[Int-Sent]Medivh, the Master Manipulator

[melody10511]

This hero was created with ideas from many other people. Credits go also to them.

Updates

Feb. 24
-Increased manacosts of Implosion and Explosion from 100 to 150.
-Decreased the duration of Frozen Fast from 4/5/6/7 to 2/3/4/5
-Added slow effect to Dimensional Collapse.
-Added cooldowns to Implosion, Explosion, and Swap.
-Increased the range of Ball of Manipulation from 800/1200/1600/2000 to 1000/1500/2000/2500.
-Fixed the duration of Dimensional Collapse to 12 at all level.

Mar. 2. 10
-Increased the movespeed of Ball of Manipulation from 500 to 600.
-Decreased the cooldown of Implosion, Explosion, and Swap from 2 to 1.5.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Medivh, the Master Manipulator

Background

After witnessing the conflict between the two powers, Medivh himself finally decided to join the war. With his superior ability over spatial manipulation, he can easily manipulate the battle using his powers. He can quickly move to another place and come back, create a ball of his manipulative energy for various purposes, freeze an enemy, and even making the dimension collapse.

Stats

Strength: 20 + 1.5
Agility: 10 + 1.2
Intelligence: 28 + 3

Damage: 45 - 53
Armor: 2
Movespeed: 300
Attack Range: 500
Missile Speed: 1000
Sight Range: 1800 / 1400

Skill Set

Temporary Discharge(Credit goes to Leak)

Temporary Discharge
Temporarily discharges Medivh from his current position and teleports it to a selected place anywhere on the map. Several seconds later, he will be teleported back to his original position.

Level 1: 2 seconds
Level 2: 3 seconds
Level 3: 4 seconds
Level 4: 5 seconds

Mana Cost: 90/100/110/120
Cooldown: 30/25/20/20
Casting Range: Global (Teleport area does not have to be explored.)

Refer to his thread for more information.

Ball of Manipulation
Medivh releases a ball of manipulative energy that can serve various purposes. 15 Cooldown at all level. No manacost. Moves at 600 ms.

Level 1: 1000 range
Level 2: 1500 range
Level 3: 2000 range
Level 4: 2500 range

*This skill is target ground skill.

Sub Skills


Implosion
Sucks all nearby enemies to the place of the ball. 150 Mana cost and 1.5 seconds cooldown at all level.

Level 1: 300 AOE, 80 damage.
Level 2: 350 AOE, 120 damage.
Level 3: 400 AOE, 160 damage.
Level 4: 450 AOE, 200 damage.

Explosion
Pushes back all nearby enemies from the ball. 150 Mana cost and 1.5 seconds cooldown at all level.

Level 1: 300 Knockback, 100 damage.
Level 2: 350 Knockback, 150 damage.
Level 3: 400 Knockback, 200 damage.
Level 4: 450 Knockback, 250 damage.

*Target cannot pass through impassable terrains.

Swap
Switches places with the ball. Stays the same for all level. 50 Mana cost and 1.5 seconds cooldown at all level.

*When you learn Ball of Manipulation, the first two subskills will be shown.
*When you cast Ball of Manipulation, the icon will change, and pressing the same hotkey will cast Swap.

Frozen Fast(Credit goes to DarthNoob)

Frozen Fast
Medivh channels his body with the target hero. The target cannot move when Medivh is standing still. Deals 40 damage per second.

Level 1: Lasts 2 seconds.
Level 2: Lasts 3 seconds.
Level 3: Lasts 4 seconds.
Level 4: Lasts 5 seconds.

Mana Cost: 120/110/100/90
Cooldown: 30/28/25/22
Casting Range: 600/650/700/800

*This skill is NOT channeling.
*Moving using skills is considered as "standing still".

Dimensional Collapse(Credit goes to Axidos)

Dimensional Collapse
Medivh turns a small area into a dimensionally collapsed zone. Whenever Medivh moves from one point in this zone to another, he will instead instantly teleport to his destination. Medivh is not able to teleport into or out of the zone - entering or leaving the zone must be done on foot. Also allies within this zone will have movespeed boost by 15% and enemies within this zone will be slowed by 15%.

