Rory Swann by Broloth

Rory Swann is an interesting character. He's one of my favorites from Wings of Liberty, and he's a bit of both a top-down design and bottom-up.

I wanted to implement a StarCraft II tank, but didn't want to go an obvious route with like a primal Zerg character or with a heavily shielded Protoss.

I also wanted to make a ranged tank, and felt the Marauder was a beefy armored gunslinger that could accomplish that goal.

Thankfully, Rory Swann wears a Marauder type of suit in Wings of Liberty, so that worked. 

As far as character design goes, he would be in the traditional Marauder suit with a few additions, like in SC2 (http://i.imgur.com/eaulcJW.png).

In addition to the back portion of his suit being connected to his wrench arm with the gun in his right arm, his left arm would also have a riot shield on the side that shoots out when he activates it. (He would step forward, position his shield so that it is facing his enemies and then it would shoot out. )

Baseline skin ideas I had were to give him the standard Marauder color (black and grey)  for his base skin, a blue tint for level 7 reward, and a Firebat tint for his level 8.

For his Master Skin, I'd want to upgrade the armed components of his skin to look more like the mercenary Marauders in the campaign of WoL: http://i.imgur.com/RM5xJSl.png

For a more goofy skin, I'd want to give him a Christmas themed one from one of Blizzard's Christmas Cards: http://i.imgur.com/Rj1BNsf.png

For the gameplay side of things, there were a few things to consider when making a ranged tank. First off his job is definitely to be the one in the battlefield soaking damage in team fights, but what makes him unique is that he can engage a team from range. To balance for this, his health is a bit lower than your average tank (to make up for the fact that it takes time for a melee character to get to him.) Instead of specializing in disruption while providing some off-damage (like Anuberak or Johanna), I built him to have his forte be damage while  his disruption (while quite adequete) isn't the main focus. 

That being said, let's talk about his abilities. 

We'll start with his Trait. Concussive Shells is a tie-in to the Maruader ability that slows enemy units. Marauders are also very strong against armored units, so I wanted that to play into the feature as well. Every 3rd Basic Attack will slow the target and deal damage, bypassing damage reduction and Shields. If someone has 10 health, 300 shield, and gets hit with the third shot for 30 damage, they'll die. 

All tanks have a bit of a AoE that can be used to dispatch minions (especially late game when they can essentially be one shot), and Overdrive accomplishes that. Activating it will cause all Basic Attacks to hit all enemies in a cone in front of him (similar to Zagara's Medusa Blades). Every third Basic Attack that hits these targets will also bypass shields, damage reduction, and slow, so it's super powerful for pushing back minion waves as well as takin out poorly positioned groups of heroes. 

Tanks also traditionally have a bit of disruption, and that's what Wrench Winch (W) does for Rory. He shoots out his wrench arm that grabs someone and immobilizes them. They can still attack, and unstoppable abilities will break them free of it, but the ability doesn't pull or move anyone like Stitche's Hook or Sonya's Ancient Spear. 

Rory can move while holding someone still and can use this time to either close the gap or escape if needed.

No tank would be complete without some form of mitigation. Rory's E, Combat Shield, fires out the shield on his arm to knock back and damage enmies, as well as provide a shield to buff his HP. The shield can stack twice, and with an 8 second duration and 6 second CD, it's best to be used as soon as possible to get things fixed. 

His two ults are Flaming Betty, a throwback to his SC2 abilty, and Forceful Extraction.

Flaming Betty summons a flame turret that does constant conal fire damage. The head of the turret can rotate, so if enemies get behind it, it will follow them. It does bonus damage to minions, mercs, and buildings, so it's something that can be used to push a lane or punish clumped up enemies.

Forceful Extraction is a Melee ability, so it will require proper maneuvering in order to gain full value out of it, but it's a powerful tool for disrupting the enemies' positioning and improving your team's. 

When the attack connects, Rory grabs them, spins the hero around 540 degrees (so one and a half times) and shoots them out behind him. Any other enemy that's hit with grabbed target is knocked back and stunned slightly. This punishes out of place heroes on the enemy team while discouraging certain targets from being on the front lines.

That's the character and why I choose some of its abilties and stuff. I'll be doing a Talent philosophy write up later on, and for future heroes, I'll include a copy of my design notes and any abilties/talents that I've changed or gotten rid of.

If you have any questions or feedback, let me know.

1. Block: Periodically reduces the damage received from Hero Basic Attacks by 50%. Stores up to 2 charges.

2. Maximum Overdrive (Q): Your Basic Attacks deal more damage to minons while you're overdriving.

3. Resilient Combat Shield (E): Your Combat Shield can now stack a 3rd time for 50% of the amount.

4. Promote: Cooldown: 30 seconds. Activate to give target allied lane Minion +300% Health and +100% damage for 30 seconds. Has 2 charges.

