Area Domination

[Lanthis]

I like the idea of cores being devoted to obelisks. It does seem like the longer someone holds one, the harder it should be to take.

If nothing else, drop the teleport cost and delay periodically to an ob tower based on how long it's been held.

[Lunargent]

The more I play with the newer versions with 100 gold battle plans, I realize that obelisk towers are insanely vulnerable to any character now. Previously it was Sorrow Liege, Tactician or Eidolon who were excellent at sniping obelisk towers at-or-before 15, but now anyone can do it. I would like to see some sort of reinforcement option for obelisk towers that doesn't involve building multiple generators (which takes time) or defensive towers (which takes a lot of gold).

Additionally, I think any sort of reinforcement should have something that is, early in the game, devastating against summons to prevent Sludgestorms. This could lower in power as the game goes on, and heroes are more able (or should be) to defend against summons.

[Jigokuro]

I find defending obs fairly easy; I just drop lots of serpent wards near them. This is most effective on the 2nd/4th lanes obs just before the bridges, since it bottlenecks on them allowing lots of extra attacks, but also holds the bot/top cliff obs. I can (in pub games, mind you) almost always hold all 3 bot obs for red or 3 top for blue single handedly by spamming those cheap timerless wards, esp since you can hand a stack to a peon at the cliff ob to plant them every cd without your hero babysitting it. Ward also work well on the mid obs but are harder to get from that lane.
That also makes pushing back the lane past the bridge stupid hard for anyone without a strong aoe, and on every failed attempt a counter push hard enough to beat down on towers at least a bit is very easy.

[Dekar]

And then comes one semi good player with 3 dispel consumeables and destroys all your wards in a matter of seconds.

[mianmian]

Serpent Wards are only good against bad players, trust me, its a strat I pioneered ages ago.

[Discombobulator]

I saw several dumbnoobs camp the inn or rock ob with DS and a bunch of summons. Dispel = pwn.

One of them ragequit right after I dispelled around 2000 gold worth of wards.

[Jigokuro]

And then comes one semi good player with 3 dispel consumeables and destroys all your wards in a matter of seconds.

Hehe, yeh. Though that is something of a forgotten item, and iirc its 200 a charge, so at the very least they'd lose a fair bit more money than the defender. The time taken to dispel them also gives more time to get there to defend, but all extra defenses do that so its not a point for this specifically.
It works well enough in pubs at least. :\

[Jigokuro]

I saw several dumbnoobs camp the inn or rock ob with DS and a bunch of summons. Dispel = pwn.

One of them ragequit right after I dispelled around 2000 gold worth of wards.

Wait, is the dispel item an AoE?
well, that it for that idea....

[Dekar]

http://eota.emufarmers.com/wiki/Wand_of_Negation

Not exactly 200 gold per charge.

[Lunargent]

Wands of Negation = win, in so many ways. Save yourself from another cheap Devouring Plague death for a low cost!

[Jigokuro]

http://eota.emufarmers.com/wiki/Wand_of_Negation

Not exactly 200 gold per charge.

Oh that, I was thinking the 2k damage one from goblin shop.
Serpent wards have 300 hp though, so each would take two charges, so the dispeller still pays more, just only a bit (unless they just attack the last 100, but that would take longer getting them hit more, and giving a defender longer to get there.). Not that I'm arguing wards are the best thing though. Probably rock pretty hard if you can throw up 3 and a devastator (or w/e the hero killing gen is called)...
Come to think of it that would work pretty well, since the the peon that has the long construct time can stop intermitently to place a ward every cd. Then the wards would take out creeps and the gen would deter any dispel carrying hero.

[Lunargent]

I've found the Experiment Safety Device to be well worth its pricetag under a wide variety of situations. And it's just plain awesome for messing around with.

[Jigokuro]

I've found the Experiment Safety Device to be well worth its pricetag under a wide variety of situations. And it's just plain awesome for messing around with.

Slightly off topic but what, besides taking out first level ooze, is it good for?

[Zini]

I like to use the E.S.D. against the gargs aberrations.

Now back to topic how about to add a fortify button to obelisks. Lets say for 1500 gold 2 towers and a hand full of troops are spawned next to the obelisk tower. Or a much cheaper variation were just some troops are spawned.

[Lunargent]

I just like sniping sorceress spawns (or other factions' casters) anytime I can. 40 gold each and the ESD pays for itself pretty quickly. Good for taking out workers who are building obelisk towers, towers or anything else really. I can't really think of a situation where a point-and-click creature kill wouldn't be awesome.

Oh holy popsicles, I wonder if it works in Conquest mode. EVERYONE could be like Incarnation then!

[Jigokuro]

I just like sniping sorceress spawns (or other factions' casters) anytime I can. 40 gold each and the ESD pays for itself pretty quickly. Good for taking out workers who are building obelisk towers, towers or anything else really. I can't really think of a situation where a point-and-click creature kill wouldn't be awesome.

Oh holy popsicles, I wonder if it works in Conquest mode. EVERYONE could be like Incarnation then!

Wait, it has infinite charges? thats awesome.
There isn't an entry for it in the wiki yet (and most of the lab items) so refresh my memory; its 2k damage to all but buildings, heroes, and red/blue units (so no creeps) right? and apparently is unlimited use for 200gold. (given this is right I'll make the page.)

edit: also, whats the CD?

[Dekar]

It deals omfgwtf damage to living/undead units. No hero, mechanical, ward, magic immune, building allowed.

Cooldown was once every spawnwave, but I dont know the normal spawnrate.

[Rockness]

I didn't have time to read all the replies yet, so if there's an echo in here I didn't mean to do it.

I have two suggestions for how obelisks function:

1. I think there should always be a tower at every obelisk, for instance all of the obelisks outside the bases begin as neutral towers, once destroyed they convert to whichever side destroyed it. The main purpose of this would be to speed up the game as well as to reduce the dependency on a competent team (obviously it would still help to have one). A feature such as this would theoretically eliminate situations where one team controls 5 obelisks 2 minutes into a match and the other team has just 1.

2. I think there should be upgrades for obelisk towers, someone previously stated that the longer you control an obelisk the harder it should be to take, this would effectively make this possible. Upgrades could include, more armor, hp, damage or mercenaries. I feel having mercenaries available for purchase at obelisk towers would make it easier to protect one's investment.

[Lunargent]

The E.S.D costs 600 at the goblin lab. I would estimate the range at 500 or 600, and it deals 2000 damage to a single target. It can not target heroes, wards or buildings.

Costs 90 mana per use, and I haven't timed the cooldown, but gut feeling says one minute. I tried it out in Conquest Mode last night, and it can't target units which have Resistant Skin (which includes all the level 6 big creeps at the spawn bases), but it can still hit those level 5 units just fine. A whole team with these could pretty easily work over a base, leaving only the level 6 units for spawns to pick apart.