HCC - Sabellan, the Torseron Inquisitor

Another place, another time - imagine a world that spans realities, one that the essence of creation leaks through to form universes beneath it. This world is the origin of Sabellan, one of a caste of beings so unimaginably powerful that they see repercussions that span dimensions. Action and reaction. And Sabellan is greater still. Already millennia old and one of the most feared of his kind, he was given as a gift a weapon - the Spire of Torseron, a staff that cracked open dimensions and rent portals between them. The staff burned with red lightning, the energies that lay between realities.

With the Spire came a charge - his brethren already watched their own world, interceding to ensure actions had appropriate consequences. Sabellan's task was to patrol other realities. Remade as the Torseron Inquisitor, the Spire ripped open a portal to what lay beyond, and Sabellan stepped through. He prowled the Nothing for thousands of years, but Time did not exist - only consequence. Eons and epochs passed, universes died, and new ones were born, and still the Inquisitor carried out his task.

He watched as a mind split and a universe form from its death throes. He watched as chaos was ordered, and one mighty fragment bound two others together. He watched as the prison fractured. And then, he acted. For the consequences of this fracture would spill elsewhere if not contained. He has come to the war of the Ancients to bring us to justice. And may God save us all from his judgement.

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Sabellan, the Torseron Inquisitor

Unaligned Intelligence
Ranged, Nuker, Durable

Stats

Base Health: 500
Base Mana: 361
Base Armour: 4.14
Base Damage: 53-57 (55)
Base Attack Time: 1.85
Range: 450
Movement Speed: 285
Sight: 1800/800

Strength: 15 + 1.7 (56)
Agility: 18 + 1.4 (52)
Intelligence: 26 + 2.7 (91)

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Q: Shock Nova

Affects: Enemy units
Damage: Magical
Pierces Spell Immunity: No
Sabellan crackles the air around him, inflicting Magical damage to all enemies in an area centred on him and burning a percentage of their mana, that is then converted into damage.
Damage: 80/140/200/260
Mana Removal: 4%/5.5%/7%/8.5%
Radius: 500
Cooldown: 5
Mana Cost: 110

W: Electric Disposition

Affects: Self
Purgeable: No
The Torseron Inquisitor burns through dimensions, granting him massive spell lifesteal, bonus mana, and causing his movement commands to teleport him a short distance.
Spell Lifesteal: 60%/90%/120%/150%
Bonus Mana: 50/175/300/425
Maximum Teleport Distance: 55/70/85/100
Teleport Cooldown: 0.66
Duration: 3.25/4/4.75/5.5
Cooldown: 14
Mana Cost: 50



E: Lightning Weld
Affects: Enemy units
Damage: Magical
Pierces Spell Immunity: No
Calls forth a cone of Red Lightning from Sabellan's hand, inflicting Magical damage to enemies in an area in front of him. Enemies struck by Lightning Weld will also create a burst of damage in a small area around them. This secondary damage deals 50% less damage to creeps.
Damage: 50/70/90/110
Secondary Damage: 50/60/70/80
Secondary Damage Area: 200
Starting Radius: 100
Travel Distance: 600
Ending Radius: 400
Cooldown: 2.5
Mana Cost: 85

Ultimate: Terminus Break

Affects: Enemy units
Damage: Magical
Pierces Spell Immunity: No
Sabellan ruptures space and time, creating a titanic storm of red lightning in an area centred around him. The storm first sucks enemies to the centre, then casts them out again before once more sucking them in. Each shift deals a burst of damage.
Primary Damage: 100/175/250
Secondary Damage: 75/125/175
Pull Duration: 0.4
Radius: 425
Cooldown: 110/100/90
Mana Cost: 200/320/440


Level 10: +2 mana regen OR +20 movement speed
Level 15: +2s Electric Disposition duration OR +0.3s Terminus Break pull duration
Level 20: +8 armour OR +10 all stats
Level 25: +1 Lightning Weld primary damage per 2 Intelligence OR Shock Nova pierces Spell Immunity

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Sabellan is a powerful spellcaster who, while initially appearing fragile, has an immense amount of spell lifesteal that, in combination with Leshrac-rivalling area damage, sustains him in fights and makes him extremely effective against summons, illusions, and clones. Damaging him through his spell lifesteal is an almost insurmountable task; timing disables properly is key to playing against him. Note that his durability scales, as Electric Disposition provides lifesteal from items such as Mjollnir, or Monkey King Bar.

Of all the lanes, Sabellan is best suited to the middle one. Lightning Weld and Shock Nova allow him to nuke waves and establish rune control, and Electric Disposition enables him to trade hits and dive the tower for kills. Yet he is also vulnerable - low base movement speed and health means that, if Electric Disposition can be baited out, he will be easily ganked and shut down.

In fights, his erratic movement and teleporting allows Sabellan a degree of resistance to area effects - he can cross through Disruptor's barrier, leap through Dark Seer's wall, and deftly manoeuvre over Jakiro's Macropyre with impunity. The rupturing effects of Terminus Break can be devastating, and a few quick bursts of area damage on top of it will decimate entire teams.

