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"No necromancer shall raise what the venomancer puts down."
Design
If you had to name the ultimate hero of damage over time, which would it be? While there are certainly multiple candidates, few fully embrace it like Venomancer does. Though none can testify against his killing capabilities, I do think his abilities could be a little less generic. So, the idea is to make his spells more interesting and contribute to making him the perfect ally to pair up with other heroes who specialize in damage over time.
As a disclaimer, this rework is not intended to balance him but to explore his kit as laid out above. Here is the current Venomancer for reference. Any unmentioned numbers are assumed to remain the same.
Owned by Poison Ward, and Venomancer with the right talent.
Damage is still flagged as HP Removal.
Each instance deals a total of 120, 180, 240, 300 damage.
Instances from different sources stack separately.
Ultimate Abilities
Plague Nova
Unleash a spreading ring that poisons enemies it comes into contact with.
They take damage over 10 seconds, unable to heal or regenerate health during this time.
This damage is non-lethal.
Aghanim's Scepter: Reduces cooldown by 50 seconds and increases radius by 500.
Ability: No Target Mana Cost: 150, 200, 250 Cooldown: 120, 100, 80 Radius: 500 Width: 250 Damage: Magical Damage per Second: 20, 40, 60
Few survive the Acid Jungles, and the Venomancer promises this fate beyond.
Notes
Debuff pierces spell immunity and cannot be dispelled.
Deals a total of 200, 400, 600 damage.
Hero Talents
20% Debuff Duration Amplification
25
100% Spell Lifesteal
+75 Venomous Gale Damage per Tick
20
Gain Poison Sting
+5 Poison Sting DPS
15
-5s Venomous Gale Cooldown
90 Gold/Min
10
20 Move Speed
Discussion
What is the biggest counter to damage over time? Arguably, that would be healing and regeneration. So, as I’ve removed it from that effect from my Ancient Apparition Rework, Venomancer’s ultimate, Poison Nova is now a prime candidate to move it to. Renamed to Plague Nova to sound more intimidating, it now deals much less damage by itself but is now one of the best spells to aid the rest of his kit and any damage over time allies reach their full potential.
To replace the pretty boring Poison Sting, Toxic Mastery now allows him to further synergize with DoT allies while also making him a decent counter to DoT enemies. In tangent, the slow and speed buff can make him a hard predator to escape and a slippery snake to catch, allowing better placement of his ultimate without items. Venomous Gale has been changed to become the perfect spell to pair alongside this new passive with its new feature of turning any damage he receives into a damage over time effect, increasing his survivability long enough to continually inflict his venoms. The missing slow is now calculated by Toxic Mastery, allowing this base spell to deal more consistent damage.
Plague Ward has received the honest change of becoming more similar to their cousins, the Mass Serpent Wards. With his old damage over time spell being moved to these wards, they are now better at killing heroes while simultaneously worse at sieging. As Poison Sting stacks as separate instances, a large group of these unassuming wards can make for both a deadly blockade of damage as well as helpful conduits for Toxic Mastery to flourish.
Talents for this reworked Venomancer offer more nuking potential in the left side and more survival in the right side. Alongside the reworked Aghanim’s bonus of prioritizing safety, he can sustain himself better in fights, especially with that improved spell lifesteal talent. Of note, the debuff duration amplification makes his poisons last longer to deal more damage while improving any disables he possesses, including items. He can also regain his own lost Poison Sting, offering not only more damage but an extra source of slowing for Toxic Mastery.
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