InertPotato
New member
I’ve been thinking an Invoker style character, as seen in DotA2, would be an interesting concept but I found it hard to balance in some ways. The biggest strength of Invoker was always his versatility, being able to pull out everything from damage, mana burn, cc, and escapes out of his kit as long as you, the player, were fast enough. Each individual spell, and the invoke ‘ult’, had significant cooldowns, but not the individual components which would just increase a base stat in some way. I wanted to see if the idea could work in Deadlock. So here’s my analysis and suggestion in three parts.
Part 1 – Why a direct transfer from DotA is probably a bad idea
TLDR: It doesn’t seem fun or viable to just take Invoker and put it into Deadlock.
When translating this to Deadlock, I’m not really sure a direct transfer would work as well. If all the skills do is increase a base stat, such as weapon dmg, hp regen, spirit power, or whatever other combination you’d choose, it would either require more keybinds to incorporate the new spells you invoke, or basically have a character with 3 passive skills and one variable ult, neither of which I think are particularly interesting.
Additionally, playing the piano, as you did in DotA, is not viable in a shooter where you’re movement is bound to wasd (or some variant). In traditional top-down MOBAs, you move and aim with your mouse, and only focus on skills with your keyboard. It’s just not feasible for a piano character to exist in a shooter because you need those fingers to move.
Finally, skill points in DotA are neutral, while points in Deadlock are not. Of course, you could easily solve this by just increasing the number of tiers per skill and making them all cost 1 point (making it 8 tiers for 1, 2, 3) while keeping the ult the same 3 tiered system, but that would remove what makes the Deadlock skill system so interesting, the choice being made to either hold onto your skill points to fully upgrade one skill, or to distribute everything asap to get a quicker power spike. These delays in skill upgrades often makes the power curve spike more noticeably, similar to buying an item, making it easier for players to determine if they’re strong or weak. Gradual growth in power, especially passively, is uninteresting.
Part 2 – The alternative, and taking cues from Vancian magic
TLDR: What if the skills modified your ammo?
What if, instead of passive orbs that float around, you instead had skills that modified your current magazine of bullets? What if you could combine the modifications on those bullets? Would that be available immediately or through an upgrade? What if using your ult caused an additional effect to happen on the next bullet fired, depending on the modifications it had?
Vancian magic, the core magic system for Wizards in DnD, thought of spells as basically bullets you prepared at the start of the day. You brought 3 fireball bullets, 1 dimension door bullet, 20 magic missile bullets etc etc. Translating that idea to real bullets, you can approximate the invoker. This way, we maintain this idea of 3 passive orbs, but give them more to do, and a more interesting series of choices to make. If we then use our ult as a method of combining these modifications, it gives us a power spike that an ult would, but also gives us more choices to make. The ult would also unlock spell bullets, aka Vancian magic, that could give us the power spike we're looking for.
The biggest discussion for me is whether to make these charge skills or not. I opted for charge skills because it fit the concept better for me, but that requires a smaller ammo count and a medium/shortish cooldown. The alternative is a longer cooldown and larger magazine but non-charge skills. Both versions have their merits, and it would be an interesting point to consider how ammo-refilling items would change the dynamic. QSR in particular would be an interesting discussion
Part 3 – Character concept and sample skills for the Spellshot
The character fantasy of a spellcasting gunslinger can vary in many ways. The character could easily be a sniper archetype, with the fantasy being a calm, assassin type with every tool for the job. It could also work as a medium range character with a revolver, constantly changing ammunition to deal with current and present threats. The variance in fantasy would line up well with whether the character uses charge skills or not as per above, and would likely change the pace of gameplay for the character as well. The version I present is the medium range revolver.
