Abilities for a good support hero

[Lord Aiden]

Let's say you're trying to make a modified melee map, you have a selection of heroes from which to choose from, one of the heroes is supposed to be a "support-type" hero; basically a hero who isn't strong or offensively good but that enhances the effectiveness of the units around him, what abilities should this hero have? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[MyPad]

What a coincidence! We have the same role for a support.

Moving on,

A support could grant regeneration to nearby units. (First choice)
A support could provide positive buffs to allied units. (Second choice, suggested: unit-target ability)
A support could weaken enemy units either by depleting their health, or mana, or armor, or damage. (Third choice)

...

 

[Tasyen]

Disables, movement blocking/boosting could be a good idea, too.

 

[Lord Aiden]

Disables, movement blocking/boosting could be a good idea, too.

Could you please elaborate?

 

[ISL]

Just 1 support for a map? Well...

For now, let's say that a support hero is a hero who works for the best result of others.

These are the basic concepts of a supportive hero:

1. Healing - Increases Survivability of all other heroes/troops.
2. Buffs - Increse Offense or Survivability of all other heroes/troops.
3. Debuffs - By lessening Damage Output or Armor Value of your enemies, Debuffs increase Offense or Survivability of all allied heroes/troops.
4. Control Effects - It's all about Stuns, Roots, Slowing Effects, Silence, etc. They disable bigger threats, leaving only the weakest enemies to deal with. Quite handy.
5. Crowd Control - I usually give it to Tanks. It basically does the same thing as Control Effects, but by knocking your enemies back. While the enemies are knocked away and while they are running back to your troops, they are not dealing their damage. They spend their time running around instead of attacking you. In Hero-based PVP games Crowd Control has a much deeper meaning.
6. Shields - More advanced thing seen in modern games. A shileld absorbs damage dealt to it's bearer. Think of Protoss units in Starcraft. Or, a closer example - Anti-Magic shell(it absorbs only magical damage tho).

 

[Lord Aiden]

Just 1 support for a map? Well...

For now, let's say that a support hero is a hero who works for the best result of others.

These are the basic concepts of a supportive hero:

1. Healing - Increases Survivability of all other heroes/troops.
2. Buffs - Increse Offense or Survivability of all other heroes/troops.
3. Debuffs - By lessening Damage Output or Armor Value of your enemies, Debuffs increase Offense or Survivability of all allied heroes/troops.
4. Control Effects - It's all about Stuns, Roots, Slowing Effects, Silence, etc. They disable bigger threats, leaving only the weakest enemies to deal with. Quite handy.
5. Crowd Control - I usually give it to Tanks. It basically does the same thing as Control Effects, but by knocking your enemies back. While the enemies are knocked away and while they are running back to your troops, they are not dealing their damage. They spend their time running around instead of attacking you. In Hero-based PVP games Crowd Control has a much deeper meaning.
6. Shields - More advanced thing seen in modern games. A shileld absorbs damage dealt to it's bearer. Think of Protoss units in Starcraft. Or, a closer example - Anti-Magic shell(it absorbs only magical damage tho).

Thanks your ideas are great, but how might I use the editor to get these to work properly?

 

[ISL]

Thanks your ideas are great, but how might I use the editor to get these to work properly?

Those are just concepts. Just create some abilities so they would fit in the given concepts. Through Object Editor it is possible to create abilities of 1-4, but 5 and 6 are accessible only through Trigger Editor.

You are always free to ask someone to make your spells (i.e. request them). Then you'd only need to write some description of your spells.

 

[Lord Aiden]

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it greatly, I would prefer to make my own spells because others may not create the spells that are not exactly what I have in mind, and this changes the gameplay that I intended for the map

 

[MyPad]

Best wishes to your map! That's what I also do during spare time.

 

[Lord Aiden]

Best wishes to your map! That's what I also do during spare time.

Thank you ;-)

 

[aple]

A good support hero synergies well with the other heroes or units on the map. Bonus points for making unique mechanics that synergize. For example Support Hero A could create a corpse at a target location and DPS Hero B could then teleport to that corpse or target some ability on the corpse that then deals damage in an AoE around the corpse.

 

[Map Designer]

I think you should first start from the concept of the hero and then build up support abilities from. paladin, arch,archmage, and bloodmage can be considered somehow support but have different concepts

I would give the hero some channeling ability as support