[Concept] Rory Swann

[Kith-11735]

RORY SWANN

Chief Engineer

Swann is a Melee Assassin who uses two-stage abilities to summon turrets that have abilities of their own.

Stats: Swann

Health: 2113
Health Regeneration: 4.5
Mana: None
Basic Attack Damage: 122
Attack Speed: 1.1
Attack Range: 1.5
Scaling: 4%

Swann is pretty tough and hits pretty hard, but lacks any form of sustain or mobility. He does not use Mana because of his reliance on setup - he needs to have his turrets out and active before he can use any of their abilities. Speaking of Turret abilities, they replace the Turret ability in question on the ability bar when the required Turret has been placed.

Trait - Chief Engineer

Range: Global
Cooldown: None

Activate to Salvage the target Turret, destroying it and reducing the Turret’s placement cooldown by 1 second per 10% of the Turret’s remaining Health, up to a maximum of 10 seconds.

Passive: Hard Work
Placing a Turret causes Turret Placement abilities to go on cooldown for 2 seconds.

Turrets last until destroyed and their placement abilities incur their listed cooldowns when the Turret in question is destroyed. Turrets have a placement range of 2.

Q1 - Flaming Betty

Cooldown: 15 Seconds
[Vector Targeting]

Place a Perdition Turret that deals 76 damage per second in a 30° cone when visible enemies pass in front of it. Flaming Betty burrows when not attacking, becoming Stealthed and healing 4% of its Maximum Health per second.

Q2 - Roast 'Em Good

Cooldown: 12 seconds

Flaming Betty unburrows and unleashes a torrent of flame, dealing 25% increased damage and increasing the range and arc of its attack area by 33% for 4 seconds.

Stats: Flaming Betty

Health: 1300
Health Regeneration: 4% per second while Burrowed
Damage: 38
Attack Speed: 2
Attack Range: 4
Scaling: 4%

So let’s talk Mechanics, since Flaming Betty works in kind of a weird way.

Figure 1: Flaming Betty has been placed near an oncoming minion wave. It remains burrowed because no enemies have entered its search cone.

Figure 2: When an enemy unit enters its search cone, Flaming Betty unburrows and begins dealing damage in the area it is oriented towards. An important note is that Flaming Betty will not automatically attack Stealthed enemies (as noted by the tooltip specifying “visible” enemies).

Figure 3: Flaming Betty will not rotate to attack enemies outside of its search cone even if they are damaging it.

Figure 4: Activating Roast 'Em Good will force Flaming Betty to attack, regardless of if there are any enemies within its search area.

Flaming Betty’s primary use cases are area denial and waveclear. As the toughest Turret in Swann’s arsenal, it can also be used as a damage sponge against Non-Heroic targets such as Mercenaries, Minions, or Towers. However, it can be unreliable for this purpose due to only drawing attention when attacking or using Roast 'Em Good.

Q1 - Spinning Dizzy

Cooldown: 15 Seconds

Place a Missile Turret that detects nearby Stealth units and can see over walls.

Q2 - Missile Strike

Cooldown: 16 seconds
Range: 12

Spinning Dizzy fires two missiles in rapid succession, dealing 125 damage twice in an area.

Stats: Spinning Dizzy

Health: 500
Sight Range: 8
Scaling: 4%

Spinning Dizzy’s primary purpose is to be an early warning tool for Swann, similarly to how Flare works for Rexxar. Outside of that, it provides a good damage supplement in the form of Missile Strike.

Q1 - Blaster Billy

Cooldown: 15 Seconds

Place a Devastation Turret that fires at enemies within range that are struck by Swann’s Basic Attacks, dealing 100 damage per shot.

Q2 - Concussive Shell

Cooldown: 10 seconds
Range: 8

Blaster Billy fires at the targeted enemy, dealing 129 damage and lowering their Movement Speed by 40% for 1.5 seconds.

Stats: Blaster Billy

Health: 750
Damage: 100
Attack Speed: Effectively 1.1, actually 3 to leave room for Attack Speed boosts used on Swann
Attack Range: 8
Scaling: 4%

Blaster Billy is Swann’s main source of DPS, nearly doubling his damage output when attacking targets within its range. However, Blaster Billy does nothing on its own, so Swann must place it carefully and mind his own positioning to get value.

R1 - Drakken Laser Drill

Cooldown: 100 Seconds

Call down a Laser Drill to attack nearby enemies, dealing 142 damage per second. Reactivate to assign a new target. Lasts 22 seconds.

