Necro'lic
Smash Ace
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2015
- Messages
- 654
Redesign/Rebalance threads
Samus
I said that I would do Lucas soon after Ness as an attempt to fully declone him from Ness by changing his special moves, and here I am. Let's see what stupid ideas I come up with.
If you haven't seen that one yet, just look above in the list for him for some extra context. Probably won't need it though since only one thing is the same between them, but hey.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Like I said in the recent Ness rebalance thread, Lucas's normal moves are pretty much all decloned enough from Ness that I feel the only place left is his specials. Like my Ness rebalance, it will involve very unique and multifaceted moves that seem OP at first glance. Unlike Ness's specials which are focused more around traps, close range, and special movement, Lucas's will be focused around more zoner and defense related things, as is befitting his heavy disjoint and low approach options.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Special trait: PP Meter- Lucas now has a PP meter that will regenerate naturally and is used up whenever he uses a special move. Will also have five different icons to show which of his moves can and can't be used at the PSI level he currently has
- Caps at 200
- Regenerates at 12 PSI per second
- Fully regenerates in 16.66 seconds
- Will automatically be full when respawning
------------------------------------------------------------------
Like my Ness rework, this is both a nod to the Mother series, and a limiter on the otherwise overpowered arsenal of special moves I'm giving to Lucas. And like Ness, I'm giving five special moves to work with. Let us go then.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Shield-B:- New move: PSI Shield: Lucas conjures a psychic shield that protects from all damage while healing him gradually. Will break after taking a certain amount of damage, which will stop the healing. Over shooting the percent threshold to remove the shield will not damage Lucas. Does not reduce knockback in any way
- Costs 150 PP
- Attempting to PSI Shield while one is up will refresh the duration, but not refresh the max damage able to be taken or increase the healing
- Lasts 12 seconds
- Can fully absorb up to 20% damage
- Heal per second: 1.2%
- Total: 13.4%
- Average startup
- Average endlag
------------------------------------------------------------------
A very simple, yet powerful defensive tool that cushions the problem of Lucas's approach, at least a bit. Not only do you not take any damage while the shield is up, but you slowly heal, basically forcing the opponent to come to you. Or, they can cut their losses because this costs a massive amount of PP. Luckily, none of his other special moves are this high, so you can still use them a bit while shielded. As a special condition, anyone that goes over the threshold of removing the shield will not have the remaining damage dealt to Lucas, meaning this can tank some major shots. For example, if someone hits you with a 25% smash attack, you will have the shield removed, but you will not take the extra 5% afterwards. Now imagine this against mega projectiles like Samus' Charge Shot and it becomes a godly tool against other zoners, if situationally due to the massive PP cost.
Unfortunately, it does not affect knockback at all, and since you won't be taking any damage, you can potentially be comboed longer, but you also have more chance to escape it.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Neutral-B:- PK Freeze: Lucas fires a controllable snowflake out of his head that will continue to be controlled while the button is pressed. When released, it will explode, freezing enemies and dealing massive damage and knockback. Damage and freeze duration are stronger the longer the button is held. Can go through platforms
- Costs 70 PP
- Lasts up to 2 seconds before exploding by itself
- Freeze duration: 2-4 seconds
- (Snowflake would be more controllable in the vertical axis)
- High startup
- Above average endlag
- Transcendent priority
- High shield damage
- Unsafe on shield
- Knockback is sideways at 25 degrees
- Base knockback is miniscule to allow for enemies to drop to the ground
- Approximate damage numbers:
- Minimum: 10.0%
- Maximum: 20.0%
- Approximate kill times:
- Minimum: 150%
- Maximum: 125%
------------------------------------------------------------------
