Steamwarrior

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Who Are They?

Steamwarriors are expert engineers, outfitted in a mechanical suit of metal and phlogiston-powered gadgets. Champions of their craft, the Steamwarrior is a path most often taken by the fanatics of tinkering in Gnomish and Goblin societies, though other races are not unheard of. They serve in various roles amongst factions, be it as mercenaries, heavy labor, or a colossus of mechanical destruction. Steamwarriors have no real attachment to any faction- all that one needs to train in its art is a fair understanding of engineering, ambition, and the endurance for the months of building towards the perfect design.

Steamwarriors and their craft have a wide diversity on the field. Whether it be an arsenal of rocket launchers or a speedy spiderbot, the Steamwarrior's machine is a sign of his or her own might as a mechanic.

Who Likes Them?

Gnomes and Goblins are the quickest to cheer on a Steamwarrior. Others may perceive them as a matter of fascination, or fear- understandably, the Tauren and Night Elves have something of an aversion to the Steamwarrior, seeing them as a threat to the land, similar to Goblins and their shredders.

Dwarves and Humans tend to be fairly receptive to a steamsmith and his machine, as the Alliance makes vast use of Gnomish and Dwarven technology. The Horde, however, may instead perceive such a craft as cowardly.

Training

Requirements

The path of the Steamwarrior is available to effectively all races, as long as they have a prior knowledge of engineering. Human, Dwarf, Gnome, and Troll Steamwarriors are most common, with elven Steamwarriors being the rarities. Hunters, Warriors, and Rogues tend to be most eligible to take the path of the Steamwarrior, as the spell-oriented classes are more suited to the Technomage class.

Alliance Alliance »


Horde Horde »


Strengths

  • Armor

The Steamwarrior has a layer of metal between themselves and the enemy. Depending on the design, damage might be lessened to the pilot, or be mitigated to the machine's hull alone.

  • Mechanical Endurance

A machine can take a pretty big beating. As well, the pilot need not suffer many grave wounds at all, searing steam from a burst pipe or such notwithstanding.

  • Arsenal

A machinesmith's rig can carry a large variety of weaponry, being unhindered by the burdens of the negative effects of their weight. It is not uncommon to see a Steamwarrior employing multiple tinker devices which would ordinarily weigh a person down.

  • Efficiency

Due to placement of weapons, a tinker can't possibly run down the arm of his suit to reload the rocket launcher. Weapons on Steamwarrior rigs are largely able to rearm themselves automatically and thus fire faster than a normal engineer.

Weaknesses

  • Mechanical

Can suffer slower response time or a total shut-down if an Electromagnetic Pulse is set off nearby. Oddly enough, the Steamwarrior's greatest weakness is another tinker.

  • Malfunction

Got that design just right yet? Are you sure? Gnomish and Goblin machinery is famous for its malfunctions, and a Steamwarrior's suit is far from exempt. While their malfunctions may be less catastrophic, it is not uncommon for new armaments to fail to launch, or for a rig's legs to lock up mid stride, for instance.

  • Pressure Cooker

The pilot is susceptible to overheating, should the environment or his foe's spells become too hot. This can be mitigated with an integrated method of cooling, but such precautions are usually something left to hindsight!

  • Heavy Metal

Unless your Steamwarrior is in a Spidertank, your suit is far from lightning-fast. A slow and steady giant, the usual suit of steam armor can have circles ran about it by a fleet-footed foe.

Skills and Abilities

Steamwarrior skills are largely dependant on what is placed on the machine. Steamwarrior rigs usually simply take ordinary Engineering trinkets and affix them, or take a weapon and enlarge it due to the machine's capacity for weight. Because of this, Steamwarriors rarely have the same loadout in combat.

Training Outline

Beginning training as a Steamwarrior is, in a sense, simple; All that is needed is a design. It may be made from scratch, copied, or an edited blueprint for your own uses. More common than not these machines are humanoid for sake of familiarity in design, but it isn't uncommon to see a spry spidertank as an aspiring design. While beginning the training may be simple-Any engineer can draw up a design-, the Steamwarrior is the engineer which takes this idea and makes it a reality.

Steamwarrior's machines are, simply put, expensive. While many engineers may dream up fantastical designs, the issue of money serves a limiting factor to their aspirations. Some willing to negotiate might take a loan from a goblin bank, or get funding from Tinker Town for the build; It isn't uncommon for the Gnomes in particular to put support on an aspiring steamsmith, after all. Once a draft is taken down and funding acquired, the true process to the cockpit of a Steam-Armor rig begins. The engineer will need to acquire his or her materials- though a large sum can be simply bought, the more aspiring of tinkers may seek out more esoteric means of building- Elemental power, for instance, or lenses fashioned from rare gemstones.

If an engineer can manage to acquire his supplies, the real action begins. Building a suit of Steam-Armor takes time, at the least around a month for a proper build- To speed things along engineers may enlist fellow tinkers into their endeavors, building separate pieces of the craft and assembling it. Standard tests are needed to make sure that the engine runs correctly, the fuel line leads where it needs to go, the cockpit receives ventilation- the list of checklists cannot be short-changed whatsoever, because when it comes to combat any one of these can lead to catastrophic failure. Astute measures are taken, and immense care is put behind assembling each rivet and strut -just- as the design dictates.

And then the whole project blows up. Literally or figuratively, there will be problems arising with your design. Too much weight on one side? Not enough support in the legs? Your ejector seat is powered by a seaforium charge? As with every engineering-made device a fault will eventually crop up, and its back to the drawing board. This repeats itself several times; the engineer meticulously irons out the issues with the rig until it is quite literally a well-oiled machine.

Congratulations! Your steamarmor is now ready to walk down the block and, if you're feeling confident, take its first test run on the field of combat. At this point the Steamwarrior may come to realize many things previously not considered; The arsenal needs to be reloaded automatically. Weaponry needs to be able to shift quickly. Response time between controls and action needs to be adjusted. The cockpit feels like it is on fire.

Yes, perhaps the most unnoticed facet of the Steamwarrior's suit is that it is essentially a pressure cooker. If you haven't invested in a cooling system, you're going to start wanting one after you've warmed up your flamethrower. Steamwarriors will have to familiarize themselves with the stifling cockpit, the jarring motion of the machine, and the basic familiarity with the craft's controls, specifically while under the pressure of an undead salivating on your windshield or a trogg smashing at your legs. Hard nerves and quick responses are a matter of life or death to the Steamwarrior, even with his protective armor on.

Finally, the machine and its pilot are in sync. By the end of a Steamwarrior's training the pilot can navigate the field of battle in relative ease, trundling over the bodies of those who so unfortunately do not know the wonders of steam!

But it isn't done there. A suit of Steam Armor is ever changing and developing. Even if a suit is stable and safe to use, a good engineer never stops inventing, and with it the suit will improve. A Steamwarrior's training is, in a sense, never done, always striving to improve their machine in any minute way they can manage.

Active Steamwarriors


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