Turn Meter if he can, and then simply gives 60% Turn Meter to his specific allies, but if for any reason the removal fails (maybe enemies can’t have their Turn Meter reduced for example), the gain would still trigger (unless Maul’s team has an effect which prevents bonus Turn Meter of course).

Unique 01 - Hatred Sustains

Whenever Maul takes damage, he gains 3 stacks of Edge of Madness (max 100) until the end of the encounter, which can't be copied, dispelled, or prevented, and he has a 5% chance to gain 75% Turn Meter.

Maul can't be instantly defeated.

While Maul is at certain Health thresholds, he gains cumulative effects:

• Web of Descent I (75% Health or less): +50% Offense; can't recover Health above 75%
• Web of Descent II (50% Health or less): +25 Speed; when he takes damage, he instead has a 10% chance to gain 75% Turn Meter; can't recover Health above 50%
• Web of Descent III (25% Health or less): +2,200% Defense and 100% Offense; when Maul hits this threshold, he gains bonus Protection (100%) for 2 turns and takes a bonus turn; can't recover Health above 25%

While in Territory Wars: At the start of battle, Maul gains 30% Max Health and Offense, and 100 stacks of Edge of Madness (max 100) until the end of the encounter, which can't be copied, dispelled, or prevented.

Whenever Maul is damaged, he instead has a 25% chance to gain 100% Turn Meter.

Design Note: We wanted to lean into the idea that as Maul is damaged throughout a battle, he continually utilizes that damage to fuel his power but that can come with a lot of risks (the character feels too weak, the benefits aren’t impactful enough, etc), with this we’ve tried to give him a very high action economy with his various Turn Meter gains and giving clearly communicated benefits if he hits certain health thresholds. The hope here is that seeing Maul at 25% health is a scary experience if you’re facing him and an exciting one if you’re using him. 

Synergy: Especially if you mod Maul for Health, he should be able to somewhat safely exist in these less than 100% health thresholds. He should still feel extremely deadly even at full health, however.

Inspiration: Throughout his appearances in the StarWars universe, Maul often finds himself in a proverbial corner as it were but still finds ways to turn situations to his advantage or to fight back in situations where weaker Force users could be defeated. We wanted to tap into that while also capturing the frenzied, manic nature of his broken self during this snapshot. It also opened up some interesting design space for us in risk vs reward.

FAQ:

• Question: Will I need to keep track of the stat increases at his health thresholds?
  • Answer: Each status icon that appears above his head should include all the cumulative benefits he has up to that point. So at Web of Descent II for example it would mention he has +25 Speed but the description should also include the +50% Offense info from Web of Descent I. This should make it easier to quickly look and see what benefits you have so far.
• Question: Do the chances for him receiving damage stack? At Web of Descent II for example, is it a 15% chance to gain 75% Turn Meter?
  • Answer: No. We tried to clarify this in text by saying “instead”. So if he’s in a normal battle with no Web of Descent thresholds, he has just the 5% chance to gain 75%, and then when he hits Web of Descent II, he now has just the 10% chance to gain 75%.
• Question: Ok, but what about the Omicron? Does that stack? I just really love Turn Meter.
  • Answer: No. The Omicron effect is a replacement for both his base and Web of Descent chances. So in Territory War with his Omicron, he’ll always (assuming nothing is stopping him from gaining bonus Turn Meter) have a 25% chance to gain 100% Turn Meter and won’t benefit from that aspect of Web of Descent II.

Unique 02 - Always Remember, I am Fear

At the start of battle, Maul gains 25% Max Health for each other Dark Side ally and 25% Offense for each other non-Dark Side ally, Hatred and 5 stacks of Anguish until the end of battle, which can't be copied, dispelled, or prevented. He loses all Protection and gains that much Max Health, and he takes reduced damage from percent Health damage effects. If there is an enemy Kenobi, Maul gains 20 stacks of Edge of Madness (stacking, max 100) until the end of the encounter.

During Maul's first turn each encounter, he ignores taunt effects.

Maul's attacks can't be evaded or countered and he is immune to Ability Block, Fear, and Redeemed.

If there were no allied Galactic Legends at the start of battle, until the first time Maul is defeated: Enemies defeated by Dark Side allies can't be revived. If there is at least one other active ally, at the start of each character's turn, Mark the healthiest Unaligned Force User ally, which can't be dispelled or resisted, and they gain bonus Protection (30%) until the end of that turn.

Hatred: +25% Critical Chance, +100% Defense, and +100% Offense; when defeated, revive with 100% Health and gain 100% Turn Meter

Anguish: Takes damage at the start of their turn equal to 2% of their Max Health for each stack of Anguish and gains that much Offense until the end of their turn; this character can't be defeated by this damage

Redeemed (comes from Juhani’s Omicron ability): +35 Speed; whenever this character uses an ability during their turn, all other allies with Redeemed assist; whenever this character gains a buff, dispel all debuffs on allies with Redeemed; whenever this character is damaged, all allies with Redeemed gain 15% Turn Meter; whenever this character is inflicted with a debuff, all allies with Redeemed recover 15% Protection

Design Notes: Whereas his first Unique is almost entirely selfish and focuses on himself, this Unique sprinkles a bit more synergy for his allies. A lot of it still focuses on how Maul benefits, but the last block in particular can do a lot to keep his allies safe.

Synergy: He’ll benefit the most from being paired with a Starkiller team because of the mixture of Dark Side and Light Side allies. 

Inspiration: When Maul is muttering to himself when Savage finds him, he (Maul) is trying to grasp fragments of his memory for lines taken from the Sith Code and give himself a lil’ pep talk. We felt this was really powerful for his character and tried to pair effects that worked for our needs mechanically but also nodded to this quote and moment. If you haven’t watched Clone Wars and Rebels, may we boldly recommend doing so!

FAQ:

• Question: Why “non-Dark Side” allies? Hints are more neutral characters? 
  • Answer: It felt physically wrong to write Light Side synergy for Maul, honestly. We had it written as Light Side for awhile and it stuck out to many of us internally, so the language was adjusted but is still accurate. So, no, not a hint at more Neutral characters I am afraid. 
• Question: Does the bonus Protection (30%) stack? 
  • Answer: It doesn’t, no. It does “refresh” when it is re-applied however, so if character A deals enough damage to remove 25% of that bonus Protection, and they end their turn and character B begins theirs, that bonus Protection on Maul will be back to 30%.
• Question: Why is Maul immune to Redeemed? 
  • Answer: We found with some internal testing that it was a bit of an undesirable experience for Maul to get this, and had situations where it actually weakened the Omicrons effectiveness since Maul would get it instead of Starkiller. We didn’t want to cheapen the investment you’ve made into that Juhani Omicron. It also has a bit of a fun thematic nod to Maul’s story as a whole. 
• Question: Using Maul, if I defeat 2 characters before Maul is defeated, and then I defeat 1 character after he is defeated, can I revive all 3?
  • Answer: Only enemies defeated before Maul was defeated can’t be revived. So in the above example, assuming you had a mass revive, you would only revive a single character of the three (the character defeated after Maul himself had been defeated).