Mercenary Bladesman

[Warskull]

A skilled swordsman with no loyalties working as a sell sword. He trains intensely to develop a perfect technique to slay his rival in a single blow. He currently finds himself in the employ of the Felorc army, often used for assassinations.

Agility based hero, good DPS.

Innate - Celebrate: If you have killed an enemy hero gain 1 level, 200 gold, and 5 crystals.

The enemy hero must be player controlled to count. Basically every time he kill a hero a flag it set, when this skill is used that flag is reset. If he has killed 5 heroes since he last used this skill he only gains one level when he uses it. He then has to score another deathblow to be able to use the skill again. It should have a fairly long cooldown (in the 3-5 minute range.)

Final Cut: Expend all your energy to stike the enemy with a brutal finishing blow. Lose all mana and deal X damage + Y damage per mana spent this way. For the next 10 seconds you are exhausted dealing -95% damage and moving 25% slower.

A deadly, high damage skill that has huge drawbacks too it. It should mesh somewhat well with meditate, but there should be a decent gap between dishing out high damage blows. A large chunk of the damage should come from the mana spent.

Quick Strike: For X seconds move Y% faster, the next time you strike the enemy hero you deal an additional Z damage.

Expensive mana cost, but often available. Not particularly high damage, somewhat inefficient putting pressure on mana. Especially if used with Final cut.

Feel no pain: Through intense discipline and training you are able to ignore all wounds and push your body to the limit. For X seconds you move attack X% faster, during this period you recieve no damage, but when the skill ends you receive Z% of the damage received while this skill was active at once.

I think it would start at 100% damage near the end and drop towards 75%.

Meditate: Enter a trance like state regenerating X mana over Y seconds, you are stunned for the duration of meditate.

Somewhat frequently available, good mana generation, but you should spend a lot of time stunned and vulnerable if you use it frequently.

Ultimate - Deadly Promise: Targets only enemy heroes. You give your solemn word that the target will die by your hand. Their armor is reduced by X. If they die you gain Y% of your health and Z% of your mana back. If you deliver the killing blow, all your skills are recharged.

[Laser_Wolf]

Seems over-powered. Could easily gain levels too fast with his innate, especially when used in conjunction with his ultimate ability.

[Perhaps]

Expend all your energy to stike the enemy with a brutal finishing blow. Lose all mana and deal X damage + Y damage per mana spent this way. For the next 10 seconds you are exhausted dealing -95% damage and moving 25% slower.

Reminds me of trans am.

Final Cut!

[Warskull]

Seems over-powered. Could easily gain levels too fast with his innate, especially when used in conjunction with his ultimate ability.

Without the ultimate you can use the cooldown to limit level gain. At a 5 minute cooldown he can gain no more than 13 levels in a 1 hour match and that is if he uses it immediately on cooldown every time it is up.

With the ultimate, yes there is risk of him being able to power through the enemy team and gain a bunch of levels. However, if the ult can be dispelled it shouldn't be too bad. Buy a wand of negation and his chain stops dead. Other options would be capping the level gain (no more than 10 in a match or it doesn't work after level X.) If necessary the bonus on a kill for Deadly Promise could be altered. Another strong/unique option would be a permanent boost to all stats.

Plus, keep in mind those levels don't start to get juicy until he hits around 15.

[CryptLord1234]

Alrighty, here's my $0.02 on your hero:

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Celebrate: Seems a lot overpowered. Gaining a decent economic lead AND a level for every kill? I don't think that's a good innate; while the idea behind it is good (getting a buff for killing heroes) I would suggest toning it down; gaining levels for doing something your hero is good at will eventually mean he outlevels people. Assuming he uses it every cooldown, and that he kills between those, at its worst cooldown that you suggested (5 minutes, or 12 uses per hour) that's (10 crystal from kill + 5 from innate) * (12 kills) Crystal -- 120 crystal and (400 gold per kill + 200 from innate) * 12 = 4800 gold. And 12 levels. That's quite a bit, and given this hero's ability to kill other heroes, I think a bit too high.

Possible changes: Instead of an economic bonus, perhaps a reverse-Deathblow type thing? If you're going to keep the economic bonus, scaling it down severely would help.

