Mystic Bracer and Echo Saber | T2+T4 Spirits with Shadowboxing! for Casters/Bruisers

[oireoireoire]

A Tier 2 Spirit Item and its related Tier 4 upgrade.
Manage your ability uptime to maximize damage and be rewarded with sustain -
then shadowbox your opponent, duplicating your melee strikes from afar.

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Mystic Bracer​

Each cast of an ability grants a stack and resets the previous stack(s) duration. Each stack adds to the spirit damage potential of your next successful melee (missed and parried melees do not lose stacks). Once you melee an enemy you lose all stacks . There is no internal cooldown. To get value one is expected to be able to cast abilities on a frequent enough basis to reset the duration and capitalize within that duration. Heal is based on post mitigation damage (you heal less on heroes and units with spirit resist).

Frequently Asked Questions for Mystic Bracer

Spoiler: Who is this item for and why?

Spirit focused low cooldown casters and bruisers. Not Abrams! These archetypes are notoriously hard to balance across skill levels. Providing items with good levers allows these heroes to be kept more in check. This is not a catch all item. Not every build for this archetype is expected to include this item. Instead it is meant to provide better separation (diversity) within the archetype's build options.

Spoiler: Does the damage proc on troopers and denizens?

Yes. Their innate spirit resist will reduce the heal amount. Securing troopers in lane prevents stacking the passive but still provides value when unable to engage with the opponent. This ensures that it is mainly for users who can reliably stack the passive while not being a dead item when farming.

Spoiler: Why Heavy Melee Distance?

The effort required to guarantee a heavy melee when wanting to maximize this item's value is high. Missing opportunities due to being slightly too far would feel bad. Heroes that purchase this item also will benefit from the increased mobility.

Spoiler: Why Spirit Lifesteal?

This would be the sole item in the Spirit category to provide lifesteal besides Mystic Reverb (T4). It is a stat users of this item want. Typically melee items boost melee damage but, lifesteal is more appropriate due to melees being stronger every ability cast. It should be low enough to mainly be beneficial when used in tandem with the passive but not high enough to overshadow spirit lifesteal focused items.

Spoiler: Is the duration too short?

Maximizing the item should take effort equal to the reward while still being consistent and benefiting from Superior Duration.

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Echo Saber​

Target an enemy to apply a debuff. Your melees send out spirit damage copies of the same type (light or heavy) to the debuffed target on a delay. Your melees do not need to be in range or hit. This effectively grants you ranged melees. The copied melees can not miss normally. They can be parried or the debuff dispelled. The delay makes light melees able to be parried on reaction. Heal is based on post mitigation damage (you heal less on heroes and units with spirit resist).

Frequently Asked Questions for Echo Saber (Active)

Spoiler: Why an upgrade and why this upgrade?

The T2 on its own can feel rough when slot locked or behind. As a match progresses the tools and high volume of fights would prevent the user from getting much value outside of their heroes kit. This active is expected to operate differently across games and brackets. It will create engaging scenarios with fun counter-play while retaining the cool factor that is expected from a lesser (comes from an upgrade) T4 item.

Spoiler: Do you have to be in range for your melees to copy?

No. This is a T4 item. You only need to be in range to initially apply the debuff. You can melee from any distance after that.

Spoiler: If a physical melee (non-copy) gets canceled or parried does it still copy?

Yes. If the parry occurs after the delay then one could end up parrying nothing. Also as a T4 item you should be able to get some value even if immediately punished.

Spoiler: Does the item have no value once skilled players start parrying all the copies?

Forcing a parry still functions as pseudo-lockdown without providing a direct form of CC.

Spoiler: This item is broken! Where is the counter?

If the active is used. You can parry not just the delayed melees but also the opponent doing the melees (allies can do this for you!). They get no value without throwing out a melee besides potential mind games so it can be expected more often than not. The item is can also be dispelled.

Spoiler: This item is just bad. How could this be useful?

CC setups allow combos with this item to have high damage and provide sustain. If you target someone but then melee someone else you are attacking two targets at once. Baiting out parries then following up with this works as well. It can function as both a pick and escape tool. Picking off low HP targets and using the increased heavy melee distance to escape whilst attacking a chasing debuffed enemy. The provided stats are also good.

Spoiler: How will this item be depicted in-game?

A few ideas that come to mind are:
During the delay before the attack have a ghost version of the user appear in a random spot around the target and then play their melee animation but this could be potentially visually cluttering.
Or have a ghost hand that appears near the target that winds up during the delay with a different animation for light and heavy melee. Sound effects can be the same as melees currently but run through a filter.

Spoiler: Echo Sabre is a Dota 2 item!

Yeah. I got you to read this and it fits. Frequently discussed alternative names were: Shadowboxer, and Shadow Gauntlet.

Spoiler: Why Saber and not Sabre?

We are in New York!

You should add X detail to the description!
Deadlock item descriptions have the luxury of not needing to provide all nuance due to the ability to test in-game. I wanted to mimic that and provide the extra details in an FAQ format. The FAQ is based on what players may ask themselves as well as what people have asked me when proposing these items. Anything not in the description would be able to be tested easily and quickly in-game!

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Thank you for your time. Let me know if the format is good as well as your thoughts on the items of course! I wanted a solid spirit T2 with a good niche that takes into account the shift in "modern" hero design with a fun T4 upgrade while still within the visible realm of possibility for Deadlock.

 

[oireoireoire]

Not sure why on dark mode some of the FAQ is hard to read. Thought I pasted as plaintext. Sorry. Please just highlight to read if on dark mode. I am unable to edit now.

 

[Dervish]

Cool concept. Some notes:

1. Very few characters can effectively stack Mystic Bracer in the early game. This makes it pretty weak as a T2 item. It might be better to not have a stack duration, as there is a maximum stack level already. Instead, gaining stacks only while in combat similarly to Spellslinger might be a better option.

