Jungle Stalker [Ursa Port](Rough Draft)

[Sunderpants]

(I know this is a wall of text ATM, but bear with me because ability icons and pictures are coming soon)
JUNGLE STALKER
The Jungle Stalker is a twist on the DotA hero "Ursa Warrior." A powerful physical damage dealer, the Jungle Stalker relies on successive attacks to deal increasing damage to his enemies. Even more terrifying, is the Jungle Stalker's ability to hide among the treetops, only to leap down onto unsuspecting prey.

Speed: 310
Range: 100 (melee)
Affiliation: Hellbourne
Primary Stat: Agility

Visual: A large lizard of some sorts with a frilled neck that will fan out when he uses some abilities. The color scheme would rely on various bizarre patterns in his scales would be influenced off the slot color (blue/teal/etc). I'm still in the process of finding a picture so if anyone can find a picture candidate, i would be very happy if they sent it to me via pm. (hint hint)

Movement animation: The Jungle stalker crawls on all fours, his head darting back and forth. His claws leave small tracks in the ground he has recently stepped on. While standing still, the Jungle Stalker rears onto his hind legs, bearing his razor sharp claws.

Attack Animation: The Jungle stalker swings with his claws for his basic melee attack.

Death animation: Jungle Stalker falls onto the ground with his belly up, letting out a bestial scream while writhing in agony for a few seconds.

Theme
The Jungle Stalker is a terrifying beast, a creature birthed in the darkest jungles of Newerth, and his abilities reflect his jungle background.


Story
The jungles of Newerth hold many untold secrets. Rumor has that a group of explorers had ventured deep into the jungles, hoping to discover unimaginable treasures but more importantly, to unlock the mysterious powers that lay dormant deep beneath its surface. Instead, they unraveled something so terrifying that left all but one alive to tell of the story. Telling of the story by the lone survivor was not an easy task. When asked of what or who had killed all the explorers, he whispered in an unsure voice, "Stalker". Shortly thereafter, he had gone mad and never spoke of anything but that name.

Role
Jungle Stalker is a deadly hero killer, with passive and active abilities that rely on being in melee range as well as a invisibility that enables him to create traps to ambush his prey.

Stats + Abilities
Many of Jungle Stalker's Abilities are derived from Ursa Warrior. Any insight as far as balancing stats and abilities would be greatly appreciated.
Health: 549
Mana: 206
Strength: 21 base + 2.9/lvl
Intelligence: 14 + 1.5/lvl
Agility:18 + 2.1/lvl
HP regen: 0.94
Mana Regen: 0.65
Attack speed: 1.44
Armor: 5

Shred-Active (autocast optional) *REWORKED AS OF 10/11/09*
Description: The Jungle Stalker becomes enraged, increasing his attack speed by 400% for a series of attacks. Lasts 15 seconds.
Rank 1: 3 attacks at 400% attack speed
Rank 2: 4 attacks at 400% attack speed
Rank 3: 5 attacks at 400% attack speed
Rank 4: 6 attacks at 400% attack speed
Mana Cost: 70/80/90/100
Cast Time: .5 seconds
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Use: Combines with Jungle Stalker's passive quickly deal heavy attack damage to a target unit. The short cooldown and low mana cost allows Jungle Stalker to have this ability active in most battles. A copy of Ursa's ability "overpower".
Animation: The Jungle Stalker shrieks, his frilled neck fans out. The frilled neck will quiver while the buff is active.

Eviscerate- passive
Description: The Jungle Stalker has a habit of toying with his prey, dealing stacking damage based off how many times he has attacked his current target. If Jungle Stalker does not attack the affected target for 3 seconds, bonus damage will be reset.
Rank 1: 5 bonus damage per attack
Rank 2: 10 bonus damage per attack
Rank 3: 15 bonus damage per attack
Rank 4: 20 bonus damage per attack
Use: This passive allows Jungle Stalker to deal increasing damage to an opponent. Combined with Shred, this ability allows for quick bursts of damage. This ability is similar to Ursa's "Fury Swipes"
Animation: Targets affected by Eviscerate will have an animation be displayed over their heads.