Level 1: Medivh creates a small dimensional collapse.
Level 2: Medivh creates a larger, longer lasting dimensional collapse.
Level 3: Medivh creates the largest, longest-lasting dimensional collapse possible without tearing a rift.

Manacost: 200/300/400
Cooldown: 120/100/80
Duration: 12
AOE: 500/750/1000
Casting Range: N/A

*The spell is casted from right where Medivh is standing. He will be the center of the AOE.

Refer to his thread for more information.

Synergies

Temporary Discharge + Ball of Manipulation -> Swap
Indirect teleport.

Frozen Fast + Temporary Discharge
You can safely freeze the enemy without getting yourself get hurt during clash.

Ball of Manipulation -> Implode -> Swap + Dimensional Collapse
Blink to the desired location of your ultimate, and cast it.

Dimensional Collapse + Ball of Manipulation -> Implode
Move the enemies to the center or inside the Dimensional Collapse zone.

Friends and Foes

Friends

Medivh already has a vacuum skill, but another vacuum won't hurt. Also, Frozen Fast + Ion Shell will hurt a lot.


Use Implode to help him land some godly ulti. Then he can do the rest.


Heal never hurts you. Repel can make you invincible while you play with your enemies. Also, Degen Aura + Dimensional Collapse + Guardian Angel can totally rape the enemy team.


Extra mana never hurts either. You can help him land Illuminate with Implosion.


He can greatly help the enemies stay in Dimensional Collapse zone. He is also a mobile ganker/initiator.


All AOE disable/nukers are welcome to Medivh.

Foes

All silencers are basically counter to this hero.


He can make you a useless piece of shit for an entire clash.


You need mana, but these heroes burn mana. How uncool is that?

Explanation

This hero's skill set is so dynamic, that it is possible to think of so many situations this hero can create. He is incredibly mobile with all his skills.

Temporary Discharge is a scouting skill, or escaping skill itself, but with Swap, you can teleport to where you desire by using TD, and sending BoM to your desired location, then when you return to your original position, use Swap to permanently move to where you want.

Ball of Manipulation is also one crazy skill, because with enough mana, you can easily manipulate the positions of your enemies, and in quick succession. Implosion + Swap + Dimensional Collapse can turn out to be godly. Also, you can save your chased allies by pushing away the enemies using Explosion. Another situation is, use Implosion + Swap + Explosion, then Frozen Fast on one hero, Swap again, and Temporary Discharge to another hero and use your item ability such as Hex, Dagon, or Cyclone. The possibility of this skill is seemingly endless.

Frozen Fast itself is a lame skill, but because Medivh's teleport-y abilities, it can turn out to be a free 5 second disable with mediocre damage. Frozen Fast one hero, then use Temporary Discharge + Ball of Manipulation to assist in other ganks, and when you come back, kill the Frozen Fast-ed hero with your allies. He can possibly assist in two ganks at the same time with enough micro.

Dimensional Collapse is the final form of his teleport-iness. This skill boosts allies' movespeed and slows enemies. Also within this zone, Medivh is almost invincible because he can blink to anywhere in the zone. Frozen Fast one hero, use your Ball of Manipulation to damage your enemies.

As you can see, this hero's gameplay is so dynamic and extremely mouse intensive. The examples I gave are only a few, and if this hero gets implemented in the real game, it would lift DotA to a higher level game.

[chadpiety123]

I don't really know. As far as I'm concerned, the general concept of each of this hero's skills is good. Superb even. Definitely. No question. However, in the end, this hero just ends up as just another mash of mobility with some cherry on top. I personally don't know if this is good or bad, because hey, I'm awestruck with the skills.

Temporary Discharge is just great. It's a great scouting skill, and a great mobility skill as well. The synergy with Ball of Manipulation > Swap is also intelligent to the point that I don't really care anymore that it's just another Teleport, because in fact, it isn't!

