Amaroq, the Frosthound

Art by Wizards of the Coast

Amaroq, the Frosthound You highlighted the secret push column! COMPLEXITY ◆◇◇ Carry ◆◇◇ Nuker ◆◆◇ Durable ◆◆◇ Initiator ◆◆◇ Str 29 + 4.0 Agi 14 + 2.9 Int 14 + 1.9 315 -2 MELEE 150 MORE STATS Health H regen Mgc Res Mana M regen Spell Dmg Armor Atk Spd M spd amp Damage : : : : : : : : : : BASE 200 1.5 25% 75 0 0% 2 90 0% 32 - 38 Movement Turn rate Vision range Attack range Projectile Spd. Attack Ani. B.A.T. Collision size Legs Gib type : 315 : 0.7 : 1800/800 : 150 : instant : 0.4 + 0.5 : 1.7 : 24 : -2 : default

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Amaroq, the Frosthound is a melee strength hero known for his set of abilities designed specifically to pursuit his opponents. Freeze Haste nullifies all movespeed bonuses of the target enemy and the enemies that gets near it, as long as it's percentage-based. It even nulls the effect of hastes! Creepling even the fastest among heroes with no hope of speed. Perish Howl signals his intention to kill. Giving him ludicrous hp regeneration as well as punishing the cowards who escapes. This forces them to fight, however, choosing that and Amaroq is free to lacerate his enemies. All incoming attacks the lacerated prey receives will apply a DPS bleed which only scales the stronger the attacks, and the more the attackers were. Lastly, his ultimate Pursuit summons the Antarctic Worgs, devoted into their frenzy to chase and feast on one, soon-to-be-dead target.

Combining these abilities together ensures Amaroq the designated "Anti-escape" of the team. Which is surprisingly achieved despite the lack of disables. Perish Howl into Pursuit locks enemies in a terrible dilemma: They can escape, but will take high damage over time as well as having worgs, who know exactly where they are, pursuing them; or they can fight and take all the lacerations from Amaroq and his worgs'.

PROS :	CONS :
Insane early stats AND stat growth. Speedy heroes can't escape him, and even blink heroes reconsiders blinking away from him! When upgraded, Linken's Sphere can't stop his abilities, Black King Bar won't save them, and invisibility heroes can't slip past him, Lacerated enemies quickly DISSOLVES when focused by allied attacks.	Easy to pin down by disables. Very kite-able. No form of disable himself. He cannot stop a TP. Suffers from high mana and long cooldown from abilities. Almost all of his buffs and debuffs are dispellable.

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The Frozen Archipelago is among the most unforgiving environment there is. Home to the south pole, it is a series of 700 high-rising plateaus thousands of feet above sea level each. The sea is but solid ice. Creatures are few and far between this white desert, not to mention, powerful. Even then, the strange culture of the Linits can form settlements in this terrible land. Amaroq is among the Linits but his home tribe was annihilated by a foreboding force. Only he alone was the sole survivor from both sides. He was raised by the Winter Worgs, and gave him the name Amaroq. The name is said to come from the legendary wise wolf, Amaruk, believed to be on the opposite end of the globe, the north, and the forefather to the worgs of the Antarctic. The wolf with six souls.
On the day his pack celebrate for the capture his 100th Icewrath Elephant, everyone; all the winter worgs, the Linits from the next plateau, and every otherkin and icefolks from the archipelago had all the same dream: He WILL journey to the opposite dead-end of the planet to meet Amaruk. And he WILL learn the ultimate secrets of the world of ice, as well as the true intentions of the force that wiped his home tribe.

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• The Inuits and Eskimo culture in general are kind of under-represented in video game media. And so does Antarctica! So, with some artistic liberty, I combined the two to make the Frozen Archipelago, home to extreme winter creatures and our hero Amaroq.
• Worgs are a type of monster found in Dungeons & Dragons. Basically larger, and more intelligent wolves who can speak.
• "The worg and the man are of one nest." is from an Eskimo proverb "The wolf and the shaman are of one nest."
• The name Amaroq/Amaruk is derived from the actual Inuit mythology "Amarok", which is said to be a gigantic wolf. However, Amaroks in the myth are solidary hunters so our hero follows most closely to the "Waheela", a giant wolf cryptid, again from the Inuit mythology, known to hunt in groups of 2 or 3. Exactly what his ultimate does!"
• Eskimo culture believes that people have 6 to 7 souls represented by tiny people scattered all over the body.

