Critter Cage

[YEW]

Please, if you don't like this, don't simply vote it down. Also explain why you don't like it and any possible improvements.


So you decide to buy wards and place them to overlook bottom rune spawn. After a while, you check your mini-map and notice that all the enemies are missing and suspect that Kongor might be losing a banana soon. Your team entire team is 15 seconds away from his lair (flying courier on strike), so you want to confirm if they are there without wasting time should they not be there. If only you can move your ward.

Now introducing, the Critter Cage




Critter Cage

Gold Cost: 150
Mana Cost: 1
Upon Activation: Creates a Friendly Critter at current location with the model of a random critter.

1-time Consumable item
5 minute restock timer

It's not a T-Rex, but I still wouldn't stick my hands in there.

Friendly Critter

HP: 20
Mana: 0
Attack: N/A
Armor: 0/0
MS: 100
Vision: 700

Magic Immune (except critter spells)
Splash Immune
Immune to non-player controlled units (creeps, towers, etc)
Does not display allegiance to enemy heroes (will have a gray circle if selected by enemies instead of the normal red one)
Will not be attacked if player controlled units uses attack-move command


Skills

Hide and Seek [passive]

Aura
Radius: 700
Target: enemy Friendly Critter

All enemy Friendly Critters under this debuff aura will have their allegiance seen correctly, and may be attacked via attack-move command

Tag [activated]

Range: 150
Target: enemy Friendly Critter
Cool Down: 200 seconds

Dominate target Friendly Critter, giving the user control of it. The cool down of the dominated Friendly Critter is reset to 200 seconds.

Note: Friendly Critter can still be killed by issuing a "Attack" command (or right click) on the critter, even without the presence of the debuff

Change Log

April 17, 2010 Thread created
April 23, 2010 Added flavor text to Critter Cage

[GGreenBass]

I love it. Ordinary critter... or SECRET AGENT?!

Seriously though, I really do like this item- it's a consumable with a passive used to change the strategic side of potential battles. IMO I think a movable ward would seem OP, however I feel like this is executed flawlessly and while I can't imagine S2 making critters do this (idk why lol) I can't help but feel like this item was balanced by them.

Oo, and an interesting thing- instead of killing the critter, you COULD "steal" it.

[Zulukas]

So in short its just a courier-spell that places a ward that appears to be neutral to an enemy?

what kind of critter are we talking about? something that will be obvious, or will actually blend in (Like the frogs in the 5v5 map)

[YEW]

So in short its just a courier-spell that places a ward that appears to be neutral to an enemy?

Yeah. It more or less is a slow moving courier without item slots, very slow, and requires some awareness to find.

what kind of critter are we talking about? something that will be obvious, or will actually blend in (Like the frogs in the 5v5 map)

It's all the default critters in the game (lizard, frog, and the others if there are others). The item will spawn a random critter for the use.

[MADD411]

Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

[pandasgotgun]

if this was implemented i think changes would have to be made to critters. roaming ai added to the critters all over the place as well as more than just the frog and the lil bird that flys into the tree hero showing up on the lowest video settings. i may be mistaken about only the frog showing up on lowest settings but then again im not looking too hard for critters i cant kill.

[[JWS]Fol]

i vote yes simply cause i find it so funny

[[E]Starz0rz]

Interesting plan, but I think it'll be annoying. Stick to wards imo.

[[LC]Ajhacket]

When I first started reading this thread I was like wow that would be fun, didnt really take it seriously but as I got through to the rest of it I was like thats AWESOME.... not only would this give me something to do while I am playing but also when im dead.

The usage of this critter would actually be balanced, sure it might complicate things a little, more micro, more map awarness but those are all things we can do with becoming more proficient in.

Big yes from me.

Please take a second to check out my forum suggestions, links are in my signature.

[docterj208]

I think this would be more fun if you had to catch a critter first!

[GGreenBass]

Aww, wait it spawns a critter? I thought it converted them.. that would be more interesting, because then you'd have to go out and find one.

[YEW]

Well, I originally intended it to spawn a critter, mostly because the critters are pretty rare in locations (as of now, I only found 4 critter spots on the legion side, so possibly 8 total). Also, not all the critters appear to be there in every game. This would probably make finding critters more of a hassle then it's worth.

However, I can change it to the following if enough (2) people requests it

Gold Cost: 200
Mana Cost: 1
Upon Activation: If Critter Cage does not contain a charge, targeting a critter (neutral or enemy) will cause the critter to be removed from the map and adds a charge to Critter Cage and applies a 60 seconds cooldown before the item can be used again (time is needed to tame the Critter). If Critter Cage has a charge, it creates a Friendly Critter at current location with the model of the captured critter. Maximum of 1 charge.

Upon death, all charges in Critter Cage are reset back to 0.

All neutral critters within 1000 units of a hero carrying this item will have their location pinpointed on the map (similar to blood sense)

Also, I might change the Critter's critter domination skill to give a gold bounty higher than that if the critter was just killed (no bounty given if it was dominated via Critter Cage)