BarcodeWasTaken
New member
I was playing Holliday (disclaimer: I'm bad at Holliday) in one of my matches against a dynamo, he was healing far behind cover, I could tell from his big green aoe. I thought of a play - if I could land a barrel on him behind the cover and flush him out before his healing finished I could probably either get a kill or force him back for guardian damage. I threw my bounce pad, powder keg on top of it and watched as it soared. I could tell that as it arced in the air it would just barely overshoot the dynamo, so I used my cowboy quick draw to hit the barrel in the air and - nothing. The barrel was still too high, and although appropietly positioned above Dynamo, saw no reward. I think this to me highlights the two biggest problems with what should be one of Holliday's kit making combinations, the keg and bounce pad combo.
1. Enemies behind cover that is sufficiently high enough are near impossible to hit with a barrel as the barrel will either overshoot them, or land against the wall.
2. You have to place your bounce pad near perfectly to land a barrel on top of or near enough an opponent to hit them.
Comboing the barrel with bounce pad is awkward, you have to approximate the exact distance that your barrel will land near enough to them that it either hits them, or that you shoot it and it hits them, the enemy also has to not move from cover and not notice the large loud barrel bounding for them. This is also a big cooldown, time, and attention investment for what is a relatively meagre reward even if the barrel does land. I eventually realized that the best play is to just spam barrels at the enemy in close range, which I found boring and I'm sure my opponents did as well.
So I thought about it and came up with the idea of the keg exploding in dynamite. Eventually I came up with the idea that Holliday's powderkegs should explode into dynamite, so you could rain it down on enemies below to defeat both high cover and make the ability a little more forgiving by allowing you to correct the mistake by trading the ammunition and time to shoot it. Thematically it's appropriate, cowboys and dynamite go hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly. Below are some ideas/thoughts about this change and an MS Paint drawing (I'm bad at drawing) of how the idea would work.
-Cowboy so dynamite sticks are fitting of Holliday's theme.
-Allows for skill expressive use of barrels like hitting one above an enemies head.
-Addition to the ability at certain level investment, or base ability, or +x dynamite at y level.
-Use for interesting set ups, sacrificing ability charges to deny large areas of a battlefield (cover retreats or flush defender out of an oppressive position).
-Punish barrel spam by means of dynamite prematurely activating barrels.
-Dynamite could take a while to activate if barrel was grounded but explode instantly if they fall a certain distance, maybe distance scales time to detonation (higher=less time before explodes.)
-Lets you hit enemies behind cover that is too high for a barrel to angle into or near them.
-Possible synergy with Holliday 3, maybe barrels only explode in dynamite when shot while 3 has a charge.
-Could only activate dynamite if launched by pad, incentivizing use of pad and barrel.
-Functions as a reward for sharpshooting a keg mid-air (cowboy thematic+just fun).
I think this addition has a lot of potential for balancing and increases skill expression through creativity and aiming skills. It makes the kit more cohesive and gives the character more options. It also means power can be taken away from things like base barrel stun and turned into something like this. Theirs so many ways this could be implemented as well, above are just notes that I thought of but I'm sure theirs smarter more experienced people who can think of ways to warp and change this. Anyways I'm open to discussion and if you read the whole post or most of it, thanks for your time.
P.S. buff pocket i beg you
1. Enemies behind cover that is sufficiently high enough are near impossible to hit with a barrel as the barrel will either overshoot them, or land against the wall.
2. You have to place your bounce pad near perfectly to land a barrel on top of or near enough an opponent to hit them.
Comboing the barrel with bounce pad is awkward, you have to approximate the exact distance that your barrel will land near enough to them that it either hits them, or that you shoot it and it hits them, the enemy also has to not move from cover and not notice the large loud barrel bounding for them. This is also a big cooldown, time, and attention investment for what is a relatively meagre reward even if the barrel does land. I eventually realized that the best play is to just spam barrels at the enemy in close range, which I found boring and I'm sure my opponents did as well.
So I thought about it and came up with the idea of the keg exploding in dynamite. Eventually I came up with the idea that Holliday's powderkegs should explode into dynamite, so you could rain it down on enemies below to defeat both high cover and make the ability a little more forgiving by allowing you to correct the mistake by trading the ammunition and time to shoot it. Thematically it's appropriate, cowboys and dynamite go hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly. Below are some ideas/thoughts about this change and an MS Paint drawing (I'm bad at drawing) of how the idea would work.
-Cowboy so dynamite sticks are fitting of Holliday's theme.
-Allows for skill expressive use of barrels like hitting one above an enemies head.
-Addition to the ability at certain level investment, or base ability, or +x dynamite at y level.
-Use for interesting set ups, sacrificing ability charges to deny large areas of a battlefield (cover retreats or flush defender out of an oppressive position).
-Punish barrel spam by means of dynamite prematurely activating barrels.
-Dynamite could take a while to activate if barrel was grounded but explode instantly if they fall a certain distance, maybe distance scales time to detonation (higher=less time before explodes.)
-Lets you hit enemies behind cover that is too high for a barrel to angle into or near them.
-Possible synergy with Holliday 3, maybe barrels only explode in dynamite when shot while 3 has a charge.
-Could only activate dynamite if launched by pad, incentivizing use of pad and barrel.
-Functions as a reward for sharpshooting a keg mid-air (cowboy thematic+just fun).
I think this addition has a lot of potential for balancing and increases skill expression through creativity and aiming skills. It makes the kit more cohesive and gives the character more options. It also means power can be taken away from things like base barrel stun and turned into something like this. Theirs so many ways this could be implemented as well, above are just notes that I thought of but I'm sure theirs smarter more experienced people who can think of ways to warp and change this. Anyways I'm open to discussion and if you read the whole post or most of it, thanks for your time.
P.S. buff pocket i beg you