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[Q] Freeze Haste Conjures a small illusory area centered on an enemy, nullifying every percentaged-based speed bonuses they have to 0% as well as disabling hastes. Deals damage over time. Can be ground-targeted. Targeting the closest hero in the search radius. Failure to find a hero will fizzle the spell. ABILITY DAMAGE TYPE PIERCES IMMUNITY? CAST ANIMATION CAST RANGE : TARGET ENEMY / TARGET POINT : Magical : NO ( YES) : 0.2 + 0.4 : 550 / 650 / 750 / 850 (800 / 900 / 1000 / 1100) Hero-search radius Effect Radius DPS Duration MANA COOLDOWN : 400 : 400 : 9 / 22 / 35 / 48 : 5 : 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 : 21 / 18 / 15 / 12 To catch prey in the Frozen Archipelago is to use their speed against them. NOTES : Freeze Haste – dispellable (basic). Duration reduced by Status Resistance. Deals damage every 1 second intervals, starting immediately as the debuff is placed. Resulting in 7 instances. Deals a total of 63 / 154 / 245 / 336 damage. Only affects percentage-based movespeed increase. %-slows and any flat increase/decrease are not affected. Can target enemies up to 1700 units away (LvL 4 range + talent + search radius) The AoE visual persist through invisibility, but will not reveal them.

[W] Perish Howl Amaroq roars his opponent's demise, buffing himself high hp regen, while debuffing nearby enemies. Enemies under Perish Howl will take intense damage over time if they cower too far from the fight. The farther they are the stronger it becomes. ABILITY DAMAGE TYPE PIERCES IMMUNITY? CAST ANIMATION CAST RADIUS : NO TARGET : Magical : NO : 0.1 + 0.2 : 600 HP regen Min. Threshold DPS (min) Max. Threshold DPS (max) Buff/Debuff duration MANA COOLDOWN : 10 / 25 / 40 / 55 : < 600 : 4 / 10 / 16 / 22 : > 1500 : 20 / 50 / 80 / 110 (70 / 100 / 130 / 160) : 8 (10) : 75 : 30 Preys who hear the perish song accepts their destiny of death. NOTES : HP regen – dispellable Perish Howl – dispellable (basic) (UNDISPELLABLE). Unaffected by Status Resistance. Affects invisible units. Uses the cast location. If the unit is 600 units or closer from the cast location, it takes min DPS. If the unit is 1500 units or father from the cast location, it takes maximum DPS. The DPS scales linearly between 600~1500. Heals a total of 80/200/320/440 HP. (100/250/400/550 HP) Deals a minimum total damage of 32/80/128/176 (40/100/160/220) Deals a maximum total damage of 80/400/640/880 (200/500/800/1100), achieved by teleporting beyond 1500 units from the cast location immediately before the first damage tick. Deals damage every 0.2 second intervals, starting 0.2s after the debuff is placed. Resulting in 40 instances.

[e] Lacerate Amaroq's attacks lacerate a severe wound that everyone's attacks make it bleed even further. Lacerated units will get a bleeding DoT every time it's attacked, 1 debuff per attacker. The value depends on the received attack damage after reductions. ABILITY DAMAGE TYPE PIERCES IMMUNITY? : PASSIVE : Pure : YES Lacerate Duration Atker's Atk as Bleed DPS Bleed Duration : 8 : 6% / 10% / 14% / 18% (11% / 15% / 19% / 23%) : 5 Amaroq knows exactly which strikes bleed most. It doesn't differ with hunt and war. NOTES : Lacerate debuff – Dispellable (basic). Duration reduced by Status Resistance. Bleed debuff – Dispellable (basic). Unaffected by Status Resistance. Amaroq will apply his own bleed in the same attack that applies the Lacerate. Each unit can only apply 1 Bleed debuff. Bleed from multiple units stack. Multiple stacks from the same unit refreshes the duration, but it will use the DPS of whichever value was highest. Similar stacking mechanic to Shield Crash. Calculates DPS based on damage taken after ALL reductions. The bleed cannot become heal-over-time with negative damage. Attack modifiers that deals damage in a separate instance from the attack is NOT considered in the calculations. (e.g. Searing Arrows, Shadow Realm, etc.) Blademail returns damage to the unit whose attack applied the debuff. Which is not necessarily Amaroq himself. Deals damage every 1 second intervals, starting immediately as the debuff is placed. Resulting in 6 instances. Deals a total of 36%/60%/84%/108% (66%/90%/114%/138%) of the attack damage instance taken as bleed dps.

