Astral Sentinel (Support/Harrassment)

[deathdawn]

This is a Ranged Int Support/Harrassment hero with a vivid visual description as well as a new and fresh perspective on the niches of Int heroes. It focuses on backdrop fighting, or fighting from a distance while still being able to support your team and harrass opponents even during late game.

What makes the Astral Sentinel different from most other Int heroes is that there are two totally different ways to play her. You can play her as a DPS character or a Support character.
Astral Sentinel

(Credit goes to =Luches for the stunning picture)
Speed: 300
Range: 600
Affiliation: Legion
Primary Stat: Int

Visual Design
As pictured above except that her armor would be lined with
streams of light, she would seem like she is constantly glowing.
Basically her armor would look like a mapping of the constellations.

Attack Animation
The Astral Sentinel pulls the bowstring to a proper angle and
lets loose the arrow in a noble fashion. The arrow is as seen
above, white and glowing without the electricity.

Death Animation
The Astral Sentinel falls down to one knee, one hand on her knee
the other on the ground. She looks up and dissipates into light.

Theme
The Astral Sentinel is based on an Archer that receives her
power from the stars. It reflects on her abilities and her
playstyle, mysterious and distant.

Story
With the power of the stars within their grasp The Astral
Sentinels seem to be a step above the humans. Their comrades
gape in awe as they unleash their powers while their foes
tremble with fear. And even though they are mysterious and
distant their powers are definitely welcomed by the Legion

Role
Her role is simple Attrition, the opponents will be forced to
initiate combat or suffer over a period of time. She is
extremely useful for defending and sieging.

She puts pressure on enemies by simply staying back
and destroying their health and mana pools.

This role is currently empty in HoN as heroes focus more on
killing the targets rather than sending them back to the
base. In other words she can be used as a pure harrasser
even at late game.

Stats
This hero will have a high agi gain, a high int gain and
a very low str gain.

Astral Presence

The Astral Sentinel carries with her the presence of the stars.
It causes units near her to feel the energy around them in a
different manner.

Passive
Aura, All Heroes
Radius: 600

Whenever a nearby allied unit casts a spell it has a 10/20/30/40%
chance to restore 25% of it's maximum mana. Whenever a nearby
enemy heroes cast a spell they have a 5/10/15/20% chance to
apply Astral Leak on themselves for 5 seconds.

Astral Presence has a 5/10/15/20% chance to trigger from Stellar
Infusion.

Astral Leak
Magical damage dealt by this unit is reduced by 20/30/40/50%

Summary:[Q]
1. 10% chance to restore 25% of maximum mana,
5% chance to trigger Astral Leak,
5% chance to trigger from Stellar Infusion.
2. 20% chance to restore 25% of maximum mana,
10% chance to trigger Astral Leak,
10% chance to trigger from Stellar Infusion.
3. 30% chance to restore 25% of maximum mana,
15% chance to trigger Astral Leak,
15% chance to trigger from Stellar Infusion.
4. 40% chance to restore 25% of maximum mana,
20% chance to trigger Astral Leak,
20% chance to trigger from Stellar Infusion.

Usage:
Astral Presence is used as a safeguard agaisnt some opponents,
it may also be used offensively in conjunction with her other skills.
It lets the Astral Sentinel continously cast her nukes and provides
a sense of attrition in a clash.

Balance:
During the early portion of the game it can prove to be very useful
because it lets the Astral Sentinel use her skills very often, other
than that it lessens the posibility of death through a continous use
of enemy nukes. During the later part of the game it can make
defending the base easier because there is normally a lapse in time
where people are just looking for an opening, during this part the
Astral Sentinel can continue to spam her spells.

Visual:
Astral Presence starts off with the Astral Sentinel glowing in a
very bright white light. After this all units affected by the Aura
are surrounded by small white particles of light. They would look
like very tiny orbs.
__________________________________________________

Celestial Shard

The Astral Sentinel imbues her arrow with the wrath of the stars,
She then quickly notches the arrow and sends it flying in whichever
direction she choses.

