Boons, Idol of Fortune

[LysanderXonora]

Idol of Fortune
Boons

The Idol of Fortune's skill effectiveness early on depends on the luck of the user. The skill horseshoe should not be taken lightly just because its travelling is randomized. Used with good faith and fortune, this skill can strike the same target twice, dealing way more damage than any other of its counterparts. His other two skills, White and Black Voodoo, both serve as random buff/debuff skills that can aid in a team clash, an escape and even a pursuit. His ultimate is where his true potency lies, the ability to control the outcome of his three skills and a chance for nearby spellcasters to stun themselves make his Wellspring Blessing an absolute must. With the ultimate's upgrade and a good aim, striking a target twice with horseshoe is a sure thing, and three times becomes a good possiblity. The buffs and debuffs of his Voodoo's can be swapped strategically, making the play style of this hero hard to predict and hence counter. This hero possesses are large amount of skills and subskills, hence, would be most effective on players who possess quick reflexes, experience and perhaps luck.

A former guardian of the Broken Isles, Boons was blessed with the power of the Wellspring that gave him random magical properties and powers. He now fights alongside the Sentinel as a lucky charm, for his mysterious powers always seem to bestows upon his comrades the lucky edge they need to defeat their enemies. By tapping into his inner power, he is able to control the his and other's fortunes, eventually earned him the title: 'Idol of Fortune'. Learns Horseshoe, White Voodoo, Black Voodoo and Wellspring Blessing.

Strength - 28 + 1.8
Agility - 8 + 1.8
Intelligence - 18 + 2.8

Affiliation:	Neutral
Damage:	48-58
Armor:	5
Movespeed:	300
Starting HP/MP:	682/260
Attack Range:	168 (melee)

Horseshoe - Active, Point Target

____________________

Boons hurls a magical projectile at a point, dealing damage and stunning all struck. At the end point of its target, it will randomly swing to the left or right for another 300 units. If a target is struck again by the horseshoe after it turns, it takes another instance of damage and stun.

__	____.	________.	_______.	___.	_______.	__________________________.
	Mana	Cooldown	C. Range	AoE	Duration	Effects
1	100	12	700	150	1	Deals 100 damage.
2	105	11	700	150	1	Deals 150 damage.
3	110	10	700	150	1	Deals 200 damage.
4	115	9	700	150	1	Deals 250 damage.

Notes:

• Missile Speed is 700.

• Swings at 90 degrees.
  

• Gains subskill after ultimate is learnt.
  
  
  Swing Left - Active, Instant.
  

  ____________

  Reverses the direction of a horseshoe after it has swung right. Any unit struck again by the horse shoe when this happens suffers another instance of damage and stun.

  
  

  __	____.	________.	_______.	___.	_______.	__________________________.
  	Mana	Cooldown	C. Range	AoE	Duration	Effects
  1	50	-	-	-	-	Swings horseshoe to the left.

  
  Notes:

  • This subskill is attained after skilling one level of the ultimate.

  • This subskill replaces the 'Horseshoe' spell right after the horseshoe swings right.

  
  
  Swing Right - Active, Instant.
  

  ____________

  Reverses the direction of a horseshoe after it has swung left. Any unit struck again by the horse shoe when this happens suffers another instance of damage and stun.

  
  
  

  __	____.	________.	_______.	___.	_______.	__________________________.
  	Mana	Cooldown	C. Range	AoE	Duration	Effects
  1	50	-	-	-	-	Swings horseshoe to the right.

  
  Notes:

  • This subskill is attained after skilling one level of the ultimate.

  • This subskill replaces the 'Horseshoe' spell right after the horseshoe swings left.

White Voodoo - Active, Instant, Area Effect, Affects Allied Heroes.

____________________

Boons casts a simple spell around himself and allies, giving them 1 of 2 possible buffs. Allies affected will either gain increased movement and mana or health and armour over 8 seconds.

__	____.	________.	_______.	___.	_______.	__________________________.
	Mana	Cooldown	C. Range	AoE	Duration	Effects
1	70	10	-	400	8	Either gains +3 armour and 15 HP/s or +5%MS and 10 mana/s.
2	80	10	-	550	8	Either gains +5 armour and 20 HP/s or +10%MS and 15 mana/s.
3	90	10	-	600	8	Either gains +7 armour and 25 HP/s or +15%MS and 20 mana/s.
4	100	10	-	650	8	Either gains +9 armour and 30 HP/s or +20%MS and 25 mana/s.

