Carmen

## Lore

Carmen's deep connection with the elements around her was evident from an early age. She would spend hours molding the earth to her will. This ability has only matured with time.

## Ability

Conjure a small destructible block in front of her that will reflect a shot.

## Ability Details

Carmen's ability creates a block one tile directly in front of her location. She can have up to two blocks in play at a time. These blocks can be removed by hitting them twice with either a shot and/or another players ability (e.g. Aether's Ground Pound) they lose their shot reflection ability after the first hit.

Players can also cause blocks to lose their reflective ability by bumping into them three times which also causes them to be considered as hit once. If there are two blocks on the field, placing another will remove the oldest one. You are unable to place blocks on walls, objects (with a few exceptions), or on opponents. Doing so will cause an visible X marker on the invalid block placement location. When a block is destroyed, it briefly leaves a small pile of rubble that stops another block from being placed in the same place for three seconds.

While Carmen is placing down a block, she stays in place for 0.65 seconds. Spamming the ability will leave a cooldown of 1.5 seconds and further uses of the ability will result in higher cooldowns until the cooldown bar is full and stops flashing.

If an opponent has shot speed and shoots a Carmen block, the reflected shot's speed is faster than the normal reflected speed.

**Ability Boost - Faster Reflect:** reflected shots are faster, making it harder to react against it.

Notes:

* Blocks can be placed over Phoebe's portals and Djaan-Khe's inactivated traps which removes them from the map.
* If Selene's jump lands on one of Carmen's blocks, it is destroyed and she is stunned for 0.25 seconds.
* Ronin's power shot is able to destroy Carmen's block without the shot being reflected.
* PowerUp drops will remove Carmen's blocks from the map if one lands it.
* Carmen can use the Split Shot PowerUp to split opponents projectiles that have been reflected off of her blocks if the opponent also has split-shot and has not split their shot prior to it being reflected.

## Strengths / Weakness

Carmen is a good all-round character and excels in tight spaces where she can force others to reveal themselves by shooting her blocks to get past them.

She can gain a lot of kills from reflected shots.

Carmen's ability is useful in Zone Control and makes her a strong character in this mode.

## Strategy

Where possible it's always a good idea to have both blocks on the map as it increases the chance of someone accidentally killing themselves with a reflecting shot (you will only get points for this if you are still alive when it happens).

It is a good idea to replace damaged blocks that you have put down with new ones to keep your chances of a shot reflection kills high.

If confronted with someone close up, it's a good idea to put a block down rather than shoot. While shooting can provide a temporary defense against incoming shots by creating a blast barrier, placing a block can increase your chances of your opponent killing themselves from shooting your block.

Carmen can put a block down on top of Phoebe's teleporter, blocking Phoebe from using it and causing her to have to put down another teleporter. Carmen can also destroy Djaan-khe's traps by placing a block on top of it.

Keeping track of the order you place down blocks is important. If you have 2 blocks already placed in the map, the first block that you had originally placed will disappear as you place another block, and so on and so forth. You can use this to your advantage if you know an opponent is hiding behind your first block. You can cause that block to disappear (by placing another), surprising them and leaving them vulnerable to being shot.