Active
Target Ground or Unit, Enemy Units
Type: Magic
Range: 1200
Radius: 200

Mana Cost: 110/130/150/170
Cooldown: 15/13/11/9

The Astral Sentinel fires a shot which travels a long distance which
eventually explodes when it comes in contact with the first target
it hits. The initial target hit will take initial damage. After first contact
a small explosion will go off burning mana from the initial target and
a smaller amount of mana from units around it.

The initial target of the Celestial Shard will have it's movespeed
slowed by 30% for 2/3/4/5 seconds.

If the Celestial Shard does not hit a unit it will explode at the end
of it's maximum Range. Celestial Shard will give vision while moving
and last until it hits.

Summary:[W]
1. 70 Mana Burn, 50 AoE Mana Burn, 30% slow for 2 seconds.
2. 120 Mana Burn, 80 AoE Mana Burn, 30% slow for 3 seconds.
3. 170 Mana Burn, 110 AoE Mana Burn, 30% slow for 4 seconds.
4. 220 Mana Burn, 140 AoE Mana Burn, 30% slow for 5 seconds.


Note:
The speed of the Celestial Shard is about as fast as Valkyrie's Javelin
of Light, It can be dodged.

Use:
Celestial Shard is fairly spammable due to it's cooldown, although to
balance it out it has a very high mana cost even for an int character.
It can be used for three purposes; to slow a target, to drain his mana,
or to damage the target.

Balance:
When compared to true nukes, Celestial Shard only does 240 damage
to a single target and 140 in an AoE. It also has pros and cons. It is
fairly spammable though and this evens out it's lack of power. It also
has a slow travel speed, about the speed of Valkyrie's Javelin of Light,
but unlike it; it has a short range of 900.

Visual:
The Astral Sentinel nocks her arrow into her bow, then she aims up
towards the sky where it begins to glow. White streams of steam raise
up from the Astral Sentinel as she is about to fire. The arrowtip glows
blue and as it hits the target it causes a small blue ripple of light around
the target.
__________________________________________________

Stellar Infusion

The Astral Sentinel's power comes from the stars. Occasionally
this power leaks and infuses the arrow she is about to fire.

Toggle-able
Active
Target Unit, Enemy Units

Mana Cost: 75
Cooldown: 3/2/1/0 Seconds.

The Astral Sentinel has imbues her arrows with the light of the
stars causing her to deal an additional 10/15/20/25% of her
base damage in magic damage over 3 seconds.

Summary:[E]
1. 10% additional magic damage over 3 seconds, 3 Second Cooldown
2. 15% additional magic damage over 3 seconds, 2 Second Cooldown
3. 20% additional magic damage over 3 seconds, 1 Second Cooldown
4. 25% additional magic damage over 3 seconds, 0 Second Cooldown

Note:
This will not affect magic immune targets; the Astral Sentinel will
fire, not cast the ability and lose no mana.

The DoT stacks but doesn't refresh. Which means that the damage
the target will take is constant but at a delayed rate

Use:
This ability is mainly used for harrassing, it fits into her Attrition
theme and can be used in combat as well. The most efficient way
of using this skill is to target multiple heroes with it and leaving
DoTs on them or stacking DoTs on one target then running.

Balance:
The damage multiplier isn't that high and it costs quite a lot of mana
for a toggleable ability. It won't ever add too much damage to an
attack; it's basically used for tricking opponents into fighting.

Visual:
When the Arrow hits the target it implodes in a flash of white light.
Lines of blue light spin around the target for the duration of the effect.
__________________________________________________

Cosmic Barrage


Silenis calls upon the power of the cosmos and unleashes a swift
barrage of energy infused arrows.

