Sarus
Active member
muh lore: A down-on-his-luck ex-champion Luchador seeks a wish from the patrons to become king of the ring again.
kit inspiration: El Blaze from Virtua Fighter 5, Ramon from KOF, and Alex from Street Fighter. A valve luchador would be sick and would naturally have a ton of costume options too
kit concept: Essentially, this is a mobile bruiser kit for advanced Abrams players who love shoulder charging and parry mind-games and want a more aggressive/mobile hero in return for dropping the pure tank passive and stats.
This is heavy on unique movement options and the reward is powerful CC or big damage on hard reads and outplays. Abilities are inspired by wrestling strike moves and I've tried to put in at least one high flying grapple style move (ultimate) for flavor. If lash is the dedicated tricky aerial hero, this would be the ground equivalent.
HYPOTHETICAL CORE: Stamina Mastery or Arcane Surge depending on playstyle. Fleetfoot for melee shenanigans. Reactive barrier for frontline work.
1 - Flash Chop
14sCD 10m distance
Lunge forward with a fiery arm chop dealing spirit and melee damage to enemies.
1 CD reduction
2 Bonus damage on back or side turned enemies, +range (15m).
3 Now scales with heavy melee scaling.
Concept: Basic CQC damage ability, lunging forward with a magical fiery chop or what have you damaging in a wide arc. Meant to be used in tandem with Tiger Road pass-throughs and Demon Dance in skirmishes, duels, and teamfights. If cast in the air this would function similarly, lunging the character forward with the attack. Think shorter range Drifter rend with easier to land bonus damage that is justified by his two movement abilities and strong positioning.
2 - Demon Dance
8m vertical, 10m distance, 16sCD, bonus buff duration 1.5s
Perform an acrobatic vertical hop directly in front of you. Press (2) again mid-hop to perform a downward angled flying cross chop dealing melee damage and dragging down enemies with you.
1. Bonus to melee damage after Demon Dance hop landing.
2. CD Reduction
3. +1 charge
Concept: Trick CQC movement ability and anti-air built in one. +1 charges for a strong skirmisher ability in lvl3, the bonus to melee damage is to reward flash chops or heavy melee RPS afterward. The downward chop would also essentially give him a free ability fast-fall or an explicit answer to jumpers/fliers in neutral. I have kept what would be a bonus to flash chop, heavy melee, or a quickly cast TR in check by keeping the buff window short enough to only allow one. Or so I like to think
3 - Tiger Road
18sCD 1.2s charge duration
Perform a special running charge that enables two new abilities.
M1 - Disaster Headbutt: During Tiger Road, perform a running headbutt dealing melee damage and stunning any struck enemies for .65s.
M2 - Rolling Sobat: During Tiger Road propel yourself forward with a hop kick, dealing melee damage and knocking back any aerial enemies.
*Press (CANCEL) to feint the run or (CTRL) to cancel into slide.
1. TR can now pass through enemy Heroes with a speed increase
2. CD Reduction
3. Landing Tiger Road abilities on an enemy Hero will refresh TR cooldown by 5s
Concept: A unique charge series using Abrams' shoulder charge as a base. Press M1 during the TR charge to wind-up with a crashing headbutt, damaging and stunning struck enemies. Much like Abrams' charge, this would be easy to avoid completely by just jumping/double jumping out of the way, however this is where M2 comes into play. As a hard read and/or conditioning tool, the Lucha can instead press M2 to do a hop kick, getting him into the air (about a regular jump's height) with a hitbox that deals bonus damage and displaces aerial enemies while doing just melee damage to grounded enemies. Flubbing around with Abrams in the lab, his base charge goes up to about 28m length at 1.4s distance, a TR into headbutt would be a bit stubbier in comparison with the slightly shorter duration. The hop kick option would get him in the air and maybe push forward an additional 5m with a decent aerial hitbox.
