chubblezap
New member
Don't quite have a visual design in mind, but I've been theorycrafting how the sluggish, short-range grappler archetype (Zangeif, Potemkin, etc) could work in a game like Deadlock. So why not throw it here?
Abilities:
[1] Pile Rush [20s]: The bread and butter command grab, and comes in 2 flavors depending on how long the button is held. A short tap grabs a hero immediately in front of you and suplexes them backwards, dealing very high spirit + heavy melee damage. Holding the button instead lets you lurch forward a short distance, swinging upward and knocking anyone it contacts straight up for minor spirit + light melee damage.
T1: Suplex refunds half cooldown
T2: Uppercut launches significantly higher and inflicts -10% spirit res
T3: Suplex stuns for 1s
[2] Daring Leap [45s]: Movement ability, also with a charge mechanic. Roots you in place while the button is held, releasing the button launches you in the direction you're facing with speed based on how long it was charged, up to 3s. Colliding with an enemy deals light melee damage and pushes them in the direction you're moving. Colliding with an enemy in midair instead grabs them and slings them over your back, carrying them to the ground with you and dealing heavy melee damage on landing.
T1: Max charge time reduced to 2s
T2: Air grab spirit scaling increased, inflicts 50% movement and fire rate slow for 3s
T3: Cooldown reduced by 28s
[3] Whirlwind Throw: Passive. Heavy melees on stunned, slept, or otherwise movement-disabled enemies automatically convert into a whirling throw; colliding with other enemies deals light melee damage to both them and the held enemy, knocking them away. Grants 30% damage resistance for the duration of the spin. Thrown enemies deal bonus spirit damage on collision with other enemies or walls.
T1: +30% damage resistance while whirling
T2: +1s whirl duration
T3: Light melees can also trigger Whirlwind Throw for half duration
[4] Ultimate Collider [120s]: Grab a foe immediately in front of you, and take them to the skies! You perform a high jump and immediately crash to the ground like a meteor, dealing extreme spirit + heavy melee damage that also increases significantly with drop height. The explosive landing also deals lesser damage to nearby enemies depending on closeness to the center of the blast, the radius of which also scales with drop height. Can also be used on an enemy already grabbed by Daring Leap.
T1: -40s cooldown
T2: Increased height-based damage and radius increase
T3: Killing the grabbed target deals 30% of its max health in spirit damage to enemies in the blast radius
Gun: [The Haymaker]
Slow firing double-barreled shotgun loaded with slugs. High damage single shot, decent range, notably only 2 max ammo, but reloads decently fast. Designed to be the character's solitary true ranged option, individual shots hit respectably hard but dps is lacking.
Stat Spread:
True to grappler fashion, this character is slow to make up for how threatening they can be once they get in range. Pretty good-to-above-average base movespeed, but practically nonexistant sprint speed, the combined total still being a bit below average. Big hitbox, high hp, maybe some spirit-scaled base resistances like Venator, you know the deal. Big lumbering tank vibes.
Playstyle:
Abilities:
[1] Pile Rush [20s]: The bread and butter command grab, and comes in 2 flavors depending on how long the button is held. A short tap grabs a hero immediately in front of you and suplexes them backwards, dealing very high spirit + heavy melee damage. Holding the button instead lets you lurch forward a short distance, swinging upward and knocking anyone it contacts straight up for minor spirit + light melee damage.
T1: Suplex refunds half cooldown
T2: Uppercut launches significantly higher and inflicts -10% spirit res
T3: Suplex stuns for 1s
[2] Daring Leap [45s]: Movement ability, also with a charge mechanic. Roots you in place while the button is held, releasing the button launches you in the direction you're facing with speed based on how long it was charged, up to 3s. Colliding with an enemy deals light melee damage and pushes them in the direction you're moving. Colliding with an enemy in midair instead grabs them and slings them over your back, carrying them to the ground with you and dealing heavy melee damage on landing.
T1: Max charge time reduced to 2s
T2: Air grab spirit scaling increased, inflicts 50% movement and fire rate slow for 3s
T3: Cooldown reduced by 28s
[3] Whirlwind Throw: Passive. Heavy melees on stunned, slept, or otherwise movement-disabled enemies automatically convert into a whirling throw; colliding with other enemies deals light melee damage to both them and the held enemy, knocking them away. Grants 30% damage resistance for the duration of the spin. Thrown enemies deal bonus spirit damage on collision with other enemies or walls.
T1: +30% damage resistance while whirling
T2: +1s whirl duration
T3: Light melees can also trigger Whirlwind Throw for half duration
[4] Ultimate Collider [120s]: Grab a foe immediately in front of you, and take them to the skies! You perform a high jump and immediately crash to the ground like a meteor, dealing extreme spirit + heavy melee damage that also increases significantly with drop height. The explosive landing also deals lesser damage to nearby enemies depending on closeness to the center of the blast, the radius of which also scales with drop height. Can also be used on an enemy already grabbed by Daring Leap.
T1: -40s cooldown
T2: Increased height-based damage and radius increase
T3: Killing the grabbed target deals 30% of its max health in spirit damage to enemies in the blast radius
Gun: [The Haymaker]
Slow firing double-barreled shotgun loaded with slugs. High damage single shot, decent range, notably only 2 max ammo, but reloads decently fast. Designed to be the character's solitary true ranged option, individual shots hit respectably hard but dps is lacking.
Stat Spread:
True to grappler fashion, this character is slow to make up for how threatening they can be once they get in range. Pretty good-to-above-average base movespeed, but practically nonexistant sprint speed, the combined total still being a bit below average. Big hitbox, high hp, maybe some spirit-scaled base resistances like Venator, you know the deal. Big lumbering tank vibes.
Playstyle:
- The Grappler is slow, deliberate, and ever-approaching your location. Relatively helpless from afar armed with nothing but a slow (but accurate) gun, the grappler's #1 goal to is reach your face and force you to play their borderline unfair close range combo game. While they have options to expidite the long journey from where they're standing to your location, a charged Pile Rush won't take them too far, and Daring Leap is a super committal charged input with a long cooldown, leaving them mostly at the mercy of long-ranged poke provided you can avoid these, at least until items come online.
- The melee game is where the grappler truly shines; uncharged Pile Rush is an extremely punishing nuke all by itself, while the popup from the charged version can combo into an aerial Daring Leap to rack up damage from a slightly longer range, with both option also triggering melee procs. While the grappler carries no built-in CC at the beginning of the game, Whirlwind Throw can make for devastating combos with teammates that do, and makes their parry extremely threatening.
- In teamfights, the grappler wants to single out a particular enemy; most of their kit is single target, and locking down one target paves the way to clear out others. In particular, landing a Whirlwind Throw can be massively disruptive, throwing other nearby enemies around while racking up hits on the primary victim. The full combo of charged Pile Rush popup, chasing skyward with Daring Leap and finishing with a cataclysmic Ultimate Collider not only deals enormous damage to the unfortunate victim, but can serve as a huge spirit nuke crushing anyone caught in the blast provided its lengthy setup isnt stopped, particularly on a killing blow.
- They typically want to build melee items, duh. Several abilties proc melee hits, so the grappler makes excellent use of just about anything that benefits them. Besides that, the grappler will want to build items that help them get in close like Warp Stone, Majestic Leap, Phantom Strike, or just general tankiness, as well as spirit items to both increase their damage and enable Whirlwind Throw via CC effects.
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