Merc Role Call: Ella

(civilRoad) #1

Ella
Nationality- Australian
Gender- Female
Class- Recon
HP- 90
Speed- 460

Profile-
Ella moved to Europe to work for National Grid electricity and gas company in Europe before the nuclear disaster that started the JACKAL and CDA conflict in the first place. After the “accident” she went her own way, stealing a little experimental tech along the way.

SWIHFT Saber
Cooldown- 6s (2s per 1s charge, could be raised to 9s for balance)
Max Charge Time- 3s
Min Charge Time- 0s
Range- 120
Damage- 60-150
Snare Effect Speed: 70%
Snare Effect Duration: 0.35s
Damage type: Melee
Fire Rate: 55rpm
Raise time: 0.15s
Lower time: 0.066s
Slot: Ability
On 2s Charged Hit: Enemy loses .050% Speed, but can still sprint
On 3s Charged hit: Enemy loses an additional .015% speed, but can still sprint. Pulse with 600 range causes enemies affected to lose their HUD. (Cursor, HP, Ammo, Spotted icons, Map, Nametags, etc. 6s Duration)
This weapon reduces your speed by a biting .030% (~15 points) per 1s of charge, and at 2.1s of charge you can no longer sprint. This weapon gains 30 damage per 1s of charge. This weapon gains bonuses from quick charge and quickslash, but gains none from chopper.

SONAR
Cooldown- 14s
Fire Rate- 65rpm
Range- 700
Duration- 7s
Ella is equipped with an Aerial Sonar Device (ASD) that spots all enemies within a 700 range. This triggers quickly, silently spotting all enemies within range of her for 7 seconds, and then she must wait an additional 7 seconds to deploy it again. (Enemies have no Heads Up that they were spotted)

Weapons-
Primary- Hochfir SMG, Kek10, SMG-9
Secondary- Selbstadt .40, Simeon, Caulden
Melee- Stiletto, Beckhill Combat Knife, Cricket Bat

Tactics: In a 1-on-1 situation, an ideal would be to long jump off a wall, charging midair to reduce the impact on the battle of your speed decrease, and praying for a 1-hit-kill. If its a higher-Hp merc, you may need to utilize one of your weaker weapons to finish them off. Ella is easily countered with Explosives, Shotguns, the Minigun, or long range weaponry. A proper dodge out of range is enough to set her cooldown and as a result cripple her ability to dish out damage as well.

Notes
The SWIHFT Saber: This bit of experimental tech was developed at Pirin Medical (Developers of the REVIVR) as way to revive allies quickly in the field without sacrificing weaponry, but they hadn’t quite gotten the revive part down yet before Ella got to it.
SWIHFT is an abbreviation for Standard Weaponized Internal High-Frequency Taser (Saber)

 One of the biggest things I'd like to see more of in this game is melee. The melee system can be incredibly effective, but so few people use it. A melee-based Recon character would be great to help level the playing field a little for people who enjoy using melee but find it easily countered by a few well-placed shots.

 I would like to hear your opinions on the Cooldown, Effectiveness of the abilities, general usefulness of the merc, if she should be an engineer instead, etc. I want to hear your opinions!

 Also, do devs even look at these? Just wondering. Its good to dream but I'm wondering if dreams ever become a reality in this forum.

This was made with the aid of the form created by @derpypenguinz19. [url=http://forums.dirtybomb.nexon.net/discussion/31580/meta-mercenary-suggestion-form] Link

(Mr-Penguin) #2

:3 Somebody used my merc template! :3

Anyways, I get the feeling that this merc would be incredibly underpowered in a game based around guns and collateral damage high-explosive abilities. We all know that melee-only Phantom doesn’t work at all against decent players, and with low HP and a hefty self-slow on swings, Ella isn’t going to do much better.

