Gunslinger

*After seeing her father and brother gunned down in cold blood by a wandering stranger, 13-year-old Kate vowed she would never become a victim. If the world was ruled by guns, she would learn to use them, and use them well.*

*With no one left to watch over her, Kate fell in with various gangs. She soon was living the life of an outlaw and gun for hire. Still, it was better to live life on her own terms, even if it could be rough.*

## Acquisition

Kate may be acquired in Act 4 via character recruitment nodes.

## Skills

### Skill Analysis

#### Stance-Dance Revolution

Kate has two skills, her stances, that can make her seem very polarizing. Warmonger leads the player to believing she's a high damage DD that, effectively, gets two attacks per turn. On the other hand, Overwatch and the ability to disrupt enemy turns is also very appealing. Both stances look great on paper, but are not without their faults: In a world where Kate lacks sufficient Speed or Relics to charge Leadstorm quickly in Warmonger, she'll never out-damage other DDs of her class. On the other hand, Overwatch is very appealing for charging Leadstorm quickly when enemies are on the offensive; however, her damage ceiling takes several hits when: One, enemies are not attacking, and therefore not proccing Peace; and two, Leadstorm becomes fully charged prior to charging Combat Roll. With these faults in mind for each stance, it's important for the player to make informed decisions with regards to how they want to use Kate.

War and Peace are similar in that they are both Gadget and Ranged skills. This means that they do not scale with Power, but *are* able to critically hit. War and Peace benefit from increased Hit Chance modifiers to deal bonus critical damage. Moreover, they also benefit from Tinkerer's Shop and Gunsmithing upgrades at the Forge. In other words, War and Peace pack a lot more power than they appear to at a glance. These benefits should be kept in mind when deciding how one wants to use Kate.

#### Combat Roll and Leadstorm: Charging

Lets talk about how Combat Roll and Leadstorm gain charge. Combat Roll gains charge more slowly depending on how many times Kate has used it, with one exception at six uses. The number of turns required for Kate to use Combat Roll again can be expressed as "x = 3 + n", where "x" is the number of turns and "n" is the number of times Kate has used Combat Roll. After her sixth use of Combat Roll, the number of turns required to recharge is 6. This may be a reference to the "Number of the Beast", 666, in the New Testament: 6 Combat Rolls = 6 War Ammunition, 6 Peace Ammunition and 6 Turns to recharge. After her seventh use of Combat Roll, the number of turns required for recharge may be expressed as "x = 2 + n".

Leadstorm, on the other hand, gains charge from firing War or Peace. Regardless of your Stance, the charge rate is as follows per shot: 8%, 16%, 25%, 33%, 41%, 50%, 58%, 66%, 74%, 83%, 91%, and 100%. Leadstorm does not seem to have a fixed charge rate per shot, such as 8.3-repeating percent, and then rounding up. We know this because, if this were true, 16% would round up to 17% from 16.6-repeating percent. On the contrary, it seems that every third shot gives an additional 1%. In the grand scheme of things, this does not matter. You will always have Leadstorm fully charged after 12 shots of either War or Peace. This explanation is given here in case anyone is confused as to why the percents seem arbitrary. The short explanation is that 100 isn't divisible by 12 in a clean way; so, it seems to be coded as "each shot gains 8% charge, except every third shot, which is 9%."

#### Combat Roll and Leadstorm: 1+1=12

Now that we understand how Combat Roll and Leadstorm charge, how do we use them in tandem? Ultimately, it depends on the player's playstyle. Please note that Kate always wants to be in Warmonger prior to using Leadstorm in order to fire as many shots as possible:

One approach to Kate and her skills is to sit in Overwatch to disrupt enemies and build charge over the duration of a fight. She can use War on her turns to gain additional Leadstorm percent, but she mostly relies on Peace to accrue charge. Once Leadstorm is fully charged, Kate can use Combat Roll to fully reload War and Peace while also gaining a Free Turn. Kate still has an Action after Combat Rolling, so, what the player does here is up to them. If Kate doesn't have other skills to attack with, one suggestion is using Peace as her Action in order to save ammunition for Leadstorm. She can also use an Item or Time Break Tech (TBT) instead. On her Free Turn, switch to Warmonger as her Bonus Action and use Leadstorm. Overall, this strategy works well enough versus mobs of enemies, but is not particularly strong versus bosses, or encounters with only one or two enemies remaining.

This second approach to Kate relies on Warmonger and a specific Relic setup. Warmonger is allowing Kate to Attack twice per turn. There are several relics that benefit from Kate attacking twice, in such a way that they have a percent chance to grant Free Turns. These items are *okay* on other characters, but *stellar* on Kate because she's effectively rolling their percent chances twice. As opposed to Overwatch, which relies on enemies taking 6-10 turns to accrue Leadstorm charge, Kate relies on taking her own turn 6 times to accrue Leadstorm very early in a fight. Once Leadstorm is charged, the player can swap into Overwatch and attack with War. We use War here because it deals more damage of the two, and we're about to reload with Combat Roll anyway. You can also use the TBT Haste here on Kate to give her a Free Turn instead of taking a chance with War. During her first Free Turn, Combat Roll as her Bonus Action to reload. Then, she can use Peace here to save ammunition for Leadstorm. During her second Free Turn, she can switch to Warmonger as a Bonus Action, then Leadstorm. As opposed to the first approach, the Warmonger style is a lot more proactive. It allows Kate and the player to focus down specific enemies, as opposed to spreading out her damage across all targets. It's also very strong versus bosses. One argument that could be made against it is that it forces Kate to lose all of her interruption utility.

