solid critique on $hit2's hero design, and nome's counter argument, which seems kind of $hitty
Quote (tool)
Nome, your hero ideas are cool, but from a practical balance standpoint, conceptually, they are broken. This will be the second STR hero now that is basically a mass aoe damage hero, doing it in a slightly different way, but also having a blink escape/initiation, and in that way he doesn’t differ that much from Amun Ra. When you consider the fact that Geomancer is also another generic aoe spam hero with a blink mechanism and an aoe stun ultimate, I really begin to wonder if you guys at S2 know what you’re doing. It’s not a good idea to litter the game with tanky heroes who also have do a ton of team damage and stun and possess amazing escape mechanisms as well. Sure you might point to Sand King from DotA, but even though he belongs to the STR class, his stat gain is abysmal and he starts with very little armor. His ultimate is also channeled, creating some very tough situations for him,.
What are your heroes weaknesses? They are tanky, they can farm, they can gank, they can carry, and if they get in trouble they just blink away. Filling the game with such an abundance of easy-mode escape mechanisms on tanky heroes really devalues positioning in a way that cheapens the value of skill in the game. Emerald Warden was an okay design, I guess, but it doesn’t change the fact that her ultimate pretty much uses itself, the wolves use themselves, the silence is an 700 range point and click; pretty much the only ability she has that requires any amount of skill to use are her traps, but it’s not like those are hard to use. Sure you could argue that it’s a hero all about positioning, but at 625 range, and an ultimate that reveals a large area and heals you for a good amount, it’s not something I would take you seriously on. A hero like Drow Ranger I can understand having 625 range, because she really does rely completely on positioning, and if you get caught with a single stun it’s pretty much over for you.
I really appreciate the amount of time and effort you put into your hero designs and the game, but I would appreciate it more if you tried to make them on par with what’s already in the game, or stop making them jack-of-all-trade designs that don’t have any clear weaknesses. Heroes of Newerth is excessively guilty of making hero designs that just do way too many things at one time. One thing I really like about DotA is that most of the heroes have a specific role and/or are very niche in terms of their purpose. The jack-of-all-trades heroes are rare, but have fundamental weaknesses like Nevermore who is squishy with no escape mechanism, or Invoker who has the worst stat gain in the game and can be easily shut down with silences/stuns (and even then, he’s still probably overpowered). I’m not trying to rag on your hero designs, I’m just giving you an honest critique of how I feel. HoN is basically the platform on which your ideas end up, so much responsibility lies on you to either improve or ruin the game.
Quote (nome)
Well, a few things. First, Drow Ranger is both easier to use and better than Emerald Warden in almost every way. Better damage output, better farming, etc. Complexity doesn’t imply power. Second, Invoker now gets stats from Quas/Wex/Exort, so he’s not really a squishy anymore. That’s why he’s top pick/ban in DotA. Third, I haven’t made any “jack-of-all-trades” designs so far–all of my heroes are made with a weakness, Midas included. If you want more contextual information on what weaknesses he specifically has, see this post:
http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showpost.php?p=14268121&postcount=42