Not every Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, Overwatch or Marvel Rivals character and concept needs to be in Deadlock.
With that being said, I was wondering how to make the OW / MR typical "shoot at allies to heal" mechanic work for Deadlock. Because the things that make it make sense in those games is the fact that it's a constant tight knit combat situation (one that I like to compare to tug of war, because there isn't much leeway to branch off and be effective otherwise). Your allies will almost constantly move and try to dodge your opponents while said opponents will try to focus on you usually. So that adds great difficulty to your job as a healer in those games. Applying the same logic doesn't work to Deadlock, because Deadlock fights consist of a lot of smaller skirmishes. But I believe to have found a viable solution to this problem by having this heal ability inflict self damage, increasing with every missing enemy in the vicinity. So it only makes sense to focus on healing when you can afford to and when there's risk involved.
Medic Guy:
(I have clearly run out of name ideas)
"Vitalizes allies with friendly fire"
"Medic Guy (MG) sacrifices his own health for that of his allies until he gains back his strength with lifestealing bullets to the enemy or during his invincible period. Enemies shall grow fearsome when MG reduces their stamina or defends allies with stamina, protection and healing effects."
Gun: I think this hero shouldn't heal allies in big bursts but instead provide slower and steady healing for better predictability for enemies.
Maybe a gun like Calico's but with 15 instead of 10 shots in the magazine and better accuracy and without the circle shaped shot pattern.
1 - Big Shot: Shoot a fast projectile that deals little spirit damage and discharges 1 stamina from a hit enemy and applies 15% stamina recovery reduction for 8 seconds. Hitting an ally has the opposite effect (adds 1 stamina). Can be self-cast. Medium duration cooldown.
2 - Mystic Haven: Throw a destructible gadget at a short range. The gadget reduces incoming damage for allies and heals Medic Guy and his allies slightly when he shoots at it (without Medic Guy losing health for healing). Very large area of effect. Long cooldown
3 - Doctor's Orders: Infinite ammo and bullet lifesteal for several seconds (regardless of range). Medium duration cooldown
4 - Paramedic: Passive: Shooting allies heals them and damages you (6 to 1 ratio). The more enemies there are in the vicinity the better you heal. Active: Become invincible for several seconds and increase heal rate for your own health.
As an example for the passive ability of Paramedic: 1 shot at an ally heals them (let's say) for 10 health but damages you for 60 (at base level) and when no enemies are nearby (at 40m distance). The heal scales with spirit power and heal booster items. And this 6:1 ratio improves for every 2 enemies that are near you. So if 1-2 enemies are here, it's a 5:1 self damage to heal ratio. 3-4 enemies -> 4:1, 5-6 enemies -> 3:1 ratio. And the ratio or distance are factors that can be improved with ability perk levels also.
Paramedic tier 1: Increase enemy detection range
Paramedic tier 2: Decrease cooldown of active ability
Paramedic tier 3: Improve all healing ratios by 1 (starting at 5:1 with no enemies around)
For the gun I also thought it'd be cool if the Calico shot pattern was like a counterstrike recoil pattern (instead of all pellets shooting at the same time). But that's just a bonus and having this sort of recoil feature could be reserved for a different hero or just scrapped entirely.
Big Shot tier 1: cooldown reduction
Big Shot tier 2: discharges / adds 2 stamina and applies 30% stamina recovery (or recovery reduction)
Big Shot tier 3: The projectile penetrates the first target and is able to hit two more targets.
I have thought about an actual Uber or Kritzkrieg like ultimate which you would apply to an ally or hold on to them like in TF2 but found that to be an unfitting and problematic concept to integrate. Heroes in Deadlock can be very agile so having to keep up with an ally like that would be difficult and weird. The ability would likely be too strong and last but not least: It could lead to toxicity in matches because the most egotistical or dominant players would demand that you buff them.
But since the ability kit as it stands lacked tools to make up for your health deficit I found it suitable for MG to have an ultimate to use ideally when it's not just useful to the team but also when he's already low on health from healing so much (or fighting, depending on your role in the team).
