The Great Hero Review: Undead
Posted: August 28th, 2011, 7:33 pm
I think the undead team suffers from better design/balance overall, and as a result lacks some of the really strong instant damage to compete against Elves/Creeps on their own.
Rue:
- Order Attack: Same as tact
- Mortal Strike: Strong, possibly a bit too much
- Royal Guard: Should be very effective at letting him tank, and mitigate hero damage, but I don't see them that often. Not much offensive, although they can be used to block
- Despair: Good for getting out of surrounds / interrupts, but not sure anyone takes more than one level
- Forlorn Crown: The damage aura is strong (a little too much), but nobody uses any of the other auras
- Shadow Bastion: Healing is overpowered, damage is weak (but its suppose to be), not sure how many people use its utility as a command tower
Neph: Too messy for here + see the neph post
Emberwraith:
- Molten Prison: Good for stun/teamwork, and sometimes catching enemies in the ult
- Pyroclasm: Dissapointment of a spell, it does a lot of damage to spawns that stay in the aoe + stay alive, heroes should never be hit by it though. Shortening its cast time I think would make it broken. Planning to make it do 100% (or more) damage to enemy heroes caught in the main blast, but also have some sort of larger blast area that heroes couldn't avoid (like rocks shoot out at the heroes)
- Cauterize: Dispel needs to go
- Flare: AoE stun..not bad but doesnt' seem to synergize well with anything, not exciting either
- Smoke Cloud: Doesn't seem used often, but can be insane for tanking. I know there was a recent game where a bunch of heroes were pounding on him and he just couldn't be killed
- Corona: Damage might be a little low
Forlorn Martyr:
- Static Charge: Useful, but kind of hard to control as a heal due to the discharge
- Ion Surge: I've seen this be pretty insanely strong, but also seen it fizzle out, so probably good when used right
- Polarity: Can be insanely broken when combined with Ion Surge, kind of annoying to deal with as the target hero. Probably should play with range, duration, and cooldown. At one point i was going to let it be cast on allies to heal the target while damaging enemies - could also change the spell to do the same in reverse (so the target would take damage from being near enemies, which are healed)
- Streak: Good mobility, not sure how many levels people put into this
- Thunderstorm: Too strong, too annoying, needs major tweaking. AoE size is insane, and lasts forever on buildings. The miss rate is pretty insane too, I could not kill a Stormspire with this on it because i kept missing
- Stormspire: Not exciting, but very strong attack speed buff and other utilities. I want to nerf this while giving it some sort of other fun boost
Defiler:
- Corpse Trap: Mana cost probably too high. This spell used to be brutal in earlier versions (when it was on Dread Shaman as a skill to level up), now I'm not sure it's very useful. Might also be ineffective, I'm not sure. Needs a boost though.
- Pestilence: Can decimate waves, but often seems sort of weak.
- Devouring Plague: I would argue this a fairly balanced spell but EXTREMELY ANNOYING. Plan isn't refined but i want to make it a lot less passive, something like it lasts a short time but any damage defiler does will refresh it's duration. Redefining it as an Injury so that it is dispelled by heals would help too
- Exhaustion: Not really used as far as I've seen, my own attemtps to use it have been less than thrilling
- Blight: Good building damage, good mana return, good attack buff, I'm not sure if the spell is popular but I'm pretty sure its strong
- Frailty: Really strong but feels like it needs a little more
Incarnation:
- Mark of the Reaper: Not sure I like how this turned out. With it a lot of spells are pretty strong, without it a lot of spells seem ineffective. Maybe make it more spammable, possibly even 0 cooldown, but with a higher mana cost so there's more of a concious decision to use it.
- Rend Soul: Damage could be higher, a bit broken in some situations (vs. aberration, verdant falls, capture mode)
- Remorseless: Not sure I ever see it used
- Dark Altar: Mixed feelings, sometimes it can do a lot of healing, othertimes it seems worthless. Not sure anyone understands its aoe heal mechanic either. At the very least it needs a stronger AoE healing graphic
- Gravebind: Roots are usualy useful, but this one feels lacking.
