Bernardo
New member
The Idea
With the likes of Shiv, Viscous and Yamato providing interesting ways to build through the alternative shots, i've come to give some ideas on other types of alternative shots (and possible reworks of current ones) that could be interesting for players.
The actual goal of this post is to above anything else, show that alternative shots are something so cool that they deserve to be on more heroes, or at least, for more unique gun mechanics for each here to be present, allowing more diversity in gun builds through simple and less complicated game mechanics.
Futhermore, aiming as a game mechanic, where there are no items present that use of this, only shows that there is a space for more of these simple ideas to exist. (Though items that only work when aiming could be interesting???)
For this first post, my idea is to talk about our big blue boy, Abraham, and give an idea for multiple shot variants representing different ideas, those being:
* An alternative shot that interacts with the main ability of a hero (The Synergy Shot)
* An alternative shot that works similarly to heroes already present (The Default)
* An alternative shot that could have interesting effects with items/abilities that are not intended (The Crazy Gimmick)
Abrahams
Our resident punch man sure does have a nice reloading mechanic that allows for quick shots alongside his shoulder bashes, but.... what if we went a bit further?
By The Necktie (The Synergy Shot)
Rather than an actual shot, Abrahams alternative shot is a grab than can only against enemies that are stunned, otherwise it's just a heavy melee with no damage that pushes a player a bit to the back.
If the target is stunned, abrahams grabs them, and in a 200ms or less animation, they suffer a HEAD shot for extra damage and receive a quick knockup, flying higher based on the amount of ammo wasted.
The idea is to be used in combo with his 2, and give another option. This could even be changed to use a bigger amount of ammo for the ability to prock more weapon effects in one go.
Of course, the disadvantage of this could be the fact that it's a single target grab, thus, you cannot melee multiple enemies.
Some interesting synergies could be:
* Express Shot: The knockup could be further increased for more air time
* Melee Charge: Any melee distance items could increase the distance the person is launched on a failed grab
* Silencer/ Toxic B./ Spirit Rend: Further synergies to debuff or even increase the damage from Abrahams lifedrain
* Any Headshot Item: Offers a new way for Abrahams to burst someone without the usual burst spirit items + spirit snatch
Personally, this is my favorite idea by far because of how cool it would look, but even with the limitations, and the fail (which could end up saving an opponent by sending them away), this could require more tuning to make it more risky and fairer.
Book Blast (The Default)
For this one, we can go simpler. Rather than an shot from the gun, Abraham's default shot is a simple close quarters explosion that occurs around him through an book AOE.
This explosion could work as a expensive shot (3-5 bullets base, 1/3 to 1/2 ammo). This could enable some fun scaling ideas, like the Book Blast having a different scaling from normal shots, scaling from spirit power or extra health, but this might be too much, so a more basic idea could work better.
For interesting interactions we could look at:
* Mystic Shot: Will probably be a very interesting combination, especially with Express shot, even more if it scales of spirit power.
* Fire Rate Items: In different world, this shot could be a Pulse rather than a Blast, and thus, increasing its fire rate would make a faster pulse and thus, a possible funny beat DJ Fire Rate Abraham (one can dream)
* Escalating Resilience/Hollow Point: While it may seem like nothing, this would create an interesting synergy to make Abrahams even tankier during team fights while also increasing his damage.
* Point Blank: Great alternative to Torment Pulse + Mystic Slow or variants of spirit items, if you want something to pin down opponents that you've already stunned.
Overall, not my favourite, but could have some very fun scaling potential, specially if works like a pulse, or if it's range scales off something weird like fire rate rather than just ability range.
Dine and Chains (The Crazy Gimmick)
Okay what if, what if-
Abrahams alternative shot was just him, launching his book at an opponent and it opens and it drains health from opponents it hits, like a Melee attack, but going even further with the chains extending as the book takes life of its own to feed itself off Abrahams opponents, but causes spirit damage and provides a static healing effect that scales off boons and doesnt increase based on any stat scaling. So, basically;
* An alternative shot that has counterplay and works based off the parry system
* Consistent low amounts of spirit damage that dont scale off spirit stat itself, but off boons
* Consistent healing that can be stopped with a parry and punished (Maybe even getting some health from Abrahams?)
