[AGI-Sentinel] Knight Mage - Kellen Tavadon

[CrucialMistake]

Knight Mage
Kellen Tavadon

Story

A Knight Mage is only chosen by magic when a great need arises. When Kellen Tavadon, still young, discovered his abilities, he was very confused about what to do with them. What's worse, for being different, he was thrown out of his household by his own father. With nowhere to go, Kellen was forced to adapt to life outside his city. After a short time wandering in the middle of nowhere, Kellen was found by an elven warrior, who decided to be Kellen's tutor after finding out about his gifts. Eventually, when the need for war arose, Kellen and Jermayan both joined the elven army. After a long stifling campaign against the Endarkened, they both lost and gained many friends, and also learned a great deal in the process. Coming out victorious, Kellen decided to settle for a normal life with his new-found love, but that was not to be. Another Dark race was threatening the Light - The Scourge. Grabbing his sword and shield and getting outfitted into his best armor, Kellen set out to join the ranks of The Sentinel.

Statistics
Strength - 20 + [1.8]
Agility - 24 + [2.5]
Intelligence - 19 + [2.1]

Affiliation: Sentinel
Damage: 52-58
Armor: 3.1
Movespeed: 310
Starting HP/MP: 530/247
Attack Range: 129 (melee)

Hero Model

The footman should be enlarged, and wearing dark-red armor padding instead of the usual, with a golden trim around it. Since I am no good artist, I can't elaborate on that.

Skills


Battle Sight - (Active [toggle])
Kellen magically enhances his normal vision. Enemies that are hidden and pose an immediate threat are revealed as well.

Level

Mana

Cooldown

Cast Range

AoE

Duration

Effects

1

70MP & 3MP/s

60

N/A

2000/1000

N/A

Kellen's sight range is boosted by 200 units. Also reveals invisible units within 300 AoE.

2

95MP & 3MP/s

60

N/A

2175/1175

N/A

Kellen's sight range is boosted by 375 units. Also reveals invisible units within 400 AoE.

3

125MP & 3MP/s

60

N/A

2350/1350

N/A

Kellen's sight range is boosted by 550 units. Also reveals invisible units within 500 AoE.

4

160MP & 3MP/s

60

N/A

2525/1525

N/A

Kellen's sight range is boosted by 725 units. Also reveals invisible units within 600 AoE.

Notes:
*The slashes in the AoE section refer to daytime and nighttime.
*Does not reveal Fog of War behind obstacles.
*Cooldown starts when the spell is toggled on.
*If you run out of mana while the spell is active, the spell cooldown is reset to 60.

Defiance - (Passive)
The main gift of a Knight Mage is stubbornness. He is always the last warrior to fall on the battlefield. The closer to death Kellen gets, the harder he is to kill.

Level

Mana

Cooldown

Cast Range

AoE

Duration

Effects

1

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

When Kellen's life falls below 40%, his HP regen is increased by 5 and armor by 6. When his life falls below 15%, his HP regen increases by 11 and armor by 16.

2

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

When Kellen's life falls below 43%, his HP regen is increased by 6 and armor by 8. When his life falls below 17%, his HP regen increases by 12 and armor by 18.

3

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

When Kellen's life falls below 47%, his HP regen is increased by 7 and armor by 10. When his life falls below 20%, his HP regen increases by 13 and armor by 20.

4

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

When Kellen's life falls below 51%, his HP regen is increased by 8 and armor by 12. When his life falls below 25%, his HP regen increases by 14 and armor by 22.

Notes:
*The bonuses only apply when Kellen's life falls below the specific %.

Awareness - (Active)
Knight Mages are often taught to look for small things around them that could be used to their advantage. Using his trained eyes, Kellen takes the time to survey his surroundings and pick out small details that would give him an edge in battle.

Level

Mana

Cooldown

Cast Range

AoE

Duration

Effects

1

150MP

N/A

N/A

Sight Range

N/A

Kellen takes 8 seconds to survey the land around him. Gains 15 MS, 12 damage, and 8% attack speed. Can survey one area in total.

2

150MP

N/A

N/A

Sight Range

N/A

Kellen takes 8 seconds to survey the land around him. Gains 25 MS, 20 damage, and 11% attack speed. Can survey two areas in total.

