Okay, got done with my votes and reasons - I write it as I was testing it, so sorry if I sound a bit harsh on some. Overall I had fun testing them all and discovering what ideas had sprung to life in the contest.
Lets get on with it 
Dwarwen Enginers - christers:
While I see some potential in the hero idea, it doesn't work. The hero is very slow, the tower ability bugged out, the range limit makes him rather weak, even more so since he won't auto move to an attack distance. Simply the hero doesn't work as a melee map hero, and as such doesn't get my vote. I can see him working slightly when used in conjunction with other units, but even weak default heroes from Wc3 had some survivability.
I would have decreased cooldown for towers, made the towers themselves less powerful and made him a more fluid and fast hero to play with. Making him able to put up a fast defense in no time, yet not a lasting defense allowing for strategies to surround an enemy or block an armies path for a short while.
Incarnation of Elements - Xiliger:
The hero idea itself I can see working as a melee hero (if quite a bit of changes was made to it), however the execution is lacking. The tooltips are confusing and it took me a while to realize what was actually going on. It comes across as a little half hearted and somehow it doesn’t feel right, though I am a little put off as to why. Perhaps it’s the instant change between hero appearances with no transformation effects, changes to spells and so forth? Maybe it’s the spells tendency to draw a lot of agro from nearby enemies - not really a good thing - unless he was a lot more buff. He gets killed if not for the escape key to level up. There is also a strange mismatch with the power of the spells, compared to mana cost (thunder and earth especially). I am not really sure how this hero fits the theme.
Jack Frost, Guardian of Ice - Adiktus
This can be said rather simply: This is not a melee hero.. it is a super hero.. meaning that he is not balanced in the least to even resemble a melee hero. Level 1 of his first spell owns just about anything - it doesn't agro the enemy and you can kill just about anything with it.. add his other spells and he will destroy an army with ease. Besides that he is also quite generously stated. As this doesn’t follow the idea of the contest it cannot get my vote.
Flower Dryad - Juno
First off, I like the hero - or maybe I like the map - anyway I played it for a bit. The hero seems somewhat balanced for the map it is in, however I would find like to be able to test it in a more melee map scenario. The many allies around makes it harder to judge. My feeling is that the hero is slightly too powerful (if only thanks to the ultimate) and given that the ultimate ability is basically against the rules given the many abilities the summon features I am not going to vote for this hero. However I like it and I see synergy between the abilities which is a good thing. The entangle spell have some issues with not always targeting the nearby units, or sometimes targeting them a little at random. The effects of the healing spell is not quite clear to be, but I figure it works as intended. I find that the hero fits the theme well.
Nature's Raiment, An'da Grovemane - orcnet
This is quite the hero - It doesn't feel overpowered, its abilities a tad odd and it plays like a melee map hero, which I find important. The Skin Walk ability it the only weak link, given that it doesn't really seem to fit well with the rest and it doesn't give fully what it promises (movement speed seems to be almost the same, even if it was to boost it 300%). Natures grasp is also an odd ability, but against enemy heroes could be somewhat useful however adding AOE to it, would increase its usefulness. The map of course takes some credit for why this hero is a good one, given that it allows for testing it both in a hero defense manner and by taking on lone groups of enemies alone. A feature that might have been interesting was to allow the beam to both heal and damage at the same time, since as it is now its basically a death coil as a beam. In the end this hero could get my vote, though this hero suffers from some flaws in choice of abilities..
Cyrisse Moongrove, Arcane Priestess - En_Tropy
I liked this hero a lot and the choice of map - personally I consider that to make for fairer judgment all heroes should have been created on the same map - This map would be one of those I could have selected as a test map. One gets to play the melee map type with a twist and I like how well the hero performs. The abilities are nothing new and unique, but they work in conjunction with one another and it works well as a supporting hero with survivability. Only weak thing about this hero is the ability to shoot in every direction around the hero - while it is a useful spell, made even better by the stun to interrupt, it is somewhat lacking given that the hero is ranged, and as such it would be more effective if he could utilize this attack on range as well or alternatively make it fully function as an "escape ability" - it’s a little of both for now. Its however a minor complain and this hero also gets my vote.