A third approach that one could consider is using the specific relics from the second method and applying it to the first method: Kate sits in Overwatch stance primed with Free Turn relics in order to gain the utility from possible interrupts while also gaining a chance at Free Turns. This allows Kate to use War more often while in Overwatch stance, significantly increasing her damage outside of Leadstorm, accruing Leadstorm charge faster, and making Kate more interactive. One fault to this strategy is, again, the damage is spread out across enemies. Moreover, the player runs the risk of their relics not proccing, and they also lose the benefits of other relics.

To summarize the approaches: The first is a more laissez faire, "set it and forget it", style of play. It's great for players who are inexperienced with the game's combat system, who do not want to play high-risk, high-reward styes, or for those who are looking to use Kate as utility DPS. The second approach is more along the lines of a combo: The player is looking to exploit Free Turns to apply a lot of pressure in a short amount of time, at the risk of their "combo" failing. The third approach is a mix of the two: It gains benefits from Overwatch and increases her damage, but loses value if the relics don't proc.

#### Deadeye

There is not a lot to say about this passive. It's pretty great. Reliably hitting targets is always nice, but it also does more than that: In conjunction with her other skills, Gunsmithing, and her own relic, she gains 78.75 bonus critical damage when attacking from the back row, or 70% bonus critical damage when in the front row. Piercing defenses is also nothing to sneeze at. Overall, a solid offensive passive that seems to make up for the lack of Power scaling on her attacks.

## Relic Strategy

Kate benefits from a lot of different Relics:

* Buzzard's Saw (Raider), Swiftness Totem, and Ralf's Flute (Jester) are three Relics that potentially enable Kate to take Free Turns. Kate is able to "exploit" these Relics due to the facts that she attacks twice per turn in Warmonger, her attacks are also Gadget skills, and that War always crits. On any other similar character, these would be three separate rolls of 20%, 15%, and 20% if the attack crits. For Warmonger Kate, however, this is 3x 20% and 2x 15% rolls for Free Turns, and an additional 20% roll if Peace crits. While this doesn't add up to a 90% chance of a Free Turn (they're separate rolls), the likelihood is still high. Buzzard's Saw also gives her Chainsaw, which can be used as her Action after Combat Rolling instead of War or Peace.
* Odrak's Claymore (Barbarian) increases Physical damage dealt by 25%. Great on Kate because all of her damage is Physical and because she attacks twice per turn in Warmonger.
* Og's Spear (Caveman) adds 0.5x Power to Ranged damage. Kate doesn't have scaling on her attacks because they're Gadgets, but they are also Ranged. This allows Kate to make use of buffs from teammates.
* Mathias's Hat (Gadgeteer) adds 0.5x Technique to Gadget damage. Kate doesn't have scaling on her attacks because they're Gadgets, but they are also Gadgets. This allows Kate to make use of her increased Technique % gains during Leadstorm aside from simply increasing her crit chance.
* Loaded Dice, her own Relic, increases her hit chance and crit chance by 50%, and her crit damage by 17.5%. Putting Kate, unconventionally, in the frontline gives her a base 75% crit chance with Gunsmithing perks, before accounting for Technique.
* Agent's Watch (Secret Service) is an interesting Relic on Kate, especially when using her Overwatch stance approaches. It allows her turns to arrive faster, offsetting the lack of Free Turn relics. It also gives her access to Disarm, a melee Attack that can be used as a Bonus Action on her turn in tandem with War.
* Marine's Rucksack (Marine) gives Kate more ammunition. This allows her to fire at least 14 shots with Leadstorm. It also allows her 2 additional ammunition refund rolls from Efficiency Tinkering in the Forge.

## Team Strategy

Kate's styles are either glass cannon DD or utility DD. She benefits from having frontline tanks, despite wanting to be on the frontline herself, sometimes. She will need external healing sources because Combat Roll cannot be relied on for HP regeneration. She will also need a support to cleanse Debuffs off her. Support skills do little for her as she's inclined to roll around the battlefield. Blessing, Holy Shield, and other skills of that nature do little for her as well beyond increasing Technique and Speed. In some ways, she's very self reliant, which allows your support characters to buff others. In other ways, she is still fragile and will need a little help staying alive; but, don't we all?

## Quests

### Blazing Barrels

"Have Kate's War or Peace trigger 13 or more times in one use of Leadstorm, and win the battle." Rewards: +2 Skill Points, Loaded Die Relic gains infinite uses.

### Showdown

"Kill a Gunslinger or Lawbringer husk with Kate in the party, and win the battle." Rewards: +2 Skill Points, Kate's Duster Relic gains infinite uses.

### Ambidextrous

"Deal 5,000 total damage with Kate's War and 5,000 total damage with Kate's Peace, in winning battles." Rewards: +2 Skill Points.

## Trivia

* Kate's name and inspiration may be derived from the infamous American outlaw Big Nose Kate. Another reason why Big Nose Kate could be the inspiration is because both the character and historical figure sought independence, in their own ways, despite the circumstances around them.
* Kate shares similarities to "Lucian, the Purifier" and "Miss Fortune, the Bounty Hunter" from League of Legends in that: All three dual wield guns; Leadstorm, The Culling (Lucian's ultimate), and Bullet Time (Miss Fortune's ultimate) all fire a barrage of bullets in rapid succession; Miss Fortune's guns also have names (Shock and Awe); and, Miss Fortune and Kate both have red hair.
* Kate and another character from League of Legends, "Twisted Fate, the Card Master" have another similarity: They both, in essence, have a passive called Loaded Die. Loaded Dice are common among fictitious characters that are characterized as gamblers or outlaws due to the assumption, stereotype, and/or trope that outlaws and gamblers are more likely to cheat others out of a fair game.