3

150MP

N/A

N/A

Sight Range

N/A

Kellen takes 7 seconds to survey the land around him. Gains 35 MS, 30 damage, and 15% attack speed. Can survey three areas in total.

4

150MP

N/A

N/A

Sight Range

N/A

Kellen takes 6 seconds to survey the land around him. Gains 45 MS, 42 damage, and 20% attack speed. Can survey four areas in total.

Notes:
*This is a channeling spell.
*The bonuses only apply to the parts of the terrain that weren't under the Fog of War at the beginning of the channel.
*If the channel is interrupted, no bonuses are gained.
*The bonuses are gained when Kellen re-enters a surveyed area.
*When Kellen is inside a surveyed area, there is an icon placed in his status bar.
*When you level up this skill, the areas you already surveyed increase their bonuses to match the current level.

Water Mind - (Active)
A Knight Mage has one last spell saved for the 'last resort', which usually decides the outcome of the battle, and is often used to destroy enemy commanders. Kellen calls out to his inner magic to greatly enhance his fighting abilities, 'swimming' in battle like a fish in the sea.

Level

Mana

Cooldown

Cast Range

AoE

Duration

Effects

1

250MP

260

N/A

N/A

10

Kellen gains max MS, 55% AS, 40 damage, and 20% evasion. Kellen is unable to fight when his energy runs out. He is slowed by 60%, AS decreases by 70%, damage by 100 and armor by 30. His health and mana drop to 20%. The negative effects last 6 seconds. A friendly hero who is near Kellen would reduce the time that it takes him to recover by two seconds.

2

325MP

180

N/A

N/A

14

Kellen gains max MS, 65% AS, 50 damage, and 30% evasion. Kellen is unable to fight when his energy runs out. He is slowed by 60%, AS decreases by 70%, damage by 100 and armor by 30. His health and mana drop to 20%. The negative effects last 5 seconds. A friendly hero who is near Kellen would reduce the time that it takes him to recover by two seconds.

3

400MP

140

N/A

N/A

20

Kellen gains max MS, 75% AS, 60 damage, and 40% evasion. Kellen is unable to fight when his energy runs out. He is slowed by 60%, AS decreases by 70%, damage by 100 and armor by 30. His health and mana drop to 20%. The negative effects last 4 seconds. A friendly hero who is near Kellen would reduce the time that it takes him to recover by two seconds.

Notes:
*The debuff at the end of the spell cannot be purged.
*After the negative effects stop, Kellen regains all of his abilities over the period of 1 second (including Health and Mana)
*Being near Kellen means being within 175 units of him.
*Kellen will only benefit from one hero, even if there are more than one around him.

Notes: This is a hero based on a character from a book series. Since this is my first hero idea, please don't be too hard on me
In my opinion, his skills have a pretty good synergy. I will add/change things as I get more feedback (preferably constructive)

Last updated on: Feb 5/2010.
*Changed ultimate (now better when allies are nearby)
*Added his last name
*Added a background story
*Changed the skill descriptions a bit
*Changed ultimate (longer duration)
*Changed Battle Sight (larger AoE and a larger mana cost)
*Improved Awareness (more areas and slightly better bonuses)
*Elaborated on what happens to Awareness when you level up the skill
*Specified what I want the model to look like.

[Ivanns]

IMO for your 3rd skill, Awareness you should reduce the time that it takes to survey the land (8sec, 7sec, 6sec, 5sec) and also increase the amount of areas that he can remember(1, 1, 2, 2). As for the Ultimate, you should decrease the amount of time when he gets the negative effects off him (6, 5, 4).This is pretty much it, good luck on the idea.

[Skynetsvk]

nice idea, nice skin of spells love them

Battle Sight - this is alright not op

Defiance - I think it is op -

When Kellen's life falls below 64%, his HP regen is increased by 8 and armor by 12. When his life falls below 25%, his HP regen increases by 14 and armor by 22.

64% and he will get 8 hp/s and 12 armor ? get it on 55% or 50% and it will be good

Awareness - 10/10 I think it is great

Water Mind - it is kamikaze, reduct negative effect from 6 to lower

and I dont understand why he is agility type when he have spells for strength and his lower stat is agility .... ??

