Malchezaar, Entropist

[Oxygen]

Malchezaar
Entropist
Primary Attribute: Intelligence
Team: Bane

Level 1 Skill:
Chaos Bolt

• The caster unleashes a slow moving and arching projectile which deals physical damage to foes near its point of impact. Burns struck foes that are suffering from a condition. No cooldown if the caster is suffering from a condition.

Level 1 Skill:
Lava Coil

• Whenever target unit takes physical damage, nearby foes take magickal damage and have ruin extended on them.

Level 1 Skill:
Doom

• Aura. Whenever a burning unit dies, an Infernal is created from its ashes.
  
  Infernals are ranged units which deal light chaos type damage. They have Permanent Immolation, which inficts burn for one second every second on foes adjacent to them.

Level 6 Ultimate:
Pandemonium

• Applies a random condition to self and all nearby foes.

[TheDeathstalker]

Hrm, so I really like Soul Tap and, if I'm understanding it right, Chaos Bolt has some fun to it, but they seem to be at a disconnect with the last two skills (other than spamming the hell out of Chaos Bolt before using the Ult to thoroughly screw an area, which may very well be the point... especially with that ruin... ... ...). Either way the 3rd skill doesn't seem to flow very sussinctly with the others, other than giving Malchezaar another condition to have out to catalyze Soul Tap, but I'm sure that can be done in a more interesting way. Otherwise, fun hero, if a little dependent upon your opponent being slow and stupid, but that's how it goes, I guess.

[Rising_Dusk]

I am not sure that I like Soul Tap. I am heavily averse to removing conditions from enemies, especially because of its ability to totally screw allies over left and right who put a lot of effort into applying those conditions. I also am not really a fan of volcano. Volcano is such a silly looking spell, and it'd really look just like the melee ability on the Firelord. Not sure if that really tickles me the right way.

I do really like Doom, though, but I think the way you did it could be vastly improved.
Doom

• Aura.
  Whenever a nearby unit dies while burning, an infernal is spawned from its ashes that lasts 60 seconds. Infernals burn nearby enemies for 3 seconds each second.

In this way, it totally creates chain reactions of infernal spawns. I think that would be a lot cooler than the target unit effect. It'd also be nice if maybe you had some means to burn elsewise, perhaps with the ultimate (you have it as volcano now, could work) or otherwise.

Chaos bolt is a nifty skill. It's simple, effective, and I can appreciate the spammability.

[Oxygen]

Soul tap is the way it is because I had initially planned to also give infernals a weaker version of Chaos Bolt; you'd give them conditions, such that it would have no cooldown, and you could have 3-4 units, in addition to the hero, spamming chaos bolts, but I figured that I was a little too far stretched (AND RETARDEDLY STRONG). I'll see what I can do, I like the chaos-y theme thing.

[Rising_Dusk]

I'm not quite sure I like the idea of infernals spamming spells just because on principle it'd be very hard to manage as a player.

[Oxygen]

I'm not quite sure I like the idea of infernals spamming spells just because on principle it'd be very hard to manage as a player.

Hence why I removed it

Also remade the hero.

[Soul_Reaver]

'No cooldown, if' is starting to get boring. :S

[Rising_Dusk]

Why? It's only used on one hero in DoE thus far. The "line spell" mechanic has been used nearly a dozen times, but people don't complain that that's getting boring.

[Oxygen]

'No cooldown, if' is starting to get boring. :S

I dare you name 3 different heroes which use this mechanic. Don't forget that the 100's of heroes being theorized here, despite perhaps using this mechanic, aren't actually in game. It doesn't matter if it's unoriginal because everybody does it, if it isn't (or limitedly) in game and properly fits the hero, then so be it.

Only Dis uses it, by the way

[Soul_Reaver]

That many is just enough.

It fits Dis because it's costing to spam it with zero cooldown, because eventually you'll kill yourself spamming it.

A 'zero cooldown if' ability that only uses mana would simply make the hero a 'burst damage in seconds then head back to fountain to regain mana' style hero.
And that is boring.

Or correct me if I'm wrong and show me how that would own.

[TheDeathstalker]

Soul, if you've got somethin better, I'd love to hear. Just saying a skill don't work doesn't really cut it. Maybe there could be some cost, like, I dunno, having a condition on you or something, but at the same time, it *works* as it is right now, because it flows seamlessly into Soul Tap--- Scratch that, remake. Lemme read for a bit...

Hrm, interesting thing you did here Oxy. I like the potential of Chaos Bolt and Lava Coil, like, there's some real fun to be had there, especially if Lava Coil is spammy, or at least persistant enough to where if you get two or three idiots with it standing nearby, bad things happen. Doom likewise is good, just to add to the flow of the battle around him, but there are two main faults I take with the hero as he stands. First, he doesn't seem to be able to apply a single condition outside his ultimate without some help (not a huge problem, but it kinda locks up any real flow, or even power in his other skills. A simple, simple opener for this would be take a page from Ev, and give Doom the ability to extend some condition on attack (Burn, in all likelihood, whoo stupid but effective synergy). But the other point, and one I can point you to at least one, if not more arguments over, is the use and quality of applying random conditions. There's a lot that randomly applying conditions can do, but at the same time, it's a complete gamble. Every other aspect of this hero is difficult, challenging, but by no means is it roulette. While I hate to do what I just told SoulReaver not to do, I don't really have a better idea just yet, but I'll think about it, because there is a lot going on with this hero, I like the potential for a difficult but rewarding hero... I'll be thinking...