Final Cut: It could be anywhere between overpowered and underpowered. I would fear quite a bit for melee heroes against him, as getting a large mana pool would mean that Final Cut would hurt a LOT. The debuff matches this, but it won't matter, as he can kill the enemy hero in 1v1, and only in 2+ versus him is this going to really show. I mean, the creeps do damage, but I don't think it would be enough to kill him before he can run. And heck, Health Potions are 75g apiece. Given that you just killed a hero, you've got 600g from that alone, assuming Celebrate is up. If it isn't, 400g is still 5 health potions. And mana potions, too, could offset the fact that you just burned off all of your mana.

Possible changes: Perhaps lose some health, perhaps scale down the damage?

Quick Strike: Not too much to say here. Gives him some mobility, and a good hit. Could be a pain in the ass to run from.

Possible changes: Perhaps have him do some AoE nearby him for X/2 seconds?

Feel No Pain ((Side note: WH40K reference?)) Not a terrible idea, but I fear for the whole Final Cut thing: Final Cut -> Mana Potion -> FNP. Basically removes the downside from Final Cut.

Possible Changes: I also believe that to turn invincible is somewhat annoying for a light, melee class. I would suggest starting it at 125% and moving it down to 100%.

Meditate: Not much to say here.

Possible Changes: None

Deadly Promise: Again, I see the whole Final Cut thing being a problem. Deadly Promise -> Final Cut = no drawback, and you can use FNP to get you through the debuff of Final Cut. Also, I think for an ult, it should have more oomph.

Possible Changes: Amplify the Fallen Hero debuff on enemy units? Possibly, instead of restoring health and mana, give the hero increased regeneration of health and extra armor? Or something along those lines?

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Overall, I think it could use some work. I didn't mention it here, but compare him with one of the pre-existing heroes in EotA, as I had done in my topic. It brought my attention to some things. Also, keep an eye on the whole Deadly Promise -> Final Cut or Final Cut -> FNP. It seems like the Final Cut debuff really doesn't matter that much.

Also, talents?

EDIT: Color coded for easier reading.

[Warskull]

Altered Mercenary Bladesman

Innate - Celebrate: If you have killed an enemy hero gain 1 level and 5 crystals.

Final Cut: Expend all your energy to stike the enemy with a brutal finishing blow. Lose all mana and deal X damage + Y damage per mana spent this way. For the next 10 seconds you are exhausted dealing -95% damage and moving 25% slower.

Springing palm strike: Dash to you opponent with immense speed leaving a blur behind you. Enemies you dash through take X damage and the target is stunned for 5 seconds. After Z seconds you dash back to the point from which the springing palm strike originated dealing another X damage to anything you dash through.

Note: Use the Mystic Swashbuckler's dash animation (maybe a different color if possible) for the in/out portion. This will suggest a relationship between the Mercenary Bladesman and the Mystic Swashbuckler

Feel no pain: Through intense discipline and training you are able to ignore all wounds and push your body to the limit. For X seconds you move attack X% faster, during this period you recieve no damage, but when the skill ends you receive Z% of the damage received while this skill was active at once.

Meditate: Enter a trance like state regenerating X mana over Y seconds, you are stunned for the duration of meditate.

Maybe this should have some negative armor too it also? Alternatively the mana gain could be a non-combat regen that ends if he takes damage.

Ultimate - Deadly Promise: Targets only enemy heroes. You give your solemn word that the target will die by your hand. Target has X% reduced speed and Y reduced armor. If you deliver the killing blow you gain 2/3/4/5 (maybe 1/2/3/4) to all stats.

The idea behind the final cut debuff isn't necessarily to put him at risk, but to ensure that the final cut is literally the final cut. If he fails to kill the target he can't chase, he has no mana to use other skills, and he can't really do damage on the way out. He's done and has to take some time to recharge his batteries after it. If they survive that attack he should have no way to finish them off (maybe even push the debuff to -99% damage.) Perhaps a longer debuff or greater snare could be appropriate though.

Getting final cut right will have a lot to do with getting meditate right, the two skills are closely linked. Meditate is what lets him produce strong final cuts and still use other skills. It is also what lets him get back to a workable level after throwing out a final cut. It needs to be somewhat risky to meditate so the enemy can pressure him if he does it and deny him the ability to meditate. I think negative armor or having the mana gain either cancel or be reduced if he takes damage could be an option.

Changing deadly promise should put tighter constraints on celebrate and make it possible to balance it. He now only gains extra crystals and a level. Early on the level shouldn't be a big deal and the crystals will be the more interesting part of the package. I think the skill needs to have a strong reward for landing a deathblow, because it makes this character quite focused on hero killing. So now we are looking at max 12 levels and 60 crystal bonus if he runs with the 5 minute cooldown. The potential for him to get a chain and grab a quick 1000 cash, 5 levels, and 25 crystals from a single conflict is probably too dangerous to play with. Keep in mind for him to nail the max bonus he has to kill at least one hero in every 5 minute segment so the player will need to be playing aggressively and really be dominating the playing field.

