Trying to come up with something unique and balanced, not easy when there are already a ton of mercs both released and unreleased.
Summary: This merc protects his teammates
What he is and what he does:
-Mid-High HP
-Mid-Low Speed
-Primary: Assault rifles
-Secondary: Low accuracy low fire rate shotgun?
-Ability 1: Gives personal shields to players
-Ability 2: Places temporary + destructible but highly durable energy barrier to be used for cover
Ability explanations:
The first ability would be slightly similar to a health pack from a medic. It would provide the player with a temporary shield to help resist damage in a firefight. However, some things are tweaked to make this balanced. When a player picks up the shield, it takes a moment to power up (same charge rate as a player healing from a large health kit). During this time, the player will still take damage normally. When the power-up is complete, the shield will activate, providing a temporary 100 hp shield to stop bullets and give players a chance to run away, fight back, or regenerate their health. The shield slowly diminishes in integrity at the same (or maybe faster) rate as a player naturally regenerates health, so by using it early its effectiveness is decreased. This still seems rather powerful, at least to me, so I think the recharge rate for this should be longer than that for a health kit, maybe substantially so. I suppose the last word goes to the developers.
The second ability would be a way to help set up a defensive perimeter or a powerful offensive “Forward Operating Base” type thing. It would essentially be a long waist-high shield to serve as cover for someone who’s crouching down behind it, letting a team dig in where they would otherwise be exposed. This would probably have a pretty significant cool-down rate to prevent spam. Again, the integrity would diminish over time, so eventually it will die on its own. I was thinking it could have a base health of like 1000 and lose health at a rate of like 3-5 times a player’s standard regeneration rate.
I have a friend that wants to go play L4D, so I’m gonna finish this up here. If y’all have any questions, leave a comment and I’ll get back to you eventually.