The Ebon Withering, the Soul Blight

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a_pointy_stick
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The Ebon Withering, the Soul Blight

Post by a_pointy_stick » Thu Aug 20, 2009 12:53 am

The Ebon Withering
The Soul Blight
Int; Bane

Note: Some abilities have multiple versions for consideration

Story:
Our priests had told us of places in the world where the raw energies of creation flowed freely through the mortal realm. It was rumored that the Bane had an interest in such a place, an isolated swamp sandwiched between two mountain ranges in the north. Oh how we were wrong. We never found traces of the Bane; they had never come. And now we will serve as a warning.

It began on the first day we set up camp. Sentries came back frequently complaining of a strange illness. Soon we discovered its supernatural nature and our priests dubbed it the Ebon Withering, claiming the Bane were the cause. The afflicted would take on a withered, malnourished appearance, and their flesh would trail wisps of black smoke so dark they appeared to be tears in existance. Cases continued to spring up rampant throught the camp, but it was only a predicesor to the horror to come.

It all fell apart on the second day. I was moving amongst the troops with the head cleric, reasuring the troops of our purpose and faith, when.....it.....appeared, the source of the affliction. Our priests had no forwarning of its arrival, it mearly came. An apparition larger than a man, with a single glowing void of unearthly light that I assumed was its eye, its presence was more unnatural than anything I had ever encountered, more than any undead. And yet, I knew that from its mere presence, it was neither alive nor dead nor undead, it simply was, born of the corrupt energies that flowed throughout the swamp. Upon its arrival, it shattered a man's spirit; it literally tore the spirit of a young recruit afflicted with its curse and shatterd it into a thousand shards which proceeded to spread its blight around the camp.To tear a man's soul out for consumption is evil beyond reproach, but to simply do so for the mere sake of the act is horrifying to behold. Soldiers who tried to run could not, they moved and reacted as though time fought against them. Clerics were stricken dumb trying to direct their diving magicks toward the abomination.

Its still out there, slaughtering the camp. The troops fight so that I may finish writing and send this message. I can only pray the courrier makes it.


-Commander Merrik Faehrstal

Level 1 Skill:
Skill #1 The Folly of Courage
  • The Soul Blight drains the strength of its enemies' spirits, reducing their courage and fueling its rage. Target hero takes X damage and loses Y points of Strength. The Soul Blight gains Z points of extra damage for XY seconds.
Level 1 Skill:
Skill #2 Working Title
  • 1st V:The Soul Blight can chill the spirit of those around it, slowing their movements and draining their agility for the Soul Blight's own use. All units in an area around the hero lose X move speed and Y attack speed. For every enemy affected, the Soul Blight gains Z% dodge for XY seconds, up to a max of XZ%. If a hero is affected they lose ZY points of Agility and grant the Soul Blight full benefits.
    2nd V: Same as above, but as an aura with reduced values
    3rd V: Aura like 2nd V, but with over time application
Level 1 Skill:
Skill #3 The Failure of Wills
  • The Soul Blight disrupts the flow of magical energies in the target, violently draining mana and disrupting spell casting, only to use the stolen magicks against them. Target hero takes X mana burn, is silenced for Y seconds, and loses Z points of Intellect.
    2 different possible benefits, increased mana regen for the Soul Blight, or incomming spell damage reduction.
Level 6 Elite:
Skill #4 The Broken Spirit Corrupts
  • Those afflicted with the Soul Blight's corruption are a threat to those around them, risking the spread of the entity's "gifts". The Soul Blight shatters a portion of the target's soul, dealing X damage to them, and Y damage to all those in a radius around them. If the target is affected by any of the Soul Blights debuffs, other heroes who take damage are afflicted, with renewed durations, and granting the Soul Blight full benefits if it does not already have them.
Level 11 Elite:
Skill #5 Working Title
  • No idea for ultimate yet
Comments: When envisioning this guy, I felt the Bane needed their own debuffy kind of guy, but with a flavor more sinister than that of Violet. If invisibility could be worked into his routine, possibly through the ult, it'd make me happy. I await the feedback!

