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title: Rise of the Titan Xenomorph

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# Rise of the Titan Xenomorph

The name itself should give an idea of what this Xeno is. It is a Titan, a massive bulwark that takes a collective effort to overcome. Slow, lumbering, massive, highly-armored, and able to take an enormous amount of punishment before falling.
Here, have a peek at some concept sketches made by OrcaOrca.
![titan](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/SJHKoeRyR.png)
![image](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/ryDqL-WxR.png)


## About the Titan
The titan is a new Tier 4 Xenomorph. It will not have the ability to emit pheremones like others in the Leader caste, nor can it summon larva. Instead, every bit of it's presence is kept in it's core functions. What are these core functions? Well, let's begin.
The Titan Xenomorph base stats are staggering to look at. While this is still in development, and testing must be performed to ensure balance is preserved, these are the starting points.
* 3000 HP
* 2500 Plasma
* 90 armor of all types (100 bomb and 100 fire armor at full sunder)
* 0.3 Sunder modifier
* 50% of base movement speed (His speed is in the positive numbers. All other xenos are calculated inversely for extra speed. Titan has the opposite.)
* Can only spawn when there are 16 or more Xenos. 8 minute cooldown for a new Titan to evolve if one dies.
* Immune to CC of any type.
* 35 Slash damage, but low attack speed.
* 2 tile expanded melee range in Oppressor Stance

Now, to most, these stats seem terrifyingly unbalanced. There are some core reasons why these stats are needed, however, located mainly in his ability kit alongside the cripplingly slow movement speed.

Titan has two stance:
* Normal Stance: Nothing special about this stance, except the fact this is the only stance he can move in. It also lacks the ability to caste all but two abilities, one of which is their Oppressor stance.
* Oppressor Stance: The Titan channels for 3 seconds to becomes rooted, gaining even more armor, cannot be pushed back by tanks or knockbacks, and becomes a massive 3x3 entity. His attack range is also increased by an effective 3 tiles from his core (which really translates to 2 beyond his hitbox.) This also means he will have a hitbox 3 times as big as even the biggest other xenos. Smartgunners firing at him will go from slightly accurate occasional hits to perfect accuracy. Rockets will be a sure-hit on him. Given that there is a 3 second channel time to LEAVE Oppressor stance as well, on top of his slow movement speed, dodging is not an option, so even orbital strikes must be endured. Once you take a stand, you are locking in for a fight. Escape is not likely. Fight or Die.

There have been 2 opinions about Titan since the above was revealed. Half of them imagined him as a pushover, being focus fired by even an un-coordinated marine force until he was swiss-xeno. The other half imagined he would be invincible. In reality, it depends on marine reaction. Titan's slow speed means getting into position before he can do anything is a challenge, so once you are there, you need to be able to endure the punishment for as long as possible.

Now, you may be asking, "Kyo, once he is in Oppressor Stance with that much survivability, how could he not be overpowered!"

Well, his ability kit is how. Let's dive into that now.

First off, what abilities are available in Normal Stance:
* Oppressor Stance(No cost, 3 second cast, 15 second cooldown): Channel to root and swap to Oppressor stance.
* Persevere(250 Plasma, 15 second cooldown): Heal for a % of your missing health, and regeneration 20% of your sunder.

Persevere is also available in Oppressor Stance, to note.

Now, let's move on to Oppressor Stance:
* Normal Stance(No cost, 3 second cast, 15 second cooldown): Channel to return to Normal Stance.
* Persevere(250 plasma, 15 second cooldown): Heal for a % of your missing health, and regeneration 20% of your sunder.
* Titanic Grasp(100 Plasma, 12 second cooldown): Grabs a marine within 2 tiles, and pulling them to the Titan, holding them firmly in it's clawed grip. The Titan can re-cast the ability to throw them away. (Target can be throw to the right, left, or in front of where the Titan is facing, but not behind it.)
* Crushing Slam(200 Plasma,12 second cooldown): The Titan slams a clawed fist down on a target location. If used on a marine, it knocks them down and throws them away from the Titan while dealing moderate damage. If used on Terrain, the Titan causes a quake to rupture outwards from the impact spot 3 tiles in the direction it aimed. If used on a structure, it deals very heavy damage to it (including vehicles).
* Desperate Ferocity(250 Plasma, 60 second cooldown): Usable below 50% HP, the titan shields itself to block any blow taken for 3 seconds, before lashing it's arms outwards to knockback any marine targets in front of it and dealing damage, as well as fanning away any gas within 1 tile and on top of it.. The Titan then lets out a massive roar, knocking any marine in sight down in fear momentarily and reducing their accuracy for 5 seconds.

