Guide

Kunkka, the Admiral

• Torrent:
  --> The Skill's Concept: A targeted delayed AoE stun
  --> Uniqueness/Workout: Compared to other similar skills, it differs in its insanely long casting range and relatively long delay. Furthermore, it has a slow added after the stun. Overall, this skill is unique enough.
  --> Type of Skill: the combo ability (3)

• Tidebringer:
  --> The Skill's Concept: an occasional, but enhanced cleave with a range that can hit ranged enemies
  --> Uniqueness/Workout: Compared to other cleaves, this skill is different in its early-game power, in its laning harrass power and its long range, so it's very unique. The only problem is it being uncontrollable in lane pushing, which is problematic for an early-game skill.
  --> Type of Skill: the fundamental ability (2)

• X Marks the Spot:
  --> The Skill's Concept: marking the current location of a target and forcing it to move back to that location shortly afterwards
  --> Uniqueness/Workout: There's no other Displacement like this, it's very unique in its effects and usages.
  --> Type of Skill: the fundamental ability (2)

• Ghost Ship:
  --> The Skill's Concept: A shockwave starting from behind you and moving forwards to a fixed amount of units, buffing all allies it passes through by making them faster and more survivable and also stunning and damaging all enemies around the final location of the shockwave.
  --> Uniqueness/Workout: This is undisputably one of the most unique skills in DotA, with a completely unique targeting mechanism.
  --> Type of Skill: the awesome ability (1)

• Skill Combo/Synergies:
  a) Laning: With Tidebringer and to lesser extent Torrent, he can harrass ranged enemies easily.
  b) Initiating: He has two disables that stack, both of them are delayed, so that they're not easy to land, but X Marks the Spot is used to set them up.
  c) AoE: With his ultimate, he and his allies can stay alive for some time, while Tidebringer and Torrent allow for sustained AoE damage output throughout a teamfight.

• Categorising Factors: melee, STR, AoE(initiator)-Tank(semi-carry)

• Core Concept + Concept: The Admiral centers around his delay-disabling-combo.
  With all his skills having a comparably long range despite him being melee, he can initiate with this combo from a fair distance and safely disable at least one enemy.
  After that, he's also fairly good at staying alive and continuing to have an AoE presence with his skills and huge cleaving attacks.

• Level Dependency: Semi-level-dependent

• Item/Farm Dependency: He doesn't necessarily need farm, but can make use of it.

• Laning:
  a) Solo Mid: Feasible, but problematic. His harassment via Tidebringer can be easily harassed back by most heroes, because he has to get into melee range of creeps. Rune control is hard, because Tidebringer destroys creep equilibrium and thus makes it hard to control how far the lane is pushed out.
  b) Dual Lane: Feasible, but problematic. He can be put in a dual stun combo, but other heroes have no problems with pushing the lane (Tidebringer), have better burst potential to focus down the enemy.

• Role:
  The Admiral is primarily known as an AoE initiator. He does this through his delayed disabling combo. As an AoE initiator, he's pretty unique in that he's not the best hero to go in first, but rather as a follow-up initiator. His disables are hard to land and X Marks the Spot can only be used to secure a stun on 1 enemy. If he has someone else to initiate, however, he can time his disables perfectly and deal quite some burst damage. Furthermore, he's neither really good to counter enemy's initiation, because of the delays and his ultimate which requires distance to work.
  Therefore, Kunkka isn't a that strong initiator and burst damage dealer, he wouldn't be as powerful without his second role, which is being a tank. With his ultimate, he has quite some survivability also for his team and Tidebringer adds some great AoE damage potential over time that scales with his attack damage, so that he can even semi-carry.
  So, in conclusion he fills the role as a hybrid between a bursty initiator and a semi-carrying tank. He's not really good at either of these two roles, so he has to fulfil both of them.

Insufficient laning options paired up with being a mediocre AoE-initiator and Tank makes him hardly a worthy pick. His hybrid role can make him pickable for specific strategies, but for this he would need proper laning options first.