Notes:

• HP and Mana gain is not stopped by damage taken.

• Subskill is added upon skilling ultimate.
  
  Alter - Active, Instant.
  

  ____________

  Reverses the effect of White Voodoo on all units buffed by it.

  
  
  

  __	____.	________.	_______.	___.	_______.	__________________________.
  	Mana	Cooldown	C. Range	AoE	Duration	Effects
  1	50	-	-	-	-	Alters the effect of the current White Voodoo buff.

  
  Notes:

  • This subskill is attained after skilling one level of the ultimate.

  • This subskill replaces the 'White Voodoo' spell right after its cast.

  • When this subskill is used, the effects of white voodoo will switch. (eg. The randomed buff was adding hp+armour, when you activate 'alter' it will change the buff to adding mana+ms for the remainder of the duration.)

  • This skill will be assigned a different hotkey from black voodoo's "alter"

  • Alter can only be used once per casting of White Voodoo.

Black Voodoo - Active, Area Target, Affects Enemy Heroes

____________________

Boons casts a random curse over an area, affecting all enemy heroes. Affected targets either have their movement slowed or suffer magical damage over time. However, casting this spell gives a slight risk for Boons to curse himself.

__	____.	________.	_______.	___.	_______.	__________________________.
	Mana	Cooldown	C. Range	AoE	Duration	Effects
1	100	15	700	400	8	Deals 20 damage/s or a 15% slow. 33% chance to curse self.
2	100	15	700	400	8	Deals 30 damage/s or a 20% slow. 33% chance to curse self.
3	100	15	700	400	8	Deals 40 damage/s or a 25% slow. 33% chance to curse self.
4	100	15	700	400	8	Deals 50 damage/s or a 30% slow. 33% chance to curse self.

Notes:

• Hero can only curse itself with the dps, not slow.

• Self-Curse dps is equivalent to half the damage the level would deal to enemies at the level.

• Self-Curse can be used for suicide.

Alter - Active, Instant.

____________

Reverses the effect of Black Voodoo on all units debuffed by it. Also removes the debuff from Boons if he had accidentally cursed himself.

__	____.	________.	_______.	___.	_______.	__________________________.
	Mana	Cooldown	C. Range	AoE	Duration	Effects
1	50	-	-	-	-	Alters the effect of the current Black Voodoo buff.

Notes:

• This subskill is attained after skilling one level of the ultimate.

• This subskill replaces the 'Black Voodoo' spell right after its cast.

• When this subskill is used, the effects of black voodoo will switch. (eg. The randomed buff was damage over time, when you activate 'alter' it will change the debuff to slow for the remainder of the duration.)

• When this skill is used, it debuffs the self-inflicted curse, if any.

• This skill will be assigned a different hotkey from white voodoo's "alter"

• Alter can only be used once per casting of Black Voodoo.

Wellspring Blessing - Passive

____________________

Boons passively taps into the mysterious power of the Well, enabling him to control the outcome of his spells. Passively, enemy heroes in an area around him have a chance to fail a spell they are attempting to cast and become stunned.

__	____.	________.	_______.	___.	_______.	__________________________.
	Mana	Cooldown	C. Range	AoE	Duration	Effects
1	-	-	-	600	1	10% chance to fail spell and become stunned for 1 second.
2	-	-	-	700	1	15% chance to fail spell and become stunned for 1 second.
3	-	-	-	800	1	20% chance to fail spell and become stunned for 1 second.

Notes:

• If hero 'fails' a spell, it will be paused before casting its spell. Channeling spells would be wasted. It would then go on to get stunned for 1 second.

• Grants all spells an additional subskill.

Credits to Hive Workshop for the model.

[Necamijat]

I like this one

[Teh_Heartless]

For the first skill, how many times can you make it turn or is it until the duration of the flight?

[condorzai]

LOL!! The ulti is epic... T-UP for overall epicness

[LysanderXonora]

Originally Posted by Teh_Heartless

For the first skill, how many times can you make it turn or is it until the duration of the flight?

