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mrauthor3ds · 6 years

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Wild SSBU guessing

Just taking wild stabs at characters that might or might not make the roster. Most of these will be some of the popular characters that people have wanted in Smash 4 (as we’ve seen with Daisy, Ridley, Chrom, Dark Samus, and King K. Rool).

First, Echo Fighters of currently-confirmed fighters.

- Ninten (Ness): Likely uses Lucas’s PK Freeze for the standard special, since EarthBound Beginnings doesn’t have PK Flash. - Special moves: PK Freeze, PK Fire, PK Thunder, PSI Magnet - Final Smash: PK Beam Gamma - Black Shadow (Captain Falcon): I’m...not sure how to differentiate him enough from Ganondorf. Maybe just make him mostly like Melee Ganondorf? - Special moves: Shadow Punch, Dark Boost, Evil Dive, Wicked Kick - Final Smash: Black Bull - Impa (Sheik): Hopefully Skyward Sword design so she can use that blue energy to generate her tools. - Special moves: similar to Sheik’s specials - Final Smash: same as Sheik - Shadow (Sonic): Looking hopeful with Richter’s big reveal. Maybe use Chaos energy to expand the reach of his attacks - they could also be slower but stronger. Up special could be a teleport, like from Mewtwo or Palutena. - Special moves: Homing Attack, Spin Dash, Chaos Warp, Spin Charge - Final Smash: Chaos Blast - Celica (Robin): Main differences I can see are: use only Beloved Zofia (better than Bronze Sword, but weaker than Levin Sword), magic in special moves and weak attacks do some damage to herself, and use a variant of Marth’s Counter with Plenitude for refilling health. - Special moves: Ragnarok (like Arcthunder without charge), Seraphim (like Arcfire), Excalibur (pretty much just Elwind), Plenitude - Final Smash: Ragnarok Omega - Octoling (Inkling): The only real difference would be weapons. I’ll guess Octo Shot (which is exactly the same as a Splattershot, really), Octobrush, Range Blaster, Bloblobber (to add range to the smash attacks), Carbon Roller (faster than Splat Roller, but can’t bury), and Burst Bomb (explodes on contact with anything). - Special moves: Octo Shot, Carbon Roller, Super Jump, Burst Bomb - Final Smash: Tenta Missiles (works like Snake’s FS)

Now general newcomers (with possible Echo Fighters to go with them).