2. The lifesteal effect on both of these items is redundant with Lifestrike and Melee Lifesteal. This isn't a bad thing per se, but having a different effect could be more interesting. The spirit lifesteal value on both items is also very high.

3. Heavy Melee distance was nerfed on Melee Charge and Crushing Fists after it was determined to be very strong. Allowing another source of Heavy Melee distance may make heavy melees overpowered again.

4. Shadowboxing is an interesting effect, but making melee projectiles automatically track to a single target seems like a waste. Having the player character launch projectiles where they are aiming while using melees would increase player agency for both players. The projectile effect could also be varied for light vs heavy melees.

 

[oireoireoire]

Cool concept. Some notes:

1. Very few characters can effectively stack Mystic Bracer in the early game. This makes it pretty weak as a T2 item. It might be better to not have a stack duration, as there is a maximum stack level already. Instead, gaining stacks only while in combat similarly to Spellslinger might be a better option.

2. The lifesteal effect on both of these items is redundant with Lifestrike and Melee Lifesteal. This isn't a bad thing per se, but having a different effect could be more interesting. The spirit lifesteal value on both items is also very high.

3. Heavy Melee distance was nerfed on Melee Charge and Crushing Fists after it was determined to be very strong. Allowing another source of Heavy Melee distance may make heavy melees overpowered again.

4. Shadowboxing is an interesting effect, but making melee projectiles automatically track to a single target seems like a waste. Having the player character launch projectiles where they are aiming while using melees would increase player agency for both players. The projectile effect could also be varied for light vs heavy melees.

Hey thanks for the response! The insight and perspective is actually new. I have a few counterarguments to your points and some insight on why I designed it this way. My previous iterations got feedback before I posted to the forum so there is some thought here:

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1+2: Stack difficulty is by design to maintain the niche. Note that one can dump abilities all at once to gain multiple stacks and so long as they have; a cooldown lower than the duration, resets, charges, or even multicast abilities, they have a fair chance of fully stacking through upkeep.

The item is still effective when not a max stacks. It has no internal cooldown and the damage scales with spirit (see 4.8k). The spirit lifesteal is not redundant. Users will lifesteal off their frequently used abilities (having to burn cooldowns at less opportune times should have benefit beyond hopes of a max stack hit) as well as the passives damage proc.

Requiring players be in combat would be more difficult for some current (and future) heroes. Heroes with setup abilities or ones that initiate would not benefit from their casts.

If stacks are lost when out of combat with no duration: the stack count would be lowered and the damage per stack increased. This escapes its niche and becomes telegraphed burst (dump all abilities then melee) with extra steps. If stacks are maintained instead with no duration: frustration would increase when on the recieving end, and it develops an engagement problem. Theres now an incentive to perpetually hold stacks (do I punch this camp or wait for an upcoming fight?). That is awkward.

A good lever would be to increase the duration if necessary but superior duration needs to be considered.

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3: Heavy melee distance should stack multiplicatively. Here are the values.
Crushing fists currently provides 60%.
Mystic bracer + melee charge is 65%.
Echo saber + melee charge is 70%.
Mystic bracer + crushing fists is 72%.
Echo saber + crushing fists is 76%.

These items won't be combined too frequently but the most likely common combination is MB+MC which does beat out CF by 5%. This is fine to me due to the split investment but I definitely see the concern, especially for future heroes / possibilities. A reduction of 5-10% on MB would put the combo at 62.5% to 60%. How does this sound to you?

ES+CF is expensive. Not viable frequently enough and the value you get from the charge distance happens late in the game. It should be allowed to be high. Just like when stacking ability range from multiple sources. It would be goofy but that isn't always a bad thing in Deadlock. I think the issue with Heavy Melee Distance is when it is cheap. MB and ES on their own are also just worse than MC in terms of distance.

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4: I can very strongly argue how this would reduce player agency as the item becomes one dimensional.

You are now forced to advance since you melee towards the target. Currently you can melee in any direction from any distance. This inherently reduces how often you can even melee. The duration would have to be long. There is no guarantee to force an action from the enemy which makes it a poor T4 item. Not being targeted allows it to be used from afar immediately. No delay makes it less reactive at certain ranges. All enemies in the vicinity must now be aware of its threat range.

This would feel more like an ability in a heroes kit (which could be very cool) than an item in the shop and would be a completely different item serving a completely different use case.

Also with how light and heavy melees interact with movement... it would probably just feel awkward to use.

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Thanks again for the response. Interested in any other thoughts/ideas you have.

 

[Dervish]

Yes I totally agree with some of your first point. My only concern is that in the early game, dps out put from this item is very low compared to other spirit items. Consider Quicksilver Reload, which has an optimal dps output of a little over 2 per second. Some characters will be able to stack this item 2-3 times every 20 seconds, resulting in only about a 1 to 1.5 dps. Many characters will be unable to proc that amount and have a much lower dps.

That being said, I think you may be right that the in combat requirement might be a little awkward.

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Regarding Heavy Melee distance, non-linear scaling seems like a reasonable solution. Heavy Melee Distance may just have to stack inefficiently.

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Regarding the last note, I still think auto target is a bit limited. I do agree that movement and shadowboxing with heavy melees would be pretty awkward, but light melees already act like a short range projectile with no movement penalties.

It might be worth considering having the projectile launch effect be only active for light melees, while another effect occurs with heavy melees. Maybe heavy melees extend the effect duration.

Having shadowboxing be a launched projectile also allows the user to use the item as a passive buff rather than a targetted debuff, which I feel might be a bit more flavor appropriate.

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Thanks for reviewing my notes, I don't have any more suggestions. Great idea and I hope we get something like it in game!