* The healing does not count as lifesteal, therefore, cant scale off damage, only off healing boosting items and such.
Now, if the opponent manages to parry the book, Abraham cant use it as the Book gets stunned, and thus, he cant use his lifesteal for a while (10s? more? less?).
Simple, right? Yet it provides even more gimmick opportunities because it possess a basekit unique function. This is something i'll always provide for these gimmick ideas, that is, for the alternative shot to actually do something other than damage.
Let's look at some of the possible synergies i'd like to point out regarding this:
* Healbane: Because it causes spirit damage, it becomes very first consistent, non-gun, non-spirit, non-synergy-item-based form of consistent antiheal. Is it niche? Yes. But is it going to be an effective way for abrahams to cause some anti-healing through different methods? Absolutely.
* Healing Booster: Many Abrahams already buy Extra Regen at early games, so now there's an even bigger reason for that. Since the heal is fixed based on hitting an opponent or not, and does not scale off damage, this is a good healthy way to give life to Abrahams without it becoming another situation where he becomes invincible.
* Spirit Proc Items: Because it's also a consistent form of spirit damage, any spirit procs will vastly love this effect, even if the book gets parried, being a consistent spirit proc is a great way to tell players that they dont need to depend on Torment Pulse for these procs for melee characters, and thus, we could be looking at more build diversity (or not, this can be so unpredictable sometimes).
Personally i have no idea how good this would be, but it sure would be hillarious to see Abraham using the book as sort of a attack dog (or maybe the book tries to escape from him constantly and that's why it has chains?).
It's a very gimmicky idea, and is probably complicated to implement, specially with so many moving parts, but, who knows how that would be.
===================================================================
In conclusion, thank you for reading this post, and if there is any further interest on more alternative shot ideas, do let me know.
The next one i have planned is for the face of Deadlock, our Dearest local Sandman, Haze. Hopefully i can draft something soon!
With the likes of Shiv, Viscous and Yamato providing interesting ways to build through the alternative shots, i've come to give some ideas on other types of alternative shots (and possible reworks of current ones) that could be interesting for players.
The actual goal of this post is to above anything else, show that alternative shots are something so cool that they deserve to be on more heroes, or at least, for more unique gun mechanics for each here to be present, allowing more diversity in gun builds through simple and less complicated game mechanics.
Futhermore, aiming as a game mechanic, where there are no items present that use of this, only shows that there is a space for more of these simple ideas to exist. (Though items that only work when aiming could be interesting???)
For this first post, my idea is to talk about our big blue boy, Abraham, and give an idea for multiple shot variants representing different ideas, those being:
* An alternative shot that interacts with the main ability of a hero (The Synergy Shot)
* An alternative shot that works similarly to heroes already present (The Default)
* An alternative shot that could have interesting effects with items/abilities that are not intended (The Crazy Gimmick)
Abrahams
Our resident punch man sure does have a nice reloading mechanic that allows for quick shots alongside his shoulder bashes, but.... what if we went a bit further?
By The Necktie (The Synergy Shot)
Rather than an actual shot, Abrahams alternative shot is a grab than can only against enemies that are stunned, otherwise it's just a heavy melee with no damage that pushes a player a bit to the back.
If the target is stunned, abrahams grabs them, and in a 200ms or less animation, they suffer a HEAD shot for extra damage and receive a quick knockup, flying higher based on the amount of ammo wasted.
The idea is to be used in combo with his 2, and give another option. This could even be changed to use a bigger amount of ammo for the ability to prock more weapon effects in one go.
Of course, the disadvantage of this could be the fact that it's a single target grab, thus, you cannot melee multiple enemies.