Turn once. Say it randomed right. The subskill 'swing left' will appear. And will disappear once you use it. The original skill will then be replaced again.

The horseshoe turns exactly at the point you designate with your mouse.

@Condorzai - LOL, thanks

[wickman]

Hoo-rah for spell failure. If its codable, and I don't see why it wouldn't be, it will be a landmark skill for Dota.

Buff/debuff spells have a lot of power through the fact that they are AoE. Never knock an aoe comprehensive heal.

Lol'd at horseshoe attack. Epic mechanics, simple yet oh so creative. I love skills that need aiming.

The fact that this hero has randomness that can be controlled/used to a degree by the player is awesome too. People get all crazy about uncertain outcomes. Its better if each uncertain outcome is something good for you that you can work with. You just have to be good at adapting your strategy quickly at the outcome. It forces you to be a smarter player and to be able to make something of your fortune, whatever form it comes in.

I could see this hero being a monster mid-game pusher hero when your team is just shot-gunning mid. The buff/debuffs are just enough that I think a devoted push will break through. At that point in the game the other team wont react and gather to defend as they should. Great strategy potential.

Good job making a luck hero that has a controlled but enjoyable 'standard deviation' from the norm. Usually they come out pretty poor.

[Teh_Heartless]

Ah I see. I'd love to see that in a dota game.

[LysanderXonora]

Originally Posted by wickman

Hoo-rah for spell failure. If its codable, and I don't see why it wouldn't be, it will be a landmark skill for Dota.


I know right. It is, and easily too.

Buff/debuff spells have a lot of power through the fact that they are AoE. Never knock an aoe comprehensive heal.

Dont get this. Knock an aoe?

Lol'd at horseshoe attack. Epic mechanics, simple yet oh so creative. I love skills that need aiming.


Rofl thanks. It just hit me. (no pun intended)

The fact that this hero has randomness that can be controlled/used to a degree by the player is awesome too. People get all crazy about uncertain outcomes. Its better if each uncertain outcome is something good for you that you can work with. You just have to be good at adapting your strategy quickly at the outcome. It forces you to be a smarter player and to be able to make something of your fortune, whatever form it comes in.

What do you suggest?

I could see this hero being a monster mid-game pusher hero when your team is just shot-gunning mid. The buff/debuffs are just enough that I think a devoted push will break through. At that point in the game the other team wont react and gather to defend as they should. Great strategy potential.


Oh yea, fits the bg story huh.

Good job making a luck hero that has a controlled but enjoyable 'standard deviation' from the norm. Usually they come out pretty poor.

You have no idea how awesome this sentence is too me. Thanks for your awesome comments Although, I wouldnt mind if you gave insights on the stats, numbers detailed gameplay feelings etc. AND reviewed my gryphon hero.

Originally Posted by Teh_Heartless

Ah I see. I'd love to see that in a dota game.

Seriously, so would I. It just feels epic.

[gamerinboxers]

Nicely thought off~
However, how do you fit effecively 7 skills in the menu?
Skill 1 + Sub-Skill, Skill 2 + Sub-Skill, Skill 3 + Sub-Skill, Ulti..
I see that you mentioned Skill 1 replaced by sub-skill, but what if refresher was used after the sub skill appear?

Forgive me if i didn't read the notes after the skills =P

[MorDorMaNiaC]

Originally Posted by gamerinboxers

Nicely thought off~
However, how do you fit effecively 7 skills in the menu?
Skill 1 + Sub-Skill, Skill 2 + Sub-Skill, Skill 3 + Sub-Skill, Ulti..
I see that you mentioned Skill 1 replaced by sub-skill, but what if refresher was used after the sub skill appear?

Forgive me if i didn't read the notes after the skills =P

For the 2nd and 3rd Skills maybe it appears only after the spell is cast (Like Wisp's Spirits). Don't know how he's gonna fit the 1st Skill's Turn left/Right.

[LysanderXonora]

Originally Posted by MorDorMaNiaC

For the 2nd and 3rd Skills maybe it appears only after the spell is cast (Like Wisp's Spirits). Don't know how he's gonna fit the 1st Skill's Turn left/Right.

Refresher will not work well with this hero.