Base Skills
1 – Invoke Fire (2 Charges/Medium CD): Invokes a powerful fire spell into your current magazine. All bullets in your current magazine deal additional spirit damage. While invoking Fire, gain minor HP regen. Overwrites current invocation if one exists
T1 – Bullets also deal additional damage over time that refreshes with each hit
T2 – Duration of dot damage increases
T3 – Dot damage stacks up to x stacks
2 – Invoke Cold (2 Charges/Medium CD): Invokes a powerful cold spell into your current magazine. All bullets in your current magazine apply a slow to the target that refreshes with each hit. While invoking Cold, gain minor move speed. Overwrites current invocation if one exists
T1 – Slow duration extended
T2 – Slow stacks up to x stacks
T3 – When reaching max stacks, freezes enemy in place (probably immobilize+disarm). Stacks are reset on target
3 – Imbue Electricity (2 Charges/Medium CD): Invokes a powerful electricity spell into your current magazine. All bullets in your magazine deal additional weapon damage. While invoking electricity, gain minor fire rate. Overwrites current invocation if one exists
T1 – Headshots deal additional damage
T2 – Bullets pierce 1 enemy and hits enemies behind for 50% damage
T3 – Headshots will cause a bolt of lightning that shoots out to 3 nearby enemies. Pierce headshots are also affected
4 – Spellshot (Medium/High CD): Enter a focused state where two invocations can be placed on your weapon at once or the same invocation applied twice, in which case the invoked effects proc twice (Pierce is the only outlier where it will pierce 2 and hit for 100% damage). Overwrites current invocation if one exists
T1 – Unlocks spell bullets depending on the invocations applied. Spell bullet is usable while the invoked magazine is still in use by pressing the 4 key. If pressed when off cooldown, pressing LMB without choosing invocations shoots the spell bullet. Triggering spell bullet should trigger skill-bound items such as QSR
T2 – CD Reduction (to Medium)
T3 – Invocation lasts for 2 magazines, and 2 spell bullets are generated for use.
Spell Bullets – All spells are shot from the weapon and center where the bullet hits.
Fire-Fire: Fire Field – Creates a wide aoe fire field that lasts a bit and does Low dot damage while in it
Fire-Cold: Nova – Does Low/Med damage in a pulse and pulls enemies to the center after
Cold-Cold: Freeze – Freezes the target as a stun and interrupt
Cold-Electricity: Sap Speed – Slows the target and hastens the user for an equal amount. (less effective on NPCs)
Electricity-Electricity: Judgment – Calls down a lightning bolt on target for High damage (small aoe around the target is also hit)
Fire-Electricity: Plasma Bomb – Goes boom for Med damage after 2s, applies a dot to everyone in the explosion
Part 1 – Why a direct transfer from DotA is probably a bad idea
TLDR: It doesn’t seem fun or viable to just take Invoker and put it into Deadlock.
When translating this to Deadlock, I’m not really sure a direct transfer would work as well. If all the skills do is increase a base stat, such as weapon dmg, hp regen, spirit power, or whatever other combination you’d choose, it would either require more keybinds to incorporate the new spells you invoke, or basically have a character with 3 passive skills and one variable ult, neither of which I think are particularly interesting.
Additionally, playing the piano, as you did in DotA, is not viable in a shooter where you’re movement is bound to wasd (or some variant). In traditional top-down MOBAs, you move and aim with your mouse, and only focus on skills with your keyboard. It’s just not feasible for a piano character to exist in a shooter because you need those fingers to move.
Finally, skill points in DotA are neutral, while points in Deadlock are not. Of course, you could easily solve this by just increasing the number of tiers per skill and making them all cost 1 point (making it 8 tiers for 1, 2, 3) while keeping the ult the same 3 tiered system, but that would remove what makes the Deadlock skill system so interesting, the choice being made to either hold onto your skill points to fully upgrade one skill, or to distribute everything asap to get a quicker power spike. These delays in skill upgrades often makes the power curve spike more noticeably, similar to buying an item, making it easier for players to determine if they’re strong or weak. Gradual growth in power, especially passively, is uninteresting.
Part 2 – The alternative, and taking cues from Vancian magic
TLDR: What if the skills modified your ammo?
What if, instead of passive orbs that float around, you instead had skills that modified your current magazine of bullets? What if you could combine the modifications on those bullets? Would that be available immediately or through an upgrade? What if using your ult caused an additional effect to happen on the next bullet fired, depending on the modifications it had?
