ElemAngell
New member
Ever since I started playing Team Fortress 2 back in 2017, my favorite way to play has always been Battle Engineer. While Scout may have the better shotgun and be more directly designed for 1v1 engagements, I love the more tactical feeling of playing around the Gunslinger's Mini-Sentry and how rewarding it felt to outmaneuver enemies despite being a class with average move speed. I've put almost 1,200 hours in TF2 over nearly a decade, and now I've put almost 1,100 hours in Deadlock over the past 2 years. Yet despite how many characters on this roster I love to play as like Viscous, Rem, Grey Talon, McGinnis, Mirage, Paige, Seven, Graves, and Ivy, I've still yet to find one that scratches the same itch that Battle Engi does for me. And so, I tried my best to design a Deadlock character that's a spiritual successor of sorts to Battle Engi, encapsulating what I love mechanically about the play style with additional inspirations from some of my other favorite games all wrapped up in a fun visual aesthetic.
One note before we begin is that I came up with most of the game design for this hero first before the visual and thematic elements. So rather than spending a lot of time on the artistic side of the design and delay releasing this concept, I did simple sketches meant to more easily show how their kit is supposed to work, as the gameplay here is what I'm most interested on. Without further ado, here is my hero concept for Brooke!
Brooke is a waterfowl hunter, armed with a shotgun at one side and a faithful retriever companion at the other (if anyone has any name suggestions for him, let me know!). While why she is participating in the ritual is something that can delved into another time, what she offers to it is a play style that rewards those who know when and how to approach enemy engagements with great bursts of both damage and survivability.
First let's cover base stats. Her hunting shotgun weapon would be one that directly borrows a lot of its properties from TF2's shotgun. It would fire 9 pellets in a square-shaped spread roughly every 0.65 seconds, has above-average DPS similar to heroes like Venator and Warden, and has a low ammo count that reloads shots individually like Abrams and Silver's weapons. TF2's shotgun is still one of my favorite weapons I've used in any video game, so I say if it ain't broke, don't fix it. On the other hand, her vitality stats would be a mixed bag. While her Move Speed, Base Health, and Health per Boon would be above average and comparable to heroes like Viscous, Apollo, and Ivy, her biggest weakness in this category would be her sprint speed and stamina. With 2 stamina, average dash speed, and sprint speed only barely better than the worst in the game like Kelvin and Victor, Brooke would struggle with both quick map traversal and using burst movement to disengage from unfavorable situations. Waterfowl hunters like her are pretty sedentary, after all.
Onto abilities, the first is her main ability-based source of damage directly inspired by Battle Engi's Mini-Sentry and the part of her kit that you quite literally want to play around: Clay Toss. Upon first using the ability, you pick a target location and send your faithful retriever companion to travel towards it. Once he reaches his targeted location, he'll remain at that spot for Clay Toss's duration, after which he will return to following you and the ability will go on cooldown. While he's stationary, activating Clay Toss again will expend one of the ability's charges to have the retriever toss a clay pigeon at your current location, with the projectile's speed determined by how far away you are, becoming faster the more distance is between the two of you. Clay Toss's duration will also end once you run out of ability charges or if you alt-cast the ability to recall the retriever manually.
Shooting the clay pigeon with your shotgun will cause it to shatter, after which the broken shards will hover in the air for a brief moment before magically homing towards the closest enemy hero within a limited range, dealing a lot of spirit damage on contact. If no enemy heroes are within range, the closest enemy NPC/neutral is targeted instead, and if no enemies are nearby the shards disappear.
While the core functionality of this skill already rewards skillful positioning and aim on your part, that can be pushed even further, as the damage the shattered clay pigeon deals increases depending on how many of your shotgun's pellets hit the projectile. The closer you are/the better your aim is, the more damage you deal! Waiting for these perfect shots comes with a risk however, as enemy players also shoot the clay pigeons, destroying them after enough damage and denying you their damage similar to how they can deny you souls from soul orbs.