- Paper Mario: People have wanted him for the longest time. - He could take cues from all his starring games. Maybe Spin Smash, Tornado Jump, and Quake Hammer for smash attacks... - The spin dash from the first Paper Mario as a dash attack... - Specials moves: Hurlhammer, Paper Plane, Spring Jump, ??? - Final Smash: Fan Thing (mash button for more damage, like in Sticker Star and Color Splash) - Geno: Many found it suspect that the Geno costume in Smash 4′s DLC season got a special mention. Perhaps it’s a step closer to making Geno playable? Or Assist Trophy, but we all know what the people want. - Could be a projectile normal user for some attacks, like with Villager. - Special moves: Geno Beam, Geno Whirl, Geno Blast, Geno Boost - Final Smash: Geno Flash - Bandanna Dee: Popularity card. - Could primarily use his Spear, but might use some Parasol moves as well (like in Kirby Battle Royale). - Special moves: Spear Throw, Circus Throw (grab), Spear Copter, Parasol Twirl - Final Smash: Megaton Punch - Gardevoir: Some leak a month ago predicted King K. Rool, Richter, and Dark Samus (under Samus, he said) in some demo build, along with code names for “Mario2“, Gardevoir, and Gothitelle. Could have been coincidence, but I’ll humor it. Gardevoir does have the popularity card, after all, and can fill in that Gen-3 niche in the roster. - Side smash could be a “small black hole“, with a vacuum effect that draws foes in before sending them flying. - Special moves: Future Sight, Dazzling Gleam, Trick Room, Reflect - Final Smash: Moonblast (Mega Evolves) - Echo Fighter: Gothitelle: This would also fill the Gen-5 niche, I think. And this wouldn’t be the first time Gardevoir and Gothitelle were seen together (Black/White anime, with Anthea and Concordia). - Special moves: Future Sight, Dark Pulse, Trick Room, Reflect - Final Smash: Shattered Psyche - Primarina: Not ignoring the Gen-7 niche, either. Honestly, this could be any of the Alolan starters, but I personally REALLY want Primarina the most. - Special moves: Sparkling Aria, Disarming Voice, Aqua Jet, Icy Wind - Sparkling Aria could generate some water balloons, which Primarina can send flying around with attacks, footstool jump off of, or detonate by using Sparkling Aria again. - Disarming Voice would be a projectile. If it makes contact with a water balloon, it can split into three projectiles through it. - Icy Wind would push foes at mid-range, or freeze them at close-range. - Final Smash: Oceanic Operetta - Alm: Not a high priority, but since Ultimate brought in the lead three of Awakening, then I don’t think I could guess Celica without Alm as well. - He always has a shield, so he could use that for some super-armored normal attacks. And he might be heavier than any other Fire Emblem fighter (since he’s in full armor all the time). One special could also use a bow (which he can use as a Hero/Conqueror). - Special moves: Double Lion, Hunter Volley, Windsweep, Pavise - Pavise here isn’t a counter, but a shield bash that can parry direct attacks, leaving foes open, and maybe also nullify projectiles. - Final Smash: Scendscale - Isabelle: Popularity card. Though I’m not sure what she’d do...Maybe set things around the arena, like small buildings? - Rex: Xenoblade 2 development started in mid-2014, so there must have been plenty of time to acquire him, I’m sure. - Pyra/Mythra might not be on-stage all the time - just for certain moves, like smash attacks and throws (kinda like with Peach’s Toad). But since Rex can change their form in battle, he could use this to become a sort of stance-change fighter. - Pyra’s version of the Aegis Sword could focus on damage and range, while Mythra’s version focuses on attack speed and launch power. - Smash attacks can use Pyra and Mythra’s Blade Specials. - Side smash: Flame Nova/Lightning Buster - Up smash: Blazing End/Photon Edge - Down smash: Prominence Revolt/Ray of Punishment - Special moves: Anchor Shot (grab), Rolling Smash, Crushing Typhoon (with Roc), Blade Switch - Final Smash: Chain Attack - Wonder-Red: Popularity card. Also, there’s already two Wonderful 101 tracks in the game, so why not? - His main feature could be Unite Charge to buff up his Unite Hand’s power for certain moves, like smash attacks, throws, and at least one special. Using these moves, or taking too much damage, will weaken the duration of Unite Hand’s current level. - Smash attacks could be based on Wonderful Stinger, Wonderful Rising, and Wonderful Cyclone. A full-charged smash attack with max Unite Charge level could be dangerously powerful. - Special moves: Unite Hand Flame, Team Unite Morph, Wonder-Jump, Unite Charge - Team Unite Morph can cycle between Wonder-Red’s allies to summon for different effects (or hold to cycle through faster). - Wonder-Blue’s Unite Sword can use a broad reflecting slash. - Wonder-Green’s Unite Gun can fire a few projectiles. - Wonder-Pink’s Unite Whip can reel a foe in closer. - Wonder-Yellow’s Unite Hammer can deal a strong meteor smash. - Wonder-White’s Unite Claw can trap foes in a rapid claw combo. - Wonder-Black’s Unite Bomb can inflict slow status on foes. - Final Smash: Wonderful Forever - Spring Man: Eh, might as well throw this one in. He seems to be one of the more expected Switch characters to join, though also one of the most controversial. - Weak attack might operate differently, by throwing one ARM forth at a time and returning as soon as it hits a foe. You can throw the other ARM out while the other one is flying, and you can repeat this for a while. - Strong attacks could have variable range depending on whether you tap or hold the button. Tap deals a fast close-range punch, and hold deals a long-range punch with more power at the apex. - Smash attacks could use the Megaton ARM. Charge determines how far out it goes. - Special moves: Boomerang ARM, Grappling ARMS (grab), Bounce-Back, ARMS Charge - Boomerang ARM can be curved tightly on input. - ARMS Charge will give a temporary boost to Spring Man’s ARM attacks with different effects. The standard Toasty ARMS for his normal attacks gain damage power, the Boomerang ARM gains launch power, and the Megaton ARM becomes larger and stronger. - ARMS Charge itself can emit a shockwave to repel most attacks and let him drop quickly in midair. - Final Smash: Rush Attack - Echo Fighter: Ribbon Girl: I’ve seen so many people want Ribbon Girl either instead of Spring Man, as an alt of Spring Man, or with Spring Man. Well, with Echo Fighters, the latter could happen. - Main difference, I think, would be her Sparky ARMS and Slapamander ARM. Sparky ARMS, with ARMS Charge, wouldn’t gain damage but a light paralyzing effect. Slapamander wouldn’t curve as tightly as Boomerang, but its hitbox would be big, and its ARMS Charge effect would be extra damage. - Also, her ARMS Charge wouldn’t have the shockwave, but she could drop down even faster. - Special moves: Slapamander ARM, Grappling ARMS (grab), Bounce-Back, ARMS Charge - Final Smash: Rush Attack

