Major Damage by Zarpd

Playing As Major Damage

Major Damage is a well rounded warrior who can harass his enemies from afar and make them miserable when they get up close. It's difficult to land a stun from Punisher Rocket at a distance, but the low cooldown and cheap mana cost means The Major can constantly threaten his enemies and force them to dance around it. If an enemy gets too cocky or gets caught out of position, The Major can make their lives miserable as he weighs them down with Concussive Barrage, uses the slow to land a guaranteed Punisher Rocket, then maneuvers to make the most out of a well positioned Rocket Punch.

In team fights, Major Damage is best played as a reactive defender. Except for one unreliable heroic ability, he has no way to dive in on the enemy team. Instead, constant Punisher Rocket harassment will keep them aggitated and basic ranged attacks will whittle them down. When the enemy strikes: it's game time. An enemy that dives in on The Major's backline may very suddenly find themselves chain-stunned thanks to a Rocket Punch and Punisher Rocket combo. Or better yet -- the diver can find themselves surprisingly isolated as their entire team has force their way through an incoming Concussive Barrage. Major Damage may - ironically - not have the damage to deal with many threats on his own, but he can easily neuter them and set his allies up for easy kills.

Playing Against Major Damage

Mobility and confidence are key when facing Major Damage. The worst thing an enemy can do is dance back and forth as they look for an opening. His Concussive Barrage gives him the sustain he needs to win drawn out trades, and a lucky Punisher Rocket can lead to some dangerous chain-stuns. Whether the plan is to dive in or run away - do it fast.

Although he excels in drawn out ranged battles, Major Damage is actually ill-equipped to deal with long-range burst damage. His lack of mobility means that retreat is not an option, and a well timed dash can get you out of range of his Concussive Barrage to completely negate the self-healing he relies on.. Also, while his Ka-BOOM, Baby! trait prevents casual wear-and-tear, The Major has no innate armor or shields to save him from a dedicated focus-fire. The moment his Rocket Punch goes on cooldown, he has nothing to save himself from being swarmed.

Level 1:

[-] Smithereens For Everyone
Basic attacks do 25% of their damage in a small area around the target.

[D] Just Say When
Cooldown 60s
Increase the damage reduction of Ka-BOOM, Baby! to 75% for 6 seconds.

[D] Diggin' In
Every 5 regeneration globes you gather grants 1 armor.
! Quest: Gather 25 regeneration globes.
! Reward: Gain +5 armor.

Level 4:

[Q] Spread The Love
Punisher Rocket's radius is increased by 25%.
! Quest: Hit 30 heroes with Punisher Rocket. Hitting a hero with the center counts as 2.
! Reward: Punisher Rocket's cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds..

[W] Healthy Attitude
Concussive Barrage now heals for 50% of the damage dealt. This also increases the amount healed by hitting heroes.
! Quest: Hit 75 heroes with Concussive Barrage.
! Reward: Concussive Barrage's AoE size increases by 75%.

[E] The Mean Right Hook
Rocket Punch knocks enemies back %50 longer.
! Quest: Knock 10 enemy heroes into terrain with Rocket Punch.
! Reward: Enemies stunned by Rocket Punch take 25% more damage for 2 seconds.

Level 7:

[Q] Craterize
Punisher Rocket deals 75% more damage.

[W] Time's A-Wastin'
Each hit of Concussive Barrage increases basic attack speed by 10% for 2.5 seconds. This effect stacks.

[E] Easy Pickin's
Rocket Punch does 125% more damage to enemies who are stunned or slowed.

Level 13:

[Q] Bunker Buster
Enemies hit by Punisher Rocket have 25% less armor for 3 seconds.

[W] It's Go Time
Each hero hit by Concussive Barrage reduces its cooldown by 0.25 seconds.

[E] Say Goodnight
Enemies hit by Rocket Punch are slowed by 60%, decaying over 2.5 seconds. The slow begins to decay after the initial stun, if the enemy is pushed into terrain.

Level 16:

[Q] Blastin' Time
The stun duration on Punisher Rocket is increased by 0.5 seconds, and enemies struck by the edge of the ability are also stunned for 0.25 seconds.

[W] Sucks To Be You
Heroes do 5% less damage for 2.5 seconds when hit by Concussive Barrage. This effect stacks.

[E] One-Two-Combo
Rocket Punch now has 2 charges, but its cooldown is increased by 4 seconds.

Level 20:

[Q] Frag 'Em All!
punisher rockets explode into more rockets

[1] About To Get Heavy
Cooldown 90s
Gain +50 armor and +70% attack speed for 6 seconds.

[R] ALL ABOARD THE PAIN TRAIN
Oh, It's On! now lasts for 5 seconds and has 2 charges.

[R]Shove Off
Disruption Charge creates impassable terrain for 4 seconds in the direction it detonates, making heroes struck by it unable to move back.

For frame of reference, the core stats of other characters can be viewed HERE.

