https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Lg_a8G3sic
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This is what I hope to be part 1/4 of a series on the Hero Labs characters. This quick series will be an examination of each of the four unreleased heroes, a look at what may need to change to facilitate their reintroduction, and hopefully promote a discussion about them on what you all think they'd need to come back.
Who are they?: The unreleased four are four Hero Labs characters that never made it to live. Of the eight Hero Labs characters ever introduced, half of them made it to the live game (Calico, Holliday, Sinclair, and Vyper), and the other half disappeared when the game mode was removed. Hero Labs was not a popular game mode. For the majority of its lifespan it was mostly dead, which is probably what prompted its removal. Even so, I think that given that every hero who was added to it was fairly far along in development (mostly complete voice acting, lore, some abilities, etc), I’m of the opinion that they should be eventually added to the game.
Why weren’t they added?: Generally speaking, the Hero Labs characters tended to have problems. Calico in particular was completely reworked from her initial state when she emerged to live, having a very different kit in Hero Labs. The four who were never released also had various problems with their kit which made it so they never got to live.
I’m going to go over each of the four and talk about them in-depth, not just their kit but their character as well. Given that these characters got as far as to be publicly playable, it seems odd to me that so much effort would be put into something only to have it be removed. Valve memes aside.
Fathom (AKA Slork)
Who is he?: Fathom was among the original six added to Hero Labs when the game mode was introduced in October 2024. He is more commonly known as Slork, which is both his real name, his old name from Neon Prime, and his name in the files. Many heroes refer to him as Slork when talking about him, sometimes interchangeably with Fathom (like Dynamo), as does the community. Generally speaking, if he ever comes back, it’s pretty likely they’ll just go back to calling him Slork. Because memes are fun.
Slork is a better name anyway.
The name Slork actually originates from Slark, another fishman character from Dota 2 with a somewhat similar kit. Like Fathom, Slark has an ability to regenerate his health when he is unseen as well as stealth, and leap towards his foes. When you compare the two, the similarities become pretty obvious. It’s likely Slork was a placeholder name, but it sounds silly enough that the community latched onto it.
Also for some reason, Celeste calls him jelly dust. I don’t get the joke. It’s probably a reference to something beyond me.
Fathom continues to be referenced by heroes even after he is gone. Both Doorman and Rem, heroes added after Fathom’s removal, have specific lines for ulting Fathom, and most heroes have lines referencing Fathom in some way. In fact, the only exception in the last twelve heroes released to this rule is Graves. Of the four unreleased heroes from Hero Labs, Fathom’s undoubtedly the most popular. He’s a common meme. Multiple heroes tell him to “keep Slorkin”. Honestly I wouldn’t be half surprised if they shadow drop him in an April Fool’s update one day.
What’s his lore?: Fathom comes from The Deep, making him the second hero to come from there alongside Viscous. Fathom, unlike Viscous, is a much more malevolent entity. He essentially serves as the stereotypical sea monster of the area, preying on sailors and bullying kelpies for tribute. Once the Adversary showed up, Fathom was outclassed. To save himself from fading into obscurity, he participates in the Ritual to ensure that he always be the number one predator of The Deep. This puts him in a similar niche to Viscous, who also seeks to defeat the Adversary, though for entirely different reasons. Same goal, different motivation.
This also makes Fathom a more evil character in a game where the majority of characters that are playable are morally ambiguous. The Doorman’s lines as well as some of Fathom’s lines seem to imply he may be some sort of deity, but one that has lost a significant amount of power due to being forgotten or not believed in owing to the Adversary’s presence.
“Fathom, your dreams of conquest are over. The Adversary's grasp of The Deep will not be broken by the likes of you... a forgotten god with no one to worship him.” -The Doorman
“Slork, as long as people keep talking about you, you're not truly dead.” -Rem
The other heroes seem to dislike Fathom and are afraid of him. Calico refers to him as a sea tyrant and makes reference to him likely being a target of the Baxter Society. Haze calls him dangerous. Holliday calls him “crazy” and “one ugly sonuvabitch.” Mirage calls him a “horror”, and Pocket calls him a “monster” and a “thing” that “needed to be stopped.” And also that he’s never going sailing again. Same with Vyper, who states she will never swim in the ocean again.