And finally, a few third-party characters that I expect will be big picks.

- Shantae: With Shovel Knight in the Assist Trophies, I think Shantae is the biggest indie pick now. And WayForward has publicly given support for Shantae for Smash. - Banjo-Kazooie: There’s quite a bit of Rare stuff in Smash now - King K. Rool, Klaptrap, and Krystal in her Adventures appearance. So this duo seems quite likely. The support has also been given Microsoft’s blessings. - Sora: ...I mean, if Disney allows it, then he could happen. He’s been requested ever since Brawl, after all. But I suppose Final Fantasy would take first priority for Square-Enix in Smash - now that Cloud’s in, anything else from them goes, I guess. - Since I know so much about Kingdom Hearts, I can actually think of some Smash moves for Sora. He’s got a lot of combo steps that he can use for normal attacks and stuff. - Special moves: Strike Raid, Tornado Strike, Flowmotion, Ragnarok - Final Smash: Salvation - Echo Fighter: Riku: My wildest Echo Fighter guess, I know. Still, the two games where Riku co-starred with Sora as a playable hero debuted on Nintendo handhelds, so that could be enough significance to make him an Echo? - Special moves: Spark Raid, Gravity Strike, Flowmotion, Dark Firaga - Final Smash: Dark Aura - Amaterasu: Just another Kamiya pick thrown in just because. Okami was pretty popular on Wii and now Switch, after all, and I’ve seen her requested a lot. - She’ll likely just attack with Divine Retribution for most of her moves, but could use the Devout Beads Rosary and the Tsumugari Glaive for a few other attacks, along with Power Slash. - Special moves: Firestorm, Cherry Bomb, Greensprout, Solar Flare - With Firestorm, draw a path to set off a trail of fire. Or, draw an infinity symbol around Amaterasu to use Inferno, a strong attack focused around Amaterasu’s vicinity. - Greensprout has different effects on the ground and in the air. On the ground, it grows a small tree in front to block attacks. In the air, it uses a vine and a Konohana Blossom to pull Amaterasu to safety. - Solar Flare is primarily a reflecting move, but if it intercepts a direct attack right at the start, she’ll counterattack with an explosive flare. - Final Smash: Sunrise (might be somewhat like Rosalina & Luma’s Power Star)

...And, that is my nonsensical ramble on characters I’d like to see in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Obviously, I don’t expect ALL of these in. Just some of them, at least.