In response to your questions^^,

Mordor is right, they appear after cast, like wisps. As for horseshoe, swing left/right appears after the horseshoe turns. Say it is randomed to swing left, the swing right icon will replace horseshoe immediately when it turns.

[Teh_Heartless]

Btw did you make the model yourself?

[LysanderXonora]

No. I got it frm hive workshop. It's been creditted. lol

I made the icons though

[gamerinboxers]

Originally Posted by LysanderXonora

Refresher will not work well with this hero.

In response to your questions^^,

Mordor is right, they appear after cast, like wisps. As for horseshoe, swing left/right appears after the horseshoe turns. Say it is randomed to swing left, the swing right icon will replace horseshoe immediately when it turns.

If you say refresher doesn't work well with this hero, then either your hero goes or refresher goes. Hahaha~ =p

[LysanderXonora]

Originally Posted by gamerinboxers

If you say refresher doesn't work well with this hero, then either your hero goes or refresher goes. Hahaha~ =p

Lol? Not every hero can function properly with refresher. Same goes for x-mark the spot, soul steal etc.

So blink dont work with pudge and vs = remove? o.o

Why would you want a refresher for a 15 second cd skill ???

[MorDorMaNiaC]

Originally Posted by LysanderXonora

No. I got it frm hive workshop. It's been creditted. lol

I made the icons though

The Icons are really Well Made! Are they available for Steal on Hive Workshop?

And about the 1st Skill, so the Sub-Skill appears after the Shoe Turns, that means the Missile Speed must be reduced to about 750. (Just saying)

[LysanderXonora]

Originally Posted by MorDorMaNiaC

The Icons are really Well Made! Are they available for Steal on Hive Workshop?

Thanks Erm, Noth1ng made them, so Im not sure.

But icons, if you need any, feel free

And about the 1st Skill, so the Sub-Skill appears after the Shoe Turns, that means the Missile Speed must be reduced to about 750. (Just saying)

Fixed

[LysanderXonora]

bump

[wickman]

Boons

Time for a more in depth review. And I will get to your gryphon hero. I still have to figure out if there are any unforeseen uses for his skills.

Review for Boons

Stats
The high initial strength of 28 will make it the highest starting strength among dota heroes. However, his strength gain will be the lowest strength gain among strength heroes too. This means (as I'm guessing you know since it looks very intentional) he will have a high initial starting HP that will slowly get dwarfed by every other strength hero, including wisp, as the game goes on. This hints at potential early game dominance as he has more staying power to start than all other heroes. The agi gain is fairly typical for non-agility heroes. The int gain is high considering it’s a non-primary stat. My guess is this is to influence his item choice: he has the mana to cast his spells ad-nauseam, so he can put money into buying his strength to increase his hitpoints and damage.

You’ve made this choice (boosting a non-primary stat) before, but I’m not sure I support the idea of boosting INT on a melee instead of strength rather than in addition to strength. It made more sense on the shadowtrooper to boost agility over strength because of his role as a chasing autoattacker. The power in the autoattack makes it so he is still dangerous all game long.
Boosting Str on an int hero can be overpowering because the 19 HP per str point is way way way more valuable on a (likely) ranged hero who probably has pretty potent spells. And getting the int naturally and through items gives him the damage to auto attack while spell spamming. (the same rule against high str holds for agi heroes, but that is because it makes their early game too easy.)
The typical route for melee caster heroes is to make them strength heroes with decent INT gain so they ALWAYS have the hit points to use their auto attack (run in and get hit by ranged heroes), and then they buy items to either supplement their mana regen or their health depending on how aggressive their spells are. In general they have good strength gains too. Ogre Magi and Dark Seer are exceptions to this trend: they are melee INT heroes, but their strength gains are still decent (actually, ogre’s is ridiculous, I need to start playing him more..). I think they were made to be int so as to force them into supporting ganker roles: there are very few +Int items that make it easier and more beneficial to melee attack. The result is that they cast their spells and disable people with eul’s, guinso’s and the like while having the hp to run interferance.

