gimmekeyplskthnx
Active member
Browsing through this subforum, I see that suggestions for a melee hero are quite popular. Personally, I believe that with the current way that last-hitting, objectives, and works, a melee hero would struggle to find any sort of meta relevance while also being fair to fight against. Since I was invited to the playtest, I've always enjoyed brainstorming ideas and concepts for future heroes. This would be the first time that I have ever published the results of one of these brainstorming sessions. As usual, I welcome and encourage anybody reading to post their feedback in the thread. Since I'm not an artist, I intentionally left almost all of this hero's cosmetic features blank. I even tried to use neutral pronouns (though I am leaning more towards this hero being female since this game could use more nice-looking ladies).
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(currently) nameless rapier hero:
Primary attacks can't be parried, and work in a 3 part tempo (right-to-left front slash, left-to-right slash, straight thrust). (1?) second internal cooldown after thrust completion before user can begin attacking again.
Slash attacks can hit multiple targets in an arc and automatically secure soul orbs from last hits. Straight thrusts can penetrate, have increased range, deal 1.1x normal weapon damage, and can headshot.
Light melee is replaced with Quick thrust. Quick thrust can be used regardless of internal primary cooldown and procs most melee item effects, but can be parried. Quick thrust has the standard quick melee internal cooldown.
Heavy melee is replaced with Flunge. Also a forward thrust, but requires a wind up and sends the user forward (further than a normal heavy melee?). Flunge has an additional (2?) second internal cd until the user can attempt another melee.
Parry is the same, (just with no cd refund or melee damage boost after a successful parry?).
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Abilities:
1.) Footwork.
(2?) base charges, 0.25s charge cd.
Deal weapon damage to summon courage. Activate to lunge forward, further range than a single stamina dash, ending off with a free automatic quick thrust that cannot be parried at a close-by enemy. Ending thrust prioritizes heroes, deployables, creeps, and structures in that order. User can jump at the end of footwork to perform a dash jump that consumes a total of one stamina.
2.) Somersault.
(14s?) cd.
Vault yourself towards the direction you are traveling through the air (pressing w flings you forward, s backwards, etc.) Perform a singular 360 degree sweep upon impact with the ground, recovering 33% of pre-mitigation damage dealt as regeneration over 4 seconds. (impact damage scales with spirit?)
3.) Gusto.
(50s?) cd.
Dealing and taking damage adds stacks to a pool. Activate to consume these stacks, healing the user and giving them a short speed boost. Landing the killing blow on an enemy hero resets this ability's cooldown and immediately gives the active effects freely at half strength.
4.) Challenger's High.
(290s cd?) (8s?) duration.
Enter peak state of mind and body, resetting your non-ult cooldowns and causing your damage, movement speed, stamina recovery, and (healing effectiveness?) to accelerate.
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Vitality stats:
Because of the inherent mobility in this hero's kit, I feel it necessary for this hero to start off with two stamina instead of the usual three. (This hero should have slightly faster-than-average base move speed and no slowdown while slashing and thrusting?). (This hero should have higher-than-average base hp, but lower-than-average starting regen?).
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Conclusion:
Trying to think up of a melee design that would work in today's deadlock was quite challenging, but fun overall. I think that we will eventually get a melee hero, just looking at how popular that concept is with the community. Special thanks to pretty much everyone who has posted a hero idea within the Community Hero Idea forum for providing inspiration. I have a lot more hero concepts drafted up, so expect to see them soon.
------------------
(currently) nameless rapier hero:
Primary attacks can't be parried, and work in a 3 part tempo (right-to-left front slash, left-to-right slash, straight thrust). (1?) second internal cooldown after thrust completion before user can begin attacking again.
Slash attacks can hit multiple targets in an arc and automatically secure soul orbs from last hits. Straight thrusts can penetrate, have increased range, deal 1.1x normal weapon damage, and can headshot.
Light melee is replaced with Quick thrust. Quick thrust can be used regardless of internal primary cooldown and procs most melee item effects, but can be parried. Quick thrust has the standard quick melee internal cooldown.
Heavy melee is replaced with Flunge. Also a forward thrust, but requires a wind up and sends the user forward (further than a normal heavy melee?). Flunge has an additional (2?) second internal cd until the user can attempt another melee.
Parry is the same, (just with no cd refund or melee damage boost after a successful parry?).
------------------
Abilities:
1.) Footwork.
(2?) base charges, 0.25s charge cd.
Deal weapon damage to summon courage. Activate to lunge forward, further range than a single stamina dash, ending off with a free automatic quick thrust that cannot be parried at a close-by enemy. Ending thrust prioritizes heroes, deployables, creeps, and structures in that order. User can jump at the end of footwork to perform a dash jump that consumes a total of one stamina.
2.) Somersault.
(14s?) cd.
Vault yourself towards the direction you are traveling through the air (pressing w flings you forward, s backwards, etc.) Perform a singular 360 degree sweep upon impact with the ground, recovering 33% of pre-mitigation damage dealt as regeneration over 4 seconds. (impact damage scales with spirit?)
3.) Gusto.
(50s?) cd.
Dealing and taking damage adds stacks to a pool. Activate to consume these stacks, healing the user and giving them a short speed boost. Landing the killing blow on an enemy hero resets this ability's cooldown and immediately gives the active effects freely at half strength.
4.) Challenger's High.
(290s cd?) (8s?) duration.
Enter peak state of mind and body, resetting your non-ult cooldowns and causing your damage, movement speed, stamina recovery, and (healing effectiveness?) to accelerate.
------------------
Vitality stats:
Because of the inherent mobility in this hero's kit, I feel it necessary for this hero to start off with two stamina instead of the usual three. (This hero should have slightly faster-than-average base move speed and no slowdown while slashing and thrusting?). (This hero should have higher-than-average base hp, but lower-than-average starting regen?).
------------------
Conclusion:
Trying to think up of a melee design that would work in today's deadlock was quite challenging, but fun overall. I think that we will eventually get a melee hero, just looking at how popular that concept is with the community. Special thanks to pretty much everyone who has posted a hero idea within the Community Hero Idea forum for providing inspiration. I have a lot more hero concepts drafted up, so expect to see them soon.