Now onto Clay Toss's ability upgrades. Tier 1 would add one charge to the ability. Tier 2 would increase the active duration, how far you can send the retriever out, and the homing range for the clay pigeon's shards. Tier 3 would increase how much bonus damage is added per pellet hit on the clay pigeon and reduce the ability's cooldown. Lastly, and this is an important core function of the ability, ANY player can go up to the retriever and pet it by using the Interact key. <3
For Brooke's second ability, this would be one of two defensive abilities she would have instead of a movement ability that is standard on most characters. Duck Call is a simple dispel-type ability that, when activated, will have Brooke blow on a whistle that - on top of making a powerfully booming duck noise - magically deletes any enemy projectiles within a small radius around her. If your familiar with Risk of Rain 2, this is basically just the Blast Shower equipment from that game. This lets her more comfortably close the gap between enemies to make up for her lack of movement options otherwise, but it requires good timing and positioning to get the most out of. Otherwise, you'll just get smacked by whatever projectile you were trying to destroy. In terms of thematics, this is kind of like how duck whistles are used to alleviate the sense of danger ducks might feel when approaching a hunting spot, expect in this case, you're alleviating your own sense of danger. Bit of a stretch, I know.
Now onto Duck Call's ability upgrades. Tier 1 would reduce the ability's cooldown to make it more readily available. Tier 2 would slightly increase the range of the dispel to be a bit more forgiving. Lastly, Tier 3 would add an effect similar to the Tier 3 on Victor's Jumpstart, granting debuff resist on cast while also reducing the duration of any debuffs currently active on you.
For Brooke's third ability, this is a toggle-style ability similar to the Blood Tribute item called Hunker Down. Upon activating the ability, Brooke would slowly start to gain both bullet resist and spirit resist over time up to a max amount, making her increasingly harder to kill as a fight goes on. However, this comes with the drawback of her move speed also decreasing over time up to a max amount, making it harder to dodge attacks outside of her limited stamina usage. This is a kind of clutch factor that you can build up to help narrowly escape depth if running away from a fight simply isn't possible. Once you toggle off the ability, all the stat changes from it quickly fade back to normal after just under a second, and the ability goes on a short cooldown to prevent spamming it, which is important for its ability upgrades.
Speaking of Hunker Down's ability upgrades, let's get onto those now. Tier 1 would increase the max values of both resistances. Tier 2 would add an increasing weapon damage bonus on top of the bullet and spirit resist that you gain for a duration once you toggle the ability off. Lastly, Tier 3 would restore 1 stamina when the ability is toggled off and increase the speed that the resistances build up to the cap, making it actually outpace the move speed decrease.
Last but not least, Brooke's ultimate is called Migration. On use, Brooke scatters a handful of duck decoys wherever you aim. Upon landing and becoming set up, a massive flock of ghostly ducks appears and land in a large area around the decoys. These ghost ducks have their own very simple AI, walking a meter or two in a random direction every now and then while occasionally stopping to preen themselves or otherwise idle around. However, whenever Brooke shoots a ghost duck, it'll create a spectral explosion, dealing massive spirit damage to any nearby enemies while also scaring away any other ghost ducks close to the target, causing them to fly away and disappear. All the ducks also fly away at once after the ability's duration ends.
Now for Migration's ability upgrades. Tier 1 would increase the duration the duck swarm is active. Tier 2 increases the damage of the explosions and decreases the ability's cooldown. Lastly, Tier 3 massively increases the radius of the swarm to cause more ducks to spawn and also makes it so exploding ducks cause other ducks too close to the explosion to explode as well (enemies hit by chained explosions take reduced damage from them, similar to Calico's Gloom Bombs).
Overall, much like actual waterfowl hunters, Brooke has a very sedentary play style, preferring to stick to and patrol a particular spot to play around Clay Toss and Migration while also making the most of Hunker Down. The variability in Clay Toss's projectile speed and angles as well as the survivability granted from Duck Call also help in this dramatically, but if she doesn't have her tools available and fails to aim well and use her abilities skillfully, she's the one that'll end up being hunted. Unlike Battle Engi's Mini-Sentry, Clay Toss is a lot more active and skill focused, which I think is not only better design for this kind of kit, but also helps differentiate the ability from McGinnis' Mini-Turrets. The emphasis on making the most of Engineer's limited movement was also exaggerated and translated to the design of Hunker Down alongside Brooke's vitality stats. The rest of the design then just came down to patching up some weaknesses, filling in design gaps that made sense with the rest of her kit, and adding lots of thematic flavor. I actually didn't know what to do for the ultimate until I decided on the character being a waterfowl hunter.
