PJT
New member
I’m a writer rather than artist so no pretty pictures today, sorry! I hope it’s still worth a read to y’all tho as this has been through many iterations, but i think it’s pretty finalized now.
Hero Concept - The Sailor Captain, simply referred to as Captain
Background/lore:
A seasoned sailor and captain of his own ship, Captain looked over his crew as they took on any jobs they were offered. Anything from simple deliveries and transporting passengers to fending off problemmakers and escorting high value vessels, it was a sailor’s life for a sailor’s pay. That was the life they all had until they took upon themselves a job from a rich client to hunt down an occult artifact. It was a treasure hunt like any other and all went well. At least it did until their journey home when a sudden storm appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. Waves crashing and boards cracking while he shouted his orders, that was the last thing Captain remembered before he found himself washed ashore. Alive, but without his crew… or so he thought. A moment of terror as he realizes the spirits of his former crew circling and wailing around him, bound to him by the power of the artifact now lost to the depths. Now, decades later, he is still searching for a way to break this curse, and with the Patron's promise of aid... he knows what he must do.
Notable traits:
Human(?), rugged, loyal to his crew and very respectful even of individuals with questionable morals.
Rugged appearance but an empathic and confident personality.
Actively looking for information that could help him break his curse and always on the lookout for odd jobs.
Owns a smaller boat that he uses for work.
Talks a lot with his crew’s spirits which are always with him.
Appearance:
Classic captain aesthetic
Holds a saber and a gun
Carries his harpoon gun on his back
Older man, probably in his 50’s or 60’s
Rugged and roughed up, got some scars from fighting
His crew’s spirits are constantly circling around him
Abilities:
Ability 1 - Saber Slash
Slashes in front of him with his saber, dealing melee and spirit damage to enemies hit.
Applies a heavy but quickly diminishing slow.
Short range.
Allows charges.
Upgrades:
Tier 1 - Hit enemies deal less damage for a few seconds.
Tier 2 - Bleed enemies for a percent of their max hp per second.
Tier 3 - Silences enemies hit for a few seconds, shorter than the total duration.
Ability 2 - Captain’s Grog
Takes a swig from his flask, granting him movement speed, fire rate and a heal for 2% of his total hp per second for a duration. Heal scales slightly with spirit.
Canonically an alchemical concoction mixed with rum.
Does not allow charges.
Upgrades:
Tier 1 - Lower cooldown.
Tier 2 - Grants a spirit scaling shield on use.
Tier 3 - Purges non-ultimate debuffs on use.
Ability 3 - Spirit Crew
Passive: Grants Captain spirit damage to his bullets, scales with spirit damage.
Active: Orders one of his crewmate’s spirits to assist an ally hero or trooper, granting movement speed and 1% of total health healed per second for heroes and fire rate as well as high health regen for troopers.
Lasts for a few seconds on heroes and until death on troopers.
Designed to be used on backline troopers as opposed to Rem’s buff for frontline troopers.
Passive grants percent of base damage just like mercurial magnum does.
Allows charges.
Upgrades:
Tier 1 - Longer duration.
Tier 2 - Plus 1 or 2 charges (extra charges item will almost always be bought on this guy so 2 extra charges may be a bit much)
Tier 3 - Grants the passive damage buff to the target hero or creep. Creeps get static damage rather than percent of base.
Ability 4 - Harpoon Gun
Captain marks an enemy and pulls out his harpoon gun.
After a delay he fires his gun and if it hits the enemy takes a chunk of spirit damage, is briefly stunned and is dragged towards him like a Bebop hook after a brief delay.
If the harpoon hits terrain the ultimate fails and goes on cooldown.
The marked enemy will see an icon above them once they are marked, and the delay is always the same, plus the travel distance.
Before the pull, even during the short stun, the target can still be moved by rescue beam or Bebop’s hook and if they are pulled into a position where they get stuck, the pull eventually cancels, just like how Bebop’s hook behaves.
The harpoon goes through enemy units until it reaches its target, but if an additional counter is needed it could hook the first hero hit to allow allies to stand in the way to save the target.
Taking cover once marked is the natural way to counter this ability. The window is short but if not out of position it shouldn’t be hard to do. Also the predictable timer makes it easy to use counterspell.
Captain can move, parry and use items but can not use abilities, attacks or stamina and is slowed while holding the harpoon gun.
Does not allow charges.
Upgrades:
Tier 1 - Increased range.
Tier 2 - Severely lowered cooldown.
Tier 3 - Drains one stamina on hit. On miss, lowers cooldown to 10-20 seconds. (Enough time for enemies to react and reposition but still ready to go again in the same fight)
Additional notes for Harpoon Gun:
This ability is like an (almost) guaranteed Bebop hook and can absolutely dominate laning so the upgrades are mostly to keep the ability from being too powerful early on.
Range goes from okay to huge.
Cooldown goes from big (something like 150-180 seconds) to medium (90-120 seconds).
Playstyle and role:
Captain’s role is to be a frontline brawler support. He benefits from farming and can likely carry in the right hands but his strength lies in fighting together with his team, buffing his allies as they chase or flee, and soaking up a lot of focus fire while reeling in out of position high value targets. Fighting is the name of the game and by throwing down a buff or two on a creepwave he is capable of putting heavy pressure on the enemy lanes and force them to divert attention between defending or joining the fights he starts.
Closing thoughts:
Captain isn’t the most exotic idea but i believe he would be a genuinely good fit for the current cast. His kit is specifically designed to be easy to tune both up and down in power as needed while never feeling too unfair to play against. I don’t believe this will get much attention but as someone who’s been designing and balancing characters for much of my life I'm really just glad to get the chance to put this out there. And if you’re reading this far, thanks for giving this a glance and i hope you enjoyed!
