The Necromancer

<Insert Generic Necromancer Backstory Here>

Stats :

Strength : 16 + 1.9
Agility : 11 + 1.2
Energy : 33 + 3.4

Primary Stat : Energy
Attack Range : 560
Movement Speed : 350
Base Armor : 0
Base Damage : 8 - 12 (41 - 45 with base stats)
Model : Kel'thuzad's Ghost
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Skill 1:
Necromantic Decay (active, target unit)

Attacks the physical well-being of the enemy, bypassing shields and temporarily crippling them.

Deals 30 / 60 / 90 / 120 damage and reduces attack damage by 40% for 3 seconds and movement / attack speeds by 20% for 6 seconds.

Cooldown : 28 / 25 / 22 / 19 seconds.

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Skill 2:
Deceit (passive)

The Necromancer is skilled at manipulating life force, making it possible to damage the enemy in such a way as to give the impression that nothing is actually wrong. His skills are not infallible, however, and he will be unable to prevent knowledge of excessive wounds or the eventual discovery over time.

Delays the damage taken by the Necromancer's melee attacks for a certain time or until a threshold is reached. Should the enemy's health go below the accumulated amount, the damage will be applied prematurely (and kill them).

Accumulates 150 / 300 / 450 / 600 damage.
Takes 8 / 16 / 24 / 32 seconds to realize the damage.

For cosmetic reasons, perhaps placing a purple number above the target (only for allies to see, not the enemies) to indicate how much has been accumulated would be best. This prevents confusion among your own team and allows you to keep track.

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Skill 3:
Restless Spirit (active, target ground)

The Necromancer places a ward at the target location, giving dying units within its AoE an outlet for their unsatisfactory death. Every time a unit dies within its AoE, its spirit will be released to roam the battlefield, causing damage to enemy units it passes through.

Places a ward with 300 / 450 / 600 / 750 health that lasts for 24 / 36 / 48 / 60 seconds and has an effective AoE of 1500 (units within 750 distance from it). Spirits will roam within a 600 / 700 / 800 / 900 AoE centered on the spot the unit died at and will deal 5 damage a second to those it passes through. If Distortion is learned, the damage will accumulate just as a regular attack would. Cap of 30 spirits.

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Ultimate :
Mass Necromancy (active, target ground)

Invoking the deepest of incantations, the Necromancer repeatedly summons fallen soldiers to do battle once more. The targeting AoE is 1400 and the spell continues for a maximum of 15 seconds. Every three seconds, ten skeletons will rise from their grave on the outside circle (actually, 600 distance from the center, making it an effective AoE of 1200), attacking the closest enemy within the 1400 AoE range. The skeletons are very fragile and die rapidly, but due to the nature of their rebirth, are immune to magic. They last until destroyed or until the spell is finished. Higher levels also have a low chance to spawn a unit other than a skeleton warrior. The Necromancer is given an 80% movement speed debuff that persists even upon changing persona for the duration of this spell. Should the necromancer die, the spell ends prematurely. The skeletons last until five seconds after the spell ends (20 seconds from the start).

Casting range of 750.

Skeletons have 10 / 25 / 40 health and deal 11-18 / 18 - 27 / 27 - 39 damage.

At level 2 and 3, there is a small chance to summon a berserk skeleton with twice as much damage as a normal skeleton and only 1 health. They will attack and move twice as fast, and will be much blacker than their counterparts. There is a 4% chance to summon a berserk skeleton at level 2 and an 8% chance to summon at level 3.

At level 3, there is a small chance to summon a charred skeleton archer that does the same amount of damage and health as its normal skeleton counterparts. There is a 5% chance to summon a charred skeleton archer unless there is more than 30 skeleton warriors already in the circle, in which case the chance will rise to 50%. If there are no enemies within the circle, the chance is increased by 35% (for a total of 85% if there is also more than 30 warriors). If there is no enemies within the circle, skeleton archers will target enemies within range outside of the circle but have no movement. Skeleton warriors may not move out of the circle.

Skeleton archers have a range of 650.

Cooldown : 90 / 75 / 60 seconds

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Thoughts? Criticism?

I like this hero a lot; spell 2 seems fun to use.

Cokemonkey11 wrote:I like this hero a lot; spell 2 seems fun to use.

Yes, it would be quite fun indeed. Just imagine, you get whacked, see that you took no damage, and blow it off as if it's nothing. A few seconds later, you find that your shields just went down and you're missing a huge chunk of your life.

Not knowing how much damage you have taken will be a really good reason to fear fighting the necromancer -- not just because he can cause damage to you, but because you have no real way of knowing until it's too late. It creates a sense of fear and hesitation, emotions that the necromancer should most definitely be inspiring.

Plus, it's a decent way to farm. If you deal damage to a unit and the damage exceeds its current health, it will die, meaning you can attack prematurely and get the kill without delivering a real finishing blow. This only works on enemies, however, so you will have to deny your own creeps like usual.

My personal dream scenario is having a hero get trapped in the middle of his ult. Having skeletons swarm over you and blocking your escape can be a nightmare, especially if the area was set up beforehand (spirits for some extra damage and mages). I'd say that, at the rate at which the skeletons spawn, you won't be able to escape unless you were on the very edge, outside the spawning circle of the skeletons. If you are inside (and I most certainly hope you are not directly in the center), then you're stuck.

It can also double as a semi-defensive move. You see the enemy coming at you, so you drop the ult with you at the center. Suddenly, skeletons will start popping up around the perimeter and close in on nearby enemies, making a makeshift wall.

I do want to tweak the ult a bit, though. I'm not sure I want to make it channeling -- being unable to switch to your Persona while being immobilized for the duration is something I am considering at the moment. This way, you can cast your slow and also get in a few attacks of your own as they try to get away.

I decided to make another separate post dedicated to showing what I changed. This way people can keep track of the progress and also comment if they dislike what has happened to the hero. It also gives me a way to go back and find the old version in an easy manner. Major changes are listed here with the old version whereas slight changes are noted.

Changed Mass Necromancy around quite a bit.

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Invoking the deepest of incantations, the Necromancer repeatedly summons fallen soldiers to do battle once more. The targeting AoE is 1400 and the spell is channeled for a maximum of 15 seconds. Every three seconds, ten skeletons will rise from their grave on the outside circle (actually, 600 distance from the center, making it an effective AoE of 1200), attacking the closest enemy within the 1400 AoE range. The skeletons are very fragile and die rapidly, but due to the nature of their rebirth, are immune to magic. They last until destroyed or until the spell is finished. Higher levels also have a low chance to convert wandering spirits to skeletal mages and improve the basic combat ability of the warriors. Attacking, stunning, or otherwise disabling the necromancer will not cause the spell to end -- the spell ends only if the necromancer issues another command or is moved outside of the casting range.

Casting range of 750.

Skeletons have 10 / 25 / 40 health and deal 11-18 / 18 - 27 / 27 - 39 damage.

At levels 2 and 3, there is a 10% / 20% chance that a wandering spirit will become a skeletal mage. Skeletal mages have no attack, but have two spells -- one, debilitate, slows the enemy movement speed by 20% and stacks up to 5 times but only lasts 2 seconds with a 6 second cooldown. The other, skeletal strengthening, gives the target (skeleton warriors only) a 100% chance to crit for 2x damage and twice as much movement / attack speed, but reduces its health to one. This skill has a one second cooldown.

Skeletal Mages have 100 / 200 health.

Cooldown : 90 / 75 / 60 seconds

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Also lowered the base damage and the hero model.

Changed the name of "Distortion" to "Deceit". Increased the time requirement.