Is this ability too powerful?

[HelloFlighty]

I have an ultimate ability on my map that when used instantly dealss 800 damage to the target unit(can't target heroes), I figured it's not too big of a deal considering charm instantly turns a unit to your side and it only has a 45 second cooldown, whereas my ability has a 60 second cooldown, just need some outside opinions.

 

[Acutesharpness]

If your map contains strong jungle monsters, that ability can be seen useful, from a meta perspective, it isn't really good, as compared to Transmute. As of right now, it is very under-powered.

 

[Kyrbi0]

The first & most important question is about setting; "what is this for?" Is it for a hero arena, an altered melee, a 5th-race addition, a MOBA, etc?

I'll move forward assuming it's a 5th-race addition/altered melee:

I have an ultimate ability on my map that when used instantly dealss 800 damage to the target unit(can't target heroes), I figured it's not too big of a deal considering charm instantly turns a unit to your side and it only has a 45 second cooldown, whereas my ability has a 60 second cooldown, just need some outside opinions.

You have done right by drawing comparisons to other abilities in terms of balance.

Of the 24 Hero Ultimates, there are only 3 that are 'single-target'; Charm, Doom, and Transmute. Each of them 'kills' the unit with some bonus (one way or another; Charm removes it from the enemy ('kill') only to give it to you; Doom does DoT but always kills the target unit, giving you a Doom Guard; Transmute just kills, giving gold). I believe it's important that this is the case; in a game like Warcraft 3, the units are a lot more important than in a game like, say, Age of Empires or Red Alert. So if you have a single-target Ultimate & you're trying to fit game-balance, I'd say it definitely needs to (")kill(") it.

In that sense, Finger of Death is fine. Really the only question then is: "is it enough? Should it also do a secondary effect* (like all the others), or instead be balanced (mana-cost/cast-time/cooldown) to compensate (I.e. lower mana cost/faster cooldown than the others because all it does is 'kill')?"

That's up to you. Personally, while I find Finger of Death a tad boring, it's definitely 'cool' and impressive, & definitely fitting to Warcraft.


*Secondary effects might be something like a temporary debuff to all nearby enemies (i.e. they just say their friend get ASPLODED, they are a little freaked out right now). Or a buff/heal to all nearby/near-to-casting-hero allies (i.e. they just saw their leader ASPLODE some worthless whelp; they are pretty jazzed! //or// the "finger of death"-like spell kills a target & spreads his soul out to your guys; like a mass-"Life Drain" or something)
(actually that last one is kinda cool... Gonna have to use that somewhere)

 

[HelloFlighty]

The first & most important question is about setting; "what is this for?" Is it for a hero arena, an altered melee, a 5th-race addition, a MOBA, etc?

I'll move forward assuming it's a 5th-race addition/altered melee:

You have done right by drawing comparisons to other abilities in terms of balance.

Of the 24 Hero Ultimates, there are only 3 that are 'single-target'; Charm, Doom, and Transmute. Each of them 'kills' the unit with some bonus (one way or another; Charm removes it from the enemy ('kill') only to give it to you; Doom does DoT but always kills the target unit, giving you a Doom Guard; Transmute just kills, giving gold). I believe it's important that this is the case; in a game like Warcraft 3, the units are a lot more important than in a game like, say, Age of Empires or Red Alert. So if you have a single-target Ultimate & you're trying to fit game-balance, I'd say it definitely needs to (")kill(") it.

In that sense, Finger of Death is fine. Really the only question then is: "is it enough? Should it also do a secondary effect* (like all the others), or instead be balanced (mana-cost/cast-time/cooldown) to compensate (I.e. lower mana cost/faster cooldown than the others because all it does is 'kill')?"

That's up to you. Personally, while I find Finger of Death a tad boring, it's definitely 'cool' and impressive, & definitely fitting to Warcraft.


*Secondary effects might be something like a temporary debuff to all nearby enemies (i.e. they just say their friend get ASPLODED, they are a little freaked out right now). Or a buff/heal to all nearby/near-to-casting-hero allies (i.e. they just saw their leader ASPLODE some worthless whelp; they are pretty jazzed! //or// the "finger of death"-like spell kills a target & spreads his soul out to your guys; like a mass-"Life Drain" or something)
(actually that last one is kinda cool... Gonna have to use that somewhere)

I'm thinking finger of death, 50 second cool down and i'll use a trigger to add a debuff to all enemy units within range of the unit that dies, i'll make a debuff called fear or something like that, is it too OP if the debuff disables all movement for 3 or so seconds? because if you use the ability on a unit in the middle of a large army, you could stun the entire army

 

[Kyrbi0]

I'm thinking finger of death, 50 second cool down and i'll use a trigger to add a debuff to all enemy units within range of the unit that dies, i'll make a debuff called fear or something like that, is it too OP if the debuff disables all movement for 3 or so seconds? because if you use the ability on a unit in the middle of a large army, you could stun the entire army

Be careful about Buff Stacking; if you choose a buff that comes from an existing ability, it won't stack in-game. Problematic if you're making something to fit into the standard game (by the way, you never mentioned what this was for even after being asked)

I would steer clear of full-on disabling; sure it's been done before (Warstomp), but games like Warcraft where 3-5 units can make all the difference... It can be hard to make balanced. Remember, you're already killing a unit outright (including a Frost Wyrm or Chimaera).

 

[HelloFlighty]

Be careful about Buff Stacking; if you choose a buff that comes from an existing ability, it won't stack in-game. Problematic if you're making something to fit into the standard game (by the way, you never mentioned what this was for even after being asked)

I would steer clear of full-on disabling; sure it's been done before (Warstomp), but games like Warcraft where 3-5 units can make all the difference... It can be hard to make balanced. Remember, you're already killing a unit outright (including a Frost Wyrm or Chimaera).

It's for an altered melee, all players play the same custom race, custom units, buildings, even the way you get resources is different, it's FFA but you can use commands to add and remove allies, you can set up trade systems with players, a scoreboard represents how much naval power you have, how much army power you have, it's barely warcraft 3 anymore, it's still medieval and still uses the normal hero models with a few customs, and lots of custom abilites.

 

[Colonel Aster]

i wouldnt say the ability is op since there are other ults like transmute, charm or doom that not only destroy or cinvert the unit but also provide an advantage as well