Ark, The Soulbreaker

http://i.imgur.com/QjMVTFT.png

Ark is a melee brawling mage who focuses on dealing damage to multiple targets thanks to his unique passive, Soul Binding. Fighting Ark in a group could be dangerous, as he’s a mobile brawler who can deal massive damage to your party; however, get Ark alone and you’ll make short work of him.

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http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg594/scaled.php?server=594&filename=em1q.jpg&res=crop Passive - Soul Binding

Enemies struck by Ark’s abilities become “Soulbound.” Soulbound enemies are connected, causing a portion of damage dealt by Ark’s abilities to be shared across all that are Soulbound.

Soulbound is removed after a target receives damage from the binding, after a medium duration, or if you walk out of range of all other Soulbound.

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http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg35/scaled.php?server=35&filename=pupp3.jpg&res=crop Q - Essence strike

Ark dashes to a target in a close range and strikes them, dealing damage. Struck targets give Ark different bonuses:

Minion: Reduces the cooldown of Essence Strike Monster: Briefly stuns the target Champion: Grants a small shield to Ark

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http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg20/scaled.php?server=20&filename=ws3k.jpg&res=crop W - Spiritlash

Ark’s lobs a large javelin at a target area. If it strikes an enemy, it deals damage and impales the target's spirit to the ground. The impaled spirit will persist over a brief duration.

The struck target will lose movement speed the farther they move away from their impaled spirit.

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http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg259/scaled.php?server=259&filename=art1a.jpg&res=medium E - Lifeseeker

Ark lets loose a pulse of his spirit, which reveals the spirit of all enemies in a moderate range for a brief duration.

While champions are revealed, Ark can re-cast Lifeseeker to launch a skill shot ethereal blast that deals damage to any spirit hit.

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http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg43/scaled.php?server=43&filename=ki3cd.jpg&res=crop R - Unbound

Ark travels through all Soulbound targets with great might, dealing significant damage to all Soulbound enemies. Ark will appear behind the last Soulbound target.

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Passive details:

Soul Binding allows you to apply damage to a group if played correctly. Striking multiple units with abilities will cause enemies to be Soulbound. Then if Ark uses another ability on any Soulbound target, the binding will break, causing bonus damage to be applied to all bound targets.

Note that you cannot pop the binding if you’ve only struck one enemy - there needs to be a link between two enemies to be able to pop the binding.

All enemies are potential targets for Soul Binding: Minions, Monsters, and Champions.

Combos

With Ark, there are tons of possible combos, so I’ll just list some of the play patterns I can easily see:

Pick-apart: - E - Q - R - W: By using your E, you can find enemies that might be hiding or running away and land a stack of your passive. Then, you can Q a minion to create a soul binding, then use your R to appear beside the retreating foe. Follow up by landing a W and your opponent will have no way to escape.

Binding abuse: Q - E - W: In lane or in team fights, try to proc your bindings as often as possible. Use the reduced cooldown on your Q to start bindings on minions, then use E or W to apply a proc to an enemy and then pop it. It can make for strong trades in lane.

Art Credit

The main image was created by chasestone, from deviant art: http://chasestone.deviantart.com/

Icons are taken from Heroes of Newerth