Ball of Manipulation is just genius. I like this so damn much, and its that type of skill which you will catch me making. The possibilities it has are immense and this kind of skill has great depth in it. A few questions though:

1) Upon swap, implode or explode, I assume that the ball is not destroyed? I hope not. Definitely.
2) What's the cooldown of implode, explode and swap? I hope they do have a cooldown-- but a short one at that.

You see, I asked this questions for strategic purposes. I hope that the ball will not be destroyed so you can throw the ball, implode, swap then explode, then probably swap again. Or any combination as long as the ball happens to be over and traveling until it has reached its maximum travel distance. It'd be great, and will topple Mirana's Elune's Arrow if you ask me. With that, this hero will be hell of an amazing ganker and supporter, as well as initiator.

Frozen Fast is also good and creative, however, my concern is the way movement is detected. It is easy in rupture as the difference between the positions determine the damage, however, with this one I'm not too sure, so I suggest you ask the Programmer's Section for this (I'm curious as well). Concept wise, it is nice-- but the duration might be too long, since you do have 3 mobility abilities which allow you to move without moving. Just increase the damage per second if you're going to decrease the duration.

Dimensional Collapse is a very creative skill to say the least. But it confuses me that you chose such an ability for your Ultimate. Actually, scratch that, it doesn't. I just realized that the synergy it has with Ball of Manipulation and Fast Freeze is too great. However, it'd be nice to kind of know that aside from these synergies, Medivh could have a great use of his awesome-teleport-iness, outside of spell-casting circumstances (aside from chasing), but I might just be overreacting here. I don't know if it would be imbalanced, but I propose an increase in the movement speed bonus? Or if that's not possible for all levels, at least scale it up per level?

Overall, great hero concept and all, but the amount of mobility astounds me as IMBA, as I'd have to say that killing someone using this hero outside of the subclass stupid is almost impossible. A solution is high mana cost, a low intelligence growth, disproportionate casting ranges (which I forgot, there aren't) and probably a mid-short range (350-400?) or even melee range (180) which shouldn't hurt at all IMO, since kiting melee opponents might come out as imbalanced.

I'm really thrilled and hyped with this hero. I seldom feel that nowadays, and I'd really have to congratulate you for this. Not only does this hero have good foundation and great concept, it also has extremely interesting synergies. Extreme. I like the playstyle, and IMO, if this were going to be implemented in DotA, this would definitely one of the top picks and favorites.

[melody10511]

Originally Posted by chadpiety123

I don't really know. As far as I'm concerned, the general concept of each of this hero's skills is good. Superb even. Definitely. No question. However, in the end, this hero just ends up as just another mash of mobility with some cherry on top. I personally don't know if this is good or bad, because hey, I'm awestruck with the skills.

Temporary Discharge is just great. It's a great scouting skill, and a great mobility skill as well. The synergy with Ball of Manipulation > Swap is also intelligent to the point that I don't really care anymore that it's just another Teleport, because in fact, it isn't!

Ball of Manipulation is just genius. I like this so damn much, and its that type of skill which you will catch me making. The possibilities it has are immense and this kind of skill has great depth in it. A few questions though:

1) Upon swap, implode or explode, I assume that the ball is not destroyed? I hope not. Definitely.
2) What's the cooldown of implode, explode and swap? I hope they do have a cooldown-- but a short one at that.

You see, I asked this questions for strategic purposes. I hope that the ball will not be destroyed so you can throw the ball, implode, swap then explode, then probably swap again. Or any combination as long as the ball happens to be over and traveling until it has reached its maximum travel distance. It'd be great, and will topple Mirana's Elune's Arrow if you ask me. With that, this hero will be hell of an amazing ganker and supporter, as well as initiator.

Frozen Fast is also good and creative, however, my concern is the way movement is detected. It is easy in rupture as the difference between the positions determine the damage, however, with this one I'm not too sure, so I suggest you ask the Programmer's Section for this (I'm curious as well). Concept wise, it is nice-- but the duration might be too long, since you do have 3 mobility abilities which allow you to move without moving. Just increase the damage per second if you're going to decrease the duration.

