Raven Rework Idea: Current abilities feel out of place

[borthpolymer]

In my opinion, Raven's core gameplay loop of trying to get enemies to turn their back on your so he can do more damage feels a bit out of place for a suave debonair James-Bond style character. I feel like the "keep your eyes off this character" suits a more omen-like, dark Ixian style character, who utilizes their kit to limit player turn radius and aim sensitivity, do more damage to enemies' backs, and cause damage just by looking at them. Think of some sort of evil demonic entity/person that curses those who look at it.

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For Raven, I think his abilities would feel more appropriate if it was based around a bunch of unique spy gadgets similar to his umbrella. Off the top of my head I can think of a few gadgets that could open up some unique gameplay scenarios for Deadlock:

1. Radar-Jamming Watch — You could have a an ability allows Raven to appear off the enemies radar for a short time window. Upgrading the ability allows you to place a "dummy" character map indicator for Raven in a position of your choosing, that moves around in a specified direction. For example, this could allow you to trick the enemy into thinking you're pushing Purple Lane, while you're sneakily pushing Yellow Lane, and your real position doesn't appear on the enemy team's map. Other upgrades can increase the amount of time your actual position remains off the map.

2. FlashBang Spirit Corsage — Raven can activate his spirit corsage on his tuxedo that emits a bright flash of light, completely blinding the enemy opponent, and lowering their spirit resistance. Allows Raven to make a quick getaway with his reverse-propulsion umbrella, while firing off a few shots during the escape. Upgrades can increase the duration of the flash bang effect, while also revealing their position through walls to teammates for a few seconds.

3. Umbrella Maneuver — Keep as is, possibly add charges so you can chain together backwards gusts.

4. Remote Surveillance Bomb — When you're within a 3m range of an enemy, you can place an undetectable remote bomb onto an enemy's body. You can choose when to detonate the bomb within a 4 minute time window, but while the bomb stays on the enemy their position is permanently displayed on your team's map, allowing for that player to be tracked. Upgrades to the ability can scale the explosion damage, increase the radius of the explosion, increase the time window before detonation, or reveal players nearby to the tracked enemy. Creates a unique gameplay situation in which you either choose to wait for the perfect moment to detonate the bomb during a team fight for max explosion damage, or keep the bomb on during a retreat, so you can monitor that player's next actions for a few minutes.

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I think some abilities like this would create some very unique gameplay loop. Incentivizing Raven players to play sneaky, be deceptive, and try to get away with split pushes. And when you're discovered, you can attach a remote bomb, flash bang, and fly out with your umbrella while take a few shots. Followed up with either choosing to detonate the bomb to finish off a kill, or leaving it on them while you quickly escape, and monitor their position for intel.

I posted this in the private Raven Feedback thread for devs, but thought I'd share here as well. I kept the details of each ability vague, and omitted any hypothetical stats, open to any thoughts or suggestions!

 

[lordoftheboos]

These are some cool ideas! However, I feel like with these 4 abilities being really utility focused, it might make the character very unsatisfying to play in pubs because nothing of his will really do much damage outside of his ult (but that's an ult). Most heroes in this game, even the "support" chars like Ivy/Kelvin/Dynamo/Viscous have some ability that you can build around to deal a lot of damage (Ivy kudzu build, Kelvin nade build, Dynamo stomp or gun build, and Viscous has like 5 different strong builds you can go).

Following up on that point, I feel like with this kit you wouldn't really get any value out of spirit items outside of CD and Duration cuz only the ult does damage, and maybe the flashbang too (but this is probably going to be kept low cuz its supposed to be a utility ability).

As for suggestions, I would greatly lower the duration and damage of the ult you suggested and make it his 1 ability (despite the current 1 suggestion you gave being really cool). I would probably change the bomb to be a ranged skillshot as well, since the character doesn't really have a way to get enemies in range of him like Bebop does. This would be his "main damaging ability" to build around, and the upgrades could still increase the duration & damage like you said.

As for what his new ult would be, I think taking a page out of his lore could be cool:

4. Specter of the Czarina
Raven takes out an artifact/gadget housing Catherine the Great's ghost and she launches a ghostly projection of her body. This is a projectile with a decent travel speed and a medium size starting out (think base pocket's cloak). This projectile does not stop on any walls and terrain, instead travelling through them (I think it could go about 2-lanes worth of distance at base). However, Catherine's projection increases in size and does more damage the further the projectile travels. Possible upgrades this ability could be adding a "fear" effect to enemies hit once the projection has reached max size, increasing the travel distance of the ult, increasing the speed at which the ult travels, and maybe even a T3 upgrade that adds the option for Raven to recast the ult and make it travel back towards his current location.

For balancing reasons, I would also make sure this ult has a LOUD voiceline that enemies can hear if they're in range so they can attempt to avoid it.

Playstyle:
This version of Raven synergizes nicely off of the other 3 abilities you've suggested. You can plant Remote Surveillance Bomb on people and keep the bomb revealing them to hit a sweet ult on them later, and detonate it after the ult lands to land a large chunk of damage (but you'll have to predict your ult trajectory well!) Umbrella Maneuver also gives you a nice way to position at a distance to land a stronger ult. Flashbang synergizes with his Umbrella and Bomb for the same reasons you mentioned in the original post.

Would be glad to hear some feedback of what you think of my changes!