EDIT: Feedback so far has raised some goid points concerning the lack of synergy apparent in this hero. As such Im going to do a complete reinvisioning, so dont post any unnecessary comments in this thread (if Dusk feels the need to lock this thread, I've no qualms toward the decision. If not, i'll just delete most of the info in this first post, add work in progress to the title, and go from there.).
Last edited by a_pointy_stick on Thu Aug 20, 2009 1:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Rising_Dusk
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Re: The Ebon Withering, the Soul Blight

Post by Rising_Dusk » Thu Aug 20, 2009 7:30 am

Don't you find it odd for it to be named "The X, the Y"?
a_pointy_stick wrote:Note: Some abilities have multiple versions for consideration
You should watch out for this, actually. If you have alternate versions of your skills, it means that the skills aren't important enough to the way the hero plays. It means the hero's role and style isn't well-defined and that the hero wouldn't really fit into the map without even reading it! You need skills that are irreplaceable on heroes, those skills are the best. (See Scamp; people would punch me if I changed any of his skills, that's a truly great hero)

Also, for reference, skills should only do 1 or 2 things and do them relatively well. If your ability does more than that, then in order for it to be balanced the individual parts of the ability must have little to no game-side impact at all. That is a problem with the hero's design. (Lookin' at your elite and second level 1 skill for this one)

The other point I'd like to make is that by interacting strictly with attributes, you make the abilities impractical for use against creeps, and thus narrow the hero's viability in an actual game. The skill would be balanced around the attribute loss + secondary effect, but against creeps the entire former part is simply lost, shunting the effectiveness of the ability.

And lastly, despite Vi being in the map with 5 target debuffing skills, it is not good design for a hero to have that many of the same style spells. Don't emulate her, please. :p
"I'll come to Florida one day and make you look like a damn princess." ~Hep

a_pointy_stick
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Re: The Ebon Withering, the Soul Blight

Post by a_pointy_stick » Thu Aug 20, 2009 11:23 am

Well, Im happy to see that my first response answered all the questions I was hoping to be answered. I'd be perfectly fine removing the buffs the hero recieves from its spells, the main thing is lowering attributes, which can do horrible things to the right heros (though the silence on the Int one is something I'd like to stay, even if that means losing the mana burn), cause, for example, lowering Str means they've now got less Health to endure the attacks of another hero, and Agi = less armor, and in the end all 3 contribute to a hero's damage output. As for the first and second, I've now considered turning them into targeted AoEs, with the first doing a fixed amount of damage to heroes and creeps, and giving the bonus to damage for every X amount of damage dealt, up to a fixed max, and the second just gaining the ability to drop on some one from a distance, to allow it to hit those silly casters and ranged characters.

Also, the attribute loss may work better as percentages, preventing the debuffs from being to powerful against certain heroes, but still effective against all of them.

The main idea behind this guy is to set up the kill for teammates, weakening enemy heroes and setting up the kill, because squishier = easier to kill (in theory).

Wabbits
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Re: The Ebon Withering, the Soul Blight

Post by Wabbits » Thu Aug 20, 2009 12:01 pm

Just my opinion, but I think Ginther does a very good job at making people squishy and setting up team kills, what with Backbreaker and all. P:

Most of the abilities on your hero are rather stand-alone, they don't seem to be able to interact with each-other at all. Seems like your just giving him a few AoE and single target nukes with added debuffs, with your elite just extending those debuffs.

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Rising_Dusk
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Re: The Ebon Withering, the Soul Blight

Post by Rising_Dusk » Fri Aug 21, 2009 5:47 pm

a_pointy_stick wrote:The main idea behind this guy is to set up the kill for teammates, weakening enemy heroes and setting up the kill, because squishier = easier to kill (in theory).
In theory, just hurting an enemy sets them up for a team kill too, since they now have less life to deal with. The advantage of raw damage, however, is that it is 100% as effective to creeps. Attribute changers are 0% effective against creeps. See how this limits the usability of the spells, despite achieving an otherwise achievable effect?
"I'll come to Florida one day and make you look like a damn princess." ~Hep

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