Introduction

I think it would be fun to speculate on Anarki as members of the community have had a chance to play him, id Software just released details on his abilities, and it seems to have generated the greatest amount interest (and conversation) between the current and returning Quake players. Also I'm a CPMA player.

Who Is Anarki?

In Quake Champions the character (“Champion”) called Anarki is inspired by CPMA and as such represents id Software’s efforts to recapture that aspect of Quake.

His character biography suggests he was just another rich, white, male, bored out of his mind who decided to heavily invest his privilege into physical mutations and very strong drugs. Described as a transhuman this humanoid will be the living embodiment of chaos in the arena… I can assure CPMA players are nothing like this. He’s got a nifty hover-board, and his trusty needle by his side. He’s got some funny voice-overs, although none of his one-liners are quite as witty as the original Anarki in Quake III. I think character is a little bit confused in terms of design to be honest but I like what I see so far.

Skills & Stuff

Anarki’s passive ability will be that he has strong air-control. The active ability, called Injection, will regenerate the characters health and armor, as well as providing a permanent 2% increase on its maximum health points. The character will have a maximum carrying capacity of 100 armor. Once Injection is activated the hero will also receive a speed boost (the details of which are unknown) for five seconds.

Anarki Stats:

Base Speed320
Spawn HP75
Spawn Armor25
Maximum HPInfinite
Maximum Armor100


Anarki-Mains

Well, the real question here is: What role will this character fill?

This guy is going to be fast. Hopefully really fast. We’ve seen air-control, however, if they also give the Champion double jumps, stair jumps, tele-jumps, ramp-jumps, players should be able to fly across arenas, winding through the hallways, without missing a beat. Air-control is quite a powerful passive ability and its power is magnified when playing against opponents who do not have this attribute.

A successful Anarki will need to quickly burn through many Injection charges and as a result constantly increase their survivability in both solo, and team-fight situations. Barring players that have inhuman aim, I cannot imagine Anarki’s as primary candidates for wielding the Quad Damage in the early-game as the Champion is very fragile. Securing armors, as with any of the Champions, will be crucial. What I imagine to be the optimum strategy is that players will look to collect as many of the skill cooldown items and rapidly build their maximum health points. Remember, every time a player uses Injection, they get a permanent 2% increase on the maximum health points.

As the duration of a game increases, Anarki's will become more and more relevant as they increase their maximum health points. This increase will give them the appropriate level of sustain to engage in longer fights before dying. Towards the late game where maybe the player spawns with 115 HP, an Anarki player with a 100 armor stack has the potential to really "carry" when coupled with a Quad Damage. The combination of damage, speed, and stack will not be able to keep people safe.

The entire character seems to built around short, fast, high net damage situations. I don't think that this Champions is going to be great at holding or defending positions, but when used effectively can open areas up for attack, cause havoc in mid/late game team-fight situations, and generally give opponents a lot anxiety. I'm not sure if he's later-game benefits will transition well in Duel or TDM, but in CTF I think "Anarki mains" will be a thing.

The Design Process

In writing this piece, I could not find a suitable place to discuss the apparent design philosophy for Quake Champions. I think that id Software is looking all the variants of Quake, reducing them to their essence, modifying them to make sense within the scope of the other characters, and importing them into Quake Champions. I think that’s quite a radical choice and has the opportunity to invoke very strong reactions (either positive or negative) from the existing Quake communities. :thumbsup:

Closing Remark

With the closed beta around the corner, I really don’t have any “serious” concerns as I’m hoping some very good CPMA players (ahem) are invited for their feedback, and that any potential problems are dealt with. I like what I see of the character so far, and am hoping that the air-control is sharp/snappy and not floaty.