Lieutenant Sozen

[GtGW]

Looking at Sozen's role as a chaser I find that his ability resolve does NOT contribute very much on the move considering when he makes an attack, he'll stop momentarily. Secondly, with the armor reduction caused by boots, Sozen becomes more fragile if he attempts to gain the movement speed to catch opponents. Thirdly, his life is dependent on mana and therefore other support heroes are incapable of protecting Sozen should his Reserves be depleted.

What I propose is attempting a little test with Sozen's Resolve by making it into an aura that applies to enemies:

Fusion Core: (Passive, Aura)

(Affects Enemy Units and Enemy Heroes)
Lvl1: Drains 1 mana per second
Lvl2: Drains 2 mana per second
Lvl3: Drains 3 mana per second
Lvl4: Drains 4 mana per second
Lvl5: Drains 5 mana per second

(At all levels, the mana drained is doubled against enemies suffering a condition)

This would give Sozen somewhat more survivability in combat considering Resolve more often then not requires getting up close and personal, and against the likes of something like Dagurnott, the mana drain from Resolve won't work very well to prevent Dagurnott from Stunning Sozen. Whereas with this new alternative, Sozen can retain his high mobility.

Considering this only takes effect around enemies, Sozen is given more incentive to seek out enemies with mana pools to deplete and therefore can contribute more in a fight (And since it applies to multiple enemies) makes Sozen even more valuable on the field of battle.

Of course this is only a suggestion, feel free to share any thoughts, positive or negative, but this somewhat amplifies Sozen's Condition interaction.

(Also Discharge would benefit from something along the lines: Damage output is increased by X% when Sozen is suffering from a condition) This would somewhat make up for the double-edged sword that Sozen wields, considering many heroes introduced with new conditional applications can dance circles around Sozen, e.g. Meridia and her Mute Arrows. With permamute, Sozen would be forced to lose all his mana, so quite possibly this might take some tactical consideration on what conditions should be thrown at Sozen much in the same manner Dagurnott is considered (Blind, Maim, Cripple, Knockdown).

[StyrofoamBoots]

Secondly, with the armor reduction caused by boots, Sozen becomes more fragile if he attempts to gain the movement speed to catch opponents.

The damage applied to Sozens manabase is actually affected by armor?

[GtGW]

Yes, as the Mana Shield skill on Sozen redirects damage from his life to his mana, therefore any loss in armor INCREASES physical damage against him. Dusk has already clarified this, not to mention, why would Ruin be applied during Mirage? Its a balance between a 75% evasion and a -10 armor reduction.

[Phox]

Dusk has stated that Sozen will get a buff in the next version.

As for your idea, it's alright, I suppose, but not everything has mana in the game and it makes the move very difficult to get much out of in an environment in which there aren't a large number of enemy heroes.

[Oxygen]

5 mana per second is really weak, even 10 is, and unless you really work your numbers, I highly doubt I'd take that over resolve ( and I'm not a resolve fan at all ).

I know about Sozen's buff; Resolve will be 16/20/24/28/32 ( doubled by condition ) and reserves will have a 45 or 60 second cooldown, depending on how dusk feels.

You should base yourself on that if you're trying to improve him.

I know he's a chaser hero, I always play him with full mana, but some other people, such as 2p, love the resolve spell, and will go for attack speed. There's more than a way of playing him, and I learned this at my own risk. Resolve gives him another way of being played, and dusk once said that if there was only a way to play a hero, then that hero wasn't well made. Sozen has good damage and attack speed, and what you suggest would make it useless, and push players into a single style of play.

[Rising_Dusk]

I love Resolve so much. That is quite possibly the best way to shut down Maltheron or to really mess up a good Glasse' balance (Unless you're blind, then RUN! xD). I also love it against Dagurnott, no, no he can't use shockwave. :p

And yeah, Resolve's problem was that it didn't scale valuably. 5 mana at level 1 is negligible at best.

[GtGW]

Glad to hear that Sozen is getting a little buff up considering I felt with the advent of new heroes he might be outclassed since it is a team game after all. And Sozen has somewhat limited support for him from allies, but offers a great deal of support to his allies (Being a chaser and partial tank).