Nature Water tower: Octopus (King)

Name: Octopus Royalty (or King or Queen) Rarity: Unique Attack: Fal Damage: 10-30 Range: 2 Cooldown: 3s Element: Nature Gender: male/female/none Lore: Ready to literally hug creeps to pieces. Effect (1): Octopod Dexterously uses many arms squeezing up 8 creeps at a time. Effect (2): Lethal hugs The Octopus' attacks squeeze creeps ever harder. Initial attacks deal only 10% damage, but attack damage scales up to 200% (+1%/level) after 3 seconds. Hidden consequence of effect 1 (h): Eldritch Arms become Eldritch Octopus Arms when equipped: +8 attacks, -200% speed, -50% luck - - - - - - - - - - Developer questions and comments: Andy, would it be possible to have a flexible attack range? Range 1 to start attacking, but can keep attacking as long as creeps are within range 2? Andy, I see (2) working like this: when a creep is attacked, it gets a new variable to track the octopus attack. That variable is updated on each attack ... It might be easier (faster) to record the start time of the attack, then compute the scale factor on each attack while constraining the value below the maximum. pseudo code: scale_factor = min(time - start_time, 3) * (200% + octopus_level - 10%)/3 + 10% With 3 being the time the damage scales over. I haven't measured creep walk rate, but ideally octopus would struggle with fast creeps because it needs time for the damage to scale. And 10% being the base damage amount (unless this gets factored out and this whole equation is multiplied by 10) As I said in another post, it might be easiest to give the octopus a flat 10% damage multiplier and then only compute this scale factor (1.0 to ~30) for attack targets. The idea is to nerf AOE so it isn't like unpatched phoenix. It might need to be even lower than 10% for AOE. - - - - - - - - - - Original text: Placeholder for this idea until I flesh it out. It's perhaps complicated enough that it would need to be a Unique tower. Or the fancy parts can be removed and it can be an uncommon tower. Octopus would be able to attack multiple creeps (1) and do scaling damage as the life is squeezed out of them(2). (1) octopus has many arms and can attack 4 (or up to 8?) creeps at once. Octopus would love more arms(h). (2) octopus constricts targeted creeps, increasing damage from a base of 50% up to a max of 150% (+ 1%/level) over 2 seconds. (h) Hidden (1): Eldritch tentacles feel natural for octopus to use. They become "Lost octopus tentacles" when equipped and lose the -luck penalty.

i realy would like to read some specific data ( atk speed, base dmg, etc) the basic idea sounds awesome. especialy the (h) part. is (2) intedet to be added as a usual +dmg%, similar to a damage potion, or like a superior factor, which multiplies all damage effects?

I intended (2) to be multiplicative. So the first attack against a creep would be at half damage, but successive attacks would do more damage based on how long they are targeted. If I were Andy, I would code this as a 50% permanent damage penalty + a scaling damage multiplier for targeted creeps that goes from 1.0x to 4.0x over ~2 seconds and resetting if the creep exits range. The idea for implementing it that way is that splash damage or similar effects would be penalized but the 50% penalty. If the tower gets a huge number of targets, then it doesn't make sense to give it splash damage too. ... Actually... Even with the 50% damage penalty, dandelion snowglobe would still give (8)(0.5)(0.33) damage to a group of creeps. That's still over double damage. So, I think the scaling damage needs to be more intense. Maybe starting at 15% damage and scaling to ~250%? My idea for "balanced" and "feels good" is a tower that would be able to kill normal creeps after reaching fully scaled damage -- I imagine this would be after the creeps walk ~4-6 spaces -- and maximum scaled damage is dealt about 1/3 of the time. I'll do some testing/experimenting and update my first post. Edit: I forgot Eldritch Arms had -800% attack speed and -100% luck. I think halving both penalties would be fair while Octopus is wearing them?

If this idea is too big, or nature doesn't need a unique water tower, it could be downsized into an uncommon darkness tower: Adolescent Kraken Lore: He is getting SO big, isn't he?. Stats: Range: 1-2 Damage: 20-30 Effect 1: Constriction/death by drowning The kraken submerges creeps under water for increases damage. Initial attacks deal only 50% damage, but attack damage scales up to 200% (+1%/level) after 2 seconds. Effect 2: Tentacles Kraken has two long arms for attacking creeps.

i realy hope @andy gives that idea a chance. a splashy tower would add deversity as none before. (phoenix/ bearhunter isnt the same). especialy with the part of direct item aknowlegment. "I forgot Eldritch Arms had -800% attack speed and -100% luck. I think halving both penalties would be fair while Octopus is wearing them?" i would suggest the opposite way; since it increases tentacles, it needs to increase the debuffs. (to not beeing overpowered, lorewise)

I'm not increasing the bonus targets on the item, I'm just saying that because the octopus is familiar with many arms, it can use Eldritch Arms more easily. Eldritch Arms +8 targets -800% speed -100% luck Eldritch Octopus Arms +8 targets -400% speed -50% luck For balance reasons, it seems fair: most towers are balanced around 1-3 targets. Jumping up to 9 targets needs a huge penalty. This item likely wouldn't be good on the Octopus anyway because it doesn't significantly strengthen the tower. Even with zero penalty, it is likely worse than Frozen Heart in the mid game.