If there is going to be an ability-only melee weapon, it should be superior to all current melee weapons in order to give it even a fighting chance against enemies armed with guns (think Ronin’s Sword Core from Titanfall 2). With that in mind, this blade should have a similar damage profile to the Katana, but swing faster and have longer range or perhaps a lunge/dash attack rather than a slash. Lunge/dash distance could be dependant on charge.

Also keeping in line with the whole Titanfall 2 thing, the Ronin-class Titan has an ability called ‘Arc Wave’ in which said Titan slashes up with their sword, releasing a slow moving electric pulse along the ground that deals damage and slows if it hits. That could be another alternative to the lunge I outlined above.

Other notes:

  • She needs real primaries. A melee-only focused build just doesn’t work against most players. Phantom has SMG primaries for a reason.
  • HP/Speed ratio could be increased.
  • Currently, the spotting ability is just a self-centered Heatbeat Sensor pulse. How about a forwards scanner system that spots enemies through walls and doesn’t warn them that they’ve been spotted?
  • A tiny critique, but the name needs work. Just by looking up synonyms for “sword”, I’ve found potential names in Saber, Estoc, Foil, Falchion… the list goes on.

That’s all I’ve got. I certainly hope you use my suggestions well. :slight_smile:

(civilRoad) #3

@derpypenguinz19 Thanks for the insight! Idk how I didn’t think of a cooler name.
Based on your feedback I have made the following changes to the above:

Merc Stats:

  1. Increased Speed to 460 (From 450)

SWIHFT Saber:

  1. Increased base damage to 60 (From 30)
  2. Increased Range to 120 (From 110)
  3. Increased Fire Rate to 55 (From 48)
  4. Added on-hit effects. Enemies will now suffer a .05% decrease in speed on 2s Charge hit, and an additional .015% speed on 3s charge hit. On 3s Charge hit, the SWIHFT will send a 600 range pulse that increases HUD transparency to 100% for 6s.
  5. Raised charge time till sprint decrease to 2.1s (From 1.8s)
  6. Lowered Speed decrease per 1s Charge to .030% (From .045%)
  7. Changed type of weapon to Saber (From Blade)

ASD (SONAR)

  1. Increased ASD pulse range to 700 (From 650)
  2. Decreased cooldown to 14s (From 15s)
  3. Increased effect length to 7s (From 6s)
  4. Spotted enemies will no longer be notified when spotted

Weapons[list=1]
[] Changed Primaries to Hochfir SMG, SMG-9, and Kek10
[] Change m9 secondary to Simeon
[/list]

(BushWanker) #4

+If she studied engineering why is she a recon?
+“Not another female reconnaissance…”
+“Why not use Sparks instead???”

(civilRoad) #5

@Bushwanker
+Never said she studied engineering? She worked at a Power Grid but didn’t study that kind of thing
+We only have 1 Female recon merc
+Different abilties. Ella has a sword that can deal immense amounts of damage if you can get close enough, can spot enemies silently, and has real primaries. She can not heal or revive, and sparks can not spot, reduce the speed, null the HUD, etc. like Ella. Ella also has more HP. They’re not comparable fam.

If you have suggestions for improvements to her generally ability and usefulness, I’d love to hear it. if she was a medic I could see you saying she’s just another sparks, but with a Sword instead of a Gun. But remember it’s faulty tech, it doesn’t revive.

(Naonna) #6

I advise against removing things like the cross heir or name tags/hp bars for hud modifying abilities. Thunder blinds people, yes, but he’s not exactly high-speed or melee-based. On that topic, people severely disliked when phantom was focused around melee: complaining with a sword. Imagine the hate when they realize the power of this melee weapon in comparison?
The old complaint from phantom’s release of ‘this isn’t chivalry’ still applies, regardless of what changes are made if melee is involved.

Part of spotting includes that warning: it’s what allows for counter play. The sonar device seems to be a better version of vassili’s heartbeat sensor. It also may be near-useless for indoor maps, depending if that range is line or sight or through walls.

The character becomes a bit worse when put against higher skill teams if the melee is kept, anyways. Top players tend to be very precise with their head shots.