2 Ability Ideas - Nimble & Pickpocket

[gibnewitems]

Goal with this thread was to come up with a concept for stealing actives. I came up with two designs, and struggled picking one, so I posted both of them.

Nimble
4s Duration
Enemies drop shards of pure magic on the ground whenever they use an active item. Picking up these shards replaces this ability with that item active for a slight period.
Second upgrade is restricted to 1250 souls in value
Final upgrade drop rate is 6% and restricted to 500 souls in value
Shards last for 6 seconds on the ground
Tier 1: +2s Duration
Tier 2: Allies now drop medium value shards
Tier 3: Gold statues now rarely drop low value shards

This ability is intended to be a basic ability.

Pickpocket
80s Cooldown | 7s Duration
Throw forward a shadowy hand that steals the enemy's last active item used, which replaces this ability.

• 30 Damage (+0.5 x Spirit)

Enemies display the icon of their last active used by their health bar
Tier 1: +20 Damage
Tier 2: +7s Duration
Tier 3: Cooldown halves upon successful hit.

This ability is intended to be an ultimate and a skill shot.

 

[nathanieljbrill]

These are great ideas! Only I think they would be a lot better as items don't you think?

 

[gibnewitems]

These are great ideas! Only I think they would be a lot better as items don't you think?

heavily disagree with the "better" part, but seeing items like this would be neat.

 

[Mr.Mindish]

Seems good, though Pickpocket probably shouldn't be an Ultimate. It's powerful if you can nab actives like Unstoppable, but it's got little to no impact in the early game, and it heavily relies on the opponents buying strong active items that compliment whatever playstyle the Pickpocket user has. It honestly seems good as a base ability, with some reasonable tweaking.

Also, by the time Nimble reaches T3 (even if you rush it), the game would have likely moved past the laning phase, so getting Infuser or Healing Rite at that point doesn't seem too great. I'm not sure how the ability's cooldown works there.

I do think these ideas are cool, though the question I have is "what kind of character archetype would use this in their kit", since knowing that helps balance the abilities around that kind of playstyle.

 

[SingularityMaw]

This ability is intended to be an ultimate and a skill shot.

You sure this is ult worthy? Very unreliable and easily countered. Unless you made it similar Sinclair's Ultimate and it steals their highest cost active, while also making them unable to use it? That sounds awful to deal with it actually.

Infuser or Healing Rite

I can see value in it, but in a weird way. You'd need to be able to hold onto multiple of them and be able to activate them all at once, but that's locked by the duration and low odds.

 

[nathanieljbrill]

Allow me to clarify, these do not work as abilities. They only work mid to late game. They do work well as items.

 

[gibnewitems]

I read all your feedback. I appreciate seeing people read and post their thoughts about my concepts. That's pretty much the only reason why I bother making concepts in the first place.

I know Nimble seems quite weak. My first concept for it had the final drop rate at 25, with no value restriction. Obviously, somebody pulling a curse or unstoppable out of nowhere would be nightmarish, which is why I included restrictions in the first place. It seems I might have gone a bit too far, judging by feedback. I'd probably bring it up to 1250 souls value, like with allies, and maybe sneak it up to 10 or 15% chance. 1250 seems to be a perfect point, since it mostly includes divine barrier as it's strongest item.

As for Pickpocket, I probably could've worded it better, or included a bit more information (like it having either very high or even infinite range). I don't think an ultimate being "weak" should be considered a bad thing, especially without a kit to give it much needed context. I'll try and come up with a kit concept for pickpocket soon, so stay tuned.