[Hero Concept] Deadwolf - New York Orphan Turned Basketball Star

[sakeandmiyazaki]

Name: Roger Wayne Jr. AKA Deadwolf
I haven't drawn in forever so forgive the art (rather post shitty art than AI), but this is the general idea for his design. Almost like a young black, more slim Jotaro from JJBA that hoops. Wolf like eyes, slice eyebrows, headband. For outfit, I kinda imagine a warmup jacket as a cape while wearing jersey, but nothing really concrete.

• Bio:
  
  • Losing his parents young in the crossfire of a New York gang war and nowhere else to go, Deadwolf grew up a lone cub on the streets. With a forgotten name and no friends or family to call his own, he robbed and killed whoever he had to survive; local thugs and underworld mob lords alike. Until one day, after a mob family poker game robbery gone wrong, he’s left shot and half dead in an alley. However, before the young wolf could succumb to his injuries, he’s found by a local man who brings the boy into his home, heals his wounds, and eventually adopts the young wolf, passing to him his own name; making him Roger Wayne Jr..
  • Though the man’s past was a mystery to the boy, he could tell the man was a fellow wolf. The man raised Roger Jr. and taught him everything from math, languages, and history, to military strategy, hand to hand combat, and the powerful art of the arcane. However, the most important thing the man taught the boy was the game of Basketball. It was a passion of the man and it made the boy understand that though individual strength and ideas are important, its teamwork and coming together as a collective that brings out a person’s true spirit and is the true key of victory.
  • Years later, the boy’s incredible skills at the game of Basketball allows him to go professional and become a young star recognized by the world over for his talents. However, while traveling on the road, the boy, now a young man, gets word that his adopted father was found murdered in his home with his house ransacked. Though he was past his prime, the boy’s father was not someone any regular person could have ever dreamed of killing. He had to have been targeted by someone extremely powerful, and Deadwolf was going to find out who. So with rage in his heart and a basketball in his hand, the young wolf bares his fangs at the ritual and returns home to settle the score.
  - Gameplan
  • • • Abilities:
        • 1. Jump Shot:
          
          • Shoots a basketball infused with arcane magic, dealing spirit damage.
            • For ever hit or kill with Jump Shot, the radius and range of Jump Shot increases
          • At Max Level, Deadwolf's Jump Shot catches fire and inflicts burning to enemies in area of impact, inflicting 20% spirit DOT (NBA Jam reference)
          • Author Note: I imagine this ability like a mix between Geist's 1 and Bebop's bomb. Geist's 1 already feels like you're shooting a jump shot, but doesn't have the snappy gratification of a jump shot if you know what I mean. The stack is inspired by scoring points in a basketball game, where when a player is scoring a lot of points, they're almost in a zone-like state where it seems they can't miss. I'm sure there's a better balance solution to mirror that feeling, but I love the idea of basically throwing basketball meteors across the map and hitting someone that didn't even know the Jump Shot was on the way.
          • 2. Pass Along:
          • • Throw the ball forward at an enemy before returning
              • On hit, it deals spirit damage, lowers spirit resist, and bounces to enemies in line of sight (2 additional enemies MAX) before returning to Deadwulf. On return, the ball circles around Deadwulf, healing him by a percentage of the damage done by Pass Along to all enemies before returning over course of the next few seconds.
            • On level up, while healing, Deadwulf now has the option to pass the ball to a teammate, granting them the remaining healing from Pass Along instead.
            • On max level, increase the amount of bounces (6 enemies max)
            • Author Note: This ability is supposed to feel like Off-the-Heazy if you've ever played NBA Street Vol 2. I almost feels conceptually to Mirage's bugs, but I feel this works even better for Deadwolf due to the visual of it and the idea of passing it off to a teammate after which I REALLY like.
          • 3. Wolf Jam:
            
            • Leaps forward into the air and dunks the ball, dealing spirit damage in the landing area.
              • The dunk can be controlled mid-air or cancelled out before landing by dashing mid-air
            • On level up, it gives Deadwolf two extra bars of stamina on activation.
            • On level up, it lowers cooldown, increases leap distance and increases dunk ratios
            • Author Note: I feel like you can't have a Basketball character without a dunk ability. I don't whose ever played Multiversus, but in that game you could play as Lebron, and his best feeling ability was this dunk that would basically instantly KO someone. This doesn't need to be that powerful and I don't want to step over Abhrams ult, but I love Billy's slam and it does need to be flashy because I NEED to dunk on someone and have them feel that disrespect.
          • 4. Ankle Breaker (Ultimate):
            
