Hey guys!
Inspired by the Merc fusion thread, and fulfilling a long time wish of mine, I humbly come to present you an idea for a new merc, a mix of Rhino and Phoenix:
Dreadnaught.
A tanky, diehard merc that can sponge hits by overhealing himself, and one that is hard to kill, not getting unconsious when bellow 0hp. He’ll be alive. And shooting. And will be laughing at your punny attempts to down him.
Story:
Dreadnaught (born James McLane) is an orphan Irish, and as a teenager moved to London in search of a better life. Dispite his big frame, and redhair, he was a gentle giant as a kid. Always wanted to keep to himself, never too fond of socialising. Because of that, he always got bullied. Even then, he would rather go away than fight back. But once he did, he always was the last man standing, no matter how many kids ganged up on him.
By the time of the dirty bomb incident, he was a warf rat (stevedore), and he was ok with that. Life was simple, no one payed him much attention, and carrying stuff around wasn’t much of an effort.
But then he got traped inside the lockdown area. Now he has to find his way out, gathering credits, exploding things and killing people who shoot at him. Not that he actually enjoys it. He just wants to get out and be left alone.
Stats, Habilities and Weapons:
Dreadnaught is a defensive Merc, and as such, his main goal is not to score piles of kills.
Instead, he’s better suited to outlast other characters and/or finish low health mercs after a gunfight.
Statswise I guess he’d have the same speed and health as Rhino.
HP: 200 (+100 when overhealed).
Negative 100~125 when bellow 0 hp.
Speed: 360
Arming time: 5 seconds.
Defuse time: 8 seconds.
Habilities:
His primary hability would be to overheal himself, when at full health (maybe 25~50% more of base health).
That extra health could fade away with time.
His self heal could work as a fallback plan, when there’s no medic around, bringing him to 1hp, but here would be a drastic cooldown to it, maybe 50~60 seconds or so.
Secondary hability would be a passive one, cheating death. Once reached 0 hp, instead of falling down and waiting for a medic, he would keep on fighting. He would have maybe 100~125 “extra” hp to use.
The drawback would be that once he’s used this extra health, he’s dead for good.
When bellow 0hp, a single med would bring him to 1hp. From then on, it would work as usual. A healing station would fully heal him, given 'nuff time. Phoenix’s fully charged healing pulse would bring him back to 75hp, more or less.
Weapons:
As far as weapons go, I was thinking Hollunds/Blish/Dreiss for primaries, and Tolen/DE/S&W for secondaries. Melee would be the Bat and Bechkill, but maybe he could use his fists as well…
With this setup, in my opinion, he would be suited for anykind of playstyle, and wouldn’t be that overpowered, since killing people isn’t his main focus.
Countering Dreadnaught
The dude is heavy. Tanky and slow.
Keep mobile, and aim for the head.
But the best way to counter him is to play dirty. Group up and take him down, as those bullies did. The difference is that you use guns, not fists.
His weapons favor single targeting, so he can’t spread as much damage as other mercs do, so use that to your advantage, and use a teammate to distract him while you shoot.
So, that’s it. Any comments and opinions would be apreciated!