This is a hero I had originally started working on ages ago as a twist on the Necromancer/summoner archetype, long before Graves was announced or leaked. Now that she's out it might be kind of strange to have two necromancers in the game but given how different they are in abilities and aesthetic (I picture Soulsculpter as using a light blue motif as opposed to Grave's sickly green) and given that we already have two vampires as well I don't see why they couldn't fit into the game.
Soulsculpter is intended to be a macro focused spirit dps character with a relatively weak early game and a solid late game but who strives specifically in setting up funky advantageous jumps in enemy jungles during the midgame. Their primary damage ability, soul needles, can only be used when in line of sight to a group of npcs, forcing them to take fights from odd positions. Incidentally, their kit makes them extremely strong at the very end of the game when defending a base from a final push, with an abundance of npcs to create soul needles from, an abundance of unsecured soul orbs to gain stacks from, and the ability to temporarily resurrect a shrine to protect the patron from being downed.
Anyways, I'll admit that this character is a bit complicated and has significantly more stuff going on than the average base game hero but now that Deadlock is embracing some more unique and interesting character kits I hope you'll consider at least some parts of this character and the place they could have in the game.
SOULSCULPTER
Gun: Standard automatic weapon stylized as whatever is most interesting. Lowish damage, large magazine, good projectile speed, good fire rate.
Ability 1: Thralls. Summon 3 custom troopers at your position or at any friendly tower on the map. Thralls are slightly stronger than normal troopers.
Tier 1: Thralls explode when they die, dealing AOE damage and firing a single Soul Needle at their killer
Tier 2: Thralls increase the fire rate of nearby friendly units and heroes by 30%
Tier 3: 2 extra thralls summoned, thralls spawn with a massive movement and attack speed boost that decays the further they get from a friendly tower.
Ability 2: Soul Needles. Nearby friendly and neutral NPCs spawn spiritual needles above them. The Needles’ quantity, damage and properties depend on the NPC it was created from, with jungle creeps generally being the most effective. When you shoot an enemy, a needle in LOS will fly to you before launching at the enemy, loosely homing toward them, dealing damage and inflicting 20% healing reduction. Needles are fired from least to most powerful.
Tier 1: Increase radius and spawn 5 additional needles from yourself
Tier 2: +20% healing reduction and cast causes Sinner’s Sacrifices to explode
Tier 3: Increase NPC and spirit scaling
Ability 3: Solemn Sustenance. Passive ability. Gaining souls gives you a minor heal and a stacking buff to your fire rate and weapon damage scaling with the amount of souls gained (with more souls required for a stack the longer the game goes on). Souls gained from confirming or denying soul orbs have double effectiveness. Stacks decay over time and gaining stacks does not refresh the duration of old ones.
Tier 1: Stacks grant you temporary bonus spirit power.
Tier 2: increase base heal amount by 2
Tier 3: All passive bonuses increased, automatically collect or deny all soul orbs that would have popped naturally in a very large area around you
Ult: Resurrection. Resurrect troopers in an area, jungle creeps in an area, or a fallen tower. They fight for you. Duration depends on target.
Tier 1: Resurrecting troopers or jungle creeps puts ult on half cooldown.
Tier 2: Entities are resurrected with an explosion that slows nearby enemies. Resurrected npcs create 3 times the soul needles when you use your 2.
Tier 3: + 30% duration. Can resurrect friendly Heroes for 10 seconds, they start at 20% hp and have a large amount of hp regen for the duration that scales with spirit.
Soulsculpter is intended to be a macro focused spirit dps character with a relatively weak early game and a solid late game but who strives specifically in setting up funky advantageous jumps in enemy jungles during the midgame. Their primary damage ability, soul needles, can only be used when in line of sight to a group of npcs, forcing them to take fights from odd positions. Incidentally, their kit makes them extremely strong at the very end of the game when defending a base from a final push, with an abundance of npcs to create soul needles from, an abundance of unsecured soul orbs to gain stacks from, and the ability to temporarily resurrect a shrine to protect the patron from being downed.
Anyways, I'll admit that this character is a bit complicated and has significantly more stuff going on than the average base game hero but now that Deadlock is embracing some more unique and interesting character kits I hope you'll consider at least some parts of this character and the place they could have in the game.
SOULSCULPTER
Gun: Standard automatic weapon stylized as whatever is most interesting. Lowish damage, large magazine, good projectile speed, good fire rate.
Ability 1: Thralls. Summon 3 custom troopers at your position or at any friendly tower on the map. Thralls are slightly stronger than normal troopers.
Tier 1: Thralls explode when they die, dealing AOE damage and firing a single Soul Needle at their killer
Tier 2: Thralls increase the fire rate of nearby friendly units and heroes by 30%
Tier 3: 2 extra thralls summoned, thralls spawn with a massive movement and attack speed boost that decays the further they get from a friendly tower.
Ability 2: Soul Needles. Nearby friendly and neutral NPCs spawn spiritual needles above them. The Needles’ quantity, damage and properties depend on the NPC it was created from, with jungle creeps generally being the most effective. When you shoot an enemy, a needle in LOS will fly to you before launching at the enemy, loosely homing toward them, dealing damage and inflicting 20% healing reduction. Needles are fired from least to most powerful.
Tier 1: Increase radius and spawn 5 additional needles from yourself
Tier 2: +20% healing reduction and cast causes Sinner’s Sacrifices to explode
Tier 3: Increase NPC and spirit scaling
Ability 3: Solemn Sustenance. Passive ability. Gaining souls gives you a minor heal and a stacking buff to your fire rate and weapon damage scaling with the amount of souls gained (with more souls required for a stack the longer the game goes on). Souls gained from confirming or denying soul orbs have double effectiveness. Stacks decay over time and gaining stacks does not refresh the duration of old ones.
Tier 1: Stacks grant you temporary bonus spirit power.
Tier 2: increase base heal amount by 2
Tier 3: All passive bonuses increased, automatically collect or deny all soul orbs that would have popped naturally in a very large area around you
Ult: Resurrection. Resurrect troopers in an area, jungle creeps in an area, or a fallen tower. They fight for you. Duration depends on target.
Tier 1: Resurrecting troopers or jungle creeps puts ult on half cooldown.
Tier 2: Entities are resurrected with an explosion that slows nearby enemies. Resurrected npcs create 3 times the soul needles when you use your 2.
Tier 3: + 30% duration. Can resurrect friendly Heroes for 10 seconds, they start at 20% hp and have a large amount of hp regen for the duration that scales with spirit.
