Sandra Olivia, the Slave Hero (Implemented)

Hero Descriptions (open image in new tab for better resolution)

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How to test and play

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• Download it here as a zip.
• Put the folder to "<dota2folder>/game/dota_addons/", so that the "<dota2folder>/game/dota_addons/dota-2-lua-abilities/addoninfo.txt" is a correct path.
• Write "dota_launch_custom_game dota-2-lua-abilites hero_demo_main" on console (without quotes)
• Pick Phantom Assassin (the overriden hero)
• To spawn enemies, enable cheat (enter "sv_cheats 1" on console) then enter "-createhero <heroname> <enemy/ally>". (e.g. "-createhero lina enemy")

Further Information

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Undeniable Torture

• When trained, any allied hero can attack her directly. Sandra does take damage, but the attacker gains health, like normal lifesteal.
• Upon cast, it gives debuffs to enemies within radius (like Dazzle's Weave), and Sandra starts channeling. As long as Sandra is channeling, the debuff persists.
• When channeling, any damage taken will be shared (like Spectre's Dispersion), but Sandra takes 100% of the damage.
• Each enemies take a percentage of the damage; the shared damage source is Sandra.
• If an allied hero attack Sandra while channeling, aside from getting healed, the debuffed enemies also take the damage. The source of damage will be the attacker (if a debuffed enemy died because of the shared damage, the attacker gets the credit, not Sandra.)
• The allied attack cannot kill Sandra, but it may kill debuffed enemies.

Ironical Healing

• Pretty much like Oracle's Purifying Flames, but can only target self.
• The self-damage can be shared to enemies using Undeniable Torture. This is her main source of damage.
• The self-damage is non-lethal, but enemies can get killed by the shared damage.

Will to Live

• When sandra takes damage, the damage is delayed for 1 second and the threshold increases.
• After 1 second, the damage is dealt over time, with maximum of 60%/50%/40%/30% of the damage each tick.
• Example lv 1: 0%, 60%, 40%
• Example lv 2: 0%, 50%, 50%
• Example lv 3: 0%, 40%, 40%, 20%
• Example lv 4: 0%, 30%, 30%, 30%, 10%
• At each tick, the damage is compared to the threshold. If it is smaller, the damage will be non-lethal.
• The threshold increases for a duration, and then went back to base (like stack-based modifiers such as Underlord's Atrophy Aura)
• If sandra takes damage that is below the base threshold, it isn't delayed but it will be non-lethal.
• Also delays damage from allied attack (skill 1), self-damage (skill 2), and redirected damage (her ult).
• If the delayed damage is not lethal, any tick damage will also be non-lethal.

Sacrifice

• Upon cast, a link is created between Sandra and the target (like Io's Tether)
• Sandra will be slowed and stopped if she tries to move past the leash radius (Like Slark's Pounce).
• If her master (the target allied hero) moves away past the leash radius, Sandra will be dragged (Like Batrider's Flaming Lasso). It holds even if the master blinked or teleported away; Sandra will be dragged to the master's destination.
• The same applies when Sandra gets forced movement; if Sandra got hooked or glimpsed past the leash radius, she will be dragged back to her master immediately.
• Whenever her master takes damage, it will be redirected to Sandra. The damage is not blocked; any on-damage effects will still be triggered.
• If an enemy tries to cast a targeted spell to her master, the spell's target will be changed to Sandra upon cast. It is similar to Spell Block, but it is different in which the spell is not cancelled at all.

Comments

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Okay, I decided to share this hero. Heroes I like to design is the one whose abilities have "indirect synergy" between them.

It is not like some unrelated abilities packed into one hero (like Mirana, Lone Druid or Winter Wyvern; just utility heroes) or too directly related and dependent to each other (like Invoker, Io, or Spririt Breaker).

I love heroes whose abilities are fully functional but "worthless" independently (e.g. when stolen by Rubick), albeit have great impact when combined as a hero, like Oracle, Huskar or Outworld Devourer.

Sandra has these traits too; each of her abilities seemingly worthless, but they have synergy with each other. Enjoy.

