Outrider’s Spotlight – Everything we Know About the Devastator Class

Everything we Know About the Devastator

Here we are yet again for another in-depth look at one of the playable classes for the upcoming RPG shooter from Square Enix and People Can Fly: Outriders. Previously we took a deep dive into the rogue-like class of the Trickster whose powers revolve around mastery of time and space. Next, we stepped foot in the ashes of the Pyromancer; a powerful caster who manipulates fire and volcanic energy. During the latest edition of the Outriders Broadcast we were treated with a detailed look at the third class: the overwhelmingly powerful Devastator. As you might expect, the Devastator is best utilized in close to mid-range, being the absolute most effective when his fists are in range of the enemies face.

The Basics

This class fills the role of the typical tank but is so much more. A close to mid-range specialist, the Devastator controls gravity and can manipulate the earth itself. He is a specialist at damage over time and explosive damage, as well as sustaining and improving his own defenses the more he slaughters the enemy. Each class features its own unique method of healing and the Devastator is no different. Every time an enemy is killed within close range, the Devastator will heal. Not unlike the Trickster in needing to be up close, the Devastator also has a few perks that enhance his natural abilities making him a truly unstoppable force, but more on those later.

Anomalous Abilities

When the Anomaly struck and granted the survivors with unimaginable power, the Devastator was given arguably the most raw potential power of brute strength. Naturally having a significantly higher pool of HP and defensive stats, this veritable juggernaut has some truly impressive unlockable powers to control the battlefield. This months broadcast highlighted four of those powers, so lets take a look.

1. Gravity Leap – Perfect for getting in close – or getting out of danger in a hurry – this power lets the player leap high into the air and enter a first person POV. You’ll be able to pan the camera around from your perch in the air, highlight an enemy, and come crashing down the force of a meteor, sending a shockwave from your point of impact. Gravity Leap is versatile enough to be used in a variety of different ways both offensively and defensively.

2. Reflect Bullets – Like something out of a well known movie franchise, the Devastator is able to provide a helping hand to his teammates by generating an energy shield of anti-gravity that suspends all incoming bullets in the air. Not only does this provide a moment of safety, but when the power ends, all collected bullets are fired at nearby enemies. If the Devastator is going to be in the thick of battle, this power becomes seriously impressive as he stops hundreds of bullets dead in their track.

3. Impale – One of the more gruesome and truly awesome looking powers in the game, the Devastator rips a sheer spike of stone out of the ground directly beneath his foes. If the damage of the spike is enough to prove lethal, they will be impaled in a number of different ways as well as generate a temporary buff to armor and health regen for nearby teammates. As an added bonus, a number of mods for your gear can provide up to 7 different modifiers for this power, including allowing you to preform the attack three times before needing to cooldown and hitting multiple enemies at once.

4. Endless Mass- A surprise power we had yet to see on display, Endless Mass sees the Devastator summon a swirling stone obelisk that generates its own gravity field and rips all nearby enemies towards it. This is fantastic when deep in combat and you need to control the field with a nice big AOE attack like Gravity Leap, or you just want to empty an entire clip into those who would defy you.

 

While the broadcast only featured these four powers, there are of course four more in the arsenal of Outrider’s unstoppable tank. What could the other four be, you ask?

 

5. Earthquake – A quick and straight forward attack, the Devastator drives his fist hard into the ground and sends a rupture in a long reaching cone forward, damaging enemies and knocking them back. This is not only an effective attack for disrupting the enemies but gives your allies a moment to set up for a more devastating follow up. It will of course stagger anyone it hits and interrupt whatever attack they may be planning for you and your squad.

6. Golem – Another visually stunning power, Golem reinforces your armor and indeed your very flesh with a hard layer of stone ripped out of the ground. This additional layer of armor makes you nearly impervious to damage with a buff to defense. When you need to get in close, Golem will get you there with ease.

7. Tremor – The battlefield is a precarious place, and the enemy should be shaking in your wake. Activating tremor will see a wide area centered on you begin to burst and rumble with a small quake, knocking enemies to the ground around you as it continues to pulse and keep them off guard.

8. Stone Explosion – Sometimes a buff to armor just won’t cut it and the Devastator might just need some emergency healing. As the name suggests, Stone Explosion generates stones at each nearby enemy and causes them to explode, siphoning their health to restore your own.

Altering Your Devastator

Outriders does not lock you into basic sub-classes but rather offers up three loosely themed paths for each class along a class tree. These trees can be respeced at any time for no cost, allowing and indeed encouraging you to try new builds and find what works for you. In the past this has shown that even the Trickster and Pyromancer can be built as viable tanks, so what does that mean for the games core damage dealer? Let’s take a look at the three class trees of the Devastator.

1. Vanquisher: The Vanquisher is all about being up close and personal and dealing the most amount of damage with your arsenal. This path offers bonuses to improving the effectiveness of high power weapons like shotguns and assault rifles, as well as enhancing your melee and close range attacks.

2. Warden: Sometimes the best offense is a good defense. The Warden is the best support path for the Devastator, specializing in incredibly high bonuses to health, armor, and resistances. It also provides buffs to your protection powers and is ideal for drawing enemy fire without having to worry about puny bullets.

3. Seismic Shifter: If you love dealing damage but don’t want to get too close, this path is for you. Seismic Shifter is a mid-range, damage over time specialist that focuses on buffing your seismic skills and Anomaly damage output. This one is all about using your powers and using them often to damage as many enemies as you can at once.

Much like the Devastator’s brethren, this class features 78 unlockable perks – although even at max level you will not be able to unlock all of them at once. You will no doubt find your typical perks to increase health or defense, but what we really want to see is the perks that will change the fundamental abilities of the class, right? After taking an intensely close look into the Devastator we did manage to find a few perks that might pique your interest:

– Executioner – Increase damage by 20% against enemies below 30% health.

– Skilled Sentry – Increase Armor by 20% and Resistance by 20% for 10 seconds when your skill ends.

– Heirloom Armor – When an enemy dies in your Close Range, 20% of their Armor will be transferred to you for 10 seconds.

– Anomaly In Veins – Every second regenerate your Health by 1%.

– Resist the Mob – Increase Resistance by 15% for each enemy in Close Range.

– Overlord of the Battleground – Gain additional 10% health for each enemy that died at Close Range

– Altered Charge – When Kinetic skill ends, increase your weapon damage by 70% for 10 seconds.

– Into the Fray – Increase your damage mitigation by 45% for 10 seconds after your Kinetic skills end.

Are you as excited as we are? Will you be picking up Outriders this holiday season when it comes to PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Stadia? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, or the Comments section below, and be sure to check out our hands on experience with the 4^th class: The Technomancer!