There should be more female support heroes

[Rizzrick]

I'm going to generalise a lot here, but it doesn't make it any less true. You're making the game less appealing to female players (in general) by not having any feminine female support heroes.

Girls want to identify with the heroes they play and a lot of them naturally want to play a more supportive role. Take Overwatch for example, you have Mercy, Ana, Kiriko, Brigitte, Illari, Moira, Juno. All feminine and unique in their own way. The sheer number of female Mercy mains I encountered playing Overwatch for a short while was staggering. Even in Dota the few female players I came across loved playing Crystal Maiden and Dark Willow. It's not a coincidence.

Meanwhile in Deadlock the closest thing to a supportive female hero you can play is Ivy, and she's a literal monster with no female features whatsoever. Whereas all of the feminine heroes are full DPS, like Wraith, Haze, Vindicta, Holliday, Lady Geist, Paradox, Calico. And all the other supportive heroes are dudes, like Kelvin, Dynamo, Viscous.

It honestly feels like you're intentionally trying not to have feminine support heroes because you're afraid it's too traditional or stereotypical, but all you're doing is ostracising females who want to play those roles on a hero they can identify with. Like we get it, girls can play DPS heroes and DPS heroes can be girls. But what's wrong with a girl just wanting to play a pretty fairy that throws flowers at people to heal them?

Please don't make this game another sausage fest like Dota. Give the ladies some better choices.

 

[maxkaibarreto]

Ivy rework concept:

When Kudzu Bomb lands on allies it loses damage to heal and apply Watcher's Covenant.
Stone Form remains largely vanilla. Maybe a GroundStrike-ish distance fallen upgrade.
Air Drop downgrades to a basic ability, losing ally saves completely, bombs until 2p, and upwards flight until 5p. Balance should emphasize escaping fights and getting to allies for saving.
New ultimate Root Ball is a tumbleweed rootcage around a leaftexture sphere fast-grown around Ivy and pretty much like Viscous's but with the ability to run over allies and briefly hold them (to be healed, have their stamina refreshed, and have Watcher's Covenant applied) before being flung in Ivy's direction of travel.

A kitchen sink of love barreling in feels feminine. Anything deceptive is delicate but male antagonism always curls into toxicity. Sinclair's symmetry feels at least like a concession - unrelated, a scarier assistant & some longer range mechanics could let them actually support. Lady G needs fleshing out in the Bechdel-test sense (Oathkeeper opens an office grave near the Museum? Her gun was bought from Holliday?)
How do you fit a chainmail skirt into 19th century post-tudor urban? An embarrassingly large proportion of female empowerment fantasies too young for this game's setting

 

[Rizzrick]

To be clear, I'm not saying there should necessarily be more heals/saves in the game. Too much and it becomes very frustrating to play against. The balance of the few support abilities in the game is great imo. And support heroes being able to play DPS builds is important so as not to make hard roles that can throw off the balance of a team comp. Flexible roles is key because it means any team comp can work.

My main point is that females wanting to play a supportive role on a feminine hero have virtually zero choices right now.

 

[maxkaibarreto]

Gunfights cut right across expectations from mythic norms. Heals usually play best as rewards for aggressing.

Most positioning is weighed by threat of action so supports have to be scary

 

[Mr.Mindish]

It's a difficult case at times.
Anyone can buy support items, though Mcginnis is another female character that can build into support without throwing the game (though she's not as great at it as the other supports).
But are you referring specifically to healing support? Because Vindicta, Holliday and Paradox all have abilities that can be used to support the team outside of healing.
Even then, the current Healing Support heroes can only heal in bursts, and are good at support because they've got more tools in their kit to help them maintain the team. A character with consistent healing like Mercy/Medic TF2 would most likely break the current balance of Deadlock.

But what's wrong with a girl just wanting to play a pretty fairy that throws flowers at people to heal them?

Hell, I'd play that, that sounds cool af.

 

[Rizzrick]

I agree healing should be added sparingly or it becomes OP real fast. But even then it can be balanced with cooldowns and healing reduction. Healing was just an example though, there are loads of other supportive mechanics like saving teammates, buffing teammates, debuffing teammates, moving teammates, etc.

