@Kyrbi0
I knew this was a problem I've had, going in, so I actively worked against that. Shucks. So wait, insta-twitchfast-across-the-map Teleporting (with an anti-ranged aura & lightning (<- against my better judgement)) isn't overpowered? Hm.
Hm, synergy... Well there was meant to be a strong synergy with Stormform (E) (in a way, Stormform is a ranged-denier for himself personally, while Maelstrom is a ranged-denier for 'everyone else' in an area; enabling Stormform & then activating Maelstrom makes for universal ranged-denial), but I can see how there might be less synergy with the others.
Okay, I fiddled with this ult for about 30 minutes before I figured out what it
actually does. I see now that those active abilities on the maelstrom are for
using dark summoning to/from the caster. The reason why this isn't "overpowered
insta-twitchfast-across-the-map teleporting" is because:
* It only works on allied units, which the tooltip doesn't specify
* The caster has to channel the ability, meaning that you can't change the
waypoints more dynamically after casting
* The caster has only like 700 range on the maelstrom ability, and quite small
range for the aoe as well. This leaves you with really very limited use cases
* The anti-ranged isn't synergy, it's more or less just "dumb". He already has a
powerful anti-ranged ability, and ranged units aren't even overpowered. Instead
of providing the hero with useful defensive characteristics that react to his
environment, you just give him two point and click abilities that nuke a third
of the units in the game. I realize you were trying to be thematic here.
* Lightning damage is severely limited compared to abilities like starfall.
When I suggest adding more synergy with other abilities, I'm more or less saying
that you could have done more. Here are a couple example ideas:
* Make the maelstrom convey work on enemy units. Then you have an interesting
combo of using Q on units to push them into the maelstrom/caster, then using
convey. You'd have to make the ult non-channeling first.
* Give the ult more range, and make it have only forward-direction convey. This
removes the weird use case where you pull allied units out of battle to a hero
that's not fighting, and adds the use case where you launch a surprise attack
* Make the convey ability move between the W and R tornadoes instead of the
hero. This naturally adds more range to the convey, and make the target more
dynamic since the W tornado can move.
Talking about the 'instantaneous' motion? Yeah, like I was telling KILLCIDE, just an artifact of the OE. I would have next-to-no idea how to actually code that, lol.
I dunno, better just not do it then. As you can see from the rest of your
abilities, you can make good looking stuff with OE only. Stick to that stuff or
learn how to code.
Hm. I was going for simplicity & strict uniqueness, but I can see that it might've been too simple. Thoughts?
I don't really feel like the W ability adds much to his kit at present. The
problem is that the CC is unreliable. I think you could have fiddled with the OE
to make this more interesting - for example making the CC more reliable.
I ended up focusing on "wind" as a moving agent (i.e. both 'wind moves things' and 'wind is itself mobility') & "wind" as a ranged disrupter (i.e. knocking projectiles out of the air, etc). Hence came the abilities:
-Fell Gale: mobility (enemies)
-Vortex: mobility (enemies)
-Stormform: anti-ranged (for self) & mobility (for self)
=Maelstrom: anti-ranged (others) & mobility (allies)
This is a fair point, and the thematic consistency is pretty apparent. A few
thoughts:
* When mobility is not the primary interactive effect (i.e. it's passive or
aoe over time and almost passive), you expect the value of the more active
component (i.e. hard CC) to be either the primary use case or the more apparent/
fun one. W and R struggled here while Q and E were more explicit.
* Anti-ranged isn't a healthy ability theme around which to base a hero. Such a
balance-limited thing should be either a secondary effect or a skill/timing
based effect - in other words, don't make your hero say "fuck everything around
me that's not melee" because that's not really viable in melee wc3.
* I realize you really want to be unique, but sometimes just "wind damage" is a
more fun central theme than something like anti-ranged.
while a Tavern hero is probably the most likely place for this kind of thing, I just don't feel the 'combo-love' in Warcraft 3 (not to mention they are a bit more difficult to do without hand-coding the abilities). I'll admit I don't have the highest view of combos; to me they are a bit of a heavy-handed way to accomplish a sense of synergy in the ability-set. It's not bad, just... ham-fisted. Inelegant.
Did it never strike you as odd that the newest heroes (tavern) have the most
combo love?
Blizzard wasn't always the perfect beast in terms of design. See:
Blademaster.
I totally understand your feeling that Combos are ham-fisted. The design goal is
to make them feel *not* ham-fisted. My example above of making R effect enemy
units is a more natural combo with Q, rather than an explicit combo ("If you use
Q ability, all units near the maelstrom are affected by convey" would be a
ham-fisted approach). Food for thought.
Waaaat? I mean sure the Demon Hunter & Blademaster kinda do that, but the former is a demonically-empowered elf with warglaives and the latter a samurai-inspired orc with a giant katana. Boiled down to brass tacks they are essentially the same, but thematically & aesthetically they're worlds apart.
Ah dannae, I thought it was high time Warcraft get a "rogue-ish Human swordsman" type.
I don't mind him that much, but I think admiral proudmore/arthas are swordsmen.
I also think that wc3 tends to prefer more unusual designs (an orcish samurai?)
rather than classic LotR/DnD style characters (a bard). If I was that team I
would have pushed for a bandit hero, maybe with a spear or pike, but that's just
me.
I wouldn't mind hearing more about what you meant here, too; if you have time.
Really quick version because I don't have time
...(Mur'gul Warlock)
black and white anti-pattern for ult. acceptable in wc3 in my opinion
Ult either hits hard or fails completely, which means that necessarily either
the user is frustrated or the target is frustrated. For the skillshot part it's
okay because there are techniques both players can use to prevent/focus the
skillshot. For the interrupt component, not so much. Getting stunned/hexed every
time you use your ult will be painful and hard to make fun. Bottomline: there
might be other ways to improve it.
...(Silithid Devourer)
some of the ability interactions are quite arbitrary, and unfortunately doesn't really feel like it leaves the hero to fill a particular design niche
This one really needs a lot of talking so I should probably come back to it. I
see a lot of potential niches/combos the hero could do, for example big ranged
slow followed by chasedown + hard CC. But I see redundancy in that the two hard
CC components (QW) are otherwise a bit awkward to use in parallel. Imagine if
mountain king had 2 storm bolts - that's similar. I also see that the ult breaks
this nice use-case because you never have time to ult before casting slow and
performing your chasedown - ult has a cast animation. I also see him as a
bruiser - a tanky fighter that lasts longer as he sticks to his opponent. In
other words, the hero tries to last longer by sacrificnig hp/second, in return
using more abilities (including hard cc) and ideally dealing more damage. The
issue I see is that the effects of his ult make his abilities stronger/have more
impetus - but that's not his issue. He already has overpowered levels of CC.
What he needed was healthier bruiser properties (lifesteal, armor, magic
immunity, that sort of thing).
In other words, I think he interesting components but they're branching in
different directions and he needs refinement - but the stuff that's left is the
hard stuff so I empathize with the designers.
The ultimate is a nice start but severely lacks refinement. It makes a burst fighter more bursty, but use cases dont really match gameplay
...(Swashbuckler)
riposte is totally overpowered in dueling against other duelists. good design doesn't fight fire with both napalm and a fire extinguisher at the same time
Ult doesn't really work properly against AI. Riposte stuns (punishes) people for
attacking him. Better ult design could take legion commander ult from dota as
reference. Better riposte design could take fiora riposte design for reference.
(Sorry, I've run out of time)