Finally, this would also vary from shoulder charge by being a funny juke move. You cannot cancel Abrams 2 into a slide, this would enable you to slide keeping most of the forward momentum by default. While you get a speed buff with colliding with people on Abrams, here you would get a speed buff going through people as an escape or perhaps pursuit option - cut off their escape route or if the player screws up the ability timing, at least they can have favorable positioning (or just dive deeper into enemy tower, whatever).
Visually, this could be similar to Abrams shoulder charge with fiery VFX and maybe a loud tiger roar or something for a good visual/sound indicator of a charging Lucha. The final upgrade would also not stack, it is a one-time refresh only if either of the two lands. While conceptually squishier than Abrams and Billy, he has much better movement options or offense/escape in engagements so I tried to find a sweet-spot in rewarding him with up-time without being obnoxious.
4 - Flying Frankensteiner
110sCD 15m splash radius 20m cast distance
Target an area to perform a corkscrew moonsault. A direct hit will deal major spirit damage as the Lucha performs the legendary frankensteiner, displacing the enemy backward. Enemies surrounding the apex up to 12m
will be knocked up and dealt spirit damage. Enemies caught in the air will be dragged down to the floor and knocked backward.
1. +5m impact radius
2. CD Reduction
3. Press (4) to leap to a nearby wall. The range and damage of FF is now increased (+8M radius increase, +25m cast distance). Can press (CANCEL) to exit pounce.
Concept: Big flashy initiator, finisher and single target disruptor (direct hit enemy heroes are thrown backward). Essentially just a super pounce ability but hopefully very fun and flavorful. One of the harder things with this was making this feel different from lash's grapple -> ground pound. The lvl3 upgrade is for big outdoor teamfights or mid baws, but basic ult should still be useful indoors or tight spaces. The reward for a direct hit would be a very quick frankensteiner animation that probably wouldn't need anything special animation wise (just toss the enemy hero model back), so hopefully a fun all-in-one initiation/displacement ultimate.
Imagine murdering Talons, Minas, and Vindictas with a tiny acrobatic Mexican man. Imagine.
kit inspiration: El Blaze from Virtua Fighter 5, Ramon from KOF, and Alex from Street Fighter. A valve luchador would be sick and would naturally have a ton of costume options too
kit concept: Essentially, this is a mobile bruiser kit for advanced Abrams players who love shoulder charging and parry mind-games and want a more aggressive/mobile hero in return for dropping the pure tank passive and stats.
This is heavy on unique movement options and the reward is powerful CC or big damage on hard reads and outplays. Abilities are inspired by wrestling strike moves and I've tried to put in at least one high flying grapple style move (ultimate) for flavor. If lash is the dedicated tricky aerial hero, this would be the ground equivalent.
HYPOTHETICAL CORE: Stamina Mastery or Arcane Surge depending on playstyle. Fleetfoot for melee shenanigans. Reactive barrier for frontline work.
1 - Flash Chop
14sCD 10m distance
Lunge forward with a fiery arm chop dealing spirit and melee damage to enemies.
1 CD reduction
2 Bonus damage on back or side turned enemies, +range (15m).
3 Now scales with heavy melee scaling.
Concept: Basic CQC damage ability, lunging forward with a magical fiery chop or what have you damaging in a wide arc. Meant to be used in tandem with Tiger Road pass-throughs and Demon Dance in skirmishes, duels, and teamfights. If cast in the air this would function similarly, lunging the character forward with the attack. Think shorter range Drifter rend with easier to land bonus damage that is justified by his two movement abilities and strong positioning.
2 - Demon Dance
8m vertical, 10m distance, 16sCD, bonus buff duration 1.5s
Perform an acrobatic vertical hop directly in front of you. Press (2) again mid-hop to perform a downward angled flying cross chop dealing melee damage and dragging down enemies with you.
