Nulmarra, the Skull Lord

Skull Lords are a necromantic oddity. They begin their death with no power at all, and yet they thrive only in situations when they can lord over those around them. As such, the inevitable path that a skull lord chooses is a slow one, a struggle to the top.
However, powerful magic resides in these creatures dormant, waiting to be expressed. When a Skull Lord does eventually realize its full power on lesser beings, the results are often catastrophic.
Nulmarra is an ancient Skull Lord; perhaps the eldest surviving one. Drawn by the power of the Ancients, it fights knowing that someday in victory, it might drain the power of the ancients, that all would submit to its rule.

Melee 150 * 25 + 4.00 38 - 46 23.5 + 1.90 315 20 + 2.20 1.8

Overlord Lesser things than Nulmarra fall before its might with nothing to show for their deaths. Soul Siphon Nulmarra weaves a weakening web, allowing it to face creatures more powerful than it with impunity. Death Ray Nulmarra extends a bony hand, and the flame of life before it flickers out. Rip of the Father Nulmarra rends the very souls of its foes, bringing the mighty to their knees.

	25: Death ray deals pure damage or Rip of the Father damage to 45% hp, 3500 max damage 20: Soul Siphon grants 5 to Overlord or +60% experience gain 15: +16 Overlord damage or -1 cooldown Death Ray 10: +12 strength or Overlord bonus is Nullmara's level + 2
	Rip of the Father pierces spell immunity.

---

Overlord Lesser things than Nulmarra fall before its might with nothing to show for their deaths. For every level the target or user of a spell or attack is below the Overlord bonus, Nulmarra gains power against them. The Overlord bonus is Nulmarra's level plus one, plus a few situational modifiers. Damage Resistance per level: 3% Bonus Damage per level: 10/18/26/34 Rip of the Father damage amplification per level: 4.5%

---

Soul Siphon Nulmarra weaves a weakening web, allowing it to face creatures more powerful than it with impunity. Grants Nulmarra a 2/3/4/4 bonus to the Overlord bonus against the target for 7/7/7/13 seconds. Additionally, slows the target by 20%.

Mana Cost: 200 / 250 / 300 / 350 Cooldown: 20

---

Death Ray Nulmarra extends a bony hand, and the flame of life before it flickers out. Makes a 600 range melee attack with a 2/2/3/3 bonus to the Overlord Bonus. All units that the laser passes through (in a straight line) also are damaged by this ability.

Mana Cost: 70 Cooldown: 5 / 4.25 / 4.25 / 3.5

---

Rip of the Father Nulmarra rends the very souls of its foes, bringing the mighty to their knees. Deals enough pure damage to reduce the target to 65/60/55% of their current health. Does a maximum of 1000/1750/2500 damage.

Mana Cost: 200/450/700 Cooldown: 110

Hero Introduction

Overlord:
This is the ability that the rest of the hero centers around (Though it is not required to use other abilities). It pushes Nulmarra into a position 1 or 2 hero, as it needs levels, fast, to be able to make use of the ability. It is a unique ability in that it is the only one in which level matters since Lvl? Death was removed, and I tried to make it have a much more intuitive way of making that work. I fear that this ability is a sort of "win more" spell which kind of pushes the hero into that role; however, it is impossible to keep the basic premise of the ability while changing this, and other win more heroes exist, so I don't think it's too big of an issue.

Soul Siphon:
Soul Siphon serves a double purpose; allowing the player to have more control over Overlord than pure farming, and as a setup for Rip of the Father. It can be used in both teamfights and for getting solo kills; however, it does suffer from the fact that it is nearly useless on its own. I gave it a high mana cost because of the power of dealing an extra 130-odd damage to a hero (250 with talents). The weird scaling of the duration and "stolen levels" are designed to complement each other.

Death Ray:
Death Ray serves as Nulmarra's primary method of dishing out damage. In most situations, it would be unwise to approach into melee range; Overlord cannot protect you from everything. As such, Nulmarra is pushed into staying in the back of fights, and this is the exact reason that it is melee. Additionally, its poor BAT furthers this as Death Ray has a constant cast animation. So, though Overlord will allow Nulmarra to deal huge amounts of damage per hit, it is balanced through this ability. (The reason the ability makes a melee autoattack is because it is supposed to be a laser and therefore instant).

