General Gameplay Concept - Sentry, as the name implies, is a hero which focuses on establishing and controlling territory around the map. The 5 souls joined to his own can exist independently for a time, to be deployed by the player where it provides various advantages to himself and his team, or if they are kept with him and turn him into a bulwark that his team can rally around. Specifically for the former I thought a character which acted as a sort of jungle warden, having a resource to guard or discourage enemy players from stealing jungle camps, was an interesting concept for the game, but would need to require the player to make smart decisions on the timing and use of that resource - tying it to their own survivability felt like a nice, thematic solution, a lot like Geist trading her health for potent damaging abilities. On top of this his background as a soldier gives him a solid base for combat skills with his primary fire.
Weapon - Armed with a semi-automatic rifle in the vein of iconic WW2 standard issue firearms like the M1 Garand or Lee-Enfield. The weapon has a very deliberate fire rate similar to those of heroes like Abrams, Holliday, and Geist, and a similarly limited starting ammo pool but suitably respectable damage per shot and velocity. Secondary fire enables aim down sights.
Starting Stats - Decent movement and sprint speed but his physical disabilities mean his stamina and dash speed are on the lower spectrum. Begins the game with -20% spirit resist (after all, his soul is right out in the open).
Ability 1 (active) - Stick Grenade. Customized by his mystic friend, they are loaded with powdered reagants which interfere with the abilities of other mystics for a short time. The grenade has a 1.5 second fuse which starts after it has bounced off an environment surface, or else it detonates immediate either on contact with an enemy target (hero or NPC), or after 2.5 seconds in flight without bouncing. Does a minor amount of spirit damage with poor scaling, provides a 1s silence on hit targets. Upgrades could include minor increases to silence duration, cooldown reduction, and shortened fuse time. Damage on should remain minimal, it is a utility grenade and not a damage grenade.
Ability 2 (charged active)- Soul Latch. Sentry can launch the 5 souls tethered to him as a projectile. Slow moving, a bit faster than Pocket spirit barrage, and they will home slightly towards enemy heroes but not other targets and only when within a particular radius, meaning they fly straight until they get close to a hero target and then will turn to try and land home. If a hero is hit, the spirit latches onto them and the hero's movement is slowed by 40% for 2s and stamina regen is halted, then the spirit releases with an explosion of spirit damage. If it hits an NPC, the explosion damage is instant. Moderate spirit damage and scaling. The ability starts with 5 charges, and cannot be granted more (though it can still gain the other benefits of items which affect charged abilities). Upgrades could include around 30% extra damage on the explosion, more potency to the slow, and finally spirit lifesteal %.
Ability 3 (passive + charged active, mandatory initial ability) - Spirit Host. Passive effect: Initially grants Sentry 20% spirit resist (canceling out his -20%), and upon activation of his Soul Latch ability, instead grants +10% spirit resist per unused charge of Soul Latch (netting 30% at 5 charges). Charged Active: Spirit Centurion. 5 charges, shared with Soul Latch. Sentry can deploy these at short range, whereupon they provide a bubble of health regen and 10% spirit resist for friendly heroes in range, non-stacking, for 45s. In addition, any enemy or neutral NPCs besides objectives which perish inside the bubble provide a bonus 15% soul reward for Sentry and any friendly heroes within soul-sharing range, regardless of what the source of damage that destroyed them was. Upgrades could include an additional 5% spirit resist per hosted spirit and deployed Centurions, an additional 5% soul bonus, and +15s duration for the Centurions.
Ability 4 (active) - Air Raid. Sentry recalls all his squadmates and is borne aloft by their spirits, carrying him through the air as they wail dreadfully before crashing with a potent explosion of spirit damage as they scatter in all directions. To be blunt - this is Wrecker's ult circa their initial addition to Hero Labs queue, with some tweaks. It still has damage scaling based on distance traveled, however, Sentry's health is drained at a dangerous rate while it is being used. It also has much, much more notable visual and sound queues. As the name implies, there is a siren-like sound that is globally audible and increases in volume with proximity much like Gray Talon's owl. Using this ability automatically cancels any active Spirit Centurions, silences Sentry for 1.5s after landing, and then refreshes the charges on Spirit Centurion and Soul Latch. It is meant to be high commitment, as Sentry will have a critical moment after using it where he likely has a fair amount of health gone, is silenced, and has -20% spirit resist. However, he can rebound once his full resistances are online again, and full spirit latch charges available to try and clinch a target that survived the impact. Upgrades could reduce the silence duration, improve the distance damage scaling, and increase the explosion radius.