Stacking INT on a melee hero, be it an agi or a str hero, doesn’t nearly have the same effect as stacking str on an int or agi. With the exception of NA’s mana burn and OD’s ult, the only thing INT influences for non-int heroes is mana pool. This is why having a high int just isn't super important to melee heroes: having a large mana pool wont let you run up to heroes and hit them. The result is you get to use only your spells: pray they have a long enough casting range if your str gain is low. To boot, since your auto attack stinks, you will want to get disabling items to complement your nukes and disables. However, if you're a str hero, these wont have the bonus of boosting your damage and your auto attack goes from poor to useless.

A low INT is usually a way to make sure that strong auto-attackers (or people with rampaging AoE spells) can't cast their cool spells more than once or twice a gank (sven early game, tide, lucy, CK, axe, DK).

The ranged strength hero category now has three members: phoenix, wisp and huskar. Phoenix still has a good STR gain, but his HP is his mana, so that was a way of making a strength hero into a caster hero by making his STR double as his INT (higher str gives more mana, doesn’t need to worry about mana to cast spells, especially when his one mana cost is % based (nova doesn’t count cause it refills your mana pool anyway (lol at nested parenthesis))). Huskar should have been agi, the only reason why he isn’t is because his HP (strictly speaking being low on HP) is so closely tied to his skillset. So I think huskar’s a STR so that boosting his HP plays into his hero concept. His strength is still pretty low for strength heroes, but this is because he is an auto attack DPS-er (like the shadowtrooper). Wisp just has shitty strength gain, so its good he’s ranged. He also has a spell that inflicts damage to himself, so buying him HP plays to his skillset. If Wisp had a higher str gain, people would ignore his intended support aspect and just rambo with Overcharge on. If wisp was an INT, people would have a hard time getting him HP and still make his autoattack better than sneezing on people.

I'm coming to my point, I swear.
You have to consider what happens in the case where the hero gets both too much money and too little.

With low strength gain on any hero, you will be succeptible to ganks once your hit the HP crossing point (the point where a high starting str no longer puts you above everyone else's HP), no matter if you are melee or ranged. However, a low HP ranged hero can still last hit creeps to farm up items to fix his/her low HP. However, a melee hero with low HP can only farm with spells. Having a good INT is helpful in this case, but regen is really what you need to sit in a lane and farm with magic. Unfortunately, giving int only slightly increases mana regen.

Alright I'm losing what I'm saying so I'll just say the less supported short version: low HP on a melee hero takes away the option to autoattack at all if he is too poor to buy HP. You can afford to increase his HP and not worry about him becoming a tank.


Glad thats over, on to the other stuff

Armor
Also noticed his more than decent starting armor. Also hints at a powerful early game. Grab a stout and he can run interferance until level 6 when the other str heroes start to have more hp. Having high armor isn't that big a deal early game, you could have put it at 8 and I dont' think I would care that much. Late game it would be nice, but early game, since its % based you have more variation in damage from the natural range (55-67) than in the reduction from armor.


1st Skill
A nuke that has poor damage at first. However, once you get your ult you can get two hits on heroes for the price of 1.5 times the mana cost. Its got an 150 aoe for the path, so its like a thrown burrowstrike (that hooks... so excited (: ) It gives potentially 2 seconds of stun, but it comes in two instances of one second. I'm having a hard time figuring out with the horseshoe speed if the hero will have time to become unstunned before the 2nd second comes (from the return trip). If he does become unstunned, I would buff the 2nd stun to 2 seconds, just cause there is an opportunity for it to be dodged: landing it should have a good effect. Hitting heroes on the hook portion of the stun will be awesomely engaging, and it works the line perpendicular to the line connecting the opposing heroes. Spells like burrowstrike, shackleshot and powershot teach us not to sand in lines with heroes. Now this spell will teach us not to stand alongside of them either I like skills that require exceptions to common strategies.

I'm concerned this spell wont have enough teeth before level six, but he has black vodoo to work with, so this might be his mid-game disable depending on how well the black vodoo shapes up.

2nd Skill: White vodoo
Straightforward buff, numbers are balanced. The duality of the spell (having lots of effects) is ok since its randomly selected which pair of buffs the spell starts as.
240 HP or 200 Mana...AoE. Let no one knock (criticize) the power of this spell. Its a slower mechanism/arcane ring with pretty awesome armor/movespeed bonuses. I like coupling the mana with the MS, cause those slow disabler heroes need both so badly to "swing that fence closed as quick as possible."
Mana cost is low, but its a strictly supportive spell, so I don't see a problem: this wont bring in any gold besides knocking towers over. Its mostly for pushing and counter-ganking I think.