Rexxar, the Beastmaster

• Wild Axes:
  --> The Skill's Concept: A shockwave nuke returning to the hero
  --> Uniqueness/Workout: Compared to other shockwaves, it only goes up to the targeted point and, most importantly, then returns to the hero, thus it's very unique
  --> Type of Skill: the combo ability (3)

• Call of the Wild:
  --> The Skill's Concept: Summoning two creatures, one for scouting, the other one for ranged slowing attacks
  --> Uniqueness/Workout: The only summoning that summons two different creatures for two completely different purposes.
  --> Type of Skill: the fundamental ability (2)

• Inner Beast:
  --> The Skill's Concept: granting nearby allies bonus attack speed
  --> Uniqueness/Workout: While there are some attack damage buff auras, there's no other attack speed buff aura, so although the skill is nothing special, it's original enough.
  --> Type of Skill: the complementary ability (4)

• Primal Roar:
  --> The Skill's Concept: A long-ranged instantaneous stun that also shoves everyone in the path between you and the stunned enemy aside
  --> Uniqueness/Workout: Not only this is the most powerful single-targeted stun, it is as well unique in its side-effect and in the fact that it goes through BKB.
  --> Type of Skill: the awesome ability (1)

• Skill Combo/Synergies:
  a) Basic killing combo: Call of the Wild is used to scout for killing opportunities, Roar into Axes for a stun-burst combo. If the enemy is still alive, he is chased down with the quilbeast's slow buffed through AS aura and normal attacks.
  b) Laning: Ranged farming/harrassing with quilbeast and Wild Axes, rune scouting with hawk.

• Categorising Factors: melee, STR, Assassin(ganker, initiator, chaser, scout)

• Core Concept + Concept: Beastmaster's skillset centers around being the most well-rounded fighter in DotA.
  He can prepare fights by scouting (Hawk), he can start fights with his initiation stun (Primal Roar), he can deal damage from melee range (auto-attack) or ranged range (quillbeast, axes), he can help allies in fighting (aura) and he can even chase fleeing heroes after a fight (quillbeast).
  This skillset is ideal for solo laning and allows him to be a perfect assassin that has the power to kill enemies by himself.

• Level Dependency: relatively high, he needs a quick level 6 and levels on axes

• Item/Farm Dependency:doesn't rely on much farm, but can farm and make use of items such as Blink Dagger, Necronomicon and other options.

• Laning:
  a) Beastmaster is very viable as a solo-mid hero, where he can farm and lane against most enemies, even ranged ones
  b) In a dual lane, he is okay, he has damage and a slow, but he doesn't get levels as quickly as he might want to.
  c) He can be put in the jungle, but this comes with some problems. His boar cannot really tank and he doesn't get levels as quickly as he needs to and is counterable.

• Role: He can fulfil the role of an assassin in a very overall way, as he can contribute to all aspects of assassinating an enemy, being finding him, initiating on him, nuking him down and if necessary chasing him to death. This also makes him very team-oriented despite primarily being an assassin.

His good laning despite being melee, his use as a very overall and as well team-oriented assassin that can gank enemies fairly efficient throughout the mid-game and his powerful single-target stun that even goes through BKB make him a useful pick in many scenarios. He doesn't require any changes, he works just the way he is intended to work and fulfils his unique job.

Bradwarden, the Centaur Warchief

Centaur Warchief is all about using his insane Strength (and thus HP) offensively to the maximum effect.
As the hero with the highest Strength of allonly with Great Fortitude, potentially able to be topped by Pudge, but in general, he is the hero with the highest Strength over the most time of the game, he's bound to be a tank.
As a tank, he can absorb a lot of damageGreat Fortitude gives him the HP to do so and even use every attack launched at him offensivelyReturn makes enemies attacking him lose HP along with him passively.
However, as a tank, he also needs to be a serious threat, so that enemies are forced to focus or at least disable him, or face other punishment for not doing so. His punishments are his two low-range activesthat's also why he's best put at the center of a combat, he's 100% melee with everything he does actively, an AoE stunHoof Stomp, not only a threat in combat that doesn't allow enemies to ignore you completely, but also a great tool with Blink Dagger to enforce fights when initiating and ganking and a nuke damaging both an enemy and himselfDouble Edge makes an enemy lose HP along with him actively. So even if he is ignored, he can still make use of his HP and effectively destroy fragile heroesThat's why he's most powerful early-mid-game, at that phase his nuking threat is insanely high, Return might scale quite well into late-game, but without items, he can be ignored more and more easily when even fragile heroes get stronger in the late-game and when carries just tear his massive HP apart.