Serengale, The Holy Paladin - Mr_Bean
The hero works well in a supporting role, though I had to add my own tweak to the map, as he dies to easy in the original making it difficult to judge him. I would recommend having slightly less pressure on him and an option to recruit more men - (I ended up using hours on this map just to try to conquer it.. which I did in the end
by having towers around every spawn spot.). The main problem I have with this hero is not that he is a supporting hero primarily, its more that he is a human paladin, which doesn't really fit well into the theme, however I made a bullshit story for mine to fit it in, so I'll vote for this one as well.
The Archbishop - Lordkoon
The hero feels much as Serengale did (even one of the spells look almost exactly the same), except this one is the offensive version. The spells feels rather overpowered for a melee hero and its quite clear that he is able to survive just about anything as long as he has mana. Add to that, that one of his abilities allows him to walk outside map bounds hence getting away from just about anything - instant kill any enemy by using his ultimate on enemy instead of ally and that his ultimate is as sick as its is - he can't really get my vote. However I like the way the spells work together and the idea of the ultimate. It's just not a melee map hero. Again this guy is also a human… but well that has been said.
Doradin - Chaosy
Sadly the intro cinematic piss me off so much that I can't get myself to judge it, since I have to wait for so long for it to react. I do remember from when I compiled my list that the hero weren't among my favorites though.
Frost Sorceress - mckill2009
Besides being a human, which is somewhat odd - The sorceress have been disallowed from my vote from the beginning by not having any level requirements for abilities. Besides that she is far too weak - since she is clearly meant as a offensive mage her spells should pack a punch which they don't. Her frost blade ability works in interesting ways by pushing enemies into destructible doodads thus serve as an excellent clearing ability, but not a good offensive spell. I like the idea about, it just seems more funny then deadly.. no blood, no tearing - they just bounce off.
The ultimate is also far too weak, having trouble even killing 3 units..
Arrynok Frostglance, the Frost Herald - Luorax
I like that the map is set up too melee and that the hero doesn't feel overpowered - in fact he feels somewhat underpowered. He comes from the orc race, which I find somewhat out of place considering the theme, but the hero himself is fine. The thing with him is that he doesn't really have any effective kills spells - by effective I mean that the ice breaker misses often, the ice drop looks good on paper, but the fact that one has to target it twice in the center of battle can easily cost your hero his life. The effect of the frostnova I didn't really see come into play as the hero is too weak to be in close combat and succumbs easily to death. As such he doesn't really function well in the role he appears in, and I would have found him a much better match with some range and a less "targeted" ice drop.
The Shadow Warrior - Mephestrial
This is a fun hero to play, but he is by no means a melee map hero. He is overpowered to insane levels and his ultimate is sick - instant removal of any units near it - damn. So this basically means that even though I like playing as him, he doesn't get my vote. (The mana reduction - keep fighting idea is neat though - but would if he weren't so overpowered be rather impractical, instead he should gain mana from those units around him hit as well or something of that sort to ensure that he wouldn’t simply run out of juice all the time when trying to stay alive (not an issue in this version of him
)).
The rest on this list had trouble being seen in WC3 itself, so had to go through the editor to try them - that is a minus right there, which means I won't be voting for them. (Re-download and restart of game / computer didn't make a difference).
Deathwing, Aspect of Death - Zenoth
The hero itself doesn't fit the theme (name of the hero entry basically says it - should have been Neltharion the Earth-Warder, if anything), but a bigger problem is that it doesn’t abide to the rules and has more than 6 abilities (in the form of the second unit - which features quite powerful spells that are not just sub spells). And he isn't a melee hero, which besides the overpowered state of the hero, can also be seen from how when he dies he spawns as another unit - same name/different abilities, but still counts as dead - hence one would be able to revive him.. kill him again and this spawn a fairly powerful army. The map lacks a revive function. The spells is somewhat interesting, while not being new - I do like the lava worms part of the spell. The rest of him is slightly odd and I find myself considering that he belongs on the site of the burning legion, not the defenders.
The Trapmaster, Fakker Plug - Kyousuke Imadori
A very very nice hero - with a set of spells that make for a fairly unique experience. Sadly he is also a hero that doesn't work in his role as a melee hero. He is quite weak on his own, the traps require placement a while before seeing action and as they also hit allies and oneself he doesn’t work in conjunction with an army. The chainsaw move is a very interesting ability and has a ton of different uses. Frankly I can see this hero work in a custom game mode of its own and with the many interesting abilities this hero offers, it’s a shame that the theme is a melee map hero. Good work.
