[2.5.12] Revenant

[Nictuku]

Revenant has seen virtually no competitive play. The misconception that this hero revolves around stealth predisposes competitive players to ignore him. I think that people will eventually see the light and that within a year he will be a top pick or ban.

Let's talk about the obvious first -- his stealth.

1) Sets up early ganks like no other ability.
2) Excellent escape mechanism.
3) Built-in, stacking -AR.
4) Allows gankers to bypass wards of sight, including himself.

Unlike NHs ult, for example, Revenant's Essence Shroud comes into play earlier, can be cast on allies and has a *powerful* secondary effect. Yes, it is countered by the standard anti-invis items, but it's far less of an issue because of the above factors.

But people tend to ignore his other two abilities, both of which are extremely potent.

A) Defile

When cast on yourself at level 2, two auto-attacks do ~1/3 - 1/2 of a heroes total HP, AND slows by a whopping 40%. The ability also somewhat scales with your auto-attack, and since it combines the damages it continues to deal some absurd damage throughout the game.

Casting this buff on three heroes with your rank 3 ult gives an extra 690 magic damage over the course of two auto-attacks. It's really bursty.

B) Mortification

Casting this debuff on an enemy allows magic damage to do obscene damage, while doing damage of it's own. Spread this to three targets, all overlapping, does some gross AoE damage while simultaneously enabling other AoE (or single target) magic damage to do more, including Defile.

All in all, a great support who doesn't need items to function well, yet works very well as a semicarry.

Thoughts?

[[eR]Ekamo]

Approved.

[[RCT]Reldnahc]

Versatile and could fit into a lot of lineups. I don't know what he's ignored.

[GregerMoek]

I think he's just undiscovered. I think that his stealth is his weakest skill.

His concept is kind of cool in my opinion, it's like... He carries through buffing others. He wants levels but similar to Jeraziah (although offensive instead of defensive) he shines when buffing other heroes.

I think we'll just need to give him time before he gets picked up. Just like with the Kraken rework.

[[IaF]Skyve]

He seems to suffer primarily from being different.

[[BRO]Bohrain]

He is more of a semicarry rather than a support.
The reason for this is that he is probably the most level dependent hero in game. He can be used as a babysitter due to his Q harass and E invis, but it hurts his gold and exp gain. Using him as a hard support doesn't pay off, since he doesn't have strong disables.
His real damage potential peaks when he hits lvl 11, but the problem is that people generally want heroes that have good utility all game. That's why Revenant is kinda ouclassed by heroes like Hag in terms of ganking power and heroes like Torturer in terms of pushing and counterpushing.

[Momo]

Requires XP. Doesn't have survivablitity to solo 2v1. Doesn't have rune control to solo mid. When you make all 3 abilities core to a hero that excels early game it's just going to hurt them overall.

[Stickyrolls]

Completely agree. This hero is amazing but kind of needs to be picked around with great synergy to be super effective. Favorite lineup I have run him in is zeph, kraken, and tundra on the same team. Tundra ults the poor person to lock down, kraken comes out of stealth for even more -armor, and zephyrs ult with mortification is obscene along with krakens ult.

[man_guy]

Level 1 of his ultimate is his biggest problem IMO I can't think of a worse one.

[Imjelly]

Level 1 of his ultimate is his biggest problem IMO I can't think of a worse one.

I think this is the biggest culprit, Rev ideally hits effectiveness at level 11 when he can invis himself + team mate. I think he should get the nymphora treatment (allow him to invis/buff 0/1/2 to 1/2/3) then nerf the other skills accordingly to compensate. Other than that he's got a great range/attack animation and is quite flexible in most line ups.

[Tripping]

Ive played him a fair bit recently, and love it. Really fun to play, good job in creating it.

One thing I dislike, is the long cooldown on invis. I know if the CD was simply reduced, he would almost become too strong, so perhaps a mana increase for the move?

I wouldn't touch his other moves or his balance atm would be lost

[Sanerem]

I love playing Revenant; he's easily my favorite hero. I find his only issue is that Essence Shroud does have a rather long cooldown, I occasionally find it very hard to survive if I Essence Shroud -> Defile -> Gank and if the gank goes sour, I rarely get away alive.

I don't mind the level 1 ultimate not adding an additional target to his spells. I think taking advantage of being able to add the -armor of Essence Shroud when he is ganking with Defile or Mortification to be enough for level 6.

Other than invis having a bit too long of a CD, I find no problem with him. I enjoy no hero more, heck, I found him worth 650 silver.

[Irysa]

MSI used him a few times last year as the "suicide" dual lane support vs trilanes. Afaik Nova played it with Trixi on Pebbles or Kraken or something similar.

I'd have to agree that the need of his level 2 ultimate kinda limits his capability a lot though

[Nictuku]

I'd have to agree that the need of his level 2 ultimate kinda limits his capability a lot though

It's not a need. It's a bonus.

Besides, he shouldn't be played as support. He's a roamer, a ganker, and a semi-carry. Playing him as a support - to a Pebbles, no less - is wasting his potential. The only things limiting his capacity are the people who are playing him incorrectly.

[pechkin]

problem - braindead competitive scene.

[[813]Quillenator]

he works incredibly well with other gankers, rev/ramp team up is down right nasty and wins a game easy

[Synchronize]

his stealth is not so reliable on escaping, also he is considered ultiless at level 6.
His stealth requires something better or original then simple -1234 armor break.

[Lariatoooo]

problem - braindead competitive scene.

this

[[TGCH]n00buaddib]

Don't touch my Revenant.

Although I agree ulti seems a little lackluster at lvl 6, the hero overall is fun to play and I feel quite strong.

[[L1ON]WwD]

ive found him to be an excellent roaming support early on, once you get level 2 for the slow.