Active
Aoe/Target Ground/Target Unit, Enemy Units
Type: Magic
Range: 1000
Radius: 250
Cast Time: 1

Mana Cost: 250/300/350
Cooldown: 15/13/11 Seconds

The Astral Sentinel unleashes three sets of arrows at a target area.
Units caught in the area will take damage and lose mana. Each set
comes in pulses of .5 Seconds. Every set of arrows will apply 1 charge
of Cosmic Disruption for 8 seconds.

Cosmic Disruption
Unit loses 1.5/2/2.5 Magic Armor

Note:
The first set will arrive 1 second after the cast time;
(The sets have a flight time of 1 second)

Summary:[R]
1. 30 Magic Damage and 60 Mana Burn per Set.
(Maximum of 270 Damage and 180 Mana Drain)
Max of -4.5 Magic Armor.
2. 40 Magic Damage and 70 Mana Burn per Set.
(Maximum of 330 Damage and 210 Mana Drain)
Max of -6 Magic Armor.
3. 50 Magic Damage and 80 Mana Burn per Set.
(Maximum of 390 Damage and 240 Mana Drain)
Max of -7.5 Magic Armor.

Use:
The use of Cosmic Barrage may vary from wanting to deal damage, to
draining the opponent's mana pools to even lowering their magic armor.
It is a straightforward spell with versatile uses. Other than that the long
range of the skill brings out the flexibility of the hero.

Balance:
The damage of this skill is over a 1.5 second period, it is easy to walk
out of it. It is also fairly hard to aim due to the channeling aspect and
the delay of 1 second after the cast. It is however powerful if you do
get to land it, it also has a very heavy toll on a mana pool due to the
cooldown. It is also very weak if the opponent has no more mana, it
would hit for a total of 150 over 1.5 Seconds at level 3 if the opponent
has no mana.

The cooldown is very low for an ultimate that has this effect. This fits
with her fairly spammable theme. The mana cost of Cosmic Barrage is
very high and even with the short cooldown you won't see her spamming
it like theres no tomorrow.

Visual:
The Astral Sentinel raises one hand towards the sky and clenches her fist,
as she does this lights begin to swirl around her forming arrows, she then
takes up her bow and shoots and the arrows follow. When casting finishes
she can move around but more and more arrows are fired from in the same
fashion.

Synergy

__________________________________________________

Self Synergy
Her self Synergy is simple. It all boils down to the usage of Astral Presence
in conjunction with the other skills, it turns Celestial Shard and Cosmic Barrage
into spammable skills.

The next pairing of synergy would be Stellar Infusion with Cosmic Barrage.
Cosmic Barrage makes the DoT from Stellar Infusion hit harder increasing her
ability to deal damage to targets.

Synergy with Teammates
The main synergy of the Astral Sentinel to her team would be her Aura. It
helps a lot during clashes, hunts and retreats. She specializes in long fights.
By doing this she makes the opponents decide to initiate at once or they
lose mana and health at a slow and steady pace.

Mainly she can stay back and absorb mana while firing off Celestial Shard
and Cosmic Barrage at a constant rate, occasionally going up close to fire
off Stellar Infusion to a few targets.

__________________________________________________

Remember to Vote on the Concept!

Vote Yes!

Changelog:
09/28/09: Buffed the Values of Astral Presence
09/28/09: Lowered the Static Damage of Celestial Shard
09/28/09: Added a slowing effect to Stellar Infusion
09/28/09: Changed Mechanics to Cosmic Barrage
09/29/09: Reworked Mechanics of Stellar Infusion
09/29/09: Changed Icons for Skills.
09/30/09: Reworked Astral Presence
09/30/09: Tweaked values of Cosmic Barrage
09/30/09: Changed the concept of Stellar Infusion
09/31/09: Changed the He to a She *Gasp*
10/02/09: Reworded Celestial Shard and Cosmic Barrage
10/04/09: Changed Astral Presence
10/04/09: Tweaked values of other skills due to the change of Astral Presence.
10/05/09: Changed Stellar Infusion
10/10/09: Reduced slow of Celestial Shard from 40% to 30%
10/10/09: Changed the Magic Armor Reduction of Cosmic Barrage from 3/6/9 to 4.5/6/7.5
10/14/09: Changed the Astral Sentinel into an Int Character
10/14/09: Reworked Astral Presence
10/14/09: Reworked Stellar Infusion
10/14/09: Raised Mana Cost of Cosmic Barrage and Celestial Shard
10/20/09: Lowered Mana Cost of Stellar Infusion
10/26/09: Increased Range of Celestial Shard