3rd SKill: Black Vodoo
50 dps dot for 8 seconds gives 400 total damage for everyone in the 400 AoE. I like the damage, its a little high for an AoE spell, but its not crazy. Considering this will be his offensive bread and butter damage, I think its very reasonable. I think this will be his offensive skill early game since the stun doesn't scale on the horseshoe skill. I think you could put a little more into the slow: 22% isn't super high or super low, but considering how much Boon might need it to escape ganks when 1sec of stun isn't enough, I think you could push this to 30. I understand why you kept it low though: the duration. While its true that the duration on this spell will make that 22% very effective in the long run, Boon would be better off with a more robust, shorter duration slow to get that "nearly stopped" effect for those night time ganks when they enemy disabler practically steps on you before throwing the impale or the stormbolt. Long duration, mediocre slows are more for the late game to inhibit the enemy team's setup as they try to position to defend against a push. I guess I'm asking for more potential for this hero to save himself.
Also, I would either reduce the self-curse chance, or make it so Boon only feels the effects for 2 seconds at maximum. Getting stuck with an 8 second slow sucks (no one will chose to take the damage, except to suicide).

Ultimate
The way this spell works makes me want to argue more for putting a solid strength gain on Boon. Its the same thing with Omni before his aura also lowered attack speed. All of Omni's early game spells geared him to be the hero that stands on the outskirts and healed/repelled until the battle hit its catalytic moment. At that point he'd come in with degen and GA to seal the deal for his team. His second two skills didn't really fit with the positioning indicated by his strength gain and first two skills. Adding the -attackspeed part to the aura gave Omni the effective hit points needed to be a near tank. Now he's at the point where he can be near the front to do his job, instead of having to sit back and then blink in to GA.
For Boon to use this awesome AWESOME passive ult, he will need to be in the action. Its percent based nature (its not an active that makes all spells fail for x seconds) means he has to be in the shit storm for a while before it prevents a significant number of spells. Even if he does farm enough to buy a heart and a BKB, I don't think he'll be able to do much better than a well farmed Jaikiro with his str gain. Until his ult, all of his offense was ranged, so it was possible to get away with the low str gain. Unless this skill becomes an active ability with something like a 90% chance for spell failure for 5 seconds to be used with a blink dagger, I would say you have to give him at least a 2.2 gain.

Overall
Nice icons and a great mix of those simple abilities that have so much potential for creative use. Name isn't bad either. What animation were you thinking to indicate spell failure?

[LysanderXonora]

Originally Posted by wickman

Boons

Time for a more in depth review. And I will get to your gryphon hero. I still have to figure out if there are any unforeseen uses for his skills.

Review for Boons

Stats
The high initial strength of 28 will make it the highest starting strength among dota heroes. However, his strength gain will be the lowest strength gain among strength heroes too. This means (as I'm guessing you know since it looks very intentional) he will have a high initial starting HP that will slowly get dwarfed by every other strength hero, including wisp, as the game goes on. This hints at potential early game dominance as he has more staying power to start than all other heroes. The agi gain is fairly typical for non-agility heroes. The int gain is high considering it’s a non-primary stat. My guess is this is to influence his item choice: he has the mana to cast his spells ad-nauseam, so he can put money into buying his strength to increase his hitpoints and damage.

You’ve made this choice (boosting a non-primary stat) before, but I’m not sure I support the idea of boosting INT on a melee instead of strength rather than in addition to strength. It made more sense on the shadowtrooper to boost agility over strength because of his role as a chasing autoattacker. The power in the autoattack makes it so he is still dangerous all game long.
Boosting Str on an int hero can be overpowering because the 19 HP per str point is way way way more valuable on a (likely) ranged hero who probably has pretty potent spells. And getting the int naturally and through items gives him the damage to auto attack while spell spamming. (the same rule against high str holds for agi heroes, but that is because it makes their early game too easy.)
The typical route for melee caster heroes is to make them strength heroes with decent INT gain so they ALWAYS have the hit points to use their auto attack (run in and get hit by ranged heroes), and then they buy items to either supplement their mana regen or their health depending on how aggressive their spells are. In general they have good strength gains too. Ogre Magi and Dark Seer are exceptions to this trend: they are melee INT heroes, but their strength gains are still decent (actually, ogre’s is ridiculous, I need to start playing him more..). I think they were made to be int so as to force them into supporting ganker roles: there are very few +Int items that make it easier and more beneficial to melee attack. The result is that they cast their spells and disable people with eul’s, guinso’s and the like while having the hp to run interferance.

