Everything We Know About the Pyromancer
It’s been a full month since Square Enix and People Can Fly released their first Outriders Broadcast and with the second episode in the series finally launching there has been a lot to unpack. With four playable classes of Altered at your finger tips, we made sure to take an in-depth dive last month at the Trickster class so you knew everything there was to know going in with the master of space and time. This month we’ve taken the leap once more to look as close as we dare reach at the conjurer of flames; the Pyromancer. In the sense of classic fantasy archetypes, the Pyromancer is your spellcaster. Specializing in mid range combat and raining fire down on all that oppose your team, the Pyromancer is a formidable and devastating class for those who love to set the world ablaze and lay waste to hordes of enemies in one fell swoop. Welcome to the Pyromancer.
The Basics
The Pyromancer is a combat tactician, specialized in staying just a step behind the battle to inflict massive damage from a distance. Not particularly skilled in traversal or getting in and out of combat very quickly, their strength lays in in a plethora of AOE attacks to clear out the enemy. Outriders does not rely on healing items and instead requires you to play aggressively. The Trickster class will heal by killing enemies in close range, but that doesn’t work for the Pyromancer. Instead, any enemy hit with one of the Pyromancer’s skills will be “marked.” Should a marked target be killed, – even by an ally – the Pyromancer is granted a generous health replenish. Coupled with these powerful AOE attacks, a skilled Pyromancer will never have to worry about being low on health. Many of the Pyromancer’s attacks will inflict the Burning status which not only deals up front damage and Damage Over Time, but will stun enemies and can be used to interrupt oncoming attacks.
Anomalous Abilities
The anomaly granted the survivors incredible god-like powers, and the Pyromancer’s gift of controlling volcanic energy – combined with their tactical prowess – make for an explosive and lethal combination. While the Outriders Broadcast specifically went in-depth on four of the class’s eight special abilities, there has been plenty of media from excited gamers getting to go hands on with the game, so we’ve managed to round up a small bit of information on seven of the eight powers for the Pyromancer.
1. Thermal Bomb
Highlighted the most often in gameplay for its stunning visuals and visceral effects, the Pyromancer strikes the ground as rumbling volcanic energy races towards a single target. This target is then engulfed in flames and blasted with the Burning effect, marking them while they take damage. Should the enemy die while marked, not only will the Pyromancer heal but the effects of the Thermal Bomb will cause them to levitate off the ground, charge with explosive energy, and burst into a spray of blood, dealing a large radius of damage to nearby targets.
2. Ash Blast
A burst of ash floods out along the ground in an AOE centered on the Pyromancer. Any enemy caught in the blast is immediately covered in smoldering ash and frozen in place for a few seconds. While not quite as damaging as their other abilities, Ash Blast is fantastic for offensive, defensive, and combo purposes. Stopping a group of enemies in their tracks so the Trickster or Devastator can run in and clean house is not only great for synergy, it will net you a whole lot of healing. Remember: the Pyromancer excels at tactical combat.
3. Heat Wave
What is better than setting an enemy on fire? How about igniting many enemies on fire? Heat Wave summons a wall of flames that bursts from the ground and races forward in a line, blasting every enemy in its wake and hitting them with the Burning status effect. This is one of the Pyromancer’s earliest abilities and is a staple for crowd control, as well as a fantastic way to pick up a ton of health.
4. Overheat
This is a power that – when used properly – is absolutely devastating. Overheat will cause minimal damage to enemies within a very large area, however, any enemy within this range who currently has the Burning status effect when Overheat is triggered will immediately burn white-hot and take severely massive fire damage. There is nothing quite like watching your enemy burst into white flames simply because they dared to cross you.
5. Fire Bullets
While this ability was not officially announced, it can be found online thanks to many gamers who have had a blast playing the game. This ability allows you to pour anomalous energy into the mag of whatever weapon you have equipped, giving all the bullets in the magazine an extra burning punch as well as imbuing them with piercing damage, allowing you to mow down a crowd with ease. This effect lasts until the clip is empty, you reload, or change your weapon.
6. Heat Absorption
You can’t help but think of a very angry Sith when you hear about this power. Not only will you select an enemy and rip a portion of their very life force from them to heal you, you’ll also drag them towards you and automatically inflict the Ash status effect on them, bringing them into the sweet spot of your most lethal moves and immobilizing them in place.
7. F.A.S.E.R. Beam
Noted as an ability affected by one of the weapon perks during gameplay, We have seen small snippets of the F.A.S.E.R. Beam in action with the Pyromancer crossing their wrists and charging up a corkscrewing blast of volcanic energy. The specific effects are as of yet unknown but if you find out, please let us know in the comments!
8. ???
With only the tiniest of teases, we saw the Pyromancer standing in the center of a fire tornado. Could this be the same power we saw the Devastator face off against when he fought the cult leader during the Broadcast? Whatever this move may be, you can be certain it will light up the battlefield.
Altering Your Pyromancer
Rather than set builds or sub-classes within Outriders, the team at People Can Fly offer “Class Trees” that let you customize and tweak your perks and upgrades to best suit your playstyle. These can be re-speced at any time for absolutely no cost, so you are free to try new combinations and find that perfect synergy for your play style. The Class Tree offers three themed paths to go down as a guide for your customization. What do these paths look like?
1. Ash Breaker
This line is all about increasing your damage output against enemies you have marked with one of your abilities. It also enhances the effectiveness of your anomaly powers. This makes zeroing in on a small number of targets even more lethal as you punish those you have marked.
2. Fire Storm
If you want sheer destruction and to set the world on fire, the Fire Storm line is all about amping up the damage from the Burning status effect and the damage output of all of your skills and anomaly powers. While the Ash Breaker lets you focus high damage on a small number of targets, Fire Storm turns you into a walking inferno bomb.
3. Tempest
Being a mage class doesn’t mean you have to be squishy. The Tempest lets you make a viable tank build of the Pyromancer, buffing your health pool and greatly increasing your defense so you can take the hit and offer hellfire in return.
The skill tree for the Pyromancer has a total of 79 unlockable perks – just 1 more than the Trickster – and while a number of them will offer the standard buffs you might expect to damage or health, there are plenty there you may have caught during the broadcast to give you an idea what sort of tricks the Pyromancer has up its smoldering sleeves. We’ve managed to pick out eight such skills which popped up on screen in a flash.
-…Hurt Twice As Long – Increase damage against Elites by 10%, Elites deal 10% less damage to you.
– Marble Orchard – Reduce Immobilize skills cooldown by 15%
– Trial of the Ashes – Enemies afflicted with Ash receive 20% more damage.
– Nimble as a Flame – Decrease reload time by 20%
– Burning Situation – Activating Immobilize skills increases your weapon damage by 20% for 10 seconds
– Warm Up – Reduce Ignite skills cooldown by 15%
– Fuel for the Embers – Doubles Skill Leech when under 30% health
– Chasing the Chill Away – Killing a marked enemy heals you by an additional 12% of your maximum health
Of course, what kind of guide to the Pyromancer would this be if we didn’t touch on the perk they absolutely had to highlight:
The Phoenix Nestling:
Are you as excited about Outriders as we are? Which class do you want to play the most? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, or the Comments section below. Stay tuned for more Outriders content from COGconnected including our coverage of Outriders Broadcast #1, Everything We Know About The Trickster, and our hands on experience with the game earlier this year!