DONNICOLAS10
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If reading isn't your thing, below is a nicely narrated video that explains the vast majority of the hero concept with the second half showcasing some character voice lines!
For those interested, supplemental information about the character and additional insight will be provided further below.
Since Deadlock is currently in an ever-changing state, portions of this concept and video may be outdated. Most of this was created and worked on just before and after the release of Mirage (September 2024). Portions of the video and the concept itself have been slightly adjusted for the current state of the game.
Hero Concept: Lost, the Vagrant Soul
Introduction
Soul Orbs are just so satisfying that I knew I had to create a hero that revolved around them; both in essence and utility. Three of Lost's abilities directly involve Soul Orbs in some form. I'd call Lost a "Currency-based Hero". Those who played the original DOTA might be familiar with (and have some trauma from) a particularly problematic gambler. I realize that characters with skills heavily based around the game's currency can be difficult to work with but I hope I've implemented it in a way that is both fun and viable without being a complete nightmare.
Some things to notice in this screen cap:
When deciding what to do with Lost's lore, it really helped to think about what I wanted their final design to look like. A big beefy looking soul of that size couldn't have possibly been made up of only one Soul Orb, so I thought it would make more sense if they were made up of millions and millions of them. Although taking an ethereal humanoid form, the souls that make up Lost could range from anything from human to non-human, anything with a soul. Being made up of so many souls may sound cool and powerful but having a mind constantly flooded with the memories and thoughts of millions of lifetimes has led to Lost's mind being hard-reset. Thinking they are just a single poor soul that got forgotten somewhere in the afterlife, Lost has been on a search to find their origin, often speculating what their life must have been like when they were alive. Even though Lost's mind is in a constant traffic jam, there are moments where one soul comes to the forefront of their mind and takes the wheel. I didn't have time to express this well in the video (I was only able to do Vindicta's line) but I wanted to have Lost's voice change when seeing a character they might have a connection with, signifying that a specific soul is coming to the forefront of their body. Most of Lost's speculating in the voicelines is meant to be tongue-in-cheek but I thought it would be fun to create some plausibility with some of the characters who might have someone they know stuck inside Lost. Some of the characters I thought could be connected through this were Grey Talon (son), Vindicta (John Hathorne), Warden (parents), and Yamato (brother).
Ethereal Haze (Ability 1)
This was the last ability I had created for Lost, I really wanted something that could pair well with their ultimate in the right conditions. If the opposing team refuses to respect the built up movement slow, they may not be able to get out Lost's ultimate range in time. Although the damage from Ethereal Haze might not be the scariest (even when paired with Vigor), this ability will easily deny large areas during engagements (mid-boss especially). At max level, Ethereal Haze becomes much more dangerous with a longer duration and an increased max slow; standing in the fog will now also cause your stamina to drain. At that point in the match your enemies will have no choice but to either avoid the fog entirely or invest in Unstoppable.
Here's a low effort gif showcasing the ability:
Vigor (Ability 2)
I love this ability, it gives you so much flexibility on what type of build you can do. Want to be a hard hitting gun hero? Buy some fire rate and go crazy! Want to be a literal spirit-powered nuclear bomb? Go ahead! Want to be an extremely annoying uncatchable speed demon with Rescue Beam, Fleetfoot, and Divine Barrier?.... Sure man, whatever. You will get most of the value from this ability when you're in between purchases or halfway through a heated team fight and have a good chunk of souls on you. Though I don't suggest hoarding your souls (please spend them), there may be scenarios where you are happy with the items you have and are willing to sit on 7k souls in preparation for the next engagement. In the ultra-late game you will likely be fully slotted (thanks to your passive Manipulate) and can take full advantage of the whopping 12k soul limit and 5-AP upgrade on Vigor, turning Lost into an extremely dangerous late-game character.
Here's how Lost's Vigor buff would be depicted (bright and glowy):
Manipulate (Ability 3)
Manipulate is the most basic and arguably the most important ability that Lost has. At first glance you might be thinking, "wow that is really broken" and you're probably right. This ability (and its combination with Vigor) is the reason I decided to make Lost very underwhelming in the early game. Lost's laning phase will be very weak, a heavy projectile, low fire rate, and low damage weapon will make harassing enemies and denying orbs extremely difficult. Lost's main goal during this part of the game will be trying to secure last hits on troopers to give the enemy no chance of denying any orbs, and occasionally throwing out Ethereal Haze to help a teammate secure a kill. As the game progresses, a fully upgraded Manipulate earns Lost 15% more souls from all sources without the fear of losing a fat unsecured soul container. This should propel Lost's net worth and allows him to have a greater impact from mid game and beyond.