With that being said, I was wondering how to make the OW / MR typical "shoot at allies to heal" mechanic work for Deadlock. Because the things that make it make sense in those games is the fact that it's a constant tight knit combat situation (one that I like to compare to tug of war, because there isn't much leeway to branch off and be effective otherwise). Your allies will almost constantly move and try to dodge your opponents while said opponents will try to focus on you usually. So that adds great difficulty to your job as a healer in those games. Applying the same logic doesn't work to Deadlock, because Deadlock fights consist of a lot of smaller skirmishes. But I believe to have found a viable solution to this problem by having this heal ability inflict self damage, increasing with every missing enemy in the vicinity. So it only makes sense to focus on healing when you can afford to and when there's risk involved.
Medic Guy:
(I have clearly run out of name ideas)
"Vitalizes allies with friendly fire"
"Medic Guy (MG) sacrifices his own health for that of his allies until he gains back his strength with lifestealing bullets to the enemy or during his invincible period. Enemies shall grow fearsome when MG reduces their stamina or defends allies with stamina, protection and healing effects."
Gun: I think this hero shouldn't heal allies in big bursts but instead provide slower and steady healing for better predictability for enemies.
Maybe a gun like Calico's but with 15 instead of 10 shots in the magazine and better accuracy and without the circle shaped shot pattern.
1 - Big Shot: Shoot a fast projectile that deals little spirit damage and discharges 1 stamina from a hit enemy and applies 15% stamina recovery reduction for 8 seconds. Hitting an ally has the opposite effect (adds 1 stamina). Can be self-cast. Medium duration cooldown.
2 - Mystic Haven: Throw a destructible gadget at a short range. The gadget reduces incoming damage for allies and heals Medic Guy and his allies slightly when he shoots at it (without Medic Guy losing health for healing). Very large area of effect. Long cooldown
3 - Doctor's Orders: Infinite ammo and bullet lifesteal for several seconds (regardless of range). Medium duration cooldown
4 - Paramedic: Passive: Shooting allies heals them and damages you (6 to 1 ratio). The more enemies there are in the vicinity the better you heal. Active: Become invincible for several seconds and increase heal rate for your own health.
As an example for the passive ability of Paramedic: 1 shot at an ally heals them (let's say) for 10 health but damages you for 60 (at base level) and when no enemies are nearby (at 40m distance). The heal scales with spirit power and heal booster items. And this 6:1 ratio improves for every 2 enemies that are near you. So if 1-2 enemies are here, it's a 5:1 self damage to heal ratio. 3-4 enemies -> 4:1, 5-6 enemies -> 3:1 ratio. And the ratio or distance are factors that can be improved with ability perk levels also.
Paramedic tier 1: Increase enemy detection range
Paramedic tier 2: Decrease cooldown of active ability
Paramedic tier 3: Improve all healing ratios by 1 (starting at 5:1 with no enemies around)
For the gun I also thought it'd be cool if the Calico shot pattern was like a counterstrike recoil pattern (instead of all pellets shooting at the same time). But that's just a bonus and having this sort of recoil feature could be reserved for a different hero or just scrapped entirely.
Big Shot tier 1: cooldown reduction
Big Shot tier 2: discharges / adds 2 stamina and applies 30% stamina recovery (or recovery reduction)
Big Shot tier 3: The projectile penetrates the first target and is able to hit two more targets.
I have thought about an actual Uber or Kritzkrieg like ultimate which you would apply to an ally or hold on to them like in TF2 but found that to be an unfitting and problematic concept to integrate. Heroes in Deadlock can be very agile so having to keep up with an ally like that would be difficult and weird. The ability would likely be too strong and last but not least: It could lead to toxicity in matches because the most egotistical or dominant players would demand that you buff them.
But since the ability kit as it stands lacked tools to make up for your health deficit I found it suitable for MG to have an ultimate to use ideally when it's not just useful to the team but also when he's already low on health from healing so much (or fighting, depending on your role in the team).
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