Fathom’s personality is fairly bloodthirsty. He’s as you’d expect from an evil shark god. Blood, violence, tribute, conquest, hunting, that sort of stuff. The one unfinished batch of conversations he has with Holliday also seem to curiously imply he isn’t aware of what a hat is, and that he doesn’t quite understand what a sheriff is supposed to be. This is a similar level of surface naivety shared by Viscous, but much more aggressive. He doesn’t appear to be friendly with anyone he interacts with.
What’s he look like?: Fathom has a very incomplete model, debatably the least complete of the unreleased four heroes. His model is essentially a black placeholder dummy covered in random textures such as a shark skull over his head, hooks on his wrist, scuba leggings, etcetera. Various spikes which might be intended to be shark teeth are also on his body. The shark skull has a very Goblin Shark-esque design to it, which may be a hint to what he’s supposed to look like. Some animation files also showed him with a weird hopping walk that wasn’t retained when he was in Hero Labs.
Oddly enough, his gun seems to be the one complete thing about him. It’s a shotgun with a unique model, something only Raven also has. The other two Hero Labs characters borrow their weapons from other characters. Like Ivy and Vyper, he uses Kali as his base rig, who is another unreleased hero that for the time being seems to be completely scrapped. A recolored version of Kali with different clothes currently serves as Vyper’s model.
Also when he reloaded his gun he looked like he was jorkin’ it. Slorkin’ it if you may.
What did he do?: Fathom was a hero designed to ambush and get in close, being very much a hunter sort of hero. He also was notable in being the only other hero besides Haze to have invisibility. Fathom had mobility, crowd control, stealth, and even sustain. He was easily one of the more mobile heroes in the game if his abilities were used in coordination.
Also, the fact that two of his abilities involved spitting, making him the “hawk tuah” hero.
His first ability was Scalding Spray that continuously sprayed hot water in front of him for a few seconds, dealing spirit damage and applying a debuff that increased weapon damage against the enemy.
His second ability was Breach which made him launch forwards, dealing spirit damage where he landed and knocking enemies into the air. This ability is actually recycled from two different abilities from another cut hero called Tokamak. Functionally it is identical to Tokamak’s Dying Star ability, and the name is also taken from a cut ability he had called Breach that functioned completely differently. This ability is also similar to Slark’s ability Pounce.
His third ability and formerly his ultimate was Reefdweller’s Harpoon. This would throw a harpoon that would pull you towards terrain and proc’d the invisibility on your ultimate. You gained additional charges while hanging from a harpoon, and could cast it without breaking invisibility.
His ultimate was Lurker’s Ambush. Passively, when out of combat and unseen by enemies, he quickly healed back up. If he stood still, he also became invisible and invulnerable after a short delay. The invisibility lasted until he attacked or took an action. When activated, he shot spit at the enemy that dealt spirit damage and applied a slow. The longer the ability was held, the stronger the effect. If not clinging to a wall, the effect would have half duration. It had a low cooldown of only 50 seconds, and after one boon went down to 35 seconds. The passive component of this ability is also taken from Slark, who has an identical passive component on his ultimate.
Briefly, Fathom used Shiv’s Bloodletting as a placeholder third ability. During this time, Reefdweller’s Harpoon was his ultimate and retained the passive component of Lurker’s Ambush. Fathom would receive the change to his kit a few weeks after being added to Hero Labs. You also used to be able to cast the Harpoon on the floor, and casting it would break invisibility.
In short, his gameplan was to sneak in, prepare an ambush, and then pounce on his enemies. His good AoE gave him the potential to take out multiple foes at once, and his mobility let him approach from unusual angles. Plus his regen made it very easy for him to remain nearby undetected. His kit was in general quite strong, and he would receive a few nerfs while he was in Hero Labs.
Why wasn’t he added?: This is pure speculation on my part when it comes to this section. I’m really just making a guess based on old gameplay, memories, and comments.
