[Tweak] Kardel Sharpeye, Dwarven Sniper

[Odaik]

Well, Sniper was the frist hero I've played, and I (as most of the community it seems) feel that he deserves some love from IF with the recent new buff in most of the heroes. IMHO, he don't need a full remake, as he is one of the strongest carries in game if well farmed and has a nice concept, but just a few little buffs here and there. Well, there goes:
(rate the ideas, as numbers can be changed)

• Sharapnel
• Headshot
• Take Aim
• Assassin

Sharapnel (Active, Point targeted, Affects enemy units)

Fires a ball full of shrapnel into the air, which promptly explodes, showering the target area in explosive pellets. Deals some damage upon explosion, and enemy units that walk in this area get damaged and slowed. Deals 1/3 damage to buildings. Lasts for 8 seconds

Level	Manacost	Cooldown	Casting Range	Area of Effect	Duration	Effects
1	90	15	1200	350	8 Seconds	25 Damage/15% Slow/12 DPS
2	100	15	1200	350	8 Seconds	50 Damage/20% Slow/24 DPS
3	110	15	1200	350	8 Seconds	75 Damage/25% Slow/36 DPS
4	120	15	1200	350	8 Seconds	100 Damage/30% Slow/48 DPS

Comments:
- never made much sense to me something with a explosion that do not hurts anyone. Also, no one with a brain stays in the full duration of the skill. So, add a little initial damage to it, in the fashion of venge's wave of terror. Better ks-ing early and farming mid game.
- Deals 9 instances of damage. The first deals 25/50/75/100 damage, then 8 instances of 6/12/18/24 damage every 0.5 second
-damage type: magical

Headshot (Passive, Affects enemy units)

A shot to the head deals bonus damage and stuns for a short duration.

Level	Manacost	Cooldown	Casting Range	Area of Effect	Duration	Effects
1	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.01 Seconds	25% chance to deal 30 damage and ministun
2	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.1 Seconds	30% chance to deal 40 damage and ministun
3	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.2 Seconds	35% chance to deal 50 damage and ministun
4	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.3 Seconds	40% chance to deal 60 damage and ministun

Comments:
-same as original, only a little buff on lvl 4 ministun duration

Take Aim (Passive, Buff placer, Affects enemy units)

Kardel uses his sniper rifle's scope to aim on his target, increasing his attack range and preventing him from losing his enemy from sight.

Level	Manacost	Cooldown	Casting Range	Area of Effect	Duration	Effects
1	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.5 Seconds	Attack Range +65 / Sight of target
2	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	1 Second	Attack Range +130 / Sight of target
3	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	1.5 Seconds	Attack Range +195 / Sight of target
4	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	2 Seconds	Attack Range +260 / Sight of target

Comments:

- Gives 200/200 flying vision over the debuffed hero.
- Small buff to help him against jukers, blinkers and pseudo-blinkers in general. Also, a sniper who loses his target behind a tree is not a real sniper.
- Do NOT give true sight.

Assassin (Active, Unit targeted, Affects enemy units)

Sniping down targets is Kardel speciality. He can become completely unnoticable when outside of his enemys view, and can aim on a vital point to deliver a powerful finishing shot.

Level	Manacost	Cooldown	Casting Range	Area of Effect	Duration	Effects
1	175	20/2*	1500	N/A	2 Seconds**	300 + 1 x Sniper's Agility as damage/ Invisibility when not in sight
2	275	15/2*	2000	N/A	2 Seconds**	425 + 1.75 x Sniper's Agility as damage / Invisibility when not in sight
3	375	10/2*	2500	N/A	2 Seconds**	550 + 2.5 x Sniper's Agility as damage / Invisibility when not in sight

Comments:

- It's mechanic will be something like slark's ulti: when sniper is not on any range of enemy sight for 2 seconds, he becomes invisible. Then, if he enters enemy sight range again and keeps in range for 2 seconds, he becomes visible again. He will be able to attack and cast spells while in this 2 seconds of this "invisibility" while in range. This will, at least, give him the so needed escape mechanism, wich is unique, fits the theme (I'ts hard to see a hiding assassin sniper, y'know?), and will not be imba as it's easily counterable by wards/dust/vision.
-* = time necessary out of sight to activate invisibility
-** = time necessary inside sight to deactivate invisibility
-1.7 seconds casting time

The numbers may sound op, but they aren't really that strong.

- At level 6, sniper has 35 agi wihout itens. Then his ulti deals 300 + 35 = 335 magical damage (against current 355).
- At level 11, he has 50 agi wihout itens. Then, it will be 425 + 87 = 512 magical damage (against current 505).
- At level 16, he has 64 agi wihout itens. Then, 550 + 160 = 710 magical damage (against current 655)
- At level 25, he has 90 + 20 agi wihout itens. Then, 550 + 330 = 880 (against current 655)

I know it has potential to do HUGE damage with only 10s cd at lvl 16 (in the most extreme scenario, with 6 Abyssal blades at level 25 and 90 + 260 agi, it can deal 550 + 2.5x350 = 1425 damage), but we must consider that most sniper's builds aren't focused only in pure agi, but more on escaping, survivability, raw damage and on his mana issues. And now it can scales to late game according to your item build, being worth to spend 1.7s casting it.

It's stronger than current one? yes. But, it's meant to be a buff after all.

I know I'ts too much, and with all of this he wil be imba as hell, but those are separated ideas, wich are open to discussion.