[R] Pursuit Summons 2 (3) phased, and uncontrollable winter worgs to attack the target unrelentingly. They disperse if their target dies. Can be ground-targeted. Making the worgs target the closest hero in 400 range of point. Failure to find a hero will fizzle the spell, using its mana and have its cooldown set to 30. ABILITY PIERCES IMMUNITY? CAST ANIMATION CAST RANGE : TARGET ENEMY / TARGET POINT : YES : 0.3 + 0.4 : 1500 Hero-search radius Number of Worgs Worgs HP Worgs attack Worgs base attack time Worgs movespeed Duration Fizzle cooldown MANA COOLDOWN : 400 : 2 : 800 / 1200 / 1600 : 60 / 120 / 180 (150 / 210 / 270) : 1.4 : 400 / 450 / 500 : 20 : 30 : 150 / 250 / 350 : 130 There are no wolves and bears in the Frozen Archipelago. Only worse. NOTES : Pursuit debuff – UNDISPELLABLE. Unaffected by Status Resistance. Informational purpose only. Winter Worgs are summoned permanently taunted to their target. Can target enemies up to 1900 range away (cast range + search radius) Will still perfectly follow if the target turns invisible. Fizzle cooldown is normally affected by cooldown manipulations.

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Talents Level 25 Level 20 Level 15 Level 10 : : : : Pursuit Worgs +90 damage +5% Lacerate Bleed +250 Freeze Haste cast range +20 Movespeed || OR || || OR || || OR || || OR || Pursuit Worgs +100 health regen +600 Health +2s Perish Howl buff/debuff +15% Magic Resistance Notes : Perish Howl Pure and undispellable ▼ The health regen remains dispellable. This talent only applies to the DPS debuff.

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AGHANIM'S SCEPTER Freeze Haste and Pursuit can search, target, and pierce through units with invisibility and spell immunity. Gives vision and reveals invisible heroes for their duration. NOTES : Freeze Haste AoE will not reveal invisible heroes. Only the primary target is revealed, Slows and disables hastes of spell immune units, However, damage remain magical. Pursuit Worgs' capability to attack enemies hasn't changed. They still cannot attack banished, untargetable, or invulnerable enemies. Pursuit debuff changes from 'informational purpose only' to the one responsible for the vision and true sight.

AGHANIM'S SHARD Upgrades Perish Howl. DPS debuff becomes undispellable and deal increased damage.

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Freeze Haste is his semi-reliable slow and nuke. While weak on nuke department, it ultimately thrives in chasing elusive speedy heroes. Long range for better catch potential, and it can target enemies hiding under the cover of the fog. Technically slowing enemies down by removing their movespeed bonuses. What's that? Hastes are a well known counter to slows? Well, Amaroq's Freeze Haste is THE counter this time! Ha ha! Wait, what's that again? The hero can just blink or teleport out? I mean, sure, Freeze Haste won't stop them. But this next spell will.

Perish Howl has been toned down since 1.04, but its effects remain nothing to scoff at! 110 DPS at level 7 is no joke, and this lasts 8 seconds! But that's only if they try to escape, which, at 1500 distance, is usually enough to fall back to a tower or reinforcements. It doesn't make any life easier to the brave either, as it additionally grants Amaroq along with 55 HP regen, giving him an edge in the fight.

Lacerate is weak when it's just Amaroq solo attacking. Taking into account the enemy armor (let's say 20 armor), at LvL 18, with Phase Boots, Magic Wand, Vladmir's Offering, and Solar Crest, Amaroq deals around ~176.93 dmg on attacks, subtracted by 20–12 armor (32.4% red.) and it's 119.6 final damage delivered. This means that our bleed DPS is 21.5 for 6 seconds, which is a joke! Now imagine if 2 strong summons and 1 more hero contributed to attack... Let's just simplify this and multiply it to 4, shall we? It's now 86.1 DPS for 6 seconds. Ok, now that's reasonably strong. And it's pure damage!

If you didn't cast Solar Crest active, you'll create a bleeding DPS of 14.0 DPS for 6 seconds. Totaling 56.2 when attacked by the aforementioned allies compared to 86.1. The difference is in ~180 pure damage by the end of the day. The verdict? Get armor-reducing items!

Pursuit is rather basic. The wolves are uncontrollable and will only attack the target you cast it on. Do not cast it knowing that the enemy will back off, they can take cover under their tower armor aura and fight it. Instead, cast it knowing that the enemy will FIGHT. And what better way to force them to fight than to combine it with Perish Howl. Don't forget to attack your target at least once! The wolves are PAINFUL when attacking a lacerated target.

Amaroq cannot chase invisible enemies. Freeze Haste and Pursuit cannot target invisible heroes despite able to target those who hide in fog. But once he got his Aghanim's Scepter, no invisibility can get away now, heck, not even their precious Black King Bar can save them!

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CHANGELOGS:

His Q spell seems VERY strong. Maybe it could have some diminishing return? Otherwise, I absolutely love it :)