Blighter, the Flesh-Bound Machine

[Hydrolisk]

(1) Proper Name: Blighter
(2) Title: Flesh-Bound Machine
(3) Primary Attribute: Strength
(4) Role: Siege
(5) Allegiance: Bane
(6) Notes: Remake/retooling of Blighter from the old forum.

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Story

Shortly before the total outbreak of the war within the Desert of Exile, an elite squad of Bane saboteurs had infiltrated and stolen key items and general supplies from a mysterious and heavily guarded encampment of the Hallowed Order, isolated by sand in one of the hottest parts of the Desert. Though they had suffered heavy casualties, the prize of the raid was theirs. One of the items retrieved was a blueprint for a great war machine, a behemoth that might have even challenged the mass of Dagurnott. Seizing this opportunity, Bane engineers redesigned it with heavy support from several Council members and eventually constructed a unique abomination that would rent the Order with their own dead.
. What they had constructed was a machine like no other. It looked only like a mass of wiry steel with arms set on top of the legs of a spider at first. But when the Council members finished it, a hundred dead soldiers had been infused to the skeleton of steel. The final output was a huge behemoth, a giant semi-sentient machine united with the flesh, bone, and muscle of men and Bane alike.
. The thing was christened “Blighter,” and had the unique ability to take any part of any creature and absorb and infuse it into its mass (Corrupt Marriage). It had the accuracy and mercilessness of a machine, but with the strength and capacity for self-improvement as a living organism. Thus, it was able to strike down anything with the momentum of a machine yet with the ferocity of a man (Crushing Force). To power such an entity however, required it to burn anything on hand as fuel, including its own organic matter. When its blast furnace technology was overworked, it caused rapid loss of flesh and fuel but the machinery increased its pace (Crematory Blast Furnace). Seeing the Blighter’s finished proportions, the Council members had blessed it with unholy sentience, and allowed it to charge recklessly into assault and spearhead sieges. It wreaked havoc and broke bones, preventing struggle (Overdriven Pile Driver).
. All accounted for, the Blighter was an atrocity so convulsively disgusting and terrifying that the sheer sight of it on the battlefield was enough to drive soldiers of the Bane and Order into insanity. Perhaps the Bane suffered more from this horrific monster because it was so close to them that they could smell the stench of decay and rotting flesh, the aromas seeping out of the Blighter. But without doubt, whenever a scream came from the Blighter’s silence, the spines of those around would melt.

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(1st Skill) – Crushing Force
Spell Type: Active, Nuke
Target Type: Enemy Units or Structures
Description:

• Deals 30/60/90/120/150 damage to target unit and enemy units near target. Knocks down target unit for 2/3/3/4/4 seconds. If target is a structure, damage dealt is increased by 50%.
  If the target unit was suffering from Cripple, this skill is automatically cast a second time against it but Cripple is transferred to Blighter at half its current duration.

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(2nd Skill) – Crematory Blast Furnace
Spell Type: De-/Activated, Self Buff
Description:

• Every second while active, Blighter loses 2 Strength but gains 3/5/7/9/12 extra damage and 7/9/11/13/15% increased attack speed. All stats return to their original states at the same rate as they increased after deactivation.
  This skill automatically deactivates if Blighter’s Strength goes below 12/14/16/18/20, or if this skill has been active for over 20 seconds.

NOTES:

• Deactivates automatically
  The stat bonuses/subtractions stack, but the increased attack speed does not stack on itself in the style of 15% of 100%, and then 15% of that. It stacks as: (15%(100%))*# of sec active in total.

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(3rd Skill) – Overdriven Pile Driver
Spell Type: Active, Area Disable
Target Type: Point Target
Description:

• Charges towards target point. Enemy units caught in Blighter’s path are brought with him to his destination. Once Blighter reaches its destination, it deals 100/140/180/220/260 damage to nearby enemy units and causes them to be Maimed for 2/4/5/7/9 seconds. Structures struck by this skill will take half of the stated damage.

NOTES:

• Uses AoE targeting circle (R=~250), cast range of about 700, +/- of 100. The charge itself only brings enemies with Blighter, and the Maiming and damage only occurs at the destination. Structures, however, will take damage during the charge as well as the landing time. However, structures being dealt whole damage should not be possible; a minimum cast range should be implemented at about 250. Makes logical sense, too.

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(Ultimate) – Corrupt Marriage
Spell Type: Passive, Self-Buff
Description:

• For every kill that Blighter makes, he gains 4/6/8 extra Strength and 1/2/3 extra armour. Each bonus from a kill lasts for 60/75/90 seconds.

NOTES:

• If two kills were made at times 10 and 20, then at level 3, the kills’ bonus would last until times 100 and 110.

[LightburneR]

Personally, I think there are a few things that would stop me from playing this hero.

Crematory Blast Furnace is counter-functional to his role as a Sieger. Why would I want to lose STR whilst Sieging? Granted, it does give damage and ATKSpd which allows for quicker Sieges, but at the cost of survivablity? You're more than likely to get nuked to death quicker than you attack.

Crushing Force is simply forced to work to his role as a Sieger.

I don't exactly get Overdriven Pile Driver. In usage.

Corrupt Marriage is cool.

[Hydrolisk]

You don't see my synergy, do you?