A centaur with a tremendous body and therefore huge strength.

• Concept: Centaur Warchief has a unique and well worked out concept of the gameplay. Nothing of it should be removed.

• Hoof Stomp: An in-depth discussion about this skill's uniqueness in comparison to Slithereen Crush can be found here.
  This skill might not be the most unique one, but it is the simplest version of Instant AoE stuns, and as such it's a great skill.
  If you try to remake it, you have to keep the stun, because he needs it to keep enemies close to him and to stop them from hurting your allies if necessary. You also have to keep the damage pretty high, so that the combo with Double Edge stays powerful enough early-game. Furthermore, the AoE has to be rather low, so that he keeps his melee concept. Finally, you also have to keep the skill powerful from level 1 on, so that CW can play agressively right from the start. Last but not least, you also shouldn't add fancy effects just for the show, because that wouldn't improve the uniqueness, but would ruin the great simplicity of this skill.

• Double Edge: If you think about remaking this skill, stop doing so. There's no reason at all to change this one, it's unique, simple and does exactly what it should do: Give you early-game damage output and an offensive way to use your massive HP.

• Return: This is definitely a cool and unique skill that is meant to make up for his worsening damage output late-game. At the time it's becoming useful, normal attacks are the most powerful means of attack. Its main drawback is that enemies have to attack you, so you need something to draw their attention. Unfortunately, your skills are becoming less powerful late-game, so there are only two ways of drawing the enemy's attention: Get items that make you worthy of being focused or push with your team and tank creep-waves and towers (Return returns damage to towers).
  So, to conclude, I wouldn't advise you to try to remake this skill. Despite having the drawback of only being effective when your hero is a powerful factor in the late-game, it can be a really useful skill and its uniqueness remains unquestionable.

• Great Fortitude: An in-depth discussion about this skill's uniqueness in comparison to Markmanship can be found here. Not seldom is this skill stigmatized as the most boring skill in dota and therefore also a more or less constant target of remakes. But before repeating what other people say, I'd advise you to think twice about it in this case.
  What does the skill actually do? It allows Bradwarden with very few items to be played very aggressively. You can walk up to the enemy without risking too much. You can use Double Edge a lot more often. Your Return becomes effective much earlier, at a time when you are still a powerful threat, not yet outclassed by carries. You can tank towers very effectively
  All these fun and relatively unique things are allowed by this skill in an effective and simple way. How they are achieved might be boring, that's hard to contest, but the real effects of the skill are anything but boring.
  If you find a way to make the mechanism more interesting without destroying any of the needed fun effects, then that might be a possible way, but that's far from easy.

Conclusion: Refrain from remaking this hero. If anything, you can try to tweak the first skill and the Ult, but you mustn't remove any important parts and you should be very careful.

• Concept: His thematic concept is perfectly fine, I advise you against changing it.

• Icons: The main problem is Double Edge, because it represents a sword and not an axe. You can find a warcraftish double-edged axe icon here.
  Return icon might be the ladder icon, but the skill and its description have been changed, which made the icon relatively unfitting.
  Hoof Stompalthough overused by a neutral creep, but who cares about that, it's too perfect to be replaced and unique if you only look at heroes and Great Fortitude are perfect icons.

• Animations: His current animations are fine.

• Skill Names & Descriptions: The only problem is Return for multiple reasons. It makes him sound like a hyper-agile hero, which he isn't. It's illogical that he can counter-strike enemies that are far away from his melee range. And besides, there's no animation of this swift strike (damn ninja lol). Last but not least, it doesn't fit at all to his thematic concept.

• Background Story: Fine, but if Return's description will get changed, it also has to be adjusted

Changeable with high priority: Double Edge's icon, Return's description (has to go along with minor Background Story adjustment)

• Don't suggest a hero with higher HP than Centaur Warchief
• Don't suggest a hero that tanks by using his huge Health Pool offensively.
• Don't use a theme that is centered around a huge body just using its strength.