[CryptLord1234]

I like the change in Celebrate. While my math was assuming the absolute best, it did show that it's a little great. 15 crystal per kill instead of 10, and levels. That makes a bit more sense.

As for Final Cut, I saw it as a high-damage, single target nuke with a significant drawback, not that he will stop attacking. In that regard, perhaps actually preventing him from dealing damage for a couple seconds would be a better alternative, while slowing his movement to give the enemy hero a possible chance to run.

For Meditate, I'm thinking just making it a non-combat spell that breaks if he gets put in combat is fine. This way, pressure can be applied as you have in mind, forcing the player to make a decision for more regen or running.

I like the Springing Palm Strike, although perhaps applying a stun or damage-over-time effect in addition to / instead of the straight-up damage would be good. I was GOING to say it's like Ardin Stormsabre's ability, except this one returns you and deals damage again. Very nice "reach through their lines" ability.

Deadly Promise, I think, needs a little bit more work. The only other spell kinda like it, Defiler's ultimate, is being changed. I can see this thing being used, but I think giving it a little more activity will help it. It's just a debuff -- Maybe add attack power and movement speed when this guy's near the target? Or maybe have it a melee spell that deals a small-med amount of damage?

[Warskull]

As for Final Cut, I saw it as a high-damage, single target nuke with a significant drawback, not that he will stop attacking. In that regard, perhaps actually preventing him from dealing damage for a couple seconds would be a better alternative, while slowing his movement to give the enemy hero a possible chance to run.

That's what the -95% damage debuff is. That is applied to attack damage, so he really is only going to be able to finish off a hero with next to no health left. Then with no mana he can't use any skill and with reduced speed he isn't going anywhere. Obviously you shouldn't be able to dispell this one. Only thing else you could tack on would be to silence him for the duration.

Also for his innate if you killed the Mystic Swashbuckler (his rival) you get some fireworks or some other bonus graphic.

[DarnYak]

I have some specific interest in seeing this hero, or one like it, developed well, so let me give some specific feedback.

Final Cut - Putting skill points into something this situational seems like a kind of bad idea. Sort of how vengene used to be a non-ult, and people generally didn't take it (granted it also wasn't as strong). If its an ult, its justified. Alternately, i see two ways to make this one more desirable. First, make it work on spawns (minus the heavy mana penalty - unless he has some sort of unique mana system) for an instant kill + other effects. Second, make it have a different effect on heroes that are nowhere near dead, so you can use it on heroes >50%, its the fuzzy area between 50% and dead that bears the risk.

Mediate: Its obvious why this skill is here, yet it doesn't really fit the theme, and its not the type of thing most people will take. Alterations i can come up with offhand are something like combing it with feel no pain, or do something at the end of the effect (like critical strike for 10 seconds)

Feel no pain: Been thinking of a skill similar to this for a while. Only problem is he'll still take damage (obviously), but he has no good staying power (no teleport skills, no self heals, etc.). And since you have to estimate how much damage you take, this guy seems suicide prone.

Sprining Palm Strike: Not sure i want another dash in game, but i obviously want the basic movement mechanics I discussed with you.

Now the two messy skills..

Deadlly promise: i've considered a duel idea for a while. This is sort of it, but its a bad, bad, bad idea. Permanent stat increases probably aren't as game breaking as one might think, but still not something i'd want to see in game.

Celebrate: i'm not sure what to think of this one. i've considered it a problem that hero killers tend to be behind on levels a lot, due to having to switch lanes a lot to be effective. I've been thinking about exp changes in general instead (such as a big ass increase n exp received for a minute after making a hero kill). Having an innate that does it seems a bit of a hack way to fix it. I wouldn't really oppose the increased reward as a built in part of the ult, but can't see taking this in its current form. It's also effectively a passive disguised as an active.

DarnYak

[Warskull]

Mercenary Bladesman revision Points

A fork of the mercenary bladesman, a shift in mechanics. To support the new mechanics both deadly promise and celebrate have to go. Final Cut becomes a pump attack instead of an all out final attack.

Innate - With Style: Strike the enemy hero dealing X damage, gain 1 Style point up to a maximum of 5 style points

Optional component
Innate - With Style(Passive): Every time you kill a spawn gain 1 style point.

