Dear Travelers,
We hope your journeys are treating you well.
While we needed a little more time than expected to deliver the update at the level of quality we’re aiming for, we’re doing our best to have it ready for you in September, in celebration of Shape of Dreams’ first anniversary.
Thank you sincerely for your patience and continued support.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been sharing hints about a new Traveler who will be joining the Dream in our next update.
And today, we’re finally ready to introduce Cetus, the Traveler those clues have been pointing to.
From the path that brought him here to the formidable powers he uses to freeze the battlefield, let’s take a closer look at Cetus.
Cetus is a ranged fighter who unleashes the powerful frost imbued within his body. Imprisoned and subjected to brutal experiments by the Lucid Sect, he still bears the scars of what was done to him. The massive, heavy pillory and chains he carries, along with the blue frost enveloping his body, hint at the source of his power while also symbolizing the guilt he can never escape.
The symbol revealed in our first teaser depicts Cetus bound to his pillory. It represents both the sins he must carry with him and his determination to bear their weight entirely on his own.
Cetus was once one of the Lucid Sect’s most loyal executioners. He carried out the Sect’s commands, punishing those deemed part of the darkness. But after accidentally discovering the horrifying truth the Sect had kept hidden, he chose the path of an apostate.
The price was devastating. Imprisoned deep underground by the Sect, Cetus became the subject of cruel experiments. As a consequence, his body was infused with a terrible cold that he would never be able to escape. The bone-chilling frost has now begun to consume even his soul.
But Cetus did not break.
After successfully escaping his prison, he sets foot into the Rapids, determined to confront the sins of his past head-on and set things right.
Cetus uses his freezing cold to lock down enemy movement while granting shields to protect himself and his allies.
By wielding the cold, he can control the flow of battle and dominate the battlefield. Cetus can accumulate cold within his own blood before unleashing it as devastating burst damage, while creating massive glaciers and frozen zones to control enemy movement. He can also grant shields to himself and his allies, allowing him to protect his team on the front lines and serve as a dependable tank capable of handling both offense and defense.
His abilities and Constellation are designed to support a variety of playstyles, allowing Cetus to be built as a tank, mage, bruiser, and more. Depending on what you need, you can turn him into an Ability Power-based frost mage capable of devastating area-of-effect bursts, a support who protects his allies, or a frontline fighter who charges into battle and crushes his enemies.
How you build Cetus is up to you.
Shape of Dreams already has Mist as an agile melee attacker and Vesper as a reliable tank. With Cetus, we wanted to make sure he offered a playstyle that felt distinctly different from our existing Travelers.
In particular, we considered the fact that none of our current Travelers use Cold as their primary offensive tool. With that in mind, we designed Cetus as an intuitive yet powerful Traveler who can freely wield Cold to his advantage.
From a character design perspective, we wanted Cetus to have a silhouette that would immediately distinguish him from more general humanoid characters. We incorporated traits inspired by deep-sea creatures, such as his degenerated eyes and smooth body, and gave him fists so absurdly huge that he could easily teach anyone some manners.
His signature restraints, pillory, and the frost emanating from across his body serve as constant reminders of the past he can never erase, while also giving him a massive silhouette unlike any of our other Travelers.
That concludes our introduction to Cetus for now.
What kind of build would you like to try with Cetus?
Share your build ideas with us, and let us know what else you're curious about in the comments!
Lizard Smoothie