- Avatar: Not scary at all, hard to even know its being used. Seems mostly useful for the revive. Kind of wonder if I should just treat this like Dread Shaman's ult and consider making it his inniate
High Oracle:
- Clairvoyance: Dispels a few things (that's fine), and reveal is always good - probably underused, I know i've helped allies across the map spot stuff but I dont know if anyone else does that
- Zen Archery: Ought to be really strong, not sure it works out that way
- Ki Blitz: Good, mana possibly too high
- Befuddle: Seems like it should be strong, but it seems hard to notice having any effect
- Nemesis: I always try to use these with no real success. Wondering if they should be converted to have some automatic familiar-like control to them. Not sure what else to do with them
- Geyser: Great, besides lagging a bit too much
Putrid Eidolon:
- Infestation: Very good/useful, doesn't do insane damage anymore, seems perfectly fine imo
- Wilting: Strong aoe
- Entangling Seed: Little hard to control/use right, but still good
- Spore Cloud: Feels a little weak
- Fungal Armor: Strong, but doesn't feel overpowered
- Rotting Grove: I love seeing this even though I question how effective it actualy is
Ascendant:
- Shimmer: Near useless
- Terra Smash: Pretty good, might need a bit of a boost at lower levels
- Stonegaze: I always try to use this spell to no good effect. Strong in theory, but never taken. AoE might be too small, or it travels too slow, I dont know what to do with it
- Ravenous Dive: Strong ability, but i've yet to find a point where i'm happy with it. Currently i feel its on the weak side
- Abberration: Some might argue its broken, but I don't think so
- Hell's Fury: Very Good, graphic feels a little off though (coloring)
And one bonus hero since making anothe rpost would be stupid
Glacial Tyrant:
- Avalanche: Awesome
- Arctic Cataclysm: Strong
- Frigid Blast: Not sure this does quite enough in the mana restore/heal department, but aoe root is always ok
- Shatter: Strong damage, kind of hard to pull off
- Icy Barrier: A rune shell tha'ts more balanced
- Deep Freeze: Great ult
DarnYak
Rue:
- Order Attack: Same as tact
- Mortal Strike: Strong, possibly a bit too much
- Royal Guard: Should be very effective at letting him tank, and mitigate hero damage, but I don't see them that often. Not much offensive, although they can be used to block
- Despair: Good for getting out of surrounds / interrupts, but not sure anyone takes more than one level
- Forlorn Crown: The damage aura is strong (a little too much), but nobody uses any of the other auras
- Shadow Bastion: Healing is overpowered, damage is weak (but its suppose to be), not sure how many people use its utility as a command tower
Neph: Too messy for here + see the neph post
Emberwraith:
- Molten Prison: Good for stun/teamwork, and sometimes catching enemies in the ult
- Pyroclasm: Dissapointment of a spell, it does a lot of damage to spawns that stay in the aoe + stay alive, heroes should never be hit by it though. Shortening its cast time I think would make it broken. Planning to make it do 100% (or more) damage to enemy heroes caught in the main blast, but also have some sort of larger blast area that heroes couldn't avoid (like rocks shoot out at the heroes)
- Cauterize: Dispel needs to go
- Flare: AoE stun..not bad but doesnt' seem to synergize well with anything, not exciting either
- Smoke Cloud: Doesn't seem used often, but can be insane for tanking. I know there was a recent game where a bunch of heroes were pounding on him and he just couldn't be killed
- Corona: Damage might be a little low
Forlorn Martyr:
- Static Charge: Useful, but kind of hard to control as a heal due to the discharge
- Ion Surge: I've seen this be pretty insanely strong, but also seen it fizzle out, so probably good when used right
- Polarity: Can be insanely broken when combined with Ion Surge, kind of annoying to deal with as the target hero. Probably should play with range, duration, and cooldown. At one point i was going to let it be cast on allies to heal the target while damaging enemies - could also change the spell to do the same in reverse (so the target would take damage from being near enemies, which are healed)
- Streak: Good mobility, not sure how many levels people put into this
- Thunderstorm: Too strong, too annoying, needs major tweaking. AoE size is insane, and lasts forever on buildings. The miss rate is pretty insane too, I could not kill a Stormspire with this on it because i kept missing
- Stormspire: Not exciting, but very strong attack speed buff and other utilities. I want to nerf this while giving it some sort of other fun boost
Defiler:
- Corpse Trap: Mana cost probably too high. This spell used to be brutal in earlier versions (when it was on Dread Shaman as a skill to level up), now I'm not sure it's very useful. Might also be ineffective, I'm not sure. Needs a boost though.
