[Tidehunter] skill set!

Hidden information: I am attempting to work on a set of Neutral Tavern heroes, for unexplainable reasons (i.e. I love custom heroes :P). Link to the ~Project Page~

- This is for my re-creation of the Hero Contest #2 "Tidal Lord" entry, by Szythe (coder) and Jigrael (modeller). BY NO MEANS am I implying that their hero design was substandard or lacking, but that I simply want to remake him. I will be doing a bit of research through the old topics to see what exactly was liked and disliked about him, because I still respect the original design.
- NOTE: After reading a bit, I found the hero actually had quite a good "role" going, so I might keep more than I thought.
- Also, jigrael has mentioned that he wanted to redo the whole model, so that might be the featured one instead.**


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This hero's role. Have a few thoughts:

Regardless of the role, since he is a "Water Elemental Hero", he can (and should) have both Water and Ice based-spells.

This hero needs either 1 ability (if I fully follow Szythe's example and use it as done in the Hero Contest #2), because I didn't like Dampen and it seems many others didn't as well.
~OR~ this hero needs possibly up to 4 abilities; some of Szythe's may be used anyway, however.

Notes:

• Please use/suggest in GUI only.
• (^Except for Custom Script, which can be used)
• The use of "Custom Value" is available (like for saving values)
• I'm also working on a Naga race, so I've got to save some good water-spells for them, too.

Current Ability Ideas (NAMES IN QUOTES ARE UP FOR DEBATE)

• "Flashfreeze": Floods a target area with water, slowing enemy MS. Within a few seconds, the waters rapidly freeze, entrapping them in solid blocks of ice.
• "Flood/Rising Tide" (ultimate): ~Channeling~ Slowly fills the target area with a rising tide of waters, which slow down enemies. The waters build up until they reach the breaking point, at which they stream down at high pressure from all angles, dealing heavy Damage-Over-Time to units caught within the waters.
• (Those two are kinda synergous, but don't necessarily have to go together)
• "Vortex": Swamps a target area with a scattering of deadly whirlpools/quicksand. These lethal traps can catch and slowly kill any organic unit that walks over it (= perma-Devour). Summons more with each level.
• Name IDEAS: Drown - Flood - Surge - Whirlpool - Inundate - Gush - Vortex - Drench - Dampen - etc

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Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated!

You're going to need more clever names, theres loads you can do with tidal names.

The water theme is all good and obvious from the title, but the 'hunter' part suggests a more aggressive aspect, like a shark circling a diver before going in for the kill. To me at least, that's kindof contrary to the whole 'mystical support' role. Maybe theme him that way, as per the shark aspect: he concentrates on one unit, sapping its strength and weakening it extensively before going in for a quick, decisive strike that cripples it.

I personally think that this idea is very awrzome, I love sharks :)
Anyway, I'm a bit tired right now (went to sleep at 4am last night!) I can't really think straight. But I have one 'shark aspect' spell and one 'back-in-the-back' spell

Shark Aspect:
Fearflood (bad name, I'm sure)
Stuns a targetted unit for two seconds and then makes them run away.
-OR-
AoE 1-2 second stun to all enemies within range and then paralyses them for 3-4 seconds.

'Mystic Wizard' Aspect
Moontide Fountain Aura (Passive, Aura)
An aura that, by day, gives nearby casters a 'water shield', which gives them heightened defence and addtional attack speed (low amount, say 0.10, level 1). By night, this aura gives ranged units a 'water attack', which gives them a 20% chance to cast cold on an enemy target for a set amount of time when attacking, and gives them an attack bonus (say, +1 at level 1)

simply because he has control of water does not mean he can manipulate heat as well, unless your implying he also has powers over pressure....

Looks more tidal than watery.

Why is no one voting? I thought the Poll option might make it a bit easier to discuss... :/

@Erwt:
Yeah, I know... But the problem was, all the existing (= Szythe + Jigrael's) names all ended with "os", which sounds lame more than twice.

