Got very very bored recently and came up with a character idea for a new Deadlock hero. Please forgive me for my terrible art; I'm not an artist by any stretch of the imagination but I just wanted to share my idea and see what you guys think. I just figured there wasn't an elf character yet in an otherwise fantasy-heavy setting, so I got to thinking...
*CHARACTER*
Sylvan is a wood elf ranger and hunter who's sort of a Teddy Roosevelt-style naturalist (her character is a ranger for a national park in Colorado, with there being some info in her background about how wood elves have lived there for centuries) and she's come all the way to New York to participate in the ritual so she can ask the Patrons to secure more land and protections for America's great wilderness and forests against the recent predations of Fairfax Industries and other industrial giants. She's a friendly and supportive character with a bit of a rugged streak who feels somewhat out of place in the city, but overall I imagine her as being one of the nicer, more normal characters.
In-line with classic Valve style, I tried to cram as many gags (puns and references related to forest elves and nature) as possible into her character and title card. Her whole design is based on the idea of the classic fantasy wood elf "ranger", except she's a ranger in the modern sense; ie a forest ranger, haha! You get the idea.
(I also imagine some fun dialogue between her and the other characters, like maybe where she talks to Paige about the dragons in her books and tells her that the last American dragons are out in the Rockies if she ever wants to see them, or she has a conversation with Mirage where she says she's been to Wyoming and it's beautiful land, and she hopes the Djinn can find a new home there, the kind of stuff you'd expect from a friendly forest ranger. Or maybe she has an moment where she enthuses with Drifter about the thrill of hunting before she realizes he hunts people, then decides she doesn't want to talk to him anymore, or maybe she gets into it with Pocket or McGinnis asking why Fairfax does what they do. (And I know this is terrible, but I think she'd say "Take a hike" after getting kills
). Anyway, onto the part that people actually care about!*MECHANICS*
For how the character would actually play, here's what I've got in mind:
- Lash Shrub: Lobs a seedling that grows into a lashing vine plant, which slows and periodically hits enemies within range, applying root stacks; if enemies gather enough root stacks, they are rooted in place for a short duration. Alternatively they just get rooted if they stand in it too long (kind of a midline hybrid of Geist bomb with conditional Warden-style rooting)
- Nature's Armor:
Applies tree bark armor to a friendly character that gives temporary bonus hp that slowly decays and is transferred into health over the duration of the ability. It can be self-cast. (it's just bonus health that gets used for healing if you don't use it up taking damage. I imagine you lose some of the temp hp in the conversion and that it doesn't convert 1 to 1. It's sort of a different take on the Paige shield/Rem dash healing)
- Overgrowth:
Self-casts a gun-buff where the wooden rifle stock blooms and gets overgrows with vines/roots/blooms. During this time, her bullets deal bonus spirit damage and apply a minor DOT w/ lifesteal (maybe a minor slow at higher levels?), and there's a fun little animation of the target getting grown over. (kind of a reskin of Seven's charge shot, but with a different ability)
- Tree of Life:
Summons a big magical tree that does AoE healing and buffs for allies while slowing enemies in a wide radius. Enemies she shoots inside the tree's range get root stacks applied if her first ability is unlocked, or maybe it's the same deal as her 1 where they get rooted if they stand in it too long or are caught in the initial cast. I haven't thought through the details to be honest. (The tree can be destroyed with multiples heavy melees by enemies maybe? Or maybe it can just be shot normally)
Her gun is a long-range, moderately slow-firing lever action hunting rifle, with relatively high individual damage per shot but a small magazine and somewhat slow individual round reload (Similar to Silver's reload, you can reload what you need as you shoot it).
Stamina 3
Her whole gimmick is supposed to be reliable sustain with escalating slows and conditional roots on enemies to help you land your finicky gun's buffed shots and help secure kills for teammates. You stand in the back and lob bombs and take advantage of your range while keeping your buddy in lane longer or bailing them out of trouble with your 2. Ult is for resisting dives or bailing your team out of well-placed enemy AoE ults or sustaining them during a team fight. I imagine she's mostly a support with some reliable chip damage and sustain baked in, and it's all supposed to lean into the whole nature/tree roots druid elf vibe of her character.
Anyway that's all I've got. I'd love to hear your guys thoughts!
(UPDATE: I've already gotten some feedback from the subreddit along the following lines, and have thought of some possible fixes)
- Her name, appearance, and gun are too similar to Silver (I didn't intend it, but I can definitely see it now)
# Possibly change her name to Fern and change her hair color to brown
- Her outfit is a bit bland
# Incorporate an outfit more similar to a traditional park ranger with the brimmed hat and iconic jacket
- Her 1 is slightly too similar to Ivy's Kudzu Bomb
# Change it so that it just summons a large, upright plant monster that swats at people with its vines?