Not much changed with this move that was thoroughly buffed in Ultimate enough to actually be a threat. Now it costs PP but it's also buffed to be more controllable up and down, rather than automatically gravitating towards the ground, giving Lucas a great anti air option now that PK Thunder won't be available (wait for that one). In addition, the freeze duration is far longer and gives ample set up time at early levels to either gimp someone recovering or just approach to set up a combo. Either way, not much has changed with this one.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Side-B:- New move: PK Love: Lucas shoots a large shotgun cone pattern of PSI from his fingers in front of him, dealing minor damage. Anyone that gets hit by these particles will have a timed debuff on them that pulses 5 times every 3 seconds. On every pulse, will deal damage to the enemy. Will not cause hitstun by default. If this enemy is hit by Lucas between any of these pulses, the next pulse will cause more damage and deal knockback and hitstun. Hitting the same enemy with the shotgun pattern again before the Love debuff is finished will not refresh the debuff, but will count as damage from Lucas to power up the next pulse, and gives bonus damage
- Costs 95 PSI
- Shotgun cone pattern is about 2.5 Lucas lengths and has a 70 degree area
- Can be angled with a deviation of about 25 degrees in both directions
- Pulses can always be blocked
- Above average startup
- Average endlag
- Transcendent priority
- No shield damage on initial cone blast
- Below average shield damage on both regular and powered up pulse
- Barely unsafe on shield for initial cone blast
- Unsafe on shield on both regular and powered up pulse
- Knockback on powered up pulse and initial blast is at the Sakurai angle
- Approximate damage numbers:
- Cone blast: 2.0%
- Base pulse: 5.5%
- Powered up pulse: 11.0%
- PK Love powered up pulse: 16.5%
- Approximate kill times:
- Powered up pulse: 170%
- PK Love powered up pulse: 100%
------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh boy. I think this is the ultimate tool for an enemy to bend to your will for a while. For 15 seconds, your enemy will have a damaging debuff on them that will have a sort of repeated "time bomb" effect that will damage them over time every 3 seconds. Luckily, by default this will not deal much damage nor hitstun, so if Lucas cannot capitalize on it, it will be a waste of PP. However, despite no hitstun, it's still damage that is unavoidable by everything other than dodging and blocking, two things that become more predictable since this move has a set time they will damage that is known to both the Lucas and the enemy.
Now if Lucas can capitalize via projectiles or simply being in melee range, any hit that is done between the five pulses will power up the next one, and giving hitstun and knockback, making it an actual threat, since if all five pulses are powered up, it will do a whopping 55% damage all up. This can potentially work in both zoner and combo playstyles for Lucas since the base knockback is so low that a well timed combo can potentially cause the PK Love pulse to extend Lucas's combo for longer than it could be without that window of extra hitstun.
And like always, these powered up pulses are basically nullified by shielding or dodging, which is totally fine, since it gives more chances for Lucas to accentuate his great grab and throws in response. Honestly, I think this is the best new move here for how many different ways to bait your opponent for such a potentially long time.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Up-B:- New move: PK Ground: Lucas creates a floating rock under his feet, completely stopping his fall. From this rock, he can jump off of it at any angle, including downward, launching the rock opposite the direction of the jump. Any enemy that gets hit by the rock will be slightly knocked downward and buried if they hit the ground or are on the ground. Pressing Up-B again while on the rock will cause Lucas to drop down with the rock below his feet, and can jump off the rock any time during the descent. Doing nothing for a certain time will cause the rock to shatter, causing the move to fail and Lucas to enter helpless fall
- Cost 45 PSI
- Rock followup window lasts 2.5 seconds
- Bury duration is 1.25 seconds
- Can jump off floating rock by pressing jump and the desired angle with the control stick
- Jump off rock is 75% the height of Lucas's single jump
- Does not refresh double jump
- Fast startup
- Average endlag when jumping off rock
- High endlag when rock shatters
- Fast landing lag when jumping downward or landing with the rock
- High landing lag when landing after rock shatter
- Low shield damage
- Low shieldstun
- Barely unsafe on shield when dropping rock downward
- Knockback is downward at 270 degrees
- (This is regardless of angle rock hits at)
- Approximate damage numbers:
- Launched rock from jump: 8.6%
- Rock impact from descent: 14.5%
- Bury: 2.0%
- Approximate kill times:
- Launched rock from jump: 500%
- Rock impact from descent: 500%
------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, so I based this move's mechanics off of Weavile from Pokken Tournament, one of my favorite mons from that game; specifically Icicle Crash. To get a better idea of what it would look like, here's the move in action from the Pokken dojo, the creation of the icicle, the ability to jump off of it to launch it, and the ability to crash down with it. Lucas would have all of these traits of the move with PK Ground, but with some added benefits.
