LummieThief
New member
Hey everyone! I had the idea recently for a frontline shield support hero like Reinhardt, but with the twist that his shield is held behind him, meaning that while he can protect his team, he's still vulnerable to attack while the shield is up. I really like how he turned out, and I'll explain a bit more about how he's supposed to play after the lore and abilities. Note that these numbers are estimations, and it would obviously require playtesting to get them balanced.
Lore: A biological weapon that escaped containment, Phibb is the result of years of genetic, chemical, and spiritual experimentation conducted by Eldritch Tactical Solutions, a subsidiary of Fairfax Industries that has the grandiose dream of replacing the US infantry with Ribbiteers: resilient, amphibious foot soldiers that can be bred en-masse and trained quickly.
Like the thousands of Ribbiteers that will follow in his footsteps, Phibb’s was trained for one purpose–to protect Fairfax Industries at all costs.
Gun: Spit high pressure globs of water from your mouth. Similar to Viscous’s gun, but with more damage up close in exchange for sharper falloff. No alt-fire.
1. Bubble Shield (32s. 8s recharge): Blow a bubble that you carry on your back for up to 4 seconds. The bubble absorbs all bullets fired into it, and deals 60 (x1.4) spirit damage in an area around it when it expires. Deals additional spirit damage equal to the damage absorbed by the bubble, up to a maximum of 150 (x3.5) damage. Recast to lob the bubble, exploding on the first surface or enemy hit.
T1: +15% bullet resist and +30% spirit resist while carrying bubble.
T2: -10s cooldown. +1 charge.
T3: Increased bubble size. +120 max damage. Reduced gravity while carrying bubble.
2. Battle Medicine (45s): Mix a chemical cocktail in your mouth, loading your gun with 18 modified bullets that heal your allies for 9 (x0.15) instead of damaging enemies. Reload to swallow the remaining liquid, healing you over time for each remaining ammo and quickly re-equipping your gun. Auto-locks on allies.
T1: +40% fire rate.
T2: -15s cooldown.
T3: +0.75% max health per bullet. Ammo scales with mag size.
3. Jump Shot (8s. Passive): Your next Dash Jump or Air Jump empowers the first bullet you fire before touching the ground to deal an additional 35 (x0.7) spirit damage. While Battle Medicine (2) is active, the damage is converted into healing.
T1: Gain extra height from the jump.
T2: Recover 1 stamina on enemy hit.
T3: +15 damage. No cooldown.
4. Blast Off (120s): Open the nozzle on your water tanks to spray water directly below you and float in the air for 3 seconds, giving you increased air control and conserving any momentum you had when cast. Enemies under you take 120 (x2.4) spirit damage per second and are pushed to the ground. You can use flight controls to move up and down.
T1: -25s cooldown.
T2: +90 damage per second
T3: Removes non-ultimate debuffs from you and allies and gives them +40% debuff resist for 5 seconds.
Extra Ability Interactions:
- When recasting to lob Bubble Shield (1), its duration is extended until it hits a surface. The projectile moves fairly slowly in the air, meaning you have time to shoot it and charge it a little extra before it hits the ground.
- Bubble Shield (1) absorbs all of the damage from the bullets it absorbs, including damage from effects like Mystic Shot, Mercurial Magnum, and of course, Jump Shot (3) (you don't get the stamina from T2 though)
- While Battle Medicine (2) is active, shooting Bubble Shield (1) will add that amount healing to the bubble's explosion.
Playstyle:
Phibb's playstyle revolves mostly around his Bubble Shield (1).
While you have your shield up, you have a decision to make: do you A) Turn your back to them, leaving only your feet exposed but making you unable to fight back, or B) Face the enemy and fight, putting yourself in danger.
A) If you turn your back to them, you've got the perfect window of time to fire some Battle Medicine (2) into your team to top them off while they run away, or while they fire into your shield to charge it for you.
B) If you decide to face them and fight, you will want to stay on your toes, sliding, strafing, jumping, and doing anything you can to throw off the enemy's aim, since any bullets they miss will go right into your shield and get thrown back in their face.
Jump Shot (3) ties everything together, allowing you to get in and out of the fight quickly, and poke from the backline while you're low on HP or waiting for your shield to recharge. It can also be used for some burst healing for your team in a pinch when combined with Battle Medicine (2), but you'll quickly run out of stamina using it like this since you wont get the T2 stamina refund.
Blast Off (4) is just all around good. It can be used to engage a fight, turn a fight, burst someone down, stop someone from escaping, run away, it basically does everything (maybe its too strong now that I write it out). You will feel a lot safer when you have this available.
While I primarily designed him to be a frontline support, he can also definitely be built spirit or gun. His Bubble Shield (1) can do a ridiculous amount of damage when built for spirit, and when building gun, you can reload faster by instantly chugging your Battle Medicine (2), not to mention being able to charge your own lobbed Bubble Shield (1) in just a quick spray.
Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think about Phibb!