- 30/03/12 -> changed ultimate scaling from sniper's damage to sniper's agi

[Mlcrosoft]

t up on shrapnell initial dmg, and small mana cost reduce, or better scaling

want headshot to be able to deactivate it, you know enable /disable

this this is enoguh to me

[Exhibitionist]

What about making Shrapnel's damage mixed?

[Odaik]

@ Microsoft I suposse that to make headshot disableable, it will requires to either it be an orb (wich will be a nerf) or something like troll's berserker rage. dunno if it will be good

@Exhibitionist not very sure, but isn't mixed damage reduced by armor? if so, this will be a nerf =S

[Exhibitionist]

No, make it pure for a half, for example.

[bentinata]

how about pure damage for shrapnel
200 pure and aoe slow isn't that much
there is spec with his spec dagger
or PA w/ stif dagger
and if Assasinate will always trigger Headshot and pass magic-immun
stealth is good, but keep it for short duration, maybe 2s on lvl3

thats all

[Odaik]

Pure damage on sharapnel will be kinda op I suppose, as it is already a strong skill. PA's dagger, even with low cd, is single targeted, and spec dagger has a very small damaging path. This will be a 350 AoE 200 pure damage + 48dps + slow.

Dunno if this effect on assassinate is even codeable, but will be nice. If confirmed, i will add to first post. And yes, invis should be very briefly, maybe even non-scaling, as it can be useful in lvl1 and balanced on lvl3.

[Hugaw]

t-up on initial damage.

[Odaik]

Added some numbers, and a second sugg for his ultimate

[Lord_Talron]

t-up for everything but invis, we dont need any more invis agi heroes.

also, mixed damage is ALWAYS magical and physical damage.

[Odaik]

@Lord_Talron Thx for support. And I kinda agree, but this one is so easily counterable... even clock's missles counter it. The main thing is that you will have to lose some time/money to counter it

[Lord_Talron]

thats my point.
not to mention its very overused

id rather have him remain unrevealed if he attacks while currently out of view

[Odaik]

This will be too much of a work (dunno if can be coded btw), for a way too situational buff. And will not solve his escaping problems. The 2s unreveled invis will have almost the same effect, as you will not be noticed for the first 2s of attack.

And after some tought i've noticed that invisibility is overused because it's one of the 3 main escaping mech of the game. The other 2 are running like hell, or any kind of relocating spell (blink, tp, pseudo-blinks in general), and none of those fits the sniper theme

[Lord_Talron]

how about this:

Blend In (or something like that): Sniper is adept at blending in to his surroundings, allowing him to attack his enemies with little notice. Blurs Kardel over time when he is standing still

lvl1: 100% blur over 14 seconds
lvl2: 100% blur over 10 seconds
lvl3: 100% blur over 6 seconds
lvl4: 100% blur over 3 seconds

numbers out of my ass but you get the idea.

supports his theme of positioning and gives him a powerful new way to avoid being found out.

another idea would be that after so many seconds of standing still, he would be removed from the enemies' minimap instead of bluring. (maybe both, but that seems to similar to pa)

and since i just remembered that your suggestion is not suggesting a combination of headshot and take aim. >.<
this can probably be added on to his ult ezpzy

[Odaik]

I got your point, and makes some sense in fact. But in the current metagame, standing still is counter-productive. And will not solve his escaping problems, wich are way bigger than attacking and being noticed. Suggested invis in some way helps both.

And about merging passives, I don't suggested it, and was intentional. If you really want I can explain every reason for why it's not a good idea, but resuming, will be a hell to balance, and his new skill will have to be way to good or most players will go stats instead. And balancing the new skill AND the 2-in-1 passive, AND sharapnel AND ulti will end resulting on a total remake of him, wich is not my point.

[Lord_Talron]

i dont think he needs a direct*escape mechanism tho. not every hero should have one.

make level 4 blur over one second to address your concerns over the mobility thing, which makes perfect sense. however, sniper isnt about moving around, he is about finding that perfect spot to sit back and kill shit. and i think bluring him is the best way to keep him safe doing that. thus alleviating his real problem, that his positioning is so easily countered in this current version.

[Odaik]

Then we disagree. He is easy food as he is now, and even if I don't care much buying lothars with him, giving him a lower version of this will not hurt too much.

Exactly, his positioning is easily counterable. And, if you are on fog for exemple, and is blurred, and attack, enemies will see ad blank open area in the map, with nothing there but something that can still be targeted by stuns and easily killed. And who is, by free will, standing still there, w8ting for them to come. Makes hards for enemies to see him, but only that. After seen, they will still kill him as easily as they kill now. He must kill shit, yes, but by no means standing still. He is fragile... the more the trouble to catch him, the better.

[Odaik]

Added a new scaling to his ulti damage as first suggestion

[Odaik]

Template'ed it, now it's easy to read

[beb97]

Sharapnel instant dmg: Tup
Will help farming, and allow you to deal more dmg against no-afk target

Improve Heashot scaling: Tup
Im not sure about 0.3s, maybe. But I do believe this ministun is already powerful in late.
This skill always scalled weirdly. What do you think of: 0.1, 0.1 ,0.2 ,0.2 ?

Take Aim: Tdown
I dont really like this concept, you already have your utlimate to finish targets trying to flee.

Ulti : Tdown
Sniper isnt meant to be an invis hero to me. I feel the improvement I suggested is already enough: http://www.playdota.com/forums/showthread.php?t=726117

That being said, Icefrog will be reluctant adding too much changes in one hit, it would lead to an OP hero !