Raigor Stonehoof, the Earthshaker

An initiating AoE stunner dealing a lot of damage if many enemies stick together

Earthshaker is the best AoE combo stunner in dotawith a perfect combo and fully leveled Aftershock, he can stun enemies in a 300 AoE around him for whole 4.75 seconds (4.5 if Fissure doesnt hit them).That's also one of the reasons why he's a scary initiatorsalthough he needs a Blink Dagger to fulfil that role efficiently, the other being that his damage ouput is higher the more enemies stick close togetherdue to Echo Slam's Echo damage and Aftershock's low AoE damage.

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Purist Thunderwrath, the Omniknight

He can prevent allies from being damaged for a long time and support them in finishing off or chasing heroes.

Omniknight is the only hero in dota that can grant an allied hero complete invulnerabilityIts not really invulnerability, but a state "simulating" invulnerability for whole 7 seconds. He can protect one ally from all scary nukes or disablesRepel and heal another ally receiving too much damagePurification. Physical attacks against his team are completely counteredGuardian Angel makes the enemy carry pretty much useless for some time. If enemies try to flee when they see the hopelessness of their situation, they shouldnt have much hope to escape eitherDegen Aura slows enemies in melle range, Purification deals damage to enemies in melle range of the target

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Mangix, the Pandaren Brewmaster

Nearly invulnerable for enemy carries, overall very hard to kill

Mangix is perhaps the hero in dota, which is hardest to killmainly due to Primal Split, which helps him to escape from nearly any gank and increases his survivability in ganks a lot. Hes in general hard to kill for every hero, but hes especially strong as a counter against carriesThunderclap decreases Attack Speed, Drunken Haze makes 1 enemy miss most of his attacks for several seconds and Drunken Brawler grants him a good dodge chance. However, both Drunken Haze and Drunken Brawler can be countered by Monkey King Bar.. He's a fine initiatorBlink Dagger + Thunder Clap, a very hard to kill tank, has useful disablesEarth Panda's Hurl Boulder and Storm Panda's Cyclone and even some okayish damage outputThunder Clap, Drunken Brawler's Crit, Earth Panda's Pulverize, Storm Panda's Dispel Magic against summons and Fire Panda's Immolation and normal attack.

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Sven, the Rogue Knight

• Storm Bolt:
  --> The Skill's Concept: A single-targeted AoE missile stun
  --> Uniqueness/Workout: Compared to other similar skills, its difference lies in the AoE effect around the target. This makes the skill have very unique component and different enough from any other skill.
  --> Type of Skill: the fundamental ability (2)

• Great Cleave:
  --> The Skill's Concept: a permanent small AoE cleave that splashes an average percentage of Sven's damage
  --> Uniqueness/Workout: While there are many cleaves in DotA, this is the only remaining one with just the basic cleave effect, so that it's unique.
  --> Type of Skill: the complementary ability (4)

• Warcry:
  --> The Skill's Concept: giving nearby allies and yourself a MS and armor buff for a few seconds
  --> Uniqueness/Workout: There's no instant-cast AoE MS buff in the game other than this, so it's pretty unique, especially paired with the armor buff.
  --> Type of Skill: the combo ability (3)

• God's Strength:
  --> The Skill's Concept: doubling or nearly tripling Sven's attack damage for a decent amount of time
  --> Uniqueness/Workout: Very unique double-damage-rune-like effect packed in a skill.
  --> Type of Skill: the awesome ability (1)

• Skill Combo/Synergies:
  a) AoE presence combo: Storm Bolt to stun multiple enemies, Warcry to engange them quickly and sturdy along with your allies, God's Strength and Great Cleave to deal significant AoE damage through normal attacks and thus create a presence.

• Categorising Factors: melee, STR, Tank(ganker, semi-carry)/Support(ganker)

• Core Concept + Concept: Sven is a major AoE presence in teamfights.
  He uses the skill combo of an AoE stun followed with AoE normal attacks coupled by a quick AoE MS and armor buff.
  This either allows him to be a support with his stun and buff, or a tank that has a major AoE presence in fights and is hard to stop.

