EdAWACS Hero Idea: Sabo

Welcome to the Vainglory Hero Spotlight. Today we will be looking at Sabo, a human mind trapped in the body of an Autonomous Bipedal Tank

Hailing from an alternate reality of the world where the Mekutomonos eradicated almost all life and took over everything. Sabo was a veteran technologist commando who was heavily injured during the conflict against the Tyran-E faction of Mekutonomos. His mangled body was encased in a prototype mechanical suit stolen from the machines.

Now after 4 decades of war, Sabo has grown weary of fighting as his health slowly deteriorates despite his augmentations. He continues on fighting in the hopes of being killed on the battlefield, unable to come to terms to the cybernetic nature of his existence.

Ingame, Sabo demoralizes his enemies with hard-hitting basic attacks while being able to absorb heavy amounts of punishment in return. Even if enemies escape his line of sight, they are still not safe from his ultimate, which rains an endless barrage of fire down upon them. However, significant windows of vulnerability leave Sabo vulnerable should he be caught unprepared.

Sabo’s HEROIC PERK is Autoloader

Sabo cannot continuously basic attack. His basic attacks expend AMMUNITION of which he stores a total of 5 within his magazine (Displayed as 5 white units) below his health bar.

Each basic attack deals 140% weapon damage.

Instead of Energy, Sabo consumes 1 round of AMMUNITION from his magazine to activate his abilities. If he activates an ability with the LAST SHELL in his magazine, the ability becomes EMPOWERED and gains an additional effect.

If Sabo runs out of AMMUNITION, he cannot use any abilities or basic attacks until his magazine has been RELOADED.

If Sabo expends all 5 rounds of his AMMUNITION or does not use his abilities and/or basic attacks for 2.5 seconds, he will enter into a RELOAD DRILL for 4.5 seconds. The reload speed can be decreased base on 5% of bonus ATTACK SPEED and 10% of his bonus CRITICAL STRIKE chance.

Secondly, Sabo’s weapon has a FIXED attack speed with a firing rate of 1 shell per 0.5 seconds.

BASE STATS: (Levels 1-12)

Health: 570-2049
Energy: 0

Armor: 25-75
Shield: 20-55

Weapon: 70-128
Attack Speed: 100%-100%

Range: 6.4
Movespeed: 3

FIRST ABILITY: Kinetic Tankbuster

Sabo fires a Kinetic Penetrator shell in the targeted direction. The shell impacts on the first enemy in its path, triggering basic attack effects and dealing bonus crystal damage based on a percentage of the enemy’s MAXIMUM ARMOR.

The projectile PIERCES through the original target then deals 60% less damage to the next 2 enemies directly BEHIND the original target.

If Sabo casts this ability using the LAST SHELL in his magazine, the basic attack damage will be AMPLIFIED

Upon learning this ability, Sabo gains the ability to BASIC ATTACK WHILE MOVING.

Cooldown: 7.5s/7s/6.5s/6s/5.5s/4.5s

Ammunition Cost: 1/1/1/1/1

Max Armor Percentage: 25%/30%/35%/40%/45%

Amplified Damage Bonus: 5%/10%/15%/20%/25%

SECOND ABILITY: Reactive Armor

When activated, Sabo detonates a piece of his armor that creates a narrow cone-shaped blast in the targeted direction; massively reducing the damage he takes from all incoming linear projectiles caught in the blast radius for 1 second.

Sabo’s maximum armor is reduced by 25% each time he uses Reactive Armor. This armor reduction remains in effect until Sabo’s next magazine RELOAD.

This ability has 4 CHARGES

If Sabo uses the LAST SHELL in his magazine to cast Reactive Armor, he will also NEGATE all negative effects for the abilities duration.

Charge Time: 20s/18s/16s/14s/12s

Ammunition Cost: 1/1/1/1/1

Active damage reduction: 10%/15%/20%/25%/30% Weapon Ratio: 10%

Sabo’s ULTIMATE is Infinite NLOS

Sabo takes aim for 0.5 seconds and fires a shell in the targeted direction dealing REDUCED basic attack damage to all enemies within a 2-meter impact radius. This ability can be reactivated equal to THE AMOUNT OF AMMUNITION currently stored within Sabo’s magazine.

If Sabo hits an enemy hero affected by crowd control with his ULTIMATE, Infinite NLOS will EXTEND the duration of the crowd control effect by a small amount.

If Sabo damages at least 1 enemy hero with Infinite NLOS using the LAST SHELL in his magazine, the ability’s cooldown is immediately REFRESHED and Sabo is refunded 1 round of AMMUNITION.

Cooldown: 98s/86s/74s

Range: 20/40/60

Reduced Damage: 40%/30%/20%

Ammunition Cost: 1/1/1

Crowd Control Extension: 0.2s/0.3s/0.4s

THANK YOU FOR WATCHING THE SABO HERO SPOTLIGHT, IF YOU LIKED THIS HERO IDEA DON’T JUST LEAVE A LIKE BUT COMMENT DOWN BELOW AS YOUR ENCOURAGEMENT AS WELL AS FEEDBACK REALLY HELPS OUT THE AUTHOR

VAINGLORY IS OFFICIALLY IN CROSS-PLATFORM ALPHA. DOWNLOAD AND PLAY TODAY!

IF THIS POST GETS MORE THAN 10 REPLIES FROM THE COMMUNITY I WILL ALSO WRITE UP VOICE LINES FOR SABO.

4 Likes

I need to re-read this in more depth when I have more time (doing the “parent-at-Christmas” thing rn!) so I can give some sort of useful comment, but I just wanted to say I really love your creativity and imagination with these heroes!!!

3 Likes

Looks heavily ‘inspired’ by Jhin from League of Legends.

I eagerly await your critique :slight_smile:

@MacAulay @Ve3nNo0wM @hazeleyes @coltonJW

Actually, the idea for Sabo came from the concept of a main battle tank equipped with an autoloader mechanism.

I don’t mind inspired by characters anyone and I am sure most casuals don’t either. I only played LoL for like two weeks years ago and never went back to it so as long as it fits and is different in VG I love it.

1 Like

What do you think of Sabo as a hero in VG?

I think the concept is quite cool, and the ammo mechanic shared between abilities and basic attacks is an interesting idea. I especially like empowerment for consuming the final ammo, and is a really simple way to build choices into you gameplay.

I do as always have quite a couple issues with the design.

  • I’m not a fan of the armor damage bonus, it feels really awkward and doesn’t really change his identity or playstyle. If you want him to be extra difficult to counter build (which I think is a poor idea) give him armor pierce.

  • The ammo reload mechanic feels very strange to me. From my understand you have to wait 2.5 seconds to start, and 4.5 to complete the reload, which can’t be interrupted halfway? It also seems a little over complex, I would change the text to"if Sabo does not basic attack or activate an ability for 2 seconds, gain 1 ammunition every .5 seconds. Reload timeout reduced by bonus attack speed" one of his abilities should also generate ammunition in some form, this would allow some more interplay between abilities which I will get to later.

  • I personally don’t mind his A, but it doesn’t feel that different from a basic attack considering they both consume 1 ammo you are basically choosing between 140% weapon damage to a single target guaranteed, or the potential for more damage and at longer range. However it serves it’s purpose well as his core damage ability, and again the finale ammo bonus is such a cool idea. the armor bonus feels a lot more at home here on a “tank buster” ability, and gives it a little more difference from his basics assuming you remove it from them

I’ll finish my feedback later. Probably my favorite of your ideas so far though.

1 Like

What about his second ability and ultimate?