Fathom was likely not added because his kit is not fun to play against, a key theme we’re going to see repeatedly with every Hero Labs character that didn’t make it in. While being invisible then jumping out to obliterate people is fun, it doesn’t have much counterplay. Haze, by comparison, is heavily reliant on bullet damage, making Metal Skin her counter. Fathom on the other hand has three damaging abilities to still get you with.
The fact he was invulnerable while invisible and possessed heavy regen didn’t help. With his ult passive, he regenerated 3% health per second. This allowed him to essentially sit invisibly in lane and soak up experience even if he wasn’t doing well. Later with a third boon this regen went up to 5%, which meant that if Fathom wanted to heal completely he could sit in invisibility for twenty seconds. With knowledge of where shops were, a good Fathom would in theory never need to go back to the base. There isn’t much counterplay for invisibility in this game because it is rare, let alone invulnerable invisibility. Aside from Haze, no heroes have invisibility, and only Fathom had invulnerable and infinite invisibility. While it broke when he took an action, it didn’t break when he cast his Harpoon. So even if an engagement didn’t go that well he could simply wait, relocate, and then prepare another ambush. Or just slip into invisibility, walk up, and blast you.
In short, Fathom’s gameplan of ambush, escape, heal, rinse and repeat, while fun for Dota, wasn’t quite as healthy for Deadlock. Though it did lead to some very creative applications of ambushing and was fun to play, it wasn’t fun to play against. Keep in mind that Fathom existed during the era of 4 lanes. 1v1’ing against Fathom was miserable.
What could be changed?: The core aspect of Fathom’s gameplay design is invisibility and ambushing. This is something which Haze also does, but Fathom could attack from unexpected locations (a wall for example) as opposed to Haze who simply stealths, runs in, and presses 4.
His visuals would obviously need to be updated for him to come back. It’s obvious they want to make him a spooky shark guy, so that would need to be finalized. The gun I think should be a bit more aquatic theme even if it’s finalized, as it doesn’t really fit his theme. I picture a rusty seaweed caked fishhook flechette launcher as opposed to a shotgun, preferably encrusted in barnacles and dripping with saltwater. The reload animation should of course be retained.
Then of course you run into the issues with his kit being inherently unhealthy. Slark works in Dota 2 because it is a traditional isometric MOBA. Fathom/Slork does not work in Deadlock because it is a three-dimensional MOBA/Shooter hybrid.
I think the change to make is a fairly simple one though. What could in theory be done is to curb the power of the invisibility. That is to say, some ideas as
A: Not make him invulnerable while invisible. Or when he’s damaged, have him flicker so that you can more accurately see where he is. Another idea is similar to Spy’s cloak from TF2, in that the longer he moves while invisible, the more visible he becomes. Or have his fin be visible, because that’s often all you see of a shark when it’s in the water.
B: Have there be an indicator that Fathom is nearby. Example: Pyke from League has shark fins circling around you when he is nearby and stealthed. This gives you a slight warning that gives an iota of counterplay. Something like a musical cue for instance. Jaws-esque music perhaps?
C: Adjust or remove the regeneration aspect of his passive. Perhaps have it grow stronger the longer he’s out of combat to incentivize enemies to find him. Or simply tweak downwards the regeneration aspect. Maybe even a combination of both. Another idea is to just remove it entirely and instead change it to an innate lifesteal, or have it only apply when he’s invisible.
D: Have him be obscured but not completely invisible, being “blurry” and easy to miss while also invisible on the minimap, like Ava in Calico’s kit, or Phantom Assassin in Dota.
This retains its viability and allows it to still be impactful to his theme, while also having a measure of counterplay to it. If you wanted to add a bit more, you could also make it so Fathom has an innate ability that gives him higher jumps, somewhat like Celeste.
The thematic of Fathom’s remaining abilities I think could be improved slightly, but the actual mechanics are mostly sound. I do think it’s slightly redundant that he has two spit based abilities. Perhaps change his ultimate to a lunging bite instead of a long range spit? After all, what are sharks best known for if not their bite? He wants to get close to you anyway, and this would encourage players to be more cunning with their ambushes as opposed to targeting from afar and then running in. They would instead have to get closer to optimally make the most out of their ult active.