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cyberkevvideo · 4 years

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Throne of Night Theory Builds Part 17: The Aquatic Dino Rider

Still killing time during the quarantine, and while I’d started this last week, I needed to take a break from builds for a bit. No particular reason. Just difficult to do when the motivation isn’t there. Mom got some bad news regarding her cancer and was taken off work and placed in immediate quarantine. So it’s a bit of a trying time at the moment. Especially since it looks like she’ll be off work until some time in June, if not until July. Gotta worry about cancer and C-19. That’ll gotta be hard on her.

All in all, during this very troubling time, I hope everyone’s staying safe and are keeping healthy. It looks like we’re in for the long haul.

But, let’s not dwell and get right into it.

For space reasons, I’ll be cropping the encounter build.

All images shared here were done by the forever fantastic and amazingly talented Michael D. Clarke, aka SpiralMagus

EDIT: Stats are cleaned up and look pretty.

BTW, it suggested I make one because there are those who’ve expressed they want to reward my efforts, so I made a Ko-Fi page. No pressure in supporting it though. I know we’re all experiencing financially trying times right now. I hope everyone’s staying safe right now.

This build took some time to figure out. I’ll bet you anything that I over thought this. That said, if the whole thing was planned to be nothing more than a skum fighter (dragoon)/ or ranger and a young advanced hit die elasmosaurus with the two-headed template and either mutant or eldritch added in, I’ll be upset and underwhelmed. That said, I’m really wondering how close I am.

That two-prong end to the weapon makes it look like a special kind of lance, maybe some variant of a sunblade, or the Illuminating property from 3.5e, but I’m banking on it just being thematic for a shocking weapon, and the two prong lance is a variant trident. The old rules had it say that when you first activated the weapon, it lit up brilliantly to showcase what kind of weapon it was.

You’ll notice that there’s one additional Hit Die for the skum. When you add a template that reduces your Constitution, your hit points take quite the hit, and you have to make it up somehow. Unfortunately due to the CR, I was limited on how much wealth I could give, so I couldn’t just add a Con belt.

As for a background on this NPC, from how it was written in the update this picture was prominent, it doesn’t appear that he/she/they are meant to be an enemy. At least not initially, and not hostile on purpose. They’re supposed to be a former drow, likely changed by the aboleth’s mucus ability or through some fleshwarping. It’s likely he forgot himself after all the mind-affecting effects, but due to a twist of fate (likely because it was originally a drow and the effect is said to only truly work on humans), broke free of the control, and managed to escape. As for the beast, it could be something that was slightly warped while being around its master, or they could have found one another. For this to work, I surmise that the dinosaur normally only has one head, but when the party is discovered, the skum drow activates the second head and approaches the party in a cautious, but intimidating manner, to let them know they can be a threat if push comes to shove.

My thought process is the skum drow will warn the PCs of the upcoming aboleth, explaining that a bunch of them were kidnapped and made into slaves. This might even create a possible team-up to try free everyone enslaved and turned into skum. If not, maybe just give them some tips on how to break into the city so that they have a better fighting chance.

It’s also the first time in a while that I’ve written tactics, as minimal as it is.

