Hero Idea - Josef (Clay Golem)

[Ibbick]

Background: Josef is a clay golem who works as a farmhand for a family on the outskirts of the Cursed Apple. He's a "gentle giant," so he's shy, timid, kindly, and friendly with animals. The farm is under threat of repossession by the bank due to bad harvests (implied to occur because of pollution/runoff from the occult industrial complex), so his reasons for completing the ritual are to ask the patrons to purify his family's farmland. Inspired by the legends of the Prague golem.

Weapon - Scarecrow's Tongue: Josef's right arm transforms into a gatling gun; like McGinnis's gun, but with no spin up time and a slightly wider (+ static) spread pattern. Something like Mauga's chain guns from Overwatch, i.e., a close-range shred.

Abilities:

Crippling Harvest: Josef transforms his left arm into a scythe and lashes out in front of him in an arc, dealing spirit damage and applying the Misfire debuff. This forces enemies to reload within a short duration or become disarmed for a longer duration. Damage scales with spirit.

• T1: Slows enemies' reload speed on hit (the slow % scales with spirit)
• T2: Increased ability range + attack angle
• T3: Gain a flat damage increase and % damage to heal (e.g. 40%).
  • Since the disarm is avoidable, it'd be on a shorter cooldown than M&K's sand blast.
  • To differentiate it a bit from Yamato's crimson slash, it might make sense for the ability/hitbox to be a diagonal slash. Unlike Lash's flog though, I think the attack angle doesn't need to scale with spirit.

Mudslide: Josef is propelled forward in the direction he's facing (like Ash's Predator's Pursuit passive from Apex Legends, but not omnidirectional). This ability leaves behind a trail of mud that Josef and allies can walk over to gain a movement speed boost.

• T1: The trail of mud left behind is twice as wide and remains longer.
• T2: Shorter cooldown, the mud trail slows enemies slightly (25%).
• T3: Ability becomes charged. Gain two extra charges.
  • This is the version of Viscous goo you want to walk over (as a teammate).

Homunculus: Josef sacrifices a percentage of max hp (e.g. 12%) to create a candle-trooper like NPC whose gun damage scales with Josef's and whose HP scales with spirit power. Has a short cooldown (e.g. 3s) and the homunculi have no maximum lifespan, but Josef can only have up to three homunculi active simultaneously.

• T1: Faster homunculi move speed
• T2: Lessened % HP cost per homunculus
• T3: Better hp and weapon damage scaling; +2 max active homunculi
  • Travels in a straight line when cast normally but can be alt-cast to target the nearest objective. Upon collision with an object/wall will automatically travel to the nearest objective.

Second Shem: Josef inserts a new Shem into his forehead (i.e. completes a channel), transforming his left hand into another gatling, gaining bullet life steal (say 40%), and laying down a trail of mud behind him for the duration of the ultimate (and gaining the mudslide movement speed bonus). To compensate for the doubled weapon damage, Josef's fire rate will be slowed, and weapon spread will be slightly increased.

• T1: After channeling, instantly spawn three homunculi around you for no HP cost
  • Ignores the max cap on homunculi.
• T2: Reduced cooldown, increased bullet life steal.
• T3: While in ult, Josef's bullets build up Misfire on enemies. Longer ult duration.

 

[ArbiterHalo3]

I like this idea, very fun and cute, what would you think about the homunculus ability being more scarecrow adjacent, like placing down other scarecrows that buff allies or swing melee attacks?

 

[Ibbick]

I like this idea, very fun and cute, what would you think about the homunculus ability being more scarecrow adjacent, like placing down other scarecrows that buff allies or swing melee attacks

That sounds good too- my main intention was for Josef to have a pseudo-support ability that would help with pushing objectives, so a scarecrow totem that buffs allies would also fill that role. What about this?

Field Hand: Josef places a scarecrow effigy that draws aggro from enemy creeps/objectives and grants nearby friendly units spirit and bullet resists (say 10%). Costs a % of max HP to place (e.g. 10%), but its health scales with Josef's (or with boons, idk). This ability is charged but has a moderate cooldown (say 12s).

• T1: Scarecrows gain a high innate resistance to objective damage (say 50%)
• T2: Greater base health and provides higher resists (say 20%)
• T3: Scarecrows can now shoot, dealing a percentage of Josef's gun damage to enemies. Percentage scales with spirit.

This ability would give you a chance to push into guardians and walkers in the early/mid-game and give your creep waves more time at objectives. I don't know if it'd be too overpowered if the scarecrows could make walkers lock onto them with their beam attack, thereby preventing the walker from stomping and letting you push past it. Since this ability depends upon the player for placement, the T1 upgrade of Josef's ult could instead refill your charges of the ability as well as removing the HP cost.

 

[ArbiterHalo3]

That sounds good too- my main intention was for Josef to have a pseudo-support ability that would help with pushing objectives, so a scarecrow totem that buffs allies would also fill that role. What about this?

Field Hand: Josef places a scarecrow effigy that draws aggro from enemy creeps/objectives and grants nearby friendly units spirit and bullet resists (say 10%). Costs a % of max HP to place (e.g. 10%), but its health scales with Josef's (or with boons, idk). This ability is charged but has a moderate cooldown (say 12s).

• T1: Scarecrows gain a high innate resistance to objective damage (say 50%)
• T2: Greater base health and provides higher resists (say 20%)
• T3: Scarecrows can now shoot, dealing a percentage of Josef's gun damage to enemies. Percentage scales with spirit.

This ability would give you a chance to push into guardians and walkers in the early/mid-game and give your creep waves more time at objectives. I don't know if it'd be too overpowered if the scarecrows could make walkers lock onto them with their beam attack, thereby preventing the walker from stomping and letting you push past it. Since this ability depends upon the player for placement, the T1 upgrade of Josef's ult could instead refill your charges of the ability as well as removing the HP cost.

You're full of great ideas, I hope the devs see these and consider them