Portals are implemented thematically into the hero - Electric Disposition essentially opens portals as Sabellan moves, and Terminus Break visually is a portal that sucks enemies around. His main powers come from the red lightning that lie between dimensions; the Spire of Torseron wielded by Sabellan is, in effect, a superpowered portal or gateway.

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Hero Changelog

1.00: Created.

1.01: Level 15 right talent changed to "+12% spell amplification."

1.02: Level 15 right talent reverted to "+0.3s Terminus Break pull duration."
Shock Nova mana removal changed to mana burn. Rescaled burn amount from 35/45/55/65 to 4%/5.5%/7%/8.5% of mana.

The radius for [Q] seems a bit large. I think no bigger than his attack range but honestly even smaller seems more balanced like 350-400. Also at what range can he cast this spell? Also can you target the ground or does it need to be centered on a unit?

What's the cone area for [E]? Look at QoP's ult for reference on how Dota deals with cone spells. Also, for clarity, do the secondary explosions overlap with one another? For example if there are 3 enemy units within a 200 radius do they each take 400 damage (2 instances of the secondary explosion)?

Can you elaborate more on how the ult does damage? It seems like there are 3 parts to the ult: Pull to center, push away from center, and pull to center. Am I to assume that they take 3 instances of primary and secondary damage or is there a tertiary damage that's missing from the skill?

Finally, talents. My only issue is that the level 15 talent seems like an obvious choice. I think it's nice to be able to choose between different play styles or for different situations. At level 15 the +2 seconds is amazing. You get to go an additional 400 units (1136 instead of 833) and you have 150% spell life steal, which is the most any hero gets, for such a long time. I can just never see anyone taking the extra pull duration. Honestly, I might suggest moving that +2 second duration to level 20 or even level 25. I mean with that talent it's a 53% - 53% - up time and that doesn't even account for Octarine which makes it a 71% up time (so crazy).

Interesting idea and cute icons.

A hero with 150% spell lifesteal can be pretty powerful, but his complete absence of skill scaling ruins it. At least give him one scaling skill like Static Field or Sun Ray so he doesn't fall off like a brick in the ocean.

Also, Mjollnir and Monkey King Bar for spell lifesteal...why? He has no righ-click synergy whatsoever. At least go Radiance or Ethereal Blade/ Dagon 1 :)



welcome to the pantheon of sucking skills.

vampiric aura

Looks like a hero that's beyond broken half of games he's in and completely worthless the other half of games he's in.

Clever joke.

The skill does ｓｕｃｃ.



So just like half of Dota's hero pool then.

I'm gonna fiddle with talents.

Half of Dota's hero pool aren't entriely one-dimensional heroes that only deal spell damage. The closest it comes to this in actual game are Zeus and Leshrac, but their skills just do work without fancy mechanics strapped on them.

Hamsters' hero suffers from that too, actually. I beileve you guys can do better than just give your heroes 3 aoe spells you can't even tell apart because they all essentially just deal damage with stuff like manaburn or solitude checks substituting for actual complexity(I don't get ppls urge to give their heroes as many mechanics as possible btw, just putting together a well-rounded hero with more or less simple spells that just do work(like Venge, for example) is good enough.

So you believe that Earth Spirit is the worst hero concept in Dota? He literally fits in everything you just said.

As for my hero, he's got 2 skills that push enemies apart from each other and one skills that damages them if they're alone. Where's the "pointless fancy mechanics" here?

No need to argue here. Just create your best hero concept and the judges will be the ones to judge.

Earth Spirit isn't a terrible hero concept, but yes, he suffers from the same disease of his designers trying to stuff as many mechanics/twists as possible into one hero, Magneize being the prime example. He's far from Tinker or Techies levels of terrible though.

About fancy mechanics present in your hero, Hamster? Plenty: pushback scaling on E(reminds me of Pulverize in the sense that it makes a difference... I guess... sometimes, maybe?), pushback scaling and dependance of damage on the distance on R, the entire aghs ability which is essentially another E, that - correct me if I'm wrong - ministuns instead of pushing back and doesn't have a delay?

I read your ideas also (Teras and Hamster) and I actually agree with Dimony. They are ofc interesting in themselves, but they are still just overly complicated actives whose only synergy together seems to be "deals more damage/extra fancy spell". I'm also bad at giving good advice with actual numbers to balance stuff and such, so I apologize for that, but I think still this general suggestion might help you improve your ideas: simple doesn't mean bad, and I don't mean it as "I'm too lazy for this complicated things" but more like "they become a burden to the hero's concept". For example, why don't you guys think of some passive that synergizes well with the rest of the hero's concept? I always found passives to be one of the most interesting and complex part of heroes, the one that really limits/makes them shine. I know Hamster already has one actually (besides the heroes' 4 spells? We Lol?), but I mean something more different and original, not just another "amp spell damage" thing.

Think Anti-Mage for example: how incredible is the hero's original idea? He has only two actives, they are strong but not overpowered in themselves and they go hand in hand with two very interesting passives, while all of it remains quite simple: he blinks around, he manaburns, he has higher magical immunity and he explodes people that don't have mana. With just this you suddenly see all of the hero strenghts but also his weaknesses.

Anyways, gorgeous art work and good luck, if you keep working on these I'm sure this contest will be great and really hard to judge :)