Revs 2 Added Skills Discussion

I will be posting and updating all of the new skills I have added here. I will not add one to the list until it is in the game. Ultimately, the values will be changed, and some of these skills might be removed due to bug or balance issues.

When commenting on a skill:
DO NOT put a lot of stock into the current values. If I say it deals 300 damage, dont say "300 damage is OP, get rid of that skill" Why? With a single click, I can change those values on a skill.

PLEASE DO pay attention to what the skill could do. What it might work well with. What skills combined with it could make it too OP. What skills are very similar to it, and could be used as a basis for balance.

If you are not willing to put more than an initial thought into this discussion, stay out of it. Stupid +1 posts will get you banned because I am sick of them ruining good topics.

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THE SKILLS
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Hibernate: Defensive, castable, ally/self, mild mana
Puts self or ally to sleep, rendering them invulnerable while they slumber. Every second they sleep for they regenerate X life.
Duration increases slowly with level; life regained increases with level.

Mind Rot: Misc, Castable, enemy, lower mana
Destroys X mana per second (not burned, not absorbed) from target, and if the target attempts to cast while they have this debuff on, they will be stunned for a short time.
Lasts for 8 seconds, mana destroyed and stun increase with level

Lifebloom: (non stacking) Defensive, castable, Ally/self, mild mana
Heals target every .5 for 10 seconds. When lifebloom is purged or wears off; it bigs a bonus heal to the target.
Healing increases with level, overall healing is low; cooldown is lowish

Divine Chorus: Ult, catable AoE buff, ally/self, low mana
With this buff on, whenever a unit casts a spell, they gain life equal to 15% of their current mana.
Cooldown decreases with level, duration increases.

Orb of Water: Misc, castable (point), moderate mana
The hero sends out a semi-slow moving ball of water which moves from point A to point B. While this orb is flying along, it shoots small balls of water at any enemy it comes close to.

Calling of the Magi: (Passive, might become castable) self
grants a low chance on attack for the hero to regain some mana.
mana gained increase with level.

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Discuss

Call of the magi

1st I think you should make the calling of the magi somewhat similar to vamp soul (self cast and purgabe) instead of a chance on attack. 2nd I think though you should put it as a misc or a defensive so it can synergize with farming skills as if it was an offensive it would not work well with a lot of the other skills from the other tiers. 3rd you should add some kind of stat gain on it too like increased damage reduction or spell resistance or something to make it fit in as a defensive or misc skill and also to make it worth getting non int heroes.

mindrot work on items :?

For Divine Chorus, what type of duration/cooldown at we looking at approximately? This could either make the skill extremely OP or not worth getting at all. I can see it synergizing nicely with Consume or Life Drain for a nice initial burst of health gained with the mana cost. Also, it would work beautifully with flash heal or any other healing spell in a team game.

For Mind rot, are we talking about a cast or a channel? I think that either way though, this will be an underused, and underrated skill, just like vortex. Overall, this would be a VERY formidable and scary skill to encounter with any non-passive build, which is roughly 95% of the builds that are used. It seems to be an anti strength-caster skill.

For Orb of Water, how fast would it shoot out bubbles at the enemy, and at what range? I can see it going one of three ways: either shooting fast at a close range, shooting slow at a long range, or medium at a medium range. I like the idea of this skill, and it seems that it would work nicely with whirlpool, bonewall, or any stun. Also, can we assume any type of farming ability with this spell?

For Lifebloom, is there any way to make it so that if purged, it heals the total amount of the cast, plus the end amount, instead of just the ending amount? (as in WoW)

For Call of the Magi, I would have to agree with Piss. There is a spell like this in WoW for paladins, however i forget what its called. I think that it should be a debuff to cast on your enemy, that whenever you or a teammate hits him, they gain X mana back per hit, obviously increasing with level. Or, you could do the same, but instead of regenerating mana, you steal the opponents mana, sort of like a melee mana absorb (no mana burn effect).

