Hero Suggestion: Shadow Walker

I had this idea of making a hero based around a 0 cooldown teleport. One where the hero would be able to jump around at lightning speed according to the how fast the user could react. Someone with enough coordination to move the mouse to the right location and quick rapidly would be able to make effective use of this hero, while those who couldn't would find him difficult to use and underpowered. The theme revolved around a 0 cooldown teleport, so I had to make sure the theme fit well. When thinking of the animation, I thought of Nightcrawler, the X-Men hero. This inspired me to go along the lines of the shadow and night to create the Shadow Walker.

A recent great leader of the Legion army fell to the Hellbourne. A demon of the Hellbourne cursed the fallen warrior, forcing him to remain in the shadows, forgotten, forever. The warrior was lost, and roamed the world until it found Defiler, who corrupted his soul with the darkest of magics. Cursed with shadow and defiled with evil, the Shadow Walker was born. From the curses he bears and his long time spent in the shadows, he has great power, able to walk through the shadows instantly and corrupt the enemy with foul magic.

Black. Primary color of the Shadow Walker, of course. It's easily the only way he'd be displayed correctly. He should have high transparency, albeit not invisible-looking. Either that, or shadows should wrap around a human-looking figure constantly. His weapons should be blades of course. I'm thinking short swords or long daggers.

If you remember what a Shade sounds like in Warcraft 3, you'll know what I'm looking for. A dark voice with a chilling presence. Some things he might say:
"Through the darkness", "Walking the shadows", "From all sides", "Crawling and sneaking", "Out of the light"

Shadow Walker is based around his ultimate, the 0 second cooldown teleport. He is able to gank in a way that many would consider overpowered, but overall he is only strong against non-targetted/AoE spells and attacks.


Shadow Strike [Q]
Shadow Walker stabs the enemy through the shadows, surprising them. Temporarily disables the target and deals extra.
Type: Attack Modifier.
Targets: Enemy Units.
Damage: Attack Damage+25/50/75/100 Physical damage.
Stun Duration: 0.5/0.6/0.7/0.8 seconds.
Cast Range: 150 units.
Cooldown: 13/11/9/7 seconds.
Mana Cost: 50 mana.
This is a quick action ability which will allow you to point-click-attack someone, but at melee range. It works much like Kraken's Splash. With Shadow Walker, you're able to get up close very quickly. This small stun/damage with a low cooldown and low mana cost allows you to get that much more of an advantage over the enemy.

Shadow Poison [Passive]
Shadow Walker has blades that are wrapped in darkness. Those that come into contact with them are engulfed by darkness, taking damage and slowed.
Type: Passive Attack Modifier.
Armor Reduction: -1/1/1/2% movement speed per charge.
Base Damage: 5/8/11/14 physical damage per second.
Charge Damage: 2/3/4/5 physical damage per second per charge.
Max Charges: 7/9/12/15 charges.
Duration: 2 seconds or until next attack.
If you remember Huskar in DotA, he had an orb which dealt more and more damage based on how many times it was cast upon the enemy, charging up to a maximum of 5 charges. For this, instead of only doing damage and requiring health to cast, it deals physical damage per second on a normal attack. This makes it a less powerful early game skill, considering that Shadow Walker is melee and it's not an orb effect. However, the movement speed slow is fantastic for chasing later on. The numbers are also quite low, so it's relatively balanced.

Shadow Blades [E]
Shadow Walker bathes his blades in shadow and darkness, strengthening them. When he strikes his enemies, they see nothing but shadow for a short duration.
Type: Magic. Target Self.
Damage Increase: +20/30/40/50% base damage.
Lowered Sight Range: 475/450/425/400 units.
Duration: 4/5/6/7 seconds.
Cooldown: 30/25/20/15 seconds.
Mana Cost: 40/50/60/70 mana.
Call it a ripoff of Dark Lady's Dark Blades, but this is something that really synergizes well with the Shadow Walker. By reducing their vision, he is able to escape much more effectively with his ultimate. Beyond that, the extra autoattack damage is incredibly useful.

ULTIMATE: Shadow Walk [R]
Shadow Crawler uses the shadows to quickly transport him to a location of his choice.
Type: Target Location.
Cast Range: 400/450/500 units.
Cooldown: 0 seconds.
Mana Cost: 70/110/150 mana.
This spell simply teleports you to the target location. It has 0 cooldown, so it can be used over and over again in quick succession. However, it has a relatively high mana cost and low cast range, making sure that it isn't spammed all over the place. Note this skill cannot be used within 75 range of a tree.


Heroes that are able to reduce the enemy armor, especially those with a slow or stun, are well synergized with Shadow Walker's high physical damage output.

Shieldbreaker combined with Shadow Pierce gives a total of -10 armor and +60 damage. If that's not painful, I don't know what is. Brutalizer's stun comes in handy due to Shadow Walker's lack of disable besides the ministun on Shadow Strike. Elder Parasite's extra attack speed, movement speed, and lifesteal are all handy with Shadow Walkers playstyle for multiple reasons, mainly because of his autoattack/physical damage nature.


November 28, 2009

Code:

[b][u]Version 1.05 (Semi-Remake):[/u][/b]
* Increased Base Agility from 25 to 26.
* Increased Agility Gain from 2.7 to 2.8.
* Scrapped Shadow Pierce.
* Created Shadow Poison as the third ability.
* Changed Shadow Blade's type from Superior Magic to Magic.
* Increased Shadow Walk's mana cost from 70 mana to 70/110/150 mana.

November 27, 2009

Code:

[b][u]Version 1.00:[/u][/b]
* Initial Presentation.

I would buff most of his moves, but otherwise it looks ok. The lack of a disable hurts.

Why do you always make it worthless to upgrade the ultimate? I think it should be 70 mana all levels and 400/500/600 range. Who would pay 50% more mana for 10% more range? Ridiculous.