Here's how Manipulate would look in action:
Immolation (Ability 4)
This ability is probably the coolest and most thematic out of the whole kit. It scales based on Lost's total net worth of souls (not just how many you're currently holding) and has no cap on the damage it can do. In the early game while your net worth is still low, your ultimate does significantly less damage and generally will have greater downsides than upsides in most scenarios. Regardless, Immolation is still a great tool for denying yourself when caught out by the enemy at this stage of the game. As your net worth increases, the scarier Immolation will become. All of your abilities synergize with Lost's ultimate in some way; Ethereal Haze cripples your enemies, making it difficult to escape the blast range, Vigor will boost Immolation's base damage, and Manipulate will ensure Lost has a healthy net worth for a bigger boom. The 2-AP upgrade of Immolation helps negate the drawback of having an ability that kills yourself and encourages you to use your ultimate offensively in mid game fights as it allows you to respawn instantly after dying from Immolation, giving you a chance to hop on a zipline and get back into the fight. For late game fights, you're going to look to purchase Cheat Death, which will prevent Immolation from killing Lost and allowing you to remain in the fight. If Cheat Death prevents death from Immolation, the 0s respawn is NOT banked for your next death, it will only apply when you are actually killed by Immolation. It's also worth noting the crazy and disgusting team fight combos you can do with Lost later in the game: Dynamo and Lash Ults, a Kelvin with Rescue Beam, and my favorite (if you can time it correctly): an Ivy nuclear bomb.
Though I wasn't able to show it completely in the video, while channeling Immolation, Lost crushes themself into a large ball (like a Soul Orb) and changes from bright teal to bright orange before exploding.
This is what the color change might look like:
Here's a low effort gif of Immolation in action:
And finally, here's an image with all three of Lost's phases:
I had a lot of fun working on this project, any feedback is welcome and greatly appreciated!
For those interested, supplemental information about the character and additional insight will be provided further below.
Since Deadlock is currently in an ever-changing state, portions of this concept and video may be outdated. Most of this was created and worked on just before and after the release of Mirage (September 2024). Portions of the video and the concept itself have been slightly adjusted for the current state of the game.
Hero Concept: Lost, the Vagrant Soul
Introduction
Soul Orbs are just so satisfying that I knew I had to create a hero that revolved around them; both in essence and utility. Three of Lost's abilities directly involve Soul Orbs in some form. I'd call Lost a "Currency-based Hero". Those who played the original DOTA might be familiar with (and have some trauma from) a particularly problematic gambler. I realize that characters with skills heavily based around the game's currency can be difficult to work with but I hope I've implemented it in a way that is both fun and viable without being a complete nightmare.
Some things to notice in this screen cap:
- Lost doesn't use a gun. They shoot using the symbol on their right palm.
- Lost's design is of course based on how Soul Orbs look in-game.
- Looking at the weapons stats you will see that Lost has slow and heavy projectiles (much like Dynamo and Kelvin). Low base bullet damage paired with only being able to shoot three bullets per second gives Lost a roster-low 42 damage per second.
- Lost's hand has ammo, it doesn't shoot infinitely. Why does a hand need to reload? I don't know.
When deciding what to do with Lost's lore, it really helped to think about what I wanted their final design to look like. A big beefy looking soul of that size couldn't have possibly been made up of only one Soul Orb, so I thought it would make more sense if they were made up of millions and millions of them. Although taking an ethereal humanoid form, the souls that make up Lost could range from anything from human to non-human, anything with a soul. Being made up of so many souls may sound cool and powerful but having a mind constantly flooded with the memories and thoughts of millions of lifetimes has led to Lost's mind being hard-reset. Thinking they are just a single poor soul that got forgotten somewhere in the afterlife, Lost has been on a search to find their origin, often speculating what their life must have been like when they were alive. Even though Lost's mind is in a constant traffic jam, there are moments where one soul comes to the forefront of their mind and takes the wheel. I didn't have time to express this well in the video (I was only able to do Vindicta's line) but I wanted to have Lost's voice change when seeing a character they might have a connection with, signifying that a specific soul is coming to the forefront of their body. Most of Lost's speculating in the voicelines is meant to be tongue-in-cheek but I thought it would be fun to create some plausibility with some of the characters who might have someone they know stuck inside Lost. Some of the characters I thought could be connected through this were Grey Talon (son), Vindicta (John Hathorne), Warden (parents), and Yamato (brother).
