Helegwen, Winter's Arrow
Greeting, 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.
Story
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 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 Freezing Arrows now slow the enemy twice as strongly and her Ice Attows' effect on buildings lasts three times 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!
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!
And if you want to get some deeper Angmar impressions, we can only recommend watching RuudDevil's video straight out of the 4.3 Beta!
She Seems AMAZING
She indeed is!
Extremely versatile and useful ;)
No surprise that the Valkyrie shall agree ;3
Jacksonupperco.files.wordpress.com
(The joy of having Xena being Xena and a Valkyrie at the same time) :D
Mmm, will she get her Gabriel?)
What should I say?..
She's a woman.. And woman are always welcome! :D
Hunger games vs Middle-earth! Screenrant.com ;o)
i bet this woman can kill many of melee infantry even aragorn tho
I'm just curious, where does Helegwen's voices come from ? :)
The Evil Queen from 'Snow White and the Huntsman' (in the English version, at least).
Blog.northjersey.com
10/10 for the story, dialogue between heroes, ability concept and all who spent time creating this hero :D WELL DONE and Happy Birthday :)))
The hero seems amazing, and that level 10 power sounds incredibly useful! The news is a bit confusing because it seems like even you have confused Ice Arrows and Freezing Arrows. For example, originally you said that Ice Arrows are essentially anti-building because they can freeze buildings and Freezing Arrows slow infantry. But under the level 10 passive you mention that the "Freezing Arrows effect on buildings last twice as long." However I thought it was Ice Arrows that affected buildings?
Also, Frost Arrows are in an entirely separate category, being exclusively used during her level 3 power?
Oh and can she freeze heroes as well, and if so will the make her too powerful against hero-killers?
We got them mixed up in the Rank 10 ability, fixed now! The Frost Arrows are indeed unique to her rank 3 ability.
She can slow heroes, otherwise her regular attacks wouldn't do much (what's the point in slowing down a single Gondor soldier? Hit them with Multishot and focus your basic attacks on that Aragorn coming at you!)
Hahaha. When i read her abilites (expecially the "multishot") i instantly thought of Ash (from LoL) then i saw the video and her ability icons (at least three of them) are Ash´s :P
I will see the girlfight: Tauriel vs Helegwen xD....great!
Nice! The game needs more women! Great
well .. this is something that i did not expect it...!! well done Edain team .!!!!!!
First Warcraft, then X-men and now Hungergames. What's next?
Now I just want to read an Angmar novel by Edain <3
Glad you enjoyed the story, I had a blast writing it :D
Wasn't the story from the user Beautiful Darkness, or am I wrong? :D
The original community story was, yes. But while we took that as an inspiration, it didn't fit exactly with the tone and history we wanted for our version of Angmar. That is why I wrote the version of her story you see in this update. German users can read the original community concept here: Forum.modding-union.com
Very glad to see you here, Skeeverboy :D
I loved how you actually implemented a dialog interaction between two totally "fictional" characters. It adds some personality :D
And YOLO Zaphragor was a very nice cameo :P
"YOLO Zaphragor" made my day xD
Broken Hero ;p
A very typical Update for the Team and I´m very luckyli now, that Beautiful has kicked me out of this.
Well done, i'm a little bit proud about her and i think my 'Team', too... but i'm a little bit disappointed about the story..^^
It feels like three days for the trash,
I know you wrote the story for your imagination, but.. you know... my heart is bleeding :'D
Yes, your 'Team' ist proud, too! ;)
By the way, a nice name! :D
Thank you :)
In the description for her level 10 ability you got the roles of Ice and Freezing Arrows reversed
Fixed, thanks!
If there's anything that can make this mod the best of all is the fact that you guys take care of the community demands, in cases like this. You may like or not the character, but no one can deny that you do listen us. You're the best, no doubt
So much new stuff is coming now, and everything looks so good! :D
Excellent background story and model. Yet I had pity for her. She betrayed her kins watched them to die. Her prediction also went wrong as none won the war. Angmar defeated Anor and Gondor defeated Angmar. Alas!!!!
There's certainly an element of tragedy to her story. While ruthless and selfish, I don't think Helegwen is as evil as Mornamarth or the Witch-king. Glad you enjoyed her background! :)
Besides, well, The Lord of Mordor, no one is as evil as the Witch King XD
I love Helegwen and Angmar. But no Rogash in Angmar? :(
Maybe Rogash and trolls can be in spellbook instead dragons spell. Why Angmar needs dragons at all?
We're currently discussing something similar to that.
Like the idea. And the dragons could be in the spellbook of the goblin faction, if there's one in the future
I watched entire video by Ruud. Angmar is, without question the best faction so far. Realy guys, congrats, and thank you so much. Skins for black Numenorians are better than anything i have seen of the Team from 3.8.1. till now. Great idea for removing trolls, although Rogash is missed. I have a few questions. I noticed black numenorian riders, aka black guard. Will there be a limit for recruting? And will there be a system for Werewolfs like Beornings (trample of units) ? Could you give mounting ability for one more hero? Like Mornamarth or Durmarth? Cheers!
The mounted Black Guard are limited, yes. They're an extremely powerful hero unit and in fact require the spell Stronghold of the Witch-king before they can even be recruited.
Werewolves can trample units, they're actually quite good at it because they're one of the fastest monsters.
None of the current heroes really has space for a cavalry mount or actually needs one. It could happen in the future, but I'm not sure.
Question will angmar have a special outpost and will isengard get and outpost that could make special units like the guards of orthanc ?
Thanx. Hope it does happen. :)
Edain never ceases to amaze me,incredible work.I like everything in her.
Lord of Mordor, one more question, more of a suggestion. Has the Team considered a dark heal for Numenorian units? Same system as lembas with elves, a unit passive ability (witch is very great by the way). They are Black Numenoreans, but they are still Numenoreans (passive palantir spell in Arnor). That way they could get healing on level two, and sorcerers can heal other units. And you get a balance with good factions. After all, Angmar is all in all human faction, and they should get some compromise with good and stay evil at the same time. No doubt the dark arts have healing abilities, after all, the goal is to live forever. :)
Angmar has indeed a powerful healing ability with the 10 pp spell "Trutzburg of the Witchking".
How to download this update? Pls help :(
Its not available yet.
Hey she looks more powerful than Legolas :O She shouldn't better than lego.Anyway she look pretty well.Thank you Edain Team!
She does way less damage than Legolas.
Oh now I'm more happy :)How can i change game soundtracks?Some musics that you have added is just noise.
If you do implement rogash and trolls in the game ether make them a spell or have them as an out post but only can be made if the ring is in your possession
update available but server on maintenance??
is it happening?
Idk