Dimensional Collapse is a very creative skill to say the least. But it confuses me that you chose such an ability for your Ultimate. Actually, scratch that, it doesn't. I just realized that the synergy it has with Ball of Manipulation and Fast Freeze is too great. However, it'd be nice to kind of know that aside from these synergies, Medivh could have a great use of his awesome-teleport-iness, outside of spell-casting circumstances (aside from chasing), but I might just be overreacting here. I don't know if it would be imbalanced, but I propose an increase in the movement speed bonus? Or if that's not possible for all levels, at least scale it up per level?

Overall, great hero concept and all, but the amount of mobility astounds me as IMBA, as I'd have to say that killing someone using this hero outside of the subclass stupid is almost impossible. A solution is high mana cost, a low intelligence growth, disproportionate casting ranges (which I forgot, there aren't) and probably a mid-short range (350-400?) or even melee range (180) which shouldn't hurt at all IMO, since kiting melee opponents might come out as imbalanced.

I'm really thrilled and hyped with this hero. I seldom feel that nowadays, and I'd really have to congratulate you for this. Not only does this hero have good foundation and great concept, it also has extremely interesting synergies. Extreme. I like the playstyle, and IMO, if this were going to be implemented in DotA, this would definitely one of the top picks and favorites.

lol I'm honored. Well let me clarify some points and maybe fix them.

First, I was thinking of making the ball get destroyed when you use any of the skills, but then, it would make it too weak, so I thought of it this way.

-The ball doesn't get destroyed, and it just flies in a straight line where, you can cast skills. Implosion and explosion will have brief cooldown in such a way that you will now be able to use it in quick succession. But for this to succeed, the ball should move a bit slow.
-About Swap, I think that being able to swap twice is too much. So I came up this idea that when you cast swap, the ball will be destroyed since the skill name is "Swap". So you will have to use Implosion, Explosion, then Swap. Or Implosion, Explosion, then do it again in different location, then Swap.

About Dimensional Collapse, I don't think increasing movement bonus is necessary since, 15% is actually quite big. So maybe, how about put slow effect on enemies by... maybe 10% or 20%? That would make it harmful for enemies as well.

Thank you for your review, but I think I'll have to wait for more reviews before changing the values as of now.

[chadpiety123]

Don't make it be destroyed upon swap. Just increase the cooldown of swap to a considerable amount.

Say the ball travels at 450MS. For it to travel 2000 units (level 4), around 4.5 seconds is needed. I'd say change the cooldown of swap to 4 seconds, and give it a chance for a second swap at 4 seconds, making it a game of precision.

It's really up to you, but I tell you 15% is not a very convincing value. If you noticed, in the previous patches, Icefrog removed most of the 10% and 15% slows and stuff because they are too negligible. But if you do add a slow though, then the increase in MS isn't necessary anymore.

I'd really love to discuss this hero's disturbing amount of survivability. If it's alright? I quote myself:

I'd have to say that killing someone using this hero outside of the subclass stupid is almost impossible

[melody10511]

Yes, I agree this hero turned out to be stupidly mobile. But then, I'm not too sure if changing any of the skills will turn out to be great. So as you suggested, I do think I should whether lower its int, or make the manacost higher.

Lowering intelligence from 28 -> 25 and int gain from 3 -> 2.2

Or/and

Increase Manacost of Explosion and Implosion from 100 to 150.
Increase Manacost of Temporary Discharge from 90/100/110/120 to 120/130/140/150

Or/and

Put Manacost for casting Ball of Manipulation to either 20 or 30 or 50.


I'm not too sure if decreasing duration for Frozen Fast is necessary though.

