Hey all here is the third dev diary. This time its a deep look into the Blood Rage. Enjoy!

The Blood Rage is the unique racial ability that is linked to the Stronghold faction of the Orcs, just like Training is to Haven or Necromancy to Necropolis. It is a very might-oriented ability that reinforces the Orcs natural traits.

The basic principle is that every creature in the Stronghold faction that has a dash of Demon blood in its veins (i.e. all except Wyverns and Paokais) has a special Rage counter in combat.
When the creature performs offensive actions, its Rage level increases. Performing a melee attack will provide more Rage than a ranged attack. If the creature waits or skips its turn, the Rage will decrease. It remains at the same level if the creature just moves on the battlefield. Rage grants the creature with a damage absorbing protection. Each time this protection is used in combat, the rage level decreases.
As soon as the Rage counter reaches a first threshold, the creature gains a special bonus, that will permanently affect it for the current combat, unless its Rage counter passes under the threshold limit again. When the effect is activated, the creature portrait will blink and a blood explosion will appear over the creature. The bonus name and effect can be checked by right-clicking on the creature’s portrait in the Initiative Bar.

Two more thresholds can be reached by increasing the Rage level, allowing the creature to gain two more special bonuses, to a maximum of three. Each Rage stage is displayed on the creature’s portrait in the Initiative Bar as a small blood drop. Each bonus has an effect that is specific to the creature’s type.

The Blood Rage counter is set to zero at the beginning of each combat, though of course there are special abilities, skills, perks and warcries that Orc heroes can learn to earn their creatures a Rage bonus or to increase its growth rate…

We created this racial ability to make you feel the might of the Orcs when you are fighting with them. Basically, the more you attack, the more powerful you are. It is a very impressive ability, especially when you can effectively make your creatures boost each other on the battlefield.

Now, on with some technical details and basic rules:

The 1st threshold is reached at 200 Rage Points (RP), the 2nd at 500, and the 3rd at 1,000.
The ”Rage Shield” has its own hit points that are calculated when the creature is hit, and corresponds to a fraction of the whole stack hit points. The stack looses the rage amount corresponding to the hit points that were spent for the rage shield. Absorption percentage varies according to the commanding hero’s Blood Rage skill level.

All creatures in the heroes army get +20 RP for a destroyed hostile stack (even a summoned one), and +30 for a dead friendly one.
Individual creature Rage increase:

•Melee attack on an enemy: +100 RP
•Ranged attack on an enemy: +50 RP
•Spell attack on an enemy: +40 RP
•Harmful spell is cast on the creature: +10 RP (excluding damage-dealing spells)
•Using the Sacrifice Goblin (Shamans) or Swallow Goblin (Cyclops) ability: +60 RP
•Moving: 0 RP
•Using the Defend command: -30 RP
•Using the Wait command: -100 RP
•Skipping a turn due to bad Morale: -80 RP
Here are some examples of spells and creatures’ abilities influence on Rage:
•Blind: the creature looses -100 RP for every turn missed.
•Berserk: the amount of gained RP is doubled while the spell is active.
•Hypnotize: the creature looses -50 RP for every action it performs, instead of gaining them, while the spell is active.
•Forgetfulness: the gained amount of Rage is decreased by 5/10/15/20 RP (depending on the expertise level for the spell).
•The creatures’ abilities that move creatures back along the ATB bar (Bash, Warding Arrow, etc.) decrease Rage by -20 RP.
•Fear: a scared creature looses -100 RP.
•Life Drain, Weakening Strike: every such attack decreases Rage by -20 RP.
•Orcs who have the Enrage ability gain +60 instead of +30 RP for each defeated friendly stack.
•Cowardice ”ability” decreases Goblins’ Rage by -100 RP each time it is triggered.

And look below to see the bonuses earned to each creature type for reaching the Rage Point thresholds. Now you can start working on tactics with the mighty orc faction!