Racoon Escape Artist (Houdini meets ember spirit)

[l0ckj4w - cunninghamelijah]

Lore / visual inspiration:
Why is he a racoon? Because racoons are cool, love to get into trash cans, and are associated with being mischievous in mysticism.
Why is he an escape artist? Because it fits the abilities, and you can draw from the life and legacy of the theme-appropriate Harry Houdini.

Gameplay summary:
Ember spirit meets phantom-lancer.
A remnant-style character that places trash cans around the map and uses them to teleport / summon illusions

Illusions are dota-style % of base damage, but they can be upgraded with talents to proc attack modifiers. They could possibly expire as soon as they expend their full clip.

Abilities:

1. Summon trash - place a trash can, a totem with some amount of health. If destroyed by Racoon, it does damage in an AOE.
2. Magic Trick - destroy a trash can to summon a clone, can be upgraded to make you invisible after casting)
3. Great escape - Destroy and teleport to a trashcan.
4. Grand Finale - summon a clone at every trashcan. Does not consume trash cans.

Counterplay:
Enemies can destroy racoon's barrels
Enemies can wait at racoon's barrels to kill him if he teleports to them
Enemies can use slowing hex (etc.) on racoon

Interactions:
Bebop could launch Racoon's barrels, giving him a forward position to teleport into the fight / bait abilities by creating an illusion

 

[zachary.coon2]

I would main a raccoon character!

 

[traindog0]

Fucking Amazing

 

[Chilla9001]

Because racoons are cool

True
Cool concept, what Im wondering about tho is how great escape works, IE does it work like Ember spirit's ult does, where Ember has to go through all the remnants on the map before reaching the remnant they targeted, or do they just immediately teleport to the selected trash can? if its the latter, then that sounds like itd be a tad broken, maybe having it work like how blink dagger does (IE getting dmged puts it on a 5 second cooldown) would work better?

 

[l0ckj4w - cunninghamelijah]

True
Cool concept, what Im wondering about tho is how great escape works, IE does it work like Ember spirit's ult does, where Ember has to go through all the remnants on the map before reaching the remnant they targeted, or do they just immediately teleport to the selected trash can? if its the latter, then that sounds like itd be a tad broken, maybe having it work like how blink dagger does (IE getting dmged puts it on a 5 second cooldown) would work better?

I think some ways to potentially balance Great Escape could include:

1. Add a cast animation similar to Mo n Krill dive to give people time to do damage / slowing hex.
2. Add a moderate cooldown
3. Put the skill on cooldown when the player takes damage
4. Destroy all trash cans when used

I don't like the idea of destroying all of the trash cans because I see Great Escape and Magic Trick being used interchangeably to fake out opponents, but I think some combination of the other options would work well.

 

[l0ckj4w - cunninghamelijah]

I would encourage people to think about how you might use these skills in-game, I think they synergize well and would provide a lot of opportunities for emergent play.

Just to give some examples, the cans could be used for:

1. Farming waves / neutrals by blowing the cans up / spawning clones
2. Getting out of a fight by teleporting to a can left in a safe area
3. Placing a can behind the enemy and teleporting to it mid-fight to clean up stragglers
4. Placing a can in a tricky spot like a veil to initiate
5. Faking people out by pretending to teleport to a can with Magic Trick
6. Placing a bunch of cans around mid boss to cause chaos with the ultimate