Ability Synergies:

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• Skill 1 + allied attack: It's a free cleave, you know? With bigger damage, too. Just make sure Sandra didn't die.
• Skill 2 + heal amplify items: She'll heal a lot, since it's based on max-health too.
• Skill 3 + DOT enemies: She loves standing in the area of Liquid Fire, Acid Spray, March of the Machines, etc.
• Skill 4 + glass-cannon heroes: they become steel-cannon heroes.

• Skill 1 & 2: This is her main source of damage. Debuff enemies, and damage yourself. It is based on max-health, so it scales well.
• Skill 1 & 3: This what makes enemies think thrice to attack her: She may survive, but they may not.
• Skill 1 & 4: Her ult extends the fear of "taste your own medicine" to an ally, preferably the always-focused one.
• Skill 2 & 3: Skill 3 helps mitigate the self-damage, so it didn't hurt too much.
• Skill 2 & 4: Her master left untouched while Sandra sustains herself; provided she has mana.
• Skill 3 & 4: If her master got focused down, Sandra gets stronger and harder to kill, which means harder to kill her master too.
• All active: If her master is the glass-cannon hero (like Sniper), you have to kill her first before killing him. And that's a dangerously hard task.

Other Hero interactions

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Counters

• DOT-heavy heroes, like Huskar, Gyrocopter, Viper and Dark Seer. Venomancer can't even kill her without his basic attacks, due to the constantly increasing threshold.
• Constant damage heroes, with high attack speed but low in damage. Phantom Lancer, I speak to you. Also includes Luna.
• Typical glass-cannon heroes, whose damage output is bigger than their own health.

Countered by

• Sadist low-lifepoints-loving heroes. Bloodseeker and Necrophos loves her, easy Sun Strike for Invoker, and Axe will have a beautiful Culling Blade.
• Burst damage with a disable. You only need to burst her once, disable her, then burst her again after few seconds. She'll be dead with low kill thresholds.

FAQ

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What's wrong with those inconvenient numbers???

What? You dislike her already?

She keeps taking damage, even from her allies. Isn't that risky?

Who says Io's playstyle isn't risky? And don't tell me that you hate playing her too.

Her skill 2 alone is so worthless. What's the point anyway?

First, it is her main source of damage, combined with skill 1; it's a scaling Pure damage!
Second, the self-damage is non-lethal, so it heals better at low health.
Third, the regeneration can be amplified with Strength, so the actual healing total may be greater than the damage.
Fourth, it has low mana and cooldown, and fully stack with each other. It's not useless if combined.

If damaging her makes her unable to be killed, how do you kill her?

The key to kill her is to WAIT for a few seconds, then attack her again. She's almost always have low health, but don't just blindly attack her. I know it's irritating, but be patient.

Credits & Disclaimer

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I only own the hero concept and source code for the abilities within my GitHub repository.
The hero portrait and ability icons are my edited version from the originals listed below.
The hero descriptions is my edited version to the original website.
All other objects (Dota 2, images, etc) is a copyright of their respective owners.

You may read, copy, modify and redistribute the abilities' source code without permission provided that you cite the original author's name.

Source Website: www.dota2.com
Portrait image: https://www.zerochan.net/673405
Ability Icons: https://opengameart.org/content/painterly-spell-icons-part-1

This is pretty. Very pretty. I don't really have anything to say since everything has been addressed and there's really nothing more for me (or anyone) to add. And what few unaddressed interactions can just be seen in-game. I haven't seen her yet since it's been 2 months since our computer broke and it won't be fixed anytime soon.

Anyway, I'm replying just to say I like this.

Thanks for the like. she is supposed to be happy for that, though she can't.

I feel sorry for your computer, hope it'll be fixed sooner than expected. Meanwhile, are you sure there's nothing to add/remove? No on-paper in-depth balance-and-scale analysis?

Btw, I've updated the pictures to use imgur. The thing is, one of my ISP blocked imgur, so I can't see it without web-proxy.

Hmm... maybe I do have things to say...

Undeniable Torture hasn't mentioned a 'no-reflection' tag, which I think it definitely should.

Ironical Healing seems 100% worthless without Undeniable Torture. At least Purifying Flames can last hit creeps / kill secure without any combos. It's almost as if... It's a freakin' sub-spell!? Hey, if Ironical Healing becomes a sub-spell of Undeniable Torture, will it change anything? You mentioned it being useful at low health and with heal amp, but are those really that significant?