Of course, these abilities are not set in stone, and it is possible they will change, but these are the currently planned abilities in concept. Of course, this leaves the question of it's Primordial Ability.

* Rumbling Cataclysm (500 plasma, 3 minute cooldown): The Titan lets out a powerful bellow, before beginning to unleash waves of quakes around it that push outwards, slow at first before picking up speed. These Quakes stagger marines, dealing minor damage. The waves conclude after 10 seconds with a massive seismic explosion centered on the Titan and reaching out to the edge of the waves' range, knocking back marines far and stunning any hit for 2 seconds, dealing heavy damage. This ability can damage structures, including vehicles, and the final pulse deals a massive amount of damage to each.

Marines will have a lot of time to react to Rumbling while dodging waves, and should be able to escape the waves before the massive finale. If they don't.. It will not be pretty.

Now that you've seen his abilities, let's move on to his impact on both Xenos and Marines.

## Impact on Xenomorphs
To Xenomorphs, he will become two things. A centerpoint of resistance, providing cover they can move freely under (and even ride!) that is capable of enduring the marine's onslaught.. but also a centerpoint of massive support requirement. The Titan cannot sustain it's plasma forever without support. It can and will run out, especially if marines disrupt the weeds under it, or worse, make it the focus of a Tanglesmoke barrage. Every bit of the Xeno support force will need to focus on healing and providing plasma to keep the Titan up. Builders can build around the Titan, healers can focus on keeping him sustained and with plasma, as the moment either of those deplete, Titan is nothing but a big target dummy worth a spicy 1100 to req.

However, that investment is well spent, as the Titan will be the focus of marine enmity, meaning the squishier castes will have some breathing room while it endures the brunt of marine hatred. After all, Unga brain want shoot big bug!

## Impact on Marines
"Thump.. Thump.. Thump.. That rumbling in the distance?.. OH GOD, IT'S THE TITAN!! FOCUS FIRE, FOCUS FIRE!!"

To Marines, the Titan will be something that people can and will magdump, preferably as much as they can before it stands tall in Oppressor mode. At first, Marines may wonder how they can beat such a tanky foe. 

Xenos thought the same thing when tanks were added to the Marine force. After some trial and error however, Xenos learned that there are two keys to beating a tank: Sustained firepower, followed by a blitz. Titan is no different from this. Sustained fire from Marines followed by a barrage of rockets, snipers, smartgunners, and whatever else they can think of WILL take a titan down. It is strong, but not invincible. It's sunder will slowly add up until it is forced to either rally the xenos to counter-siege, or to make a desperate attempt to lower it's armor to flee.

The Titan may be good wall to hold the marines back, but a tank able to lay down a constant amount of high damage on it will whittle it down. This also relieves pressure on the smaller castes that fear the tank.

## Impact on Stalemates
While the Titan DOES have structure damaging abilities, they either have a massive cooldown or require the Titan to be up close and personal to do anything. Rubbing it's armored face along the marine cade-lines is just asking for a counter-attack, and with it's poor speed and cast time on stance swap, escape is highly unlikely. What more, the Titan spawning at 16 xenos with a hefty death cooldown makes it a hard to replace Xeno. This encourages the Titan to play defensively, focusing on holding the marines back less so than sieging. If the Titan can siege un-impeded, the round would have already been snowballing towards xeno victory in the first place.