This is a basic attack used to build points, it should function as a micro nuke. It needs to grow with his level so it always does a bit of damage, but never be major nuke. Ideas for damage:
-2x (number can obviously go up or down) attack damage.
-Base damage + stat bonus
-Base damage + level bonus

Fierce Groove - Strike the enemy for X damage and spend all style points. For each style point spend this way you lose Y mana and deal an additional Z damage per point of mana spent.

Untouchable Moves - Attack X% faster and move Y% faster, for the duration of untouchable moves you take 25% damage. For every Z damage you take you spend a style point. If you have no style points to spend, untouchable moves ends.

Dancing Palm Strike Teleport to target foes locating stunning them and gaining X style points, for Y seconds you may activate this skill to teleport back to your point of origin losing 2 style points.

Basically, you teleport next to the target and stun them. From that point on the timer on the skill is started, changing the icon to a recall icon. If the player activates it they lose 2 style points (not spend, the recall may be used with less than 2 style points, simply putting the player at 0 style points) and return to the point of origin. If they do not activate it after the time runs out it simply reverts to the skill and they no longer have the option to teleport back.

For the style point gain I was thinking 1/1/1/2/2/2

Flourish: Strike the target foe dealing X damage. Gain X mana. Spend 1 style point, if you have 0 style points then gain 2 style points.

Alternate
Flourish: Strike the target foe dealing X damage. Gain X mana per style point then lose 2 style points.

This attack will basically end up free, so it needs to be regulated by cooldown and damage. It should be somewhat available, but not be a huge damage skill.

Ultimate - One More Time Anytime you strike a target you have a X% chance to gain a a style point. Any time you kill a hero gain 5 style points, X mana (at least enough for a 5 style groove), and Y health.

[Warskull]

Some new versions of skills to be applied to original hero design.

Innate - Celebrate(Active): Spend 25 gold (party supplies), Nearby allies spawns move 100% faster and attack 100% faster for 5 seconds.

Innate - Celebrate(Passive): When you deliver a deathblow to an enemy hero gain a level. This can only occur once every X minutes.

Final Cut: Strike the target hero for X damage. If the hero is below 50% health perform a brutal finish blow in which you lose all energy and deal an additional Y damage per point of energy spent this way. If you perform the finishing blow in this manner you are debuffed with -95% damage and -25% movement speed for 10 seconds.

Feel No Pain(A): For X seconds you take no damage, move X% faster, and attack Z% faster. At the end of feel no pain you receive A% of the damage you would have taken If this number is greater than your current health you are set to B health.

Feel No Pain(B): No mana cost to initiate. For X seconds you take no damage, move X% faster, and attack Z% faster. At the end of feel no pain you receive A% of the damage you would have taken and B% of the damage received is taken from your mana. If you do not have enough mana the remained is taken as damage.

Meditate(A): You enter a meditative sleep regaining X health and Y mana over the duration. Nearby enemy units are also put to sleep when you enter this state. If you take any damage this sleep state ends, ending the health recovery, the mana recovery, and your enemy's sleep.

Meditate(B): (Has a small AoE target) You and enemy enemy hero caught in your gaze fall asleep for X seconds. You gain Y mana over the duration and enemy heroes lose Z mana over the duration. Waking up any of the targets ends any side effects of the sleep.

Meditate(C) You enter a meditative state in which you recover X health and Y mana over the duration. You take 0% damage during this time (but the hit still wakes you up.)

Explanation: This would function as a recovery mechanism and double as a trick to evade damage from skills, but it must be times right because it only stops the first damage to come in (and then meditate ends.)

Springing Palm Strike Teleport to target foe locating stunning them, for Y seconds you may activate this ability again to return to your point of origin, stunning any nearby spawns.



He needs a new ult. I thought about the "duel" ultimate concept, but I think it works better as a "Challenge" concept on a tank hero. On this kind of hero it would just get used against weakened heroes to prevent them from running or finishing them off. Some ideas:

Perfect Kata(A): For X seconds your attacks kill spawns in 1 hit and snare heroes Y% for Z seconds.

Perfect Kata(B): For X seconds your attacks do AoE damage and have a chance to crit for 1.5x damage.

Null Blade: For X seconds you channel the power of nothingness through your blade. Each attack you make dispels everything from you and your target and drains Y mana from your target.

Precision Dagger: Throw a dagger killing target spawn (low cost low cooldown.)