Either way, you might want to nerf it anyway. At 1500 HP, she can deal 561 damage every 1.9 seconds ^{(306+1500*17%)}. That's equivalent to 295.26 PURE DAMAGE potentially to all enemies for 17 mana per second! I actually never realized this until now, wow.

Will to Live is kinda hard to imagine. Can I suggest at least make a the first instance NOT 0%. At least so that Blink Dagger is disabled on the first hit. (I'm going to assume the delayed damage work like False Promise)

There's an ability called Sacrifice already but ignoring that, hmmm... A 42 seconds of almost immunity... Will to live makes the ability harder to imagine. I can't tell if it's hax or just borderline hax. What it basically is, is that you become a second HP bar. I guess a cooldown increase to 140 seconds is enough of a nerf. Maybe nerf duration too.

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I never thought I'd made it this long. Guess I was half-asleep on first read-through.

No-Reflection tag: Yeah, you're totally right. I'll include that in-game.

Ironical Healing: I don't know. When I tried the ability at level 1, Sandra already has 14.3% regen amplification from her strength, so it always heal more than the damage. Previously, I set the duration into a short period (like 5-7s) and Sandra went back to full health from 1 in a really short time!

Gameplay-wise, Sandra is almost always at low health, so the main reason of this ability is in its healing, really. Even Huskar's Inner Vitality has a special mention to low health situations. But I'll check it again later.

Being a sub-spell means that I have to find another ability that fits this playstyle, and I don't have anything in mind yet.

I thought it is already in a nerfed state. Here's the risks for that huge damage (which will be granted if Sandra do have that much health):

• The very same damage dealt to her too.
• It requires skill 1 to do that. Its range is not that far away.
• Skill 1 is a channeling ability: a stun is enough to stop the damage.

Let me know your opinion whether these risks were still not that risky.

Will to Live: Remember Kunkka's Ghost Ship buff? It delays damage too, and it's my source of inspiration. Technically, the first hit hits, only the damage is delayed, so Blink Dagger is still disabled.
Speaking of Blink Dagger, I don't think it's suitable considering her ult. She can't go anywhere!

Actually, I'm glad that you're honest about a hard-to-imagine ability. This is a rather new concept after all (like MK's Tree Dance on his introduction), so I have to find the right words for it.

Technically, the ability does not do anything fancy whatsoever. It just delays damage. A full 100% damage only delayed, just that. So I thought there has to be something valuable for it, and then came up with the threshold.

Sacrifice: Yeah, I just realized that. I should come up with a better name then, which is the hardest part of creating any spell.

You may think 42 seconds as it is, but I think being a second HP bar won't have that long duration mid-fight, especially if your master got focused down. Not to mention she has to tank deadly targeted abilities. And certainly you won't cast it outside of fight, since it'll cripple your farm or support duties.

If you survive the teamfight, which normally lasts 10-15s at best, you still have to wait 30s until you can roam free again. So, in my opinion, the long duration actually is a negative thing.

Those are my thoughts when creating her abilities. If you still think an ability is not balanced, let me know. I'll adjust her accordingly.

• Dude, even Double Edge can only deal 400 magic damage every 5 seconds. (80 mag/sec compared to your 295.26+ pure/sec) You can even argue he can requires Hoof Stomp to cast it.
• It's even melee with pathetic 190 AoE. (For comparison, Maledict is 180 AoE, her Undeniable Torture's 457 rivals Chronosphere!)
• Select heroes have interrupting disables, even fewer, can pierce spell immunity. It requiring skill 1 is not enough compensation for that.
• Why would she care getting interrupted if she can cast it again mere 6 seconds later?

I disagree. A low health Sandra is useless Sandra. Her skill-set demands her to be at full health full time or else she'll die. I imagine 2 Vitality Boosters, 12 Clarities, and wards and she can still be relevant late game. (no need boots thx to ult)


Why would she want to roam free? This is not an issue competitively. So it's a very positive thing as far as Icefrog's concern.

Also, I'm curious what happens if her master TP's, link broken or get dragged across the map? If it's the latter, then it's even more positive thing for competitive.