Thinking of what type of hero roles are missing from the current roster, I saw the potential for there to be a hero built around manipulating the map and it's structures. This idea is very loosely based around this iconic photo of Mies van der Rohe, 1930s-40s early modernist architecture, towering stoically over one of his designs. From there came the idea of the ego driven architect, creating a new world around himself.
Backstory
Hailed as the visionary of progress, the Architect designed the towering skyline of the Cursed Apple (including the Baroness Hotel), with each commission, his ego grew and grew. In his mind, the world is his to delineate and define. When the patrons awoke, he did not choose a side; he declared the battlefield his greatest commission yet.
- Role: Utility / Controller / Creative Support
- Strengths: Terrain manipulation, team repositioning, macro control
- Weaknesses: Low direct damage, reliance on cooldowns/placement, high skill ceiling
- Identity: A builder hero — he doesn’t just fight on the map, he redesigns it.
Action 1 — Modular Blueprint
- Cycle between four build pieces: Tower, Ramp, Wall, Floor
- Tower - erects a tower, from the ground up. Can be used to lift players to new heights/have the high ground, or act as an obstacle.
- Ramp - self explanatory
- Wall - self explanatory
- Floor - can be placed on the sides of buildings to create perches. Can be used to block holes in roofs.
- Place instantly at target location within medium range. Towers, Ramps, and Walls snap to the ground, Floors will also snap to walls.
- Structures last ~6–8s or until destroyed.
- Limit: 1 active at once to start, additional charges are added with ability tiers.
- Cooldown: 10s
- Aim at wall/geometry → creates a glowing hallway (short passage allies & enemies can use). (Programmatically, I see this as casting a box through solid geometry until it reaches a point that can see the skybox above and is therefore outside of structures) and Boolean differencing the box and the map geometry.
- Lasts ~10 seconds, there should be an effect that counts down when the corridor will disappear, when it does, anyone trapped in map geometry dies. It’s safe to use it once it’s cast, but if someone is chasing you down the corridor they might pay the price.
- Only 1 active at a time.
- Modular Blueprint cannot be used inside of a corridor (can't block it off inside)
Cooldown: ~20s
- The Architect aims at the ground and creates a square zone on the ground.
- Allies inside: gain bonus movement speed and fire rate (synergy buff).
- Enemies inside: suffer mild slow
- Cooldown: ~6s
- The Architect unfurls a massive holographic floorplan across a wide radius (lane section or control point size).
- From the grid, ghost walls and columns extrude upward — semi-transparent blueprint-like structures.
- Effect:
- Enemies: collide with the ghost walls as if they’re solid.
- Allies: can freely pass through.
- When the ult ends, the hologram shatters into blueprint fragments, dealing light AoE damage.
- Duration: ~8–10 seconds.
- Long cooldown
