Hello, this is the Horizon Walker Development Team.
◆ Character Design Direction
Maximilia is a defensive Vanguard who protects allies utilizing Guardian Barrier based on a high Critical Hit Rate, while maintaining the frontlines through Sunder Strike and Sovereign’s Protection.
With this Demi-God Ascension, we wanted to preserve these core strengths while allowing her to play a more active and aggressive role at the center of the battlefield. The core concept of this Demi-God Ascension is to manifest the true form of a Vanguard—one who pierces through enemy lines with superior survivability, seamlessly executing both offense and defense.
To achieve this, a Demi-God Ascension exclusive passive and a new skill will be introduced. This creates a combat structure where offense, survival, and ally support capabilities are organically interconnected around her Critical Hit Rate.
◆ New Skill: Resolve
[Design Intent]
The newly acquired skill through Demi-God Ascension, Resolve, is the core ability that completes Maximilia's updated combat style.
Activating Resolve significantly enhances her mobility and transforms her basic attacks into Spatial Rend, allowing her to strike enemies across a wide area. This enables a more aggressive playstyle, allowing her to dive deeper into enemy lines and engage multiple targets simultaneously.
However, in exchange for gaining such powerful combat capabilities, Guardian Barrier cannot be used while Resolve is active. Demi-God Maximilia is strategically designed so that players must fluidly choose between defensive and offensive operations depending on the flow of battle.
- Added Demi-God Ascension exclusive skill: Resolve
- Basic attacks transform into Spatial Rend, enabling AoE (Area of Effect) attacks.
◆ New Passive: Spearhead's Gleam
[Design Intent]
The Demi-God Ascension passive, Spearhead's Gleam, is designed to allow Maximilia to utilize her high Critical Hit Rate in a wider variety of tactical ways.
Her Critical Hit Rate scales not only with her offensive capabilities but now also triggers her Block mechanic. Upon a successful block, she can immediately transition into a Counterattack. This allows players to experience a frontline-dominating combat style where she absorbs enemy pressure and immediately retaliates with consecutive counters.
Furthermore, Sovereign's Protection will now apply to Maximilia herself. Additionally, Sunder Strike will not only reduce enemy Action Points (AP) but also recover the Action Points of her allies. Through these adjustments, Maximilia transcends her traditional role of simply holding the line, allowing her to actively dictate and support the overall combat flow for her team.
- Added a Block & Counterattack mechanic that scales with Critical Hit Rate.
- Sovereign's Protection now also applies to Maximilia herself.
- Added an ally Action Point (AP) recovery effect linked with Sunder Strike.
◆ Closing Notes
This Demi-God Ascension for Maximilia focuses on expanding her combat options while preserving her foundational playstyle.
We highly anticipate that players will be able to perform much more versatile roles on the battlefield—strategically shifting between stable, defensive management using Guardian Barrier, and aggressive breakthrough maneuvers via Resolve, all backed by a Critical-centric counter structure and AP utility support.