• Level Dependency: low level-dependency

• Item/Farm Dependency: to work well during the mid-game and late-game, at least Blink Dagger and BKB is needed as a core.

• Laning:
  a) Dual Lane: He can be put in a dual lane, but there are better options. He isn't a good babysitter of a carry, nor is he a strong enough carry to be babysat. In a killing dual lane, there are better options with way more burst damage, he just has an AoE stun that can only be cast once with his mana pool.
  b) Trilane: Not really worthy putting him there. He only has one stun early on due to his low Mana pool and him being melee prevents him from really doing what a tri-lane hero needs to do.
  c) Solo lane: He has not the sustainability, nor the survivability, nor the damage output to be put in a solo lane.

• Role: Sven can be played either as a support with ganking capabilities or

Pandaren Brewmaster only marginally uses Fire as one of the Elemental Pandas in the ultimate. And this is actually a workout of the hero's thematic concept of being a Pandaren Brewmaster.

Dragon Knight uses fire as a part of his half-bred dragon theme by breathing fire, something typical for dragons.

Sacred Warrior only marginally uses fire in one skill by using his life force to set his spears aflame - so the fire is only a part of the workout of his main theme of using the life force.

Phoenix both uses fire as a manifestation of divine flames and harnesses the direct power of the sun to create fire, which is the central part of his thematic concept.

Doom Bringer uses fire mainly as an important part of his race as a Doomguard, where it is also connected with the doom theme. With his name, he also is said to have a hellish theme (although it's not mentioned anywhere clearly), so fire may be used in that context as well.

Pit Lord uses fire as an important part of his hero background of being the Pit Lord Azgalor.

Skeleton King only marginally uses fire in one skill, where he uses the fiery depths of hell itself to unleash fire.

Bone Fletcher only marginally uses fire in one skill. As a fallen Elven Ranger that is now undead, he uses the heat of the Underworld.

Slayer is a Pyromancer and thus uses fire magic as her main theme. As it is sometimes done in WoW and manga, even Lightning could be considered as another form of fire.

Batrider uses chemicals, oil and napalm to create and strengthen fire.

Invoker uses fire as one of the three elements he's using and combining (it is named Exort, though).

Ogre Magi is an ogre warrior with a rare affinity to magic with a yet untapped potential, which enables to elemental flames and explosions, but also fuels his allies' lust for battle.

Twin Head Dragon is a chimaera with two heads that uses the elemental force of fire as one of his two main themes.

Warlock only marginally uses fire in one skill and even there he doesn't use fire himself, but summons a burning Infernal.

If fire is used in one or two skills as a sub theme to work out the thematic concept, usually because the hero background or the main theme are somehow connected to fire, then this is no problem, as long as the thematic concept is unique.

As a main theme and an important part of the thematic concept, fire should always be used in a unique context.

You should not use a thematic concept of a mage using fire, because that is both done in a pure form of pyromancy (Lina) and in a composed form using various elements (Invoker) and even in a firemage-warrior context (Ogre Magi).
You also shouldn't use another fire main theme in the context of the sun and holy fire (Phoenix), fire created by chemicals (Batrider), or fire in a conjunction with ice (THD).
Furthermore, you should also be careful when using a dragon that breathes fire, because that's already done by Dragon Knight and THD, although THD also conjures fire as an elemental force.
Also be careful with demons using fire. It's a common connection and used by Doom Bringer, Pit Lord and to some extent Warlock (an Infernal) already.
Lastly, be careful when using fire in a hellish context. That is done in one skill by the two undeads Skeleton King and Bone Fletcher and the demon Doom Bringer (where it's vaguely mentioned though).


Some examples for possible future fire main themes that are yet unused:

• Volcanic fire theme, using lava and magma, possibly as a combination of fire and earth.