[Oxygen]

First, he doesn't seem to be able to apply a single condition outside his ultimate without some help (not a huge problem, but it kinda locks up any real flow, or even power in his other skills. A simple, simple opener for this would be take a page from Ev, and give Doom the ability to extend some condition on attack (Burn, in all likelihood, whoo stupid but effective synergy). But the other point, and one I can point you to at least one, if not more arguments over, is the use and quality of applying random conditions.

I don't want to give him a direct access to a condition (outside the ult, more about that later) because when that happens, that's exactly where he happens to be strong and sustainable.

There's a lot that randomly applying conditions can do, but at the same time, it's a complete gamble. Every other aspect of this hero is difficult, challenging, but by no means is it roulette.

I WANT it to be a roulette, in this case. The hero's theme is chaos, and crippling/muting/whatevering everyone, randomly, within 800 range is something quite amazing. Even more so for this hero, since directly applying a condition is his "weakness", and the ult allows him to bypass this "weakness" initially to the point where Infernals can sustain his cycle.

Or even, once the cycle is over and you've got a bunch of infernals, cripple / ruin / focus fire everything to oblivion, etc. That'd be strong, though fun, once in a while, to do, and it happens if you score an aoe cripple or mute at the right point in time

[Rising_Dusk]

A 'zero cooldown if' ability that only uses mana would simply make the hero a 'burst damage in seconds then head back to fountain to regain mana' style hero.
And that is boring.

Notice that Distruction also uses a substantial chunk of Dis' mana pool. It is supposed to be that way. It's not boring on Dis, and being able to spam these projectiles would be as awesome as spamming Schism on old Innert. (And if you remember that, it was awesome) Actually, come to think of it... It could be very cool if instead of a projectile, it were like a chaotic version of Innert's old Schism.. Hrmmm...

I have an idea, which would only make sense if I made my own version of this hero. If you'll permit that, I'll do it.

I WANT it to be a roulette, in this case. The hero's theme is chaos, and crippling/muting/whatevering everyone, randomly, within 800 range is something quite amazing. Even more so for this hero, since directly applying a condition is his "weakness", and the ult allows him to bypass this "weakness" initially to the point where Infernals can sustain his cycle.

I agree with Oxy in this case. In the case of, say, Stifling Arrows applying a random condition, the limitation of the attack makes it very unfavourable to not have reliability. Furthermore, she really relies on the mute as a means to shut down enemy casters that could otherwise defend against the skeletons and to make her presence powerful enough in battle. Consider, though, that for the case of this hero, just getting any condition out there is what makes him great, and that alone makes it a sufficient catalyst for his other skills.

This is actually proper design for a hero. An ultimate that "activates" the rest of the skills is perfectly legitimate, whereas otherwise he is reliant upon allies to do it. Notice that Dis' ultimate, for instance, works the same way.

[Oxygen]

I have an idea, which would only make sense if I made my own version of this hero. If you'll permit that, I'll do it.

I welcome you to do so

I agree with Oxy in this case. In the case of, say, Stifling Arrows applying a random condition, the limitation of the attack makes it very unfavourable to not have reliability. Furthermore, she really relies on the mute as a means to shut down enemy casters that could otherwise defend against the skeletons and to make her presence powerful enough in battle. Consider, though, that for the case of this hero, just getting any condition out there is what makes him great, and that alone makes it a sufficient catalyst for his other skills.

This is actually proper design for a hero. An ultimate that "activates" the rest of the skills is perfectly legitimate, whereas otherwise he is reliant upon allies to do it. Notice that Dis' ultimate, for instance, works the same way.

Pretty much nailed it

Also, I'd like to point out that Lava Coil has potential to be ridiculous with 5-6 Infernals focusing on a single target, especially when taking Ruin into account >:]

edit: or hell, anything that does quick physical damage. Atrius anyone?

[TheDeathstalker]

Hrm, ok, I kinda spaced on the fact that Malchezaar wouldn't be the only one on the battlefield, so Lava Coil works no matter what, and the ultimate unlocks all the power of his other skills, so that works too, but I'm still not sold on Doom requiring burn but having no means to apply it until 6th level short of Lava Coil, then hitting them with physical damage, and *then* Chaos Bolting the person next to them. So I guess it's not impossible to use, but I just feel that since you don't have the skills to apply burn at all til at least 3rd level, and the smoother means doesn't open up til 6th, that Doom is a very slow starting skill. Not saying that that's a bad thing, but just that I'd feel a bit cheated if I snagged it first and then noticed that I don't have any means to apply burn, etc etc.

Still like the hero, just thinking is all.