JisBeanGaming
Active member
[Hero Concept] Lurk / The Gill-Man of the Hudson [ Escaped OSIC Specimen ]
Inspired by the creature from the black lagoon. And also because i wanted slork back on the roster.
Half fish, half man, and entirely something the world has no name for anymore.
Lurk is a primordial being, ancient beyond any measure humans have invented for time. He has resided in the Hudson River long before it carried that name, long before any name existed for it at all. He watched from beneath the surface as the first settlements rose along its banks, as wooden boats became iron ships, as the skyline above him grew taller and stranger with each passing decade. He observed all of it with the quiet patience of something that has never once needed to be anywhere else. The river was his and the river was enough.
His gills breathed these waters when they were clean. He remained when they were not. The pollution, the runoff, the slow corruption of the waterways that humans barely noticed and mostly ignored, none of it moved him. He had survived extinction events. He had outlasted species that never even developed the capacity to know they were dying. Whatever mankind was doing to his river was an inconvenience, not a threat.
Then OSIC dredged him from the river floor.
They tagged him. Studied him. Held him in a sub-basement facility beneath lower Manhattan for years, treating him as a specimen rather than what he actually was, the oldest living thing in the state of New York. He waited. He listened. He understood everything from the third day.
When the facility finally gave him his opening he did not hesitate.
He does not fight for the Patron out of loyalty. OSIC sits between him and unfinished business. That is reason enough. It has always been reason enough.
The river is still there. He will return to it when this is done.
The concept of his abilities are inspired by numerous things, including the predatory nature of crocodiles, wanting Slark's passive (regeneration when enemies dont have vision of you) to exist in Deadlock, and a kit that entirely works around the passive. As such i begin with introducing the passive aspect of the ultimate alongside its active.
Ability 4 - Predator (Passive / Active)Ultimate / Charged / 2 Charges
Passive - Lurker Mode
Lurk's passive monitors enemy vision in real time. While no enemy hero has line of sight on him, Lurk enters Lurker Mode, gradually gaining bonus movement speed and increased health regeneration for the duration of being unseen. The moment any enemy spots him, both bonuses decay over 1 second rather than dropping instantly.
1% max hp regeneration upgraded 0.1% per boon, max boon 4.5 % max hp regeneration
15% movespeed bonus, upgraded at 1% per boon, max boon = 50% max movespeed.
Active - Full Invisibility
Lurk activates a charge, turning fully invisible for 8 seconds. The invisibility operates on the following rules:
Attacking, shooting, meleeing or casting a spell triggers a 2.25 second countdown after which the invisibility dissipates. This window allows Lurk to commit to one full aggressive action before the buff ends.
Movement abilities including dashing, wall jumping and any other repositioning tools do not break the invisibility for the remainder of the duration. Lurk can reposition freely without penalty.
While invisible and not being actively hit by enemy attacks, Lurker Mode is considered fully active and both the movement speed and damage bonuses apply immediately without the gradual ramp up.
Holds 2 charges with independent cooldowns.
All noises are reduced by 75% while in invisibility mode.
Upgrades
T1: Invisibility duration increased by 4 seconds; charge cooldown reduced by 8 seconds
T2: Landing any other ability while the invisibility buff is active refunds 50% of the spent charge cooldown
T3: Grants the ability to triggers a short distance teleport in the direction Lurk is facing, maintaining the invisibility buff through the teleport. Self-cast to not use the teleport.
Design Note
The thematic reference is a crocodile submerged in still water, completely invisible to its prey, watching and waiting until the moment it commits. The 2.25 second window after an aggressive action is the crocodile surfacing, visible for a brief moment before it retreats back into the darkness. The rest of Lurk's kit is designed entirely around enabling and extending the conditions of Lurker Mode, which will become clear as each subsequent ability is introduced. And yes this is a direct passive taken from Slark in Dota 2.
Ability Idea 1 - Open Wound Active / Self Buff / Weapon Damage Scaling
Lurk empowers himself with a self buff, his next melee attack will apply a Hemorrhage buff onto a target, bleeding the target puncturing his organs and damaging him/her the more he moves.
The empowered Open Wound buff is lost upon if not applied within 5 second, or is applied immediately with a heavy melee or light melee is used. Not lost if a bullet is shot on a target. 12 second cooldown.
Heavy Melee - Apply full initial damage, duration and full buff.
Light Melee- Apply 33% of duration and 50% of initial damage.
Bullet shot Buildup - Only unlockable at T3, one bullet applies 16% buildup, headshot 33% buildup, applies full stack upon full buildup.
Initial damage - 150 damage
Full duration - 5 second duration
Upgrades
T1: Deals +75 damage
T2: Applies a -45% fire rate slow for full duration of the buff.
T3: Grants the ability to build-up with bullet shots.