Chameleon-Active *REWORKED (10/6/09)*
Description: The Jungle Stalker makes his home in the trees, and will wait in the treetops to ambush his prey. The ability targets a tree, which Jungle Stalker will then climb. While in the tree, Jungle stalker is invisible and can leap to enemy units. If tree Jungle stalker is hiding in is destroyed, he will be revealed.
JUNGLE STALKER MUST BE WITHIN 200 RANGE OF A TREE TO CAST CHAMELEON
Rank 1: 15 sec duration. Leap to units within 450 range, dealing a 1.5x critical strike
Rank 2: 20 sec duration. Leap to units within 500 range, dealing a 1.5x critical strike
Rank 3: 25 sec duration. Leap to units within 550 range, dealing a 1.5x critical strike
Rank 4: 30 sec duration. Leap to units within 600 range, dealing a 1.5x critical strike
Mana Cost: 80
Cast time: Instant invisibilty, 1 second once invisible to climb tree and prepare for leap
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Use: Similar to Lanaya (Templar assassin's) invisibility, the night stalker must stay in one position while invisible, making him extremely susceptible to AoE. He can use chameleon to set up traps and leap to quickly close the gap between him and his prey.
Animation: Jungle stalker Climbs up the tree in a spiral, and will wrap around the the tree. While leaping, the jungle stalker flies through the air, attacking his target with both claws.

Festering Fangs - Ultimate - Active
Description: Jungle Stalker briefly abandons attacking with his razor sharp talons and instead bites with his infectious jaws. Deals bonus damage with each attack based on Jungle Stalker's Current life for 15 seconds.
Rank 1: 4% of Jungle Stalker's current life in damage
Rank 2: 5% of Jungle Stalker's current life in damage
Rank 3: 6% of Jungle Stalker's current life in damage
Mana cost: 0
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Cast time: instant
Use: Amplifies jungle stalkers damage--more burst. A copy of Ursa warrior's ultimate "Enrage."
Animation: Jungle Stalker emits a terrifying shriek upon cast. Changes Jungle Stalker's attacks from claw attacks to biting for the duration of this ability.



Comments and suggestions are always appreciated!

SPECIAL THANKS (I'd like this list to grow larger):
Xtrykr

Changelog:
10/6/09: reworked the ability chameleon. It is no longer OP beyond reason. Also changed some of jungle stalker's description.
10/10/09: Removed the minor slow from shred. Aside from the damage reduction on eviscerate and the ability chameleon, Jungle Stalker is now more like his DotA counterpart Ursa. Changed visual description and announced upcoming update of pictures.
10/11/09: Increased the mana cost of Shred for balancing. Changed the story to the story in Xtrykr's feedback (MUCH APPRECIATED TY TY). Added "Special Thanks" section. Considering further reworking of chameleon to further balance this hero.

[PoopyDesires]

Basically a direct port with a minor, pretty OP change. Lothar's used to be core on ursa. There's a reason people whine about scout and this is just another one.

[Blot]

The tree walking power is To Powerful.
Its an insane escape mechanism letting you escape anyone even if the have dust/wards/eye. Adding this power to Ursa is sic and depraved you crazy crazy dude.

No, but seriously that wont work. If you really like the power I'm afraid you might have to kill your darling. It would be an insane advantage to have Only the tree walking ability.

Otherwise, who doesnt like Ursa? (except when he is raping you)
Good conversion of powers to a new concept.. I applaud you..

[dezi]

Ursa always aimed for Lothars to land his devastating hits. With this version he can go straightly to dps.

Rework plz - also the color :p

[Sunderpants]

Chameleon has been reworked. It is no longer beyond OP.

[Blot]

Hmm.. I like the improvement to the power. It makes some more sense now.
I like the concept of the power but I'm not sure if it is balanced.

[Sunderpants]

Any Suggestions on balancing Chameleon then? I'd like input on how the cooldown, mana cost, range, etc. could be changed to make this ability reasonable.

I'd also like to point out that Eviscerate deals only 80% of Ursa's Fury Swipes. I'd like to point this out that this was done with balance in mind.

[Xtrykr]

Hey man, gonna give you a hand and proof-read some of the story behind this hero as well as touch on some of the skills that you have mentioned:

Story (edited)
The jungles of Newerth hold many untold secrets. Rumor has that a group of explorers had ventured deep into the jungles, hoping to discover unimaginable treasures but more importantly, to unlock the mysterious powers that lay dormant deep beneath its surface. Instead, they unraveled something so terrifying that left all but one alive to tell of the story. Telling of the story by the lone survivor was not an easy task. When asked of what or who had killed all the explorers, he whispered in an unsure voice, "Stalker". Shortly thereafter, he had gone mad and never spoke of anything but that name.

Skills
Shred-Active (autocast optional) *REWORKED AS OF 10/10/09*
The skill definition is a bit inconsistent. If 3 attacks do 400% attack speed, then I assume that it equates to say 3 attacks are done in the same time frame of 1 attack (or roughly, maybe a bit less even since is 400%, not 300% - for level 1 of this skill that is). If that is the case, what is the point of having a duration of 15 seconds on this? Anyhow, i think this might be OP'd in that 3 attacks at level 1 in the span of 1 attack is a lot of damage especially with such a low mana cost. I would either up the mana cost, or reword the way the skill works. Its a good skill nonetheless to set the tone of this hero as a DD.