Stacking INT on a melee hero, be it an agi or a str hero, doesn’t nearly have the same effect as stacking str on an int or agi. With the exception of NA’s mana burn and OD’s ult, the only thing INT influences for non-int heroes is mana pool. This is why having a high int just isn't super important to melee heroes: having a large mana pool wont let you run up to heroes and hit them. The result is you get to use only your spells: pray they have a long enough casting range if your str gain is low. To boot, since your auto attack stinks, you will want to get disabling items to complement your nukes and disables. However, if you're a str hero, these wont have the bonus of boosting your damage and your auto attack goes from poor to useless.

A low INT is usually a way to make sure that strong auto-attackers (or people with rampaging AoE spells) can't cast their cool spells more than once or twice a gank (sven early game, tide, lucy, CK, axe, DK).

The ranged strength hero category now has three members: phoenix, wisp and huskar. Phoenix still has a good STR gain, but his HP is his mana, so that was a way of making a strength hero into a caster hero by making his STR double as his INT (higher str gives more mana, doesn’t need to worry about mana to cast spells, especially when his one mana cost is % based (nova doesn’t count cause it refills your mana pool anyway (lol at nested parenthesis))). Huskar should have been agi, the only reason why he isn’t is because his HP (strictly speaking being low on HP) is so closely tied to his skillset. So I think huskar’s a STR so that boosting his HP plays into his hero concept. His strength is still pretty low for strength heroes, but this is because he is an auto attack DPS-er (like the shadowtrooper). Wisp just has shitty strength gain, so its good he’s ranged. He also has a spell that inflicts damage to himself, so buying him HP plays to his skillset. If Wisp had a higher str gain, people would ignore his intended support aspect and just rambo with Overcharge on. If wisp was an INT, people would have a hard time getting him HP and still make his autoattack better than sneezing on people.

I'm coming to my point, I swear.
You have to consider what happens in the case where the hero gets both too much money and too little.

With low strength gain on any hero, you will be succeptible to ganks once your hit the HP crossing point (the point where a high starting str no longer puts you above everyone else's HP), no matter if you are melee or ranged. However, a low HP ranged hero can still last hit creeps to farm up items to fix his/her low HP. However, a melee hero with low HP can only farm with spells. Having a good INT is helpful in this case, but regen is really what you need to sit in a lane and farm with magic. Unfortunately, giving int only slightly increases mana regen.

Alright I'm losing what I'm saying so I'll just say the less supported short version: low HP on a melee hero takes away the option to autoattack at all if he is too poor to buy HP. You can afford to increase his HP and not worry about him becoming a tank.


Glad thats over, on to the other stuff

To your epic wall of text, I can only say: 'Point taken, I have buffed the strength gain. Alot lol."



Armor
Also noticed his more than decent starting armor. Also hints at a powerful early game. Grab a stout and he can run interferance until level 6 when the other str heroes start to have more hp. Having high armor isn't that big a deal early game, you could have put it at 8 and I dont' think I would care that much. Late game it would be nice, but early game, since its % based you have more variation in damage from the natural range (55-67) than in the reduction from armor.


1st Skill
A nuke that has poor damage at first. However, once you get your ult you can get two hits on heroes for the price of 1.5 times the mana cost. Its got an 150 aoe for the path, so its like a thrown burrowstrike (that hooks... so excited (: ) It gives potentially 2 seconds of stun, but it comes in two instances of one second. I'm having a hard time figuring out with the horseshoe speed if the hero will have time to become unstunned before the 2nd second comes (from the return trip). If he does become unstunned, I would buff the 2nd stun to 2 seconds, just cause there is an opportunity for it to be dodged: landing it should have a good effect. Hitting heroes on the hook portion of the stun will be awesomely engaging, and it works the line perpendicular to the line connecting the opposing heroes. Spells like burrowstrike, shackleshot and powershot teach us not to sand in lines with heroes. Now this spell will teach us not to stand alongside of them either I like skills that require exceptions to common strategies.

