Shadow Slayer Ideas

Well, I'm working on an AoS type map, and I'm really stuck on one hero in particular, the Shadow Slayer.

The two abilities I've already thought up are:


Rend (125)

Effect: Damage, slow, and chance to critical damage
Targeting Type: Single target
Targets Allowed/Affected: Enemy, unit, ground
Cooldown: 12 seconds

Using her knowledge of the human body, the Shadow Slayer takes careful aim and then strikes with unrestrained force, seriously crippling her foe. Has a chance to hit vital organs and deal massive damage.

Level 1: Deals 35 physical damage and slows by 7%. Has 25% chance to critical strike, dealing 1.75 times more damage. Slow lasts 5 seconds.
Level 2: Deals 70 physical damage and slows by 14%. Has 25% chance to critical strike, dealing 1.75 times more damage. Slow lasts 5 seconds.
Level 3: Deals 105 physical damage and slows by 21%. Has 25% chance to critical strike, dealing 1.75 times more damage. Slow lasts 5 seconds.
Level 4: Deals 140 physical damage and slows by 28%. Has 25% chance to critical strike, dealing 1.75 times more damage. Slow lasts 5 seconds.
Level 5: Deals 175 physical damage and slows by 35%. Has 25% chance to critical strike, dealing 1.75 times more damage. Slow lasts 5 seconds.


Shadow Move (65)

Effect: Line damage and instant movement to target point
Targeting Type: Point targeting
Targets Allowed/Affected: Enemy, unit, ground
Cooldown: 8

The Shadow Slayer temporarily separates her body from the physical realm, and moves towards the destination at incredible speed. Any enemy units that are passed through on the way are damaged and have their defense temporarily lowered.

Level 1: Deals 50 damage and lowers armor by 2.
Level 2: Deals 100 damage and lowers armor by 3.
Level 3: Deals 150 damage and lowers armor by 4.
Level 4: Deals 200 damage and lowers armor by 5.
Level 5: Deals 250 damage and lowers armor by 6.


The hero is missing one normal ability and an ultimate now. I haven't got the stats done, but the Shadow Slayer, as you can probably tell from the name, is a "chaser/hero killer" type.

I have a comment on the first ability: All fields that do not change should not be listed in the Level growth. In order words, the 1.75x critical strike damage does not need to be there. Type that in the spell description.

As for a third and ultimate: What are you looking for? More abilities to use or passives?

I thought that might be a problem, but nobody said anything until today, so I kept it out of laziness.

I'm looking for anything that fits the hero, or helps her perform her job better in any way, it doesn't really matter what type of ability it is, though it shouldn't be a default Warcraft ability or anything really unoriginal.

Dusk Strike - Stuns target unit for X seconds. If that unit is within attack range, then deal Y damage to it, and an additional 5 damage to each (Main Attribute) point on this hero.

Cut Through Light - Deals X damage to target hero. If that hero is not killed and its maximum hit points are greater than this hero's, then that hero deals Y damage to this hero.

Final Shadow - If target hero has below X hit points, it is stunned for Y seconds. If it has more than X hit points, its dealt Z damage, but no less than X hit points.

I don't think the Shadow Slayer needs anymore damaging abilties or slowing/stunning/trapping abilities actually, I mean, more would be imbalanced. If you look, she already has one teleportation spell and one slowing spell for chasing heroes, and both spells deal moderate damage (a lot if used together, since armor reduction + possible-critical-strike-physical-spell) already, and have low cooldowns. If I gave her another stun+damage spell, she'd be overpowered.

Thanks for trying anyways.

Uh...

Darkreap - Drains X hit points with each attack, and an additional Y hit point(s) for each (MAIN ATTRIBUTE) on this hero.

Shadow Grip - Places a curse on target unit. As long as that unit is cursed, it cannot regenerate and is always visible. Lasts X seconds.

Cold Heart - If this hero kills another unit, this unit regenerates X hit points, but loses Y mana unless the killed unit was a hero.

Gah... it's not "elemental" as such... if it were pure dark/shadow, that'd be worlds easier...

Agreed. But the model I'm using doesn't have any "spell-like" animations, (though it's pretty good otherwise) so any kind of "magical" ability wouldn't look nice.


All of your suggestions are a little, too complicated... I mean, I don't want players (especially newbies) to go into the map, look at a spell and think "huh?". A spell doesn't need 99 effects to be original, nor the "attribute relations". There won't be that many stat boosting items in my map so stat-based abilities would probably always be around the same.


Ideas that I had were:

- A "cleave" type ability which would summon a "shadow" when the hero attacks to attack a random target nearby (seen in some other maps sadly)

- A "berserk" ability which would significantly increase the hero's attack speed but would make her take more damage

- A defensive ability that would activate when the hero is low health, giving her more spell resistance, and more armor, allowing her to chase heroes into bases and get out without dying.