Design note - Lurk can utilize his invisibility charge to land a heavy melee. The three application methods are intentional and represent different levels of aggression and commitment. Heavy melee is the highest risk highest reward option, requiring Lurk to be dangerously close to a target who is likely already aware of him. Light melees is the middle ground. Buildup shots is the safety net but only unlockable as a T3 upgrade. The ability is specifically designed around the identity of punishing splitpushers because a splitpusher's first and most natural instinct when caught is to immediately disengage and run, and Open Wound makes that instinct the worst possible decision they can make.
Ability Idea 2 - Submerge / Breach
Active / Two Phase / Hold to Extend Duration
36s cooldown. Can hold for 2.5 second within the puddle.
Lurk summons watery pool where he submerges into, after a while, he can choose through multiple pool of water he creates of which to breach out of from.
So lurk starts with the Submerge ability icon, when he activates submerge, another ability icon replaces it (Breach), he can then use his directional arrow keys to choose which puddle to emergy or breach out from. or if he chooses to remain still, he will emerge out of the original puddle. The puddle of pool, remain stationary at normal upgrades.
Below is an illustration of the ability at work. (Ignore the typo of double Puddle 3)
Lurk will originally dive into puddle 1, but then a directional arrow only visible to the player controlling lurk will appear on top of the the next puddle he wishes to breach out from.
Upgrades
T1: -12s cooldown
T2: Roots enemies for 1.5s upon breaching out. Breaching out grants 50% weapon damage.
T3: All puddle except the initial one moves forward extending at a maximum of 15m range.
Design note - If you are familiar with Void Spirit from Dota 2's dissimilate, this ability is very similar to that abilities concept. Note that, using his ultimate to turn invisible does not hide the pool's visual effect. Submerge/breach is either a repositioning tool or a catchup tool, maybe can be paired with a cold front to punish overextending enemies. You can use in combination with the invisiblity to confuse enemies of your direction as you escape.
Ability Idea 3 - Primordial Presence
Passive/ Line-of-Sight Aura / Resist Reduction
Lurk must maintain direct unobstructed line of sight on a single enemy within 15 metres. If the enemy does not see Lurk, the effect doubles its gain effectiveness. Reduces spirit resist by 3% per second for Lurk, 10% if the enemy also doesnt see Lurk, maximum of 25% reduction.
Reduction is lost and must be regained after Lurk is revealed to the target. Resist aura effect decays over 2 second.
Upgrades
T1: +1.5% resist reduction per second
T2: Increases resist reduction cap by 2% per enemy kill under the effect.
T3: Gains ability to switch from spirit resist to bullet resist reduction instead. Toggle cooldown of 3 second.
Design note -
Two passives on a single hero is an unusual design decision and one that deserves an explanation.
Primordial Presence works alongside Predator's passive not as two independent systems but as two halves of the same identity. Predator's Gaze tells Lurk when he has been seen. Primordial Presence rewards him for not being seen. One is the sensor, the other is the payoff. Together they create a gameplay loop that is entirely built around vision control, something Deadlock currently has no hero that explicitly specializes in.
The resist reduction stacking at double speed when the enemy cannot see Lurk is the mechanical expression of something a prehistoric ambush predator understands instinctively. The longer you go undetected the more dangerous you become. The 2 second decay window rather than an instant full reset is also a deliberate choice. It gives Lurk a brief grace period to reestablish the unseen condition after being spotted rather than punishing him instantly, which would feel too harsh given how many incidental sources of detection exist in a live match.
This concept has been something I have been developing over several days, and compared to my earlier Mummy suggestion/submission this one is significantly more fleshed out in terms of mechanical identity and ability synergy.
The core motivation behind Lurk is a personal one. Slark from Dota 2 remains one of the most unique and satisfying heroes ever designed in the genre, and his passive Shadow Dance, the regeneration and bonus movement speed when enemies lose vision of him, has never been meaningfully translated into Deadlock's roster. Fathom exists in the game files and has been a point of speculation in the community for a long time, but to my knowledge nothing resembling that vision based passive fantasy has made it into the active hero pool yet.
Lurk is my attempt to propose how that fantasy could work within Deadlock's third person shooter framework rather than Dota 2's top down view. The kit is designed from the ground up around a single keyword, Lurker Mode, so that every ability feeds into and rewards the same core condition rather than pulling in separate directions. Open Wound punishes targets for fleeing. Submerge and Breach closes distance on targets who create space. Primordial Presence rewards sustained unseen pressure. Predator's passive tells Lurk exactly when he has been spotted and the active gives him the tools to disappear again immediately.
The identity of a splitpush punisher gives him a distinct niche that does not overlap with Drifter's isolation fantasy or any other existing hero in the current roster.
I genuinely hope some of these ideas are useful, even if only as a reference point for however Fathom or a similar hero eventually gets designed. The vision based passive mechanic has enormous potential in this game and I think Lurk shows one way it could work.
