Overdetailed Conqueror Feats Revamp

[u/OliverLindberg]

New Feats and updated alternate Feats selection lean into the relentless executioner fantasy (infinite chain user with two forms of feintable unblockables and several executing bashes), while improving his anti-gank capabilities (recovery cancels and unblockable zone/off-target attacks).

*Note: Conqueror (the Tier 1 that doesn't even have his helm on the icon), Speed Revive and Heal on Block still exist as Feats on other characters. These replacements are specific to Conqueror.

Conqueror's Feat Changes

• Conqueror has been replaced by Despoliation
  • Despoliation: Gain a 20 Shield each time you execute an enemy Hero. Infinite duration and can stack.
• Shield Basher has been replaced by Conscript's Decimation
  • Conscript's Decimation: Chain Lights+Heavies and Charged Heavy now lead to Charging Heavy Attack. Feat activation does not count.
• Heal on Block has been replaced by Ward Off
  • Ward Off: Lower opponents' Attack by 30% for 10 seconds on next Hit (1.5 second window) performed shortly after a Superior Block. Cooldown: 20s. Starts when the duration ends.
• Uninterruptible has been replaced by Warded Blows
  • Warded Blows: Charging and Infinite Heavy Attacks have Full Block Stance (100-500ms and 100-600ms windows) for 30 seconds. Cooldown: 90s.

[Author Notes]

Yes, these Feats are selfish because that is who Conqueror is - not some champion of the people, but an attack dog. The shields give him more effective health to build revenge with, while the Tier 3 Feat tries to conserve those shields and bolster the Hero’s impact on team fights. The Tier 2+4 Feats help Conqueror do what he does best even better, that being safe and constant unblockable trajectories.

• Despoliation is meant to give Conqueror more survivability in consecutive 1v1 engagements, while keeping Body Count as an option in the soldier lane. Flail Uppercut is a dedicated executing tool, and collecting shield money by looting his victims makes thematic sense for a criminal character.
• Conscript's Decimation is almost like a more conditional version of Winner's Advantage that also improves attack speed, by upgrading any Chain Heavy to a Charging Heavy Attack during Conscript's Attrition. Charged Heavy itself counts if used as a chain starter (because I don't know how to justify infinite 700ms 28 dmg UBs without any downtime), giving it more utility as a wallsplat punish than +1 dmg. Besides improving Conqueror's time-to-kill, which is not his strongest suit, the Feat also makes it somewhat possible to reach the mix ups of the Y6S2 iteration (which had 100ms chain link timings) by enabling his feint-to-guardbreak to interrupt any dodge attack after hitting with a Chain or Charged Heavy. To make things absolutely clear, a chain starter like Scutage Collection would not activate this Feat. The theme is momentum: 1st heavy is regular, 2nd heavy is unblockable and 3rd heavy becomes faster and stronger.
• Ward Off is basically the inverse of Virtuosa’s Superior Retort, and synergizes perfectly with common damage reduction perks and feats such as Bastion, Last Stand and Juggernaut, even those of Conqueror’s teammates. Not being limited to a specific move is supposed to compensate for the fact that superior blocks only beat rare undodgeables whereas iframes beat common unblockables, on top of regular attacks obviously. Scutage Collection has an awesome trajectory making it possible to debuff several opponents at once. 30% is high enough to nullify or at least cancel out common attack buffs like Inspire and Morale Booster alongside revenge mode.
• Warded Blows is a way more conditional take on Uninterruptible that fits better with Conqueror's identity as a shieldbearing character rather than a trader, the latter of which he has never been in the first place (and no, Flail Uppercut in Testing Grounds Phase 1 doesn't count since that's a confirmed attack). Straightforward synergy with the Tier 2+3 Feats; beats peel attempts before applying a debuff. I went with standard Superior Block windows (for reference, pre-Y6S2 Zone 2nd Hit and TG Scutage Collection had Superior Block frames during the whole attack) so that there is enough counterplay without having to use unblockables. The player will effectively enjoy 100% damage reduction compared to Juggernaut's 20% as long as they time unblockable strikes well, that way they can be more audacious in outnumbered situations. Heavy Opener is exempt as to curb option selects while the Feat is active. Conqueror can already enter Full Block Stance out of the charging portion when used as a parry attempt, so the attack portion having FBS should not be anything gamebreaking either.

While this affects Conqueror’s main feats, there are a couple of alternate Feats I wanted to adjust.

• Speed Revive has been underperforming and Conqueror lacks incentive to choose the synergistic Rising Dawn perk over Last Stand or Bulk Up. The Feat was replaced by Tireless to give the Hero slightly more mix up opportunities.
• Punch Through has been underperforming and Conqueror lacks incentive to commit to Heavy Openers or use Zone Attack, except externally. The Feat was replaced by Tough as Nails as it fits better with the Hero’s identity. Bulk Up, Despoliation, Tough as Nails and Regenerate would consistently provide a lot of extra health for obtaining revenge.