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Kunkka, the Admiral

• Model: http://media.playdota.com/hero/66/character.gif
• Race: Human
• Class: Admiral
• Main Theme: Sea (Water)

• Torrent: torrential geyser (sea), knowledge of the sea (Admiral)
• Tidebringer: sword (model), ebb and flow (sea)
• X Marks the Spot: assembly for troops (Admiral)
• Ghost Ship: ship with rum (Admiral, sea)

• Main Theme: Beastial Wilderness (Beast)
• Race: Mok'nathal (half-orc, half-ogre)

• Main Theme: Strength (Body)
• Race: Centaur

• Main Compound Themes: Earth (Earth), Shaman (Class)
• Race: Tauren

• Main Compound Themes: Paladin (Class), Holy Light (Light; Reason why I put it in Light and not as a mix of Holy and Light)
• Race: Human

• Main Theme: Pandaren Brewmaster (Class)
• Race: Pandaren

• Main Theme: Whatever the fuck
• Race: Half-Human, Half-Night Elf

• Main Compound Themes: Strength (Body), Stone/Rock (Earth)
• Race: Giant (here's why not ancient as darkseraphim stated)

• Main Compound Themes: Ancestors (Time)
• Race: Tauren

• Main Compound Themes: Forest (Nature)
• Race: Ancient

• Main Compound Themes: Life Force --> to be finished later
• Race: Wisp

• Main Compound Themes: Magic Manipulation (Arcane)
• Race: Night Elf

• Main Theme: Rifleman (Class)
• Race: Dwarf

• Main Theme: Blademaster (Class)
• Race: Orc

• Main Compound Themes: Bear (Beast), Druid (Class)
• Race: Night Elf

• Main Theme: Moon (Nature)
• Race: Night Elf

• Main Theme: Liquid Composition (Water)
• Race: Elemental (not sure, he could just be a Morphling, it's not stated clearly. Darkseraphim didn't even add him in his list)

• Main Compound Themes: Naga Siren (Class), Blademaster (Class)
• Race: Naga

• Main Compound Themes: to be discussed
• Race: Spectral Being (ghost/spirit, just an assumption, I could be wrong, but nothing else is stated, and he's originally from FFX, so Idk)

• Main Theme: Priestess of the Moon (Class)
• Race: Night Elf

• Main Theme: Rogue (Class)
• Race: Satyr

• Main Theme: Fighter (Class)
• Race: Troll

• Main Theme: Gyrocopter (Class)
• Race: Dwarf

• Main Compound Themes: Ice/Frost Magic (Ice/Frost), Mage (Class)
• Race: Human

• Main Theme: Enchanting Nature (Nature)
• Race: Dryad

• Main Compound Themes: Imagination (Mind), Magic (Arcane), Faerie Dust (Body)
• Race: Mystical Creature / Dragon ?

• Main Theme: Holy (Light)
• Race: Orc

The thematic concept is the idea behind a hero's cosmetics. It gives the hero and his skills a context.
The thematic concept always includes the hero's model and can include the hero's background (race, affiliation, class) or the hero's main theme IF they are an essential part of the hero's cosmetics.

Which aspects can be included in the thematic aspect? Model: Usually, the model is what comes first and influences everything else, because the model is the hardest thing to change. That's why it belongs to the concept, not to the workout, existing models are used to create heroes around them, not vice versa. Hero's Background: This contains background information about the hero. In general, such a hero's background is often dependent on the model. The affiliation (either Sentinel or Scourge) can influence the theme, but usually it's too vague to play a vital role in the thematic concept. The race usually only plays a role if the hero is the only one or one of the few ones of this race in DotA, because then it is something that makes the hero's theme unique. A class is generally a reference to the warcraft story or specific ladder titles (like e.g. Pandaren Brewmaster, Dwarven Sniper, Far Seer), but sometimes also a reference to general warcraft and wow classes (like e.g. mage, fighter) or a profession (like e.g. Admiral). Last but not least, a hero can also be a famous warcraft personality (e.g. Thrall, Cairne Bloodhoof, Kel'thuzad, Kael) and this can certainly also be a part of the hero's thematic concept Main Theme: A theme explains how a hero can use his skills or attacks (whether he uses his own body, an elemental power, magics, explosives and much more). The main theme is a theme that pervades the whole hero. Most of the abilities (or all) are using it or in large part influenced by it. It's crucial to realise that main themes or themes in general aren't as stereotypical as many people see them. Many people say fire is overused, but if you look at the heroes in DotA, nearly all of them use fire in a different way (e.g.: Lina --> Fire magic, Phoenix --> Sun, Batrider --> Chemicals, Techies --> Explosions). That's what makes each fire theme unique and this also means that new heroes can still use a fire main theme, although this should be done in a new way then (as it was done with Phoenix). You need to grasp the theme in its whole context.

