wayneradiotv
New member
I made a private thread about the limited amount of melee-focused items without much of an idea of what I'd suggest, the reply I received denoting I should share any potential item ideas in the future. I thought of some after playing a melee build on Mo & Krill today. There are already a lot of items in Deadlock, I don't think too many of them should be dedicated to melee specifically, but today I realized what's missing.
In the Vitality category, Melee Lifesteal upgrades into the tier 3 item Lifestrike, currently the most powerful melee item. Melee Lifesteal's tier 1 counterpart Spirit Strike has no upgrade. Melee builds want all the increases to melee damage they can get and the 20% melee damage buff never stops being good, but it feels odd to keep a tier 1 item around for so long. Since melee scales with weapon damage, not spirit generally, whatever you might replace it with in the Spirit category won't directly support your melee attack. It should have a tier 3 upgrade, just like Lifestrike.
Soul Pierce (or similar name)
Spirit Strike could be a component of an item called Soul Pierce. The two melee mechanics that are not affected by any item are the charge attack (will get to that later) and the parry system. I think it would be very fitting for the upgraded Spirit Strike to improve on the buffs the original item gives, but to also have a new cooldown passive that gives the holder a benefit against players with solid parries. I don't think it should go as far as allowing you to fully break or ignore a parry, as it shouldn't ignore the mindgames of melee/parry. Instead, when off cooldown, it could imbue a parried punch with Spirit, allowing it to impact through the parry. It would not negate the consequence of being parried but would force some of the damage through their block and apply a debuff of some sort, most likely a slow (and/or reduced outgoing damage to aid your possible survival?) that would persist for a short time after the attacking player recovers from their stun. If the parried player survives the parry stun, they get one more chance at continuing their melee offense. Since it's on cooldown, you get parried after that, there's no helping you, get owned I guess
Regardless of if that exact idea is used, I still think Spirit Strike should have a matching tier 3 upgrade to Lifestrike.
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Now, to complete the trifecta. The Weapon category of items has no melee affecting item at this time. It feels right that there would be a melee item to use a slot on in each category. Unlike Vitality and Spirit having a tier 1 -> tier 3 progression for their respective melee items, the Weapon category's should be a Tier 4 6k active item. As a fighting game player, and a melee/punching lover across any and all games that will let me do so, I feel very strongly about this next item idea:
Falcon Surge (or any name. why would one associate falcons with punching I wonder)
Falcon Surge would serve as the lategame melee item. It would primarily be an enhancement to the charged melee attack, an already fairly powerful option, but one that is regularly countered by the parry. It could passively enhance melee damage or some other aspect of our melee attack, maybe a tiny increase to default melee speed? Doesn't matter so much, the team could figure that out. Falcon Surge's main draw would be the active component.
Upon activating Falcon Surge, a buff is given to the user. In the next 15(?) seconds, if the user begins to charge a melee attack, the buff is expended and the attack is supercharged. It would be boring to just give it extra damage or speed. Instead, a Falcon Surge imbued charge attack has its maximum charge time increased very significantly. The lengthy wind-up would yield a massive boost to the damage it can deal, as well as an increase to the speed of the punch's dash and the distance it covers, making it hard, but not impossible to run away from the user. It could also potentially allow the user to throw their punch with some verticality, allowing them to aim for targets trying to dodge in the air. Depending on the balance direction (see below) it could also give the user some limited bullet/spirit resistance while holding the charge.
The reasons I feel so strongly about this idea aren't just "big punch good", I believe this item would add an interesting extra layer of depth to the melee/parry game. Mindgames and potential counterplay could be a big part of making this item work. While this item would increase melee charge time drastically, the user would be able to release their punch early (as long as they charge to what a regular charged melee requires), as well as to hold their charge for some time after it reaches maximum power. A Falcon Surge punch would still be parriable like any other melee attack, in fact, if the benefits of this item need to be offset for balance, a parried, high-power Falcon Surge could result in a catastrophic stun for the user, rewarding the defender for beating the attacker's timing. A final option for mindgame potential on the attacker's side could be the ability to cancel the charge and throw a feint punch, moving the user forward quickly as if they punched, but not as far, spending the cooldown of the item to try and get the defender to waste their parry, allowing them to whale on them with their normal melee attacks as their reward.
While I can write a lot about this in detail, I do think its description could be simplified plenty to match the rest of the items if it were actually in the game, and not be any more confusing than other active items you have to learn about.
"Supercharges your next charged melee, increasing charge time but scaling damage, speed & distance traveled. Grants minor resistance while charging. Can be released early, or canceled to perform a feint attack."
