A Lion rework

His lore states that he is supposed to be the sole practitioner of the Demon Witch tradition, even as far as Rubick recognizing his rare sorceries. Yet ironically, Lion is pretty much a copy-cat hero with 3 of his 4 spells butchered from other heroes. Earth Spike is Impale that loses to Linken's Sphere, Hex is just a better Shaman Hex, and Finger of Death is basically Laguna Blade. So I'm just thinking of what if we gave him a complete rework without destroying the essence of what it means to play as Lion. He is an early-game threat that is hard to lane against. Mostly focused on strong crowd controls. But by the end of the day, my Lion rework might be too different from the DotA's one true Lion in your opinion, but I did my best in preserving his essence, okay?

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Recent Updates:

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Changed to vector unit/ground targeted ability. From the target unit/point, 2 earth spikes will be created. One travels in the main targeted direction of the vector, and the 2nd earth spike will travel in the opposite direction. The spell will have increased reliability especially for the pro players so I nerfed the cooldown and stun by 6 and 0.2 respectively. Vector-targeting is not really that difficult for new players to learn, especially since this can directly target an enemy unit as the central origin of the spikes. Plus the game could use more Vector targeting abilities. Cast Range Spikes Travel Distance Spikes Radius Damage Stun Duration MANA COOLDOWN NEW VALUES : 500 (+75) : 400 : 125 : 80 / 140 / 200 / 260 : 1.2 / 1.6 / 2.0 / 2.4 : 100 / 120 / 140 / 160 : 18 CHANGED FROM : 500 (+75 , +1000) : 825 (+75 , +1000) : 1.4 / 1.8 / 2.2 / 2.6 : 12 NOTES : Unit-targeting will be fully blocked by Linken's Sphere, including the Earth Spike release. However, ground targeted fully bypasses Linken's Sphere Total Earth Spike effect length is 800. (400 from both directions) How the targeting would look like

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Removed the slow, since I'm putting the slow in his 3rd ability. if target is a hero, it pauses the target's ability cooldowns while also speeding up all his spells' cooldowns. if target is a creep, it only speeds up Mana Drain's own cooldown. Cast Range Link Break Distance Max Channel Time Mana Drain per Second Move Speed Slow CD Acceleration per second _Search Radius _Max Targets MANA COOLDOWN NEW VALUES : 850 (+75) : 1200 (+75) : 5 : 20 / 40 / 60 / 120 : : 0.5 / 0.75 / 1 / 1.25 : 400 : 3 : 10 : 17 / 14 / 11 / 8 CHANGED FROM : 14% / 16% / 18% / 20% : new : 400 : 3 : 16 / 12 / 8 / 4 NOTES : A full channel on heroes reduces cooldown of all spells by 2.5/3.75/5/6.25 seconds. Counting the 5 seconds spent channeling, the cooldowns are now reduced by 7.5/8.75/10/11.25 seconds. Reduces spells' cooldowns by 0.25/0.325/0.5/0.625 every 0.5s spent channeling. Cannot reduce item cooldowns.

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New ability: Demoncraft! A passive ability. Enemy units affected by any of Lion's spells has a chance to be severed further. Taking damage over time and decaying slow for 4 seconds. (applies break, purges) This ability combos well with his reworked Mana Drain, since with it's low cooldown, landing a proc on this ability is easy. The slow is more powerful now with added damage so Lion can contribute to damage even when channeling Mana Drain. ABILITY Proc Chance Damage / Sec Slow Duration : PASSIVE : 20% : 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 : 20% / 30% / 40% / 50% ~ 0% : 4 NOTES : Debuff is dispellable(basic) First damage instance starts 1 second after getting the debuff. Resulting in 4 ticks. Upon proc on Earth Spike, debuff is applied stacked with the stun, so they will just feel the reduced slow after the stun. The chance is applied individually to hit enemies. Debuff does not stack but refreshes duration. Slow and damage is replaced by whichever debuff value is highest.

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Hex is merged with Finger of Death. Lion's ultimate now hexes in addition to dealing the damage. The instant cast of Hex is transferred and it no longer have an effect delay. The spell whose essence has been changed the most. A finishing move turned into an opening move. Cast point Cast Range _Radius Effect Delay Damage Hex duration Hex movespeed MANA COOLDOWN NEW VALUES : 0.0 + 0.5 : 900 (+75) : 322 : 0 : 400 / 525 / 650 (+200) : 4 : 150 : 250 / 450 / 650 : 160 / 110 / 60 CHANGED FROM : 0.3 + 0.5 : ( 325) : 0.25 : 600 / 725 / 850 (+200) : new : new : 200 / 240 / 650 : 160 / 100 / 40

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Reworked Talents : Level 25 Level 20 Level 15 Level 10 : : : : +322 AoE Finger of Death +2 Mana Drain Multi Target +120 Gold/Min +90 Damage || OR || || OR || || OR || || OR || !Demoncraft applies break +500 Health +200 Finger of Death Damage +75 Cast Range Old Talents : Level 25 Level 20 Level 15 Level 10 : : : : +325 AoE Hex +2 Mana Drain Multi Target +120 Gold/Min +90 Damage || OR || || OR || || OR || || OR || +1000 Earth Spike Range +500 Health +200 Finger of Death Damage +75 Cast Range

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The cooldown reduction is handled by his new Mana Drain, and the AoE component is handled by his Lvl 25 talent. leaving the damage bonus behind, which is boring. This makes the upgrade open for new things to introduce! Here's my reworked Agh upgrade: !Demoncraft procs purges enemy buffs. Also grants a 100% chance to proc on targets of Finger of Death.