Inspired by the creature from the black lagoon. And also because i wanted slork back on the roster.
Half fish, half man, and entirely something the world has no name for anymore.
Lurk is a primordial being, ancient beyond any measure humans have invented for time. He has resided in the Hudson River long before it carried that name, long before any name existed for it at all. He watched from beneath the surface as the first settlements rose along its banks, as wooden boats became iron ships, as the skyline above him grew taller and stranger with each passing decade. He observed all of it with the quiet patience of something that has never once needed to be anywhere else. The river was his and the river was enough.
His gills breathed these waters when they were clean. He remained when they were not. The pollution, the runoff, the slow corruption of the waterways that humans barely noticed and mostly ignored, none of it moved him. He had survived extinction events. He had outlasted species that never even developed the capacity to know they were dying. Whatever mankind was doing to his river was an inconvenience, not a threat.
Then OSIC dredged him from the river floor.
They tagged him. Studied him. Held him in a sub-basement facility beneath lower Manhattan for years, treating him as a specimen rather than what he actually was, the oldest living thing in the state of New York. He waited. He listened. He understood everything from the third day.
When the facility finally gave him his opening he did not hesitate.
He does not fight for the Patron out of loyalty. OSIC sits between him and unfinished business. That is reason enough. It has always been reason enough.
The river is still there. He will return to it when this is done.
The concept of his abilities are inspired by numerous things, including the predatory nature of crocodiles, wanting Slark's passive (regeneration when enemies dont have vision of you) to exist in Deadlock, and a kit that entirely works around the passive. As such i begin with introducing the passive aspect of the ultimate alongside its active.
Ability 4 - Predator (Passive / Active)Ultimate / Charged / 2 Charges
Passive - Lurker Mode
Lurk's passive monitors enemy vision in real time. While no enemy hero has line of sight on him, Lurk enters Lurker Mode, gradually gaining bonus movement speed and increased health regeneration for the duration of being unseen. The moment any enemy spots him, both bonuses decay over 1 second rather than dropping instantly.
1% max hp regeneration upgraded 0.1% per boon, max boon 4.5 % max hp regeneration
15% movespeed bonus, upgraded at 1% per boon, max boon = 50% max movespeed.
Active - Full Invisibility
Lurk activates a charge, turning fully invisible for 8 seconds. The invisibility operates on the following rules:
Attacking, shooting, meleeing or casting a spell triggers a 2.25 second countdown after which the invisibility dissipates. This window allows Lurk to commit to one full aggressive action before the buff ends.
Movement abilities including dashing, wall jumping and any other repositioning tools do not break the invisibility for the remainder of the duration. Lurk can reposition freely without penalty.
While invisible and not being actively hit by enemy attacks, Lurker Mode is considered fully active and both the movement speed and damage bonuses apply immediately without the gradual ramp up.
Holds 2 charges with independent cooldowns.
All noises are reduced by 75% while in invisibility mode.
Upgrades
T1: Invisibility duration increased by 4 seconds; charge cooldown reduced by 8 seconds
T2: Landing any other ability while the invisibility buff is active refunds 50% of the spent charge cooldown
T3: Grants the ability to triggers a short distance teleport in the direction Lurk is facing, maintaining the invisibility buff through the teleport. Self-cast to not use the teleport.
Design Note
The thematic reference is a crocodile submerged in still water, completely invisible to its prey, watching and waiting until the moment it commits. The 2.25 second window after an aggressive action is the crocodile surfacing, visible for a brief moment before it retreats back into the darkness. The rest of Lurk's kit is designed entirely around enabling and extending the conditions of Lurker Mode, which will become clear as each subsequent ability is introduced. And yes this is a direct passive taken from Slark in Dota 2.
Ability Idea 1 - Open Wound Active / Self Buff / Weapon Damage Scaling
Lurk empowers himself with a self buff, his next melee attack will apply a Hemorrhage buff onto a target, bleeding the target puncturing his organs and damaging him/her the more he moves.
The empowered Open Wound buff is lost upon if not applied within 5 second, or is applied immediately with a heavy melee or light melee is used. Not lost if a bullet is shot on a target. 12 second cooldown.
Heavy Melee - Apply full initial damage, duration and full buff.
Light Melee- Apply 33% of duration and 50% of initial damage.
Bullet shot Buildup - Only unlockable at T3, one bullet applies 16% buildup, headshot 33% buildup, applies full stack upon full buildup.
Initial damage - 150 damage
Full duration - 5 second duration
Upgrades
T1: Deals +75 damage
T2: Applies a -45% fire rate slow for full duration of the buff.
T3: Grants the ability to build-up with bullet shots.
