New Hero Concept (gravity)

New Defense Hero Concept: Professor

Primary weapon - laser beam with a base damage that neither goes up or down, much like Zarya beam at 40 or 50 charge.
E ability - drops a circular anti-gravity field that works through surfaces (i.e. it would work above a bridge if placed below).
Shift ability - boop in every direction.
Ultimate ability - large, high gravity field that forces all enemies to the ground with the inability to jump and movement is slightly slowed.

(Changes to shift and primary weapon could be made. I just thought a gravity hero would be cool, hence the E and ult)

Imagine the ways a pharah could use the anti-gravity field to stay in the air longer or even how it could provide a way for heroes to get up to her in order to kill her. Or just getting your team to places they normally couldn’t. You could have tanks with no vertical movement become more viable on numbani by placing down a field.

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this could also help ana be able to get to higher places to snipe

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shift could work as long as it isn’t like lucio’s where it’s just boop everyone off the map but more of a get all of these dps off of me

Yeah I thought of it as something like that, but I’m not sure how it would actually work out. It was the best thing I could come up with at the time.

i just realized this would really be great as an off tank that actually combos with orisa rein has zarya winston has d.va orisa could have this guy

Never thought of it that way, but it could definitely work. Give him a suit or something and tweak his damage output. Currently, Orisa’s pair is Hog though.

yeah could give more of a choice like how rein works great with road zarya and d.va orisa could have another option for an off tank buddy for different playstyles

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The idea behind the hero was to create another defense hero that manipulates or controls space in a different way than the other ones. Like how Junkrat controls chokes or narrow spaces and widow controls long lines of sight. Gravity seemed like another cool thing to manipulate. Whether or not the character get’s put in the defense or off-tank category really doesn’t matter though.

also makes it so that the neat little anti-grav mechanic they made for the never seen part of lunar colony gets used more

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I think a defense hero who can alter the map, such as building anti-grav bridges or gravity-based launchpads/killzones is a fun idea.

The hero would be very map dependent and won’t work as well on older maps (i.e. Volskaya, Numbani, King’s Row) as much as they would on the newer ones (Eichenwald, Junkertown, etc) though.

Otherwise, I’m not particularly impressed by the ult (which is basically a weaker Mei ult) and the character concept could be fleshed out a bit more.

This is basically just a gameplay outline, which is interesting, but doesn’t tell me anything about the hero. The hero could as easily be a male Zarya with glasses or Volskaya herself. I have no idea what the concept is other than a hero who is a walking anti gravity jump pad.

It’s just a baseline concept to be further developed. I was creating him for the gravity abilities more than anything and the actual background and personality of the character are things I’d need help with. As for the ult, Mei’s freeze loses effectiveness after a certain height, whereas this could force people to the ground from any height instantly. Could it use some work? For sure and I hope to get more ideas.

Sorry, but I’m going to play devil’s advocate. I do agree with you that it’s a good idea and a lot of fun, even if it sounds like i’m nitpicking things. It does need a lot of work and I’m trying to understand what you want to do with it.

For your ult:
Is it that people just lose the ability to jump, or does it negate all vertical movement and accelerate you to the ground?

If the latter, that might be interesting if you could drop it over a pit or something and stop reinforcement maybe. It still seems like a very niche ult, albeit one that counters mobility like Winston, D.Va, and of course Genji/Tracer.

If the former, it becomes trickier as you’d basically be targeting the areas where people would launch from, which is much more difficult to use.

Your key ability:
What is your key ability? It seems like it’s the antigravity hole, which is essentially an area of low-G like on Horizon that goes straight up/down on the map. I agree its fun, but its also very gimmicky and unreliable. I just don’t understand the purpose of gameplay of the character if you are building your abilities around this idea of fighting (or rather, exploiting the enemy’s vulnerabilities) on the moon’s surface.

I might argue for a pad that you throw out, like a junkrat trap, that will stick itself to the ground or wall and shoot out a beam. Along that beam, enemies and allies are accelerated as if they are falling. So maybe you can throw it behind you and accelerate your team through a chokepoint. Maybe you throw it next to a cliff and cut off a path for the enemy to reach the control point. Maybe you throw it on the ground and create a spot your Widowmaker can use to get a high vantage point for a snipe. There’s a lot of tactical possibilities and it changes fundamental ways of how the map works in a very controlled way.

Otherwise, mechanically, how is this character different from Mei? I mean she is an existing hero who builds bridges and lets players get to areas they’re not supposed to (like into walls/ceilings and onto the high horse position on Anubis).

The other abilities are fun and all, but they’re not exactly disruptive or especially new. A 360 degree lucio bump and a Zarya beam are fun abilities, but hardly as groundbreaking as a Doomfist being able to disrupt a tank line or a Brigitte able to stun a flanker/dive tank.

For the ultimate, I prefer the latter. It would allow for more creativity and there could even be a “fall damage” mechanic to where the higher up you fall from the more damage you take when hitting the ground. Just a thought.

And it’s different from Mei since it utilizes the anti-grav mechanic that is used on Horizon. It doesn’t have to simply be a bridge or a way to get to a weird location. Letting the E pass through ceilings allows for something to be placed below a bridge and catch opponents off guard and disrupting them. There’s more creativity than Mei wall. The disadvantage is that Mei’s wall is a physical object and can move things like D.Va bomb.

And yeah, a 360 degree Lucio boop or a Zarya beam aren’t hardly groundbreaking, but they weren’t really supposed to be the groundbreaking parts about his kit. Not every hero does. Doomfist still has a pretty simple LMB and there are already multiple variations of hitscan or projectile weapons. Making it a steady damage and maybe longer range beam seemed like a more interesting route while not being as stupid as Symmetra lock-on.

If you have any suggestions on how to make it better or for different abilities, feel free to contribute them. Having seen your edits, I like the idea and just being able to brainstorm abilities that are along this line of thinking is fun.

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a great overall change to add to the game with this hero would be allow torb to place his turret on ceilings while it could be op it would make for interesting strategies to counter and defend said turret

Oh goodness you better delete that before a dev sees it. Jokes aside, that’d definitely add a layer of complexity to the game.

it would at least make torb have a non orisa strategy

What about Winston Bubble that just floats there as a full bubble? What stops shields from being placed on the ceiling?

i would like winston’s shield to just float mid air as an entire circle but orisa shield on the ceiling could also add some pharah to the mix

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You’d probably specify a maximum range for the pad if you used it. Otherwise, you’d get a case where players just fall into the air forever.

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It could lose effectiveness over distance.