Cadenza, the Maestro

Dire Intelligence

Base HP: 180
Lvl 1 HP: 522
Lvl 1 Mana: 286
Base Damage: 28
Lvl 1 Damage: 50
Movement Speed: 305
BAT: 1.7
Range: 600
Strength: 18 + 1.9/lvl
Agility: 20 + 1.6/lvl
Intelligence: 22 + 2.8/lvl

Lore:

To witness a show by the travelling bard known only as Cadenza was often described as a religious experience. She would take to the stage, set her bow lightly on the strings of her ebony violin, and the world would melt away into cascades of euphony and sound. The air would pulse, ebbing and flowing with dulcet melody, hearts would beat in time with her staccato rhythms and skip when she pulled from the instrument to hold a rest. Hers was a talent unearthly, unnatural, and inhuman.

A talent entirely undeserved, in fact, and soon to be retracted. Long ago, when she was still known by a mortal name, she had been a struggling student at Franzick musical academy,a rigorous school that has since burned to the ground. Long ago, she had toiled away to improve her dexterity and musicality, and found herself lacking some unknowable skill that it seemed her grandmasters possessed. Long ago, her anguished cries had been answered by a demon of the Seven Hells, who promised that, in exchange for her soul and an eternity of servitude to the Hells when she died, she would be the greatest musician who ever lived, a timeless bard who would have an audience wherever she went.

Cadenza had agreed instantly, and was overwhelmed with profane knowledge, the lost melodies of the Oglodi, the sacred chants of the Omniscience, the tormented elegies that the prisoners of Foulfell sung to themselves. With such power and insight, her music became a force of nature, preserving her through the centuries, swaying the minds of living things and even the course of history as she saw fit. But a demon always collects what he's owed, and it was no accident that her name, her true name, was placed on the list of a Sister of the Veil, and with a single dagger strike she found her spirit dragged down to Hell.

As she was about to be placed into eternal servitude, Cadenza made one last request: that the bargain she had made be honored, and that she be given an audience, even here. A concert hall was constructed, her ebony violin given to her for one last performance, with countless demons of the Seven Hells in attendance. She set her bow to the strings and began to play, but in place of her dulcet tones, horrendous shrieks sounded from her instrument. The air swelled and tore at the skin of the demons in attendance, their hearts beating a staccato rhythm until they burst in their chests. And Cadenza, her performance complete, stepped over the bodies and walked out of Hell, returning to the world above, in constant search of a worthy audience.

Q: Tritone
Ability: Point Target
Affects: Enemy Units
Damage: Pure (Does not pierce Spell Immunity)

Cadenza sets her bow to the strings, channeling power until she unleashes a circular wave of sound around her, ripping at the flesh of enemies. If Cadenza is interrupted during the channel, the skill activates, but does half damage.

Radius: 500
Damage per second channeled: 70
Max channel time: 1/2/3/4 seconds
Cooldown: 8 seconds
Mana Cost: 125/175/225/275

No mortal being can ever hope to match the pace of Cadenza's tremolo.

W: Enrapture
Ability: No target
Affects: Enemy Units
Does not pierce spell immunity

Cadenza's music has a hypnotic pull on her enemies, disabling them and forcing them to walk towards her for the duration of the spell.

Disable/Channel time: 2/3/4/5 seconds
Radius: 450/500/550/600

- Units walk towards Cadenza at their current movement speed.
- Units that are stunned will be drawn towards Cadenza at minimum movement speed.
- Units that are channeling will be drawn towards Cadenza at minimum movement speed.
- This ability does not interrupt channeling.
- Units can be pulled across obstructions, over cliffs, etc.
- Units pulled through trees will break them.

Cooldown: 28/26/24/22 seconds
Mana Cost: 160/180/200/220

At the sound of the Maestro's violin, all of life's concerns fade into nothingness.

E: Deadly Resonance
Ability: Passive
Affects: Enemy units
Damage: Pure (Pierces Spell Immunity)

For each second that Cadenza channels an ability, she deals pure damage to all enemies around her.

Damage per second: 40/50/60/70
Radius: 800

- Time spent channeling items (e.g. Town Portal Scroll and Boots of Travel) also deals damage.

Sound rips at the flesh, tears at the mind, bites at the soul.

R: Cadenza
Ability: No target
Affects: Enemy Units
Pierces Spell Immunity

Cadenza launches into a breathtaking performance, fascinating enemies, slowing them, and causing them to take increased damage from all sources. The slow and damage amplification increases the longer this ability is channeled.

Slow per second: 12%
Damage amplification per second: 5%/6%/7%
Channel Time: 4/6/8 seconds

- The debuff is sticky for 3 seconds after channeling.