Rip of the Father:
This ability was designed to make Overlord still significant in its outcome, while giving Nulmarra a spell that reflects its supposed power. Used on an enemy with full health, the additional 4.5% per Overlord bonus that it gains becomes significant; A reasonable 7 stacks gives a 31.5% boost in damage, and in the best-case scenario a hero can be reduced to just under 25% health in one casting. It is hopefully balanced through Nulmarra's inability to do too much more, as Death Ray has a minimum cooldown of 2.5. Additionally, Rip of the Father is balanced in that it is single target like all of Nulmarra's spells, so the hero proves mostly useless against a group of enemies. As I write this, I realized Rip of the Father is sort of the polar opposite of Reaper's Scythe.

Appearance

Nulmarra was first inspired by skull lords from Dungeons and Dragons; the concept was originally actually to create a hero that had a severely limited health pool but could die many times before truly dying. I realized my ideas were **** and remade them into more or less what it is now. Because of how I began creating the hero, I would personally like for Nulmarra to have the three skulls that a D&D skull lord does. However, besides the story behind its invention there is no reason for that; it could look like a lich (not like Lich specifically), a vampire (though I think this would be a waste of potential), really anything undead but not fleshy.

Nulmarra attacks with a staff and cast spells with its free right hand. Soul Siphon shows a green mist pour out of the target and into Nulmarra's hand, Death Ray is a jet-black beam (I couldn't find a picture and can't edit photos to save my life), and Rip of the Father creates a white fog around the target during the cast animation that shoots outward in a thin ring when cast.

Credits

Format shamelessely stolen from ChunkyMaru and La'thall (an awesome idea, go check it out).

If you have any thoughts, suggestions, criticisms, or comments, know that they are most unwelcome.

/sarcasm

Awesome Character man,

My only thought is that Soul Siphon should be a "point and click" Small Area of Effect as it seems like a lot of mana just for one unit. That way he can be used better in team fights and it seems he needs some farm to try to stay ahead so it could be helpful to farm creeps.

Soul Siphon Radius: 300

I thought about this a bit and have come up with a decision.

First of all, I don't think soul siphon should be an aoe spell because the whole point of making it was so that the player could choose a target she thought most dangerous. However, I thought about it and realized that making Death Ray aoe would also (more so, I think) increase Nulmarra's farming rate and teamfight presence.

However, I also didn't want to use a flat radius for it because it wouldn't make sense. I decided to have it effect all units directly on a straight line from the target to Nulmarra; sort of a reverse Psi Blades.

I especially like this because it adds a bit more skill and depth into the actual playing of Nulmarra, requiring positioning to be effective.

Thanks for the feedback!

The Overview could need rephrasing. At least for me, that should only summarize the bare essentials of the abilities. I mean, you can't even tell what that ability should be like without actually reading the full description. And that, blew the purpose of an overview.

Most of the problems I've found were how the abilities were phrased. If I cast 'Rip of the Father' to an enemy with 10% HP, does it heal them? Or is it talikng about current health, in which case to 5.5%? What does "X" means in 'Death Ray'? Something tells me that it isn't Overlord bonus.

Could you tell me a reason why I should level 'Soul Siphon' to 4? +50 mana & +6 cooldown for +100 cast range?

Very solid concept! 8/10 Would play Pugna against this dude.

I agree with delta was gonna write that the Lvl 4 Soul Siphon is worse than level 3. Possible the cooldown could go to 4 secs or the lvl should go to 5.

Lol. Thanks for pointing that out about Soul Siphon. It is supposed to be 7/7/7/13 duration for a static 20 cooldown at all levels. I was unfamiliar with this format (click quote to see the nightmare that it is in the text editor) and that mistake slipped through. I'll fix it.

Originally the ultimate was supposed to be based on max damage and not do anything. I thought about this for a long time and I realized that it should be based on current health rather than max health. I was worried it would become simply a better Huskar ultimate if I did that, but when based on maximum health it becomes very useless very quickly if the target is not at full health; especially at low levels. I'm not entirely sure if its as balanced as it was before, but I think the hero would be a lot more fun to play when the ultimate can be cast without being wasted on an enemy that just got nuked by your team.

The X from Death Ray was supposed to be the Overlord Bonus. I originally referred to the Overlord Bonus as "X" when planning this hero, and I guess I forgot to change that one.

As for the wording of Overlord, I wasn't looking at that as an overview of the spell but as the actual description given when you mouse over the ability. However, you're right. I'll try to reword it to shorten it a little.