Design note - Lurk can utilize his invisibility charge to land a heavy melee. The three application methods are intentional and represent different levels of aggression and commitment. Heavy melee is the highest risk highest reward option, requiring Lurk to be dangerously close to a target who is likely already aware of him. Light melees is the middle ground. Buildup shots is the safety net but only unlockable as a T3 upgrade. The ability is specifically designed around the identity of punishing splitpushers because a splitpusher's first and most natural instinct when caught is to immediately disengage and run, and Open Wound makes that instinct the worst possible decision they can make.
Ability Idea 2 - Submerge / Breach
Active / Two Phase / Hold to Extend Duration
36s cooldown. Can hold for 2.5 second within the puddle.
Lurk summons watery pool where he submerges into, after a while, he can choose through multiple pool of water he creates of which to breach out of from.
So lurk starts with the Submerge ability icon, when he activates submerge, another ability icon replaces it (Breach), he can then use his directional arrow keys to choose which puddle to emergy or breach out from. or if he chooses to remain still, he will emerge out of the original puddle. The puddle of pool, remain stationary at normal upgrades.
Below is an illustration of the ability at work. (Ignore the typo of double Puddle 3)
Lurk will originally dive into puddle 1, but then a directional arrow only visible to the player controlling lurk will appear on top of the the next puddle he wishes to breach out from.
Upgrades
T1: -12s cooldown
T2: Roots enemies for 1.5s upon breaching out. Breaching out grants 50% weapon damage.
T3: All puddle except the initial one moves forward extending at a maximum of 15m range.
Design note - If you are familiar with Void Spirit from Dota 2's dissimilate, this ability is very similar to that abilities concept. Note that, using his ultimate to turn invisible does not hide the pool's visual effect. Submerge/breach is either a repositioning tool or a catchup tool, maybe can be paired with a cold front to punish overextending enemies. You can use in combination with the invisiblity to confuse enemies of your direction as you escape.
Ability Idea 3 - Primordial Presence
Passive/ Line-of-Sight Aura / Resist Reduction
Lurk must maintain direct unobstructed line of sight on a single enemy within 15 metres. If the enemy does not see Lurk, the effect doubles its gain effectiveness. Reduces spirit resist by 3% per second for Lurk, 10% if the enemy also doesnt see Lurk, maximum of 25% reduction.
Reduction is lost and must be regained after Lurk is revealed to the target. Resist aura effect decays over 2 second.
Upgrades
T1: +1.5% resist reduction per second
T2: Increases resist reduction cap by 2% per enemy kill under the effect.
T3: Gains ability to switch from spirit resist to bullet resist reduction instead. Toggle cooldown of 3 second.
Design note -
Two passives on a single hero is an unusual design decision and one that deserves an explanation.
Primordial Presence works alongside Predator's passive not as two independent systems but as two halves of the same identity. Predator's Gaze tells Lurk when he has been seen. Primordial Presence rewards him for not being seen. One is the sensor, the other is the payoff. Together they create a gameplay loop that is entirely built around vision control, something Deadlock currently has no hero that explicitly specializes in.
The resist reduction stacking at double speed when the enemy cannot see Lurk is the mechanical expression of something a prehistoric ambush predator understands instinctively. The longer you go undetected the more dangerous you become. The 2 second decay window rather than an instant full reset is also a deliberate choice. It gives Lurk a brief grace period to reestablish the unseen condition after being spotted rather than punishing him instantly, which would feel too harsh given how many incidental sources of detection exist in a live match.
This concept has been something I have been developing over several days, and compared to my earlier Mummy suggestion/submission this one is significantly more fleshed out in terms of mechanical identity and ability synergy.
The core motivation behind Lurk is a personal one. Slark from Dota 2 remains one of the most unique and satisfying heroes ever designed in the genre, and his passive Shadow Dance, the regeneration and bonus movement speed when enemies lose vision of him, has never been meaningfully translated into Deadlock's roster. Fathom exists in the game files and has been a point of speculation in the community for a long time, but to my knowledge nothing resembling that vision based passive fantasy has made it into the active hero pool yet.
Lurk is my attempt to propose how that fantasy could work within Deadlock's third person shooter framework rather than Dota 2's top down view. The kit is designed from the ground up around a single keyword, Lurker Mode, so that every ability feeds into and rewards the same core condition rather than pulling in separate directions. Open Wound punishes targets for fleeing. Submerge and Breach closes distance on targets who create space. Primordial Presence rewards sustained unseen pressure. Predator's passive tells Lurk exactly when he has been spotted and the active gives him the tools to disappear again immediately.
The identity of a splitpush punisher gives him a distinct niche that does not overlap with Drifter's isolation fantasy or any other existing hero in the current roster.
I genuinely hope some of these ideas are useful, even if only as a reference point for however Fathom or a similar hero eventually gets designed. The vision based passive mechanic has enormous potential in this game and I think Lurk shows one way it could work.
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