Was thinking of things that could be done with Soldier. How about swapping biotic field for a stimpack ability like the marine from starcraft?
Ability info
Increase movement speed by an extra meter per second (Genji speed),
+25% attack damage while its active (25 dmg per shot, 150 dmg direct hit helix).
40% Lifesteal while it’s active to retain the self healing aspect of biotic field. Numbers would be 10hp per primary attack, 60hp for a direct helix.
Lasts 3 seconds,
Cooldown 15s.
What this ability brings to Soldier
Ability Synergy. Sprint will benefit from the movespeed, letting Soldier be more slippery and hard to lock down. Good Soldier players should always be on the move, and this will enable that more. Helix rockets will be able to burst heroes better when used in combo, but also the extra movespeed opens up more potential rocket jump spots. Tactical visor won’t need a nanoboost anymore to get kills while using it. The extra speed will let him chase down fleeing enemies that just hide / dance around a wall. Soldier won’t be stuck inside his biotic field crouch dancing all the time while using it.
Key points of this ability
Powerful, but long cooldown means it can’t be spammed, and will punish bad play, but reward good play.
Rewards aiming and mechanical skill as Soldier is your bread and butter FPS hero, people who play him are going to be aimers / traditional shooter players. Those who practice aiming and mechanical skill will get a lot of value out of this ability, as it primarily relies on you hitting your targets to get its value.
A short duration means you need to know when the right time to use it, so you can get good value. It only lasts 3 seconds, where for example tactical visor lasts 6. Rewards gamesense.
It’s healing is medicore and easily bursted through, wanted to introduce an ability that rewards aiming more, since mechanical skill is barely rewarded anymore in the game.
I’ve actually heard (just rumors, nothing concrete I admit) that they actually experimented with an ability somewhat like this for him back in Beta, but switched to Biotic Field because they wanted him to be a team player/versatile. Make of that what you will as an argument for/against this.
I’ve been thinking about a Soldier rework for a while now and stimpack is one of the only abilities I’ve settled on. I made it a middle mouse button that would interrupt all abilities except for sprint. It would only heal 80 hp with a 5 second cooldown and two charges. It has a ‘casting time’ of about .5 seconds.
This is the most common cliche used to justify an obviously OP ability. Soldier’s job is to secure kills, not to be a punitive agent, nor is redefining “good play” as standing in a circle of stupid for outrageous buffs.
25% damage? You realize that’s a big boost right? That mean’s he could one-clip most tanks. Even all by itself, this boost is really strong, let alone everything else on top of it.
This is fine
Wait wait… so not only is he a tank buster now, but he’s a mid-range reaper? Even for a short duration of 3 seconds, that’s insane
No. No amount of cooldown would fix how broken this is. This is objectively stronger than his ult.
Here’s some more realistic numbers
*Increase movement speed by an extra meter per second (Genji speed)
*50% Lifesteal
*Lasts 4 seconds,
*Cooldown 15s.
The damage boost was the most problematic part. Take that away and increase the duration and leech and I think it’s okay.
This is kind of strong for an ability. I mean, up it’s duration and it’s a pocket nano-boost. I do like the idea though.
I’ve had my own idea for a passive to give him. It’s pretty much the Scavenger pack from cod, but they only drop from enemies he assists or solos. They sit around for about 5-10 seconds before despawning, and every one he picks up decreases his cooldowns by a set percentage, around 25%.
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