If you said “Hey, that’s Tychus’s!”, you’re correct! The Drakken Laser Drill is very much on Tychus right now. However, I don’t think it should be - the only tie to the Laser Drill that Tychus has is that you encounter it on one of the missions that you do for him. Swann is the one who turns it into a signature weapon in Co-Op Commanders, so if Swann gets added, he should definitely have it. As for Tychus, I’ve written up a Rework for Tychus that replaces the Laser Drill with something better, but that’s another story for another time.

In terms of gameplay, it’s a super-Turret calldown that doesn’t require any special hoops to jump through to contrast his more mechanically complicated core kit, making it a straight “more is more” kind of ability that ties in nicely with the rest of Swann’s abilities.

R2 - Seismic Charge

Cooldown: 100 Seconds

Call down a nuclear bomb with 700 Health that lasts for 12 seconds. The bomb can be detonated after 2 seconds, dealing 100 damage in a large area. Damage is increased by 100 per second after arming, up to 800.

In the mission Belly of the Beast from Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, Raynor took an elite squad to crawl around in some caves and blow up some Zerg. Swann carried and deployed the Seismic Charges that accomplished this, and so Swann’s second Heroic is an homage to that.

In gameplay terms, Seismic Charge is basically a D.va Self Destruct that scales in damage over time and can be destroyed. Its primary purpose is teamfight burst, but it can also be used for area denial and ambushes.

LEVEL 1: DEFENSE

Hull Down

Flaming Betty gains 50 Armor while burrowed.

Listening Post

Increase Spinning Dizzy’s sight radius by 25%.

Warp-Core Munitions

Concussive Shell also reduces Attack Speed by 30% for 2.5 seconds.

LEVEL 4: ENGINEERING UPGRADES

Reusable Parts

Salvaging a Turret causes all Turrets’ Abilities to cooldown 100% faster for 4 seconds.

Explosive Deconstruction

Salvaging a Turret causes it to explode, dealing 250 damage to nearby enemies.

Rapid Construction

Hard Work no longer incurs a cooldown when placing Turrets, allowing Swann to place multiple Turrets instantly.

LEVEL 7: TURRET SHENANIGANS

Thermite Filaments

Flaming Betty’s attacks deal an additional 65 damage over 5 seconds, increased by 100% against Minions, Mercenaries, and Monsters.

Hellstorm Batteries

Missile Strike also launches a swarm of tiny missiles that deal an additional 80 damage in a 33% larger area.

Man Opener

Concussive Shell reduces the target’s Armor by 20 for 3 seconds, causing them to take 20% additional damage from all sources.

LEVEL 10: HEROICS

R1 - Drakken Laser Drill

Cooldown: 100 Seconds

Call down a Laser Drill to attack nearby enemies, dealing 142 damage per second. Reactivate to assign a new target. Lasts 22 seconds.

R2 - Seismic Charge

Cooldown: 100 Seconds

Call down a nuclear bomb with 700 Health that lasts for 12 seconds. The bomb can be detonated after 2 seconds, dealing 100 damage in a large area. Damage is increased by 100 per second after arming, up to 800.

LEVEL 13: RANGE BOOSTERS

Slug Thrower

Increases Basic Attack Range by 3.

Remote Construction

Increases the Placement Range of Turrets by 300%.

Hi-Sec Auto Tracking

Increases the range of all Turrets’ Abilities by 30%.

LEVEL 16: POWER SPIKE

Neosteel Ballbearings

Roast ‘Em Good lasts 50% longer and allows Flaming Betty to rotate freely while active.

Ballistic Triangulation

Turret Abilities deal 20% increased damage to enemies within Spinning Dizzy’s sight range.

Giant Punisher

Blaster Billy’s attacks against Heroes deal an additional 3% of their Maximum Health as damage.

Average Joe

Cooldown: 35 Seconds
Place an Auto-Turret with 400 Health that deals 90 damage per second, prioritizing Heroes. Lasts for 10 seconds.

LEVEL 20: STORM

Focusing Diodes

Increases the range of the Drakken Laser Drill by 50%. Deals increasing damage the longer it remains on a single target, up to 100% extra damage.

Aftershock

Seismic Charge slows damaged enemies by 10% for 2 seconds. Slow amount is increased by 10% per second after arming, up to 80%.

Doubling Deuce

Activate to create an additional Turret on the next use of Flaming Betty, Spinning Dizzy, Blaster Billy, or Average Joe.

KMC Autoloaders

Turret abilities gain an additional charge.

Note: This means Roast 'Em Good, Missile Strike, and Concussive Shell, not the placement abilities.

[Hunter-14817]

I love this. I had the same basic idea as far as abilities go. I didn’t bother to come up with all the talents though. Thank you for this. It must have taken you some time and it’s very much appreciated. Too bad Heroes is in maintenance mode and unlikely to get too many new characters because this would be awesome.