VIERZYNE THE AWAKENED (CR 16; 76,800 XP) Drowblood advanced skum hunter (primal companion hunter) 11/fighter (dragoon) 2 LE Medium monstrous humanoid (aquatic, elf) Init +5; Senses darkvision 80 ft.; Perception +18 DEFENSE AC 25, touch 13, flat-footed 23 (+10 armor, +1 Dex, +1 deflection, +1 dodge, +2 natural) hp 178 (17 HD; 5d10+12d8+97) Fort +17, Ref +13, Will +13; +1 vs. fear, spells, and spell-like abilities Immune sleep; Resist cold 10; SR 25 OFFENSE Speed 20 ft., swim 40 ft. Melee +1 keen shocking trident +22 (1d8+6 plus 1d6 electricity), claw +17 (1d4+3), bite +17 (1d6+3) Ranged mwk aquatic light crossbow +16 (1d8) Hunter Spells Prepared (CL 12th; concentration +15) 4th (3/day)—blessing of the salamander, cure serious wounds, echolocation, nondetection 3rd (5/day)—burst of speed, communal resist energy, strong jaw, swarm of fangs 2nd (6/day)—allfood, badger’s ferocity, barkskin, bull’s strength, versatile weapon 1st (6/day)—alarm, cure light wounds, detect aberration, heightened awareness, lead blades, magic fang 0 (at will)—create water, detect magic, guidance, know direction, mending, resistance Hunter Spell-like Abilities (CL 12th; concentration +11) 1/day—raise animal companion Spell-like Abilities (CL 17th; concentration +16) 1/day—dancing lights, darkness, faerie fire TACTICS Morale If Vierzyne and Lince’sa appear to be overwhelmed by their enemies or are less than half hit points, Vierzyne activates primal surge to give Lince’sa dimension door and have them escape together. STATISTICS Str 22, Dex 13, Con 18, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 8 Base Atk +13; CMB +19; CMD 21 Feats Back to Back, Boon Companion, Dodge, Duck and Cover, Eschew Materials, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lunge, Mounted CombatB, MultiattackB, OutflankB, Precise Strike, Ride-by Attack, Share Healing, Skill Focus (Handle Animal), Skill Focus (Ride)B, Toughness, Weapon Focus (trident) Skills Handle Animal +22, Heal +10, Intimidate +10, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +13, Knowledge (engineering) +5, Knowledge (geography) +10, Knowledge (nature) +10, Perception +18 (+22 underwater), Ride +21 (+23 to stay in the saddle), Spellcraft +10, Stealth +11 (+15 underwater), Survival +14, Swim +17; Racial Modifiers +4 Perception and Stealth underwater, +8 Swim; ACP –5 Languages Aboleth, Elven, Undercommon SQ amphibious, drowblood, hunter tactics, improved empathic link, precise companion, primal surge 1/day, primal transformation (head [extra], tail slap [1d8], unnatural aura; swift action, 12 minutes/day), swift tracker, track +6, woodland stride, wild empathy +11 Combat Gear wand of cure light wounds (37 charges); Other Gear plate armor of the deep, +1 keen shocking trident, masterwork aquatic light crossbow with 15 bolts, cloak of resistance +1, headband of inspired wisdom +2, ring of protection +1, ring of sustenance SPECIAL ABILITIES Drow Blood (Ex) Drowblood creatures are considered to be members of the base creature’s race and the drow and elf races for the purpose of racially specific special abilities and effects.

-- drow name means Darkness Hunter, has forgotten what house he belongs to, and his memory is piecemeal at best. -- companion’s name means “pet”.

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LINCE'SA (CR —; — XP) N Large aberrant elasmosaurus Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent; Perception +10 DEFENSE AC 33, touch 16, flat-footed 26 (+3 armor, +6 Dex, +13 natural, +1 deflection, +1 dodge, –1 size) hp 130 (13d8+72) Fort +13, Ref +14, Will +8 Defensive Abilities alien mind, improved evasion OFFENSE Speed 20 ft., swim 50 ft. Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Melee bite +16 (3d6+10) STATISTICS Str 24, Dex 22, Con 16, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 9 Base Atk +9; CMB +17; CMD 34 (38 vs. trip) Feats Dodge, Great Fortitude, Improved Natural Attack (bite), Iron Will, Mobility, Toughness, Weapon Focus (bite) Skills Acrobatics +13, Escape Artist +10, Intimidate +3, Perception +10, Stealth +6, Swim +16; Racial Modifiers +8 Swim Languages understands Aquatic and Undercommon SQ aberrant sight, fluid bones (compression), link, speak with master Tricks attack, come, defend, down, fetch, guard, heel, perform, seek, stay, track, work Gear +1 leather barding, ring of protection +1, bit and bridle, exotic military saddle SPECIAL ABILITIES Alien Mind (Ex) An aberrant companion is immune to mind-affecting effects that specifically target animals, such as charm animal. Anyone who attempts to use such an effect against it takes 1d4 points of Wisdom damage (Will DC 20 half). Not Quite Animal (Ex) The DC to use Handle Animal on an aberrant companion is 5 higher, as if it were a nonanimal with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2.