Vancian magic, the core magic system for Wizards in DnD, thought of spells as basically bullets you prepared at the start of the day. You brought 3 fireball bullets, 1 dimension door bullet, 20 magic missile bullets etc etc. Translating that idea to real bullets, you can approximate the invoker. This way, we maintain this idea of 3 passive orbs, but give them more to do, and a more interesting series of choices to make. If we then use our ult as a method of combining these modifications, it gives us a power spike that an ult would, but also gives us more choices to make. The ult would also unlock spell bullets, aka Vancian magic, that could give us the power spike we're looking for.
The biggest discussion for me is whether to make these charge skills or not. I opted for charge skills because it fit the concept better for me, but that requires a smaller ammo count and a medium/shortish cooldown. The alternative is a longer cooldown and larger magazine but non-charge skills. Both versions have their merits, and it would be an interesting point to consider how ammo-refilling items would change the dynamic. QSR in particular would be an interesting discussion
Part 3 – Character concept and sample skills for the Spellshot
The character fantasy of a spellcasting gunslinger can vary in many ways. The character could easily be a sniper archetype, with the fantasy being a calm, assassin type with every tool for the job. It could also work as a medium range character with a revolver, constantly changing ammunition to deal with current and present threats. The variance in fantasy would line up well with whether the character uses charge skills or not as per above, and would likely change the pace of gameplay for the character as well. The version I present is the medium range revolver.
Base Skills
1 – Invoke Fire (2 Charges/Medium CD): Invokes a powerful fire spell into your current magazine. All bullets in your current magazine deal additional spirit damage. While invoking Fire, gain minor HP regen. Overwrites current invocation if one exists
T1 – Bullets also deal additional damage over time that refreshes with each hit
T2 – Duration of dot damage increases
T3 – Dot damage stacks up to x stacks
2 – Invoke Cold (2 Charges/Medium CD): Invokes a powerful cold spell into your current magazine. All bullets in your current magazine apply a slow to the target that refreshes with each hit. While invoking Cold, gain minor move speed. Overwrites current invocation if one exists
T1 – Slow duration extended
T2 – Slow stacks up to x stacks
T3 – When reaching max stacks, freezes enemy in place (probably immobilize+disarm). Stacks are reset on target
3 – Imbue Electricity (2 Charges/Medium CD): Invokes a powerful electricity spell into your current magazine. All bullets in your magazine deal additional weapon damage. While invoking electricity, gain minor fire rate. Overwrites current invocation if one exists
T1 – Headshots deal additional damage
T2 – Bullets pierce 1 enemy and hits enemies behind for 50% damage
T3 – Headshots will cause a bolt of lightning that shoots out to 3 nearby enemies. Pierce headshots are also affected
4 – Spellshot (Medium/High CD): Enter a focused state where two invocations can be placed on your weapon at once or the same invocation applied twice, in which case the invoked effects proc twice (Pierce is the only outlier where it will pierce 2 and hit for 100% damage). Overwrites current invocation if one exists
T1 – Unlocks spell bullets depending on the invocations applied. Spell bullet is usable while the invoked magazine is still in use by pressing the 4 key. If pressed when off cooldown, pressing LMB without choosing invocations shoots the spell bullet. Triggering spell bullet should trigger skill-bound items such as QSR
T2 – CD Reduction (to Medium)
T3 – Invocation lasts for 2 magazines, and 2 spell bullets are generated for use.
Spell Bullets – All spells are shot from the weapon and center where the bullet hits.
Fire-Fire: Fire Field – Creates a wide aoe fire field that lasts a bit and does Low dot damage while in it
Fire-Cold: Nova – Does Low/Med damage in a pulse and pulls enemies to the center after
Cold-Cold: Freeze – Freezes the target as a stun and interrupt
Cold-Electricity: Sap Speed – Slows the target and hastens the user for an equal amount. (less effective on NPCs)
Electricity-Electricity: Judgment – Calls down a lightning bolt on target for High damage (small aoe around the target is also hit)
Fire-Electricity: Plasma Bomb – Goes boom for Med damage after 2s, applies a dot to everyone in the explosion