Kelvin is perfect as a support hero imo. But females just aren't going to identify with a hairy Scandinavian dude

 

[That dude who plays Deadlock]

Never undestood players who want to be "represented" in characters that they play. When i play a certain character, their looks is the last thing on my list, i am mainly interested in how the character plays and feels. When i play Infernus i don`t identify as a black bartender who was a pyromaniac in his teenage years, nor do i identify as a japanese woman from a criminal clan when playing Yamato. The whole concept seems silly to me. Not to say that character looks are not important(a cool look is certainly eye catching to new players), but adding heroes solely based on looks seems odd. And i would definitely prefer them going in dota`s direction when creating a rooster, rather than being something like "Mobile Legends" where every second character is a coppy pasted(in both skills and looks) anime girl in a different color scheme.

 

[nathanieljbrill]

Never undestood players who want to be "represented" in characters that they play. When i play a certain character, their looks is the last thing on my list, i am mainly interested in how the character plays and feels. When i play Infernus i don`t identify as a black bartender who was a pyromaniac in his teenage years, nor do i identify as a japanese woman from a criminal clan when playing Yamato. The whole concept seems silly to me. Not to say that character looks are not important(a cool look is certainly eye catching to new players), but adding heroes solely based on looks seems odd. And i would definitely prefer them going in dota`s direction when creating a rooster, rather than being something like "Mobile Legends" where every second character is a coppy pasted(in both skills and looks) anime girl in a different color scheme.

As a deceptively old woman with an evil spirit in my right arm who steals the life from others it is very important that I have representation thank you very much.

 

[Chudik]

Check this 2 girls :

Thread 'Janna, the real Magician (not this joke they added recently) with 3 model'

Jan 18, 2025

View attachment tbrender_008.mp4


MAGIC CLOACK (30 SEC CD)

JANNA turns into cloack! She cant use stamina but moves 30% faster. All bullets and target spells CANT hit her from front side , they just dissapier. She can be damaged only from back side or with aoe spell dmg. On 2ND LVL your friendly heroes can shoot throught back side. ON 3D LVL empowers friendly heroes bullets by +50 magic dmg.

MAGIC HAT (20 SEC CD)

JANNA turns into hat! She flies and hits every MAGIC MARK in 10m range. Does 100dmg every hit. After hitting last mark she turns back.
1LVL -20% RUN SPEED ON HIT...

• Chudik
• Replies: 1
• Forum: Community Hero Ideas

• 

Thread 'New hero suggestion : Melissa, the soul harvester (with 3d model)'

Dec 11, 2024

SOUL KISS

FAST STRIKE WITH RAPIER IN FRONT OF HER DOES 100DMG AND APPLIES 3 STACS OF "SOUL CUT" DEBUFF
1 STACK DOES 5DMG, LASTS 10 SEC. THIS ABILITY HAS MAX 3 CHARGES


PHANTOM EMBRASE

MELISSA JUMPS IN FRIENDLY OR ENEMY HERO, MAKING HIM IMMUNE TO ANY DMG FOR 1.5.
IF TARGET FRIENDLY SHE SCREAMS AND MAKE EVERY ENEMY HERO IN 10M RADIUS RUN AWAY FOR 1.5 SEC AND THEN CONSUMES MAX 5 STACKS OF "SOUL CUT". EVERY STUCK APPLIES -10% FIRE RATE DEBUFF FOR 4 SEC
IF TARGET ENEMY SHE CALLS EVERY ENEMY HERO IN 10M RADIUS TO RUN TO HER AND...

• Chudik
• Replies: 6
• Forum: Community Hero Ideas

• 

 

[Rizzrick]

Never undestood players who want to be "represented" in characters that they play. When i play a certain character, their looks is the last thing on my list, i am mainly interested in how the character plays and feels. When i play Infernus i don`t identify as a black bartender who was a pyromaniac in his teenage years, nor do i identify as a japanese woman from a criminal clan when playing Yamato. The whole concept seems silly to me. Not to say that character looks are not important(a cool look is certainly eye catching to new players), but adding heroes solely based on looks seems odd. And i would definitely prefer them going in dota`s direction when creating a rooster, rather than being something like "Mobile Legends" where every second character is a coppy pasted(in both skills and looks) anime girl in a different color scheme.

Shall I assume you're a female since you think this applies to you?

 

[Rizzrick]

Check this 2 girls :

Ok damn, I guess we just gotta let Valve cook.

 

[That dude who plays Deadlock]

Shall I assume you're a female since you think this applies to you?

What does being a female have to do with wanting to be represented??? My comment didn`t focus on specifically female representation, but the idea as a whole.