[dezi]

Nice concept, only thing i would change after a quick view is the first spell. A slight increase in damage throughout the levels would be fine.

[deathdawn]

I dunno really I was thinking about that. What values would you suggest? My concern isn't the mana they spend because Nether ward was x1.5 of mana spent. But it's the difference of straightout burning the mana yourself.

[Skyve]

First skill doesn't state how much mana the enemies lose. Personally, I'd make it the mana counterpart of Soulreapers life degeneration aura (it reduces affected enemies health by 0.4/0.6/0.8/1% per second within a 1000 AoE). So you could make it 0.4/0.6/0.8/1% mana lost. Though I would still make it an active all the time, since it is a really strong ability early on, to deny the enemy their mana, though I'd make it cost 2/1.5/1/0.5% of Astral Sentinels mana per second, so it only scales with increased mana regen, but not with increased manapool.

2nd skill seems fine.

3rd is okay I guess, though it's neither a support, nor a good ability for a carry. It would be great if this could be a hold or something, so she is able to place her Ultimate better, and get in all the hits.

The Ultimate seems fine, and I wouldn't complain about it.

Okay, now that I read the Ultimate, I also understand why there was no mana lost by enemies stated. The way the first skill is now, it should probably get the damage dealt per mana point lost up to at least 0.75 or 1 damage per mana point lost.

Hm... for some reason I can't vote on the hero :/

[Xigbar1]

I think you should scale up the damage on the first skill up to 1.0 magic damage per mana lost (like Skyve said)
Second skill is good
Third skill is fine but a bit underpowered i think, 48 damage every 20% attacks are not much (and aoe damage is really low)
I dont understand 2 things: while he channels he must stand still? and also the true duration of the spell is 2 seconds? If it's like this it's underpowered.

[deathdawn]

I think you should scale up the damage on the first skill up to 1.0 magic damage per mana lost (like Skyve said)
Second skill is good
Third skill is fine but a bit underpowered i think, 48 damage every 20% attacks are not much (and aoe damage is really low)
I dont understand 2 things: while he channels he must stand still? and also the true duration of the spell is 2 seconds? If it's like this it's underpowered.

If i Up the mana lost to 1. then his arrow will hit for 320 and 140 AoE and mana drain too.

Maybe I should change it to .08? .5/.6/.7/.8?

And yes channeling he must stand still. The range is fairly long on the ulti and it burns a lot of mana and does a lot of damage, especially if i tweak the aura. how do you suggest i change it?

Edit: I did some tweaks increasing the mana aura thing. Also tweaked his Celestial Shard to do similar damage even with the increase of mana damage

Also changed a bit of stellar infusion. it now slows.

[oSoM]

I really dig your concept and presentation.

1st skill is nice, gives him a good synergy with his other skills. Maybe up the dmg/mana lost values to 0.6/0.7/0.8/1.0 or something.

I think that his ultimate may lose a lot of power later on. This skill is IMO too weak for a channeling spell, especially since you are supposed to carry... let it rather be an instant cast on an area, then after a short delay the arrows arrive (just like nymphoras pod), while in the meantime you are free to move and attack.

[deathdawn]

I see I'll look into that, thanks for the feedback if i change it to 1.0 though.. if a hero like pyromancer casts blazing strike for 600 mana he'll take 600. lol. It's what im trying to prevent. everyone dying to the aura.