Hibernate seems to be fine jsut the way it is. I could see it meshing nicely with a build like vamp soul, hibernate, acid rain, death orb. stun with death orb, vamp soul regen, hibernate, acid rain, kite, hibernate... etc. But it seems like a nice twist on the sleep mechanic.

humm about mind rot and Hlwg's comment on it being anti-str caster. Do u mean that cause an int hero would just regen faster than the mana destroyed? If so, I guess a really high mana regen aura might counter it, but vortex + mind rot would equal zero mana on most people. I dont consider that op (its just like vortex + feedback), but it would make a sick combo =)

Edit: for Divine Chorus, maybe if u made it so that u heal from ur base mana? Or would that be too op? Just mass mana and cast flash heal all day long.

So is Phantom Bolt completly erased?

Hard to say what is balanced without the exact numbers

Hibernate depending how it works looks for a decent combo with rejuve or holy armor forces them to attack who you want them to attack.

Mind Rot depending how long the stun is looks like a chain caster counter. So this could be a skill to worry about if your running something like flame strike banish silent night. I cant tell how it will effect their ability to not be able to afford to cast but it looks like it can slow your chaining progression. Looks like an instant counter to channels but what isnt now or days

Chorus is that heals for the cost of the spell or mana pool total? Could be imbalanced with chains if it is 15% basically always make shell and get a huge heal everytime you cast something.

phantom bolt is gone. I looked into the source, and figured out.. yeah; it was poorly made, and causes crashes in other ppls games.

The Chorus is based on current mana, that is, mana in your pool. Mana burn is an easy counter to this ability.

Mind Rot - When it destorys mana? Like say u have 600/700 it destroys 100 now u got 600/600? or justs lowers current mana? ex 600/700 destorys 100 now u got 500/700?

Hibernate - Is it going to be like divine shield in which case if u were to cas a buff on urself (ex:rejuv) then casted this it will remove the buff? if not dont ya think thats a bit op?

Other wise i love all these skills o.o cant wait to see em in game

mind rot would be OP if it took out total mana. Nawwww; it just takes out your current mana pool.600/700 turns into 500/700.

And hibernate will strip you of buffs while you sleep; and spells cannot be cast on you. I believe tranquility is the only healing spell that would still heal you; but I may be wrong. Vortex works on immune guys, I think...

i can see hibernate working VERY well with terra and/or mana shield builds. aka, the time in sleep allows you to regen mana. Also, it might even work with a mana explosion build if your mana regen is high enough.

i really like the idea of hibernate, water orb, and mind rot, not sure about the others tho. life bloom could be a heal thats not auto-countered by pure or debuff, but id have to say calling of magi and divine chorus could potentially be op when added to mana sheild/terraptus builds, if you have magi or in a team game when your ally has chorus. and btw, in my opinion alot of the new skills should be more micro based, things like bonewall where once your opponent uses that skill you have to figure out a way to have it work for you, and spells that are possible to be dodged ect ect instead of just targeted spells.

Dont worry about balance on chorus and magi. I have magi balanced pretty well, IMO; chorus is gonna take some time to work with; but in my mental math, I always take into account the idea that someone will be using like, parasite with it with it.

Because flash heal is a .7 second CD, I will not allow it to work with this skill; it is something that just couldnt be balaced.

Some quick math, for those wondering about the skill. It is based on your current mana. So; mana burns are a very strong counter to it. also; every time you cast an ability; you are using more mana. Lets say you are spamming a 3 second CD skill; just for the HP. that is 1500 every 3 seconds (about 500 less than a flash heal being cast for 3 seconds)

That is a really good ability, isnt it? It sure is. Why? you are investing in high mana to make it good; and you are using low CD spells, to make it even better.

What are the counters? any form of mana burn. If someone is giving you a really rough time with this, a WW/supersonic, and stone staff is a great set up. burn 3000 mana before they can cast at you at all. 15% of 3000 is 450. you just reduced their healing by 450; and that wasnt hard. to be an ass, grab staff of the mana goddess. take another 1200; if you are int; or need mana.

It will be a strong ability; no doubt about it; but there are so many counter to "high mana" builds that it would be silly to suggest a situation where it isnt countered.

Just my thoughts on the skill; and why I decided to add it. It can of course be balanced as the game goes into testing phases.