Background - While the Maelstrom upended world affairs and created a new perspective for mankind on their place in not just the world but all of creation, it could not erase their conflict-driven nature, and the unveiling of mysticism as a world-shaping power invariably led to its applications in man's oldest passtime. While world superpowers who had prior knowledge of the various magical phenomena and resources had already put in place safeguards to prevent their abuse, many smaller nations looking to carve out a better political and geographic position for themselves madly rushed into developing and applying weapons of war based on mystic principles, often to horrific and tragic effect. Sentry and his squad are victims of such a weapon - a vapor which intermixed and bound itself to the very essence of any mortal creature, literally pulling their soul out with their last breath after inhaling it. While Sentry's country had combat mystics deployed to counteract such weapons, for his comrades it was too late, their spirits left floating free of their lifeless bodies. Sentry, having witnessed their fate, delayed his own by desperately holding his breath, and as the mystics feverishly tried to work a spell to separate his soul from the vapor and purge it, they could not accomplish it fast enough to avoid an irreversible outcome. Sentry's soul began to escape just as they finished their ritual, and was fixed in place that way - the flesh of his body from one shoulder to the opposite side of his waist no longer had a spark of life to drive it and lay slack, while a phantasmal essence, flickering and unstable, writhed in agony alongside his still connected limbs and torso. Faced with this new, just as fatal condition, the combat mystics drew on the only other resource available to them in the field - the disconnected souls of Sentry's squadmates. Harnessing them and infusing them into Sentry stabilized his exposed spirit and allowed it to exist in that fashion without fading. After being honorably discharged for valorous duty in the face of such a horrendous attack, Sentry was understandably a shattered wreck of a man in mind, body, and spirit. Echoes of his dead comrade's lives followed him, kept him from sound sleep and made him question his identity as they intermixed and blurred with his own memories. His physical disabilities, besides the difficulties they created in daily life, also left him isolated from other people who were unnerved by his countenance. Eventually, however, one of the combat mystics who helped to save him returned home from the war as well, and sought him out. This woman knew of the Patrons, and the opportunity the coming Maelstrom would provide. If any power existed which could make Sentry whole again and let his squadmates finally rest, it was them. Knowing he would need more than just the skills of a common soldier, she instructed him as well as she could in ways which he could take advantage of his state. Weakened and disparate as they were, Sentry's body still housed the combined souls of 5 men and women besides himself, and the ritual which bound them all together meant he had a greater aptitude for harnessing souls from other sources to his ends. This was the advantage he could bring to a Patron, should he be chosen to represent one. So, Sentry and his ally traveled to the Cursed Apple to seek their only hope at restoring him to normalcy.
Appearance - Sentry could be a number of different nationalities, but wherever he hails from it is outside of the American continents, and not from a nation which in our history has been considered a prominent world power. He is a victim of his country trying and failing to keep pace with such. Despite this, he does not actively resent his superiors and government for his fate, and takes to the ritual dressed (as much as he can be), in his field uniform and kit. It is somewhat antiquated by the standards of the time, landing closer to what one would have found in a country trying to modernize its military closer to the time of WWI than WWII in our own history. His firearm is the most advanced piece of equipment, and clearly the outdated state of the rest of his gear is thanks to the majority of their military's budget going into making sure the standard issue rifles were at least up to snuff. Here and there are more hand-crafted elements of charms and baubles adorned by his field mystic companion, which do nothing to improve his already mismatched and awkward ensemble. But of course the stand out feature, is his limply hanging right arm, shoulder, and head, from which emerges a phantasm roughly shaped like those parts, details of facial features and musculature indistinct. Small wisps of a similar nature orbit this shade, flickering in and out of coherence.
Personality - Sentry is usually on guard (no pun intended) with people he doesn't already have a close relationship with, because of how he is often treated because of his condition, and because he doesn't always trust his own mind and is concerned about the impression he might give if he speaks too freely with strangers. Despite his training, he is mistrusting of the world of mystics and somewhat hypocritically is especially skeptical around teammates whose abilities are firmly entrenched in it, or are of a mystical nature themselves like Ixians. He is also suspicious of foreign governments which have been too enthusiastically embracing mystic power, and is deeply concerned with the possibility of OSIC becoming involved in his affairs in the United States. Memory echoes of the other spirits inhabiting him will at times cause him to speak as though he is a different person - lamenting separation from a lover someone else had, a child left behind when a parent that wasn't him enlisted, or past mistakes he never committed, and often if he is not questioned on such statements he won't even have awareness of this shift in behavior.