How do these aspects form a thematic concept? A thematic concept is usually a mix of these aspects in a more or less complex way. Note: I won't mention it every single time, but the model always plays a role in the thematic concept, you simply cannot leave it out. Hero Background centered thematic concept: Here, the class is in most cases the essential part of the thematic concept. Sometimes, the class along with a model is already enough for itself, like Gondar, who is a Bounty Hunter. No other aspect, not even his race, has any influence on the workout of his cosmetics, so only his class is relevant. Sometimes, the class along with the race forms a thematic concept, as it is with Mangix. For Mangix, his mix of race and class, namely being a Pandaren Brewmaster is the essential part of his cosmetics. All of the themes he uses (Alcohol, Fire, Earth, Lightning) are only part of the workout of his class. Consequently, they don't belong to the concept. Furthermore, the race can also be the central part of a thematic concept. If you look at Davion, his cosmetics are mainly influenced by the fact that he's a half-dragon half-human. Main Theme centered thematic concept: A single main theme along with the model can be enough to form a thematic concept, as it is with Lina, who uses Fire magic. None of her hero background aspects have an influence on the workout of her cosmetics, so only her main theme is relevant. Compound thematic concept: In most cases, however, the thematic concept is a compound of hero background aspects and one or multiple main themes that interact and go well together. For Admiral, his race is fairly unimportant, it doesn't influence any of his cosmetics. Thus, it is not part of his thematic concept. His class, an Admiral and his main theme, the Sea, however have a large influence on the workout of his cosmetics. Therefore, they are part of his thematic concept. For Jakiro, his race as a chimaera (draconic creature with two heads) also explains why he uses two main themes - fire and ice, which are also part of his thematic concept (because his race can't explain why he uses exactly these two main themes) Last but not least, a more complex example of how a thematic concept can be formed: For Shadowfiend, the thematic concept is more complex than just a mixture of shadow and soul themes. While shadows are the basis of his existence - due to his race as a Shadowfiend - and his primary offensive tool, he can gather souls from killed enemies. Only then, he can use these souls to further boost his offensive powers and perform his ultimate. It's important to realise this nuance.

What makes thematic aspects of the concept good? A model that looks different from any other models in DotA, unless there are specific reasonsMagina, Terrorblade e.g. as twin brothers e.g.. A warcraftish model (models can be imported, but they should still fit) A unique Hero Background OR/AND a unique Main Theme OR/AND a unique compound of both of them. This means, that a theme that has been used before can be used again if it is put in another contextExample: A Sea theme is used by both Leviathan and Kunkka. Whereas Leviathan is a sea monster and uses his Sea theme in this specific context, Kunkka is an Admiral and uses his Sea theme in that context. While the theme is nearly the same, the context is very different and that makes it unique.. A warcraftish Hero Background / Main Theme / mix. A thematic concept is coherent when the hero's model, the hero's background and the hero's main theme go well with each other and harmonise.

Gameplay aspects include the Main Stat, the Attack Range and the General and Specific roles of a hero.

• Main Stat: By the main stats, heroes can be broadly categorised in tanks (STR), normal attackers (AGI) and caster (INT).
  STR heroes are mainly heroes who need HP to function and mainly dominate the mid-game, AGI heroes are heroes who need their normal attack to function and mainly dominate the late-game, INT heroes are heroes who need their skills to function and mainly dominate the early-game.
  However, this is nothing but a broad categorisation and can of course be completely different at some (many) exceptions.

• Attack Range: Either melee (0-150) or ranged (anything above 150). Sometimes ranged is divided into mid-ranged (150-400) and ranged (above 400), but that is an artificial division that has no influence on some game mechanics, in contrast to melee and ranged.
  Most STR heroes are melee, because as heroes with high HP, it's better to be in the center of the battle and most INT heroes are ranged, because their skills are already ranged and as caster being in melle range would be risky.
  However, there are exceptions to this, so it's not a rule, but for these exceptions there are specific reasons.