This is very much a dream character concept for me (to the point I stayed up until 4 AM last night looking up duck hunting lingo lmao), but I'll still be incredibly happy if even one part of this kind of Battle Engi-like design gets made official one day. My love for Deadlock now feels just as strong as my love for TF2 back in the day and being able to somewhat directly carry over a favorite piece of what I loved about that game into this one would make me absolutely thrilled. If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading, and please let me know any thoughts or feedback you have in the replies!
One note before we begin is that I came up with most of the game design for this hero first before the visual and thematic elements. So rather than spending a lot of time on the artistic side of the design and delay releasing this concept, I did simple sketches meant to more easily show how their kit is supposed to work, as the gameplay here is what I'm most interested on. Without further ado, here is my hero concept for Brooke!
Brooke is a waterfowl hunter, armed with a shotgun at one side and a faithful retriever companion at the other (if anyone has any name suggestions for him, let me know!). While why she is participating in the ritual is something that can delved into another time, what she offers to it is a play style that rewards those who know when and how to approach enemy engagements with great bursts of both damage and survivability.
First let's cover base stats. Her hunting shotgun weapon would be one that directly borrows a lot of its properties from TF2's shotgun. It would fire 9 pellets in a square-shaped spread roughly every 0.65 seconds, has above-average DPS similar to heroes like Venator and Warden, and has a low ammo count that reloads shots individually like Abrams and Silver's weapons. TF2's shotgun is still one of my favorite weapons I've used in any video game, so I say if it ain't broke, don't fix it. On the other hand, her vitality stats would be a mixed bag. While her Move Speed, Base Health, and Health per Boon would be above average and comparable to heroes like Viscous, Apollo, and Ivy, her biggest weakness in this category would be her sprint speed and stamina. With 2 stamina, average dash speed, and sprint speed only barely better than the worst in the game like Kelvin and Victor, Brooke would struggle with both quick map traversal and using burst movement to disengage from unfavorable situations. Waterfowl hunters like her are pretty sedentary, after all.
Onto abilities, the first is her main ability-based source of damage directly inspired by Battle Engi's Mini-Sentry and the part of her kit that you quite literally want to play around: Clay Toss. Upon first using the ability, you pick a target location and send your faithful retriever companion to travel towards it. Once he reaches his targeted location, he'll remain at that spot for Clay Toss's duration, after which he will return to following you and the ability will go on cooldown. While he's stationary, activating Clay Toss again will expend one of the ability's charges to have the retriever toss a clay pigeon at your current location, with the projectile's speed determined by how far away you are, becoming faster the more distance is between the two of you. Clay Toss's duration will also end once you run out of ability charges or if you alt-cast the ability to recall the retriever manually.
Shooting the clay pigeon with your shotgun will cause it to shatter, after which the broken shards will hover in the air for a brief moment before magically homing towards the closest enemy hero within a limited range, dealing a lot of spirit damage on contact. If no enemy heroes are within range, the closest enemy NPC/neutral is targeted instead, and if no enemies are nearby the shards disappear.
While the core functionality of this skill already rewards skillful positioning and aim on your part, that can be pushed even further, as the damage the shattered clay pigeon deals increases depending on how many of your shotgun's pellets hit the projectile. The closer you are/the better your aim is, the more damage you deal! Waiting for these perfect shots comes with a risk however, as enemy players also shoot the clay pigeons, destroying them after enough damage and denying you their damage similar to how they can deny you souls from soul orbs.
Now onto Clay Toss's ability upgrades. Tier 1 would add one charge to the ability. Tier 2 would increase the active duration, how far you can send the retriever out, and the homing range for the clay pigeon's shards. Tier 3 would increase how much bonus damage is added per pellet hit on the clay pigeon and reduce the ability's cooldown. Lastly, and this is an important core function of the ability, ANY player can go up to the retriever and pet it by using the Interact key. <3
For Brooke's second ability, this would be one of two defensive abilities she would have instead of a movement ability that is standard on most characters. Duck Call is a simple dispel-type ability that, when activated, will have Brooke blow on a whistle that - on top of making a powerfully booming duck noise - magically deletes any enemy projectiles within a small radius around her. If your familiar with Risk of Rain 2, this is basically just the Blast Shower equipment from that game. This lets her more comfortably close the gap between enemies to make up for her lack of movement options otherwise, but it requires good timing and positioning to get the most out of. Otherwise, you'll just get smacked by whatever projectile you were trying to destroy. In terms of thematics, this is kind of like how duck whistles are used to alleviate the sense of danger ducks might feel when approaching a hunting spot, expect in this case, you're alleviating your own sense of danger. Bit of a stretch, I know.