1. Bonus to melee damage after Demon Dance hop landing.
2. CD Reduction
3. +1 charge
Concept: Trick CQC movement ability and anti-air built in one. +1 charges for a strong skirmisher ability in lvl3, the bonus to melee damage is to reward flash chops or heavy melee RPS afterward. The downward chop would also essentially give him a free ability fast-fall or an explicit answer to jumpers/fliers in neutral. I have kept what would be a bonus to flash chop, heavy melee, or a quickly cast TR in check by keeping the buff window short enough to only allow one. Or so I like to think
3 - Tiger Road
18sCD 1.2s charge duration
Perform a special running charge that enables two new abilities.
M1 - Disaster Headbutt: During Tiger Road, perform a running headbutt dealing melee damage and stunning any struck enemies for .65s.
M2 - Rolling Sobat: During Tiger Road propel yourself forward with a hop kick, dealing melee damage and knocking back any aerial enemies.
*Press (CANCEL) to feint the run or (CTRL) to cancel into slide.
1. TR can now pass through enemy Heroes with a speed increase
2. CD Reduction
3. Landing Tiger Road abilities on an enemy Hero will refresh TR cooldown by 5s
Concept: A unique charge series using Abrams' shoulder charge as a base. Press M1 during the TR charge to wind-up with a crashing headbutt, damaging and stunning struck enemies. Much like Abrams' charge, this would be easy to avoid completely by just jumping/double jumping out of the way, however this is where M2 comes into play. As a hard read and/or conditioning tool, the Lucha can instead press M2 to do a hop kick, getting him into the air (about a regular jump's height) with a hitbox that deals bonus damage and displaces aerial enemies while doing just melee damage to grounded enemies. Flubbing around with Abrams in the lab, his base charge goes up to about 28m length at 1.4s distance, a TR into headbutt would be a bit stubbier in comparison with the slightly shorter duration. The hop kick option would get him in the air and maybe push forward an additional 5m with a decent aerial hitbox.
Finally, this would also vary from shoulder charge by being a funny juke move. You cannot cancel Abrams 2 into a slide, this would enable you to slide keeping most of the forward momentum by default. While you get a speed buff with colliding with people on Abrams, here you would get a speed buff going through people as an escape or perhaps pursuit option - cut off their escape route or if the player screws up the ability timing, at least they can have favorable positioning (or just dive deeper into enemy tower, whatever).
Visually, this could be similar to Abrams shoulder charge with fiery VFX and maybe a loud tiger roar or something for a good visual/sound indicator of a charging Lucha. The final upgrade would also not stack, it is a one-time refresh only if either of the two lands. While conceptually squishier than Abrams and Billy, he has much better movement options or offense/escape in engagements so I tried to find a sweet-spot in rewarding him with up-time without being obnoxious.
4 - Flying Frankensteiner
110sCD 15m splash radius 20m cast distance
Target an area to perform a corkscrew moonsault. A direct hit will deal major spirit damage as the Lucha performs the legendary frankensteiner, displacing the enemy backward. Enemies surrounding the apex up to 12m
will be knocked up and dealt spirit damage. Enemies caught in the air will be dragged down to the floor and knocked backward.
1. +5m impact radius
2. CD Reduction
3. Press (4) to leap to a nearby wall. The range and damage of FF is now increased (+8M radius increase, +25m cast distance). Can press (CANCEL) to exit pounce.
Concept: Big flashy initiator, finisher and single target disruptor (direct hit enemy heroes are thrown backward). Essentially just a super pounce ability but hopefully very fun and flavorful. One of the harder things with this was making this feel different from lash's grapple -> ground pound. The lvl3 upgrade is for big outdoor teamfights or mid baws, but basic ult should still be useful indoors or tight spaces. The reward for a direct hit would be a very quick frankensteiner animation that probably wouldn't need anything special animation wise (just toss the enemy hero model back), so hopefully a fun all-in-one initiation/displacement ultimate.
Imagine murdering Talons, Minas, and Vindictas with a tiny acrobatic Mexican man. Imagine.