Cooldown: 140/130/120
Mana Cost: 200/300/400

Even the most battle-hardened warriors are swept away by the Maestro's artistry.


Boom! There she is, ladies and gents. A support with semi-carry potential (or perhaps a semi-carry who can support?) who can deal crazy amounts of damage if she can land all of her abilities and get the full duration of her spells off. Lemme know what you think is imbalanced and I'll number tweak accordingly.

Safecyn, signing out.

:P It's 'tremolo' btw.

Great hero, I like it!

Although Resonance might deal too much damage, considering it's pure.

I was a little unsure about what the damage should be too. I erred on the side of being a little high because of how it's only happening when she's channeling, so being silences or stunned makes the output of the ability 0.

I've also been thinking about how the damage should actually be spread out. Doing (if I keep the value the same) 70 damage per second in 1 second intervals seems... kinda of weak. Like, there'd be a potential for the passive to do literally nothing if she was caught before she could even partially channel her abilities. On the other hand, doing 10 ticks of 7 damage a piece in .1 second intervals seems... craaazy OP.

I'm not sure if the actual solution is in the middle, though, with 5 ticks of 14 damage a piece in .2 second intervals. It might be something wonky like 6 ticks or 4... gah, the things I worry about XD.

Wow, really love this hero! The narrative was excellent, my safe Pokemon friend. However, there are some problems with the concept itself...


The mana cost on Tritone seems a tad bit high. 275 mana cost at level 4 is higher than most ultimates, and is pretty unreasonable even for an intelligence hero. Perhaps a mana cost rescaling to 150/175/200/225 would make easier to cast without completely running out of mana. (If you wanna keep the mana cost, increase the damage. That works as well.)

Enrapture is like an ultimate... Guess what other channeling ability has a 4 second stun at level 3 and sucks people in? Black Hole. It's actually a better Black Hole, since it disables for a longer time, has a larger radius and a waaaay shorter cooldown and mana cost. And there's a reason why Black Hole pretty much has a 3 minute cooldown at level 1. It is also quite peculiar that her current ultimate looks like a normal ability to me. In addition, her Deadly Resonance is pretty overpowered. My suggestion: a complete makeover! Hopefully, you'd like my ideas.



Let's keep Tritone the same for this one.

Deadly Resonance instead deals damage (and/or applies any other effect) 1 second after the target finishes hearing each of your pieces (i.e. They get damaged after they are hit by any spell). Easier to balance, I'd say!

Cadenza has been changed into a non-ultimate ability. Instead of being centred around the hero, it will summon a "musical turbulence" at the target area that will apply a debuff to the enemy. The debuff will gradually increase the damage amp and slow.

Enraptured becomes your ultimate. After some channeling, you unleash a powerful musical note around you that mesmerizes (stuns) enemies and they automatically turn to face you (they stay in their spot though). Then you can do whatever you want to them.





Sorry for breaking apart your hero, but it had to be done. Do what you want with the ideas on this post, but whatever you do, please replace 5 second 600 AoE Black Hole with 70 pure damage per second.

tl;dr Great concept, needs work on balance, see suggestions I made

Pory treatment = Yzreel Treatment - math.

:D

I feel like... like there's a much easier fix for Enrapture actually. XD. And yeah, I was looking at Tritone and the mana cost does seem a bit high, though large mana costs are part of the hero's balance I feel.

After the comparison to Black Hole, I can see why the skill's too powerful as is, though Enrapture doesn't go through BKB. I think I'd rather balance it in the following way:

- Radius reduced to 250/300/350/400
- Enrapture now has a maximum hero count that it can disable.
- Max hero count scales 1/2/3/4

There. A smaller radius, and a guarantee that at least one hero will be able to escape from the spell's grasp. Seeing as it also doesn't go through BKB, I think this makes the skill powerful, but not totally out of whack like it was.

I love your idea for a hero! And the back story you write is so cool!

I had two thoughts:

1. I feel like Cadenza should play a Lyre or a Lute because, being archaic old-world string instruments they fit better into the fantasy, sword 'n sorcery theme that Dota has going on, and also I associate them more with the idea of an a Bard than I do a violin. I like "Lyre" most because I think its a nicer word to say and read, and also its the instrument that Orpheus (a character from Greek myth) played, and he also travels into Hell to charm Hades with his music into releasing his lost love, so it fits well with your story.

2. The spell Enrapture made me think of the Pied Piper, and then I though maybe Cadenza could be able to move whilst channelling some/all of her spells. Just a weird idea, I haven't really thought it through fully, perhaps you'd have to power down some of the spells that you describe above, but I imagine you could do some really cool things with this like having a moving disable that forces enemies/allies to follow you, or a melody that buffs your allies as they do a 5 man push.