For additional memes, make a jumpscare sound effect when he ults. Perhaps add a rare chance for him to scream he’s “Slorkin’ it” as he jumps out and bites you.
Lorewise, the greatest potential for Fathom and interactions with other characters lies in Viscous. Since both hail from the same location, the potential for character interaction is very high. The two characters offer an excellent parallel. Both are naive to the surface and approach it in different ways, Viscous with curiosity and Fathom with violence and aggression. Both want the Adversary gone but for a different reason, with Fathom wanting to be remembered whereas Viscous just wants to keep his home safe.
There is a decent chance that Viscous is already familiar with Fathom, in which case he may have some sort of differing reaction to his presence. It may be one of fear or hostility given his aggressive nature, or it may even be one of fawning adoration given that Fathom has mentioned to have followers. Perhaps Viscous is one of his worshippers. Or, for extra hilarity given that Fathom’s core fear seems to be being forgotten, Viscous may have no idea who he is, which causes Fathom no degree of endless frustration.
Another possibility for interactions exists with the other two Baxter Society characters, especially Shiv. Based on Calico’s kill quotes to Fathom, he is exactly the sort of creature that the Baxter Society was founded to deal with. An easy chance for a rivalry could exist for him and Shiv, with Fathom perhaps being a stepping stone for Shiv to potentially prove himself to the rest of the Baxter Society.
Will he come back?: Given the character’s memetic popularity and the fact that of the four Hero Labs unreleased characters he was obviously the most popular, Fathom has the best chance to return. I think with minimal work he can easily be remade into something both fun to play and not horrible to play against. The line between annoying and unfair isn’t as thin as it may seem. Really all it requires is tweaking and his kit can easily work.
Also, the meme and merch potential should not be underestimated. I can see him easily becoming one of the more popular characters in the game. Bottom line, I think the return of Slork/Fathom is more a question of when as opposed to if. I’m 75% certain that he will return at some point. He’s too popular to completely throw out.
But these are all my thoughts of course. Please let me know what you think down below. I like to hear people's thoughts on these characters because I think it'd be a real shame if they never got into the game. And, of course, say what you think needs to be adjusted in order to make them work.
Next time, we'll take a look at Raven, AKA Operative
Who are they?: The unreleased four are four Hero Labs characters that never made it to live. Of the eight Hero Labs characters ever introduced, half of them made it to the live game (Calico, Holliday, Sinclair, and Vyper), and the other half disappeared when the game mode was removed. Hero Labs was not a popular game mode. For the majority of its lifespan it was mostly dead, which is probably what prompted its removal. Even so, I think that given that every hero who was added to it was fairly far along in development (mostly complete voice acting, lore, some abilities, etc), I’m of the opinion that they should be eventually added to the game.
Why weren’t they added?: Generally speaking, the Hero Labs characters tended to have problems. Calico in particular was completely reworked from her initial state when she emerged to live, having a very different kit in Hero Labs. The four who were never released also had various problems with their kit which made it so they never got to live.
I’m going to go over each of the four and talk about them in-depth, not just their kit but their character as well. Given that these characters got as far as to be publicly playable, it seems odd to me that so much effort would be put into something only to have it be removed. Valve memes aside.
Fathom (AKA Slork)
Who is he?: Fathom was among the original six added to Hero Labs when the game mode was introduced in October 2024. He is more commonly known as Slork, which is both his real name, his old name from Neon Prime, and his name in the files. Many heroes refer to him as Slork when talking about him, sometimes interchangeably with Fathom (like Dynamo), as does the community. Generally speaking, if he ever comes back, it’s pretty likely they’ll just go back to calling him Slork. Because memes are fun.
Slork is a better name anyway.
The name Slork actually originates from Slark, another fishman character from Dota 2 with a somewhat similar kit. Like Fathom, Slark has an ability to regenerate his health when he is unseen as well as stealth, and leap towards his foes. When you compare the two, the similarities become pretty obvious. It’s likely Slork was a placeholder name, but it sounds silly enough that the community latched onto it.
Also for some reason, Celeste calls him jelly dust. I don’t get the joke. It’s probably a reference to something beyond me.
