Hero Idea: Jojo the Clown

[YellowTM]

Bio: Jojo is an elite Clown and he takes the artform of Clownsmanship seriously. He's spent years honing his craft ensuring every joke is delivered perfectly, every facial expression is hilarious, every prat fall flawless and his whipped cream organic. Jojo seeks to become the greatest performer there will ever be and he'll make a deal with the Patrons to do so. He will be the Ultimate Clown.

Gun: Fully-automatic Pistol that looks like it squirts water out - when he reloads he just tosses it away and pulls out a new one.
Melee: It's a clown slap. Heavy Melee is a slap where he swings so hard he spins himself around.

1. Classic Pie Throw: Jojo throws a pie - Uses charges and scales with Spirit Power and has a slight arc to it like tossing a grenade but more horizontal. Like a shotgun blast, slightly bigger than Viscous alt-fire. Deals extra damage on headshots and/or reduces fire rate and obscures the minimap for 30s. Can be used with third skill.
   1. Extra charge/reduced cooldown
   2. Increased Damage and increased headshot bonus
   3. Comically large pie - 2x-3x as large, able to headshot multiple people
2. Surprise Balloons!: Jojo opens his bag in the direction of his enemy and attaches a bunch of balloons to them (a cone in melee/Bebop bomb range). After 3s the helium escapes the balloon and begins to lift them upwards (similar to Wraith Ult lift). The balloons can be shot by the enemy by looking straight up, by 2 heavy melees or by their allies (like destroying Weaver swarm bugs). If the enemy is airborne before the 3s they will float (with their original momentum) but will be unable to change directions like Talon/Vindicta. Can be used with third skill.
   1. Animal shaped balloons - the balloons are no longe regular balloons, they're random animal ballons like giraffes, dogs and snakes. They're harder to pop (smaller hitbox/each balloon now has multiple baloon sections each needing to be popped separately)
   2. Lower cooldown
   3. The balloon decreases the enemies double-jumping/airdashing by 1 while attached (making it an anti-air skill)
3. Clown Ball Run: Jojo jumps on a large ball and runs backwards on it as it rolls forwards. It only goes forwards and will start off slow but will accelerate and very quickly if downhill but it turns better than Viscous' Goo Ball. Jojo can shoot and use his other skills while on it and he is slightly higher up. Sliding will end the skill. Spirit power increases speed/maneuverability.
   1. Jojo gains an additional double-jump/air dash while on the Clown Ball but it ends the skill early (he jumps off the ball and uses that as the extra jump/air dash)
   2. Prat fall - If Jojo slides out of the ball or out of the air-dash/double jump after he was on the ball then he will do a prat fall slide, dealing damage on impact depending on how fast he was going
   3. Much lower cooldown
4. Impeccable Juggling: Jojo begins juggling more and more complicated items, tossing them into the air and then having them land and cause damage (It's Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field). Jojo can move but he's slowed. It starts with juggling balls, banana peels, bigger bouncier balls, then knives. The AoE size grows slowly as he juggles. Scales with Weapon Damage. Can be used with Clown Ball Run. Jojo also hums Entrance of the Gladiators while he does it. The items can hit both on the way up and the way down and can hit people in the air. Can be used with third skill.
   1. Hammers and bombs are added to the mix of things he can juggle, they slow or deal heavy damage
   2. Frantic juggling - Jojo starts juggling much faster - more items and larger AoE
   3. Jojo starts lobbing his Classic Whipped Cream pies - uses the first skills' stats

Alternative abilities/changes: Surprise balloons still attaches, but can be shot to explode and deal AoE damage. Clown Ball Run could be a unicycle instead, but the ball seems more fun. Classic Pie throw could disarm if headshot or increase reload time.

 

[arcsymus]

Wow. A try-hard clown.

I'm seeing that you're trying to incorporate some interesting elements into pie throw. Obscuring the mini-map. That's kind of interesting, but I don't know how effective it really is. I do like the idea that it could have an extra effect on delivering a headshot, and I wouldn't mind seeing a Disarm effect being applied. I'd be happy with something simple and effective.

I'm liking the idea behind Surprise Balloons a lot. I think the idea of taking an enemy off the ground and putting them into the sky is great. Personally I don't see a need for a delay on the effect, and would rather see it take effect immediately--but I have to check out your other abilities to see if you intended for this to be a part of a combo effect. I like that the enemy can look up and shoot themselves down.

I'm not as sold on the 3rd and 4th skills. I don't see the point of Clown Ball. It would make more sense to me as a really short duration ability where he hops on the ball and charges forward damaging anything he connects with, with talents giving him additional utility, like being able to jump really high. I like the idea of the ball giving him that additional utility. Maybe have him be able to end the ability early by sliding out of it, though, sending the ball continuing hurtling forward.

I think the theme behind the ultimate is cute. I think there's some conflict going on, though, where, is he really juggling, or is he just tossing items on the ground? It would be one thing if he was trying to incorporate too many items into his juggle and fumbling them--but that also runs contrary to his theme of being a perfectionist. If it's just Crystal Maiden ult, I don't know. The theme is fun, but it also comes across as unnecessary to me. I think he could juggle one item and this ability would functionally be the same, and I think it's a good thing that it's mechanically simple.

 

[YellowTM]

I think the theme behind the ultimate is cute. I think there's some conflict going on, though, where, is he really juggling, or is he just tossing items on the ground? It would be one thing if he was trying to incorporate too many items into his juggle and fumbling them--but that also runs contrary to his theme of being a perfectionist.

He's not a perfectionist in his actions he's a perfectionist at being a clown - he has to fumble his juggling because that's the slapstick joke with the increasing number and speed of items that he can't juggle. And you have to have juggling somewhere part of his kit or what's the point of having a clown?

An alternative would be that his juggling acts as a scaling channel that deals a huge amount of damage over a large area once he finishes but that doesn't feel right.

The third skill mostly exists so you can move during juggling - WASD movement sucks if you're slowing yourself and channeling at the same time if you aren't doing something immediately useful. Thematically it's definitely the weakest.