[chadpiety123]

Well you see, you have three blinks which make you able to move without moving. That being said, you could instantly penalize someone's movement without actually risking yourself from the movement penalty. Just by saying this 7 seconds is already too much. You could conveniently go to some place in the map assist in a gank from far far away using a 7 seconds disable that cannot be interrupted because you're too damn far back in your fountain. Even at the center of the clash, because of your Ultimate, you could just go in, freeze, then hide or whatever that's convenient for you. I'm just saying.

You also missed out on the Ult's duration.

[melody10511]

Originally Posted by chadpiety123

Well you see, you have three blinks which make you able to move without moving. That being said, you could instantly penalize someone's movement without actually risking yourself from the movement penalty. Just by saying this 7 seconds is already too much. You could conveniently go to some place in the map assist in a gank from far far away using a 7 seconds disable that cannot be interrupted because you're too damn far back in your fountain. Even at the center of the clash, because of your Ultimate, you could just go in, freeze, then hide or whatever that's convenient for you. I'm just saying.

I was thinking of the same thing... and now that you say it, I do think it is too much. I'll change it. Also, increasing manacosts of the skills.

[chadpiety123]

You might've missed it because it's just an edit, but I also think you forgot the duration of the Ultimate.

[melody10511]

Originally Posted by chadpiety123

You might've missed it because it's just an edit, but I also think you forgot the duration of the Ultimate.

Oops, thnx.

[chadpiety123]

Well, this is a personal opinion, and I rule I like to impose on myself. If everything in ability scales, then it tends to get too pathetically weak at the beginning. I find your duration appalling, since the AoE is already scaling, I think the scaling of the duration shouldn't be too much as 3 seconds; in fact, if scaling the duration isn't necessary, then the duration should be static.

IMO, having the duration scale along with the AoE is a bad choice. 500 AoE is already small enough, then you'd still have to limit that to a very short duration. How useless could that be?

[melody10511]

Originally Posted by chadpiety123

Well, this is a personal opinion, and I rule I like to impose on myself. If everything in ability scales, then it tends to get too pathetically weak at the beginning. I find your duration appalling, since the AoE is already scaling, I think the scaling of the duration shouldn't be too much as 3 seconds; in fact, if scaling the duration isn't necessary, then the duration should be static.

IMO, having the duration scale along with the AoE is a bad choice. 500 AoE is already small enough, then you'd still have to limit that to a very short duration. How useless could that be?

Fix'd.

Maybe I should add in the OP "Product of collaboration with [chadpiety123]". XDD But seriously, if you want I can add that section.

[chadpiety123]

No, no need. I'm just helping out and reviewing things as I always do. And I really find great interest in this one.

BTW, better improve your layout-- it'll make more people want to read. Currently, it kind of looks a little unprofessional, and gives a degrading impression.

[Captain Planet]

Skill 1: Nice, clean simple skill that could be very useful for chasing and tower diving without causing too much pain. the fact that you don't have to have targeted somewhere you have explored means you can easily get first blood if you level this fast enough (one extra hit on that fleeing Terrorblade ^_^)

Skill 2: Very good as well. I like the ways in which you can interact with the ball of energy. I like the three subskills and have no problem with that. My only problem with the skill is that heroes like SB, Night Stalker, Lycan and Dark Seer can out-run this. Make it's movespeed 550-600 instead so that you can chase with this as well. Those heroes are already hard to enough to catch as it is, without this not doing the job

Skill 3: I don't quite get this. When Medivh is standing still, the enemy is frozen, so long as the duration hasn't run out? That effectively IS a channel. I like the idea, but you need to make it clear what actually happens and whether it's Medivh who must stand still for the enemy to take damage or whether the enemy will take damage when standing still. If it's the later, then you will be awesome when paired with CM, Rooftrellen, Rhasta, Batrider, and any other long-term disabler (3 seconds or longer).

Ultimate: This skill = :hrh: Not much more I can say, in that large area, you will be perma-blnking every time you move, which will make you one of the most hated heroes for enemy teams. Cast a nuke...blink. Cast Dagon (an item I think might work on this hero as he has excellent chasing/finishing skills)...blink ^_^ LOVE IT! I have no advice on this skill as it is simply pure win! I like especially the additional movespeed changes.

