Grendel Improvement Ideas

[WarspitePOWAAAAH]

I like our thicc sumo wrestler boi Grendel, he is pretty fun to play and has a lot of characteristics, however I do think his kit has many issues that makes him a bit less fun and effective than he could have been. This is a rather small scale of ability improvements and some additional stuff for him, and will not be reworking how Grendel plays.

 

PASSIVE

Addition

Spoiler

Swallowed enemies increases Grendel's weight, increasing his resistance to knockdowns as he swallows more and more enemies with Feast. +10% per enemy, complete immunity to knockdown at 10 or more enemies swallowed, as well as making him Immovable. (Other knockback immunities still sends you to the air, with Grendel you absolutely ignore any effects from knockback attacks other than their damage, including Profit-Taker's energy walls that pushes you.)

-For Grendel's mass, it makes absolutely 0 sense that he gets knocked and hooked all over the place, bonus effect of Grendel's weight makes him ignore Vauban's Vector Pads when Immovable.

 

FEAST

Changes

Spoiler

Energy drain ramp up overtime removed. Energy drain per enemy reduced from 1.5 to 1.

-As an ability that serves as the very basis of his entire kit, this ability drains an unreasonble amount of energy. The remove in energy ramp up and reduction in cost takes some burden off the energy drain of this ability, and makes maximum efficiency less mandatory for more build variety. This also makes him able to better utilize his Gluttony passive.

 

NOURISH

Changes

Spoiler

Increased duration from 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 to 15 / 20 / 25 / 30.
Nourish Energy changed from increasing energy gained to providing passive energy regeneration, at a rate of 0.5 / 1 / 1.5 / 2 energy/s.

-You have 3 different buffs to keep up, having just 25 seconds at rank 3 makes it a hustle to keep all the buffs refreshed, especially when you consider that Grendel don't usually focus on duration. The increase is rather minor as max efficiency is less mandatory with energy drain reduction to Feast, freeing up space for duration mods, but should still improve the QoL by reducing the amount of time required to refresh all the buffs.
Nourish Energy has always been rather confusing and difficult to utilize, making it a passive energy regeneration buff makes it's effect more noticeable and useful for allies.

Addition

Spoiler

Nourish Armor now shares the Gluttony buff Grendel possesses with affected allies.
Gains unique animations for the respective buffs, all the animations are special attacks.

Spoiler

Nourish Armor - Original animation, nearby enemies are staggered and receives penalty to their damage output.
Nourish Strike - Grendel surges forward and performs a sumo slap, dealing minimal damage while exposing them with a stagger, causing them to take Stealth damage from all sources briefly and opens them to Parazon finishers.
Nourish Energy - Grendel buttslams the ground, emitting a shockwave that deals scaling damage with how many enemies Grendel has swallowed. Can be cast midair, sees Grendel crashes towards the ground at increasing velocity and radius the higher in the air he is.

 

-Buffs to Nourish Armor to make it actually useful, and more sumo abilities to match Grendel's theme

 

REGURGITATE

Addition

Spoiler

Holding down the ability rapidly fires out enemies inside Grendel's belly, firing 3 enemies per second until ability button is released or his stomach is emptied. Enemies fired out in rapid succession tends to spread out more, whereas the tap cast, single fire is pinpoint accurate.

-A very much desired feature for Grendel to rapidly regurgitate swallowed enemies, allows Grendel to rapidly deplete his stomach without having to completely empty it, as well as dealing decent damage.

 

PULVERIZE

Changes

Spoiler

Instead of a stun stagger when running out of energy on an empty stomach, Grendel will now instead continuously roll briefly while gradually slowing down. Hitting a surface or falling off will stagger Grendel in various ways before standing back up, if he manages to avoid said situations he will recover quickly after he has stopped rolling.

-A way to let players avoid the stun from running out of energy if they are skilled enough.

Addition

Spoiler

Grendel emits a second, larger aura while Pulverize is active, this is his Sumo Ring. Inside the ring, enemies are easier to knock over and takes longer to recover. Each enemy knocked over grants bonus damage and speed to Grendel and all allies within the ring. The radius of the ring scales with how many enemies are stored in Grendel's guts but will not shrink for the duration of Pulverize being active.

Uses the slam attack when casting Nourish while Pulverize is active.

-A fun addition to Pulverize that provides a damage and speed buff the more enemies you manage to K.O. , the original synergy of Nourish has been changed to be an attack that also gives Grendel a way to descend to the ground quickly.

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Do let me know what you think and feel free to provide any feedback!