T3 Weapon: Alchemical Greed - An "Investment" item that makes you earn more souls

[jinijin1337]

< insert yap here > It's just Hands of Midas and Greevil's Greed (both from Dota 2) combined.
With the power of alchemy (fits within the world building of Deadlock) you can transmute souls for MORE souls

Tier 3 Weapon Item
Alchemical Greed
[+14% Weapon Damage]
Total Costs: 3,500 Souls
Requires Monster Rounds

+25% Fire Rate
+35% Weapon Damage vs. NPCs
+35% Bullet Resist vs. NPCs
+75 Bonus Health
+2 Health Regen

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Passive:
Troopers and Denizens (neutral/jungle camps) grants extra 15% souls. Unsecured souls also converts to secured
souls at a faster rate.
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My idea is to give players options to A.) further increase their farm, and B.) the ability to come back from a soul
deficit. "But isn't this OP? It grants you extra souls!" I believe it's balanced as you're spending souls for something that
doesn't give you a power spike. It will take you time to save up for this item, and when you do get it, you're still going to
farm and earn back the costs. But the purpose of this item it to allow players to snowball further if you're confident in your
current game, or help narrow the gap of the souls net worth in the later stages of the game.

The math is not accurate here, but imagine this. You are losing the early game and you're 20k net souls behind. You farm for
the next 5-10mins and you closed the gap to only 15k. But if you do have this item, you can narrow that further. If it takes you
5-10 mins to farm for 2 core items, now you can earn for 3 core items in the same span of time.

This item is a FARMING item, it's not OP as it does not give you an advantage in team fights. The same 3.5k souls could've gotten
you a Pristine Emblem, a Titanic Magazine, Improved Armors, Improved Spirit Items, etc. This item ONLY helps you farm for the
LATE GAME. So purchase at your own risk.

 

[Stakhanov]

Seven players already have a tendency to disappear in the jungle for half an hour as it is , if they had a farming item that would make them even less competitive in the short term you would never see them until very late game. Besides , I dislike the idea of faster soul securing rate , jungling is designed to allow an aggressive enemy team to punish that activity and get the souls for themselves. An item with a simple increase to unsecured souls gain might be fine , but probably too much of a newbie trap.

 

[jinijin1337]

I understand the concern people might have when seeing items like this. But I believe that's the essence of a MOBA. An ability like this already exist in Dota 2 in the hero called Alchemist which is his inate passive. AN INNATE PASSIVE! LOL. You don't even have to purchase anything. He has it as part of his abilities. But despite what it sounds like he's actually a very balanced hero and not always picked in the pro scene. Same with the item Hand of Midas, not every game you see players use it. MOBAs should be a game where every game is different from the last and should give players a variety of options on how to approach the current state of their game.

IceFrog is excellent in making games balanced. So here are the scenarios I think how this can be balanced.

- If a leading team/player, let's say like Seven, buys this item. That means he will play more passively and continue to farm for the next 20-30 minutes. If that's the case then teamfights will often be a 5v6. Should Seven join the fight, he does not have the advantage unlike when he could've used the same 3.5k souls for a Tesla Bullets, an Improved Spirit, or a Pristine Emblem. Like you said, the losing team can check the items of the enemy team and they can go "Guys! Seven bought Alchemical Greed. Let's try to intercept him in the camps".

- The leading team is not the only one that can buy Alchemical Greed, so does the losing team. That means that if a player like Seven takes the game to the late game, that means he's also giving time for the enemy team to farm. So if both carries of opposing teams have this item and are given time to farm or take the game to the 50+ minutes, Seven doesn't necessarily have the advantage because both teams were able to delay the game enough that both teams can fight.

- The losing team can buy this item and the fact that (especially if the enemy has the Rejuvinator) the creep waves will push to their base, that's like bringing the farm to the losing team and they earn 10% more souls from those troopers. If the losing team can defend for quite some time, they can close the gap in the souls net worth.

- Like I said, it's a situational item. The losing team can opt to initiate team fights because they know the hard carry will not join team fights early on and try to end the game before the carry gets online.

 

[Stakhanov]

My concern is not so much about the game balance (as an item , it's accessible to both sides anyway) but the quality of gameplay. I don't think it's so wise to implement something that reduces player interaction , even in a moba. Risk taking should be encouraged.

 

[jinijin1337]

My concern is not so much about the game balance (as an item , it's accessible to both sides anyway) but the quality of gameplay. I don't think it's so wise to implement something that reduces player interaction , even in a moba. Risk taking should be encouraged.

I believe there's still risks to it as you're 1.) leaving your team to fight while you focus on farm, 2.) The enemy team can take the risk and invade your jungle to stop you from farming, or 3.) Buying an item that provides nothing to team fights as the losing team. But regards to your comment "that reduces player interaction", that I agree with you. Unlike other MOBA, Deadlock is also a her shooter so yeah, I agree with more player interactions.