Revenge of the Twilight; (WIP)

I've just started work on a new hero arena(Doubt many of you play these types of maps anymore) which I hope will change people's attitudes towards this map genre from that "Omg someone surely edited this hero arena map to have a super-I-will-win hero only he can choose!". All heroes in it are balanced, and have noticable strengths and weaknesses. Also, side quests include defeating bosses and mini-bosses which have their own AI to cast spells and use items, not just your run-of-the-mill whack-run-whack-lather, rinse, repeat quests. Also, ALL heroes on the completing team will be rewarded with custom items tailored to suit each hero's strength, which ensures (or so I hope) the end of item grabbing. There will be no ability nullifying items, such as gem of true sight, so unpredictability will not be ruined. Plus, each hero has custom triggered spells with cool effects, spell combos, and each a unique strategy of play.
I've already done most of the terrain, and 5 heroes are completed, so here's a preview of them and their skills.

1) Underworld Warlock[/b]
The usual fair, this guy's the crippler-cum-powermove spellcaster of the game.
Weakness: Piss poor health.

Infernal Touch a.k.a Cripple
The Infernal Warlock touches an enemy at close range, infusing some of his crippling energies into the unit/hero. Decreases armour, damage and attack/movement speed. Catch is, if an allied unit attacks the affected enemy, some of that sapping power will be transfered to it, slowing its movement speed.

Spiritual Vengeance a.k.a Powermove
The warlock concentrates for a few seconds, then releases a huge sphere of corrupting energy which homes in on its target. Deals damage to the living and heals for twice the amount on an undead unit. (You can actually see the sphere, and trust me, it IS huge) Sphere deals damage per second to anyone caught in its path.

Thanatos's Revenge (Ultimate)
Whenever the warlock's health reaches below 200, all enemies around him will have their health decreased by (current unit health+200/2)

2) Silas, Outcast Monk
This one's a little tricky to play. He's a super-melee hero who specializes in beating anyone who comes within melee range to a pulp within 4 skills or less. However, his skills require exact timing, (split second to be precise) to actually WORK. Patience is a virtue with this hero, or else forget it. Each skill must be executed exactly within a two second time period after the preceding one, if not, the skill will NOT work and you will have wasted your mana. All skills require concentration beads to cast. People usually use spell combos in their hero maps, like in DOTA (Slayer's Lightstrike-DragonSlave-LagunaBlade), but this is pobably the first time a literal running combo has been created for a hero.

Hawk Dive *Combo start up skill*
The rogue monk absorbs ambient energy into his leg muscles, then rushes at his enemy at lightning speed, like a hawk diving at its prey. He then releases a sharp blow at the temple, which decreases his opponent's concentration. Uses mana and one concentration bead.

Gravel Smite
Delivers a blow of crushing proportions, similar to that of mighty stone. The victim is temporarily stunned, and the blow causes the earth below the unit to shatter, sending flying rock chunks everywhere, slightly damaging units in a 250 radius. Uses mana and two concentration beads.

Lunar Lunge
Pulling his full body weight into a full out gung-ho attack, Silas pulverises his enemy like a wolf lunging at its prey, paralyzing it slightly and has a 20% chance of dealing severe damage to it. Uses mana and two concentration beads.

Draconic Temper
Causing his emotional temper to materialize as physical flame, Silas burns through his enemies with the strength and ruthlessness of the great Draco. Deals fire damage with each strike, and burns the ground as well. Uses mana and FIVE concentration beads. Also drains all remaining mana.

Focus
The rogue monk takes a moment to enchance his awareness of his immediate surroundings. Creates a concentraion bead which raises attack damage slightly and causes him to have a greater chance of successful blows against evasive opponents. Uses slight amount of mana. Five concentration beads max.

Well, that's all for now. Will be posting updates in the near future. Stay tuned. (Screenshots soon too, as soon as christmas preperations are over) ;)

Very nice ideas. Few questions though;

What's the warlock's 3rd non-ulti spell?
Wouldn't lag mess up the combo requirements for the monk?

For the first question, I'm still working on a replacement for some shitty spell I gave him earlier. For the second, if you aren't seriously lagging, as in 26K or dial up or something, there's actually more like a FOUR second delay for you to cast the spell(Y'know, with the triggers taking effect and stuff), I've tried playing it on a 56k modem, it still works fine. Also, doodads and effects are kept at a minimum for such a map as to minimize lag for those who aren't fortunate enough to afford higher-speed modems . (Remember the fountains in the TFT version of Hero Arena?) Oh, and two more new heroes I just did today.

Talos, Obsidian Nightmare
Basic meatshield, tons of strength, slow attack and movement speed, uber health regeneration, and abyssmal manapool. Raw power is the main advantage of this hero, with slight group damaging spells to aid.

Molten Strike
Talos charges its attacks with enough heat to melt through armour, significantly decreasing the armour points of its victim. Deals a mild area damage upon activation. Lasts for 5 strikes.

Scalding Cascade
Causes clouds of steam to billow out from beneath the Obsidian Giant's armour, scalding nearby enemies as the steam gushes and spreads out over an area.

Antimatter Diffusion
Talos's body is comprised of compounded pockets of antimatter, and thus has a percentage chance to infuse his target with small amounts of it, effectively decaying its material muscle and causing it to have slightly slowed movement speed and take damage/second for 2 seconds.

Eternal Hunger
The obsidian giant must feed on material objects to survive, and constantly hungers for more energy sources. Can be activated whenever Talos's health drops beneath 400. Regains 50hp/25mp per strike. Lasts for 10 strikes.


Thanatos the Immortal, Abyssal Knight
Evasive/spiritual hero, average stats, high mana usage. Is especially useful against hit-and-runners. Weaknesses; Assasins, mage slayers (Mana burn!) Without any mana, his Vehelment skill turns into a hindrance. A menace come nightfall.

Astral Charge
Breaking free of his physical body and its restraints, Thanatos charges through the astral plane at his opponent, rending the spirit of his enemy three times before returning. All three strikes deal magic damage.

Vehelment
The fiendish blade which grants the Abyssal Knight a percentage chance to banish the enemy from the physical plane temporarily. Also adds physical damage which increases per level.

Hinged Visibility
During nighttime, the Abyssal Knight turns near-invisible to the naked eye, and is harder to target by ranged attackers. Decreases ranged attacker's damages by a percentage, and grants Thanatos the "Physical Resistance" skill, which grants him greater evasion.

Soul Wrench
Traps the target in a nightmare, causing four ghastly visages to appear before it. The four visages are mortal, but they must be killed before they drain enormous amounts of health and mana and transfer half of what they drain to the Abyssal Knight. Nightmare ends when all visages are killed or each has drained 100 hitpoints and mana(if not all) from the target. (Yes, there is a special nightmare chamber for this skill ).