Fathom continues to be referenced by heroes even after he is gone. Both Doorman and Rem, heroes added after Fathom’s removal, have specific lines for ulting Fathom, and most heroes have lines referencing Fathom in some way. In fact, the only exception in the last twelve heroes released to this rule is Graves. Of the four unreleased heroes from Hero Labs, Fathom’s undoubtedly the most popular. He’s a common meme. Multiple heroes tell him to “keep Slorkin”. Honestly I wouldn’t be half surprised if they shadow drop him in an April Fool’s update one day.
What’s his lore?: Fathom comes from The Deep, making him the second hero to come from there alongside Viscous. Fathom, unlike Viscous, is a much more malevolent entity. He essentially serves as the stereotypical sea monster of the area, preying on sailors and bullying kelpies for tribute. Once the Adversary showed up, Fathom was outclassed. To save himself from fading into obscurity, he participates in the Ritual to ensure that he always be the number one predator of The Deep. This puts him in a similar niche to Viscous, who also seeks to defeat the Adversary, though for entirely different reasons. Same goal, different motivation.
This also makes Fathom a more evil character in a game where the majority of characters that are playable are morally ambiguous. The Doorman’s lines as well as some of Fathom’s lines seem to imply he may be some sort of deity, but one that has lost a significant amount of power due to being forgotten or not believed in owing to the Adversary’s presence.
“Fathom, your dreams of conquest are over. The Adversary's grasp of The Deep will not be broken by the likes of you... a forgotten god with no one to worship him.” -The Doorman
“Slork, as long as people keep talking about you, you're not truly dead.” -Rem
The other heroes seem to dislike Fathom and are afraid of him. Calico refers to him as a sea tyrant and makes reference to him likely being a target of the Baxter Society. Haze calls him dangerous. Holliday calls him “crazy” and “one ugly sonuvabitch.” Mirage calls him a “horror”, and Pocket calls him a “monster” and a “thing” that “needed to be stopped.” And also that he’s never going sailing again. Same with Vyper, who states she will never swim in the ocean again.
Fathom’s personality is fairly bloodthirsty. He’s as you’d expect from an evil shark god. Blood, violence, tribute, conquest, hunting, that sort of stuff. The one unfinished batch of conversations he has with Holliday also seem to curiously imply he isn’t aware of what a hat is, and that he doesn’t quite understand what a sheriff is supposed to be. This is a similar level of surface naivety shared by Viscous, but much more aggressive. He doesn’t appear to be friendly with anyone he interacts with.
What’s he look like?: Fathom has a very incomplete model, debatably the least complete of the unreleased four heroes. His model is essentially a black placeholder dummy covered in random textures such as a shark skull over his head, hooks on his wrist, scuba leggings, etcetera. Various spikes which might be intended to be shark teeth are also on his body. The shark skull has a very Goblin Shark-esque design to it, which may be a hint to what he’s supposed to look like. Some animation files also showed him with a weird hopping walk that wasn’t retained when he was in Hero Labs.
Oddly enough, his gun seems to be the one complete thing about him. It’s a shotgun with a unique model, something only Raven also has. The other two Hero Labs characters borrow their weapons from other characters. Like Ivy and Vyper, he uses Kali as his base rig, who is another unreleased hero that for the time being seems to be completely scrapped. A recolored version of Kali with different clothes currently serves as Vyper’s model.
Also when he reloaded his gun he looked like he was jorkin’ it. Slorkin’ it if you may.
What did he do?: Fathom was a hero designed to ambush and get in close, being very much a hunter sort of hero. He also was notable in being the only other hero besides Haze to have invisibility. Fathom had mobility, crowd control, stealth, and even sustain. He was easily one of the more mobile heroes in the game if his abilities were used in coordination.
Also, the fact that two of his abilities involved spitting, making him the “hawk tuah” hero.
His first ability was Scalding Spray that continuously sprayed hot water in front of him for a few seconds, dealing spirit damage and applying a debuff that increased weapon damage against the enemy.