Thank you for reading!
Weapon - Armed with a semi-automatic rifle in the vein of iconic WW2 standard issue firearms like the M1 Garand or Lee-Enfield. The weapon has a very deliberate fire rate similar to those of heroes like Abrams, Holliday, and Geist, and a similarly limited starting ammo pool but suitably respectable damage per shot and velocity. Secondary fire enables aim down sights.
Starting Stats - Decent movement and sprint speed but his physical disabilities mean his stamina and dash speed are on the lower spectrum. Begins the game with -20% spirit resist (after all, his soul is right out in the open).
Ability 1 (active) - Stick Grenade. Customized by his mystic friend, they are loaded with powdered reagants which interfere with the abilities of other mystics for a short time. The grenade has a 1.5 second fuse which starts after it has bounced off an environment surface, or else it detonates immediate either on contact with an enemy target (hero or NPC), or after 2.5 seconds in flight without bouncing. Does a minor amount of spirit damage with poor scaling, provides a 1s silence on hit targets. Upgrades could include minor increases to silence duration, cooldown reduction, and shortened fuse time. Damage on should remain minimal, it is a utility grenade and not a damage grenade.
Ability 2 (charged active)- Soul Latch. Sentry can launch the 5 souls tethered to him as a projectile. Slow moving, a bit faster than Pocket spirit barrage, and they will home slightly towards enemy heroes but not other targets and only when within a particular radius, meaning they fly straight until they get close to a hero target and then will turn to try and land home. If a hero is hit, the spirit latches onto them and the hero's movement is slowed by 40% for 2s and stamina regen is halted, then the spirit releases with an explosion of spirit damage. If it hits an NPC, the explosion damage is instant. Moderate spirit damage and scaling. The ability starts with 5 charges, and cannot be granted more (though it can still gain the other benefits of items which affect charged abilities). Upgrades could include around 30% extra damage on the explosion, more potency to the slow, and finally spirit lifesteal %.
Ability 3 (passive + charged active, mandatory initial ability) - Spirit Host. Passive effect: Initially grants Sentry 20% spirit resist (canceling out his -20%), and upon activation of his Soul Latch ability, instead grants +10% spirit resist per unused charge of Soul Latch (netting 30% at 5 charges). Charged Active: Spirit Centurion. 5 charges, shared with Soul Latch. Sentry can deploy these at short range, whereupon they provide a bubble of health regen and 10% spirit resist for friendly heroes in range, non-stacking, for 45s. In addition, any enemy or neutral NPCs besides objectives which perish inside the bubble provide a bonus 15% soul reward for Sentry and any friendly heroes within soul-sharing range, regardless of what the source of damage that destroyed them was. Upgrades could include an additional 5% spirit resist per hosted spirit and deployed Centurions, an additional 5% soul bonus, and +15s duration for the Centurions.
Ability 4 (active) - Air Raid. Sentry recalls all his squadmates and is borne aloft by their spirits, carrying him through the air as they wail dreadfully before crashing with a potent explosion of spirit damage as they scatter in all directions. To be blunt - this is Wrecker's ult circa their initial addition to Hero Labs queue, with some tweaks. It still has damage scaling based on distance traveled, however, Sentry's health is drained at a dangerous rate while it is being used. It also has much, much more notable visual and sound queues. As the name implies, there is a siren-like sound that is globally audible and increases in volume with proximity much like Gray Talon's owl. Using this ability automatically cancels any active Spirit Centurions, silences Sentry for 1.5s after landing, and then refreshes the charges on Spirit Centurion and Soul Latch. It is meant to be high commitment, as Sentry will have a critical moment after using it where he likely has a fair amount of health gone, is silenced, and has -20% spirit resist. However, he can rebound once his full resistances are online again, and full spirit latch charges available to try and clinch a target that survived the impact. Upgrades could reduce the silence duration, improve the distance damage scaling, and increase the explosion radius.