Stats at: Level 1 / Level 10 / Level 20
Health 2860 / 4070 / 6025
Regen 5.97 / 8.49 / 12.58
Mana 500 / 590 / 690
Regen 3.000 / 3.855 / 4.805
Damage 106 / 151 / 233
Attack Speed 1.07 / 1.07 / 1.07
DPS 113 / 161 / 238

Concept

This concept started by trying to translate a maurader's abilities directly from StarCraft 2 into Heroes of the Storm. After realizing that the concept of "can stim pack and slow people" didn't have enough meat to make a full hero out of, I decided to take the same approach the designers did with Diablo: forget their abilities, and focus on their feel.

All that armor made it easy to envision someone slow and hard to kill. I don't typically associate marauders as being able to kill everyone they meet, but they are impossible to ignore. Being heavily armored, loud, and explosive was enough to create an image of what this character could be. The only thing bigger than his armor is his ego -- he doesn't get pushed around, he does the pushing.

The abilities took shape on their own after that. His E lets him disrupt the enemy's plan, his W forces people to pay attention to him, and his Q is a constant source of pressure and an absolutely nightmare for anyone who's slowed or stunned.

Specifics

Who the F&#! is Karl "Damage" Jensen?

Sergeant Major Karl "Damage" Jensen is not a Blizzard character. Much like Sergeant Hammer or Lieutenant Morales, he is a Starcraft character invented purely for this game.

Have you ever heard the marauder's voice lines? They're fantastic! Confident, bombastic, badass, and completely ridiculous. In case the name wasn't enough of a clue: it's best to not take him too seriously. The Major is the type of character that keeps a line of cigars in his breast pocket and wears 2-3 pairs of sunglasses at once.

Why Major Damage?

My last two hero concepts were... intense. Although Heroes of the Storm allows for much crazier and outlandish concepts than other MOBAs, I believe it's important to keep a grounded main roster -- both to make the oddities stand out, and to give people a comfortable fallback to play. I wanted to test myself by making as tame and simple a hero as possible.

I love StarCraft, so I started there. I tried to make a firebat (Blaze wasn't out when I made this character!), but the end result was too complex. I tried to make a hydralisk, but I ended up with one complicated design and one boring one. One day a friend randomly said he wanted to see a marauder in game... and that was that!

Why the Ka-BOOM, Baby! trait?

When toying with the the idea of long range warrior that couldn't close the gap, I almost named him "AoE Bait." I tried giving him scaling armor based on his distance from an attack, but that felt hard for an enemy to read and even more confusing for the players piloting him. This trait went through a lot of iterations before I finally realized I could fall back on the seed at the core of his design: keep it simple. (AoE resistance also seemed thematically fitting for an explosive expert)

Why the Punisher Rocket Q?

Being a big guy known for shooting rockets, I knew The Major's Q had to be some sort of semi-spammable offense. It was originally a regular skill shot, but damage alone seemed boring. It needed some kick! I didn't care for the idea of a straight line skill shot stun -- Muradin can pull it off because he has ways to get into melee, but that wasn't Major's bag. The hard-to-hit-with stun eventually came into being when I finalized the details on Concussive Barrage, and decided the two abilities would pair nicely with one another.

Why the Concussive Barrage W?

This is actually where the character began. I looked at what marauders were known for in StarCraft 2 -- stutter stepping and slowing enemies. This ability was originally a stim pack that let Major move faster and shoot while moving, but when I ran through it in my mind it just seemed awkward to control. The idea of making the slow stack came from giving him a way to combo into his Q, and the healing came in embarrassingly late as I realized I was about to publish the only warrior without a way to sustain themselves.

Why the Rocket Punch E?

By the time his W and Q had been conceptualized, Major Damage was starting to take shape. I felt like the core marauder fantasy was already being brought to life with those two abilities, but the character still needed some kick. Sparta kick. I had to be careful not to copy Shadow Charge or Haymaker with this one, but it was really important to me that Major Damage was able to shove people around like some sort of jerk. Really I cannot stress how much the marauder voice inspired this.

Why the Disruption Charge R?

When I understood The Major's playstyle, this heroic was specifically designed to strengthen it. Enemies would dive in, they'd be pushed into a wall, stunned with his rocket, then slowed for the rest of their life. Disruption Charge is primarily meant to disrupt the enemy team while they try to save their friend, but it allows for some neat traps and long-range disruptions. It's not flashy, but it's effective... so it fits him to a T!

Why the Oh, It's On! R?

The first heroic was based in mechanics, and this one was based in flavor. The marauder's swagger is bigger than their power armor, and The Major needed a heroic ability to prove it. I basically asked myself how I translate Terry Tate into Heroes of the Storm. The end result lets The Major do what he does best -- run around screaming and making a mess of things. It's not really a reliable way to pick off priority targets and it's a bit risky if he leaves himself in the enemy's backline... but I guarantee you any semblance of a plan the enemy had will be shattered when one of their members is STOLEN and carried off like a football.