Sniper: a Shrapnel remake

Sniper Shrapnel Remake

Q: Shrapnel
Type: Target-Point
Affects: Enemies
Damage: Magical
Fires a ball of shrapnel that showers the target area in explosive pellets. Enemies are subject to damage and slowed movement. Reveals the targeted area.
- 1800 range
- 300 radius
- 40/45/50/55 damage per second
- 50% damage to towers
- 20% slow
- 2/3/4/5 second duration
- 70 mana cost
- 5 second cooldown




There has been a guide made about an offlane sniper, and I thought, why not? He gets outcarried easily and can't last hit well thanks to his meagre damage. However, there are many things going against the little keen in the offlane. He has low health, meaning that he dies easily when ganked. With the change to Shrapnel, sniper can last hit from afar like other offlane heroes and obtain gold in the dangerous lane. It also gives sniper a semi-spammable nuke that deals a good deal of damage to multiple heroes quickly while still retaining its pushing power, making it a good alternative to Headshot or Take Aim and making his skill build more flexible.

What do you think? Please leave some feedback :)

So it makes the damage more consistent compared to the present Shrapnel, giving it more effectiveness against heroes and creeps compared to towers. Interesting.

I would rather have something like this though.

After a 1 second delay, Sniper fires a ball of shrapnel that showers the target area in explosive pellets. Enemies are subject to damage and slowed movement. Deals 40% damage to buildings. Reveals the target area for 2/3/4/5 seconds.

Range: 1800
Radius: 300
Damage: 80/120/160/200
Damage type: Magical
Movement Speed Slow: 25%
Slow Duration: 2s
Mana cost: 50
Cooldown time: 20/18/16/14

Take note that I removed the DPS factor because imo smaller but more instant damage will make the skill more viable.

What do you think porygon?
A bit too powerful perhaps (as it's something like a cross between Rocket Flare and Nether Blast) but considering the viability of Sniper right now...

its too powerful.

he can just wear the towers away with such a small mana cost and cd.

Yes, but honestly the only 2 redeeming qualities of Sniper is his range and ability to KS at range. Maybe he can also snowball if he gets an early game advantage, but he is easily shut down once again. At least giving him a better nuking and tower-pushing skill will help him out early game where he is at his weakest.


Edit:
Perhaps I can decrease the damage to towers by 50%.

I think changing Shrapnel to a direct nuke skill will only give sniper another KS option, which he doesn't really need haha. I think Shrapnel should retain the DPS effect that makes it unique, while dealing more damage in a shorter timeframe to give it early game viability.

Besides, the instant-nuke idea is already present in HoN's Flint Beastwood, and I heard from my friend that it wasn't the most balanced when it was first released :P

I always considered Sniper a pusher because of his ability to attack towers from outside their range and stuffs. So I was thinking that they should scrap Shrapnel entirely in favor of a mobility move to get out of trouble while pushing. This could also make him a semi-viable offlaner. Just a thought.

That's right. Sniper has been picked in competitive games three times in the past 2-3 days, and in most of them he kind of worked as a long-range Death Prophet: the team groups up, they push the creep wave to the enemy tower, Sniper damages the tower from a safe range.

I think Shrapnel is fine as it is, especially if you have some sort of crowd control to keep the enemies in place (like Storm Spirit and Disruptor in the very recent PR vs Na'Vi match) so they get the full damage. A level 4 Shrapnel also melts towers: it may deal little damage per second but it lasts a lot.

I think that the only way to make Sniper a viable pick in the current meta is giving him an escape mechansim or very high movement speed, but since it would make him unbalanced I guess that he, for now, won't be drafted unless occasionally. Maybe in a year or so, if "jumpers" like Clockwerk, Storm Spirit and Puck fall off, he might become a viable option for when a team needs some help in pushing.