Background - While the Maelstrom upended world affairs and created a new perspective for mankind on their place in not just the world but all of creation, it could not erase their conflict-driven nature, and the unveiling of mysticism as a world-shaping power invariably led to its applications in man's oldest passtime. While world superpowers who had prior knowledge of the various magical phenomena and resources had already put in place safeguards to prevent their abuse, many smaller nations looking to carve out a better political and geographic position for themselves madly rushed into developing and applying weapons of war based on mystic principles, often to horrific and tragic effect. Sentry and his squad are victims of such a weapon - a vapor which intermixed and bound itself to the very essence of any mortal creature, literally pulling their soul out with their last breath after inhaling it. While Sentry's country had combat mystics deployed to counteract such weapons, for his comrades it was too late, their spirits left floating free of their lifeless bodies. Sentry, having witnessed their fate, delayed his own by desperately holding his breath, and as the mystics feverishly tried to work a spell to separate his soul from the vapor and purge it, they could not accomplish it fast enough to avoid an irreversible outcome. Sentry's soul began to escape just as they finished their ritual, and was fixed in place that way - the flesh of his body from one shoulder to the opposite side of his waist no longer had a spark of life to drive it and lay slack, while a phantasmal essence, flickering and unstable, writhed in agony alongside his still connected limbs and torso. Faced with this new, just as fatal condition, the combat mystics drew on the only other resource available to them in the field - the disconnected souls of Sentry's squadmates. Harnessing them and infusing them into Sentry stabilized his exposed spirit and allowed it to exist in that fashion without fading. After being honorably discharged for valorous duty in the face of such a horrendous attack, Sentry was understandably a shattered wreck of a man in mind, body, and spirit. Echoes of his dead comrade's lives followed him, kept him from sound sleep and made him question his identity as they intermixed and blurred with his own memories. His physical disabilities, besides the difficulties they created in daily life, also left him isolated from other people who were unnerved by his countenance. Eventually, however, one of the combat mystics who helped to save him returned home from the war as well, and sought him out. This woman knew of the Patrons, and the opportunity the coming Maelstrom would provide. If any power existed which could make Sentry whole again and let his squadmates finally rest, it was them. Knowing he would need more than just the skills of a common soldier, she instructed him as well as she could in ways which he could take advantage of his state. Weakened and disparate as they were, Sentry's body still housed the combined souls of 5 men and women besides himself, and the ritual which bound them all together meant he had a greater aptitude for harnessing souls from other sources to his ends. This was the advantage he could bring to a Patron, should he be chosen to represent one. So, Sentry and his ally traveled to the Cursed Apple to seek their only hope at restoring him to normalcy.
Appearance - Sentry could be a number of different nationalities, but wherever he hails from it is outside of the American continents, and not from a nation which in our history has been considered a prominent world power. He is a victim of his country trying and failing to keep pace with such. Despite this, he does not actively resent his superiors and government for his fate, and takes to the ritual dressed (as much as he can be), in his field uniform and kit. It is somewhat antiquated by the standards of the time, landing closer to what one would have found in a country trying to modernize its military closer to the time of WWI than WWII in our own history. His firearm is the most advanced piece of equipment, and clearly the outdated state of the rest of his gear is thanks to the majority of their military's budget going into making sure the standard issue rifles were at least up to snuff. Here and there are more hand-crafted elements of charms and baubles adorned by his field mystic companion, which do nothing to improve his already mismatched and awkward ensemble. But of course the stand out feature, is his limply hanging right arm, shoulder, and head, from which emerges a phantasm roughly shaped like those parts, details of facial features and musculature indistinct. Small wisps of a similar nature orbit this shade, flickering in and out of coherence.
Personality - Sentry is usually on guard (no pun intended) with people he doesn't already have a close relationship with, because of how he is often treated because of his condition, and because he doesn't always trust his own mind and is concerned about the impression he might give if he speaks too freely with strangers. Despite his training, he is mistrusting of the world of mystics and somewhat hypocritically is especially skeptical around teammates whose abilities are firmly entrenched in it, or are of a mystical nature themselves like Ixians. He is also suspicious of foreign governments which have been too enthusiastically embracing mystic power, and is deeply concerned with the possibility of OSIC becoming involved in his affairs in the United States. Memory echoes of the other spirits inhabiting him will at times cause him to speak as though he is a different person - lamenting separation from a lover someone else had, a child left behind when a parent that wasn't him enlisted, or past mistakes he never committed, and often if he is not questioned on such statements he won't even have awareness of this shift in behavior.
Thank you for reading!