1. Superiority: Reduce damage taken from Minions, Structures, and Mercenaries by 50%.

2. Riot Shield (E): your Combat Shield now does 25% damage to all enemies nearby to the target.

3. Press the Assault (Q): Your Basic Attacks while Overdriving increase the duration of your Combat Shield by 1 second.

4. Armor Penetrating Rounds (D): Every 2nd auto attack does double damage against shielded targets.

1. Mercenary Lord: Siege and Bruiser mercenaries near your hero deal 50% more damage.

2. Panametric Fan (Q): Increase your movement speed when you activate Overdrive by 25% for 2 seconds.

3. Crane Arm (E): Increase the range of your Combat Shield by 125%. 

4. Improved Spurving Bearings (E): Combat Shield does 25% more damage to distant enemies and provides 25% more shield if used against nearby enemies.  

1. Flaming Betty (R)

2. Forceful Extraction (R) 

1. Spell Shield: Upon taking Ability Damage, reduce that damage and further Ability Damage by 50% for 2 seconds. Can only trigger once every 30 seconds.

2. Burning Overdrive (Q): Your Basic Attacks while Overdriving deal an additional 96 (20 + 4 per level) damage to all enemes. 

3. Emergency Auto-Crank (W): Activate Wrench Winch again to end the effect and reduce its cooldown by 50% 

4. Automated Retaliation (E): If your Combat Shield is depleted before expiring, it is autocast again with no cooldown against the nearest target. 

1. Lotus-o-Deltoid Cord (W): Wrench Winch's chord now blocks characters.

2. Non-Reversible Tremie Pipe (W): Increase the duration of Wrench Winch's root to 3 seconds.

3. Blood for Blood Cooldown: 60 seconds. Activate to steal 15% of target enemy's max health and slow its movement speed by 30% for 3 seconds.

4. Imposing Presence: Enemies that attack you have their Attack Speed slowed by 50%.

1. Engulfing Elizabeth (R): Flaming Betty now does damage in a large area around it instead of in a cone. The damage is pulsed instead of constantly sprayed and each pulse knocks all enemies into the air.

2. Impressive Whip Work: (R) All allies near the enemy that's extracted deal 20% increased damage for 5 seconds.

3. Nexus Blades: Basic attacks deal 20% more damage and slow the target for 1 second.

4. Hardened Shield: Cooldown: 60 seconds. Activate to reduce damage taken by -24% for 4 seconds.

For Rory's talents, he obviously gets the array of tank talents, but there are a few I avoid for specific reasons.

At level 1, he gets Block, which is a useful talent for tanks to have, but he doesn't get Regeneration Master.

I wanted Rory to be someone who could take a hit, but then needed support to keep going. Characters like Johanna can be pretty self sustaining with high health regen, and that's not the fantasy I wanted Rory to have. 

He can also increase his shield stack a bit with Resilient Combat Shield, which does offer some mitigation and more staying power, but this shield has a pretty short duration, so it's not something that'll permanently keep him in a lane under pressure.

For level 4, he gets Superiority to reduce damage from Minions, Structures and Mercs, this will be useful to allow him to solo take camps later on (especially with Overdrive) as well as tanking towers a little longer.

Armor Penetrating Rounds is an ability that can be situationally chosen if your enemy team has a lot of shield characters, it lets your second Basic Attack deal double damage to shielded targets (which gets rid of the shield faster for other heroes) and continues to allow the third attack to bypass shields. 

From level 7 on, I wanted to give a lot of his talents names from an old video full of satirical technobabble: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac7G7xOG2Ag 

I get a huge kick out of this video and wanted to pay homage in a lot of his talent names.

Mercenary Lord gives him more lane pushing potential, especially with his ability to dispatch enemies *before* they reach the mercs, and gives him a slightly "specialist" potential build type. 

Improved Spurving Bearings and Crane Arm being at level helps shape the type of warrior you want to build towards the middle of the game.

Originally, Crane Arm increased the range by 125% and did double damage to distant targets, but that felt too strong. I decided to split it into two talents to give someone an option. Are they having a hard time with characters escaping with 1 hit worth of help left? Crane Arm is your deal.

Improved Spurving Bearings increases damage in this way: Say the range of the attack is 40 years. Enemies between 0 and 20 yards will provide Rory with more shields (great for in the fray) and enemies that are 20.1 - 40 yards will take extra damage. 

Level 13 gives Rory Spell Shield. This is pretty standard for tanks. Burning Overdrive is his version of Rage. I tried balancing the damage I best as I could since it's not a constant aoe ability. 

Lotus-o-Deltoid Cord for level 16 is a talent that I'd really want to play test a bunch to gauge it's power. First iteration is that it merely blocks people, and if someone tried going into the cord while Rory went the other way, it wouldn't slide them at all. It may wrap around them but that's it. Given the duration of the immobilize, I don't think it's too powerful as is.

Imposing Presence is pretty standard and Blood for Blood gives Rory more of an offensive option if that's how the character's being built.

Engulfing Elizabeth originally only changed the damage to a circle rather than a cone, but that just felt like it was getting a damage increase, nothing really fun about it.

I like where Impressive Whip Work is given the complexity of the ability itself, this serves as a short, mini, half Blood Lust and can be used in emergencies to finish something off even if the enemy that's grabbed is a minion or merc.

With all of that, if anyone has any questions about a talent in particular or is confused on how one works or why it's there, feel free to comment on it and I'll ansewr you!