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dapperkobold · 6 years

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Hypotheticals of the Storm: Tosh

So, recently it was revealed that the next hero in Heroes of the Storm will be a firebat! I’m excited, because I like firebats! Also, because a while back I told a friend I wanted a firebat hero (hellbat, technically, but that’s a minor detail) and now there’s one coming to the game!

So I figure that I should wish for more heroes! Hypotheticals of the Storm: how I would put a given character into HotS.

I have a few I really want, but we’ll start with something topical given the recent stealth re-work: the head spectre and a very dangerous man, Gabriel Tosh.

Who is this?

Tosh is head of the spectres, a kind of secret sister organization to the Ghosts, which are already a secret organization. The spectres could not be controlled like Mengsk wanted, and so he locked them away until Tosh worked with Raynor to free them and other political prisoners.

Unless Raynor worked with Nova to wipe them out. That’s kind of a funny continuity note. However, to my knowledge the canon is that he helped Tosh, but it is true that in some strains of the story he is very dead.

Well, Tychus still managed to get into HotS, I don’t see why Tosh should get left out because of schrodinger’s assassination.

Basic Ideas

Tosh would clearly be a ranged stealth assassin. Yeah, I think that it might be nice to have a stealth support or something, too, but we work with what we have. However, unlike Nova I figure that Tosh should be a sustained damage assassin, focused more on solid damage over time than Nova’s ranged combo burst damage playstyle. Based out of the abilities of Tosh and the spectre unit from Starcraft 2, I think I’ve thought of a good combination of powers.

Core Mechanic Ideas

Trait: Permanent Cloak a lot like Nova’s. Increased move speed while cloaked (for what it’s worth, given that I’m not sure if the cloak move speed boost stacks with being mounted and a lot of the time spent cloaked you also spend mounted). A nice twist on it might be to give bonus damage if you use a basic attack to break the cloak.

Health will likely be higher than most of the other stealth heroes, but not by too much. The core damage of the basic attack should be pretty good. The basic attack will likely be the basis of his damage, with abilities acting as some bonus damage, control, and survivability.

Tosh’s main limiting factor should be Mana, as even without being a burst assassin he’ll be using his abilities fairly commonly. Fine details will need to be refined, of course, but this is the basic idea.

Basic Ability Ideas

Here’s where I pulled pretty strongly from the Tosh hero unit. There’s some solid abilities there and in the spectre unit, and I think I’ve put them together into a nice kit.

Ability 1: Mind Blast A circular AoE skillshot that does some damage (about the same as a basic attack) and stuns enemies in the area. Ideally the AoE size will be about the right size to catch about half a minion wave (the caster and the ranged or melee line), maybe a little smaller. Perhaps the stun would be shorter on Heroes? That would really seal the ability as a waveclear ability, but even a short stun on a enemy hero (or heroes) can be very good if used well.

Ability 2: Shredding Round A click ability, similar to Nova’s Pinning Shot but with a different goal. It does about the same damage as a basic attack (remember, this is not a burst assassin, this is a sustained assassin). More importantly, it decreases armor on impact. -30% or -40% or something fitting. This isn’t a power from Tosh or the spectre, but it is related: while Ghosts in Starcraft 2 gained bonus damage against light units (infantry, fleshy zerg, vehicles plated with tin foil) spectres has bonus damage against armoed units (vehicles, chitinous zerg, buildings, infantry in particularly large amounts of armor). From that point of view, giving Tosh an anti-armor power makes a lot of sense to me.

