[Hero Idea] The Distressed Cavalier

[bisonsafetuna]

Description: Russel T. James is A highly decorated veteran of the last remaining Cavalier unit in the US military. An old distinguished gentlemen from Wyoming closer to a noble than a cowboy. His horse Cincinnati was slain in the last charge his unit ever made, and resurrected by the government as a cheaper alternative to training new horses for the doomed regiment. Russel seeks to use the ritual to preserve the place and purpose of Cavalry in the rapidly mechanizing world, both in honor of his fallen brothers and as a stogy old bastard who hates change.

Small Character Details:

1. Cincinnati loves to listen to his harmonica.
2. He's old, sore, but too tough to admit it. His death yell would be a groan at best.
3. His Ranch in Wyoming is very near the land Mirage is looking to purchase. He's not happy about the idea of a foreign nation in his back yard, but is friendly and flattered at the Jhinn's interest in his home state.

Role: A medium range gun focused character that breaks through with a charge. As an old man, he's either a 2 or 3 stamina max, and is focused much more on strategy than reaction. Being in the right time and place beforehand.

Weapon: "Eventide" An outdated (for the setting, closer to late civil war era design) lever action repeating rifle. Moderate fire rate, rapid reload (due to his decades of experience with it) and moderate damage.

Abilities: I envision his role as something like a one two punch. Soften the front line, then slam all the way through.

1. Rifle Discipline: Russel's next three shots gain bonus damage if they hit the chest and not the head, reflecting his practical military training. The duration of this effect should be long, allowing players to take their time and line up shots carefully. Each shot doing more damage if it's a successive hit (including the head, but doesn't gain any stacks off a headshot), losing this bonus if he misses any.
   
   Rank 0: The next three shots do bonus Bullet body shot damage increasing by X% (scaling with spirit, should not scale hard to avoid over investment in spirit) for successive hits.
   Rank 1: Successful body shots decrease enemy bullet resist by X% (scaling with gun and increasing with stacks).
   Rank 2: Add two additional shots.
   Rank 3: No limit, effect ends when you miss a shot (Resets if you miss, shooting a minion preserves current stacks, caps at 3 stacks if used on neutral camps)
   
   The final rank would be very strong, especially for farming, so there should be a cap there. Also to avoid the behavior of shooting minions twice and then tapping a player, it shouldn't build up on minions, but should benefit from stacks earned on players to execute a minion though as he's not going to be getting any aoe's or pushing tools outside of his ult. Cooldown on this ability should be moderate, but start once triggered, so if he takes his time and lines up every shot, he's not punished with having to wait much longer. It should be tuned so that he can't just one shot minions at full stacks in lane unless he's at 5 stacks or higher with some gun investment. The damage should have diminishing returns, peaking in value around 20, and past that still gaining small increases, but not so much that missing a shot at 40 feels like you might as well quit the game.
   
   
2. Cincinnati Hospitality: Cincinatti appears and kicks an enemy back dealing spirit damage and stunning them very briefly.
   
   Rank 0: Selected target is knocked back 5 meters and is briefly stunned. Takes bonus damage if they hit a wall. Can be cast on self or a teammate to launch backwards.
   Rank 1: Can hit a second target close to the first.
   Rank 2: Large cooldown reduction.
   Rank 3: Knocks back every enemy within range.
   
   This is just a disengage tool with some utility for mobility to accommodate his generally low mobility especially in lane.
   
   
3. Horns of War: Russel Blows a brass horn to buff himself and his allies. Allies magazine size increases by X% (Scaling with spirit) and gain increased bullet damage.
   
   Rank 0: Blow a horn, allies within 10m gain increased magazine size (On their current magazine) and X% bonus bullet damage.
   Rank 1: Magazine buff extended to next reload.
   Rank 2: Increase magazine size buff.
   Rank 3: Allies gain bullet resist shred based on his current Discipline stacks.
   
   The choice to increase magazine size and damage instead of fire rate is to keep him on theme with the patient accurate shots over suppressive fire. Its final rank rewards his team for his patience and discipline directly.
   
   
4. Thunderous Charge: Russel sounds the charge, mounting Cincinnati and charging into the enemy. Himself and his allies gain a shield, movement speed, spirit and bullet resist for the duration which lasts until Cincinnati (represented by Russel's shield amount) is felled.
   
   Rank 0: Russel gains a shield scaling with spirit and his current Discipline stacks, a flat movespeed, spirit resist, and bullet resist buff, and spreads a percentage of this to his allies in a large radius.
   Rank 1: Increased percentage. Russel becomes immune to slow and immobilizing effects (Not stuns).
   Rank 2: Russel becomes immune to stuns, his allies gain immunity to slows.
   Rank 3: Allies become immune to imobilizing effects as well as the full Spirit Resist, bullet resist, movespeed, and shield.
   
   This is where he's revealed to be a support in full. The goal here is to counteract Slow-lock and enable an engage through established defenses. The scaling being again tied to his discipline stacks really hammers home that careful well aimed shots massively outweigh spamming at enemies. To avoid this becoming absurd however I would suggest capping the benefit of stacks at 15-20, so he's not forever paralyzed into holding his ult until he has more stacks.

THE LORE: He's a simple military man who's served his whole life, but as a classical officer he's well versed in many different fields, from literature to physics. He's happily married with dozens of grand children, but is far too restless to retire. His children are everywhere but in the crime orgs, like in the Baxter society, the Marshals, etc... His interactions would be with anyone who isn't a criminal as he has no idea about the criminal organizations of New York. Vyper being the exception, because she tried to rob him once in Dekalb when he was visiting his grandchildren.

 

[bisonsafetuna]

Hero interactions on the way to lane:

Vyper
Vyper: You look familiar.
Russel: You tried to stab me in DeKalb.
Vyper: Tried? That doesn't sound right.

Russel: I'm willing to put our little... altercation in DeKalb aside for today.
Vyper: Sure sure, got anything good for that pipe of yours?
Russel: No.
Vyper: C'mon, with a custom piece like that?
Russel: Its a Tabacco pipe.
Vyper: Who doesn't love a splif?
Russel: *Sighs.*

Vyper: Try not to hit me with that relic old man.
Russel: I don't miss.
Vyper: That's... comforting.