Hero Concept - The Sailor Captain, simply referred to as Captain
Background/lore:
A seasoned sailor and captain of his own ship, Captain looked over his crew as they took on any jobs they were offered. Anything from simple deliveries and transporting passengers to fending off problemmakers and escorting high value vessels, it was a sailor’s life for a sailor’s pay. That was the life they all had until they took upon themselves a job from a rich client to hunt down an occult artifact. It was a treasure hunt like any other and all went well. At least it did until their journey home when a sudden storm appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. Waves crashing and boards cracking while he shouted his orders, that was the last thing Captain remembered before he found himself washed ashore. Alive, but without his crew… or so he thought. A moment of terror as he realizes the spirits of his former crew circling and wailing around him, bound to him by the power of the artifact now lost to the depths. Now, decades later, he is still searching for a way to break this curse, and with the Patron's promise of aid... he knows what he must do.
Notable traits:
Human(?), rugged, loyal to his crew and very respectful even of individuals with questionable morals.
Rugged appearance but an empathic and confident personality.
Actively looking for information that could help him break his curse and always on the lookout for odd jobs.
Owns a smaller boat that he uses for work.
Talks a lot with his crew’s spirits which are always with him.
Appearance:
Classic captain aesthetic
Holds a saber and a gun
Carries his harpoon gun on his back
Older man, probably in his 50’s or 60’s
Rugged and roughed up, got some scars from fighting
His crew’s spirits are constantly circling around him
Abilities:
Ability 1 - Saber Slash
Slashes in front of him with his saber, dealing melee and spirit damage to enemies hit.
Applies a heavy but quickly diminishing slow.
Short range.
Allows charges.
Upgrades:
Tier 1 - Hit enemies deal less damage for a few seconds.
Tier 2 - Bleed enemies for a percent of their max hp per second.
Tier 3 - Silences enemies hit for a few seconds, shorter than the total duration.
Ability 2 - Captain’s Grog
Takes a swig from his flask, granting him movement speed, fire rate and a heal for 2% of his total hp per second for a duration. Heal scales slightly with spirit.
Canonically an alchemical concoction mixed with rum.
Does not allow charges.
Upgrades:
Tier 1 - Lower cooldown.
Tier 2 - Grants a spirit scaling shield on use.
Tier 3 - Purges non-ultimate debuffs on use.
Ability 3 - Spirit Crew
Passive: Grants Captain spirit damage to his bullets, scales with spirit damage.
Active: Orders one of his crewmate’s spirits to assist an ally hero or trooper, granting movement speed and 1% of total health healed per second for heroes and fire rate as well as high health regen for troopers.
Lasts for a few seconds on heroes and until death on troopers.
Designed to be used on backline troopers as opposed to Rem’s buff for frontline troopers.
Passive grants percent of base damage just like mercurial magnum does.
Allows charges.
Upgrades:
Tier 1 - Longer duration.
Tier 2 - Plus 1 or 2 charges (extra charges item will almost always be bought on this guy so 2 extra charges may be a bit much)
Tier 3 - Grants the passive damage buff to the target hero or creep. Creeps get static damage rather than percent of base.
Ability 4 - Harpoon Gun
Captain marks an enemy and pulls out his harpoon gun.
After a delay he fires his gun and if it hits the enemy takes a chunk of spirit damage, is briefly stunned and is dragged towards him like a Bebop hook after a brief delay.
If the harpoon hits terrain the ultimate fails and goes on cooldown.
The marked enemy will see an icon above them once they are marked, and the delay is always the same, plus the travel distance.
Before the pull, even during the short stun, the target can still be moved by rescue beam or Bebop’s hook and if they are pulled into a position where they get stuck, the pull eventually cancels, just like how Bebop’s hook behaves.
The harpoon goes through enemy units until it reaches its target, but if an additional counter is needed it could hook the first hero hit to allow allies to stand in the way to save the target.
Taking cover once marked is the natural way to counter this ability. The window is short but if not out of position it shouldn’t be hard to do. Also the predictable timer makes it easy to use counterspell.
Captain can move, parry and use items but can not use abilities, attacks or stamina and is slowed while holding the harpoon gun.
Does not allow charges.
Upgrades:
Tier 1 - Increased range.
Tier 2 - Severely lowered cooldown.
Tier 3 - Drains one stamina on hit. On miss, lowers cooldown to 10-20 seconds. (Enough time for enemies to react and reposition but still ready to go again in the same fight)
Additional notes for Harpoon Gun:
This ability is like an (almost) guaranteed Bebop hook and can absolutely dominate laning so the upgrades are mostly to keep the ability from being too powerful early on.
Range goes from okay to huge.
Cooldown goes from big (something like 150-180 seconds) to medium (90-120 seconds).
Playstyle and role:
Captain’s role is to be a frontline brawler support. He benefits from farming and can likely carry in the right hands but his strength lies in fighting together with his team, buffing his allies as they chase or flee, and soaking up a lot of focus fire while reeling in out of position high value targets. Fighting is the name of the game and by throwing down a buff or two on a creepwave he is capable of putting heavy pressure on the enemy lanes and force them to divert attention between defending or joining the fights he starts.
Closing thoughts:
Captain isn’t the most exotic idea but i believe he would be a genuinely good fit for the current cast. His kit is specifically designed to be easy to tune both up and down in power as needed while never feeling too unfair to play against. I don’t believe this will get much attention but as someone who’s been designing and balancing characters for much of my life I'm really just glad to get the chance to put this out there. And if you’re reading this far, thanks for giving this a glance and i hope you enjoyed!
