T3 Weapon: Bolt Action (Reworked)

[Rosgath]

I've considered this concept and I do agree that there is design space for a "one big shot" type effect, but I don't think that increasing weapon damage on the shooter's end is the right approach. It makes it too easy to abuse and works almost too well with the rapid fire nature of the current M1 landscape is made.

We do have items like Headhunter which add a solid amount of damage to a headshot, but that requires a headshot and actually kind of favors high fire rate anyway as you want to keep it on CD as often as you can, so I figured I'd work something up that might work with both.

Here's a Mockup of the idea I had:


It ends up at around 210 damage every 1.5 seconds, and Transcendent Cooldown should reduce the CD further to bring it down to something like 1.15s, which can be quite a bit of DPS if you take the time to line up your shots each time.

I pitched the damage lower than Headhunter, but the scaling is the same. I did this because the Cooldown is much shorter than Headhunter's Cooldown, which I think is justifiable as it doesn't also provide healing like Headhunter does.

 

[Stark Trist]

I've considered this concept and I do agree that there is design space for a "one big shot" type effect, but I don't think that increasing weapon damage on the shooter's end is the right approach. It makes it too easy to abuse and works almost too well with the rapid fire nature of the current M1 landscape is made.

We do have items like Headhunter which add a solid amount of damage to a headshot, but that requires a headshot and actually kind of favors high fire rate anyway as you want to keep it on CD as often as you can, so I figured I'd work something up that might work with both.

...

It ends up at around 210 damage every 1.5 seconds, and Transcendent Cooldown should reduce the CD further to bring it down to something like 1.15s, which can be quite a bit of DPS if you take the time to line up your shots each time.

I pitched the damage lower than Headhunter, but the scaling is the same. I did this because the Cooldown is much shorter than Headhunter's Cooldown, which I think is justifiable as it doesn't also provide healing like Headhunter does.

Really interesting to think about how this would change the player's shooting patterns. I feel like it would encourage shooting a single bullet toward each nearby enemy in rapid succession.

That sounds really quite interesting as a shooting behavior but also really difficult to use in most cases. Switching between targets is really challenging and in most cases you've only got ~2-3 enemies visible in any given moment of a team fight.

Breaking line of sight (LOS) is really important when fighting gun characters, so players tend to get really good at avoiding LOS as a general rule.

I really like how this item can combo with Split Shot as you tend to get at least 1 shot off on several people on the enemy team. It only would trigger once, but that's still potentially quite good.

Might also be interesting with mystic shot as well... hrm...

Thanks for putting some thought into this design space. It's really interesting to read your thoughts on mechanically how an item could reward methodical shooting.

 

[Stark Trist]

I've considered this concept and I do agree that there is design space for a "one big shot" type effect, but I don't think that increasing weapon damage on the shooter's end is the right approach.

With the addition of Silver, Celeste and Venator to the game I don't think this item is possible as written. Rework time!

Design goals: Players should focus to land each shot fired. Aiming carefully should be rewarded. Clicking each bullet into the enemy is enjoyable. Currently item progression and fire-rate makes this style of shooting weak in the mid-late game for nearly every character.

Bolt Action (Vitality Rework)

Drain damage is not lethal. Cooldown trigger on fire.​

Note(Spirit Scaling): This item is probably best suited to casters and supporting players who intend to carefully take shots between using abilities. It's a fantastic way to "store" health and would also pair very well with spirit life steal.

Note(Upgrades From): This item upgrades from High-Velocity Rounds AND Restorative shot because it's cheap enough that you could buy all 3 in the lane phase. With this recipe it's "locked out" to prevent massive bullet heals in the lane phase from stacking effects.

Note(Bullets Per Second):
1) Bullets per second does not lower your total damage per second.
2) Bullets per second is applied before any other fire rate modifiers (modifies the base gun stats).
3) Bullets per second reduces the number of shots needed for buildup items/abilities.

Note(When not Firing): Begins draining when your character after a period of 0.1 seconds where you are not performing a Primary Shot or Alt-Shot and Bolt Action is not on cooldown.

Note(Items):
Split Shot: Cursor/Center bullet must hit in order for effect to trigger. (same as Restorative shot)
Ricochet: effect does not bounce. (same as Restorative shot)
Plated Armor: Can prevent Bolt Action completely.
Ethereal Shift: Draining while ethereal works, and you take no damage.
Cheat Death: Draining while cheating death works, and you take no damage.
Healing Reduction Items: Reduction is ONLY applied to the stolen health.
Healing Effectiveness Items: Effectiveness is ONLY applied to the stolen health.
Tank Buster: Bolt Action's Stolen health damage can trigger.

Note(Cooldown): I am not sure this item needs a cooldown. However, It seems reasonable to match up the cooldown with a player's natural reload to drain in that time period. That way, for most player it would be the first bullet fired after reload which matches to close to Restorative Shot's CD. Additionally, a cooldown should help avoid some negative player dynamics and pair well with slide/dash/ammo restoring items.

Math for Bolt Action (BA):

Souls	Case	Max Drained	Max Stolen
3200	BA (First Item)	(~1400hp * 0.07) = 98	98 * 0.8 = 78 Health Stolen
6400	BA + Arcane Surge + Enchanters	(~1700hp * 0.075) = 127	127* 1.0 = 127 Health Stolen
12,800	BA + Arcane Surge + Enchanters + Fortitude + Tank Buster	(~2200hp * .081) = 178	178.2 * 1.15 = 204 Health Stolen

Other Items:

Souls	Item	Cooldown	Health Restored
800	Restorative Shot	6	50 or 15 HP
3200	Health Nova	60	360 HP (AOE)
3200	Veil Walker	15	121 HP