Need final spell idea for Elementalist hero

[tml616]

This map will be capture point like TF2 with 6 playable hero classes. Right now, the first 4 classes are finished and I am now working on Elementalist. This hero will be the nuker with terrible survivability, weakest disables, and best AOE damage. The skill schematic for all the classes is as follows:

Skillset Layout

6 active-use spells
- hotkeys Q W E D X Z
- progressively increases cooldown from around 5 (Q) to around 30 (Z)

1 passive with 6 levels
- represent "charges" of levels 0/5 to 5/5
- gains charges when most of the weaker active spells are used
- resets to 0/5 when active spell Z is used
- each charge gives a small passive benefit and buffs the next Z spell

An example is the Paladin (healer) class. His Z spell is a big instant heal to self and a target. His passive is an HP regen aura. Here is how it works:

Adds +2 HP regen to allies in 400 radius per charge, up to 5 charges. Is consumed when Divine Light (Z) is cast, boosting the effect of the heal by 20% per charge and resetting charges to 0/5.

So I am currently stuck on the E skill of Elementalist. This map is supposed to be based on player skill; this means there is no farming for items or experience. There are also no skills based on chance, such as bash or random damage ranges - even autoattacks in this map have fixed damage. I am trying to avoid single-target guaranteed hit spells for this class and emphasize AOE spell placement. All heroes have 100 MP and 4 MP regeneration. This hero has 200 HP (Berserker is highest at 350), 0 armor (Berserker and Paladin highest at 4), and 20 autoattack damage (Assassin highest at 35). There are VERY FEW disables in this game. Currently the only traditional stuns are all 1 second duration knockbacks, long cooldown, and are only present on 3 classes. Every other "disable" is a movespeed slow of 25% or 40%.

Last note is I know you will see the hero name and want to throw an ice spell in here because it's missing. Well it is missing for a good reason - the tileset of this map is "Dungeon" (lava) so there will be no frost spells! Earth, Fire, and Lightning are still allowed of course. Also if you have a model suggestion other than the overused Bloodmage/Kael for this hero with a good spell and channel animation.

Here is the existing skill set of the hero with the ability I need (3rd - E) missing, to give you and idea on the complexity and balance of the spells.

Elementalist Skills

(Q) Lava Surge
Sends a thermal vent in the target direction that explodes if it hits an enemy, dealing 25-75 damage to a 350 radius based on how far it traveled.
MP: 30 CD: 6
- The basic AOE nuke that enhances the fact that this hero needs to stay at range to deal the best damage. All the heroes have 200-350 HP so 75 damage is a big chunk, and 25 is basically just an autoattack. This spell has a pretty high MP cost and Cooldown for the Q ability because it becomes spammable with charges of the Elementalist's passive.

(W) Thunderbolt
Charges a powerful bolt of lightning for up to 4 seconds (channel time). When the bolt is released, it deals 20-100 damage to the target area based on how long it was cast.
MP: 30 CD: 9
- Another AOE nuke that requires some planning. Right now, 100 is the biggest nuke in the game. But it is hard to aim and easy to avoid. Again, it is pretty useless at melee range, where an Assassin could deal far more than 100 damage in the 4 second cast time.

(E)
Here is the ability I need help with!
It should not have a channel time like W and should not be a projectile nuke like Q. Strongly discouraging a disable or a single-target spell.
MP: 30-40 CD: 10-17

(D) Living Bomb
Burns away 10 mana per second from the target for 5 seconds. After 5 seconds, deals explosive damage around the target equal to the amount of mana the target is missing.
MP: 35 CD: 18
- A delayed nuke that can deal 0 to 100 damage to the target and his allies depending on how dumb he is. While it is single-target and takes no aiming, it will have some counters as the Summoner class is planned to have a MP heal spell on identical cooldown as Living Bomb. Hero MP regen is currently 4/sec so a hero who is hit by Living Bomb and does no spellcasting will take 30 damage.

(X) Energy Void
Steals up to 25 MP from all enemies in the target area.
MP: 0 CD: 30
- Forced synergy with Living Bomb and allows the Elementalist to sustain nuke spamming. Has a huge benefit from the passive making it pretty much keep up with constant spell spam.

(Z) Shocking Field
Damages all enemies in the target area for 40% of their current HP and slows their movement by 80% for 1 second. Consumes all charges of Sorcery when cast.
MP: 35 CD: 35
- The biggest nuke and only pseudo-disable (short purge) the Elementalist has. It uses all the charges of his passive so it cannot be cast without good reason.

(Passive) Sorcery
Gains one charge, up to 5, when using any spell except for Shocking Field and Energy Void. Each charge gives the following passive effects:
Lava Surge, Thunderbolt, (E), Living Bomb
- Cooldown reduced by 1
Energy Void
- Cooldown reduced by 3
Shocking Field
- Consumes all charges when cast
- MP cost reduced by 5
- Cooldown reduced by 5

Some spells I am/was considering for E are
1. Ball lightning - a boomerang projectile that drains mana and returns to the caster - kind of replaced by energy void
2. Firewall - just like Diablo II! No real reason to exclude this right now other than some problems if players tried to stack them
3. Meteor - another Diablo II idea. Too similar to Thunderbolt
4. An earth-themed spell - hard to think of an offensive earth spell without a disable

Also, there is a summoner class so there will be no summoned pets for the Elementalist despite his name

Thanks for looking

Edit: attached is the map with Berserker/Ranger/Assassin totally working and SOME spells on Paladin/Elementalist. Just set up some AI units for ability testing purposes. Careful if you go in the caves at top of map, as there are invisible assassins. You can use this to get a feel for the abilities and make fun of my GUI triggers

 

[Drunken_Jackal]

Maybe this:
Torrential Tribute:
Sacrifices Elementalist and kills all units nearby him.

or

Earth Power:
The earth shakes, then lava blasts out on random locations.

 

[tml616]

First idea goes against what this hero is about: staying back and spamming spells. It has no synergy with the passive which reduces cooldowns (who cares if you're dead).

However, it could be adapted to something like:

Expends all remaining mana, dealing up to 100 damage around the caster based on the amount of mana used.
CD: 20
Rad: 400

Big problem here is it also goes against the idea of staying back. So make it ranged, but then it's just a better version of Thunderbolt. But it also has huge synergy with energy Void.

For the second idea,
RANDOM IS BAD!

+rep for first idea

 

[GoGoTauren]

how about "elemental maelstrom" or a better name if you can think of one
blasts enemies with 4 or so different elemental spells at once, like an earth spell, fire spell, cold spell, lightning spell. Eg impale, breath of frost forked lightning and.. um some fire spell.

Imo it feels like the right ultimate for an elementalist, one that incorporates all of the elements.

 

[VoidLordXtreme]

hmm i can only think of a spell, i made once for my map:

Thunder Blow

Deals 1 Point of mana in 1 point of damage to enemy units in the target area, and shocks them, making them unable to move, attack and cast spells for 1 second.
Maximal amound of manacost 100/200/300/400.

the funny thing is, that it seems kinda similar to your spell idea you posted on post #3.

anyway, i wish you good luck with your map.

 

[GoGoTauren]

seems kinda simple, like 100 damage/100 mana etc. How about it drains like.. up to 25%/50%/75% of the remaining mana for damage?

 

[Midnighters]

Maybe this:
Torrential Tribute:
Sacrifices Elementalist and kills all units nearby him.

LoL, YU-GI-OH reference much?

 

[Drunken_Jackal]

yeah, been playing before.