Now onto Duck Call's ability upgrades. Tier 1 would reduce the ability's cooldown to make it more readily available. Tier 2 would slightly increase the range of the dispel to be a bit more forgiving. Lastly, Tier 3 would add an effect similar to the Tier 3 on Victor's Jumpstart, granting debuff resist on cast while also reducing the duration of any debuffs currently active on you.
For Brooke's third ability, this is a toggle-style ability similar to the Blood Tribute item called Hunker Down. Upon activating the ability, Brooke would slowly start to gain both bullet resist and spirit resist over time up to a max amount, making her increasingly harder to kill as a fight goes on. However, this comes with the drawback of her move speed also decreasing over time up to a max amount, making it harder to dodge attacks outside of her limited stamina usage. This is a kind of clutch factor that you can build up to help narrowly escape depth if running away from a fight simply isn't possible. Once you toggle off the ability, all the stat changes from it quickly fade back to normal after just under a second, and the ability goes on a short cooldown to prevent spamming it, which is important for its ability upgrades.
Speaking of Hunker Down's ability upgrades, let's get onto those now. Tier 1 would increase the max values of both resistances. Tier 2 would add an increasing weapon damage bonus on top of the bullet and spirit resist that you gain for a duration once you toggle the ability off. Lastly, Tier 3 would restore 1 stamina when the ability is toggled off and increase the speed that the resistances build up to the cap, making it actually outpace the move speed decrease.
Last but not least, Brooke's ultimate is called Migration. On use, Brooke scatters a handful of duck decoys wherever you aim. Upon landing and becoming set up, a massive flock of ghostly ducks appears and land in a large area around the decoys. These ghost ducks have their own very simple AI, walking a meter or two in a random direction every now and then while occasionally stopping to preen themselves or otherwise idle around. However, whenever Brooke shoots a ghost duck, it'll create a spectral explosion, dealing massive spirit damage to any nearby enemies while also scaring away any other ghost ducks close to the target, causing them to fly away and disappear. All the ducks also fly away at once after the ability's duration ends.
Now for Migration's ability upgrades. Tier 1 would increase the duration the duck swarm is active. Tier 2 increases the damage of the explosions and decreases the ability's cooldown. Lastly, Tier 3 massively increases the radius of the swarm to cause more ducks to spawn and also makes it so exploding ducks cause other ducks too close to the explosion to explode as well (enemies hit by chained explosions take reduced damage from them, similar to Calico's Gloom Bombs).
Overall, much like actual waterfowl hunters, Brooke has a very sedentary play style, preferring to stick to and patrol a particular spot to play around Clay Toss and Migration while also making the most of Hunker Down. The variability in Clay Toss's projectile speed and angles as well as the survivability granted from Duck Call also help in this dramatically, but if she doesn't have her tools available and fails to aim well and use her abilities skillfully, she's the one that'll end up being hunted. Unlike Battle Engi's Mini-Sentry, Clay Toss is a lot more active and skill focused, which I think is not only better design for this kind of kit, but also helps differentiate the ability from McGinnis' Mini-Turrets. The emphasis on making the most of Engineer's limited movement was also exaggerated and translated to the design of Hunker Down alongside Brooke's vitality stats. The rest of the design then just came down to patching up some weaknesses, filling in design gaps that made sense with the rest of her kit, and adding lots of thematic flavor. I actually didn't know what to do for the ultimate until I decided on the character being a waterfowl hunter.
This is very much a dream character concept for me (to the point I stayed up until 4 AM last night looking up duck hunting lingo lmao), but I'll still be incredibly happy if even one part of this kind of Battle Engi-like design gets made official one day. My love for Deadlock now feels just as strong as my love for TF2 back in the day and being able to somewhat directly carry over a favorite piece of what I loved about that game into this one would make me absolutely thrilled. If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading, and please let me know any thoughts or feedback you have in the replies!