Ability 3: Psychic Shield A power from Tosh in the campaign, by pressing the button a sizable shield appears around Tosh for a brief time. This would be a fine option to have to avoid burst damage and horrible death. As a shield effect it would be prone to various shield-breaking powers, but that’s the cost. The goal isn’t for this to be a solid stay-in-the-fight power or a solid escape power: It’s flexible. Maybe throw it up to avoid burst damage so Tosh can counter with his own sustained damage, maybe throw it up to buy some survival when fleeing for your life. Of course, if you’re still in a bind when that shield vanishes, or if you’re in a big enough bind that your shield melts, you’re still basically dead. Likely also on a fair-sized cooldown and/or an expensive mana cost to drive home knowing WHEN to use it over just using it.

Heroic Ability Ideas

Heroic 1: Psionic Lash An unlocked power for the spectre in Starcraft 2, an actual burst damage power! I figure I’ll give him one, there’s no need to limit him to only sustained damage. In Starcraft, it’s a simple click power that does straight up damage. I figure it should be a little more interesting for HotS.

What if it is an accurate click power, but it has a kind of homing projectile that moves at a regular rate? This gives the enemy a chance to react and possibly use a protection power. In addition, what if that projectile does the damage to the first enemy hero (and only enemy heroes!) hit? This opens the option for brave tanks to dive in and rescue the target, or humorous accidental collateral damage. It’s a bit more complex than it arguably needs to be, but it would open opportunities for interesting plays while giving Tosh a fairly reliable burst damage option if the need arises.

Heroic 2: Consume Consume is a moderately common power in Starcraft 2, found on a few different psionic units with a dark bent including Tosh. I took it out of his core kit to give him a bit of solid gameplay, but it would by no means be a bad power in HotS.

Suppose that Consume gives Tosh a lot of mana back, but he must target an allied minion, taking half of the minion’s maximum life. It becomes a choice: mana management is always tempting (and often important!), but weakening a minion wave might be the wrong choice. In addition, this wouldn’t be a bad option for a power that he can use and keep stealth, given that every stealth hero seems to have one of them.

Playstyle Ideas

It doesn’t seem all that complicated here: You stealth up to the enemy, appear and start pop pop popping away with your gun. Mind blast is for waveclear, stopping a fleeing enemy, or just to give you some breathing room. Shredding Round will decrease armor on warriors and other high priority targets so you can pop pop pop more efficiently. Psychic Shield then is a pretty typical survival power, used when things get a little too hot to handle.

The biggest question for his playstyle is ‘why stealth’? Sure, it lines up with the character’s canon, but what does it do to his playstyle? I think it’s still a notable addition, but instead of burst damage appearing out of nowhere it’s a complete alteration of the current fight: sustained damage assassins don’t have that same kind of “Surprise!” element to them, but they instead force the enemy to rapidly re-evaluate the situation. While a burst Assassin can change the flow of the game in a single amazing play, sustained assassins change the flow of the game by supplying steady pressure. A stealth sustained assassin would then get more advantage from stealth hiding the player’s presence on the minimap, as the enemy would know where to expect pressure and the player would have some time before the enemy team can appropriately react to the change in situation.

Talents can include various basic attack Talents (Executioner in particular springs to mind) and Talents to improve Mind Blast’s control effects and Shredding Round’s damage output. There will likely be one level that’s just three Psychic Shield talents, too. I could feasibly build a full tree if people really wanted it, but for this level of pondering I don’t feel a need. Ideally, Auto attack, Mind Blast, and Shredding Round would all be potential focuses for builds (with Psychic Shield talents scattered around fairly modestly). Also possibly viable are talents that improve Stealth’s map usage, such as requiring a certain threshold of health to be lost to lose stealth. As a result, if an enemy uses a fast AoE to try and reveal a passing Tosh and doesn’t score a solid hit, the Tosh isn’t revealed and therefore the greater team doesn’t know his whereabouts or destination. However, that might be flying too close to the sun.