His second ability was Breach which made him launch forwards, dealing spirit damage where he landed and knocking enemies into the air. This ability is actually recycled from two different abilities from another cut hero called Tokamak. Functionally it is identical to Tokamak’s Dying Star ability, and the name is also taken from a cut ability he had called Breach that functioned completely differently. This ability is also similar to Slark’s ability Pounce.
His third ability and formerly his ultimate was Reefdweller’s Harpoon. This would throw a harpoon that would pull you towards terrain and proc’d the invisibility on your ultimate. You gained additional charges while hanging from a harpoon, and could cast it without breaking invisibility.
His ultimate was Lurker’s Ambush. Passively, when out of combat and unseen by enemies, he quickly healed back up. If he stood still, he also became invisible and invulnerable after a short delay. The invisibility lasted until he attacked or took an action. When activated, he shot spit at the enemy that dealt spirit damage and applied a slow. The longer the ability was held, the stronger the effect. If not clinging to a wall, the effect would have half duration. It had a low cooldown of only 50 seconds, and after one boon went down to 35 seconds. The passive component of this ability is also taken from Slark, who has an identical passive component on his ultimate.
Briefly, Fathom used Shiv’s Bloodletting as a placeholder third ability. During this time, Reefdweller’s Harpoon was his ultimate and retained the passive component of Lurker’s Ambush. Fathom would receive the change to his kit a few weeks after being added to Hero Labs. You also used to be able to cast the Harpoon on the floor, and casting it would break invisibility.
In short, his gameplan was to sneak in, prepare an ambush, and then pounce on his enemies. His good AoE gave him the potential to take out multiple foes at once, and his mobility let him approach from unusual angles. Plus his regen made it very easy for him to remain nearby undetected. His kit was in general quite strong, and he would receive a few nerfs while he was in Hero Labs.
Why wasn’t he added?: This is pure speculation on my part when it comes to this section. I’m really just making a guess based on old gameplay, memories, and comments.
Fathom was likely not added because his kit is not fun to play against, a key theme we’re going to see repeatedly with every Hero Labs character that didn’t make it in. While being invisible then jumping out to obliterate people is fun, it doesn’t have much counterplay. Haze, by comparison, is heavily reliant on bullet damage, making Metal Skin her counter. Fathom on the other hand has three damaging abilities to still get you with.
The fact he was invulnerable while invisible and possessed heavy regen didn’t help. With his ult passive, he regenerated 3% health per second. This allowed him to essentially sit invisibly in lane and soak up experience even if he wasn’t doing well. Later with a third boon this regen went up to 5%, which meant that if Fathom wanted to heal completely he could sit in invisibility for twenty seconds. With knowledge of where shops were, a good Fathom would in theory never need to go back to the base. There isn’t much counterplay for invisibility in this game because it is rare, let alone invulnerable invisibility. Aside from Haze, no heroes have invisibility, and only Fathom had invulnerable and infinite invisibility. While it broke when he took an action, it didn’t break when he cast his Harpoon. So even if an engagement didn’t go that well he could simply wait, relocate, and then prepare another ambush. Or just slip into invisibility, walk up, and blast you.
In short, Fathom’s gameplan of ambush, escape, heal, rinse and repeat, while fun for Dota, wasn’t quite as healthy for Deadlock. Though it did lead to some very creative applications of ambushing and was fun to play, it wasn’t fun to play against. Keep in mind that Fathom existed during the era of 4 lanes. 1v1’ing against Fathom was miserable.
What could be changed?: The core aspect of Fathom’s gameplay design is invisibility and ambushing. This is something which Haze also does, but Fathom could attack from unexpected locations (a wall for example) as opposed to Haze who simply stealths, runs in, and presses 4.
His visuals would obviously need to be updated for him to come back. It’s obvious they want to make him a spooky shark guy, so that would need to be finalized. The gun I think should be a bit more aquatic theme even if it’s finalized, as it doesn’t really fit his theme. I picture a rusty seaweed caked fishhook flechette launcher as opposed to a shotgun, preferably encrusted in barnacles and dripping with saltwater. The reload animation should of course be retained.
Then of course you run into the issues with his kit being inherently unhealthy. Slark works in Dota 2 because it is a traditional isometric MOBA. Fathom/Slork does not work in Deadlock because it is a three-dimensional MOBA/Shooter hybrid.