[CrucialMistake]

Points taken. Edited my post.

As for why he is Agility... His Strength gain is low because I want him to have low health. And besides, I think agility heroes have a higher variety of items to choose from.

[Skynetsvk]

so he is mage and strength and you didnt want him strength or intel so you gave him agility ? yes it is good and now you get him better agility .. it is okey now and you change defiance and negative effect of ulti , I think it is great now 10/10 for me pleasure to play with him

[Nevfigalo]

Can first skill be deactivated?
Too high mana cost of spells for agi hero.

[willalwaybenoob]

Cool, this hero is great.

1st skill - Really useful, can counter a lot of heroes.

2nd skill- Strong as hell, but thats what I like.

3rd skill - Useful, once again. I think you can adjust the buffs a little better. Like higher ms or increase in attack.

4th skill - A boost thing eh? I don't really understand how it works.

Stats - Hm...i would think agility won't fit his two names. I would think it would fit him if he was strength int would also do good.

[CrucialMistake]

Originally Posted by Evfeed

Can first skill be deactivated?
Too high mana cost of spells for agi hero.

It can (that's what toggle means after all), but holding it on for some time will take a good amount of mana, hence the rather decent int gain.
The Defiance skill is pretty good, but Kellen still gets outclassed by nukers, since his strength gain is pretty pathetic, and he needs to be at rather low HP for it to benefit him.
For the record, in the book, Kellen (and others like him) was not meant to take a lot of damage, but rather overwhelm his opponent by hitting in the right spot and dodging most of the attacks coming at him (when in Water Mind). Then, after the battle where he used Water Mind he usually fainted and was carried to his tent by a friend, or recovered himself after some time. Actually, that gives me an idea...

[Majstor]

Kelen's Dagger - The fabled dagger used by Kelen, the fastest assassin ever to walk the lands of Azeroth.

Your hero's name is already used (minus one "l", but essentially the same).

[CrucialMistake]

Originally Posted by Majstor

Kelen's Dagger - The fabled dagger used by Kelen, the fastest assassin ever to walk the lands of Azeroth.

Your hero's name is already used (minus one "l", but essentially the same).

Sorry, that's exactly the name used in the book, and that's the name I'm going with. I'm sure that the author never played DotA. Besides, as you can see, Kellen is no Assasin, he is a Knight Mage.

[CrucialMistake]

Finally added the story for Kellen. Still looking for constructive feedback.

[Wakka02]

Hm. You have an interesting hero concept here, but I dunno...

Firstly, how does Awareness work? If combined with Battle Sight, does the area affected increase? Will the surveyed area be marked? If so, will it be visible to enemy units, letting them know where you've tried to survey, and how will it be done? If not, will one simply have to remember where you've already cast the spell on? Will there be an icon showing the Awareness status effect on the hero, or some special animation? This skill will need to be elaborated more upon.

IMO, the limits placed on his Water Mind is uncalled for. Looking at his skill set, he's pretty much only mediocre at everything he does, and his Ultimate will offset that to make him a decent hero killer as a profession, and if it comes down to it Water Mind is his sole escaping skill (other than Defiance, but you can't really call that an escape skill, more of survival). Now, if you weaken him after a mere 10 seconds, then you make him not only unable to kill very well, but escape very well either. Slowers will eat him for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and if he hasn't left the game yet supper too. All they have to do is wait for 10 seconds to be over, and then he's ripe for the picking. They don't even need to pick Viper or any specific hero to counter you, they just need to delay you for 10 seconds and you're toast. Less than that, if they can predict your path of movement.

In my opinion, the slow/armor reduction/damage reduction after the effects of Water Mind should be removed for good. What's the point of having an Ultimate that will just kill you after it's over? And it's not as if it's that great of a skill. You gain AS/MS/damage and evasion, but the stat gains aren't nearly worth the cost. The high cooldown doesn't help its case either. The ultimate just doesn't match up with the raw power of other ultimates out there, and it has totally no synergy with the other three skills.

Lastly, I just got the feeling that this hero doesn't quite fit the theme of its name. He's a Mage Knight, but the only skill having anything to do with "Mage" is limited to the ulti, Water Mind, and even that's far fetched. Seriously, "swimming in battle like a fish in the sea" just doesn't cut it. It's more comedic than serious, and while DotA has its own share of levity, this just... boggles the mind.