Problems

First of all, both the attack powers proposed are pretty solid powers that are straightforward to use without a lot of actual interaction. In addition, they’re both fairly reliable. While simple, that is boring. Boring will not do. See: Raynor, a perfectly usable hero but not at all fun because he’s just boring to use. Now, the Tosh plan I’ve set up here is certainly more complex than Raynor, but it could still use a wobble to it to add a little challenge.

On a related note, while I do think that a stealthy sustained assassin is possible, I also acknowledge that all the Assassins currently in the game have some way to capitalize on stealth, either with their huge scary high damage combo or some other kind of sudden edge. In short, if you’re playing Nova you come out of stealth and go into pinning shot and snipe, or use Holo Decoy if you want to play mind games. If you’re Valeera you have a whole set of stealth abilities. My Tosh idea doesn’t really have a setup other than “enter combat from stealth! Surprise!”

And while I do feel that the surprise would have an impact, it simply doesn’t have the same impact as “You take a bunch of damage and can’t use abilities! Surprise!”

Possible ways, therefore, to jank up Tosh’s abilities include:

1. Adding a casting time and obvious area warning to Mind Blast. Give enemies a chance to avoid or escape the area, meaning that the Tosh player needs to be intelligent about where it’s placed and who it targets. However, several other caster characters already use this gimmick. Plus, those mobile heroes are who Tosh wants to hit the most.

2. Making the range of Mind Blast very short. Not melee range short but still short enough that it’d be risky to get close enough to use. Unless, of course, you use stealth to get that close.

3. Make Shredding Round into Shredding Ammo, which causes Tosh’s attacks to apply an armor penalty for a short time. If this is usable without breaking stealth it also works with the idea of using a basic attack to break stealth for bonus damage. However, this undermines the idea of using Shredding Round against a single strong target.

4. Make it so that Shredding Round applies a damage boost and anti-armor penalty to only the next basic attack made, similar to Artanis’ Twin Blades or Arthas’ Frostmourne Hungers. The problem with those example abilities, though, is that there’s no reason to avoid casting them off cooldown, they may as well apply their effect automatically. Shredding Round would need a cooldown and mana cost that makes it clear that it is not meant to be spammed: it is meant to be used wisely to apply a steep armor penalty to a single hard target. This would also mesh with the ‘bonus damage from basic attacking from stealth’ idea.

Clearly, any of the complications presented above would need the raw numbers re-balanced from the basic types I first proposed. My bias is to apply the second idea to Mind Blast and the fourth to shredding round: Tosh then has the option to exit stealth while applying a normally tricky to land AoE stun or exit stealth with a sharp damage spike (bonus from Shredding Round and bonus from leaving stealth) and armor penalty. Both are good options that would be used in different situations.

As far as overlap with other heroes goes, there aren’t any big ones that leap to mind. Psionic Lash is similar to a few other heroics (Triple Tap from Nova or Pyroblast from Kael’thas), but I think I’ve well voiced how it would be different. At the same time while there’s a few self protection effects they aren’t the kind of thing which you really lean hard on in terms of redundancy. However, I’m by no means a HotS expert and there’s likely some other hero that does something similar (AoE stun effects in particular are seen on occasion in Heroic abilities, part of why I proposed that Mind Blast have a reduced effect on heroes) but I don’t think there’s as of now any hero that works like this.

#heroes of the storm #hypotheticals of the storm #musings #Who betrays Tosh? You don't even know who Nova is #at that time in the story she's just an elite dominion ghost #and when she's sent after raynor at the beginning of the Zerg campaign it doesn't matter what you chose.#I don't think Tosh needs improved range #Actually the hero unit has slightly short range (5 vs the 6 typical for marines) but I don't feel a need to port that over.#Went in and edited the formatting a little

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