[oSoM]

I see I'll look into that, thanks for the feedback if i change it to 1.0 though.. if a hero like pyromancer casts blazing strike for 600 mana he'll take 600. lol. It's what im trying to prevent. everyone dying to the aura.

I guess you are right. Maybe you can give it a cooldown. For example every 20 seconds you can activate it, and it lasts 5 seconds. just like predators stone hide.

[deathdawn]

That'd be too weak then. I did however raise it to .8 Which should make it balanced.
I also tweaked the ultimate in the direction you said. It's more fluid now and less luck based. It's faster paced as well. Not channeling but cast time.

Edit: Changed the concept of Astral Presence into dealing different multipliers depending if the mana was drained or spent. Changed the ulti and values of some skills. Thanks for all the feedback guys.

[[Qrt]Shinta]

I really like these skills, especially the first one. T-up.

[SunTzu_]

I like the hero,seems like he is usable in many sorts of ways

[NoahRose]

i like this hero a lot, but i can't vote for it!
personally i think this character may be more interesting as a girl (as a guy i would rather watch a girl run around the battle field than a guy) but speaking solely concept wise i love the concept and want to try playing this character, but i can't vot e "yes" for some reason

[deathdawn]

Not sure if voting is fixed now the gender doesn't really matter anyways s2 has control over everything later on.

[docterj208]

I voted yes.... but I think this should be an int hero....

[deathdawn]

Just trying to make him unique Also she's supposed to be a different kind of carry using magic damage from her passive. I was thinking about it but I thought making him int would make him too weak.

[sailorpallas]

first skill may want to be changed from magic damage to just pure dmagae as magic damage can be easily negated and make that skill less useful

also maybe bump up the damage on it, soulreaper does 1% per second and end game it isn't as noticible because of the health regen people can have going on

[deathdawn]

first skill may want to be changed from magic damage to just pure dmagae as magic damage can be easily negated and make that skill less useful

also maybe bump up the damage on it, soulreaper does 1% per second and end game it isn't as noticible because of the health regen people can have going on

Ahh. Which one should I bump up? They take .5 damage for every mana point lost, meaning if pyromancer uses blazing strike at lvl 3 he already takes around 300+ It's fairly harsh because it affects the whole team. I think I will bump up the damage of the mana drained though, thanks for the feedback.

Don't forget to vote

[[GR]Rentaromon]

a intesting hero thow the theme is a little over played.

1st: a toggalable power that drains mana over time but damages enemys for mana drained, plus spells mana used will also set it off. a nice little damage buffer.

2nd: not much damage but the slow and mana drain would be helpfull.

3rd: a good passive, does it work on spells like 2nd?

ulti: so every hero in area will be shot by arrows, and be drained of helath and mana a good power for heroes with low mana polls.

overall its a real good magic archer.

A idea to make it better: this guy is gona spend mana like here is no tommoro, and he destroyes enemys mana. maybe add a way to take some of that mana, or maybe burn enemys for that mana?

[deathdawn]

a intesting hero thow the theme is a little over played.

1st: a toggalable power that drains mana over time but damages enemys for mana drained, plus spells mana used will also set it off. a nice little damage buffer.

2nd: not much damage but the slow and mana drain would be helpfull.

3rd: a good passive, does it work on spells like 2nd?

ulti: so every hero in area will be shot by arrows, and be drained of helath and mana a good power for heroes with low mana polls.

overall its a real good magic archer.

A idea to make it better: this guy is gona spend mana like here is no tommoro, and he destroyes enemys mana. maybe add a way to take some of that mana, or maybe burn enemys for that mana?

Thanks for the feedback rentaromon. Do you think it would be okay for her to drain mana with her ulti? Meaning that all the mana drained will go to him?

I gave the Ulti a way to get back mana, the numbers vary on how well you place the Ulti, you could get almost nothing back or you could get more mana than what you paid for.