Firstly, unlike Icicle Crash, this can be launched at all angles, including upwards, thus causing Lucas to jump downwards. This leap off the rock is slightly less than a single jump, and it doesn't refresh his double jump, but so long as he has the PP in his meter, he can do this indefinitely to get upwards, making this a potential safer venture than PK Thunder (provided you aren't short on PP while flying). The downside is that the jump has a bit of commitment where you can't immediately do aerial attacks after jumping, thus making zoning with the stones far safer than approaching with them, especially when combined with its lackluster shieldstun.
Secondly, while descending downwards, you basically "power up" the rock, giving it more damage to hit the opponent with, as well as allowing yourself to followup at close range should you hit. It's also a great landing option.
Speaking of followups, the rock will always knock enemies downward similar to a weak spike. But whether in the air or on the ground, once they hit the ground, they will be buried while taking minor damage, giving Lucas free reign to do what he wishes to them.
The last, and more minor parts involve stalling your fall to make juggling Lucas a less profitable endeavor, while also having a long delay to do so before requiring a followup. Unfortunately, letting the rock shatter by not doing any followup move causes Lucas to not only become helpless, but have much higher landing lag.
Overall, this move works better as a recovery, as a mobility tool, if potentially linear, and a setup tool like his other two projectiles. We've covered. One more to go!
------------------------------------------------------------------
Down-B:- New move: PSI Counter: Lucas will cover himself in a PSI based reactive aura for a few seconds. If he is hit while the aura is on, a psychic clone is made of the enemy that hit Lucas at Lucas' location he was hit, mimicking the move that hit Lucas exactly towards the offending enemy. If Down-B is pressed while the aura is still active, psychic clone will be created at Lucas's current location that does a random enemies last move in their direction
- Costs 30 PSI to activate
- Costs an extra 30 PSI to manually create clone
- Aura lasts 2.5 seconds
- Melee hits mimicked by the clone deal 50% damage with the same knockback
- Projectiles mimicked by the clone deal 25% damage and have half their priority
- Manual clone creation can be done while in the middle of an attack
- Costs 30 PSI to activate
- Extremely fast startup
- Extremely fast endlag
------------------------------------------------------------------
So this is, without a doubt, the weirdest counter I have ever come up with. Basically this has two particular uses, both based around a motif of mimicking your enemy's moves to your benefit. For starters, unlike all other counters, this one not only lasts a long time, but allows Lucas to do everything he wants, potentially not allowing you to attack Lucas safely without being knocked back by your own offending attack, albeit weaker. Luckily, you will deal full damage to him (unless he has PSI Shield on), plus, it still costs a bit of PSI to have on, meaning he isn't doing his powerful projectiles that could zone you out.
The second, and more useful, aspect is using the enemy's last move to potentially use in a combo to devastating effect, whether by chaining it between your own moves (which you can do since it can be activated while in the middle of a move), or having a stronger finisher used on a buried or frozen opponent from PK Freeze or PK Ground. Unfortunately, mimicked attacks give far less damage, projectiles even more so, while also lowering their priority, meaning the zoner you're up against will more often than not, destroy your clone's mimicked attack with the same projectile, making this a rather shoddy anti-zoner tool.
Still, the possibilities of this move are far too expansive for my feeble mind to wrap around.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, that's done and dusted. Hopefully someone likes this.
Last edited: