Situational and Playstyle specific items

[vernkastel]

A lot of items in Deadlock right now are very 'generalist'. Every hero can reasonably equip any of them and do pretty well (WHICH I THINK IS VERY GOOD!) but I do wish there are more situational items to buy or items that favour certain playstyles (Although I understand this is harder to implement and balance).

Sharpshooter's Sights - 6200 Souls
'I see you.'

Weapon Damage +30%
Effective range before damage fall off for bullets +50%

Passive - Critical Range - Attacking enemies beyond 30 meters gives your attack 30% bullet resist penetration and +50% headshot damage.

Highlander - 1250
'Up here, there can only be one.'

Ammo +10%
Weapon damage +15%

Passive - Elevated Killer - Bullets have a 3% ~ 15% damage bonus when attacking from an elevated position. Damage bonus scales depending on how high you are compared to your target.

Eaglesong - 3000 Souls
'A weapon from a war between ancient beings. Perfect for the occasion.'

Weapon damage +20%
Fire rate + 25%

Passive - Finesse - Enemies hit by your gun are are left vulnerable for 4 seconds allowing your next melee attack against them deal 30% more damage. Your melee attacks also reduces enemy bullet resistance by 20%. (The idea is that your melee improves your gun damage, your gun attacks improve your melee damage).

Radical Sneakers - 1250 Souls
'Radical and sneakers aren't a thing yet, but they will!'

Stamina +1
Sprint speed +2ms
Slide distance +50%

Passive - Freestyle Shooter - For the duration of a slide, increase weapon damage by 15% and headshot damage by 15%.

Formal Ghillie Suit - 3000 Souls
'A suit fit for formal events and covert operations.'

Health +200
Bullet resist +8%

Passive - Camouflage - After crouching for 2.5 seconds without attacking or being attacked, enter 'Camouflage' state, you have to remain crouch to maintain 'Camouflage'. While in 'Camouflage', your hero will be invisible (similar to Haze). Dashing or being damaged will disable this passive. Attacking while the passive is active will break 'Camouflage' and you gain 'Ambush' which gives you +15% Weapon Damage and +30% Fire Rate for 5 seconds.

 

[L0rdMada]

Love this! These items will definitely add a bit of complexity to the game and raise the skill ceiling.

 

[bosobr0]

Man, just gonna say, this is even MORE food for Vindicta and Grey Talon which are already high A-tier units when played well. If you stack Sharpshooter's Sights and Highlander on them, well... yeah, now they're going to pubstomp.

Still great ideas, and I love the utilization of more melee and sneak passives as opposed to push tactic abilities.

 

[L0rdMada]

Man, just gonna say, this is even MORE food for Vindicta and Grey Talon which are already high A-tier units when played well. If you stack Sharpshooter's Sights and Highlander on them, well... yeah, now they're going to pubstomp.

We will have imbalanced items, builds, heroes, etc all of the time just like any other game.

Then we would have nerfs and balance and so on.

 

[vernkastel]

Man, just gonna say, this is even MORE food for Vindicta and Grey Talon which are already high A-tier units when played well. If you stack Sharpshooter's Sights and Highlander on them, well... yeah, now they're going to pubstomp.

Still great ideas, and I love the utilization of more melee and sneak passives as opposed to push tactic abilities.

Yeah. It's would be a balance nightmare. If the numbers are too high, they become mandatory for certain heroes, but if they're too low no one will buy them because they're so niche. Like I said in the OP, I admit it would be difficult to balance but I do wish there were more items that catered to specific playstyles.

 

[bosobr0]

Yeah. It's would be a balance nightmare. If the numbers are too high, they become mandatory for certain heroes, but if they're too low no one will buy them because they're so niche. Like I said in the OP, I admit it would be difficult to balance but I do wish there were more items that catered to specific playstyles.

If the goal is just to cater to specific playstyles better, I would guess it also matters on the units. As it stands, most of our best units in-game are zoners and pick classes, which both play very similarly. In trying to test out quite a few units, all of the 'A rank' and 'S rank' units are particularly similar in playstyle AND rely on semi-similar builds (the only major difference is choosing what to buy first, as more ability-centric classes will focus on Mystic items as opposed to Attack items).

If they created characters like Abrams and Bebop more often, which DO rely on significantly different playstyles, then we could definitely expect to see different playstyles and strategies, as Abrams' gimmick of close-combat and melee as well as Bebop's disruption and combo could create more diversity in ability usage.

As it stands though, I do feel like we also have a lot of not-as-used abilities as well, so probably after the first few rounds of new units and items come out, we might actually see some old unpopular ones be removed as well.

Regardless, Sharpshooter's Sights is balanced for the cost, though Highlander would probably need to be pushed to 3,000 cost at least.