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The other less interesting but possible idea I had was for a melee frenzy item ala Dota's Mask of Madness, boosting the speed at which you can do charge attacks for a duration, in exchange for an increase in incoming damage, Even a 25% faster charge punch would be gnarly. But I'm way more passionate about the supercharged rock-paper-scissors punch. Hope y'all like the idea.
In the Vitality category, Melee Lifesteal upgrades into the tier 3 item Lifestrike, currently the most powerful melee item. Melee Lifesteal's tier 1 counterpart Spirit Strike has no upgrade. Melee builds want all the increases to melee damage they can get and the 20% melee damage buff never stops being good, but it feels odd to keep a tier 1 item around for so long. Since melee scales with weapon damage, not spirit generally, whatever you might replace it with in the Spirit category won't directly support your melee attack. It should have a tier 3 upgrade, just like Lifestrike.
Soul Pierce (or similar name)
Spirit Strike could be a component of an item called Soul Pierce. The two melee mechanics that are not affected by any item are the charge attack (will get to that later) and the parry system. I think it would be very fitting for the upgraded Spirit Strike to improve on the buffs the original item gives, but to also have a new cooldown passive that gives the holder a benefit against players with solid parries. I don't think it should go as far as allowing you to fully break or ignore a parry, as it shouldn't ignore the mindgames of melee/parry. Instead, when off cooldown, it could imbue a parried punch with Spirit, allowing it to impact through the parry. It would not negate the consequence of being parried but would force some of the damage through their block and apply a debuff of some sort, most likely a slow (and/or reduced outgoing damage to aid your possible survival?) that would persist for a short time after the attacking player recovers from their stun. If the parried player survives the parry stun, they get one more chance at continuing their melee offense. Since it's on cooldown, you get parried after that, there's no helping you, get owned I guess
Regardless of if that exact idea is used, I still think Spirit Strike should have a matching tier 3 upgrade to Lifestrike.
--------
Now, to complete the trifecta. The Weapon category of items has no melee affecting item at this time. It feels right that there would be a melee item to use a slot on in each category. Unlike Vitality and Spirit having a tier 1 -> tier 3 progression for their respective melee items, the Weapon category's should be a Tier 4 6k active item. As a fighting game player, and a melee/punching lover across any and all games that will let me do so, I feel very strongly about this next item idea:
Falcon Surge (or any name. why would one associate falcons with punching I wonder)
Falcon Surge would serve as the lategame melee item. It would primarily be an enhancement to the charged melee attack, an already fairly powerful option, but one that is regularly countered by the parry. It could passively enhance melee damage or some other aspect of our melee attack, maybe a tiny increase to default melee speed? Doesn't matter so much, the team could figure that out. Falcon Surge's main draw would be the active component.
Upon activating Falcon Surge, a buff is given to the user. In the next 15(?) seconds, if the user begins to charge a melee attack, the buff is expended and the attack is supercharged. It would be boring to just give it extra damage or speed. Instead, a Falcon Surge imbued charge attack has its maximum charge time increased very significantly. The lengthy wind-up would yield a massive boost to the damage it can deal, as well as an increase to the speed of the punch's dash and the distance it covers, making it hard, but not impossible to run away from the user. It could also potentially allow the user to throw their punch with some verticality, allowing them to aim for targets trying to dodge in the air. Depending on the balance direction (see below) it could also give the user some limited bullet/spirit resistance while holding the charge.
The reasons I feel so strongly about this idea aren't just "big punch good", I believe this item would add an interesting extra layer of depth to the melee/parry game. Mindgames and potential counterplay could be a big part of making this item work. While this item would increase melee charge time drastically, the user would be able to release their punch early (as long as they charge to what a regular charged melee requires), as well as to hold their charge for some time after it reaches maximum power. A Falcon Surge punch would still be parriable like any other melee attack, in fact, if the benefits of this item need to be offset for balance, a parried, high-power Falcon Surge could result in a catastrophic stun for the user, rewarding the defender for beating the attacker's timing. A final option for mindgame potential on the attacker's side could be the ability to cancel the charge and throw a feint punch, moving the user forward quickly as if they punched, but not as far, spending the cooldown of the item to try and get the defender to waste their parry, allowing them to whale on them with their normal melee attacks as their reward.
While I can write a lot about this in detail, I do think its description could be simplified plenty to match the rest of the items if it were actually in the game, and not be any more confusing than other active items you have to learn about.
"Supercharges your next charged melee, increasing charge time but scaling damage, speed & distance traveled. Grants minor resistance while charging. Can be released early, or canceled to perform a feint attack."
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The other less interesting but possible idea I had was for a melee frenzy item ala Dota's Mask of Madness, boosting the speed at which you can do charge attacks for a duration, in exchange for an increase in incoming damage, Even a 25% faster charge punch would be gnarly. But I'm way more passionate about the supercharged rock-paper-scissors punch. Hope y'all like the idea.
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