arcsymus
Active member
Empress
Empress Pitch: Shove enemies and deliver teleport strikes. Empress stalks her enemies and scatters them with mind blasts to gain an advantaged position before finishing them off, striking from unexpected places. Gun: Fire barely discernible, translucent bullets from Empress’ mind. Medium ran...
Hey, what's up y'all. It's Arcsymus, a.k.a. Vodoun, formerly known as the guy who created Illusory Orb and the core concept of Puck the Faerie Dragon nearly twenty years ago, by placing 3rd place in a Model to Hero contest. My last concept, Nether, didn't get any responses (R.I.P.) so I decided this time I had to generate some controversy with my title by including xenogender pronouns and by reducing my concept to a stereotype of an iconic character design.
By far, this is one of my best character designs, inspired by an undead monk that I played in D&D who wore a muzzle and manacles to curb his compulsion to eat flesh. The idea of a tormented psychic martial artist in a straight jacket is a concept I've been working on in various outlets, and I've found solid ground here as a design for Deadlock.
In addition to aspiring to create awesome character designs, I aspire to create awesome abilities. Scorpion Kick is such an awesome ability--but I actually did not come up with this ability. This is an ability that I saw come up on the old Heroes of the Storm Hero Suggestions forum once, and I wouldn't be surprised if it already has some analogue in another MOBA that I'm simply forgetting. None of these abilities are particularly unique, then, but I think that they do create an interesting effect together. By being able to Scorpion Kick to a target, and have the option of hitting them from the front or teleporting behind them, Empress has the ability to choose where she sends her enemies flying with Psy Blast. If she's able to isolate a target this way, that can set her up for an Omnislash. I considered other options mechanically for Omnislash, but settled on this version, which is close to the classic.
Psy Storm is an ability I wanted to include because it's what I pictured in my head. It doesn't synergize with her kit, but gives her an element of being able to contribute more to team fights. I considered [Generate Spirit Shield equal to 20% of the damage dealt to enemy heroes by Psy Storm] over damage amplification for the 3rd rank talent, but decided I'd rather give Empress a bit of additional late game snowball potential instead. There's an argument to be made for a more telekinesis-oriented ability to fit this slot, although I think Psy Blast fits that role just fine, and I would be fighting for design space with Wraith in any case. I think Psy Storm is good here.
Empress
Pitch: Shove enemies and deliver teleport strikes. Empress stalks her enemies and scatters them with mind blasts to gain an advantaged position before finishing them off, striking from unexpected places.
Gun: Fire barely discernible, translucent bullets from Empress’ mind. Medium range, damage fall-off. Normal fire rate, high velocity, high damage, perfect accuracy.
1) Psy Blast: Shove enemies far and damage enemies in a large cone in front of Empress.
[Rank 1] Reduced cooldown.
[Rank 2] Reduce fire rate of and slow enemies hit by 20% for 3 seconds.
[Rank 3] Freeze enemy cooldowns for 3 seconds.
2) Scorpion Kick: Flying kick in the direction you’re facing, damaging units along the way and stopping at the first enemy hero hit, marking that hero. For up to 6 seconds after casting Scorpion Kick, reactivate this ability to launch a teleport strike against that target, appearing on the opposite side of them from your casting location.
[Rank 1] Increased velocity and range.
[Rank 2] Increased window of reactivation by 2s.
[Rank 3] Increased damage on teleport strike.
3) Psy Storm (passive): Empress deals constant damage over time in an area around her. Psy Storm has a very low base range (area), but the range of Psy Storm increases as she deals damage and receives damage. Gain up to 300% range.
[Rank 1] Range ramps 33% faster and decays 33% slower.
[Rank 2] Psy Storm deals 33% bonus damage to the nearest enemy hero.
[Rank 3] Gain 5% bonus damage from all sources for 5 seconds for each enemy hero affected (25% max).
4) Omnislash: Activate to teleport strike to a random enemy hero within 10 meters, appearing from a random angle and dealing damage. Repeat 5 more times. Teleport strikes are homing (with a cut off of 5 meters). Empress is not invulnerable while casting this spell, but receives 25% less damage. Delay between each strike is 0.4 seconds. Fails if Empress can not find a target. You may reactivate Scorpion Kick while casting Omnislash.
[Rank 1] Increase damage reduction while casting to 50%.
[Rank 2]First strike prioritizes a target marked by Scorpion Kick and deals 200% damage.
[Rank 3] Increase number of strikes by 3 and strike delay is reduced to 0.25 seconds.
Appearance: Empress is bound by muzzle and straight jacket. She bears wild eyes, and untamed hair that flows telekinetically.
Story: Empress is a tortured experiment, subjected to psychic experiments by people that she loved and trusted. She overcame her captors, but not without taking with suffering a plethora of psychic scars. Before she became known as a powerful leader, she had been a rogue force of destruction, ruthlessly seeking an end to her madness. While her scars remain, she’s been able to tame her psyche, yet still, none may touch her, since she rejects all comfort and intimacy.
Arcsymus' Concepts
Chariot, Controls spacing, initiates and peels. https://forums.playdeadlock.com/threads/hero-concept-chariot-controls-spacing-initiates-and-peels-artwork.19727/#post-34327 Nether, Catch, Isolation and Battlefield Control. https://forums.playdeadlock.com/threads/hero-concept-nether-catch-isolatio...