But as I was saying before I got a little distracted, the entire skill set doesn't fit your theme at all. Maybe make Defiance the result of magic boiling in his blood, Awareness some enchantment spell combined with his keen elven senses, Battle Sight some magical enhancement on his vision. Or something like that. Right now, your hero just makes me think of some elven footsoldier who's dabbled a little in sorcery, then proceeds to call himself a Mage. That's all.

I'm sorry, but as it is, it's a no-go for me. The ultimate either needs to be redone or revamped, and your skills definitely need new names and descriptions.

[CrucialMistake]

Well, that's some great feedback. Now that I think of it, the skills do lack a good description. Keep in mind though, I'm trying to stay as close to the character from the book as possible.
As for the ultimate, I simply cannot remove that effect at the end, because that's what happens - he gets drained, and needs to restore himself. I'll increase the duration though.
And yes, Awareness has an AoE of your sight range, so it does synergize with Battle Sight. Also, you will have an icon in the status bar placed, but that's about it.
Now to answer the theme question. A Knight Mage's magic, as from the book, focuses on warfare (Battle Sight, Defiance, Water Mind). His spells serve the sole purpose of giving him an edge in hand-to-hand combat. He is not supposed to learn how to shoot lightning bolts out of the sky or anything, because that's simply not 'his thing'.

[evange]

I find it hard to read the effects of the skills, need more paragraphs.
Overall great hero, though i don't like the model.

[CrucialMistake]

Originally Posted by evange

I find it hard to read the effects of the skills, need more paragraphs.
Overall great hero, though i don't like the model.

What do you mean by 'need more paragraphs'? A bigger description?
As for the model, I would be perfectly content with the Dragon Knight model wearing red, so I chose the next best thing. What would you suggest then?

[Wakka02]

Thank you, I try to be as objective as I can when giving reviews.

Well, if you're set on the ulti, at least you buffed it to make it stronger. I still don't really like the "fish in the sea" description, but that's something at least. Although, this is YOUR hero suggestion, and you don't necessarily need to follow the book you're reading. Just a thought.

This hero will need to undergo proofing and tweaks here and there if ever implemented in DotA, of course, but as it is now I think it's all right. Suggestion: Write down how close an allied hero needs to be in order to get a guy out of Water Mind's negative effect in AOE. Clear that up a little, ya?

On the overall, I guess I'll T-up this suggestion. Good luck.

[CrucialMistake]

Originally Posted by Wakka02

Suggestion: Write down how close an allied hero needs to be in order to get a guy out of Water Mind's negative effect in AOE. Clear that up a little, ya?

I think you missed it, it's in the notes for the spell. It's 175 units.

[galuf]

Mana intensive, no farming spell, a tanking hability but no need to focus him.

Not coherent at all.

[CrucialMistake]

Originally Posted by galuf

Mana intensive, no farming spell, a tanking ability but no need to focus him.

Not coherent at all.

Wow... It seems you did not comprehend what you read at all... If you even read anything.
Awareness is his farming spell, it gives him damage and attack speed. Movement speed is also nice when you are trying to get around your creeps to last hit.
No need to focus him? What about when he uses Water Mind, and is fighting inside a Surveyed area? He has a pretty strong DPS, and the last time I checked, DPSers/Nukers are the heroes you want to focus down first. Besides, when he gets drained after using his ultimate, he is going to be focused down for sure, because he will be very weak during that time.
Mana intensive indeed. That will most likely lead to people buying Vlads and/or Battlefury for him, which is exactly what I want.

[Wakka02]

Oh. I guessed I missed out on that then. My bad. ^^"

As for the argument above... Well... That really depends on the game you're playing. Sometimes, I'd take out the disablers and supporters first, just so the DPS will find their job that much harder to do. Every DotA game's different, so you can't really judge based on that. But as for when he gets out of Water Mind, I wouldn't target him per se, simply because he's so drained that he's useless for the time being. Four seconds is a lot, and even two seconds can result in an allied hero's death. It's not like you'll be able to cast Water Mind immediately afterward, so I might as well take out the other heroes first, you get what I'm saying? Just a thought for you to have when you're designing the hero further.