The hard part is not in the prefixes (aqua, hydro, coral, tidal, sea, water, ocean, abyss, fathom, nautical, knots, etc etc), but the suffix (-os, -as, -on, -an, -ulon, -ulos, -al, etc etc). Not all of them sound any good. Lemme take a look at the Firelord's proper names and use that as a loose framework.

(You are talking about the Proper Names, right? :P)

@Askhati:
I like the idea, but it's really just a name. I'm going with the Blizzard precedent (please don't kill me Dusk :P) of naming the hero after the Elemental Lord equivalent (although notably, not using their respective Lord's name as a Proper Name; no Ragnaros on the Wc3 Firelord). So while the Wc3 Firelord is... the Firelord, the Water-equivalent is known as "Neptulon the Tidehunter". (then "Therazane the Earthmother", and "Al'Akir the Windlord". I might mess with the Wind-guys name.)

So yeah, just a name. Besides, I already have enough "shark-like" Neutral heroes. :/

@Shroom:
*Fearflood* - Sorry, one of my custom Troll heroes has a similar ability.
*Mystic Aura* - Err, that's really confusing. I also don't see an aura fitting anyway... Unless it's like a Parasite Aura?...

@Emjlr3:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Neptulon
Specifically all the "frost" abilities.


@Here-b-Trollz:
Huh??

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I don't really like either, but I don't want to vote without finding the time to respond properly. :p

Well, you're an admin, so I believe you can change it... What do you suggest?

(wait, if you like neither, put Other...)

Regardless, I find your pitiful excuse worthy. Carry on. :P

What part don't you understand? How to make it? Or my explanation? Oh well, I'm over at a friends house for the night, you wont get a reply for the next ~16 hours :P

i didnt know you were copying a WoW monster

You knew that I would complain about this because it's supremely unoriginal. If you're going to make a custom hero, quit half-assing it and do the damned thing full justice. It's different if you were taking the Blizzard heroes and applying them to different mechanics (ie. as I kept suggesting to Erwt for EW), but when you're going custom, just go all the way -- Especially when you've got these models at your disposal. Your heroes just aren't doing the art justice, not even close.
Quit with these algorithms to create proper names. God, you think I went down a list of male and female names in the world and selected a random number to come up with the stuff in DoE or AotZ? Seriously, you think that I didn't consider both the setting, the hero, the attitude, and the character while doing those things? Granted, I didn't go for clever names, I went for a very serious atmosphere, one that reeked of tension. You're doing your own thing, and I understand that, but that doesn't keep you from at least going a little deeper than the surface in terms of naming and character development.

Oh, and he was probably also talking about the skill names, which are terribly generic and uninspired. Seriously, there's lots of potential for water heroes. Just listen to some of the naga soundsets! We theorycrafted a bunch of this stuff elsewhere though (In an older topic), let me see if I can't find it... *Five minutes later* Aha, here it is. We talked about this kind of stuff here too. It's funny how I eventually thought that Storm Surge might be a little misleading for a water hero when before I was gung-ho for it... Though it'd be a great skill name regardless.

Is that Tidehunter model uploaded somewhere?

Shark aspect! This guy looks lean and mean, like an elemental equivalent of the Blademaster. Besides... Ranged intelligence support? C'mon! We have enough of those, and this guy (have you even looked at that face?!) looks like way more of a bad-ass than some generic mage type. Go quick, nasty and bloody with him - stalking and circling maneuvers, blood scents (guy goes into a frenzy when anything dies around him), maybe a nasty summon/Parasite mod, remora-like spirits that follow him and give some kind of boost...

Just please don't make it yet another mage!

@TFK:
...
He hasn't officially "released" it for public use, but it is publicly released through the Hero Contest. So... yes.

@Emjlr3:
That has a decidedly negative connotation. Other than butchering the lore, I think WoW has done a whole lot of good/cool things. :/