Overall. Other than some of the small things I have pointed out, I can't really see much wrong with this hero. Clean, effective and excruciatingly frustrating for enemy teams, this hero would be a powerful addition to any line-up. Good job! Pm me if you have any questions or want to correct any mistakes I have made.

The_Juggernaut

[melody10511]

Originally Posted by The_Juggernaut

Skill 1: Nice, clean simple skill that could be very useful for chasing and tower diving without causing too much pain. the fact that you don't have to have targeted somewhere you have explored means you can easily get first blood if you level this fast enough (one extra hit on that fleeing Terrorblade ^_^)

Skill 2: Very good as well. I like the ways in which you can interact with the ball of energy. I like the three subskills and have no problem with that. My only problem with the skill is that heroes like SB, Night Stalker, Lycan and Dark Seer can out-run this. Make it's movespeed 550-600 instead so that you can chase with this as well. Those heroes are already hard to enough to catch as it is, without this not doing the job

Skill 3: I don't quite get this. When Medivh is standing still, the enemy is frozen, so long as the duration hasn't run out? That effectively IS a channel. I like the idea, but you need to make it clear what actually happens and whether it's Medivh who must stand still for the enemy to take damage or whether the enemy will take damage when standing still. If it's the later, then you will be awesome when paired with CM, Rooftrellen, Rhasta, Batrider, and any other long-term disabler (3 seconds or longer).

Ultimate: This skill = :hrh: Not much more I can say, in that large area, you will be perma-blnking every time you move, which will make you one of the most hated heroes for enemy teams. Cast a nuke...blink. Cast Dagon (an item I think might work on this hero as he has excellent chasing/finishing skills)...blink ^_^ LOVE IT! I have no advice on this skill as it is simply pure win! I like especially the additional movespeed changes.

Overall. Other than some of the small things I have pointed out, I can't really see much wrong with this hero. Clean, effective and excruciatingly frustrating for enemy teams, this hero would be a powerful addition to any line-up. Good job! Pm me if you have any questions or want to correct any mistakes I have made.

The_Juggernaut

Your suggestion on skill 2 will be implemented. Thanks for pointing out.

Yes, as long as Medivh is standing still, the enemy can't move. But if Medivh moves even just an inch, the enemy is able to move just during that instance. DPS works whether the target is moving or not.

Besides, it's not channeling because stunning Medivh won't free the enemy from the skill.

Thank you for the review.

[NoThlnG]

1st Skill : Simply nice. Remind me bit of kunkka but still good. The problem is this skill is very good for kill stealing xD. Hmm... Also this skill will be quite imba on destroying and denying towers....

2nd Skill : Another nice skill. Remind me a bit of the Fire Panda suggestion though.

3rd Skill : Change "The target cannot move when he is standing still" to "The target cannot move when Medivh is standing still". It is ambiguous and I almost misunderstood it.

Ultimate : I already seen the Axidos' one and I liked it.

Synergy : Some problem I found here. 1st skill and ulti is making this hero "mobile" while the 3rd skill needs this hero to not move. I think it is anti-synergic thus need to be change. Also, having 2 teleport-like skill sounds not that good to me.

[melody10511]

Originally Posted by NoThlnG

Synergy : Some problem I found here. 1st skill and ulti is making this hero "mobile" while the 3rd skill needs this hero to not move. I think it is anti-synergic thus need to be change. Also, having 2 teleport-like skill sounds not that good to me.

Added a note on that skill for ya. Moving there means simply "Walking". Meaning, if you move using teleporting skills, it's still considered as "standing still". Hope I answered your question.

[NoThlnG]

Originally Posted by melody10511

Added a note on that skill for ya. Moving there means simply "Walking". Meaning, if you move using teleporting skills, it's still considered as "standing still". Hope I answered your question.

Then what about force staff, meat hook, knockback, swap?

[LimitbreaKer]

Nice concept. I'd really like to see this implemented.

[barnabas90]

when can i play medivh?