Ethereal Haze (Ability 1)
This was the last ability I had created for Lost, I really wanted something that could pair well with their ultimate in the right conditions. If the opposing team refuses to respect the built up movement slow, they may not be able to get out Lost's ultimate range in time. Although the damage from Ethereal Haze might not be the scariest (even when paired with Vigor), this ability will easily deny large areas during engagements (mid-boss especially). At max level, Ethereal Haze becomes much more dangerous with a longer duration and an increased max slow; standing in the fog will now also cause your stamina to drain. At that point in the match your enemies will have no choice but to either avoid the fog entirely or invest in Unstoppable.
Here's a low effort gif showcasing the ability:
Vigor (Ability 2)
I love this ability, it gives you so much flexibility on what type of build you can do. Want to be a hard hitting gun hero? Buy some fire rate and go crazy! Want to be a literal spirit-powered nuclear bomb? Go ahead! Want to be an extremely annoying uncatchable speed demon with Rescue Beam, Fleetfoot, and Divine Barrier?.... Sure man, whatever. You will get most of the value from this ability when you're in between purchases or halfway through a heated team fight and have a good chunk of souls on you. Though I don't suggest hoarding your souls (please spend them), there may be scenarios where you are happy with the items you have and are willing to sit on 7k souls in preparation for the next engagement. In the ultra-late game you will likely be fully slotted (thanks to your passive Manipulate) and can take full advantage of the whopping 12k soul limit and 5-AP upgrade on Vigor, turning Lost into an extremely dangerous late-game character.
Here's how Lost's Vigor buff would be depicted (bright and glowy):
Manipulate (Ability 3)
Manipulate is the most basic and arguably the most important ability that Lost has. At first glance you might be thinking, "wow that is really broken" and you're probably right. This ability (and its combination with Vigor) is the reason I decided to make Lost very underwhelming in the early game. Lost's laning phase will be very weak, a heavy projectile, low fire rate, and low damage weapon will make harassing enemies and denying orbs extremely difficult. Lost's main goal during this part of the game will be trying to secure last hits on troopers to give the enemy no chance of denying any orbs, and occasionally throwing out Ethereal Haze to help a teammate secure a kill. As the game progresses, a fully upgraded Manipulate earns Lost 15% more souls from all sources without the fear of losing a fat unsecured soul container. This should propel Lost's net worth and allows him to have a greater impact from mid game and beyond.
Here's how Manipulate would look in action:
Immolation (Ability 4)
This ability is probably the coolest and most thematic out of the whole kit. It scales based on Lost's total net worth of souls (not just how many you're currently holding) and has no cap on the damage it can do. In the early game while your net worth is still low, your ultimate does significantly less damage and generally will have greater downsides than upsides in most scenarios. Regardless, Immolation is still a great tool for denying yourself when caught out by the enemy at this stage of the game. As your net worth increases, the scarier Immolation will become. All of your abilities synergize with Lost's ultimate in some way; Ethereal Haze cripples your enemies, making it difficult to escape the blast range, Vigor will boost Immolation's base damage, and Manipulate will ensure Lost has a healthy net worth for a bigger boom. The 2-AP upgrade of Immolation helps negate the drawback of having an ability that kills yourself and encourages you to use your ultimate offensively in mid game fights as it allows you to respawn instantly after dying from Immolation, giving you a chance to hop on a zipline and get back into the fight. For late game fights, you're going to look to purchase Cheat Death, which will prevent Immolation from killing Lost and allowing you to remain in the fight. If Cheat Death prevents death from Immolation, the 0s respawn is NOT banked for your next death, it will only apply when you are actually killed by Immolation. It's also worth noting the crazy and disgusting team fight combos you can do with Lost later in the game: Dynamo and Lash Ults, a Kelvin with Rescue Beam, and my favorite (if you can time it correctly): an Ivy nuclear bomb.
Though I wasn't able to show it completely in the video, while channeling Immolation, Lost crushes themself into a large ball (like a Soul Orb) and changes from bright teal to bright orange before exploding.
This is what the color change might look like:
Here's a low effort gif of Immolation in action:
And finally, here's an image with all three of Lost's phases:
I had a lot of fun working on this project, any feedback is welcome and greatly appreciated!
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