Paladins new patch OB 45 will bring us Inara as a new champion, the first woman on the frontline. Here are the abilities and maps of the Stone Sorceress.
In a livestream, Hi-Rez presented the latest patch OB 45 of Paladins. For weeks, there has been speculation about the new heroine Inara, who will soon support the gentlemen on the front. She is a tall woman with long brown hair and noble dresses. She wields stones as a weapon and for defense.
Inara – Abilities in English
Inara uses a spear as a weapon, topped with floating stones. The Stone Bender fires these as projectiles, dealing damage. To protect herself and her team, Inara creates walls and obelisks from stone.
- LMT: Stone Spear – Fires 3 projectiles every second, each dealing 225 damage over 0.4s.
- RMT: Earthwatch – 5s lasting defensive state in which you and your deployable devices take 30% less damage.
- Q: Dead End – Summons a wall that grows from the ground and lasts 5s.
- F: Guardian Totem – Places a stone obelisk that emits pulses, slowing enemies by 60% and dealing 150 damage.
- E: Seismic Strike – Throw your spear. It penetrates shields and stuns all enemies within 40 units of its impact for 2s.
Inara’s Gameplay, Crowd-Control, and Barriers
Inara is the first champion without any options to increase movement. She has neither movement abilities nor movement cards. Instead, she has the ability “Dead End,” which allows her to summon a stone wall from the ground. With this, it’s possible to cut off enemies’ paths and secure safety. You can also build the wall directly beneath you and stand on it.
With the wall, it is also possible to greatly limit the movement of other champions. For example, if you place them in tunnels and choke points, enemies will have no chance of escaping for a few seconds. Those might be the very seconds that bring your payload safely to its destination.
Inara’s ability “Guardian Totem” creates a small stone obelisk, surrounding it with a pulsating field. The field significantly slows enemies and deals damage. To keep the enemies within the radius, you must approach them closely. The obelisk is destructible, which ends the effect.
You can protect yourself, the stone wall, and the obelisk by activating “Earthwatch.” This reduces the damage you and your devices take by 30%.
Inara’s ultimate ability “Seismic Strike” works similarly to the Grumble Bomb from Bomb King. She jumps high into the air and hurls her spear at the enemies. The spear ignores shields and immobilizes enemies within a certain radius. In contrast to the Grumble Bomb, the AoE effect occurs immediately and not with a delay.
In this video from “Joshino,” you can see Inara’s gameplay in action. He also showcases the animations of the Stone Guardian at the beginning.
Inara’s Cards, Legendary Cards, and Loadout Deck
Inara’s already unlocked legendary card will be “Mother Earth.” This grants you an additional 20% damage reduction when activating “Earthwatch.” Her other two legendary cards provide even more crowd control and enhance her wall or the obelisk.
Inara’s loadout cards do not have any properties to increase her movement. Notably, she has no cards that enhance her direct damage. However, there are cards in your deck that provide her healing and health points or enhance her “AoE” effects.
- Legendary – Mother Earth [Standard]: Increases the damage reduction of Earthwatch by 20%.
- Legendary – Treacherous Ground: Guardian Totem cripples.
- Legendary – Tremor: Reduces the cooldown of Dead End by 7s.
- Geomancy: Reduces the cooldown of Earthwatch by 0.5/1/1.5/2s.
- Holy Ground: If you stand in the field of Guardian Totem, you gain 5/10/15/20% damage reduction.
- Summit: If you activate Dead End under you, you will be hurled 600/700/800/900 units into the air.
- Living Stone: While Earthwatch is active, the reloading speed increases by 10/20/30/40%.
- Highlands: Increases the duration of Dead End by 0.5/1/1.5/2s.
- Monoliths: Reduces the cooldown of Guardian Totem by 1/2/3/4s.
- Stone Bulwark: While Earthwatch is active, you heal 20/40/60/80 HP per second.
- Whetstone: Eliminations increase your reloading speed by 10/20/30/40% for 5s.
- Care: If you stand in the field of Guardian Totem, you heal 20/40/60/80 HP per second.
- Cloudbreaker: Dead End gains an additional 500/1000/1500/2000 HP.
- Rocks: The damage reduction of the wall from Earthwatch is increased by 10/20/30/40%.
- Unyielding: The duration of incoming CC effects is reduced by 8/16/24/32%.
- Magnet: Activating Guardian Totem generates 1/2/3/4 ammo.
- Rolling Stone: You can be slowed by a maximum of 60/50/40/30%.
- Shearing: Activating Earthwatch generates 1/2/3/4 ammo.
- Steadfast: Your maximum health increases by 150/300/450/600 HP.
Leya says: Normally, I am not a big fan of the tank role and seldom play on the frontline. Still, I’m looking forward to trying Inara. I can’t wait to cut off enemies’ paths and hold them back with Inara’s AoE abilities. Her main task will probably be to block enemies and immobilize them. Also, at my 1.60 meters, I find it cool to play with a giant Stone Bender. Inara is said to be even bigger than Fernando.
I imagine a combination of her and Bomb King on a team to be pure hell. First comes Inara, immobilizing enemies with her ultimate. Then Bomb King comfortably drops a Grumble Bomb and doubles the time the enemies stick. Until Patch 45 arrives, I will continue to think about possible horror combinations and look at pictures of Inara’s beautiful design.
How do you like the Stone Guardian Inara? Let’s see where she will ultimately land on the tier list of Paladins.
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