Some interesting synergies could be:
* Express Shot: The knockup could be further increased for more air time
* Melee Charge: Any melee distance items could increase the distance the person is launched on a failed grab
* Silencer/ Toxic B./ Spirit Rend: Further synergies to debuff or even increase the damage from Abrahams lifedrain
* Any Headshot Item: Offers a new way for Abrahams to burst someone without the usual burst spirit items + spirit snatch
Personally, this is my favorite idea by far because of how cool it would look, but even with the limitations, and the fail (which could end up saving an opponent by sending them away), this could require more tuning to make it more risky and fairer.
Book Blast (The Default)
For this one, we can go simpler. Rather than an shot from the gun, Abraham's default shot is a simple close quarters explosion that occurs around him through an book AOE.
This explosion could work as a expensive shot (3-5 bullets base, 1/3 to 1/2 ammo). This could enable some fun scaling ideas, like the Book Blast having a different scaling from normal shots, scaling from spirit power or extra health, but this might be too much, so a more basic idea could work better.
For interesting interactions we could look at:
* Mystic Shot: Will probably be a very interesting combination, especially with Express shot, even more if it scales of spirit power.
* Fire Rate Items: In different world, this shot could be a Pulse rather than a Blast, and thus, increasing its fire rate would make a faster pulse and thus, a possible funny beat DJ Fire Rate Abraham (one can dream)
* Escalating Resilience/Hollow Point: While it may seem like nothing, this would create an interesting synergy to make Abrahams even tankier during team fights while also increasing his damage.
* Point Blank: Great alternative to Torment Pulse + Mystic Slow or variants of spirit items, if you want something to pin down opponents that you've already stunned.
Overall, not my favourite, but could have some very fun scaling potential, specially if works like a pulse, or if it's range scales off something weird like fire rate rather than just ability range.
Dine and Chains (The Crazy Gimmick)
Okay what if, what if-
Abrahams alternative shot was just him, launching his book at an opponent and it opens and it drains health from opponents it hits, like a Melee attack, but going even further with the chains extending as the book takes life of its own to feed itself off Abrahams opponents, but causes spirit damage and provides a static healing effect that scales off boons and doesnt increase based on any stat scaling. So, basically;
* An alternative shot that has counterplay and works based off the parry system
* Consistent low amounts of spirit damage that dont scale off spirit stat itself, but off boons
* Consistent healing that can be stopped with a parry and punished (Maybe even getting some health from Abrahams?)
* The healing does not count as lifesteal, therefore, cant scale off damage, only off healing boosting items and such.
Now, if the opponent manages to parry the book, Abraham cant use it as the Book gets stunned, and thus, he cant use his lifesteal for a while (10s? more? less?).
Simple, right? Yet it provides even more gimmick opportunities because it possess a basekit unique function. This is something i'll always provide for these gimmick ideas, that is, for the alternative shot to actually do something other than damage.
Let's look at some of the possible synergies i'd like to point out regarding this:
* Healbane: Because it causes spirit damage, it becomes very first consistent, non-gun, non-spirit, non-synergy-item-based form of consistent antiheal. Is it niche? Yes. But is it going to be an effective way for abrahams to cause some anti-healing through different methods? Absolutely.
* Healing Booster: Many Abrahams already buy Extra Regen at early games, so now there's an even bigger reason for that. Since the heal is fixed based on hitting an opponent or not, and does not scale off damage, this is a good healthy way to give life to Abrahams without it becoming another situation where he becomes invincible.
* Spirit Proc Items: Because it's also a consistent form of spirit damage, any spirit procs will vastly love this effect, even if the book gets parried, being a consistent spirit proc is a great way to tell players that they dont need to depend on Torment Pulse for these procs for melee characters, and thus, we could be looking at more build diversity (or not, this can be so unpredictable sometimes).
Personally i have no idea how good this would be, but it sure would be hillarious to see Abraham using the book as sort of a attack dog (or maybe the book tries to escape from him constantly and that's why it has chains?).
It's a very gimmicky idea, and is probably complicated to implement, specially with so many moving parts, but, who knows how that would be.
===================================================================
In conclusion, thank you for reading this post, and if there is any further interest on more alternative shot ideas, do let me know.
The next one i have planned is for the face of Deadlock, our Dearest local Sandman, Haze. Hopefully i can draft something soon!