            • Deadwolf selects in enemy in range, dashes towards them, and forces them into a 1 on 1 game of Basketball, which ends with the enemy getting their ankle broken, dealing spirit damage, inflicting momentary slow and silence.
              • During this ult, neither Deadwolf nor the enemy can move until the ult is finished.
              • Will force opponent in the air down to the ground similar to knockdown
            • On level up, increase slow duration by 1s
            • On Max level, Deadwolf gains increased speed for seconds after the ult is finished.
            • Author's Note: Once again, NBA Street inspired. When I made this concept, I didn't realize until afterwards it kinda feels like a copy of Mo and Krills ult, but there are a few ults in the game that have similar functions to each other so I don't think it's a problem. Gameplay wise, it doesn't grant the same sustain that Mo's does, but it does make you feel like you just embarrassed the enemy and snatched their ankles (hence the slow afterwards).
          • Summary:
            
            • Pros:
              • Deadwolf specializes in engagement and using his variety of debuffs and abilities to both cripple the enemy team in team fights and also to set up 1 on 1 situations that’ll help him easily increase the stacks on his Jump Shot.
              • While he can be played as an assassin, his Lvl 2 Pass Along gives him great utility in lane and team fights to heal teammates and lower the spirit resist of an enemy team playing too close together
              • His Wolf Jam gives him the the damage and air mobility to hop in and out of fights and the height he needs to see where his targets are for Jump Shot attempts
              • Deadwolf’s ultimate Ankle Breaker further highlights his goal to force his enemies into debuffed situations where it becomes easier for him to hit his Jump Shot and increase his stacks. It also gives him the team-fight capability to isolate the enemy team’s best player out of the equitation, giving his team the potential swing they need to take victory.
            • Cons:
              • His cons come in Deadwolf's need to hit his Jump Shot in order to maximum his potential.
              • The idea of his Jump Shot almost mirrors a irl Basketball player getting buckets; It's difficult to hit and kill with at first, but the more shots they hit, the easier it is to fall into a rhythm (ratios of the ability increases with stacks), but the more they miss, the easier it is to fall behind and not have value.
              • While he does want to get up and personal occasionally to pull off his passes and dunks, his abilities don’t give him much in the way of sustain outside of his healing passes. So while he can lock someone in a 1 on 1 situation with his Wolf Jam and ultimate, if he’s not too careful, he can easily find himself getting jumped mid ult without no way to escape or to recover.
              • However if the game goes his way, the enemy team will find themselves in a late game situation with Deadwolf on the hunt shooting Jump Shots the size of meteors on their head with nowhere to escape.
    • Personality
      
      • While he has joined the ritual for revenge similar to other characters and can sometimes be rough around the edges, he is wise for his age and tries to live through the lessons his father taught him and behave in a way that would make him proud. Still cocky as hell though.
      • Likes:
        
        • His fans
        • Basketball
        • Those who value teamwork
        • History
      • Dislikes:
        • Uncooperative people
        • Pickleball
        • The New York Mob families
    • Visuals
      
      • I've already shown off the design I drew, but I also wanted to go over a few more design ideas I had in mind while making this character:
        • He dribbles a basketball in his left hand the entire match.
        • During his reload animation, he tucks the ball under his arm, pulls out the magazine with his hand, reloads, and goes back to dribbling,
        • He dribbles the back while he slides, almost like Isaiah Thomas dribbling it close to the ground
        • His zipline animation is him holding the zipline with his right hand while spinning the basketball in his left hand
        • His parry stance is like a wide defensive Basketball stance like he's guarding someone
    • Conclusions:
      
      • To my knowledge, there isn't a single Basketball character in a MOBA or hero shooter so this feels like it could be PERFECT opportunity to create one
      • A Basketball player would absolutely fit the aesthetic of the game due to how old the sport is.
      • Could bring thousands of players to the game just because they seen you could use a Basketball player in the game (Basketball is a INCREDIBLY popular sport)
      • Lore wise, I feel like the base I wrote could fit nicely into the story of the game and blend in with other character's already established lore.
      • Imagine the money to be made from selling different jersey colors (NBA collab possibly?)
      • You get to yell out "Kobe!" after every Jump Shot and pretend like your Shaq after every dunk. It's written in the stars
  • Please let me know what you think! Even if this entire concept gets scrapped, I hope someone at Valve sees this and realize how cool a Basketball player in this game could be.

 

[sakeandmiyazaki]

Author note: This got deleted when I tried editing post:

Gameplan:

• Combining his mastery of warfare and basketball together, Deadwolf uses both to enter a destructive flow state and to disrupt the enemy’s own
• Weapon:
  • Glock 34 Combat Master
  • Long barrel pistol