Crushing Force makes sense. If you think it was forced into the Siege role, it would definitely be because of the "50%+ against structures." Just think of it as "It's super effective!"
Crematory Blast Furnace is a suicidal attack. However, I've seen a lot of synergy in thought experiment models, numbers included. Once you have your ultimate, Crematory Blast Furnace is beefed up mightily. All you have to do is kill a bunch of soldiers for the ultimate's bonus to negate CBF's negative effects and during the calm when the enemies are dead, you strike at structures. You speed up the kill process with Crushing Force, and you can initiate the kill process with OPD. OPD causes incapacitation for an easy kill process while the towers hammer at you and your forces.
OPD is used for initial incapacitation, and should probably have a buffed duration.
Considering this, CF becomes a dynamic tool for both single target damaging and sieging when there are no units to incapacitate.

I'm going for a momentum-based Hero. I've even tried to factor in game time, in terms of when heavy sieging begins. I've rolled around a lot of stuff in my head, too. I cannot see a lack of answers to the problems you have presented. I'm still rolling it all around in my head though, and the only problem that I see is with the all-out nuke-vs.-Blighter tactic. That is semi-answered by not using CBF, and semi-answered by staying in the back.

Again, this is a momentum-based Hero. He can lead a siege (with OPD), but needs some team or creep support to help tank. He can hold his own, but only for so long as he can quickly reduce enemies into pulp for his ultimates bonus. He can even aid with Hero-killing, considering his Knockdown time with CF. But all considered, he's still a momentum-based Hero that cannot depend entirely on himself; every unit that is backing him up is exponentially increasing his value.

So yeah, momentum-based Hero. Thanks for your constructive criticism. I am still noting your comments, but I need a little more support on your side's argument for me to change anything to fix what you have said.

[Hydrolisk]

I have bumped this in hopes of getting more feedback for this remake of a past Hero.

[Black_Heart]

I actually like him, although the title (and to a lesser degree the name) don't quite work for me. Not sure exactly what to replace them with, but... I don't know, they just don't sound quite natural to me.

Still, I do like his skills. CBF does have good synergy with his ult, as you pointed out. I do have one question, though: It isn't completely clear, but can CBF be deactivated manually or only by his strength going below those values/20 seconds running out?

[SetaSoujirou]

Hai thar imba ultimate. Good 'ole 160 life, 8 damage, and life regen per kill. Don't forget 3 armor.
And if you don't like his -survivability +sieging power, Ginther's Ravage must make you want to rape your eye sockets.

[Rising_Dusk]

If you actually need all of that text to describe these abilities, then they are far too complicated. Additionally, I find the skill names and hero theme as a whole rather uninspired and dull. I mean, really, Overdriven Piledriver?

If the target unit was suffering from Cripple, this skill is automatically cast a second time against it but Cripple is transferred to Blighter at half its current duration.

That is an awful interaction. Surely you can come up with something better than that.

The ultimate is kind of cute, it has potential. On the whole, though, the hero really lacks intelligible condition interaction. I also really dislike the idea that he pulls people he hits with him. Positioning is an incredibly valuable thing in the world of DoE, and so easy a mover like that is far too overpowered as a level 1 skill. I also really dislike how the third skill deals less damage to a structure, I find that mechanic annoying at best. I also dislike how the second skill and ultimate counteract each other. I would never choose the second skill early on because strength means max life, and max life means survivability. Regardless if I became ripped and had massive damage, if I had -40 strength I think the hero would likely die in at most 2 hits to creeps.

And if you don't like his -survivability +sieging power, Ginther's Ravage must make you want to rape your eye sockets.

You're right, it does. And yes, before you ask, it's redone in 3.00.

[Hydrolisk]

Damn, I think I repeated the exact same mistakes that I had done last time around. I feel as if I'm getting nowhere. Dram it.

If you would not mind, would anybody else like to review The Collect? I'm about to update the Hero, but I need slightly more feedback so I can make a functional update.

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As a response to the feedback:

I feel as if people still think that the bonuses from the ultimate lasts forever. They do not (literally, at least).
CBF can also be deactivated manually; those values are only for buffers/fail-safes.
A mistake I often make is that I give an ability too many effects or I design it to be too complicated. This flaw seems to hit me every time, and not just when I make Heroes.
The nuke with the Cripple interaction was pretty bad, wasn't it? Originally, it worked with knockdown and Cripple but that old version was a monster.
I had reused the old ultimate and reworked it slightly. I still seemed to have flopped on the rest, though.
I see your point with positioning. I would remove it, although it probably wouldn't be worth the effort. I dunno.
The less damage to structures is annoying? Hm, I see. Are you annoyed with this aspect on a whole within DoE or just when it comes into play with this Hero?
Well, the ultimate and the second skill are supposed to work in tandem to create a synergy but with a slight net effect on the Strength. Ultimately, the ultimate is supposed to be used to build up Strength to be expended in the second skill, and only until a reasonable point (such as when you reach your original Strength). Thus, it was supposed to work out that the entirety of the effects would cause a much more devastating effect on enemies.

[SetaSoujirou]

I never said your ultimate was permanent... although it's extremely easy to kill a mass of units for that bonus, which evidently is very powerful.