- Pestilence: Can decimate waves, but often seems sort of weak.
- Devouring Plague: I would argue this a fairly balanced spell but EXTREMELY ANNOYING. Plan isn't refined but i want to make it a lot less passive, something like it lasts a short time but any damage defiler does will refresh it's duration. Redefining it as an Injury so that it is dispelled by heals would help too
- Exhaustion: Not really used as far as I've seen, my own attemtps to use it have been less than thrilling
- Blight: Good building damage, good mana return, good attack buff, I'm not sure if the spell is popular but I'm pretty sure its strong
- Frailty: Really strong but feels like it needs a little more
Incarnation:
- Mark of the Reaper: Not sure I like how this turned out. With it a lot of spells are pretty strong, without it a lot of spells seem ineffective. Maybe make it more spammable, possibly even 0 cooldown, but with a higher mana cost so there's more of a concious decision to use it.
- Rend Soul: Damage could be higher, a bit broken in some situations (vs. aberration, verdant falls, capture mode)
- Remorseless: Not sure I ever see it used
- Dark Altar: Mixed feelings, sometimes it can do a lot of healing, othertimes it seems worthless. Not sure anyone understands its aoe heal mechanic either. At the very least it needs a stronger AoE healing graphic
- Gravebind: Roots are usualy useful, but this one feels lacking.
- Avatar: Not scary at all, hard to even know its being used. Seems mostly useful for the revive. Kind of wonder if I should just treat this like Dread Shaman's ult and consider making it his inniate
High Oracle:
- Clairvoyance: Dispels a few things (that's fine), and reveal is always good - probably underused, I know i've helped allies across the map spot stuff but I dont know if anyone else does that
- Zen Archery: Ought to be really strong, not sure it works out that way
- Ki Blitz: Good, mana possibly too high
- Befuddle: Seems like it should be strong, but it seems hard to notice having any effect
- Nemesis: I always try to use these with no real success. Wondering if they should be converted to have some automatic familiar-like control to them. Not sure what else to do with them
- Geyser: Great, besides lagging a bit too much
Putrid Eidolon:
- Infestation: Very good/useful, doesn't do insane damage anymore, seems perfectly fine imo
- Wilting: Strong aoe
- Entangling Seed: Little hard to control/use right, but still good
- Spore Cloud: Feels a little weak
- Fungal Armor: Strong, but doesn't feel overpowered
- Rotting Grove: I love seeing this even though I question how effective it actualy is
Ascendant:
- Shimmer: Near useless
- Terra Smash: Pretty good, might need a bit of a boost at lower levels
- Stonegaze: I always try to use this spell to no good effect. Strong in theory, but never taken. AoE might be too small, or it travels too slow, I dont know what to do with it
- Ravenous Dive: Strong ability, but i've yet to find a point where i'm happy with it. Currently i feel its on the weak side
- Abberration: Some might argue its broken, but I don't think so
- Hell's Fury: Very Good, graphic feels a little off though (coloring)
And one bonus hero since making anothe rpost would be stupid
Glacial Tyrant:
- Avalanche: Awesome
- Arctic Cataclysm: Strong
- Frigid Blast: Not sure this does quite enough in the mana restore/heal department, but aoe root is always ok
- Shatter: Strong damage, kind of hard to pull off
- Icy Barrier: A rune shell tha'ts more balanced
- Deep Freeze: Great ult
DarnYak