Rovlen, Druid of the ages - Radamantus
Already from the beginning this hero breaks the rules, by making it a lvl 25 hero, with more than one level of the ultimate and more than 4 of the other abilities. Hence cannot get my vote. Besides that the hero is way to overpowered and cannot in any way be compared to a melee hero. The spells feel somewhat generic, though the ritual of the ages - lunar tower is a visually well made effect, it lacks an effect on those it affects.
The Nightwalker - Kyrbi0
The hero isn't overpowered and plays similar to a melee hero - his abilities (ultimate) aren't among the strongest I've seen, but it's okay. He serves as some brute force, however he is lacking a little in the way of getting out of a sticky situation. Main problem with him is that I doubt that werewolves helped defend against the burning horde… and the other that his spells is basically just the standard spells without any twist or visual effects.
Ancient of Stone, Strone - Meepo
The idea of a revived stone giant fits the theme well (even if the idea has been often used). The hero itself doesn’t feel overpowered, though the reduction does make it one tough beast - still the damage it deals evens it out. Main problem with this hero is that the abilities doesn't really fit it - only one that connects to the facts that it’s a giant stone golem is the slam ability, which would have looked even better if connected with an animation, however it works. The rest of the abilities however seems rather random and one of them I would have placed as a passive from the beginning, since to me makes little sense that he can upgrade what he already is (stone). The tooltips also feature some problems, and does make understanding a bit trickier.
Wyronus, the Lieutenant of the Green Dragonflight - WerePhoenix
While I do feel that his race is a little misplaced on the side of the defenders I can accept it. However the hero is very far from unique and I don't really see a match between the hero and his abilities. It's not really a hero I feel like playing with for a while. Also the ultimate seems to have some issues and is in any case fairly weak, so on the bright side the hero is by no means overpowered - it just feels rather random.
Feral Master, Fraxineus - Garfield1337
I like this hero, he is simple - yet works. It’s a new take on the melee hero and it feels balanced. The drop/grab ability should be explained a little better, as it took me a while to realize how it worked. The pack/wolf companion also had a funny bug when the enemy revived the death and I then killed them - AutoIndex error something. At any rate this hero would get my vote, it fits the theme and I can see it work as melee map hero. Not the strongest hero, but would work well to support and keep the enemy and it features a way for him to escape should he get caught. Sadly I couldn't get this to work ingame..only via editor.
The Purifier, Dath'Remar Sunstrider - Adityahedge
While the idea of an elven purifier fits the theme, the purification abilities in this case is a little less "pow" than what I could wish. It would have added a lot If some more visual effects of evil being purged from an enemies body or when someone was healed. Sadly this entry also suffers from several bugs and the abilities doesn't work as intended. For one thing the ultimate generates a bunch of text about the purifier and dummy units. The healing part of the ability also doesn't seem to work. The idea of changing weapons to change the style of the hero is good, but the rest is lacking too much behind.
The Troll Deathspeaker - Jake Kessler
Again it's an ork race, which to me means it doesn't fit the theme. However it is a nice twist on the usual melee map hero - with a specialization focused on trolls. It is tad overpowered and if used right make a damn strong army support. The mass heal, combined with revive combined with the ultimate that damages every enemy unit. But it is fairly fun to play with and I can see this working well in a map. The abilities are pretty much standard, but they work and they give a different view. They also go well together and fit the hero. So if I could get the map to work in game and admittedly if it weren't an ork (a troll race maybe?
) then I would give it a vote.
Priestess of the Moonlight - Kobas-
This hero fits the theme, it's slightly overpowered in the sense that it can ignore patching.. which can be misused. The visual effect of the Star beam is stunning, yet the hero feels like its missing something. The short change night to day ultimate is somewhat weak, given that usually night elves have an item that last longer than that one does. The benefits of changing to night doesn't really measure up with a ultimate spell either so even though all the spells are fitted to the hero they seem somewhat meek. The only spell that truly holds up is the star beam. The shadow walk makes for a good getaway, which I assume is the intension - but there shouldn't be a need to ignore patching with it as well and I experienced once that the priestess could still be attacked while it was active. Also found a funny spelling error
It says a falling start
Anyway I do like the hero and if I could get the map to show in Wc3 I would have given this a vote as well - though some of the others have brought me more fun.
So yea thats my reasons - All them are of course very subjective and I was definitely biased by the map made to playtest it on, even though I tried not to be.