Eviscerate- passive
Looks good.

Chameleon-Active *REWORKED (10/6/09)*
The mechanics of this skill is very creative. I would up the mana cost a bit, thats about all.

Festering Fangs - Ultimate - Active
Balanced as it is imho.

Anyhow, this is one badass damage dealer. Might give Swiftblade some competition for early ganks. Only downside to this guy is he's so damage orientated, he might be a bit dependent on his team to do the disables. Good luck! :)

[Sunderpants]

Thanks for the feedback Xtrykr! I really liked your story, so i implemented it into jungle stalker's hero information. Furthermore, the mana cost of Shred has now been increased from 75 to 100 at max rank. Your contribution has been noted in the changelog :D.

On another note, I'd like public input on chameleon. I'm considering changing the crit to a 2-4 second slow. I think this will increase jungle stalker's ability to kill hero's on his own without the assistance of control. The leap would be similar to predators, only it would not deal any nuke damage and would apply the slow. This slow would also give him time to put up shred to quickly deal some damage during the slow. This gives jungle stalker the traditional melee agi's ability to stop an enemy--much like madman's barrel roll, predator's leap, sandwraith's dagger, and dark lady's slow+charging strikes to name a few.

[Svenski]

Mostly on the topic of Chameleon:

Having to depend on trees being around to use the leap might be annoying. Losing earthshock would make me QQ for AOE and slow (it made farming and early lane annoy much easier because of its low manacost and reasonable damage). I'd probably make a lothars regardless of the chameleon ability, so when a big team fight goes down it would be easy to initiate (Ursa was an amazing initiator since he was a health-stacking damage dealer).

Adding slow to the chameleon ability would be a good idea, but i feel that the fact that you need a tree nearby, a whole second to climb the tree, and then you can only leap a max of 600 range renders this ability very situational. The currently suggested 1.5 x crit on chameleon is a huge nerf compared to how good earthshock was.

I guess what I'm suggesting is... if you're gonna take away Earthshock, don't replace it with a fail version of blink strike. The idea fits the art concept really well, but I don't think it would be worth it in game.

[jinxk]

for chameleon, it's like you took lanaya's meld (which is what the skill was based on, no?) and nerfed it. meld dealt bonus dmg and reduced armor. chameleon only does a meager 1.5x crit.

here's the biggest nerf: lanaya could cast meld anywhere. chameleon has to be next to a tree.

my suggestion

1) jungle stalker is able to blend in with his surroundings (not just trees), so you can use this skill anywhere.

OR

2) if you're going to limit the use to be next to trees, why not take from KotF and be able to move while invisible when within 100 units of a tree. or make him just climb around on trees (animation wise. coding team would probably hate this). this wouldn't really be OP as you can only cast this on yourself (whereas KotF can cast invis on allies)

[volcan33]

yey ursa warrior :D
most op hero ever, but i like it xD

but.. i still think u gotta work on skills... its almost a 1:1 port x.x

[docterj208]

You had me at Ursa, you lost me when I realized it was a 1:.9999999999 port

[Wolfo]

I really lvoe ursa as a hero but i feel u've weakened him slightly and need to look at a few things here.

Basher stoped the damage stacking in dota... This should be an attack modifier of the same type as basher to prevent the two items being combined.

I would consider reducing the damage on the fury swipes as in dota he cannot have orb effects such as slow true lifesteal chain light etc etc etc. Being able to slow with Frostburn in this would make the spell incredible powerful, He should rely on his skills to make this happen not item.

The tree climbing skill is incredible underpowered if I got this right, Hes fixed to that "single tree" ? If so then there are so many counters, including hatchets, tangos etc good players will chop that tree before he can pounce down during that 1 second in the heat of a fight. And even when he does pounce down this skill has nothing on earthshock... Where is the immense slow? and high damage?... Okay I like the fact its scalable however I would definetly increase the crit, bear in mind he wont have any fury swipes stacked at this stage more then likley, his normal hits will be dealing more in 2-3 hits times then his intial crit.

He needs to cause a slow of some sort, Ursa is al about unleashing those swipes. I would rework the spell so that it causes an impact damage more like 3 on the crit from trees.

Also His ultimate is very similar to ursa's I agree. But being a chameloen rather then a big cuddly terrorbear i would recommend changing it as its such a simple concept.

You could use another statistic to increase his damage current mana prehaps, and increase his int gain and boost the manacost signnificantly on castable spells as he dont have mana, just to give it another twist. A more substainable bonus damage than with HP but also leaving him some strong counters such as puzzlebox which will destroy his mana bonus hp and invisability.

What you reckonz? :P