 

[Rizzrick]

What does being a female have to do with wanting to be represented??? My comment didn`t focus on specifically female representation, but the idea as a whole.

Because the post is about how the looks and identity of characters matter more to females. I.e. they matter less to males, which you've just reiterated. So I'm just confused about what you're attempting to contribute to the conversation. Is it that you think males and females should all like the same things?

 

[That dude who plays Deadlock]

Because the post is about how the looks and identity of characters matter more to females. I.e. they matter less to males, which you've just reiterated. So I'm just confused about what you're attempting to contribute to the conversation. Is it that you think males and females should all like the same things?

Ok. Go play Sims or go in the kitchen. Shooter videogames are male oriented, so you should not like them by your logic. Videogames are not about representation(especially not the ones like deadlock) they are about having fun and distracting from the real world and all it`s problems, don`t bring gender, race, politics, etc in games...pls.

 

[Rizzrick]

Ok. Go play Sims or go in the kitchen. Shooter videogames are male oriented, so you should not like them by your logic. Videogames are not about representation(especially not the ones like deadlock) they are about having fun and distracting from the real world and all it`s problems, don`t bring gender, race, politics, etc in games...pls.

Brother are you doing ok? No one wants to take your video games away from you don't worry. Also I'm a guy, it's a pretty obvious if you read my post. But you're honestly delusional if you think girls don't like shooters. Look at Overwatch, it has a massive female player base. I also think you've completely whooshed the point. This isn't about representation, it's just about variety of hero choice and design. A couple female support characters isn't exactly an earthshattering idea.

 

[That dude who plays Deadlock]

Brother are you doing ok? No one wants to take your video games away from you don't worry. Also I'm a guy, it's a pretty obvious if you read my post. But you're honestly delusional if you think girls don't like shooters. Look at Overwatch, it has a massive female player base. I also think you've completely whooshed the point. This isn't about representation, it's just about variety of hero choice and design. A couple female support characters isn't exactly an earthshattering idea.

I don't care if you are a man or a woman. And I am not against female characters in games. All I am saying is that adding heroes based on being representative is dumb. You CAN NOT represent EVERYONE(every religion, race, etc) without turning the game into a shitshow. Female support heroes should (and will) come to the game naturally, there is no point in making a thread like this.

 

[Rizzrick]

I don't care if you are a man or a woman. And I am not against female characters in games. All I am saying is that adding heroes based on being representative is dumb. You CAN NOT represent EVERYONE(every religion, race, etc) without turning the game into a shitshow. Female support heroes should (and will) come to the game naturally, there is no point in making a thread like this.

I'm really not sure where you're getting this idea of representing everyone. You're taking one simple thing and immediately going to the extreme like this is some BioWare game. Relax and go play some more Deadlock.

 

[That dude who plays Deadlock]

Brother are you doing ok? No one wants to take your video games away from you don't worry. Also I'm a guy, it's a pretty obvious if you read my post. But you're honestly delusional if you think girls don't like shooters. Look at Overwatch, it has a massive female player base. I also think you've completely whooshed the point. This isn't about representation, it's just about variety of hero choice and design. A couple female support characters isn't exactly an earthshattering idea.

1) I did not say that girls don`t like shooters, reread my comment
2) Dota 2 female playerbase is larger than overwatch`s, yet i don`t see anyone complaining about not having enough female supports(there are like less than 6 in 125 heroes, most of the female characters are mid or cores)
3) I don`t see a point in creating a thread like this in the first place. What variety do you expect when there are less than 30 heroes in the game, there are practically no supports in the first place, not just females.

 

[That dude who plays Deadlock]

Brother are you doing ok? No one wants to take your video games away from you don't worry. Also I'm a guy, it's a pretty obvious if you read my post. But you're honestly delusional if you think girls don't like shooters. Look at Overwatch, it has a massive female player base. I also think you've completely whooshed the point. This isn't about representation, it's just about variety of hero choice and design. A couple female support characters isn't exactly an earthshattering idea.

Also saying that no one wants to take videogames away is funny, considering what happens right now to the most of the game franchises. They are literally being controlled by people who hate everything about games and just want to push an agenda.

 

[Rizzrick]

Also saying that no one wants to take videogames away is funny, considering what happens right now to the most of the game franchises. They are literally being controlled by people who hate everything about games and just want to push an agenda.

Bro this is Valve. It's a safe space.