I'm leaning towards one passive as her last normal ability and an active ability for her ultimate (come on, who wants a passive ultimate), but if I can't get them, I'll just pick two of the three above probably.

Ah! You want a simple assassin. I got too drowned in my fancy-pansy stuff.

Shadow Flare - Gives an X% chance that an attack will bounce to Y nearby targets.

Bewildering Strikes - If this hero kills a unit, all nearby units take that much damage. If the killed unit was a hero, all nearby units receive X additional damage.

Slay in Darkness - Gives an X% attack speed bonus, but will receive Y% extra amount of damage. As long as this unit has the bonus, it will fade into invisibility over Z seconds.
Lasts (Random Letter) seconds.

Deep Embrace - If a negative spell would be cast on this hero, instead block that spell if it's cost is equal to or greater than this hero's. This hero loses X mana and won't be able to cast spells for Y seconds.

Convert to Darkness - If a spell is cast on this hero, this hero gets a damage bonus of X, but if that spell cost more than Y, this hero gets double that bonus.

Ok, I found an ultimate for her. Rising_Dusk's Domino Theory, though it'll be renamed Shadow Image in the map.

I like Shadow Flare, rather similar to my previous idea, (keep in mind the Shadow Slayer is melee) except with a % chance, but when I thought about it, this came up: Why in the world would an assassin/chaser type hero need to be able to hit many targets at once?

My only answer was: To be able to strike the enemy ranged-asshole who is hiding behind the creeps while staying a safe distance away, and also murdering his creeps while your at it.

And I'm still wondering if such an ability would fit.


Edit: Ugh, perhaps Domino Theory is not such a good idea. I found that you could swap halfway across the map using it. That could probably be altered, but it's probably not worth the trouble. Maybe just a normal image creation then, without the debuff, though that's not exactly original.

Seems like the hero already has a defined gameplay with those two spells alone: move ahead of the enemy, dealing damage and reducing armour, then rend, dealing more damage and reducing speed and then attack while the speed reduction lasts. This should be enough to kill a low hp hero, if it isn't then wait for the rend cooldown to finish before repeating the move/rend combo. If you get in a tight spot during this time, use the move spell to escape instead, since it cools down before rend.

Any more damage or stun would likely be overpowered. Instead, I would use the other skills to give the hero something else to do, otherwise it would be boring to just wait for a long time for someone to get on low hp in order to chase them. Perhaps a skill for wearing out enemies, something that damages slowly but steadily, so you get the opportunity to hunt a wounded enemy more often. Note that the hero must save up mana for casting move/rend at least once but rather twice, so whatever other skills do, they shouldn't be too costly in terms of mana, otherwise players won't use them anyway in anticipation of a chase.

Another interesting skill would be a buff which, when applied, reduces the target's life by X, and when it's removed the target is healed by 2X. The X could be capped at half the target's current life so the spell couldn't be used as a last hit killer, but instead players would be forced to take risks with it, casting it while the target is still at higher hp, when it's not yet certain that it can be killed before the buff runs out and heals it. It could also be used on friendly units or yourself as a risky heal spell. Now this kind of spell actualy makes players think when casting, unlike move/rend which are pretty straightforward and automatic.

Actually, I think a huge area (900 at max level?), single/double/etc target cleave with a high chance 50-70% at top level to fire upon attack would do that. I don't know, but I kind of like the "cleave" idea now.


That sounds pretty interesting to me, however risky - that's part of the game though. And yes, that aids more of a "skill and prediction" factor to the game, not just point and click. I'll think about this one. But a newbie could really screw up with an ability like this.

I think that's the entire point. If you want people to learn how to play your AoS, do it in this manner. It's different, which is good.

It looks like the normal abilities have been covered, so looking at an ultimate would be nice.

Malice of Darkness - Creates a replica of the Shadow Slayer that is only able to deal damage (equal to the original's attack damage) to units the original attacks. However, [X]% of all damage dealt to the replica is directed towards the original Shadow Slayer. The replica receives spell resistance. Lasts for [X] seconds.

Phantom Fly - Maximizes the Shadow Slayer's movement speed and gives her [X]% (should be low) to evade physical attacks. However, the Shadow Slayer's armor is reduced by [X]. Lasts for [X[ seconds.

You can use them or use part of them, I don't care. I'll think of more if you need more.

I might use Malice of Darkness, or something like that, I sort of like how a percentage of the damage received by the image would be redirected at the Shadow Slayer. It's sort of a "pro and con" thing. Summoning the image would give you more damage, and a tank for creeps/towers, but if a caster uses an AoE move, you receive even more damage than usual.

I don't think the Shadow Slayer needs more movement speed, or evasion however. She has pretty high AGI, meaning high armor, and she has an 8 second blink. Unless you stun her, it'll probably be hard to kill her, but with the amount of firepower and mobility the Shadow Slayer has, that's probably a reasonable weakness.