New item: Vampire's Ascent

[Hakumei]

Spoiler: Personal note

Firstly, I just want to say that Deadlock is my favorite game. I fell in love with it after only my second match. With that in mind, I want to contribute how I can and leave my mark in one way or another, always being a lasting part of it for as long as I can. ​

So, this is the first major direct contribution I could think of.

Item name: Vampire's Ascent

Cost/Tier: 6400.

Category: Spirit.

Use: After defeating a trooper or monster and restoring hp from it, gain a stacking buff that lasts for 8 seconds. Each stack increases spirit power & spirit lifesteal by 5 per stack, up to 5 stacks. No cooldown.

(If too weak or strong, the maximum number of stacks can be lowered or raised, as well as the buff duration raised or lowered.)

If a weaker 3200/1600 version is needed, it could be named vampire's descent, and could apply a weaker version of the same buff. Or, if the 6400 version is too weak, it could also provide the buff upon killing and getting healing from players, instead of only troopers and monsters. (Any ability that kills and heals.)​

Spoiler: Reasoning behind the item

I want to preface this by saying that this item was made with Mina in mind, to compliment her kit. With her playstyle, you need to play her up close/mid range. She doesn't have enough sustained damage to be able to do that, simply because of how her kit works. She's more of a skirmisher/assassin with her current playstyle, meant to proc her passive, go in with her 1st ability and finish opponents off, and then get out. That's it. She's a lot weaker than any of the new characters, if not a lot of the entire roster in general. Her only real teamfight potential is in her ult, which she can be cced out of or killed in very easily.

A lot of the roster can very easily last in fights if not multi kill late into the game, but because Mina has to do a lot of damage mid range to close up, she's susceptible to being killed very easily. And she doesn't scale with spirit power which would be nice, it only adds damage to an otherwise cool but very underwhelming ult. I main Mina now and she's my favorite character out of the bunch, but there's no denying that she's comparatively weak.

This item is not meant to be an overall solution for her weaknesses, but meant to give her a better window of when to fight and compliment what she already currently has.

The general intended use for the item would be stacking it, and then engaging a short fight while the buff is stacked, so that you have actual lasting kill potential solo. A reward for killing troopers and then fighting, or being in the jungle and then seeking a fight quickly.

 

[Hakumei]

Post buff, Mina is pretty strong. If she was like this on release, she would've been a good contender. Still not as good as any of the other new characters damage output and sustained fighting wise, but it's at least a start. This item would probably put her there, to at least assassinate any squishy and get out.

 

[gibnewitems]

Sounds pretty similar to Ammo Scavenger (old item). That only gave 1 spirit (and a little bit of sprint upon reaching max stacks), but it lasted a lot longer (45s vs 8) and was only a tier 1.

+25 to spirit and spirit life steal does sound like a lot (especially if it maxes out at just 5 troopers/denizens), but the duration being just 8 seconds kinda drags the whole item down. Having to kill a trooper or a denizen every 8 seconds otherwise you lose all your stacks restricts you to just fighting around the wave or the nearest camp. That's incredibly predictable, especially if the only reward you get isn't really that big (especially for a tier 4 item).

Also, I don't think it's a good idea to be designing items around single heroes. Nothing's stopping other heroes from taking this item and doing far better with it than Mina.

 

[Hakumei]

Sounds pretty similar to Ammo Scavenger (old item). That only gave 1 spirit (and a little bit of sprint upon reaching max stacks), but it lasted a lot longer (45s vs 8) and was only a tier 1.

+25 to spirit and spirit life steal does sound like a lot (especially if it maxes out at just 5 troopers/denizens), but the duration being just 8 seconds kinda drags the whole item down. Having to kill a trooper or a denizen every 8 seconds otherwise you lose all your stacks restricts you to just fighting around the wave or the nearest camp. That's incredibly predictable, especially if the only reward you get isn't really that big (especially for a tier 4 item).

Also, I don't think it's a good idea to be designing items around single heroes. Nothing's stopping other heroes from taking this item and doing far better with it than Mina.

Of course, there are other characters it could be used on, I considered that. I thought of it mostly with Mina in mind, with intentions of it being complimentary, but it could easily be used on pretty much anyone that heals when killing something with an ability. It still would only provide a boost of spirit lifesteal and spirit power, so it wouldn't be too crazy on anyone else either. The only other large benefactors I could think of are Geist, and maybe Seven because of his clear and movement speed.

And yes, while the stacks are high, the whole point is that the item is meant to be situational/limited to a certain time and area. Requiring preparation for knowing when and where you would engage, and then doing so; using the power spike from the item to make a difference. It's meant to be an item you only utilize in the right conditions. Fighting using the advantage of the item near a camp or wave. It's not meant to just be a plug and play low skill item. The large initial boost it would give is because you have to keep maintaining the stacks every few seconds or you lose them, all while fighting potential opponents in between.

If the stacks lasted too long, the item would be *too* strong. It wouldn't matter too much what hero took it, because no matter what, they'd still have to have to have been in an area where they could keep and maintain the stacks before fighting. Obviously something had to "drag the item down" to balance it. You say it's predictable, but that doesn't matter and hardly even means anything. Troopers spawning and camps respawning are predictable too. And again, the numbers could always be tweaked if it's too weak or too strong.

Edit: Thanks for the feedback.