• Role: Roles are given to each hero to define its general strengths. It gives a broad categorisation of the hero's use in general strategies and signals the general direction of his gameplay.
  Examples for such roles are carry, semi-carry, support, initiator, tank, soak, nuker, chaser, disabler, ganker, pusher, anti-pusher, jungler and so on.

• Core Concept of the Gameplay (need a good name for this :/ ):
  Main Stat, Range and Role are all relatively good in categorising a hero, but nevertheless, they can't make a concept unique in terms of gameplay aspects. Dwarven Sniper and Drow Ranger are two AGI ranged carries, but you can safely say that they are different heroes with a different concept and thus different playstyles.
  Therefore, the core concept shows in a compact way the uniqueness of a hero's gameplay.
  
  But same as the gameplay can be centered around different aspects of the hero, so can the core concept.
  - A core concept can specify the general role of a hero and explain how he fulfils it (e.g.: Earthshaker --> disabler --> AoE combo stunner).
  - A core concept can be centered around one single skill (e.g.: Syllabear --> Summon Spirit Bear --> he has a summoning which basically functions like a second hero).
  - A core concept can be centered around a combo of skills (e.g.: Lina --> Damaging enemies with AoE combo (Light Strike Array + Dragon Slave), finishing one off (Laguna Blade) and chasing and fighting the enemies with an enhanced normal attacks afterwards (Fiery Soul)).
  - A core concept can be something a hero is the best at (e.g.: Silencer --> Silencing enemies)
  - A core concept can be a unique feature only this hero has (e.g.: Huskar --> Dealing more damage the lower his HP is)
  However, what a core concept always does is defining major parts of the hero's gameplay and make him unique and fill a niche in DotA.
  
  A hero can have one such core concept, like Lina with her combo of skills.
  However, a hero can also have multiple core concepts of different types (Admiral --> a) melle with all long-ranged skills (unique feature), b) delay-combo (combo of skills))

Ofc, same as at thematic aspects, the gameplay aspects also should fit together. Huskar's core concept wouldn't make sense if he was a support INT hero. But I think that goes without further explanation, in most cases they're fitting together automatically.

As said at each specific point, the different parts should interact. Therefore, you can conclude that the same goes for the whole concept.
So, what this generally means is that the thematic and gameplay aspects of the concept should go well together and not contradict each other:

• Lina: With fire magic as theme, it wouldn't be logical if she used normal-attacks. Instead, she should work with her skills, as she does.

• Storm Spirit: I think it's not necessary to elaborate why his core concept of zipping around the battlefield goes so well with his lightning/electricity theme.
  More tricky - and ingenious Imo - is the second part of his core concept: alternately using his spammable skills and his empowered normal attack. I'll let you guess here: Which aspect of electricity does this core concept remind you of?
  
  The charging and discharging (of a capacitor to be more specific).
  
  Some brief - more off-topic - supplementary information:
  - Don't worry if you didn't get that. It's often not easy to get such connections and we can't tell if they are intended by IceFrog anyway. But often they are so ingenious that I can't think that they are coincidence.
  - About the gut feeling and subconsciousness: Such things aren't always recognised consciously and most often only later on. In many cases, you just have the feeling that something fits or doesn't fit, but can't tell why. Do never make the mistake to disregard your subconsciousness. What scientists have found out is that to solve a problem, it's better not to think about it consciously. Try to trust your gut feeling (unless all the logic speaks against it), because often you will realise later that there was some logical reason for it. That's how our brain works.

• Shadow Fiend: He uses a unique mix of shadow and soul theme, where shadows are the base of his being and souls stored from enemies are there to augment his power. Now figure out how this is connected with the gameplay aspects of his concept ^^

Skills are the essential part of heroes simply because of one reason: They are the central part of the concept's workout (Synergies, Gameplay and Visuals are all dependent on the skills) and have the most influence on the resulting hero and all its aspects.
A good skill has certain qualities.