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Comments / Advanced Discussion

Math Drain

You might have noticed something: at lvl 20, with "+2 Mana Drain Multi Target" and Mana Drains's new nature to decrease spell cooldowns, you might wander if you can permastun an enemy with this method. Don't worry, fam, I got the math covered.

You landed Earth Spike, BAM! 2.4s stun on 3 heroes. You cast Mana Drain perfectly immediately after the Earth Spike, and what do you know, you started draining 3 heroes! This is now one of our new Lion's Power Fantasy! Do remember there's a 0.3 cast point so you start the channel with 2.1 secs of stun left.

• After the 2.4 seconds, Earth Spike's remaining cooldown would be 18 - ((0.625 * 3 * 4) + 2.1 + 0.3) = 8.1 seconds
  • Quite a long time for a combo
  Wut?

  Earth Spike cooldown - ((CD decrease per tick * no. of enemy heroes * 4 CD reduction ticks) + time spent channeling + Mana Drain cast time)
• At 3.5 seconds of channeling: 18 - ((0.625 * 3 * 7) + 3.5 + 0.3) = 1.075 seconds
  • Good. But enemies will have 2.775 seconds until the next stun. 3.5 + 0.3 - 2.4 + 1.075 + 0.3 = 2.775
  Wut?

  channel time + Mana Drain cast point - Enemy stunned + Earth Spike CD remaining + Earth Spike cast point
• At 3.9 seconds of channeling, enemies still have 2.775s to react. 3.9 + 0.3 - 2.4 + 0.675 + 0.3 = 2.775
  
  Wut?

  Since no CD reduction tick has happened in that 0.4 seconds...
• Then it spikes at 4 seconds of channeling when it fully refreshes Earth Spike's cooldown, by which even then, opponents would have a free 2.2 seconds to do something. 4 + 0.3 - 2.4 + 0 + 0.3 = 2.2
  
  Wut?

  channel time + Mana Drain cast point - Enemy stunned + Earth Spike CD remaining + Earth Spike cast point

Do note that, you NEED lvl 20, pick this particular talent, and precisely hit 3 heroes with the Mana Drain. You should know, Mana Drain multi-target has NO PRIORITIES. You don't have to hit anyone with Earth Spike. Just that this means that extreme situations can give you an Earth Spike with 4.6 seconds cooldown. (2.2 + 2.4)

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Demoncraft

!Demoncraft is a powerful chance based passive that pretty much spells doom to whoever it procs on. However, 20% is relatively low, and since it only procs for targets of Lion's spells, Mana Drain is his only real way of proccing this ability.

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Level 25 and the Aghs

Since the Agh's gives 100% proc chance on Finger of Death, both of our new Lion's level 25 talents excellently benefit from it. Lion can choose between an AoE ultimate to dispel and disable multiple heroes, or go for a powerful break on Demoncraft to make his ultimate an almost better Doom (just with 0 DPS). The break will sacrifice the AoE talent for a better single target effect. The break also apply to Lion's every spell, hence making it more versatile. Overall, a hard choice for Lvl 25 Lion.

This is actually brilliant! Nice job, I especially love the new Q, having noticed myself how many spells are similar to earth spike. I also think the changes to Finger of Death are well-thought out and the simple change could drastically effect the hero's playstyle.

I'm not sure I understand what mana drain is supposed to do, though. Does it reduce enemy cooldowns or his own? What is the difference between an ability and a spell? Perhaps reword this.

Great suggestions!

An enemy hero being Mana Drained have their cooldowns paused (like Time Dilation) while simultaneously accelerates all of Lion's spell cooldowns by 0.5/0.75/1/1.25 seconds for every second it is channeled. Hmm... I think "accelerate" is the word I'm looking for. Editing it now.

I just use 'spell' and 'ability' interchangeably. But I'm referring to Lion's 3 spells. There's note that says it can't reduce item cooldowns.

Thanks man, I'm flattered.

Lion has one of the most boring kit in the game. But that's just why he is given one of the best sustained control. So that despite of how basic all abilities' effects are, being the team's primary source of things like dagger initiation, hexing slippery heroes, and multi-hero earthspike in clash makes playing lion actually exciting. And ult is just to solidify those plays.
I think the problem wih your rework is it's playstyle is a bit of undefined. The vector is great, but then why not make all other abilities revolve around it? And the ult is a bit like that of bane, which is very anti-fun for enemies. No wonder bane falls flat to any contribution to team except that of gripping one key enemy core.
I also think you should keep Lion's keyboard use frequency. The cd acceleration is creative but Lion should be able to always throw spells and not dependent on successful drain usage. Coz if Lion got no cd then what else would he do in clash.