I'm concerned this spell wont have enough teeth before level six, but he has black vodoo to work with, so this might be his mid-game disable depending on how well the black vodoo shapes up.


I think you didnt realise that this skill CAN hit a target twice without the ultimate. All the user has to do is ensure his horseshoe nicks the target at the hook. And he will receive the damage/stun twice. (provided it swings in ur favour of course) Buffing anything would be unfair here.



2nd Skill: White vodoo
Straightforward buff, numbers are balanced. The duality of the spell (having lots of effects) is ok since its randomly selected which pair of buffs the spell starts as.
240 HP or 200 Mana...AoE. Let no one knock (criticize) the power of this spell. Its a slower mechanism/arcane ring with pretty awesome armor/movespeed bonuses. I like coupling the mana with the MS, cause those slow disabler heroes need both so badly to "swing that fence closed as quick as possible."
Mana cost is low, but its a strictly supportive spell, so I don't see a problem: this wont bring in any gold besides knocking towers over. Its mostly for pushing and counter-ganking I think.

Thanks. I based this spell by thinking what heroes would need most in an escape/push. Mostly the escape part.


3rd SKill: Black Vodoo
50 dps dot for 8 seconds gives 400 total damage for everyone in the 400 AoE. I like the damage, its a little high for an AoE spell, but its not crazy. Considering this will be his offensive bread and butter damage, I think its very reasonable. I think this will be his offensive skill early game since the stun doesn't scale on the horseshoe skill. I think you could put a little more into the slow: 22% isn't super high or super low, but considering how much Boon might need it to escape ganks when 1sec of stun isn't enough, I think you could push this to 30. I understand why you kept it low though: the duration. While its true that the duration on this spell will make that 22% very effective in the long run, Boon would be better off with a more robust, shorter duration slow to get that "nearly stopped" effect for those night time ganks when they enemy disabler practically steps on you before throwing the impale or the stormbolt. Long duration, mediocre slows are more for the late game to inhibit the enemy team's setup as they try to position to defend against a push. I guess I'm asking for more potential for this hero to save himself.
Also, I would either reduce the self-curse chance, or make it so Boon only feels the effects for 2 seconds at maximum. Getting stuck with an 8 second slow sucks (no one will chose to take the damage, except to suicide).

Ok. Maybe I didnt type it out well but self curse only has one outcome: self damage at what the level's dps would be divided by 2. I dont want to drop the duration because it spoils the concept of the spell. Longer drag out = more time for creative manipulation. I think I will scale the slow values to fit the early game.



Ultimate
The way this spell works makes me want to argue more for putting a solid strength gain on Boon. Its the same thing with Omni before his aura also lowered attack speed. All of Omni's early game spells geared him to be the hero that stands on the outskirts and healed/repelled until the battle hit its catalytic moment. At that point he'd come in with degen and GA to seal the deal for his team. His second two skills didn't really fit with the positioning indicated by his strength gain and first two skills. Adding the -attackspeed part to the aura gave Omni the effective hit points needed to be a near tank. Now he's at the point where he can be near the front to do his job, instead of having to sit back and then blink in to GA.
For Boon to use this awesome AWESOME passive ult (haha), he will need to be in the action. Its percent based nature (its not an active that makes all spells fail for x seconds) means he has to be in the shit storm for a while before it prevents a significant number of spells. Even if he does farm enough to buy a heart and a BKB, I don't think he'll be able to do much better than a well farmed Jaikiro with his str gain. Until his ult, all of his offense was ranged, so it was possible to get away with the low str gain. Unless this skill becomes an active ability with something like a 90% chance for spell failure for 5 seconds to be used with a blink dagger, I would say you have to give him at least a 2.2 gain.


Ok, his str gain has been buffed insanely high and his base agility has suffered.


Overall
Nice icons and a great mix of those simple abilities that have so much potential for creative use. Name isn't bad either. What animation were you thinking to indicate spell failure?

As for the animation, probably a short flash or spark. Never actually could think of one. Maybe linkern's effect might work. But on the caster. Thanks again for this fantastic review.