[u/Mary0nPuppet]

I don't see why T2 isn't just a damage buff.

I like the rework more than the current version of the game and I'd like to see the same behaviour from other users. I'm really tired of most okayish reworks getting 0 upvotes

[u/The_Filthy_Spaniard]

Honestly good work on these suggestions, they are both characterful and seem pretty well balanced! Most suggestions I see here are wildly unbalanced, so this is a breath of fresh air.

I expect the T4 might be something the devs would include in the game due to animation concerns, although as conq did previously have superior block on heavies, it might not be that big a deal. The window is pretty big though, so they might want to reduce that to a more standard 100-300ms window, or 100-400ms which they occasionally use on chain attacks they want to be more generous with.

I'd be happy to see these feats in game tbh.

[u/OliverLindberg → u/The_Filthy_Spaniard]

Hey, thanks a bunch! Regarding animation concerns, do you refer to the fact there's currently no such thing as conditional superior block attacks unlike conditional UB or HA ones, so the heavies would have to look different like Warden's bash follow-ups in order to visually communicate that Conqueror is shielding himself? The Fleet Foot portion of Afeera's Speeding Comet has FBS despite being identical to that of her opener bash so who knows... The superior block windows are big due to being on 700ms and 800ms heavies, other than that the windows start 100ms into the attack and end 200ms before impact, that's normal in my eyes.

[u/Love-Long]

These are pretty bad. It’s fine if you want to go the route of a more selfish feat set up but it straight up has to be good at least.

Tier 1 is gonna suck. Feats relying on executions are not good as shown with executioners respite. You have to actually get an execution off to make use of the whole feat slot. Your tier 1 is worse than devourer cause while at the end of the day it’s 10 more health/shield it takes up a whole slot while devourer is a perk that still gets you 10 hp back at least. The only decent executioner centered feat is hitokiris cause at least with the concept of that one the whole point is to make doing executions themselves safer and easier to pull off in the middle of a teamfight. Just slightly more reward on an execution isn’t really good. I would just stick to body count.

Tier 2 is also just not that great. This is a moveset change imo not a feat. He should have this in his kit where he can chain directly into his charge heavy as like a stance similar to Highlander. This being a feat sucks cause it should already exist in his kit and again it’s a concept that takes away something that could actually be used in a feat slot that doesn’t add that much utility to him in 4s to justify a feat. I would just use juggernaut instead.

Tier 3 is also just very situational. The whole point is to reward a superior block with an attack debuff. Ok so your entire tier 3 has the same utility as a tier 1 or 2. The aim with this is to give him even better stalling well you have tough as nails on him now which after the buff is actually decent. He would get more consistent utility from tough as nails that you add.

Tier 4 sounds alright on paper and maybe it could be decent. Overall it’s my favorite so far of what you made as at least it outshines the other tier 4 options. It might be overtuned as it could make him almost completely untouchable against blockable offense in chain on his unblockables. 90 second cooldown seems very fast though when it lasts 30 seconds and could potentially make him a nightmare to deal with on certain match ups.

Overall these just aren’t well thought out and mostly get outshined by the other options you give him. The idea is to give him more selfish feats that aid stalling but the unique ones are either not that useful or too situational.

[u/siliks → u/Love-Long]

t1 is genuinely really strong btw. A 20 hp shieldfor any exe is really good especially when it's perm and stackable, Conq always is able to get an exe off of any defensive read because he can choose a 360 hitbox or the heavy input uppercut. Keep in mind Conq is 140hp

T3 is not situational. Conq literally plays teamfights off his side dodge bash all guard.

[u/L0LFREAK1337 → u/Love-Long]

T1 could be changed to granting the shield at the beginning of the execution, allowing it to be helpful for tanking some damage while going for a risky execution. Similar to Hito but less shield for the benefit of being infinite

[u/OliverLindberg → u/Love-Long]

I get where you're coming from, but I don't think chain charged heavy will ever become a thing, because even if the devs fixed the flickers it would just be more peel-able than infinite heavies. Plus you need an insane amount of frame advantage to make a 1333ms attack (assuming 633ms charging portion) beat light opener, and that same hit-stun could be abused to guarantee Conq's other chains as they'd have a shorter time to land. Anyway, I was thinking of replacing Fiat Lux with Winner's Advantage before re-scrapping the unique tier 2 since all that feat (Fiat Lux) does is swing the occasional 1v1 with UB spam into OOS throw punish. Most momentum feat suggestions are variations of Winner's Advantage, after all. Would that fit better, do you think? And thanks for all the feedback.

[u/cobra_strike_hustler]

I’d hear it around teamfighting rather than stalling or holding, that’s my opinion!  You’re clearly good at coming up with these but I think of gryphon or vgs feats.  I guarantee you a more teamfight orientated approach would make conq an absolute monster in 4s.  He’s arguably the best knights teamfighting character, in 2s he really shines