Devourer Variant

[Eton145]

What is a Devourer's greatest weakness other than having no variants or a team that doesn't help kill hooked humans?  Force Fields.

Devourer variant that in-exchange for not hooking people, simply throws hooks instead.  Devourer hook base damage is 8?  So a thrown hook would do roughly 12 damage on hit.  It CAN go through force fields but if it does then the damage it deals is cut in half.  A great way to snipe low HP humans and punish them for not having medics / a force field.  Melee damage of variant would be slightly lower, HP would be slightly lower, recharge rate would be higher, not sure if twice as fast would be over powered or not.  What I am unsure about is multi-penetration of Force Fields.  Not sure if the 2nd Force Field would flat-line the projectile or if it should penetrate that as well and just have its damage cut in half again.  I do not want the hooks to penetrate and hit multiple humans.  I shudder at the thought of a Killonaire damage / Quad damage devourer variant that just lays waste to humans like pre-nerf Doom Crab did.  Other adjustments to the variant would be very similar character model but the carried hook's size would be reduced and a second one would be put in the devourer's other hand.  When it melee attacks it would swing with either hand like a human would when they swing their fists.  It may lose a few of the bones on its character model to help show it has less HP.

Normally when dealing with Force Fields either the whole zombie team has to throw themselves against it or wait / hope for a Electro Pus.  The Devourer variant wouldn't do anything to the force field so it isn't replacing Electro Pus.  The thrown hooks would also deal reduced damage to barricades / props.  Don't want someone wasting a boss slot so they can camp somewhere and just poke spam the barricade for points from somewhere safe.

I am not sure what Wave this variant would be unlocked since it can be useful at any wave.  If it goes with no damage reduction, hp reduction, etc. then it would definitely be a Wave 5 variant like Ancient Nightmare.  If the suggested downsides go through then it could come as early as Wave 2 or 3.  I do not think this variant should be a Wave 0 or Wave 1 boss.

[a white kleiner]

Devourer was supposed to be a boss that can kill a human by himself with his slow,but after the recent update nightmare and devourer became useless to kill people outside because they dont slowdown humans anymore on hit, devourer isnt supposed to be a boss that you use against a barricade

[Eton145]

Exactly, and this variant would just be a differen't way of dealing with humans.  Sometimes I feel like devourer's hook range is to short but it would probably be OP if it was longer.  There are some of maps where humans will REALLY outrange zombies like Infected_Square and fast zombie isn't unlocked yet so there is no fighting those spots.  Sure you could go Legion or Nerf to counter the window snipers but when was the last time you saw someone go Nerf

[Snowyamur]

Rather than making a separate variant for the Devourer that throws its hook, which I find unnecessary, it's easier and more convenient to add the hook throw as an ability with a cooldown and low base damage.

[TheDarkDevilRo3]

this makes forcefields useless a bit but this variant should take away like 40% of whole hp or the regular devourer because u can just get out of fire sight and recharge ur hook and also add a 5 Secound delay every hook

[Eton145]

It penetrates force fields but does reduced damage...  No clue if it should be able to go through multiple force fields and keep reducing damage or it just gets flat-lined at the 2nd force field.  Slight rework of devourer to keep in relevant at higher Waves - the throw-able would definitely need to start dropping after a short - medium distance to people don't just get sniped by it

[pho-]

IMO there is no need for Devourer to bypass the forcefield; that exists there for the reason of blocking projectiles. What good can adding a mechanic which bypasses this do? The simple workaround is to tweak Devourer so it achieves it's original purpose of demolishing anyone outside, but once it turns into defending the cade, a semi-decent player would just swap bosses.