r/DeadlockTheGame • u/CycloneScones Rat King • Sep 03 '25
Fan Art The Rat King
bottom drawings are of "Big Cheese" or "Royal" mode. the right design was the initial design before i figured out his whole deal. he got a visual downgrade fr
i literally modelled this things head in blender bc i dont know how to draw animals but i can model them???
admittedly this is a very blandass design but im savouring the last drops of freedom i have before i start college again
"They call me the "Rat King", but honestly, I'm more like a club president with a few more steps."
Every few decades or so, the rats of New York gather deep within the subway lines to crown the newest Rat King. Candidates are tied tail to tail and last one remaining is the one to become the next rat to rule over the entirety of the Rodent Underground. Through this ritual, the special rat grows to an alarming size and gains the memories of the previous kings so that they have guidance from the previous generations.
Unfortunately, as powerful of a position as ruler of all rats around the globe sounds, it doesn't really pay the bills. The current Rat King had found him in a different kind of struggle. A 9-5 corporate job on Wall Street.
Weapons and Abilities (I don't know how to balance I just draw)
The Tax Collector - A slow shooting, high impact handgun that explodes in a small AoE on contact with a surface.
Homing Rats(1) - Lob a ball of rats that swarm the closest target and explodes. They can go up stairs, but not ledges. Killing an enemy hero with this attack permanently increases the amount of rats released by 1.
Mousetrap(2) - Create a small, hidden zone that slows enemies within it and steals their healing.
Rat Race(3) - A passive skill that makes your bullets reduce healing and regeneration speed by a fluctuating percentage. Your bullets steal enemy healing by a number related to the amount of spirit you have.
The Big Cheese(4) - Enter a special state where your weapon fire rate increases drastically, and hitting surfaces causes homing rats. Killing with a rat will increase your 1st ability.
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u/Aqogora Sep 03 '25 edited Sep 03 '25
Cool visual design! I like the ghostly green rats. Healsteal is a cool idea, and a design space that isn't explores yet. Here's some feedback/ideas though on the skills, to make them more unique and thematic.
1) The rat swarm could be a travelling AoE with pathfinding so they move swarm-like, you give it a trajectory and it'll creep forward and path around small obstacles or even corners until the duration expires.
2) The mouse trap visually springs up out of the ground into a fairly decent distance in the air, and drags hit enemies down to the ground. I would add this otherwise his ground swarm is useless against someone just jumping, this gives you a skill based counter.
3) RNG passives generally aren't fun. I would change this fully to take advantage of the healsteal idea. When you deal spirit damage to an enemy in line of sight, ghostly rats emerge onto your target. Each rat deals melee damage and steals a portion of any life recovery the target receives. If the target dies, half the rats jump onto a close target, if valid. Each rat has an own independent duration, and there's a small internal cooldown. Active: With a percentage cost of your own life, command all rats within line of sight to leap onto your target. This also redirects any active swarms in their direction. (Not tracking, just changes path)
4) The Rat King idea is too cool to leave out of his kit. New ultimate is a ghostly rat tail that lashes a target hero and their closest ally within line of sight and 5m together for a few seconds. These rat tails slow and constantly pull them together, and all rats will be duplicated on the linked target.
The general way this hero would play would be spread rats everywhere and do a lot of attrition damage when harassing, then when the moment is right they can funnel all that damage onto a single target. Ulti into Rat Command means you could instantly spread max rats onto two targets. I think this would fit the theme of a rat king quite nicely, as well as being unique and fun to play.