[Altered Melee] Balancing Thoughts

[MyPad]

Greetings, Hivers. I'm adding some heroes in a map made by Blizzard, (though I have no intention of making it publicly available), and I have an archer hero, whom I envisioned to be absolutely terrifying at late game.

The first and second are based on Dota, while the third is, interesting and unique, in itself. The third skill gives bonus attributes while increasing the attribute gain of the hero (albeit by simulation).
Here are the stats of the Hero:

Base:

Strength: 8
Agility: 10
Intelligence: 6

Attribute gain:

Strength: 0.75
Agility: 1.00
Intelligence: 0.75

The third skill increases the attribute gain of said hero and depicted in total (including base attribute gain) as follows:

Strength: 1.55 / 2.45 / 3.35
Agility: 1.90 / 3.00 / 4.10
Intelligence: 1.25 / 1.85 / 2.45

It also has a researchable field that greatly increases the effect of the third skill (Initially costs 2500 gold and 1500 lumber (incremented by 750 gold and 500 lumber) (Research time is instantaneous)). It will affect those who initially do not have the ability and learn that ability. It further increases the attribute gain of the hero as follows: (per level)

1.00 / 1.00 / 2.00 (Affects all stats)

It was said that it grants permanent bonuses as well, but it is not affected by the researchable field. Here is the total stat bonus given: (Applies to strength, agility and intelligence) (Total bonus, not incremented bonus)

Level 1: 7.00
Level 2: 15.00
Level 3: 25.00

My question is this: "Is this skill too unfair for those who are up against the hero? (based on the third skill alone)"

Feel free to answer the next question

Follow-up question: "What ideas of a hero will counter the archer hero?"

The first skill grants a temporary evasion ability when cast.
The second skill gives a maximum attack speed bonus for one target only.
The fourth skill (ultimate) speeds the archer hero up and reduces most damage dealt by 20%.

The max level in the map is 10.

 

[Xonok]

Since you didn't specify what kind of blizzard map, I will assume you mean one of the classical melee maps.

I'd say the main question here isn't whether those numbers are fair, but rather if you want to add such a major difference to the game compared to normal heroes.
There are even 2 differences here, both of them so revolutionary that they could break the game.
1. A skill that inherently gets better even if you don't put further points into it. Upgrading this skill would be a must-have at certain levels, because the potential power of the next ability level increases greatly as you gain hero levels.
Also, this skill alone gives more stats at max level than a typical hero's normal progression, which means you must nerf the earlygame heavily, making this hero extremely reliant on support.
Nerfing the earlygame is something you probably can't make a consequence of the skill itself, so this hero will always be played for that specific skill, as the other skills you've named do not give enough power on their own.
2. Hero stats being upgradable by spending resources. This can of worms was never opened by blizzard. Probably because it would compete with the RTS nature of WC3, because normally you can't power heroes up very well with gold and lumber.

Also, this skillset does not give much opportunity for alternate play styles. You would put 1 point into the first ability somewhat early to stay alive, then alternate between the others based on whatever combination gives the most DPS.
In this way this is more of a DotA hero than an RTS hero. All normal WC3 heroes have alternative play styles based on which abilities you focus on.

This hero would be countered by anyone that is strong early, for obvious reasons.
Later it would be beaten by CC and/or burst damage like pretty much all DotA hypercarries.

I would either ignore this hero in favor of other options or use it in combination with a turtling strat to eventually win no matter what.
Usually what limits turtling in WC3 is that the gains from it are very diminishing. Spending the same amount of resources on early skirmishing is cheaper than making a lategame army due to how food affects gold mining. There is also very little incentive to turtle in typical WC3, as lategame units are generally not that much better.

 

[MyPad]

@Xonok, thanks for the reply.

Since you didn't specify what kind of blizzard map, I will assume you mean one of the classical melee maps.

Correct.

2. Hero stats being upgradable by spending resources. This can of worms was never opened by blizzard.

I find that remark quite humorous, although being on point with the hero.

Later it would be beaten by CC and/or burst damage like pretty much all DotA hypercarries.

What do you mean by CC?

I would either ignore this hero in favor of other options or use it in combination with a turtling strat to eventually win no matter what.
Usually what limits turtling in WC3 is that the gains from it are very diminishing. Spending the same amount of resources on early skirmishing is cheaper than making a lategame army due to how food affects gold mining. There is also very little incentive to turtle in typical WC3, as lategame units are generally not that much better.

Okay. I'll take that into consideration when balancing her out.

So, I'll apply the following changes to the hero (on the third skill):

- Remove the ability to further improve the stat gain of the hero by researching them. Used Static ifs to make it easy to configure later on. Consider as technically removed.

- Reduce the total amount of attributes gained when levelling the skill, while slightly adjusting the base stats.

Accordingly, the first skill for the hero is to grant a temporary evasion skill. Perhaps I can add some bonus damage in consideration with the turtling strategy?

 

[Xonok]

CC is a shorthand for Crowd Control. It basically means everything that is used for suppressing opponents, rather than outright destroying them: Slows, stuns, roots, silences, blinds, etc.
If you're going to add damage, probably the best would be having it not scale with pretty much anything other than ability levels. For instance, an ability that deals a certain amount of damage directly scales less than something that adds attack damage for a duration.
About the scaling attributes, you can make it so that the first levels are clearly weak in the earlygame. Perhaps even having lower levels give less per ability level.

 

[MyPad]

^^ Alright. Thanks for your insights on balancing the hero.

I am currently adding a minimal damage bonus to the first skill that adds 7/14/21 damage, making it a more viable skill. (It has a long cooldown, but can be used for survivability)

 

[Xonok]

Well, that will scale with attack speed then.