Characters - Brooks

Class - Artillerist

Uses long range attacks in conjunction with the ability to guardpush and blind opponents

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On Perfect Block, Brooks gains 10% Extreme instead of 5% and his cooldowns for Flashbang and Heavy Focus are reduced by 2 seconds each. If the attack was not a projectile, the Perfect Block also applies knockback to the attacker (Crossguard)

Brooks only has projectiles as his standard attack. His Crossgun deals 15 damage per shot at any distance, and he also has access to Flashbang projectiles which inflict Blind on an opponent (though if the projectile itself hits, it deals 5 damage and Brooks gains 5 Extreme). Brooks' Multi-Shot Extreme causes his standard Crossgun attacks to fire out 8 shots that have a large spread when the initial shot makes contact.

Brooks' Heavy Focus is a very difficult ability to use, as it requires him to be in Perfect Block mode to work, and can be tight on timing, as Perfect Blocks only last one second and Brooks' Crossguard triggers on a Perfect Block, knocking an opponent back far away, where it can be difficult to judge where to aim.

However, if both Heavy Focus and Perfect Block are active simultaneously, Brooks' Crossgun attacks deal 45 damage instead of 15 and gain 3x Extreme. This applies even to Multi-Shot, allowing Brooks to fire out 8 projectiles that each do 45 damage.

Brooks' Flashbang projectiles blind opponents if they are caught in the area of the blast. Triggering Crossguard with a Perfect Block will reduce the cooldown of Flashbang, allowing it to be used more frequently. Making use of an enemy's random lashing out when blinded can sometimes be used to help time a successful Perfect Block and Crossguard.

Developer's Take:

Brooks' standard attacks are strong but slow hitscan shots, and landing lag cancelling these shots makes him a more effective fighter overall. Flashbang is a useful tool for Brooks, not just for applying blind to an area, but setting up for Crossguard and gaining Extreme (both from Flashbang itself and Brooks' higher Perfect Block Extreme gains). The better the player is at Perfect Blocks, the more Extreme gained and the quicker Flashbang cools down (which leads to more Extreme gains), which leads to faster acquisition of Multi-Shot.

Brooks' Multi-Shot Extreme is extremely powerful, immensely powering up all of his standard attacks in terms of damage and area of effect, making it a very effective tool in any scenario or gameplay mode. If Heavy Focus and Perfect Block are both active with Multi-Shot, which is difficult to do consistently, the resulting attack contains so much power, that next to nothing can survive a direct hit.