I think the change to make is a fairly simple one though. What could in theory be done is to curb the power of the invisibility. That is to say, some ideas as
A: Not make him invulnerable while invisible. Or when he’s damaged, have him flicker so that you can more accurately see where he is. Another idea is similar to Spy’s cloak from TF2, in that the longer he moves while invisible, the more visible he becomes. Or have his fin be visible, because that’s often all you see of a shark when it’s in the water.
B: Have there be an indicator that Fathom is nearby. Example: Pyke from League has shark fins circling around you when he is nearby and stealthed. This gives you a slight warning that gives an iota of counterplay. Something like a musical cue for instance. Jaws-esque music perhaps?
C: Adjust or remove the regeneration aspect of his passive. Perhaps have it grow stronger the longer he’s out of combat to incentivize enemies to find him. Or simply tweak downwards the regeneration aspect. Maybe even a combination of both. Another idea is to just remove it entirely and instead change it to an innate lifesteal, or have it only apply when he’s invisible.
D: Have him be obscured but not completely invisible, being “blurry” and easy to miss while also invisible on the minimap, like Ava in Calico’s kit, or Phantom Assassin in Dota.
This retains its viability and allows it to still be impactful to his theme, while also having a measure of counterplay to it. If you wanted to add a bit more, you could also make it so Fathom has an innate ability that gives him higher jumps, somewhat like Celeste.
The thematic of Fathom’s remaining abilities I think could be improved slightly, but the actual mechanics are mostly sound. I do think it’s slightly redundant that he has two spit based abilities. Perhaps change his ultimate to a lunging bite instead of a long range spit? After all, what are sharks best known for if not their bite? He wants to get close to you anyway, and this would encourage players to be more cunning with their ambushes as opposed to targeting from afar and then running in. They would instead have to get closer to optimally make the most out of their ult active.
For additional memes, make a jumpscare sound effect when he ults. Perhaps add a rare chance for him to scream he’s “Slorkin’ it” as he jumps out and bites you.
Lorewise, the greatest potential for Fathom and interactions with other characters lies in Viscous. Since both hail from the same location, the potential for character interaction is very high. The two characters offer an excellent parallel. Both are naive to the surface and approach it in different ways, Viscous with curiosity and Fathom with violence and aggression. Both want the Adversary gone but for a different reason, with Fathom wanting to be remembered whereas Viscous just wants to keep his home safe.
There is a decent chance that Viscous is already familiar with Fathom, in which case he may have some sort of differing reaction to his presence. It may be one of fear or hostility given his aggressive nature, or it may even be one of fawning adoration given that Fathom has mentioned to have followers. Perhaps Viscous is one of his worshippers. Or, for extra hilarity given that Fathom’s core fear seems to be being forgotten, Viscous may have no idea who he is, which causes Fathom no degree of endless frustration.
Another possibility for interactions exists with the other two Baxter Society characters, especially Shiv. Based on Calico’s kill quotes to Fathom, he is exactly the sort of creature that the Baxter Society was founded to deal with. An easy chance for a rivalry could exist for him and Shiv, with Fathom perhaps being a stepping stone for Shiv to potentially prove himself to the rest of the Baxter Society.
Will he come back?: Given the character’s memetic popularity and the fact that of the four Hero Labs unreleased characters he was obviously the most popular, Fathom has the best chance to return. I think with minimal work he can easily be remade into something both fun to play and not horrible to play against. The line between annoying and unfair isn’t as thin as it may seem. Really all it requires is tweaking and his kit can easily work.
Also, the meme and merch potential should not be underestimated. I can see him easily becoming one of the more popular characters in the game. Bottom line, I think the return of Slork/Fathom is more a question of when as opposed to if. I’m 75% certain that he will return at some point. He’s too popular to completely throw out.
But these are all my thoughts of course. Please let me know what you think down below. I like to hear people's thoughts on these characters because I think it'd be a real shame if they never got into the game. And, of course, say what you think needs to be adjusted in order to make them work.
Next time, we'll take a look at Raven, AKA Operative
