Gambit Enhancement Project: Mutant Appreciation Month!
So in the spirit of Mutant Appreciation Month I decided to take a look at my favourite mutant, Gambit. For the mutant of romance, you'd think Gambit would've gotten some more love.
As a marvel fan, scientist, and gamer, I thought I could pitch a few changes for Gambit where I would synthesize my knowledge of Gambit, real life Kinetic Energy, and game design to make him a much better champion than we currently see him.
Disclaimer: I don't mean for this to come across as a champion rework like She-Hulk and Spider Gwen, just an enhancement on the playstyle he already has. People familiar with him won't have to change their way of play.
- Brief Science lesson. This formed the basis for some of my stylistic choices, but you can read past it -
Firstly, an understanding of kinetic energy is important. Kinetic Energy is the physical manifestation of Potential Energy (which is more or less a conceptual thing). When an object is still, static and doing nothing, its potential energy is high - since it isn't doing much, the potential is there to do something. Kinetic energy is what gets done. When skydiving, you in the plane has a high potential energy of gravitation (falling). Once you jump, your potential is rapidly converted to kinetic as you fall. When you are half way to the ground, you are at 50% kinetic and 50% potential. On the ground, 0% potential, 100% kinetic. Once you hit the ground, all that kinetic energy converted in the last moment goes into your body, and that is what hurts you as you fall.
In Gambit's case, he's transforming potential to kinetic in an object that isn't otherwise doing anything. Since this is theoretically impossible, that energy needs to do SOMETHING and go SOMEWHERE, the object ends up just exploding.
So how does does this help us in-game?
1. Gambit's powers are more effective when an opponent ISN'T doing things (ie: standing still/blocking).
2. Gambit's preferred vehicle to USE his mutant powers is his throwing cards.
3. Gambit is a sneaky sneaky rogue character, and that should be reflected as well.
Currently, when Gambit blocks, he charges himself up (which doesn't make sense, because Gambit doesn't blow himself up).
Instead, I think that Gambit should hold block, charging up cards to throw. Let's say at 5 stacks, he has 5 cards charged and ready to throw. He will use his SP1 to throw his cards, expending those charges for damage on the SP1.
When an opponent is not moving/blocking, Gambit would take advantage of that to blow them up. They should accrue Potential charges that would explode when Gambit lands his SP2 on them (converting Potential to Kinetic).
Charges should wear off over time (as objects are moving and thus using that energy), but in keeping with the current Heavy Attack, instead of expending charges to give Prowess or %Special damage bonus, I would think that Gambit could expend 3 Kinetic charges from his cards when landing a Heavy attack to place a card on the opponent - one permanent Potential charge on the opponent.
The SP3 should deal its own amount of damage + a certain amount of damage per permanent Potential Charge. Additionally, each permanent Potential Charge would contribute to the duration of the Paralyze effect that his SP3 already has.
Lastly, due to Gambit's reliance on blocking, I think enemies should take a small amount of damage per Potential Charge on them whenever they attack into Gambit's block.
His signature ability I think should apply to his blocking at all health thresholds. Also I think the fact that he Folds is extremely frustrating as his damage ramp up isn't at the same degree as many other higher tier champions - and should certainly be removed.
Lastly, due to his rogueish sneaky character (he is a street urchin and thief) I think he should also have an evade feature tied to his self Kinetic charges. Like a weaker version of Miles Morales' spider sense, but obviously works in a ramp up direction.
Altogether, these changes would make his reliance on blocking so much less punishing to the player, and would make placing an AI Gambit on a defensive node a lot more threatening.
So at the end of the day:
- His defensive playstyle is safer
- All three of his specials are useful
- He has two dialectical, mutually exclusive methods of damage building (a bit like Havok's)
- With some numbers tweaking to compensate for the removed %special damage increase, Gambit could start being a very solid choice for more reliable high damage ramping.
- Most importantly, his unique mechanics mean the player AND the opponent need to adapt to his style, which will finally remove him from the pool of champions who are no threat to fight against.
Thank you for taking the time to read this,
Please feel free to add constructive criticisms at the bottom
